Chapter 20: French Revolution

Annotations:

• France’s 25 million citizens >> divided into 3 estates. First Estate = Clergy, owned 10% of the land, paid a “voluntary gift” (tax) once every 5 years, levied a property tax on their landowners. Second Estate = Nobles, owned 25% of the land, too lightly taxed, enjoyed special privileges of lordship >> exclusive rights to hunt and fish, monopolies on baking bread & making wine, fees for justice;  “honorific privileges” like right to wear a sword. Third Estate = everyone else, 98% of the population, some richer/educated commoners could buy their manorial rights. Bourgeoisie = upper middle class in 3rd Estate, were growing in size and wealth >> will lead the third estate in rebellion that destroyed feudal privileges and established a capitalist order based on individualism and a market economy. 

Annotations:

• Revolution due to revisionism (new interpretations), Historians see both bourgeoisie and nobility as fragmented, Wealthy members of the third estate could buy noble positions. Nobles were capitalists; investing in mining, metallurgy, and foreign trade. The upper parts of aristocratic and bourgeoisie nobles saw themselves as an educated elite >> frustrated with the bureaucratic monarchy that claimed absolute power.

Annotations:

• Structural deadlock in France’s tax system as well as the struggle between the monarchy and its opponents sparked by the expenses of foreign wars. Louis XIV was succeeded by Louis XV in 1715. Regent = the duke of Orleans. Many institutions reclaimed powers they had lost under the Sun King. Parlements regained their right to evaluate royal decrees publically in writing before they were registered. Implications became clear when the heavy expenses of war proved unbearable for the French treasury. The War of the Austrian Succession plunged France into financial crisis. 1748 >> decreed a 5% income tax on everyone regardless of social status >> protest from clergy and nobles >> tax dropped. After 7 years’ war, government tried to maintain emergency taxes but gave in and withdrew them. King couldn’t levy taxes w/o consent from Parlement.  Louis XV defended his absolutist inheritance. 1768 >> appointed a career official named Rene de Maupeou as chancellor and ordered him to crush judicial opposition >> abolished existing parlements and created new ones of royal officials and began to tax the privileged groups. Louis le bien-aime (beloved friend) in his youth, found people turning against him for moral and political reasons. Louis XV broke the pattern of noble mistresses with Madame de Pompadour, daughter of a disgraced bourgeoisie financer. Pompadour influenced art, literature and the decorative arts and supported Voltaire and the rococo style. Even after their love affair Pompadour was very influential. The king was slowly stripped of his sacred aura of God’s anointed on earth bc of the scandals and criticism of the monarchy >> desacralization. Louis XVI came to power in 1774 >> a shy 20-year-old with good intentions.  A weakened but unreformed monarchy faced judicial opposition that claimed to speak for all of France.

Annotations:

• French support of the American Revolution led them to bankruptcy but also provided ideals and liberty and equality to inspire political reform. When Britain raised taxes on the colonies for the 7 Years’ War, the colonists were angry. Key questions were political >> who should represent the colonies and who had the right to make laws for Americans? Britain responded that the colonies do have representatives and that Parliament could not be questioned, but Americans felt otherwise. 1773 >> Britain taxed Chinese tea coming to America >> Boston Tea Party where angry men dumped tea into the ocean disguised as Indians. Coercive Acts closed the port of Boston, curtailed elections, and expanded the royal governor’s power. County conventions in Massachusetts protested that Britain was trying to enslave America. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Compromise was rejected by Parliament and in April 1775, fighting began at Lexington and Concord. Some Loyalists remained, but they immigrated to Northern Canada. On July 4th 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence >> Written by Thomas Jefferson >> listed the tyrannical acts of George III and proclaimed the natural rights of mankind. France wanted revenge on England after their defeat in the Seven Years’ War >> gave Americans guns and gunpowder and French volunteers arrived in Virginia in 1777. Lafayette became one of George Washington’s favorite generals. In 1778, France makes a formal alliance with America. By 1780, Britain was at war with most of Europe (Dutch and Spain declared war earlier, League of Armed Neutrality) and the 13 colonies. Offered peace >> Treaty of Paris 1783 which recognized America’s independence and gave its territory east of the Mississippi River to America. Europeans who wanted a new era looked up to Americans because they proved that protest against tyranny as well as rationalism could result in changes and a constitution. France was most inspired by the American Revolution.

