The French Revolution

Section 9.41: Background of the French Revolution

July 14, 1789

Crane Brinton & The Anatomy of Revolution

• Moderate Period

• Limited Change

• Constitutional Monarchy– Liberal

moderates in control

• Limited enfranchise-ment

• Restoration Period

• Monarchy restored

• Radical Period• Major Change• Republic

– Strong central government

– Radicals in control

• Total enfranchise- ment

• Terror• Command

economy• Utopian/

idealized vision

• Thermidorian Period

• Reactionary stage

• Oligarchy– Moderates in

control

– Bourgeoisie government

• Idealized visions of Rev forgotten

• Free Market economy– High Inflation

• Reliance on Strong Man

The French Revolution

1787 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1799 1804

Assembly of Notables

call for Estates General

8th of Brumaire Napoleon

leads coup

Napoleon crowns himself

Emperor of France

-Directory eliminates

radicals

-Louis XVI executed-Comm of

Public Safety begins Terror

-Marie A. executed-Cult of Reason

Robespierre executed on

9th of Thermidor

-September Massacres

-Year One of First Republic

Proclaimed

-Flight to Varennes

-Declaration of Pilnitz

-Estates General-Tennis Court Oath-National Assembly

-Bastille stormed-Great Fear

-Declaration of the Rights of M & C

-March on Versailles

Civil Constitution

of Clergy

• Old Regime (Ancien Regime) was aristocratic and feudal

• France• Population of 25 million• Estates system was

medieval system rigid legal orders

– But no longer an economic or social reality

• First estate = the clergy• Second estate = the nobility• Third estate = everyone else

– wealthy business class to poorest peasants

The SettingEstates System

Was the Estates System cause the Revolution?: Class Tensions

• Traditionally Marxist historians– believed that Revolution caused by class

tensions– Bourgeoisie of Third Estate v Nobles of the

Second– Third grew sick of baring economic burden &

privilege of 2nd– Bourgeoisie led 3rd Estate against others

• Modern Scholarship dismisses this– Nobles and Bourgeoisie had lots in common

• Land, capitalism• Noble class was open to rich• Both groups generally supported Parlements

– Peasants of France had it much better than Russian serfs

– Third Estate really only represented interests of the bourgeoisie

The SettingEstates System

• Estates general had not be called since 1614

• No longer corresponded with the distribution of wealth

• nobility was open to those who could afford it

• 66% of nobility had acceded since 1600

– 50, 000 new nobles were created since 1700

• talent of nobility was from 3rd Estate

First Estate: The Church• 100 thousand members • collected tithe

– 10% of income

• Owned 10 percent of the land (greatest single landowner)

• Paid “voluntary gift” every 5 years

• played political role – but so did English

Church

Second Estate: The Nobility• About 400 thousand members• Owned >20% of land• Retained Medieval Manorial Rights

– Banalities • Exclusive rights to hunt, fish, monopoly on bread

baking, pressing grapes, etc.– Eminent property

• fees paid to the noble for lands held by peasants (transfer fees, when land changed owners by sale or death)

• Retained Medieval Honorific Rights– Right to carry a sword

• Monopolized higher offices in the military, government, and church

• Exempt from direct tax (taille), – bourgeoisie greatly resented this (even thou they got out

of paying also)• Divided into:

– Nobles of the Sword (noblesse d’epee) more distinguished ancient

– Nobles of the Robe (noblesse de robe) purchased the title of administrative of judicial (robe)

The Third Estate• Everyone else• 97% of population• Paid 100% of tax

– Taille (land tax)• Doctors, lawyers, merchants,

peasants, laborers, artisans,…• Peasants

– 80% of Population– Owned 40% of land

• Upper class bourgeois• 2.3 million• 8% of population• Owned 20% of land

Cause 2: Political Culture and Public Opinion• The Enlightenment

– writers created a culture that encouraged political and social criticism

• Natural rights• Historical progress• A language to communicate dissatisfactions

– philosophes did not cause the revolution but they gave it a conceptual context and a theoretical language to describe dissatisfactions

• book production reached peak in 1788• many newspapers and periodicals• parlements-courts of record used periodicals

to voice their opinions against ministers of the monarchy

• theories of Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire circulated– Voltaire resented privilege– Locke favored private property– Mont- 3 branches would favor parlements

Critical Spirit• Developed in salons, coffeehouses and

spread to the public sphere of political debate

• Pamphleteers– Stripped away the “sacred”

image of the nobility and the church

– The Necklace Affair• Public airing of courtroom

activity– Corrupt noble against

oppressed peasant became recurrent theme

• Campaigns to influence public opinion became a force in the French Revolution– Reason, justice, rights