French
Revolution (Part I)
·
25
million people, largest in Europe
·
The First Estate -- Catholic Church
established (state supported)
- 130,000
clergy (parish priest à archbishops)
-
Controlled
education nationwide (persecuted protestants)
-
Collected
tithes
-
Annual
income of 150,000,000 livres
($1,080,000,000 today) with $0 in taxes paid to state
-
Owned
1/5 of France as feudal properties, collected feudal dues
-
Paid
government only by don gratut (free grant)
-
Bishops
and archbishops among wealthiest in France, parish priests among the most
poverty stricken
·
The Second Estate -- 400,000 Nobles and
Families
·
La noblesse de race – descendents of the Franks
·
Noblesse d’epee – Nobles of the Sword,
historical titles
·
Noblesse de robe – Nobles of Robe, purchased
or awarded titles (open to bribery)
·
The Third Estate – The Peasants, the Middle
Class, the Urban Workers
·
100,000
Middle-class families, professionals, artisans, business owners, and
capitalists
·
Upper-middle
class controlled ½ of wealth in France
·
Supported
Physiocrat doctrine
·
Believed
in Rousseau’s General Will and Social Contract
·
The
Press (4th Estate) -- Journalists, authors, etc.
·
“Menu
People” – proletariat, transport workers, and peasants
·
The
Peasants
·
Prices
were rising 3x as fast as wages
·
Owned
1/3 of tilled land, worked the remainder
·
Paid
feudal dues
·
Corvee – labor tax
·
Quitrent
·
Banalities
·
Poll
tax, vigtieme (1/20 income), sales
tax, gaberre (salt tax)
·
The
Proletariat
·
Sans-culottes: Paris working class,
400,00-500,00
·
Left
out of ALL politics
·
Louis
XIII – Government run by Cardinal
Richelieu
·
Louis
XIV – 4 major wars
Palace at Versailles
Extravagant lifestyle
·
Louis
XIV- “Mississippi Bubble”
·
Louis
XV- Three Wars:
1.
War
of Polish Succession
2.
War
of Austrian Succession
3.
Seven
Years War
and $ sent to aid U.S. Revolution - $250,000,000
livres ($1,800,000,000 today)
·
Madame
Pompadour – Mistress of Louis XV, influential in the government, her say was
needed for any minister to be appointed, and she is supposed to have controlled
the government while Louis went hunting
·
Louis
XVI- He was not ready and did not
want to be king. A bit of a
slow starter, it took him 7 years to consummate his
marriage to Marie Antoinette.
“God
help us, we are too young to rule.”
--1774, age 24, before his
coronation
·
Marie
Antoinette – She was the youngest child of Marie Theresa of Austria. She
expected to be maintained in an extravagant lifestyle, and was strongly
influenced by her Austrian (Hapsburg) relatives. She was involved in most of
Louis XVI’s policy decisions. She had a number of “frienships” with various
men, both foreign and domestic; however, she maintained that they were all
platonic. She liked setting fashion trends, and was fond of “big hair” with
decorations (even scenes!). She was actually a good mother once she settled
down, but her reputation at the point was unfortunately set.
·
French
finances actually improved a bit under Louis XVI
1774-76
Turgot
allows Physiocrat Doctrine to run economy. Parisians riot and
force his ouster
1777-81
Jacques
Necker is the Finance minister
Louis begins reforms, frees serfs on his lands, ends
torture of prisoners, begins to empty the Bastille, establishes pawn shoppes,
allows religious tolerance, and allows press freedom.
Increased debt from the support of the U.S.
Revolution and loss of support from nobles forces out Necker in 1781
1787
Assembly
of Notables “call the Estates General”
Why? In the past, the Estates General would vote by
Estate, rather than by individual (so 3 votes total)
1788
Call
for Estates General and cahiers de doleancer
Parlement of Paris … vote by estate
Royal Council … 3rd Estate … twice as
many representatives than the other 2
-
All
males 27+ yrs. old, paying ANY tax could vote for assemblies which selected
Estate reps (except in Paris; 6 livres tax, which means 500,000 sans-culottes left out)
1789 Met
in May, outside the Palace at Versailles (10 miles from Paris)
June 16-17: 3rd Estate votes to invite
others to join and form the National Assembly, and vote by head
The clergy splits: Lower go to the National
Assembly, upper join nobility
Tennis Court Oath – the National Assembly becomes the
National Constituent Assembly
Royal Session, NCA refuses to leave and forces king to recognize them and force others to join
·
They
say they are not voting by estate; about 40 nobles have joined them by this
point, including the Marquis de Lafayette
·
They
will attempt to create a new government
·
Louis
calls 10,000 troops, German and Swiss, to occupy Versailles and surround Paris
·
Sans-culottes of Paris react by
collecting arms
·
July
13 – Storm the Hotel Invallides and capture 28,000 muskets and a few canon
·
Slight
problem … they have no gunpowder or ammunition
·
July
14 – They attack and capture the Bastille, along with 20 tons of powder
·
There
were only ~114 troops and 7 prisoners in the Bastille at the time, but it is a
well-defended fortress
·
98
people die in the courtyard when the soldiers fire down into the Parisian mob,
and 6-7 soldiers die. Governor Delunie seized, beheaded, piked, etc.
·
The
Parisian mob is now the National Guard, with the Marquis de Lafayette in charge
·
The
Bastille will be dismantled stone-by-stone
·
Aug.
4, 1789 – Renunciation of Noble privileges (as a result of peasants demanding
deeds to chateaus from nobles; if they refused, they burnt them)
·
1st
wave of Émigrés
·
Aug.
1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Men and Citizens (Louis will refuse to
sign)
·
Oct.
1789 – Women’s March on Versailles (7,000 strong—will get Louis to sign; next
morning, 15,000 guardsmen escort Louis back to Paris)
·
Civil
Constitution of the Clergy
·
Confiscation
of Church Lands (by the National Assembly)
·
Attempt
to deal with the debts faced by the French state
·
Assignats issued (paper money), using
the confiscated land as security
·
They
rapidly declined in value, and the financial problems persisted
·
Deprived
of its land, the govt. now has to pay clergy salaries
·
National
Assembly proceeds to reorganize the church administration, adopting the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy on July 12. The people would now elect bishops and
priests, and the clergy had to sign an oath of allegiance to support the new
arrangement.
·
Over
½ refuse to sign oath of Loyalty
·
Constitution
of 1791
·
Continued
attempt to draft a constitution
·
Dec.
1790, Necker resigned. Mirabeau became the king’s chief advisor, but his death
on April 2, 1791, weakened the king’s cause as well as moderation
·
Flight
to Varennes
·
June
20, 1791, the king and immediate family fled Paris, intending to leave France
and secure foreign assistance. Captured in northern France (Varennes), Louis
and his family were forced to return to Paris.
·
Sept.
14, 1791, Louis accepts the new constitution. Establishes a limited monarchy
with separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial
branches. The king and ministers are the executive, limited by a one-house
parliament, the Legislative Assembly.
·
Declaration
of Pillnitz
·
Aug.
27, 1791—Prussia and Austria declared their readiness to intervene if necessary
to protect the French royal family and safeguard the monarchy. In Feb. 1792
they concluded an alliance.
·
The
Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria on April 20, 1792. The War of the
First Coalition (Austria & Prussia v. France).
·
Legislative
Assembly
·
The
revolutionaries = “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
·
Aug.
10 – Parisian mob storm the Tuileries Palace, massacring the king’s Swiss
Guards. Louis flees to the Legislative Assembly, who take him prisoner.
·
Voting
to depose him, they call for elections for a National Convention that will
draft a constitution for a French republic.