Annotations:

• The French financial crisis >> the high costs of the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’ War, American Revolutionary war. American funding from borrowed money >> 50% of France’s annual budget went to interest payments on the debt , 25% to maintaining the military, 6% absorbed by king and his court, less than 20% for productive functions of the state. King was too weak to declare partial bankruptcy. France had no central bank, no paper currency, and no means of creating credit. France raises taxes in 1786 as a last resort. 1787 >> general tax on all landed property & formed provincial assemblies to help administer the tax. Assembly of Notables >> insisted that tax changes required approval of the Estates General = representative body of all three estates (not met since 1614). King dismissed notables and established new taxes by decree >> Parlement null and voids tax >> king tries to exile judges >> protest. July 1788 = Louis XVI called for Estates General.

Annotations:

• -Each Estate  elected delegates and made lists of grievances - Flood of debate about public opinion & reform    - Estates General becomes deadlocked due to arguments about voting procedures. - Sieyes, a member of the first estate, writes “What is the Third Estate?” -  The government conceded that the 3rd estate should have as many delegates as the clergy + nobles combined >> rendered act meaningless - June 1789 >> 3rd Estate refuses to participate until clergy and nobles all join together in a single body - National Assembly >> moved into a Tennis Court to take the Tennis Court Oath >> pledging not to disband until they write a new constitution. - King urged reforms and called three estates to meet >> king using force to dissolve National Assembly - Results showed political loyalties and mindsets of each Estate on eve of Revolution - Clergy elected parish priests >> dissatisfaction with church hierarchy - Nobles elected conservatives and 1/3 were liberals - Third Estate >> almost all men with the right to vote voted >> elected lawyers and gov’t officials - General agreement that royal absolutism should give way to a constitutional monarchy in which laws and taxes required the consent of the Estates General & Individual liberties must be protected by law and that economic regulations should be loosened. - May 5, 1789 >> 1200 delegates of the 3 estates paraded through the streets of Versailles and hoped to bring about reform.

Annotations:

• Poor grain harvest in 1788 >> bread price soared >> classic economic depression. Demand for manufactured goods collapsed. Artisans and small traders lost work. Bread riots broke out in Paris. Revolution begins. Parisians believe that they deserve steady work and fair prices. On July 13th 1789, people began to seize arms. July 14th, the people marched to the Bastille to search for weapons and gunpowder. Bastille guards fought back. Governor of Bastille was killed. Lafayette was put in charge of armed forces. Louis XVI surrendered his violence.

Annotations:

• Peasants began to revolt in 1789.  The Great Fear was the fear of noble reprisals against peasant uprisings. The duke of Aiguillon urged equality in taxation and the elimination of feudal dues. All noble privileges were abolished as well as the clergy’s tithes. 

Annotations:

• Peasants began to revolt in 1789.  The Great Fear was the fear of noble reprisals against peasant uprisings. The duke of Aiguillon urged equality in taxation and the elimination of feudal dues. All noble privileges were abolished as well as the clergy’s tithes. 

Annotations:

• Economic crisis worsened after the storming of the Bastille. October 5 >> 7,000 desperate women marched to Versailles to invade the National Assembly. Women demanded bread. Searched for Marie Antoinette who was despised for her frivolous and immoral behavior. The women threatened to behead her. The king then went to Paris.

Annotations:

• King moved to Paris for 2 years. National Assembly abolished the French nobility as a legal order and pushed for a constitutional monarchy which was reluctantly accepted by Louis XVI in 1790.  New laws broadened women’s rights to seek divorce, to inherit property, and to obtain financial support for illegitimate children from fathers. The National Assembly replaced the historic provinces with 83 departments of equal size, monopolies and guilds were prohibited, and barriers to trade within France were abolished >> Enlightenment ideas. Religious freedom to Jews and Protestants, nationalized Catholic Church’s property and abolished monasteries. Used Catholic land as collateral to guarantee a new paper currency, the assignats, and then sold the property. National Assembly & Civil Constitution of the Clergy made a national church with elected priests. Clergy had to take a new oath to the government. Christians upset & Pope condemns the idea.

Annotations:

• Small group of people believed that the rights of man should be extended to all French citizens. Olympe de Gouges >> female self-taught writer >> Sept. 1791 published “Declaration of the Rights of Woman” >> challenge to revolutionaries to respect the ideals of the 1789 declaration. A revolutionary editor wrote that women should be able to speak in assemblies but not vote or hold office>> the women must care for the home.

