French Revolution

• France could not be sustained because it had a large population controlled by a small group of the elite.  
• Guillotine - used to kill someone by chopping off their head
• Maximillien Robespierre
• Never had a family. 
• Essentially he was an orphan at the age of 8. 
• He became head of his family (siblings) and always wanted to maintain order. 
• He liked to be in solitude and isolation. 
• Went to school and was very smart, but was poor. 
• Will become the "prime mover and shaker" of the execution of Louis XVI. 
• Came from a broken home. His mother had died and his father left. They were poor. 
• He became a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris. 
• He entered for prizes in literary contests. 
• In law cases, he took the side of the poor and humble. 
• At the beginning he did not believe in capital punishment. 
• He was elected to the Estates General from Artois. 
• He was unknown at first, but he gradually gains a reputation. 
• He invokes Rousseau's idea that the king should not impose or delay legislature made by the assembly. 
• The change that had occurred between Louis XIV and Louis XVI was that the king had become very distant from what was going on with the legislature. 
• thought all male citizens should have the right to vote. 
• always wore white clothes and a powdered wig. 
• Doesn't like people touching him. 
• Ate very modestly. 
• He identified with ordinary people and ends up living in western Paris. 
• Read a lot. 
• Wrote his speeches. 
• Always very clean and put together looking
• In the 18th century France was divided into three estates
• Clergy 
• Strong bond between church and state. 
• Church operated schools. 
• Kept vital statistics
• births, marriages, and deaths. 
• Took care of the poor in France. 
• Collected a tithe - 10% of the income of any French person. 
• It was assumed that all Frenchmen were Catholics. 
• Expected that any could Catholic would give 10% of their earnings to the church. 
• Many men that were in the nobility were in the clergy. 
• Hostility between Parish priests and the priests within the French nobility
• Nobility
• Comprised about 2% of the population. 
• Owned almost 1/4 of the land in France. 
• Were no longer any serfs
• Futile system was over. 
• Nobility kept certain privileges
• exemption from most taxes.
• Exclusive property rights
• hunting and fishing
• Everybody else
• Wealthy professionals, businessmen, merchants, professors, peasants, etc. 
• Bulk of the population
• Among the educated middle class, there was a lot of animosity and resentment to the nobility.
• 1730-1780 - Prices for goods and commodities rose about 65%, but the standard of living only rose, at most, to around 25%.  
• These people saw their purchasing power and their ability to sustain their families plummet. 
• France's economy was a bit different from the norm at this time.  The nobility was not directly involved in running agriculture. There was a separation between work and the nobility. 
• The people who have the most money and most capacity when prices are soaring for 98% of the people, are not taking a tax cut off those people.  The state itself is slowly running out of money, although the nobility is living like kings. 
• France, at this time, did not have paper money. 
• Therefore you could not adjust inflation by any sort of monetary means that would apply to the whole country. 
• In this country, when we get into trouble with money, the Federal Reserve can cut interest. That happens because we have our own paper currency. If  we did that with gold it would affect all the economies in the world that use gold. 
• Louis XVI becomes king in 1774.  He is a weak monarch. 
• Louis XVI was young when he became king. He was married to Marie Antoinette.  She was Austrian. She was very disliked by the French people. They called her the "Austrian whore."
• This did not help the already weak monarch. 
• Other problems: 
• 1. Decrease in farm-able land, therefore decrease in jobs. 
• 2. Fear of grain shortages. If there is less food the peasantry is either going to starve or revolt. 
• 3. Taille - tax on the poor. The nobility, who had the most money, got out of paying taxes.  The poor was taxed by the taille. Plus, 10% of the peoples income went to the church.  
• This is an example of how not to run a country. 
• Don't put the burden on the poor. 
• Louis XV had appointed a chancellor named Maupeou. Basically his commission was to try to find a way to tax the nobility. The attempts to tax the wealthy just made the nobility angry. 
• In 1788, with the country itself on the verge of bankruptcy, Louis XVI calls the Estates General. The Estates General bring a group of citizens together to come up with a solution to a problem and then propose that to plan to the king. 
• The last time the Estates General met they made a rule that each estate had equal voting.  This did not represent all teh people well. 
• Joseph Sieyes wrote a pamphlet called "What is the Third Estate?"
• Basically Sieyes thesis is that you could get rid of the first and second estate and France would be better off.  He argues that France fundamentally is the Third Estate. 
