2# Revolutionary Europe

Question 1

Which revolutions were before the French Revolution and what was their impact?

Answer 1

Glorious Revolution (England)
Abdication of Catholic king and replacement by Protestant king
The American Revolution
American independence from Great Britain

The impact was:
England: breach with tradition of »divine right to rule«
-> If no Roman Catholic could be king, then no kingship could be unconditional
USA: rights of representation and revolt against injustice

Question 2

What were the main reason for the French revolution?

Answer 2

Economics – Financial Bankruptcy
* Louis XIV (Sun King, everything goes around me ) mass expenditures – Palace of Versailles
* French campaign in support of the American Revolution
* Seven Year War (England/France): loss of many colonies
* Poor harvests, famine, and already harsh taxes and income inequalities

Politics: struggle with provincial parlaments
* Louis XVI: inherited struggle with provincial courts who held the right to appeal to the King’s edicts

DIRECT COUSE: The gamble of Louis XVI
- Proposes a »land tax« on all land-holders
- »Assembly of Notables« rejects the King’s proposal
* King attemts to bypass them; by calling to

Question 3

Tell me more about the Ancien Regime regarding economics?

Answer 3

• Rapid demographic growth, 1700 from 20mil to 25 to 28 mil
• 80% ppl lived on the country side, 20% in urban areas
• 75% of all production in agriculture, but low in productivity, labour intensive
• land, small estates
• 1780s famine struck due to poor harvest, harsh winters and floods = food shortage in citiesm a ban on food export

Question 4

Tell me more about the Ancien Regime regarding politics?

Answer 4

King ruled by divine right
* Some restrictions on King’s power via moral and divine laws, customs, principles of administration
* Decision-making with King’s council

Absolutist rule = absence of a constituion
* Precise codes and rules varied across regional courts (legal pluralism)

An intendancy system
* Great centralisation of power via system of provincial intendants (non-hereditary) – apointed by the King
* Supervision and enforcement of kings will
* Power over policing, financing, justice

Question 5

Explain more about the “parlament”

Answer 5

= provincial courts of appeal (judiciary power)

• Historical origin: Kings council
• Droit de remontrance: power to appeal to royal edicts
• From 15th century onwards: election of three deputies/town (a noble, an ecclesiastic, a burgess)
• 13 parlaments but very uneven districts
• Paris court approx. 1/3 of France + very critical of King’s edicts

= worked primarily for the benefit of the aristocracy -> aristocratic resistance to absolutist rule.

(manka nekaj)

Question 6

Which are the three estates?

Answer 6

Prayer: First estate = Catholic clergy
* All property (5-10% of the land) was tax exempted;only marginal taxes in specific cases

Military: Second estate = nobility
* Sheer monopoly over higher administrative, military functions, hihgher church offices, etc.
* Exempted from most taxes

WORK: Third estate = Commoners
* Great diversity: capitalist bourgeoisie (merchants, royal administration), skilled workers/craftsmen, city workers (servants, cooks, drivers, etc.), peasants
* 80% of the French population were farmers
* Tax duties (but often, exemptions for bourgeoisie)

Question 7

Tell me more about the Meeting of the Estates-General

Answer 7

• Widespread political participation: all male tax-payers over 25yrs are invited to elect their deputies
• 1 vote per estate
• The majority of the people is in flavour of the King
• Yet, the debate quickly turn to organization of the estates-general…and, in its wake, the source of sovereign power
• Sovereignty from “above”: King’s divine right to rule
• Sovereignty from “below”: popular sovereignty
• Discussion on fair representation within the estates-general:
  1.** Parliament of Paris decision: same organisation and proceedings as in 1614: vote by the estate: 2 to 1 logic
  2. »Doubling of the Third estate« as counterbalance**
• 610 deputies of the Third estate, 303 deputies fort he First estate, 291 deputies fort he Second Estate
  
  3. **Continued critique by the Third estate **
     -1st and 2nd estates want to convene in 3 separate meetings , 3rd estates does not accept »vote by estate« and wants a collective deliberation (a »people’s assembly)

Question 8

What were the different phases of the revolution?

Answer 8

**Moderate stage (1789-1792) **
- the 1791 Constitution was created, changing the title to “King of the French.”
- Church lands were sold to pay off debt, and the Roman Catholic Church’s authority was limited.
- Conflict arose between the moderate Girondins, who favored stability and economic liberalism, and the radical Montagnards, who sought ongoing reforms and supported the lower-class sans-culottes movement.

**Radical stage **
* tensions reached a peak, leading to the Reign of Terror.
* The Girondins were expelled or prosecuted, and Queen Marie Antoinette and other “royalists” were executed.
* Popular demands were addressed through measures like price controls and mass conscription.
* There was also an effort to de-Christianize society, and a new revolutionary calendar was introduced.
* The Reign of Terror saw thousands of death sentences without the right to a defense.

Directory period (1795-1799),
* a coup known as the Thermidorian reaction led to the removal of Maximilien Robespierre and the execution of his followers. T
* he surviving Girondins returned, shifting the government towards moderate republicanism.
* The Directory implemented voter restrictions, established two legislative councils, and had a 5-member executive.
* However, the Directory was ineffective and corrupt, leading to another coup in 1799, which installed a government of three consuls, including Napoleon Bonaparte.

Question 9

Explain to me the Napoleon phase

Answer 9

• First Consulate (1799-1805)
• Plebiscitary dictatorship: universal male suffrage but limited impact due to indirect voting (4 tier system)
• Control executive over Legislative chambers: appointed Senators, repressed opposition, legislation was initiative by Consulate
• Expansion and growing centralisation of public administration
  -Control over workers: workers’ passport/employment record
  -Public education (literacy, control over future political elites)

* French empire (1805-1815): Napoleon appointed, by referendum, as hereditary Emperor (May 1804):
- Treaty of Amiens (1802) brought peace but Napoleon failed to meet the provisions —–Napoleonic wars (1802-1814)
- Coalition of allied forces against France (“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”)
- Invasion of Russia in 1812 (retreat: 20.000 surviving soldiers of 375.000 army)
- Cost of Napoleontic wars: 7 million dead

Question 10

What were the main legacies of the French revolution?

Answer 10

• Economics
  -Private land ownership was facilitated by sale of Church lands
  -10% of land changed hands; but bourgeoisie profited most
  -Nobility still owned 20% of land (25% in 1789)
  -Liberalisation of market (custom barriers and guilds were abolished)
  -Yet, French economy remained largely pre-industrial
• Revolutionary wars slowed down industrialisation
• Continued to rely on labour-intensive methods of farming
• Politics
  1. Popular sovereignty
  -No longer divine justification of rule; but reason and justification
  -Popular sovereignty: government on a permanent quest for legitimacy

2. Creation of a public sphere
-Public education and growing literacy levels; creation of political organisations and clubs; rise of the press
-Enlightenment ideals (liberty, equality, meritocracy, sovereignty) are circulated to broader, non-elite audiences
- Political mobilisation of the working population

**3. Secularisation: process of separating church and government **
-Autonomy of the Church in religious matters; loyalty to the state in worldly matters (oath of clergy)
-Limitation of Church’s worldly powers; state subsidy

4. Nationalism
-La Marseilleise (“Chant de Guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin”, 1792); the tricolour “cockade”
-Louis XIV: no longer “King of France” but ”King of the French”
- Napoleonic wars and boundary re-making in Europe

5. Inequality
- Disenfranchisment of poorest men (not paying taxes) and women
- Women were granted important civil rights (right to inheritance); yet restoration of patriarchal authority under Napoleon and women’s clubs banned
- Olympe de Gouges: “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” (1791)