Actions of Rural Peasants August 1788 - August 1789 Flashcards
What happened to municipal coorperations?
Overthrown with force in most towns e.g. Lille, Rouen and Lyon
Citizens’ militias set up
What are some examples of disorder in the countryside?
Peasants…
- attacked houses of magistrates and royal officials forcing them to flee
- refused to pay taxes
- attacked landlords’ chateaux
- armed themselves
- rang church bells as a warning
- burnt down hedges, fences and barns
- destroyed their masters’ terriers and titres de notes
- grain stores looted
Thanks to rural peasants’ actions, what was set up and why?
National Guard units to maintain a “citizens’ authority”
What was an economic factor that drove the Great Fear?
1788 poor harvest and a bad Winter
1789 Spring drought
What was a long term political factor that drove the Great Fear?
Peasants in the countryside believed cahiers de doleances meant that the King intended to act on and cared about their issues
What was a consequence of uprisings in Paris?
Uprisings in Normandy and Franche
What rumours spread initiating “La Grande Peur” (20th July - 6th August 1789)?
- Stories of brigands (in a league with nobles) stealing grain from fields and preparing to attack = fear of famine
- This suggested nobles were coming back from abroad with foreign armies to wreak vengeance on peasants
Why were the rumours an issue?
Grain merchants and landlords were making a profit out of scarce grain supplies so it seemed only. right for peasants to attack grain convoys
3 things to note about the Great Fear (20th July - 6th August 1789)
1) Spread through most of but not all of France (Alsace-Lorraine and Brittany remained unaffected)
2) In some places, all of the community uprose not just the peasants
3) Remarkably little blood was shed as landowners/agents were only killed if they resisted
