BOOK: ANALYZING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION PART 1 Flashcards
1
Q
ATFR: THE POLITICAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
- Abolsute monarchy (Personal authority)
= A political system…
= Rules personally…
= The King’s personal…
= By a network of…
A
- Absolute monarchy: A political system in which the monarch rules personally, without being accountable to an elected parliament
- The King’s personal authority controlled provincial France by a network of royal governors (intendants)
2
Q
ATFR: WHAT WERE THE ELEMENTS THAT MADE UP THE KING’S AUTHORITY
- The political theory of absolute monarchy
= Basis of…
= Image of…
= Definition of real power…
* The theory of rule by divine right = Reinforced by... = Received his power directly... = Ruled by... = To criticize the King...
A
- Theoretical basis of authority
- About the King as an absolute ruler
- An image of royal power
- The definition of real power was contained in assorted documents = The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom
- Reinforced by religious belief
- Received his power directly from God and was considered infallible. The King ruled by ‘divine right’
- To criticize the King was to criticize God
3
Q
ATFR: THE POLITICAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
- Limits to the King’s power
= Arbitrary power / despotism = when a king has…
= Expected to obey the nation’s…
= Ruled by… - The contradictions and inefficiencies of the monarchy
= A number of…
= Religious or legal matters…
A
- Distinguished between absolute power and ARTBITARY POWER or DESPOTISM
Note: Arbitrary power/or despotism: When a King has ruled badly without respect for existing laws - Expected to obey the nation’s traditions and laws
- The King ruled beside existing provincial assemblies
- A number of overlapping systems, many of them competing with one another
- Religious or legal matters = depended entirely upon where a person lived and which set of systems was in force there.
4
Q
ATFR: THE POLITICAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
*The importance of public perceptions of the King
- Public belief in the King’s competence
= King’s absolute political…
= Sun…
= Versailles - a subtle of all… - Public belief in the royal dynasty
= The weight of continuity - Public belief in benevolence
= The belief of royal…reinforced by the belief that the…
= Assumed to protect his…
A
- King’s absolute political authority was supplemented by public perception
- Created the title academy = creating a coherent set of representations of the King = Glorify the all powerful ‘Sun King’
- Versailles: a symbol of all that was wrong with he old regime
- Reinforces the weight of continuity and tradition
- Note: Dynasty: A sequence of monarchs going back hundreds of years
- The belief of royal legitimacy was reinforced by the BELIEF that the King was ‘father’ and protecter of his people. Assumed to protect his subjects’ welfare
5
Q
ATFR: THE SOCIAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
* The corporate society and privilege = Was a corporate society.... = ...Can be honorific... = Privileges can be... = ... significant concession were... = Rights depended...
* The culture of deference: respect for your 'betters' = A social and psychological... = Clergy's role... = Nobility's role... = Commoner's role...
A
- France of the old regime was a corporate society = made up of a number of powerful groups, each enjoying its own special customs, laws and privileges
- Privileges can be HONORIFIC (e.g. A noble’s right to wear a sword in public)
- Privileges can be LEGAL CONCESSIONS (e.g. privileges relating to the law)
- Most significant concessions were FISCAL CONCESSIONS (e.g. Privileges relating to taxes
- Your rights depended on the group you belonged to
- A social and psychological quality: People accepted that the rich and the powerful were superior
- Paid respect to the privileged
- estate: Old-fashioned system of social classification
= Clergy’s role was to pray (1)
= Nobility’s role was to fight (2)
= Commoner’s role was to grow food and provide soldiers for armies (3)
6
Q
ATFR: THE SOCIAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
- The three estates
= Task… and to keep…
= Fight for…
= Primarily…
= Carry the…
A
FIRST
- All the clergy from the wealthy bishops and archbishops and humble priests. TASK: to pray and to keep the kingdom free of evil influences
SECOND
- Fight for their king
- maintain sufficient equipment and soldiers
THIRD
- Primarily the peasants
- The third estate existed to carry the FIRST and SECOND estates
7
Q
ATFR: THE SOCIAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
- The two privileged estates
- The nobility
= The king allowed wealthy bourgeois to BUY positions in the royal bureaucracy that carried a NOBLE TITLE - The Third estate
- The bourgeois
- Living mainly in the capital (PARIS) and in large cities: Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse
A
FIRST estate = numbered only 0.6 per cent of the population
- Catholic Church owned only 10 per cent of the land
- The church was wealthy enjoying a special right to apply the TITHE tax
SECOND estate = numbered only 0.4 per cent of the population
- Had enormous wealth, owned 30 per cent of the land and controlled most of the important public positions
- Enjoyed tax exemptions as well
- Nobility = nobility of the sword (noblesse d’ pee
- Nobility = nobility of the robe (noblesse de robe
- Ranging from the poor, peasants, urban workers, artisans, shopkeepers, middle class professionals, bourgeois landowners, etc.
