The French Revolution

Topics:

Ancien Regime
The Crisis: Causes of the Revolution
The (First) Revolution
The Second Revolution

The Crisis: Causes of the Revolution

POLITICAL TURMOIL:

Enlightened Absolutism and despotism – concept that a monarch has absolute rule that is derived from secular roots, serving the state rather than God. Examples include Catherine II (the Great; r. 1762-1796) of Russia and Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia; growth of cameralism (German universities training government bureaucrats in economics, administration, and public finance).
Joseph II (r. 1764-1790), co-ruler of the Habsburg empire with Maria Theresa, pushed reforms like free speech, religious toleration, legal reform, and agrarian reforms, but most did not last.
George III of Britain attempted to increase royal power, provoking John Wilkes and the famous chant “Wilkes and Liberty” (1774).
The American Revolution, with the Declaration of Independence (1776), inspired French liberals with Enlightenment ideals.

ECONOMICS OF THE 18th CENTURY:

The Industrial Revolution began in England due to capital, markets, geography, labor, military, and resources. Agricultural improvements like crop rotation supported population growth. The textile industry led the takeoff using cotton, wool, the power loom, and steam engines.

1789: A DIVIDING POINT/WHAT WAS FRENCH SOCIETY LIKE?

Known as the Old Regime or Ancien Regime, France had 26 million people divided into three estates:

1. Clergy (1-2%) – tax-exempt, hierarchical, adored by peasants.

2. Nobility (3-4%) – enjoyed honorific, judicial, and fiscal privileges, including exemption from taxes and feudal dues.

3. Everybody else (95%) –

   • Bourgeoisie: 12% of Third Estate, educated and wealthy but barred from nobility.

   • City workers and urban poor: 3%.

   • Peasants: 80%.

TAX STRUCTURE:

• Direct taxes: Taille (land), Capitation (head), Vingtième (income).

• Indirect taxes: Gabelle (salt), Tabac (tobacco).

• Feudal dues, Corvée (forced labor), Tithes.

After taxes, peasants spent 50% of income on bread. Bread prices rose 150% by 1780, causing unrest.

CAUSES:

• Inspiration from American Revolution: “liberté, égalité, fraternité.”

• Incompetent royalty: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

• Enlightenment ideas undermining traditional society.

• Debt from wars and overspending.

The French Revolution (and general chaos)

The unresolved taxation issue led to confrontation with the Parlement of Paris, which demanded approval of all new taxes by the Estates General. The Third Estate drafted cahiers listing grievances like opposition to seigneurial fees and careers by birth.

MAY 1789: THE ESTATES-GENERAL MEETS!

• Third Estate demanded voting by head, forming the National Assembly (June 17, 1789).

• Tennis Court Oath (June 20): vowed not to disband until a constitution was written.

• Clergy joined the Assembly, Louis XVI brought troops.

JULY 14, 1789… THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE

• Symbolized the Old Regime. Only seven prisoners, yet became a revolution catalyst.

• Formation of National Guard under Lafayette.

• Great Fear: peasant uprisings.

• August 4 Decrees: abolished feudalism, equal rights declared in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

• October 1789: March of Women forced royal family to Paris.

1790: Civil Constitution of the Clergy

• Church lands nationalized, clergy became state employees.

• Pope opposed; divided clergy into Juring (loyal) and Nonjuring (refusing).

Reactions:

• Edmund Burke criticized the Revolution; Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine defended rights.

• Olympe de Gouges promoted women’s rights.

Constitution of 1791

• Established king as executive, Legislative Assembly as legislative branch.

• Flight to Varennes: royal escape fails.

• Émigrés flee to raise armies.

• Declaration of Pillnitz (1792): Prussia and Austria threaten France.

Seating in House:

• Left: Republicans/Mountains (radical)

• Moderate: Constitutional Monarchists (ConMons)

• Right: Monarchists (reactionary)

April 20, 1792: France declares war. Lafayette’s leadership fails; Brunswick Manifesto provokes sans-culottes.

The Second Revolution

• August 1792: storming of Tuileries, royal family abducted.

• National Convention formed; September Massacres kill ConMons and Monarchists.

• Battle of Valmy (Sept 20, 1792) – French victory.

• King executed January 1793; 12 countries declare war.

• Civil wars in Lyon and Vendée; formation of Catholic and Royalist Army.

• Republicans split: Girondins (moderate) vs Jacobins/Mountains (radical).

THE REIGN OF TERROR (July 1793–July 1794)

• Led by Robespierre, Committee of Public Safety controls military, economic, and political affairs.

• Messianic revolutionary ideology.

• Law of Suspects, Law of Maximum, Revolutionary Tribunals enforce policies.

• Joseph Fouché, Lazare Carnot involved in enforcement.

• Levée en masse drafts soldiers; France starts winning wars.

• Robespierre promotes equality, no slavery, and property rights for women, but Constitution of 1793 never implemented.

• Danton executed for opposing Terror. New revolutionary calendar adopted.

• Arrests of radical women’s groups.

• Robespierre dies July 1794; Terror ends.

THE THERMIDORIAN REACTION

• Shift to conservatism; Girondins return, white terror against Jacobins.

• Establishment of Constitution of the Year 3 / Directory with members like Fouché and Carnot.