French Revolution
A. Introduction:
1. Did the American Revolution have an impact on the French Revolution?
a. Marquis de Lafayette, aristocrat, fought to strike a blow against England. Became
a member of the Society of Thirty, people from the Paris salons. Advocated
ideas of individual liberties and popular sovereignty.
b. French Revolution more complex, violent, radical in an attempt to construct a
new political order and social order
c. To some it provided a model for revolution and inaugurated the modern political
world.
2. The French Revolution was the first effective challenge to absolutism on behalf of
popular sovereignty.
3. The modern concept of nationalism comes out of this period. It also tried to
resolve issues of sovereignty of the nation, and the rights and duties of citizens.
4. One could say that the root cause of the revolution was the cumulative discontent
with the ancient regime. The growing middle class wanted political and social
involvement & power.
B. Background
1. Population explosion especially in the cities which were horrible places to live. High
rate of unemployment: estimated 1/3 of the population
2. Food prices skyrocketed, bad harvests in 1787 & 1788 led to food shortages so
prices rose
3. National debt was out of control, primarily because of French support for the
Americans during the revolution. 60% of the annual budget went to servicing the
debt, nothing to reducing the size of it.
4. Financial problems:
a. 20% of the people were bankrupt
b. Rents rising faster than income
c. Peasants forced to pay old, obscure, feudal taxes
*** immediate cause the near collapse of government finances
C. Louis XVI and the Estates General
1. May 1, 1789 --- Louis XVI called for the Estates General to meet in Paris
2. Cahiers de doleances --- statements of local grievances put together during
elections of estates –general
a. advocated regular constitutional government
b. abolish fiscal privileges of church and nobility as way to regenerate the
country
3. May 5, 1789
1. When they met for the first time, the king went hunting --- he did not
address them or tell them what he wanted them to do.
2. Nobody had any idea how the Estates General was supposed to function as it
had not met for 175 years and there was no handbook.
4. June 20, 1789
1. The king ordered the doors to the National Assembly nailed shut. Delegates
met at a nearby indoor tennis court
2. Tennis Court Oath
a. The power to governing came from the nation
b. They would not separate until a written constitution was approved
c.
5. The Bastille
1. Medieval fortress used as a prison during the 16th-18th centuries.
a. Found7 prisoners, non of them political [5 forgers, 2 insane]
D. Constituent National Assembly, August 4, 1789
1. Declaration of the Rights of man and Citizen August 26, 1789 *****
a. Men are born and remain free and equal
b. Property rights preserved. Wealth was the foundation of social and political
order.
c. Women were excluded from political and economic life
d. Article 33: sovereignty was placed in the nation, not the monarch. This issue will
result in most of the monarchs in Europe declaring war on France.
e. Reflected the Enlightenment’s concept of the Social Contract (Compact). They
would live under a government elected by the people and laws enacted by the
elected government.
f. Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen 1791
1. Olympe de Gouges
2. Women had the same political and economic rights as men.
2 The August Decrees: secularism ****
a. Feudalism dead & end of aristocratic privileges
b. End of the manorial court system
c. End of forced labor on nobles’ estates
d. Freedom of speech and press
e. People were to be taxed according to their means to pay
f. Civil Constitution of the Clergy
1. The church was subservient to the civil government
2. Church property confiscated and sold to pay off the debt
3. Clergy were to be elected by the congregation
4. Clergy paid by the state
5. All religious orders abolished
*** 54% of bishops took oath – had to swear allegiance to constitution