Fr Rev Flashcards
Causes of the American Revolution
After French and Indian war, British want taxes from colonists. Colonists think not represented in parliament so shouldn’t have to pay
Colonists declared independence
British attack
Constitutional convention
1787, delegates created new constitution, central government strong, three branches, checks and balances, president, bicameral legislature, bill of rights, guaranteed freedoms, rights derived from natural rights philosophy, American Revolution embodiment of enlightenment political dreams
Lafayette
Aristocrat, fought in American Revolution, returned to France with ideas of individual liberties, republicanism, popular sovereignty
Society of thirty
Club composed of people from Paris salons, lovers of liberty, influential in early stages of French revolution
Impact of American Revolution
Portended era of significant changes, new international politics, proved liberal political ideas of enlightenment could work, social contract, etc, new and better world could be achieved, American constitution influenced declaration of rights of man and the citizen, far less important to Europe than the French Revolution
Three estates
First estate: clergy, owned 10% of land, exempt from taille (tax), radically divided
Second estate: nobility, owned 25-30% of land, held leading positions, controlled heavy industry
Nobles of the robe: status derived from officeholding, dominated law courts and admin offices
Nobles of the sword: descendants of original medieval nobility
Nobles want to maintain control over land, less monarchy power
Third estate: commoners, majority of French society, very divided, peasants largest segment of third estate, relics of feudalism. Also wage earners in cities, decline in purchasing power, food prices rose a ton, economic discontent
8% bourgeoisie, middle class, benefited from economic prosperity, purchase land, excluded from noble privileges, resentments of middle class part of cause of French Revolution, distance, entered nobility
Oppose old order (old and rigid social order limiting them from moving up in society)
Ségur law
Attempted to limit the sale of military officerships to fourth-generation nobles (excluded new members of the nobility)
Problems facing French monarchy on eve of revolution
Ideas of the philosophes Failure to make reforms Financial crisis Collapse of government finances Government huge, growing debt, King continue to spend on wars and extravagance, borrowed money, poor tax policy, no central bank, lenders stopped lending, parlement son help because think would cause higher taxes, government call estates general because on verge of financial collapse
Estates general
Representatives from all estates, some want vote by order, some want vote by head, opened 1789, at the time most delegates wanted to make changes with respect for the authority of the king
June 1789 third estate voted to constitute itself a National Assembly, draw up constitution, locked out, moved to tennis court
Cahiers de doléances
Statements of local grievances, drafted throughout France during elections to estates general, advocated regular constitutional government that would abolish the fiscal privileges of the church and nobility as the major way to regenerate the country
Abbe sieyes
Representative in estates general, issued pamphlet about how third estate wanted to become something,
Tennis court oath
National Assembly moved here after locked out, made oath to continue to meet until had created a French constitution, first step in French Revolution because had no legal right to act as National Assembly
Storming the Bastille
Common people responded in series of rural and urban uprisings to save third estate from King, used name of third estate to wage war on rich, most famous urban uprising was fall of Bastille. Parisian leaders formed permanent committee to keep order, organized popular force to capture invalides (Royal armory), attacked Bastille on July 14 (another royal armory), Bastille surrendered, symbol of popular triumph over despotism
National guard
Lafayette commander, citizens’ militia
The great fear
Vast panic, spread like wildfire through France, fear of invasion by foreign troops, aided by a supposed aristocratic plot, encouraged formation of more citizens’ militias and permanent committees
Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen
Charter of basic liberties, reflected ideas of major philosophes, American constitution, destroyed aristocratic privileges, monarchy restricted, didn’t consider women, de gouges wrote declaration saying women equal
Women’s March
Louis and family at Versailles, crowds of Parisian women marched to Versailles to confront King and National Assembly, forced King and family to move to Paris, brought flour, King accepted National Assembly’s decrees
Civil constitution of the clergy
Catholic Church imprinting pillar of old order, 1790 civil constitution of the clergy, Catholic bishops and priests elected by people and paid by state, all clergy required to swear oath of allegiance to civil constitution, pope forbade it, almost half refused, Catholic Church became enemy of Revolution, gave counterrevolution popular base from which to operate
Assignats
Form of paper money, issued based on the collateral of the newly nationalized church property
Constitution of 1791
Established a limited constitutional monarchy, new legislative assembly, indirect system of election that preserved power in the hands of affluent people, divided France into 83 departments
Opposition to the revolution
From clerics who opposed the civil constitution of the clergy, lower classes hurt by rise in cost of living (from inflation of assignats), peasants, political clubs.
Declaration of Pillnitz
Leopold II of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia issued 1791, invited other European monarchs to help Louis, but couldn’t work together, French declare war on Austria 1792, defeats, groups attack, 1792 King taken captive, forced legislative assembly to suspend monarchy and call for national convention, about to enter more radical stage
Sans-culottes
Ordinary patriots without fine clothes
Girondists/girondes
Represented provinces, feared radical mobs in Paris, wanted to keep King alive
Mountain
Represented city, middle class, wanted to kill King, won 1793 King killed, destruction of old regime complete
Jacobins
First emerged as gathering of more radical deputies at beginning of Revolution, served mainly as discussion groups, extensive correspondence network, huge number of clubs, wanted more radical solutions to the nation’s problems
Committee of public safety
Foreign crises, French could be invaded, national convention adopted program of curbing anarchy and counterrevolution at home, mobilizing people. To administer government gave broad powers to committee of public safety, dominated initially by Danton, decreed universal mobilization of nation on 1793, nation in arms, reign of terror, sent representatives as agents of central government to all departments to explain war emergency measures and to implement laws dealing with wartime emergency, tried to provide economic controls, requisition food supplies, Law of General Maximum established price controls on goods declared of first necessity, didn’t work very well, law of 14 frimaire 1793, sought to centralize administration and exercise greater control in order to check excesses of reign of terror, 1794 turned back on radical supporters, turned Paris commune into docile tool, alienated important group
Reign of terror
Committee of public safety instituted this, revolutionary courts organized to protect republic from internal enemies, lots of victims, royalists, former revolutionary Girondists, peasants, huge number of people killed, little class prejudice
