French rev - The revolution to the directory Flashcards
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Absolute monarchy
Can dismiss, imprison, execute but could not arbitrarily rule without suffecient funds
‘I am the state’
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Constitutional monarchy
Must listen to other branches of power - National Assembly are where decisions are made and king is the figurehead
They respect the law and cannot impose their own will regardless of it
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Points from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and significance
- The declaration of principles on which a new constitution was going to be based - regarded as an inspiration to liberals in Europe around the 19th century
- William Doyle said ‘the movement’s first great manifesto’
- All men are born free and equal and power/sov rests with the people
- Instantly abolished absolute monarchy and is vastly progresive - equality in tax system and property owning
What principles underlay the new political system
- Uniformity
- Decentralised power
- Representation
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Political and administrative reform with the new republic - good
- Divided into 83 departments, subdivided into 547 districts
- Active citizens who pay tax have the right to vote and those who paid 10 days lab - elected members of departments and those who paid 54 - deputy in Nat Assembly (passive the opposite)
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Political and administrative reform with the new republic - bad
- Not democratic - heavily favoured for the wealthy because the deputies could pauy the silver mark - 1790 no government officials at local level: elected councils had replaced them completely
- 61% of frenchmen in elections
- Too much work and legal duties, impossible to fill councils with men who could read and write to duties, catholic areas disliked priests who refused to take oath of loyalty
Reform of the economy/financial systems with the new republic good
- Indirect taxes, state monopoly and old direct taxes were abolished - good in theory, bad practically - introduced ‘contribution fonciere’ - land tax no special priv, ‘contribution mobiliere’ - tax on movable goods like grain
- Sale of church land - provide money for state, guarantee success in rev - those who bought land would be invested against the ancien regime, get the clergy to support (assignants)
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Reforms to the legal system under the new republic good
- A new uniform system was created and letter de cachet, parlement and church courts were abolished
- Each district would have a justice of the peace, who could judge minor cases - more serious cases would be tried at the district court, judge decided by jury, each department would have criminal court where most serious cases tried
- Slavery abolished
- Punishment more humane - torture and mutiliation abolished, guillotine introduced - effecient
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Aims of the Constituent Assembly for the Church
- Free from abuses such as absenteeism and plurality
- Free from foreign (papal control) - independent of force
- Democratic
- Linked to the new system of local gov - primarily department
- Linked more closely to the state in order to strengthen the gov
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Reforms from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy - schism 1 - religious change
- Abolition of the tithe
- Bishoprics were reduced from 135 to 83
- Monasteries that which did not work in the communities were closed
- Toleration of Jews and Protestants
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Mixed reaction from the church from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
- Clergy proposed a National synod to discuss the issues but the Assembly refused to permit them - assembly grew impatient and demanded an oath of loyalty to the new constitution in November 1790
- It was this ultimatum that was to prove damaging both to the church and the Revolution itself
Furious priest quote
‘I will continue to ignore in religious matters all those who took the oath to the Civil Constitution of the clergy’
2 quotes to show the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a major turning point in the development of the Revolution
- ‘Half the adult population (and the great majority of women) rejected revolution’ - Nigel Aston
- ‘Bringing an end the period of national unity’ - D.G Wright
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The Constituent Assembly reforms France 1789-1791
- The phase of the Revolution that attempts to build post-feudal France
- The reform programme set in place was widing range and imbued with enlightenment ideology, but it was also a period that started to see the rise of republicanism and schisms in french society
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The constitution and the new Legislative Assembly
- King’s title was not ‘King of France’ but ‘King of the French’ with annual grant of 25M for expenses - forbidden to levy forces against the constitution or leave his country
- King woud choose cabinet and ministers, had the right to veto any measure for 5 years, must take an oath to the constitution, single, elected legislative Assembly would have the rights to propose and pass laws, raise taxes and determine the size and composition of armed forces
- No existing member of the National Constituent Assembly could be a member of the new legislative assembly - nobody in governing was experienced
- No hereditary titles, no tax privileges, natural rights to which the government must expect
- Marie Antoinette described it as ‘so monstrous that it cannot survive for long’
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The rise of political clubs - Robespierre
