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The French Revolution > Causes of the French Revolution (AOS 1) > Flashcards

Causes of the French Revolution (AOS 1) Flashcards

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1
Q

Outline the ‘traditional laws’ that ruled France in 1774 (before the revolution/ancien regime)

A

Absolute monarchy: traditional understanding that the monarchy holds supreme autocratic authority

Divine right: the French king received his power directly from God, to criticise the king was to criticise God (France was devout Christians)

Competence: common assumption that the king was capable of ruling competently because he was the king

Royal dynasty: each successive monarch is strengthened by dynastic prestige

Benevolence: the king is the father of the people

Dignity and majesty: the King is above the common people

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2
Q

Who made up the First Estate?

A

The catholic church– wielded considerable power ideologically and politically (incredible wealth)
5% of the population
DID NOT PAY TAX

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3
Q

Who made up the second estate?

A

The nobility of France

  • nobles earned titles through military, venally, court officials
  • stereotyped as lazy and leisure loving
  • 1.5% of the population
  • Provincial nobles less wealthy
  • Exempt from tax
  • Honorific privilege
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4
Q

Who made up the third estate?

A
  • 98% of the population
    • rural peasantry made up majority of the 3rd estate
    • urban workers
  • both extremely poor and taxed excessively
  • bourgeoisie were successful and wealthy business owners
  • paid tax
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5
Q

What was the French economy like under Ancien Regime?

A
  • Throughout the 18th century the French monarchy had spent more than it had earnt
  • France’s imperial growth throughout the 1600s generated tension and conflict with Britain
  • National army expanded
  • Military campaign’s costed France alot!!!!!
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6
Q

Three words to describe the taxation system of the ancien regime and explain why

A

excessive, inefficient, unfair

  • highest taxed nation in europe
  • taxation was carried out by private contractors (led to corruption)
  • bulk taxed placed on third estate
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7
Q

Direct taxes…

A

THE TAILLE: intended to pay military spending
CAPITATION: levied on every adult
VINGTIEME: income tax

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8
Q

Indirect taxes…

A

GABIELLE: salt tax

DUTIES & EXERCISES: import taxes

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9
Q

Tithe to catholic church…

A
  • levied by catholic church on 3rd estate

- 10% of the income

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10
Q

Feudal dues…

A

Required peasents to pay seigneur if they occupied land

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11
Q

What highlighted the need for reform/ raised tensions?

A
  • economic situation facing France in the mid 18th century

the American war for independence from 1776 saw France contribute more than 1 billion livres to the Americans

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12
Q

When was Jacques Necker appointed and what significant actions were made by him?

A

Louis appointed Necker as the director of treasury in October 1776 and was replaced by de Fleury in 1781

  • borrowed 250 million livres to finance the American war
  • in February 1781 Necker published the “compete de rendu” the first accounts ever of France’s economic situation.

Necker hid the true nature of France’s financial state and created the impression of surplus.
His aim was to encourage creditors to lend more.
His reputation for financial management grew.

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13
Q

When did Alexander de Calonne come into the position of controller of finances and what significant actions were made?

A
  • came into the position in 1783
  • borrowed 653 million livres with France now facing bankruptcy
  • In August of 1786 Calonne presented the “plan for improvement of finances” to Louis. He proposed that the 3 vingtiemes be removed and tax privileges be abolished with all land owners to pay in a new direct tax. Thus the tax burden of the third estate be removed.
  • Calonne also attempted to stimulate trade within France by abolishing internal tax barriers
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14
Q

What was the Assembly of Notables?

A
  • an advisory council summoned by Louis during the economic crisis of the 1780’s
  • comprised of significant figures from the first and second estates
  • the king hoped notables would endorse the tax reforms but instead they recommended the convocation of the estates general
  • notables did not respond well to the reforms because it eliminated their privileges as Calonne’s new tax on land (based on the landowners holding’s value) did not excuse the first and second estate
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15
Q

What was the aristocratic revolt?

A
  • whilst the nobles and clergy declared themselves to be in favour of tax reform, they refused to approve tax without knowing the state of France’s finances
  • Calonne published the debt of France which infuriated the King leading to his dismissal
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16
Q

When was Calonne dismissed and who replaced him?

A

April 1787

- was replaced with Brienne

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17
Q

What were some of Brienne’s attempts of reform?

A
  • presented a land tax on the privileged orders and called for increased taxation contributions from the church HOWEVER the parliaments nor the notables would endorse a new land tax or any changes to noble privileges
  • Brienne presented his tax reforms to the Paris Parliaments, the bills were rejected as they argued that only the nation possessed the right to determine the need for tax reform (estates general)
18
Q

How did Louis try to assert his power when the Parliament of Paris refused to accept Brienne’s proposed tax reforms?

A
  • Louis attempted to assert his power through a lit de justice but it was declared invalid therefore the Parliament of Paris was exiled
19
Q

When was ‘the day of the tiles’ movement and what was it?

A
  • June 1788
  • Louis had issued letter de cachets which ordered the arrest of Magistrates
  • In June, crowds in Paris showered tiles on soldiers who had come to arrest magistrates.
    “signifies breakdown of royal authority”- Simon Schama
20
Q

Outline the harvest crisis of 1788/1789

A

Severe thunderstorms destroyed much of France’s agricultural land
- a bitter winter in 1788 and 1789 escalated the prices of bread, with many peasantry becoming discontent with the dire economic system

21
Q

When did Louis announce the calling of the Estates General?

A

On the 8th of August 1788

- Brienne resigned and Necker was reinstated

22
Q

Outline Abbe Sieye’s “what is the third estate?” and the significance of the pamphlet.

