Headstart documents
Document A
Map of Europe on the eve of the French Revolution, 1789.
From Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 16.
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Document B
Map
of France’s main administrative, judicial and financial divisions before 1789. From
Mark Fielding & Margot Morcombe, The Spirit of Change: France in Revolution, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1999,
p. 17.
Document C
BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012
Document D
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Map of the main divisions for the
gabelle, the salt tax, in France
before 1789.
Alfred Cobban, A History of France, vol. 1:
1715-1799, Penguin, 1974, p. 59.
Map showing the main
administrative and customs
divisions in France before 1789.
From Duncan Townson, France in Revolution,
Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 10.
Document E
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Map showing the boundaries
for the 13 parlements and 4
conseils souverains (which had
similar powers to parlements),
1789.
Alfred Cobban, A History of France,
vol. 1: 1715-1799, Penguin, 1974, p. 66.
Document F
The French monarch, Louis XVI, ruled by ‘divine right’ – the will of God. In theory
he delegated some of his authority to nobles, who in earlier times had received
their huge landed estates in return for providing the monarch with armed forces
in time of need. In return, the nobles had been exempted from taxation. They
were in fact, the major tax-collecting authority.
The nobles distributed portions of their estates to peasants, who thus
theoretically enjoyed the use of the land which they did not own. From this land
they could grow crops and graze livestock. But they had to pay for this
concession with services and taxes; either making themselves available as
soldiers or unpaid labourers, or surrendering a large percentage of their produce
to the overlord.
H.R. Cowie, Revolutions in the Modern World,
Nelson, Melbourne, 1979, p. 19.
Document G
BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012
Document H
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Louis XVI,
painted in 1775.
Marie Antionette, painted in 1788.
From Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 15.
Document I
The
Palace of Versailles, painted in 1722 by Jean-Baptiste Martin.
Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 15.
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Document J
Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 5.
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Document K
Josh Brooman,
Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19.
Document L
Economically, the nobility was characterized by great landed wealth. Their
approach to estate management was often businesslike, almost ‘bourgeois’ in its
concern for profit.
Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 31.
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Document M
On 20 August 1786, Calonne, the Controller-General, told Louis XVI that the
government was on the verge of bankruptcy. Revenue for 1786 would be 475
million livres, expenditure 587 million livres, making a deficit of 112 million –
almost a quarter of the total income.
From Duncan Townson, France in Revolution,
Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 10.
Document N
Social divisions – called ‘orders’ or ‘estates’ in the ancien régime.
Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19.
Document O
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A box lid
illustrating a
seigneur’s visit
to a poor family’s
house.
From Richard Cobb
& Colin Jones,
Voices of the French
Revolution,
Salem House,
Massachusetts, 1988,
p. 16.
Document P
As the second of the three orders, or estates, of society, the nobility enjoyed
extensive rights and privileges. The most significant was exemption from
personal taxation ... Some financial and judicial offices ennobled their owners,
which added a nobility of the robe – named after the black robe worn by court
officials – to that of the sword. ... [T]his influx of office-holders and rich
bourgeoisie, who could literally buy their way into the nobility through the system
of ‘venality’, or purchase of office, and go on to adopt the aristocratic life-style,
was probably essential to the survival of the order as a powerful group. On the
eve of the Revolution, nobility was therefore a question of life-style, honour, title,
privilege, lineage and morality, rather than membership of a military group. ... [I]n
1789 about half the 30,000 or so privileged families could trace their noble
ancestry back no further than the mid-17th century.
Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 31.
Document Q
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Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19.
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Document R
The Tuileries area of Paris, from a map produced mid-18th century.
From Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 57.
Document S
During the ancien régime the church was unrivalled in terms of its social,
economic and spiritual power. The first order, or estate, of the realm owned
nearly 10 percent of all land in France, and income from land, property and tithes
totalled over 150,000,000 livres a year. As the most privileged corporation in the
state, it paid no direct taxes, negotiating instead a ‘free gift’ to the crown every
five years, raised by an internally levied clerical tax; in return it held a monopoly
of public worship, education and public charity.
Approximately a third of the 170,000 clergy in France served as parish priests.
[They] resented the disproportionate share of church wealth creamed off by the
bishops, canons and regular orders, all of whom contributed little in clerical
taxes.
Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 33.
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Document T
The 18th-century Enlightenment may be represented as a new way of thinking
about mankind and the environment. The main proponents of this intellectual
movement, the philosophes, were primarily men of letters – men like Voltaire,
Diderot, Montesquieu and Rousseau – but their views stemmed from the
scientific revolution of the previous century. The discoveries of Galileo, Kepler
and Newton in physics and cosmology revealed a universe that was infinite, yet
governed by universal laws that could be discovered by the human intelligence.
The philosophes were convinced that all creation was similarly rational, so that it
was possible for man to uncover laws which regulated society, politics, the
economy, even morality.
Richard Cobb & Colin Jones,
Voices of the French Revolution,
Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 24.
Document U
Portrait of Voltaire, 1778.
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art,
Phaidon Press, 1978, p. 373.
Document V
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Antione Watteau, ‘Pilgrimage on the Island of Cythera, 1717.
Denise Hooker, (ed.) Art of the Western World, Hutchinson Australia, 1991, p. 290.
Document W
‘The Council Chamber at Fontainebleau’. Louis XV style, c.
1753. Decorated by François Boucher.
Discovering Art, vol. 8, p. 33
Document X
BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012
Document Y
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Jean Baptiste Chardin (16991779), ‘Girl with Shuttlecock’.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, ‘The Village Bride’, 1761.
Discovering Art, vol. 8, p. 14.
Denise Hooker, (ed.) Art of the Western World,
Hutchinson Australia, 1991, p. 291.
Document Z
Jacques Louis
David, ‘Oath of
the Horatii’,
1784.
Denise Hooker, (ed.)
Art of the Western
World, Hutchinson
Australia, 1991,
p. 289.
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