• This gives the people in the third estate ideas. 
• the meeting of the estates general began in 1789********* IMPORTANT YEAR
• The meeting started out poorly. The first and second estates refused to meet with the third estate. the third estate went to the king and refused to take part in the estates general until the other two estates would actually sit down with them. 
• This 'battle of wills' went on for about 6 weeks
• the third estate calls their own national assmebly, saying that they are the true representative of the french people. 
• Now, the first and second estate lock the national assembly out of the meeting room, and wont let them in.
• On June 20, 1789, the national assembly/third estate moved to an indoor tennis court as a meeting place and they swore to continue to meet there as the national assembly, fundamentally driving a wedge between the clergy and nobility on one side and the people on the other side. They swore they would stay there until a new constitution would be written. 
• The king basically dismisses the third estate from the estates general. 
• As all of this is happening bread prices go through the roof. 
• The reason was that there had been a bad harvest. 
• In a very short time (within 6 weeks), the price of the staple in most peoples diet became not affordable and unavailable. 
• There was a lot of unemployment too. 
• On July 14, 1789 a mob attacked the Bastile.
• The Bastile was an old jail that was at this time being used to house ammunitions. 
• The French people themselves are terrified that the French military is going to impose military rule.  They try to take the Bastile to defend themselves and they burn the Bastile. 
• The National Assembly is working on a new constitution, while outside there is chaos. 
• The Emigrays
• nobles who were fearing for their lives. 
• Their leader was the Count Artois. 
• He is the brother of Louis XVI
• The king allows the people to appoint a new government of the city of Paris.  This was called the citizens committee. He also brings up the National Guard to keep order. 
• King appointed Lafayette to be in charge of the National Guard. 
• Sidenote: he helped us defeat the British in the American Revolution
• This is the first time we see the national flag of France that is still used today. 
• The flag becomes a symbol of the French Revolution. 
• August 1789: 
• The assembly completed production of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It listed the basic human rights as liberty, property, security, resistance to oppression, freedom of religion, due process of law (means you're allowed to face trial), and taxes by common consent. 
• Only men were allowed to take part in politics. However, many women were involved in the revolution. 
• Olympe de Gouges is a woman who writes an essay called "The Rights of Women"
• This argued on behalf of a woman's right to education, to control property within a marriage, and to initiate divorce. 
• She talks about the social contract in terms of gender relations. It is important that there is a social contract between men and women. 
• It went so far that the National Assembly will put a lot of this stuff into the constitution. 
• How did the French revolution impact both political and social issues?
• Good argument would be that it impacted gender equality. 
• October 1789
• a 100,000 people, most of them women, march on Versailles.  They demand bread and that the royal family return to Paris. 
• The king submits to some of the claims of the National Assembly. 
• King loses veto power.  He was granted suspending power. This meant that he could hold up legislation, but he gave up his absolute right to make law. 
• Slavery was abolished. 
• Problem: There are no taxes being collected. A government can't work without taxes. This forces Louis XVI to seize property from the church. For the first time he issues paper money called assignats. He uses the property that he takes from the church to support the paper money. 
• Then he makes a big mistake. 
• He sells the property. 
• the government is broke, they have no way to collect taxes, so he seizes property, and then he uses the property to back up the 100 million dollars worth of money that he prints, or however much he prints, but then he sells the properties. so then the value of the money goes down
• it destroys it
• Inflation goes through the roof, and the king starts to sell anything he can get his hands on, just to get money
• the emigres manor hoses are acquired by the king and sells them. 
• the nobility- they are unhappy now that louis is confiscating their property
• so basically, everyone hates him
• (The government cant tax because the national assembly says no. and then the king cannot veto this.)
• The church cannot support itself without it's property. 
• The national assembly passes a bill that will not just separate church and state, but will change the way the church elects it's officials. 
• They start holding elections for the local offices. 
• Supporters of the revolution were organized into clubs
• Jacobin club was the most influential. 
• In 1791 the royal family tries to flee, but is not able to do so. It is at this time that some influential and outspoken critics of the government start to argue for a republic. 
• George Jacques Danton and Jean Paul Marat
• The new constitution goes into effect in 1791. The new form of government was a constitutional monarchy.  It had one legislative branch, called unicameral. 
• Other countries are afraid their people are going to get ideas from France. 
