French Revolution

Transcription

1 French Revolution

2 Long-Term Causes of the French Revolution Enlightenment Classical Liberalism John Locke: Natural rights, liberty, equality before the law, power of the individual Montesquieu: separation of powers and checks and balances Emphasis on the power of reason, thinking for oneself, and turning away from authorities such as the Church or the past for guidance Emphasis on reform and progress American Revolution Early Romanticism Rousseau: the general will and nationalism The breakdown of the Ancien Regime: a faulty Estates General system, significant debt, food shortages, bread riots, inflation, inability of the monarchy to deal with the nobility

3 Ancien (Old) Regime Authority of the Church, Monarchy, and Nobility Christian/Catholic society Hierarchical Society (feudalism) Hereditary privileges Estates System: 1st Estate: Clergy 2nd Estate: Nobility 3rd Estate: Bourgeoisie and Peasants Heavy taxes on the peasants, who still made up 97% of the population Taxes to the local nobility Tithes to the Church Salt tax Income tax Poll tax vs. New Regime Authority and freedom of the individual Individual use of reason Popular sovereignty No class system aka perfect civil equality Citizen armies Secular society and a de-christianized Europe Fewer taxes on peasants and more on the nobles and clergy

4 Louis XIV Years War + War of Spanish Succession + Versailles + Public works projects + Bloated bureaucracy (absolute gov t) = A drained treasury, deep debt, and an oppressed middle/peasant class

5 Louis XV War of Austrian Succession + Disastrous 7 Years War = A drained treasury, a shift of the balance of power in Britain s favor, a damaged relationship with England and much of Eastern Europe

6 Louis XVI

7 Marie Antoinette

8 First Immediate Cause of the Revolution: Imminent Bankruptcy Aid to America during the American Revolution put France into further debt Had much national wealth but could not tap into it due to tax system France had no central bank, paper currency, or means of creating credit. Their only option was to tax. Most taxes fell on the Third Estate (Middle Class/Peasants) who had the least money and the least to spare. They also paid feudal dues to the local nobility and tithes to the local churches To make matters worse, in 1787 and 1788, there was a bad harvest in France (which was still largely agrarian) which meant many peasants were poor AND starving

9 Cont. The monarchy continually attempted to tax the aristocracy and limit their political power but were unsuccessful, largely due to the power of parlements such as the Parlement of Paris Parlements were local appellate courts that had the power to accept or reject what the King commanded; they were run by nobles and successfully utilized rhetoric to turn the Third Estate against the monarchy and retain power Louis XIV had successfully limited the power of the nobility and the parlements but Louis XV and XVI could not; Louis XVI actually gave the parlements the power they lost under Louis XIV Louis XVI also had a finance minister who lied to him about the bad financial state France was in, so he had little sense of urgency to change France s tax system Louis XVI was completely incompetent when it came to running a government. He was only 20 years old when he assumed the throne and had little natural ability. He was not assertive toward the nobles and was quick to yield to their demands. This practice would continue throughout the Revolution.

10 Assembly of Notables Louis called together the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to ask a large group of nobles to either agree to a land tax or give up their tax exemptions Nobles refused and argued that Louis could only make changes to the tax system if he called the Estates General (which had not been called since 1614) The Parlements, controlled by the nobility, blocked the new taxes in order to force a balance of power between the King and the Nobility July 5, 1788, Louis summoned a spring session of the Estates General and asked that each state bring cahiers de doleances or a list of grievances to present to the king

11 Three Estates

12 Estates General, 1789 If each of the Three Estates had spoken with each other frankly, they would have discovered they had similar grievances against the monarchy and desired some of the same reforms Ultimately though, they could not decide how to vote in the Estates General Vote by head (number of representatives) or order (1 vote per Estate) If by population, the Third Estate would have the upper hand The Third Estate represented roughly 25 million people while the First and Second Estate represented only 500,000 people If by order, the First and Second Estate could easily defeat the Third Estate to preserve their privileges Even though the Third Estate was granted twice as many representatives, the Parlement of Paris ruled that the Estates General would vote by order, which infuriated the Third Estate

13 Abbe Sieyes, What is the Third Estate 1st. What is the third estate? Everything. 2nd. What has it been heretofore in the political order? Nothing. 3rd. What does it demand? To become something therein.

14 Oath of the Tennis Court, 1789 The Third Estate refused to vote on the new tax system and insisted on the entire Estates General voting together. They decided to form a new legislative body and Constitution They fought about it for 6 weeks until the Third Estate (and a small number of priests) walked out. In a desperate attempt to regain power, Louis XVI locked the 3rd Estate out of their meeting place in Versailles, forcing them to confer on an indoor tennis court There, they took an oath that they would not leave until they had written France a new Constitution defending liberty and the rights of men Thus, the National Assembly was created Louis XVI capitulated and asked the First and Second Estates to meet with the National Assembly, voting by head instead of order

15 Oath of the Tennis Court Est. the N tl Assembly

16 Trouble in Paradise Louis XVI made two big mistakes: He dismissed his finance minister, beloved by the people, which made him seem like he did not care about the people s interests He gathered troops to undermine the National Assembly and stop the Revolution They wanted a constitutional monarchy but he did not He allied himself with conservatives who wanted to preserve the Ancien Regime a fatal choice

