History 102: The French Revolution, 1789-1799

One approach to studying history

• Causes

• Process

• Consequences

What were the causes of the French Revolution?

Causes of the French Revolution

1. The Enlightenment

n Ideas:

n Liberty

n Equality

n Reason

n Progress

n Philosophes:

n Locke defended private property, limited sovereignty and fair government

n Voltaire attacked noble privileges and the Church’s authority

2. The American Revolution, 1775-1783:

n showed the ideas of Enlightenment in action

n French soldiers (i.e. Lafayette) who helped came home inspired

n Put Louis XVI in deep debt

3. French Economy was failing

n National debt: four billion livres

n 50 percent of government’s income went to interest on debt

n no central bank or paper currency

n Inefficient and uneven taxation system (varied by region and estate)

4. Feudal system

n Estate System outdated

n posed many difficulties to rising middle class of Third Estate

n difficult to move upward in society, unless very rich

n Less well-off commoners resented the inequality of the three estates

5. Louis XVI

n Good intentions

n ‘Enlightened’

n Weak-willed

n Indecisive

n Marie-Antoinette allowed “to dispense patronage amongst friends”

6. Peasants’ situation unbearable

n ‘web of obligations’

n obviously unfairly overtaxed

n Noble hunting privileges

n Land-starved

n Subsistence farmers

7. Harvest failures in 1787-1788:

n less food

n higher prices

n businesses failed

n unemployment in cities

Periodization of the French Revolution

• Moderate stage: 1789–1792

• Radical stage: 1792–1794

• The Directory: 1794–1799

• Napoleon: 1799–1815

Outbreak of the Revolution

• THE SPARK: Fiscal crisis forced Louis XVI to call the Estates-General, summer, 1788 (first time since 1614)

n The three estates elected delegates:

n First Estate represented about 100,000 clergymen

n Second Estate represented about 400,000 noble men and women

n Third Estate represented about 24.5 million people

n Main disagreement: representation

n Should the estates vote by estate or by individual?

n Third Estate argued that all delegates should sit together and vote as individuals

n Third Estate demanded as many delegates as the First and Second Estates combined: “Doubling the Third”

n Louis opposed, then changed his position

Who were the Third Estate delegates?

• Represented the outlook of the elite

• 25 percent lawyers

• 43 percent government officials

• Strong sense of common grievance and common purpose (cahiers de doleances)

n May 5, 1789: Estates General convened at Versailles

n June 17, 1789: the delegates of the Third Estate declared themselves to be the National Assembly

n The Oath of the Tennis Court (June 20, 1789)

n Public attention to the events in Paris was high

n Price of bread soared

n Rumors circulated that Louis was about to stage a coup d’état

n Parisian workers (sans-culottes) organized a militia of volunteers

n July 14, 1789: the Storming of the Bastille

n Bastille was symbol of royal authority

n Its fall symbolized of the people’s role in revolutionary change

n The Great Fear

n Rumors that the king’s armies were on their way

n Peasants attacked and burned manor houses

n Destroyed manor records

• Response: August 4, 1789: National Assembly voted to abolish all noble and other privileges

n Church tithe

n the corvée

n hunting privileges

n tax exemptions and monopolies

n Obliterated the remnants of feudalism

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 26, 1789; issued in Sept.)

n Declared natural rights

n Private property

n Liberty, security, and resistance to oppression

n Declared freedom of speech, religious toleration, and liberty of the press to be inviolable

n Equality before the law

The masses take the initiative: October Days

n Brought on by economic crisis

n Parisian women marched to Versailles (October 5) and demanded to be heard

n Women demanded Louis and his family return to Paris

n Women with the help of the National Guard forced Louis (and the National Assembly) to move to Paris

Women and the revolution

o General participation in the Revolution

o Took leading roles in mass actions

o Joined clubs, demonstrations, and debates

o Women as citizens

o Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Citizen (1791)

o Women should have the same rights as men

Religion and the revolution

The most divisive issue

n National Assembly confiscated church property (November 1789)

n The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)

n Bishops and clergy subject to the laws of the state

n Salaries to be paid from public treasury

n Church reforms polarized France

n Many resented the privileged position of the church

n Parish church an institution of great local importance