• The Declaration of Pillnitz
• Leopold (Austrian) says if necessary he would use military order to restore the government in Paris. He was hoping this would scare them. Leopold gets sick and dies though and his son takes over. 
• At this time the French national anthem is adopted. 
• Spring 1792: the royal family is under house arrest.
• 1792 is declared year #1 of the French Republic. 
• They even changed the names of the months to reflect the revolution. 
• much secularization occurred. 
• There is de-Christianization throughout France. 
• French go through the Hapsburg Netherlands "liberating" people by taking away the feudal system. 
• This is the first time in French history where citizens in France are actually called citizens. 
• The people in the Dutch Republic don't really want to have anything to do with France. 
• The Dutch Republic bring in the English to make a stand against the French occupiers in the Hapsburg Netherlands
• The National Assembly, now called the National Convention, was split between two parties. 
• Girondins
• Jacobin
• Basically said that anyone against the Jacobin's were anti-revolutionary.
• These people who started as revolutionaries start letting power get to them. 
• There is fighting between these two parties. 
• Another party starts to develop called the Mountain. These are the people who are really listening to the average people in France. 
• Louis XVI is found to be talking to the King of Austria. He is brought up on charges of treason against France and is executed. 
• The working class demands monetary controls. 
• Inflation had been tremendous and there had been currency problems. 
• The Mountain elects Robespierre as their spokesperson. 
• The working people have a hero. They have someone to look towards who has been through the same sorts of things as they have. 
• The National Convention appoints a commission to deal with the problems in the working classes. It is called the Committee of Public Safety.
• Made up of 12 representatives. 
• Task was to run the government. 
• Robespierre was one of the 12. 
• The aim, originally, was to "protect" France. 
• This turns from public safety outside the country to looking very carefully at what's going on inside the country. 
• A #1 aim of the committee was suppressing opposition to the French government. 
• If you stood accused of treason then you had no rights. 
• Women were banned from gathering. 
• Their rights had been progressing, but were now taking a step back. 
• Women had also taken a great part in progressing the Revolution. 
• 1793-1794
• 9 months of "The Terror"
• During this the time, the convention and the Committee of Public Safety, decide that the forces of the Mountain and Jacobins will unite.  They are going to unite against the second estate and Girodins. 
• People who did not want the revolution were executed. They did not get a trial
• Victims included: Marie Antoinette, Olympe de Gouge
• Estimates range from 18,000-40,000 killed during that year. 
• It was said that the streets were covered in blood where the public executions were held. 
• July 1794, both conservatives and radicals finally turn against Robespierre. 
• He was executed and by that fall the Committee for Public Safety was disbanded. 
• As a result of the Terror the economy of France was nearly destroyed. 
• Jobs and wages plummeted. Inflation skyrocketed. 
• The poor themselves felt completely used.  
• A new group rises up. 
• Thermodorians 
• wrote a third constitution which went into affect in 1795
• allowed male citizens to vote. 
• legislature made up of two houses. 
• The 500 - the dominant house similar to the House of Representatives. 
• The Elders
• also chose an Executive branch
• lasted for 4 years. 
• called the Directory and made up of 5 people. 
• chose 5 people because it was an odd number and would not give one person absolute power. 
• Among the people there was unrest with the new government. 
• They were very nervous about this. 
• A certain young commander was put in the position of calming people's nerves about all this. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. 
• 1796 Bonaparte marries Josephine.
• she had close ties to the man who formed the directory of 5
• helped Napoleon gain a military commission to go to Northern Italy 
• drives out the Hapsburgs. 
• set up a new government in Italy called Cisalpine 
• Napoleon wants to keep the possessions from Austria. 
• 1797
• France has an election
• Candidates leading the election were actually favoring the royalist and the return of the exiled Louis XVIII, son of Louis XVI. 
• The directory appeals to Napoleon for what to do. 
• Napoleon sends a force against the royalist elements in the French government. 
• They take out the royalists. This leaves 3 of the 5. They decide to abandon the elections of 1797 because of this emergency situation. 
• Impact of the revolution 
• 1789-1799
• much had changed
• no more absolute monarchy
• looking at the rise of Napoleon
• feudalism was gone
• titles and privileges of the nobility were gone
• manor houses were gone
• ability for people to organize was gone
• local governments and military leadership positions were now jobs. 
• there were elections and leaders were paid a salary.