17 Storming of Bastille, July 14, 1789 Parisians were nervous about what had occurred Decided to form citizen militias and collect arms; marched to the Bastille, a Medieval fortress and prison, to gather more arms Troops at the Bastille shot into the crowd and killed 98 people Bread riots in the city Had representatives in the Third Estate and wanted to see their needs met Released the 7 prisoners there and killed several troops including the Governor Marked the official beginning of the Revolution

18 Great Fear and August 4th Rumors led to mass chaos called the Great Fear; riots and peasant revolts everywhere Night of August 4th- nobles and clerics renounced feudalism and various privileges; civil equality was declared (Everyone was subject to the same and equal laws) Sale of government offices was abolished; everything now talent/merit based Required major social and political reconstruction, thus a new constitution beginning with the Declaration of the Rights of Man

19 Storming of the Bastille

20 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789 Constitutional blueprint for France Enlightenment philosophy: classical liberalism Locke Rousseau Inspired by the American Revolution The term Citizen applied to all French people Rights of Women (Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft) Right to divorce Inherit property Get child support from the fathers of their illegitimate children

21 Declaration of Independence When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great-Britain is a history of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

22 Sans-culottes

23 Women s March on Versailles, 1789 October Days Jean-Paul Marat and the sans-culottes inspired 7,000 women (and the Paris national guard) to march 12 miles from Paris to Versailles demanding that the king address their economic problems, particularly the shortage of bread King decided to acknowledge the Declaration of the Rights of Man in response Women stayed until the next day and forced the King and Queen to move from Versailles to the Tuileries in Paris, where they could keep an eye on the royals Louis XVI met with a group of women in the palace and signed decrees guaranteeing bread in Paris at reasonable prices National Assembly also moved to Paris

24 Women s March on Versailles

25 Changes Made by the National Assembly Designed a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral Legislative Assembly that had the power to write laws and declare war and peace; monarch only had temporary veto power Transferred power from aristocratic wealth propertied wealth Middle class got more power 83 departments with indirect representation defined the new political and administrative framework Parlements abolished; replaced by uniform courts Established the metric system Outlawed strikes and workers unions Assignats became the new paper currency Internal tariffs abolished

26 Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 1790 Increasingly secularized French Catholicism Created a national, state-run Church with 83 bishops chosen by the government Church lands and property confiscated and either sold or repurposed All bishops and priests now employees of the state with a salary Clergy forced to take an oath of loyalty to the state; if they did not, they were called refractory clergy and lost their salary/power Convents and monasteries abolished Biggest mistake of the National Assembly Deeply divided France The Pope had condemned the Revolution crisis of conscience and political loyalty About half of the clergy were refractory; the monarchy and royalists supported the refractory

27 Flight to Varennes, 1791 Aristocrats started to flee France out of fear for their lives; called emigres Louis and Marie attempted to join them and flee to Austria (Marie Antoinette s brother was the Emperor of Austria) About 16,000 in number They left at night in disguise but were caught in Varennes Louis now seen as the chief counter-revolutionary

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29 Legislative Assembly, Put the new Constitution (designed by the National Assembly) into place with a newly-elected assembly Jacobins came to dominate the Assembly Radical political club with a local network Influenced by Rousseau Desired equality, popular sovereignty, and civic virtue Subset of Jacobins called Girondins gained influence Left-leaning Pushed France into a war with Austria and Prussia that eventually caused a second Revolution AND keep France at war with Europe until 1815 Brunswick Manifesto- Prussia and Austria threatened to destroy Paris if Louis and Marie were harmed; Parisians not happy

30 Invasion of the Tuileries, August 1792 Backlash against the Brunswick Manifesto An angry Parisian mob stormed the Tuileries Hundreds of Swiss Guards and Parisians killed Louis and Marie taken prisoner The Second Revolution began: September Massacres- Parisians murdered 1,200 prisoners thinking they were counter-revolutionaries (just regular prisoners) Paris forced the Legislative Assembly to create a new assembly called the National Convention

31 Invasion of the Tuileries

32 September Massacres

33 National Convention, Old Constitution abolished Constitutional monarchy abolished; France declared a republic and in need of a democratic constitution Put Louis XVI on trial as Citizen Capet Backed by the sans-culottes (working class; early socialists) Hostile to the original Third Estate members of the Revolution (associated with aristocracy; not radical enough) Emergence of The Mountain - radical majority faction of Jacobins in favor of terror Convicted of conspiring against liberty, security, and the Revolution (TREASON) Beheaded Jan. 21, 1793 New motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity Feb Declared war on Britain, Holland, Prussia, and Spain (War of the First Coalition)

34 Nt l Assembly -->Nt l Convention

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37 National Convention Puts Louis XVI on Trial

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42 Reign of Terror Liberty Leading the People

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44 Reign of Terror, Autumn 93-Summer 94 Committee of Public Safety- 12-man committee that carried out the executive duties of the government; Robespierre in charge Allied with sans-culottes Levee en masse- draft of males into the army Citizen army of 1 million men Established the Republic of Virtue - self-sacrifice of individual will for the general will Established a revolutionary calendar Price controls and rationing of goods Notre Dame replaced by the Temple of Reason; Christianity replaced by the Cult of the Supreme Being (Deist) Churches closed; clergy and Christians persecuted Public tribunals to punish the enemies of the Revolution Guillotine

45 Robespierre

46 Committee of Public Safety

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48 Temple of Reason

49 Cult of the Supreme Being in the Republic of Virtue

50 Death of Marat