- A wealthy group who lived in towns, owned property and engaged in trade, industry or the professions
8
Q
ATFR: THE SOCIAL ORDER IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
- The bourgeoise make their fortune
- Working people in cities
- The peasants
- FEUDAL DUES: Extra payments of money, food, or labour to the nobles
A
- The greatest aim was to become NOBLE
- Vivre noblement = Living off investments like noble
- Venal public office = The legal purchase of public office, often with a noble title attached
- 2 million people worked in cities and towns in artisan trades, etc.
- About 500,000 workers in Paris . many could read and were intelligently interested in radical ideas
- Subjected to the crushing weight of extra payments (TITHE to the church and a range of FEUDAL DUES to the nobles
9
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- Historian’s point of view: Did the Enlightenment help create a revolutionary situation in France?
- Edmund Burke
- Hampson = Enlightenment was the main cause of the revolution
Subversive = Overthrow a government or other institutions
Ferment = Stir up somebody or something
A
- Caused by changes in public thinking created by the intellectual movement
- Europe-wide movement, expressed in the works of French writer
- Montesquieu
- Voltaire
- Diderot
- Condorcet
- Rousseau
- Philosophie = The system of ideas. Create a more humane world
- Saw themselves as anti-philosophers
- Denis DIDEROT = their attack on the Catholic Church’s authority weakened the old regime
10
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- The main strands of Enlightenment thought
- Teaching techniques of social criticisms
- The role of women in the Enlightenment
- Teaching faith in progress and human perfectibility
- Criticism of the wealth and privilege of the church
- Religious orthodoxy = The idea that one religion can be declared ‘right’ and all other religions ‘wrong’
= Nothing could be…
= Salon: a formal…
= It was the main…
= Give people the optimism…
= Attacked the church’s…
= People were not…
A
- Taught that nothing should be unquestionable
- taught them how to question
- SALON: a formal social gathering in the home of a wealthy noble or bourgeois woman
- Main way Enlightenment ideas spread and inspired brilliant minds across Europe.
- Give people the optimism and confidence to believe that human society could be improved
- Attacked the church’s inequalities. Attacked the idea of original sin, claiming that humanity could not be affected by Adam and Eve’s sin.
- People were not born evil but rather become good or evil, depending on how they were treated
- Rejected religious orthodoxy and condemned religious intolerance
11
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- Varied political beliefs
= Never shared united…
= Attacked divine…
= Accepted…
A
- Philosophies never shared united political ideology.
- Attacked divine monarchy (Called it tyranny)
- Accepted enlightened despotism
12
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- New political ideas: Montesquieu
= Spirit of…
= … ensure that everybody had personal security…
= An end to…
A
- Member of the Parlament
- Spirit of the Laws (1748): France should have a constitution and that civil liberties should be guaranteed to ensure that everybody had personal security
- Demanded an end to slavery
- The three arms should be separate and independent from each other
- Legislature (parliament)
- The executive (ministerial government)
- Judiciary (legal system)
13
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- Praising England, criticizing France: Voltaire
= Very dangerous to be…
= Taught his contemporaries to think…
= Letter 9….
= the cup of… “ “
A
- “It is very dangerous to be right when those in power are wrong”
- Taught his contemporaries to think independently about the society in which they lived
- Letter 9 = Made his contemporaries think, causing them to question what they accepted as normal
- The Cup of Hot Chocolate. Voltaire’s response: “Where does the sugar come from?”
14
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- A theorist of popular sovereignty: Rousseau
= The social contract
= Duty to…
= He has a…
A
- The Social Contract (1762) = Explained that there is a ‘contract’ (agreement) between a ruler and his people
- Duty to obey him
- He has a duty to look after their welfare
15
Q
ATFR: SIGNIFICANT IDEAS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
- The key idea of representation: Diderot and d’Holbach
= …. Representation
= … Need to have a passionately…
A
- The most important Enlightenment political ideas was REPRESENTATION
Note: Representation = cannot be expected to obey laws for which they have not voted - America: “No taxation. without representation”. French thinkers quickly adopted this idea. Wrote passionately about the need to have a representative body - A parliament - that could vote on new taxes.
