1789: The French Revolution

1. 1789: The French Revolution • “…the aristocracy opened the way to the bourgeois revolution, then to the popular revolution of the peasants – and found itself buried under the ruins of the Old Regime.” – Georges Lafebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution

2. The French Monarchy:1775 - 1793 Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI

3. Why is it important? • The Common Slogan, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” had and still has major influence. • Liberty: The revolution ended the ancien regime (old order) - feudal order – in France and all of the privileges that went along with it. • Equality – The revolution sought to make all French citizens and French regions equal before the law; after the revolution some nations sought to create economic equality for all (i.e. socialism and communism). • Fraternity – The revolution sought to create a brotherhood among the French through language and culture. A Rousseauist goal, this meant that all citizens, regardless of social class, or region, shared a common fate in society and that the nation’s well-being could override the interest of the individual citizen. This was one of the greatest steps in the development of nationalism.

4. The Three Estates • Clergy (First Estate) • Privileges: • Its own court of law • Subject to none of the ordinary direct taxes • Made donations to the king. • Collected tithes on its property – about a tenth of the kingdom. • Bishops and abbots who were also lords of various villages also received manorial dues. • Closely connected to the monarchy whose “divine right” was symbolized through a religious coronation ceremony. • The Church also possessed a monopoly in education and poor relief and shared took part in all censorship of legally printed material. • Frenchmen were all considered to be Catholic, but there were some rebellious sects.

5. The Three Estates • Nobility (Second Estate): 400,000 out of a population of 23,000,000 • Privileges: • Honorific: Able to carry a sword • Useful: exemption from taxes like the taille (a tax on land ownership), and from obligations for road service and quartering troops • Nobles owned about a fifth of the land of France and possessed the majority of the manors and thus were able to receive feudal dues.

6. Nobility of the Blood – These families claimed to trace their heritage back through the dark ages to Germanic tribes who exerted dominance over the “weaker” Gallo-Romans. While they were lords of the land they were looked down upon if they got involved in a business or profession. Thus many nobles families saw there wealth slowly slip away. However, many, like the Marquis de La Fayette were very rich earning 140,000 livres a year (a skilled worker’s family may earn a 1,000 a year)

7. The Three Estates • Nobility of the Robe – As the government fell into more and more debt, French monarchs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries began selling titles of nobility along with government offices; this was good at get a large lump-sum quickly, but with nobility came the tax and other exemptions mentioned above causing financial shortfall over generation. These offices were often purchased by an increasingly well to do middleclass know as the bourgeoisie.

8. The Three Estates • Third Estate – They were the rest of the population – about 99 percent – including all commoners from beggars and peasants to merchants and financiers (the bourgeoisie mentioned above). Peasants made up about 4/5 of the “Third Estate” and owned about owned about 2/5 of the land. Struggling peasants tried to make up for their poverty with extra work. This often came in the form of the “putting out system” in which women of peasant households did spinning and weaving which was sold off to be turned into finished goods. • Only poor and peasants paid the taille. Nobles and the clergy through influence could also buy their way out of the income tax known as the capitation.

9. Origins of the French Revolution • The Cultural Climate • The Enlightenment • Undermined confidence in tradition (especially “divine right”) • “Bad Press” – gossip sheets, exposes, and pornography • Portrayed the monarchy as a decadent, ridiculous despotism.

11. Origins of the French Revolution • Class Conflict? • A growing middle class – the bourgeoisie – was becoming the economic backbone of France (its bankers, lawyers, merchants, artisans, and industrialists), yet they were being shut out of many pursuits like military leadership and certain industries like mining by nobles who had purchased privileges for themselves. In other words the best and most qualified were not always able to go as far as they might because the monarchy had put up roadblocks in their way. However, many of the nobles who secured these jobs were not paying many of the taxes that could have saved France from economic ruin. • Both the nobles and bourgeoisie began to demand more of a say in governmental affairs, especially as economic troubles worsened.

13. The Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution • To avenge his grandfather’s loss to the British in the Seven Years’ War, King Louis XVI provided financial and military aid to the Americans. But neither of these wars helped the people of France. Instead, they both lead to financial deficits. And the American Revolution also created future French Revolutionaries like the Marquis de Lafayette, a close friend of George Washington.

14. Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock • Jacques Turgot, a financial minister (advisor), for Louis XVI tried to turn France toward laissez-faire economics, reducing the government’s interference in the economy. This would include eliminating many of the privileges for nobles and certain trade guilds (trade organizations that limited entry and knowledge of a profession to keep wages artificially high). He also sought to limit the spending on the Louis’ court (spending at Versailles). He also sought to lessen the burden on peasants by eliminating the corvee (an obligation of peasants to spend time working on royal roads). None of this set well with those who had benefited from such privileges, so Louis took the easy way out and dismissed Turgot.

15. Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock • Turgot was replaced by Jacques Necker, who approached the economic crisis by taking out huge loans at large interest rates to finance the government. This was only a short-term solution, however, as interest payment amounted to half of the royal budgets by the 1780s.

16. Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock • Another advisor of Louis’, Charles Calonne, warned in 1787 that this was all leading to bankruptcy for the royal budget. Calonne wanted to create a new tax, the territorial subvention, to be levied on the production of all landed property. Callonne convinced the king to convene the an Assembly of Notables, who he had hoped would support this plan and give it added credibility with the people of France, but to his surprise, the Assembly of Notables (nobility) not only refused his request, they demanded that Louis convene the Estates General for the first time since 1614. The nobility was likely interested in gaining more political power for itself and maintaining their privileges.

17. Estates General • Estates General – a body representing the three estates. • Though reluctant at first, Louis was force by the economic crisis to relent. The convening of the Estates General created a great deal of public enthusiasm as well as debate. Though they were 99 percent of the population, the third estate had traditionally only voted as one of three orders. Emmanuel Sieyes wrote perhaps one of the most important pamphlets focused on this topic, “What is the Third Estate?” Backed by the Enlightenment and increased economic power the Third Estate demanded more representation.

18. The Suggested Voting Pattern:Voting by Estates Clergy 1st Estate 1 Aristocracy 2nd Estate 1 1 Commoners 3rd Estate Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the three orders be conserved in its entirety.

19. The Number of Representativesin the Estates General: Vote by Head! Clergy 1st Estate 300 Aristocracy 2nd Estate 300 648 Commoners 3rd Estate