Annotations:

• -1685 >> “Code Noir” is published, set the parameters of slavery and granted free people of color the same legal status as white men. - 1760’s >> colonial administrators began rescinding those rights, eventually colored people were ruled by discriminatory laws. - 1780’s >> New abolitionist movements in France and the government’s attempt to finish the worst abuses of slavery made slaves hopeful of becoming free. Free people of color fought for equality with whites.  Whites didn’t want to lose their way of life and still fought to keep slavery. The National Assembly refused to change anything about the colonies, ruled that each colony write its own constitution. - July 1790 >> Vincent Oge, a free man of color, returned to Saint-Domingue from Paris to fix the issues. Raised an army and wrote letters to the new Provincial Assembly demanding political rights to all free citizens. His army was defeated and Oge was tortured and executed by colonial officials. - May 1791 >> The National Assembly gave political rights to people of color born to two free parents who possessed sufficient property. The white elite of Saint-Domingue were furious. Violence between free men of color and white men. 

1. L'Ouverture

   Annotations:

   • August 1791 >> slaves had night meetings to plan a mass insurrection & religious ceremonies (voodoo). August 22 >> revolts began. April 4, 1792 >> Nationalism Assembly issued a decree enfranchising all free black and free people of color. Toussaint L’Ouverture >> freed slave who joined revolution >> Spanish officer. Britain and Spain try to capture Saint-Domingue b/c of profit. October 1793 >> abolished slavery. February 4th, 1794 >> Convention ratified abolition & extended it to all French territories. 
2. Dessalines

   Annotations:

   • Andre Rigaud set up his own gov’t in the southern peninsula. Tensions between Rigaud and L’Ouverture >> civil war 1799 >> Jean Jacques Dessalines for L’O >> victory and control of whole colony. Napoleon’s Constitution led to the possible re-establishment of slavery >> Saint-Domingue writes own constitution: no slavery and L’Ouverture ruler for life. Napoleon asks brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to crush the regime. L’Ouverture is sent back to France and dies in 1803.  Jean Jacques united the resistance and defeats France. January 1, 1804 >> Dessalines formally declares Haiti’s independence and the Haitian constitution was ratified in 1805.

Annotations:

• Britain hoped that the French revolution would influence a reordering of Parliament. Edmund Burke >> published “Reflections on the revolution in France” in 1790 >> defended inherited privileges and glorified an unrepresentative Parliament. Mary Wollstonecraft >> wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Man” and “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” >> demanded equal rights for women & coeducation. Some countries saw revolutionary ideas as a threat to their power. June 1791 >> Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were arrested and returned to Paris. Their arrest led to Prussia and Austria’s Declaration of Pillnitz >> willingness to intervene in France if needed. October 1791 >> Legislative Assembly meets >> Jacobin club named after the former monastery.

Annotations:

• The Assembly went into a patriotic fury over the declaration and threatened to go to war with the other countries. April 1792 >> France declares war on Francis II, Habsburg, even though Robespierre warned them. Prussia joined Austria against the French, who fled at their first encounter with this First Coalition. August 10th 1792 >> revolutionary crowd attacked the royal palace at Tuileries while the king and his family fled. The Legislative Assembly suspended the king from his functions and imprisoned him & called for the election of a new National Convention.

Annotations:

• Second Revolution >> fall of French monarchy. Louis’ imprisonment was followed by the September Massacres. September 1792 >> National Convention makes France a Republic. Jacobins of the National Convention were divided into subgroups called Girondists and the Mountain. Mountain >> led by Robespierre and Georges Jacques Danton. Division occurred after Louis was accused of treason. Louis was executed on January 21, 1793. The Prussians were stopped at the Battle of Valmy on September 20, 1792 >> French then invaded Savoy and Nice and moved into the German Rhineland. By 1792, France had all of modern Belgium. In February 1793, France declared war of Britain, Holland, and Spain also. War lasted until 1815. Peasants in western France rebelled against being drafted into the army. March 1793 >> National Convention in life-or-death situation >> Girondists vs. the Mountain.  Laboring poor and petty traders= sans-culottes.  >> demanded political action to get them bread. Mountain allies with sans-culottes. June 2, 1793 >> sans-culottes mob goes to Convention and arrested many Girondists >> left Mountain in power. April 1793 >> Committee of Public Safety. By July 1793, only the areas around Paris and on the Eastern frontier were held by the central government.

