French revolution Flashcards
Economic - Long Term Causes
Poor tax collection + Globalisation
Competition in Imperialism with Britain it couldn’t keep up with - wanted to expand territory but couldn’t
Spending lots of money it didnt have
Imperialism - Long Term Causes
Imperial latecomers - wealthy slave trade and sugar e.g. Haiti providing half of worlds sugar
Expensive wars e.g. Seven years war and American war on independence
1778 Defaulted on payments
Seven Years War
1756-63
French Alliance with Austria, they lost, humiliation
American War on Independence
1775-83
Massive debt
Jacques Necker - raised funds by borrowing money rather than increasing taxation
Britain did the same but they had a central bank
Ideas - Long Term Causes
Freemasons, Salons & Coffee Houses discussed ideas without being judged
-People started writing constitutions and holding debates
Radical Enlightenment values - natural rights were a challenge to religion and hierarchy
-Humans seen to have certain rights e.g. Declaration of independence
-Divine right of kings still present, people saw that religion uses it to appoint people, but naturla rights uses documents
-If everyone has naturla rights then there’s a sense of equality - no hierarchy
Publishing and piracy - more books avaialble, harder to censor, illicit versions published
Fracturing Social Structures/Rise of Middle Class - Long Term Causes
Economic - Split society - Middle class families making more money from trade which France can’t accommodate politically
-Structural tension: reform vs antiquated structure
-Aristocracy doesnt want middle-class in power- threatens power - but by broadening political swabs it dilutes power
Power of the 1% - incompatible with broadening power
Marx - New wealth, old power
Vulnerability at bottom - 80% are struggling, many bad harvests and bread riots
-Who do they back?
Louis XVI - Short Term Causes
Assumed throne at 19 - young
Indecisiveness - ‘The Silent King’
Experienced humiliation and loss of possessions in Seven years war - inherited the war
-Supported American war of independence - didnt solve financial crisis
Maria Antonia - Short Term Causes
Anti-Austrian feeling - she’s austrian
While allied during 7 years war, Austrians seen as useless cause the French lost
Not ready for responsibility, knew very little, walked around palace to go play with locks
Depicted in very illicit material with people in the palace
Constitutional Crisis - Short Term Causes
Tax rises needed - nobles summoned - try to circumvent Parlement of Paris - want to avoid it since it wouldn’t benefit them
- Nobles refuse since the taxes may fall on them
Parlement of Paris says to summon Estates-General
Royal Overreach - imprisoning members of Parlement
Estates-Generals Intro
Made up of 3 Estates, Rich, Clergy & Everyone else, offering advice to King
Hasn’t met in ages so no one knew what to do, but gave each state 1 vote
Abbe Sieyes - Members of 1st and 2nd estate ruled against 3rd in an unfair way and they couldn’t do anything
Abbe Sieyes- “What is the Third Estate? Everything”
-Without the Third Estate, nothing good would happen, the first and second state are a hindrance
Estates General Meeting
High Hopes & Uncertainties - 1788 drought and frost caused bread riots (bread costs rose by around 75%) - riots extensively rose as food became scarce
Third Estate treated horribly, told to arrive early, but the others arrived 3 hours later, then being kicked out saying the seats are reserved for higher members
Nation Assembly meant Louis XVI - Constitutional Monarch? - Nobility and Clergy didnt want power being diluted
Tennis Court Oath - Third Estate: We will not depart and stay in Versailles until there’s a new constitution established
-King rejects and tells them to go about their business, indecision results in refusal and Louis is lost, events escalate
Social Revolution: Popular Violence
Mercernaries arrive in Paris causing fear, Nobles start burning crops, use starvation as a tactic
Fall of Bastille - had guns and ammo, filled with elderly troops, they take it over and put leader’s head on a pike
Revolutionary Dynamic -
Paranoia (Starvation)
Food Riots
Violence (through lyncing)
‘The Great Fear’ - Anxieties across whole of france, peasants arming themselves, attacking feudal lords and nobles are lynched
Counter-Revolution, War and Political Violence
Nobles fled, e.g. half of nobles in National Assembly fled
Pre-emptive war? other countries saw what was happening in france
‘The Kings Flight’ - King fled to east of france trying to get to austria, left a letter saying everything he did was bad, constitutional monarchy was bad, system was a corrupt and everything was a lie, but was found fleeing
France needs troops to defend the revolution, troops pour into Paris, populace demand Louis is removed
National Convention
November 1792 King is tried
January 1793 after 24 hour session debate, King found guilty of treason and sentenced to death
Beheaded by guillotine with 100,000 people watching
“The blood of Louis cleanses us of the stigma of 1300 years of monarchy”
Secondary Sources to use
Sieyes
Jules Michelet - Revolution is glorious event, people pursue liberty
Hippolyte Taine - The Mob, terrible event, anarchy forced by angry mob
Marx - Bourgeois Revolution, rising class conflicts with nobility leads to conflict in existing state structure
Francois furet - Clas of ideas, proto-totalitarianism state begun to form which descended into chaos, you’re either on the side of the people or against them (included or enemy)
