Chapter 21 Flashcards
Louis XV (r. 1715-1774)
Battled an aggressive nobility
Lettres de Cachet (could arrest w/o crime)
Seven Years War 1756-1763 (lost war, territories)
-“after me, the disaster”
The Old Regime
The 3 Estates
- First: Clergy
- Second: Nobles (robe and sword)
- Third: Everyone else (middle class, peasants)
((Monarchy, old Christian calendar))
Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) ‘s Problems
- Inflation
- The “Feudal Reaction” (going to increase taxes on peasants)
- War Debt (American Revolution, sent money/soldiers)
- Taxation System (corvée and the Taille)
- The Parlements (refused to allow increased taxes)
Corvée
Peasants obligation to work a certain number of days for the lord without pay
(Clergy, nobility don’t pay taxes)
Jacques Turgot (1727-1781)
Minister from 1774-1776
-opposed the corvée; thought they should be paid
Jacques Necker (1737-1804)
Finance Minister from 1777-1773 and 1788-1789
- relied on borrowing
- revealed extravagant royal spending
Loménie de Brienne (1727-1794)
Finance minister from 1787-1788
The Estates General (called in July 1788)…
-last met in 1614
The Problem of the Estates General
- The First and Second Estate always voted together
- The number of the third estate is doubled, they now have a numerical majority, but the majority is useless if they vote by order (Doubling of the Third)
Emmanuel Sieyes
‘What is the Third Estate?’ -pamphlet
- “Common Sense” of French Revolution
- middle class
- “third estate is everything”
Caheirs de Doléances
- Lists of complaints drawn up by each estate
- All estates proposed similar reforms
- could not be discussed until the voting method was settled
One vote for each estate
Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate walks out (June 17, 1789) -promise to themselves they won’t disband until a new government is formed (National Assembly)
-Members of the 1st and 2nd estate join the National Assembly
Storm of Bastille (Spark)
Parisians storm the Bastille (prison)
- king supposedly imprisoned people he didn’t like there for no reason; actually only 5 people inside that were bad people
- took weapon, risen up, revolution is inevitable
National Assembly abolishes….
Feudalism (August 4, 1789)
-don’t have power to do that….
The Great Fear (Late July, 1789)
- sweeps the countryside
- mobs of people in countryside storm the castles of their feudal lords; angry about taxes, corvée, being treated poorly
Women Riot in Paris
October 5-6, 1789
Women riot in Paris, March to Versailles
-Louis was at a Versailles; tell King and queen to come to Paris
Late 1789
Jacobin Clubs increase influence (radical)
- many moderates become émigrés (flee to another country)
- Constituent Assembly begins work on a new constitution (National Assembly who wrote constitution were called constituent assembly)
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)
“Refractory” vs. “Constitutional” Clergy
-Confiscation of church lands
Separates clergy, either going against revolution, or against church
-new calendar, de-christianizing, attacked foundation of French society
Constitutional supports revolution
Refractory does NOT support revolution
Assignots
Currency backed up by church land
-value plummeted from 1790-95
Émigrés (Reactionary -return to old days)
-Over 16,000 left France
-Mostly aristocrats
Counter (against revolution) revolutionaries
-Louis’ brother (count of Artois)
Louis’ flight to Varennes
June 20-25, 1791
-fleeing to Paris, trying to get to Austrian-Netherlands
Declaration of Pillnitz (August 1791)
Ferdinand II and Frederick William II threaten war
-only if England does too
A bluff intended to slow down the Revolution
Encouraged Revolution
September 1791: the Constitution of 1791 is completed
- call for changes, but not dramatic changes
- King will have less power; abide constitution
- constitutional (limited) monarchy
The Constitution of 1791
-Constitutional monarchy
-Legislative assembly
Less cautious, more revolutionary than National Assembly
Many were Jacobins (radical)
-Limited suffrage (not everyone can vote) -wealthy men-based on property/land
-Reorganized France
Olympe de Gouges
‘Declaration of the Rights of Women’
April 20, 1792: Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria and Prussia
Rise of the Girondists
-Revolution now became international
Represents the failure of the Constitution of 1791
Brunswick Manifesto
June 25, 1792
Ferdinand the II issues Brunswick Manifesto
-threatened to attack if any members of the royal family are harmed
August 10: Stormed Tuilleries Palace
- imprisoned King/queen
- begins RADICAL TAKEOVER
Maximilian Robespierre (1758-1794)
- the mind behind the radical phase
- educated as a lawyer
- deeply influenced by Enlightenment, Rosseau
- Began as an idealistic member of National Assembly
Jean-Paul Morat (1743-1793)
The main propagandist of the revolution
-anti-monarchy, anti-moderate
-published the newspaper “L’ami du People”
-murdered in his bath tub by Charlotte Corday
Became a martyr
Georges Danton (1759-1794)
- inspirational leader of the revolution
- executed during the terror, which he helped create
Why “Radical”?
- actions and attitudes of the King
- war with Austria, Prussia
- economic crisis
- fear of counterrevolution
- religious/political divisions
After the Tuilleries..