A
  • January 1789
  • the pamphlet challenged old order of the estates and the system of privilege. His statements were a call to revolution and made the people “more radical” according to William Doyle
  • asked for political representation and personal liberties
23
Q

What were ‘cahiers de doleances’? What did some ask for?

A
  • The Cahiers de doléances were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between March and April 1789
  • created to guide the deputies to advise the king
  • Some were more conservative asking for “abuses to be reformed” while others were more radical stating that “all men are equal in rights”
    COMMON TRENDS:
  • all estates accepted the principle of constitutional reform and welcomed a more representative government
  • peasants and urban workers were concerned about the disproportionate and rising levels of taxations
24
Q

Outline the events of the Estates General (before the tennis court oath)

A
  • May 5th; first day of the estates general; Louis failed to lead them into a program of reform; no plans or policies emerged
  • the issue of voting had not been settled; third estate still had less voting power
  • Sieyes proposed that the estates general sit as one body which would give the third estate more voting power
25
Q

What was the tennis court oath?

A
  • on the 20th of June 1789; the third estate found the meeting place they’d normally discuss in had been locked
  • they moved to a nearby tennis court and pledged to develop a new constitution for the nation; naming themselves the ‘national assembly’
  • “the bourgeoisie, the leading element of the third estate, now took over”- Albert Soboul
26
Q

When was the Royal Session and what occurred?

A
  • 23rd of June
  • Louis announced that the decision to form a national assembly was annulled
  • all feudal dues were to be left in tact
  • the new national assembly rejected royal authority and confirmed the tennis court oath
  • liberal nobles such as Marquis de Lafayette and the Duc d’orleans joined national assembly
27
Q

What were the reveillon riots?

A
  • On the 23rd of April
  • wallpaper manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon was speaking at his electoral assembly and argued that bread prices should be reduced
  • this was misunderstood as being a plan to reduce wages
  • angry protestors stormed Reveillon’s home destroying everything there
  • this had been the first spectacle of extreme crowd violence
28
Q

What was Louis’ response to growing disorder in Paris around the time of the Reveillon riots?

A
  • louis stationed 18000 troops around the city to ‘protect paris from disorder’
  • the National Assembly saw it as “preparations for war”
29
Q

When was Necker dismissed? What was significant about it?

A
  • on the 11th of July 1789, Necker was dismissed because Louis saw him as too sympathetic to the people
  • In Paris frenzied crowds of people spilled onto the streets
  • Necker’s dismissal brought several crowds calling for action
30
Q

Explain ‘The Fall of Bastille’.

A
  • 14th of July 1789
  • a Parisian mob broke down the gates of the Bastille prison (the prison was a symbol of royal authority)
  • royal troops in the Bastille panicked and opened fire killing aprox. 100
  • Marquis de Launey surrendered and was led to the town hall for a legal trial but the crowd executed him on the spot and his severed head was then paraded
31
Q

Why was the fall of the Bastille significant?

A
  • the first time the crowd has taken agency, protecting the work of the National Assembly from the destruction of the King
  • the crowd realised the power they had when they came together
32
Q

What were the consequences of ‘the fall of the Bastille’?

A
  • Paris commune was established led by Jean Slyvain Bailly
  • National guard was established to protect Paris
  • Louis VXI accepted the revolutionary cockade and the constitutional monarchy of France was born
33
Q

what was the rural revolt/ the Great Fear

A

The great fear is when the peasantry challenged the Ancien Regime with a wave of insurrection which demonstrated that peasants wanted to end seigneurial rights

  • was a wave of peasant riots and violence that swept through France in July and August 1789. These riots were sparked by economic concerns, rural panic and the power of rumour.
  • small militias began to form as peasents armed themselves
34
Q

What was the night of patriotic delirium?

A

on the 4th of August deputies of the second estate rose and renounced their honorific privileges
- the principle of equal taxation was accepted

35
Q

What were the August decrees?

A

Six days after the events of August 4th, the draft legislation was presented to the Assembly;

  • Abolition of feudal regime in its entirety
  • Seigneurial courts abolished
  • Tithes are abolished
  • Justice is administered without charge
  • all citizens are eligible for office
36
Q

Why were the August decree’s significant?

A
  • signalled that the old regime was gone and in its place was a new France
  • power was now in the hands of the national assembly
  • the national assembly were not committed to continuing the revolution
  • Robespierre declared “the revolution is finished”
37
Q

What was the ‘ Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’ (DORMAC)?

A
  • became the foundation of the new society

- a written expression of the natural rights of citizens in revolutionary France.

38
Q

What were the main ideas in DORMAC?

A
  • men are born free and remain free - Rousseau’s social contract
  • liberty
  • taxation to be equal
  • nation is sovereign
  • Equality and utility
  • King was given suspensive veto
  • King had lost a considerable amount of power
39
Q

What were the main points in ‘The Fundamental principles of Government’?

A

passed on the 1st of October 1789

  • all powers came from the nation
  • there is no authority in France superior to the law
  • the role of the king is sacred
  • legislative power lay with national assembly
  • Laws must be made by representatives of the nation

this meant that the king was no longer the supreme power as the national assembly was given both legislative and financial power

40
Q

What were ‘the October days’?

A
  • Louis had been withholding consent for the August decrees and DORMAC which made people suspicious of his acceptance of the revolution
  • This lead to the belief that Louis was going to move against the revolution
  • Crowds were furious and a response of outrage was anticipated
41
Q

Explain the ‘Women’s march on Versailles’.

A

On the 5th of October, 30,000 women set out to march on Versailles

  • the march signified a shift of power as the royal family were forced back to Paris
  • the declaration of martial law was enacted to end popular violence
  • Significant event as it changed the dynamic of the revolution

The French Revolution (3 decks)

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