Annotations:

• July 1794 >> central gov’t reasserted control over the provinces & Netherlands and Rhine were French controlled. The First Coalition was falling apart. Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety claimed that they alone would speak for the general will >> collaborated with sans-culottes. September 1793 >> planned an economy with egalitarian social overtones >> government sets maximum allowable prices for key products >> fixed the price of bread. People worked to produce arms and munitions for war. The Reign of Terror >> time when Robespierre executed thousands suspected of treason >> 40,000 men and women died. Terror was a political weapon. French replaced the weak king with a bloody dictatorship. October 30, 1793 >> National Convention bans clubs of women. Olympe de Gouges was guillotined in November 1793.  Government sponsored revolutionary art and songs as well as secular holidays >> dechristianization >> halted in mid-1794. Common language and tradition >> nationalism. August 23, 1793 >> decree telling everyone how to support war. Unmarried young men went to war >> 800,000 soldiers by 1794. General Hoche. Spring 1794 >> French armies were victorious on all fronts.

Annotations:

• Robespierre relaxed emergency economic controls. March 1794 >> Robespierre executes his critics and even his collaborators including Danton. When Robespierre tried to speak to the Convention on July 27, 1794 the Convention howled at him. Robespierre is executed >> Thermidorian Reaction >> reaction to the violence that resulted in Robespierre’s execution and loosening of economic controls. 1795 >> National convention abolishes all economic controls, let priced rise slightly, and restricted local political organizations. Poor lost their revolutionary fervor. Religion became a relief to the poor of the countryside. 1795 >> National Convention writes new constitution. The newly elected assembly chose a 5-man executive called the Directory >> supported military expansion. French armies with new territories reduced unemployment at home. The French people didn’t like the food-rationing and war >> general dissatisfaction showed in 1797. The Directory used the army to nullify the elections and ruled dictatorially. Napoleon Bonaparte ended the Directory in a coup d’etat and substituted a strong dictatorship for a weak one. Effort to establish a representative government failed.

1. Rise to Power

   Annotations:

   • Born into an impoverished noble family in Corsica, 1769 - Became a lieutenant in 1785 - unsuccessfully fought for Corsican Independence in 1789 - commanded French army in Italy and was victorious in 1796 and 1797 but failed in Egypt - returned to France before his failure was known - Napoleon was ideal for Sieyes’ ideal ruler - November 9th 1799 >> ousted Directory and disbanded legislature at bayonet point - Napoleon becomes first consul of the republic and a new constitution was approved in December 1799 - Napoleon wanted to use his popularity to maintain order >> Civil Code of March 1804 (( Napoleonic Code )) which confirmed the principles of the 1789 Revolution. - Est. 1800: Bank of France - 1802 Napoleon grants amnesty to 100 thousand emigres - Napoleon and Pope Pius VII sign the Concordat of 1801 -Women lost rights / Free speech/press / harsh punishments/ gov’t spies
2. Expansion

   Annotations:

   • 1801 – Napoleon defeats Austria >> Treaty of Luneville >> gives up areas in Italy and Germany. 1802 – Britain agrees to Treaty of Amiens >> allowed France to be in control of Holland, Austria, and parts of Italy and Germany. 1805 – Mediterranean fleet destroyed by Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar 1805 – Austria, Britain, and Sweden form Third Coalition against France. 1805 – Austria and Russia are defeated in the Battle of Austerlitz by France 1806 – Napoleon abolished tiny German states and the Holy Roman Empire and est. German Confederation of the Rhine. 1806 – Napoleon wins at Jena and Auerstadt 1807 – Treaties of Tilsit >> Prussia & Russia
3. War and Defeat

   Annotations:

   • Grand Empire >> 3 parts: The Core(France), Dependent Satellite kingdoms, Independent but allied states of Austria, Prussia and Russia. Continental System >> a blockade where no ship coming from Britain or her colonies could dock at any port under French control >> goal: destroy Britain’s economy and military force. Some peasants and middle classes benefited from France’s incorporation, heavy taxes were levied which meant Napoleon was viewed more as a conquering tyrant, French rule sparked  patriotism and reactive nationalism. Revolt in Spain 1808 (pg 649). 1810 >> Britain still at war with France and helping guerilla warfare in Spain and Portugal. Continental System was a failure. France turned on Russia as a scapegoat >> 1811 openly repudiated British good blockade.  Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. (pg 651) Austria and Prussia join Russia and Britain in the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814 >> defeat Napoleon in 1814 when he abdicated his throne and was exiled to Elba as his own tiny state. Restoration of Louis XVIII >> issued the Constitutional Charter. Napoleon returns in 1815 and took command for a period known as the Hundred Days and was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815 and was imprisoned on the island of St. Helena.