The Paris Commune is established
The Sans Culottes emerge (people w/o breeches, no socks up to knees, laboring/poor traders)
-ones who stormed the Bastille
-like mob
The September Massacres
- with support of commune
- take bourgeoisie and kill them
A New French Republic (September 20, 1792)
Constitution of 1791 abolished
The National Convention replaces the Legislative assembly
-it is more radical
-2 man fractions (Girondists, The Mountain)
-formally abolished monarchy on September 22, 1792
The Battle of Valmy (September 20, 1792)
-French Armies under General Dumoriez defeats the Austrians and Prussians
On January 15, 1793, who is executed?
Louis XVI
Girondists
- power before the provinces
- feared influence of Sans-Culottes
- feared the dominance of Paris in national politics
- supported more national government centralization (feudalism)
The Mountain
- power base in Paris
- main support from Sans-culottes
- would adopt extreme measures to achieve their goals
- saw Paris as center of Revolution
- more centralized (in Paris) approach to government
1793, end of Radical Takeover
January 1793: The Second Partition of Poland
February 1793: Britain, Soain and Netherlands join the war against France
April 1793: General Dumouriez defeats
April 1793: The Committee of Public Safety is formed
The Committee of Public Safety
Starts Reign of Terror when formed Kills people (anyone that doesn't support radicals (reactionaries))
Girondists Arrest and Expulsion…
in May-June 1793
Girondists = country folks that are apart of national convention
-many arrested
The levée en mass (August 1793)
-all able-bodied men into the army
By 1794: 800,000 men
The Uprising in the Vendée (Summer 1793)
- peasants revolted against conscription (draft onto army)
- Girondist inspired
Enragés
Jacques Hébert and the Hébertists
- Dechristianization (Fall, 1793)
- interested in de-christianizing France
New Laws, September 1793
Law of General Maximum- limited prices of grain and wages (against natural laws of economics)
- prices would be strictly enforced
- Hoarders rooted out and punished (farmers who hoarded until prices went up)
- food supplies would be secured by the army
Law of Suspects
-Anyone not expressing enthusiastic support for the republic could be placed under arrest
Revolutionary Tribunals
- people who were under law of suspects, usually found guilty
- neighbors accused each other, third estate mostly executed
- low execution rate for nobility (many fled)
Law of 22 Prairial (June 10, 1794)
Trials were now limited to deciding only on liberty OR death, defendants having no rights
- the law was so broadly written that almost anyone could fall within its definition
- 1,500 executed between June and July
The Festival of the Supreme Being
June, 1794
Made hill dedicated to new Saint
Deism
The Battle of Fleurus (June 1794)
France wins in Belgium
The Execution of Robespierre (July 28, 1794)
Robespierre was executing too many people, put him on trial (he couldn’t speak due to gunshot wound in mouth), executed him by guillotine
- “the revolution devours its own”
- marks the END of the Reign of Terror
The Thermidorian Reaction
Jacobin clubs closed Paris Commune outlawed Economic restrictions lifted Churches opened The "White Terror" (potential for monarchists to take revenge against the regicides) Sans Culottes lose influence Women lose rights
Threats to the Convention
The Insurrection of Prairial (Year 3, 1795)
- Paris mob attempted to overthrow convention
- the military is called into Paris
- 10,000 arrested or exiled
The Constitution of Year 3
The Directory
- neither democratic nor royalist; somewhere in between
- Bicameral -“2 houses” (Council of Elders, Council of 500)
- 5 Person executive
- two-third had to come from national convention
The “Whiff of Grapeshot”
Royalist uprising against Directory
- opposed the two-thirds law
- Napolean Bonaparte: called to stop threat
Louis XVII (count of Artois)
Declaration of Verona (1795) : bring monarchy back/execute regicides
-threatened to return the Old Regime
Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals (1796)
- Everyone should be treated as equals
- precursor to communism (equality for all)
- radical
The Coup d’état of Fructidor (September 1797)
“bloody revolution”
- elections of 1797 favored royalists and conservative
- original members of the directory threw out the election results
- depended on Napolean’s army for support
The Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797)
Peace treaty with Austria and Prussia
-solidified French gains in Italy and Belgium
Napoleon’s Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799)
Wanted Napoleon to defeat England in Egypt; loses to England
- he returns and tells France they won; decide to drop Directory, make Napoleon leader
- Government thinks they would be able to control him, but he had ideas of his own…
Edmund Burke
Reflects on Revolution
“revolution is unproductive”
The Continental system…
Was organized by Napoleon to exclude British Goods from France and its allies in an effort to bring down Britain
The Thermidorian Reaction was led by..
The middle class
Attributing to the financial crisis of the 1780s was the fact that France had no…
Central bank, paper currency, and means of creating credit
What group did not experience gains under Napoleon’s domestic reforms?
Women
The difference between the legislative assembly that convened in October 1791 and the disbanded National Assembly was that its members were…
Younger (Prosperous, well educated, middle class men, but were younger and less cautious than their predecessors
In April 1972, France…
Declared war on Francis II, the Hapsburg monarch
The bourgeoisie were..
Upper middle class
Planned economy
A planned created by Robespierre that involved the government in the economy
-the govt would set maximum allowable prices for key products instead of letting supply and demand determine prices
Second Revolution
A phase when the fall of French monarchy marked a rapid radicalization of the Revolution
