French Revolution

History M01B - Krister Swanson - Moorpark College

Causes of the FR

• economic (can’t service debt, sluggish economy)
• political (weak monarch, noble resurgence, Bourg interest in Enlightenment)
• social (oppressed poor, Bourg. Resentment of nobility)
• Growing population, rising prices, stable wages, subsistence farming
• Growing Bourg. threat to nobility
• Lessening distinctions between classes
• Weakness of Louis XVI

Problems with Debt

• 7 yrs. War & Amer. Rev.
• Can’t tax nobility - claim “only EG can tax”
• Nobles demand original rights (resurgence)
• N+B, N vs. B, & conditions suck for poor (unemployment hunger)

Estates General (1789)

• 1st=Clergy, 2nd=Nobility, 3rd=All else (Bourgeiosie)
• 3rd Estate gets pumped up, this is their chance
• How to Vote? Nobility demands equal representation for each estate & vote by order

Cahiers de Doleances

Grievances of the estates: Gov’t waste, indirect taxes, corruption, Church taxes, etc.

• Want local admin., more meetings of the EG, free press (Basic equality)
• grievances must wait on voting issue

National Assembly

• 3rds refuse to sit separately, so they break off with lower clergy & form NA on 6/17
• Take the Tennis Court Oath: “We’ll meet until we write a constitution”
• Louis XVI Breaks Down
• Louis says “desist” causing more clergy & nobility join NA
• Louis realizes he’s toast, asks 1st & 2nd to officially join NA (6/27)
• this means Gov’t is no longer by privileged order

Storming the Bastille, 1789

• Louis XVI wants to regain initiative
• dismisses Necker, musters troops
• 7/14: people of Paris form militia, go to Bastille for weapons
• troops fire on crowd, they storm
• This event means Poor are starting  to be heard, disturbances spread
• Louis gives in again, recognizes NCA

Great Fear Spreads

• Rural uprisings vs. nobility & army
• opportunity to claim food supply & land, reclaim lost rights, and vent
• uprisings cause Nobles to renounce rights & privs. (8/4)- decrees make laws same for all
• Clears way for NCA to write Cons.
• sets up NCA & popular masses vs. King & Cons. Nobles

Dec. of Rights of Man (8/27)

• Statement of principles for Rev.
• Attacks probs. from Old Regime
• Enlightenment & Dec. of Ind.

Provides:

• Equality before law, enter any office or profession, due process, religious tolerance
• Apportioned taxation, innocence
• Civic equality & right to property

Impact of Dec. of Rights

• Women left in separate sphere
• True end of old regime (civic equality & protection of property)
• Establishes philosophy for Revolution

March on Versailles

• Louis stalls on Dec. of R, no food
• Women march on Versailles (10/5)
• Louis agrees to Dec. of Rights,  forced back to Paris
• Popular insurrection works, leads to Constitutional Monarchy
• Relative peace until 1792
• Start process of “Reconstruction”

Reconstruction of France

• Constitutional Monarchy, rational administration, unregulated econ. (some En.)
• Protect property & limit impact of those without property
• Civic, not social equality
• This is not democracy

Constitution of 1791

• Legislative Assembly makes laws & taxes), Monarch gets veto
• “Active” citizens get vote (very limited suffrage)
• indirect elections for Leg. Assembly
• transfer power from aristocratic wealth to all wealth (good for Bourg.)

Women Get Left Out

• Cons. forbids women from voting or holding office
• Olympe de Gouges rewrites Dec. of Man as Dec. of Women
• Without women & poor the Revolution is incomplete

Departments are Formed

• Replace provinces, remain today
• Uniform courts, elected judges & prosecutors
• parlements & old courts are gone

Economic Reform

• Support policies of Louis XVI
• Suppressed Guilds (Chapelier Law)
• new land taxes insufficient so they, Finance debt by selling Church property

Assignats

• Bonds backed by church property
• Become so popular they’re used like currency
• This gives lots of people an economic stake in the Revolution
• Issue too many è inflation

Civil Constitution of Clergy

• Departments = Dioceses
• Election of clergy
• Tension between Church & State
• NCA forces clergy to sign
• Resistors are “refractory clergy”
• Pope condemns Revolution, creates a  crisis for devout Catholics

Counter Revolutionaries

• emigres flee to border countries
• Louis’ brother & Marie convince him to split, he flees & gets caught at Varennes
• Makes it clear Louis is anti-Rev.
• Dec. of Pillnitz: Leopold II (Au.) & Fred II(Pr.) pledge to protect royal family & Monarchy if necessary
• Revs. realize they’re surrounded – must unite against outside threat
• 1st Leg. Assembly’s elected, faces big probs.: divisions in LA, demands of “passive” citizens, outside threats

Start of 2nd Revolution

• People call for more Rev. (left out, bad economics, no food)
• Girondins (Mod/Cons. Monarchists) want to keep 1st rev.
• Jacobins (Rad/Republic) require help of sans-culottes
• 4/1792: Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
• Austria & Prussia invade (crisis-”severe retribution”)
• wars favor Austria & Prussia early
• 8/10/92 Paris Insurrection (Tuileries), spurred on by recruits from war
• Commune takes control of Paris
• Nat’l Convention takes over gov’t & declares Republic (9/1792)
• Commune massacres “enemies of Rev.”, imprisons Louis XVI

Mobilize for Conflict

• 1/93- Convention executes Louis
• Defending new values and order
• form Executive committees (General Security & Public Safety) with great power
• Danton, Robespierre, Carnot must “save the revolution”
• The Mountain allies with sans-cullottes (who prefer rev. to old regime)

Domestic Support for War

• 4/93: war with A, P, GB, Sp, & DR
• 6/93: SCs expel Girondins, Mtn. in control
• women want right to fight
• levee en masse=
• conscript males
• war production
• price ceilings
• squash uprisings in provinces

Dechristianization
(starts in 11/93)

• nation of virtue, not religion
• change calendar
• close churches, arrest priests
• opposition from provinces
• further alienating the church

Reign of Terror

• Robespierre & Comm. for Public Safety – terror is necessary to build virtuous society
• Marat’s execution lays groundwork
• targeted “enemies of revolution”, definition always changing & expanding
• Marie, then other royals
• Girondin, then out into provinces against poor who revolted against revolution
• Robes axes enrages, then Danton
• eliminates opposition
• Law of 22 – makes it quick & easy to execute enemies of the Rev.
• 25,000 total victims
• first in chain that includes Hitler & Stalin?!?

Fall of Robespierre

• Cult of Supreme Being
• Wild accusations, shouted down & arrested on 9th of Thermidor
• no support from SC’s or Jacobins
• destroyed rivals without creating followers

Thermidorian Reaction (7/94)

• tempers revolution
• SCs out, Girondin back in
• continue rev. in moderation
• Powers of CPS reduced
• Price controls & regulations removed (shortages)
• Bourg. emerges triumphant
• Property=representation
• Back to old life style (both worship and vice)
• legal rights & constitution
• commune outlawed, Jac. Club closed
• “white terror” execute  “red terrorists”
• peace with Sp. & Pr., still at war with GB & Au.

Constitution of Year III

• skip Cons. of 1793
• Vote for property holders & soldiers (new representation)
• Leg.= Councils of Elders & 500
• Exec.= Directory (group of 5)

Outcomes

• Rev. of the property holder
• Some peasants become land holders
• Unregulated economy leads to riots
• Royalists use poor to restore mon.
• Put down by army, including young officer named _______
• Babeuf claims Rev. is incomplete
• Directory relies on army more than Cons.