- Arguably most influential - ‘the incorruptable’ but also given ‘dictateur sanguine’
- Wanted a republic of virtue, inspired by Rousseau and enlightenment and opposed to death penalty
- 1788 criticised the current mode of election and called for fairer rep - elected to Estates General as deputy for 3rd estate, then National Constitutent Assembly, then leader of the Jacobin club
- Supported democratic reform, violence against his enemies, critical of the monarchy and supported the execution of the king - people questioned the excess of this violence and he was executed in 1794
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The rise of political clubs - Danton
- From the bourgeois class but came to represent the view of the sans culottes
- Leader of the Cordelier club, believed in popular sov, criticised monarchy but disliked the extremes of the terror
- Executed in 1794 - accused of financial misconduct - ‘show my head to the people; its well worth seeing
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The rise of political clubs - Marat
- Became the spokesperson for the more radical sections of society
- Wrote essays on behalf of the third estate and pressed for social and political reforms in their names - idol for the sans culottes
- ‘L’ami de Peuple’ - his newspaper where he attacked those in power like Lafayette, Necker
- Elected to the National Convention in 1792 and used his position to support the Terror, demanding ‘blood and heads’ to defend the Revolution. Murdered in bath by Girodin supporter - Charlotte Corday
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Jacobins - background, key figures, membership, ideas/beliefs
The Jacobins were a radical political group during the French Revolution, advocating for republicanism and the abolition of monarchy, with key figures including Maximilien Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, and Georges Danton, and their membership primarily consisted of politically active revolutionaries and intellectuals.
Their ideology was based on the combination of Enlightenment thought and revolutionary practice - they rejected the notion of monarchy and wanted a centralised government
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Cordeliers - background, key figures, membership, ideas/beliefs
The Cordeliers were a radical political club during the French Revolution, advocating for universal suffrage and direct democracy, with key figures including Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Jean-Paul Marat, and their membership was composed of working-class citizens, artisans, and revolutionary activists.
They had a highly radical agenda of wanting direct democracy and the right of insurrection; linked much to the Rousseau’s general will and the social contract
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Feuillants - background, key figures, membership, ideas/beliefs
The Feuillants were a moderate political club during the French Revolution, supporting a constitutional monarchy and gradual reform, with key figures including Antoine Barnave, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, and Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud, and their membership consisted mainly of former liberals from the National Assembly and moderate revolutionaries.
Initially radical but they were ultimately conservative and sided with the idea of a constitutional monarchy
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The flight to Varennes - June 1791 - schism 2
- The first schism: the oath that was forced upon the clergy created a divide that cut through the whole of France and ushered in ‘counter-revolutionaries’ - the second schism created a new fissure; those who wanted to keep a constitutional monarchy versus those who wanted a republic
- Pope’s refusal to accept the civil constitution of the clergy - Louis was a devout man worried of hell and felt restricted by the Constituent Assembly
- Plan was to escape to Montmedy disguised as servants on the Luxembroug border and to put himself under protection of a military commander - royal family would negotiate his return with the constituent assembly
Quote from the king’s declarattion to leave Paris, 20th June 1791
‘But now, considering that the sole recompense for so many sacrifices is to behold the destruction of the monarchy, authority flouted, the sanctity of property violated, the safety of citizen everywhere endangered’
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Champs de Mars massacre
- Radicals (Jacobins and Cordeliers) were furious that the king was not immediately dethroned or put on a trial - anger was directed at the Constituent assembly which they claimed no longer represented the people
- June 1791 - 50K people went to sign a republican petition - the commune under pressure from the Assembly declared martial law. Sent Lafayette and National guard and fired on the unnamed crowd, 50 killed
- Moderates seemed to have won short term and they continued with their plans to institute a constitutional monarhcy althought it had been made apparent that Liuis was not going to work with them
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Champs de Mars massacre short term impacts
- Moderates won, compromise could be made with the king
- Radical leaders fled into hiding
- Feuillants controlled the Assembly
- 1st bloody clash between different groups of the 3rd estate
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New legislative assembly september 1791-92
- No existing member of the National Constituent Assembly could be a member of the new legislative Assembly - inexperienced
- They faced bitter divisions in Paris - a king who did not believe in the constitution, threats abroad, bad harvest, unemployment from flight of nobles, new paper money not accepted and west indies trade stopped by slave revolt in st dominique
