lecture 9 - case study: the French and Haitian revolutions 1789-1815 Flashcards
modern concept of revolution
originally: physical movements of planets
early modern period: political meanings, restoration of some prior existing state or establishment of a new political system based on rational principles
during french revo: innovation of a progressive new order (i.e. no longer a restoration) = a radical break from the past
Europe and the French Empire ca. 1789
sovereign political territories: empires (holy roman empire) kingdoms
France ~ equally big as Russia, Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire qua numbers
C16-C18: the Frist French Colonial Empire = North America, new France established (earliest overseas colony established in North America), had to compete with Britain and NL in the east Indies (France did have strong mercantile companies)
principle Caribbean/West Indies colonies:
- Saint-Domingue (Haiti), est. 1625
*became primary location for slave trade - Guadeloupe, est. 1635
- Martinique, est. 1635
*Saint-Louis in Africa important port
*France was highly reliant on indigenous peoples: France had little colonizers on land
causes of the French revolution
long-term causes
- three estates and feudal privileges: nobility, clergy (affiliated with the catholic church), commoners
- centralization of French state
- Enlightenment
- expense of overseas French empire (seven years war, american revolution, financial crises) -> debt
short-term causes
- seven years war 1756-63
- American Revolution 1765/75-83 (decolonization wave, e.g. also against Spanish colonial rule, which was consequence of what was going on in France)
- Financial crises, 1774-87
- bad harvest and harsh winter 1788-89
connected sociology
mentioned in the article we had to read
how consensus accounts of modernity and modern history are affected by strange ommission (lack of attention to) the Haitian revolution
normative intention: what Europe needs to do
Louis XIV of France
The Sun King
1643-1715
- longest reigning monarch in history
- centralizer of French state (l’etat c’est moi): gradually reduced political role clergy and nobility
- accelerator of absolutism
- builder of Versailles Palace and Royal Canal
- enforcer of Catholicism (Revocation of Edict of Nantes, 1685)
= centralization of the French state C17
no democratic elements in the French ‘‘old regime’’
concentration of power -> people not happy + there was a pre-existing state apparatus in Paris that revolutionaries could co-opt
*it creates the administrative apparatus that will be used against it
the Enlightenment
= boom in scientific innovation and rational ideas
- in France mainly manifested in Salon meetings
- triumph of reason over superstition
- scientific knowledge -> human perfection
- became attached to liberal norms/goals
1789
Louis 16 called the Estates-General (hadn’t been called upon for many years)
in this each pillar/estate would get one vote (aka commoners would certainly be outvoted)
to prepare for the meeting regions of France compiled lists of grievances (-> unrest, people mad at regime)
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes: pamphlet:
what is the 3d estate? EVERYTHING
What has it been until now in the political order? NOTHING
What does it demand? to become SOMETHING
May 1789 = meeting Estates-General met, after a lot of discussion the commoners were excluded from the hall -> members third estate and some noble/clergy called the national assembly (tennis court oath)
combined with bad harvests + harsh winter
14 July Taking of the Bastille = symbolic importance (there were only 7 prisoners they could free)
the great fear: commoners started invading/attacking nobles
oct. 5 = Women’s march (market women) to Versailles to compel royal family to come with them (to be closer to the people), eventually invaded the palace (starting at Queens/Marie Antoinette chambers) -> took king and queen to Paris
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
declared by the National Assembly on 26 August 1789:
freedom, equality, brotherhood for all men
rational utility: social distinctions possible, but not based on arbitrary things as your family
national sovereignty with legitimacy drawn from the people of France
- attention to limit the role/influence/freedom of corporate bodies: church, trade unions
Radicalization and globalization of the Revolution
- the king’s flight to Varennes (June 1791): placed under house arrest in Paris, king tried to escape and displace the National Assembly
- early feminist critic: (republican) Olympe de Gouges’ Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
- Saint-Domingue:
- the context of revolutionary wars: France went to war in Europe, was invaded in 1792
- first political party: the Jacobins
Haiti / Saint-Domingue
decolonization movement waged by African slaves that had been transported to the Americas
struggle against slavery, not just colonial oppression
Saint-Domingue:
- largest sugar and coffee exporter (terrible work, esp. sugar)
- creole culturelanguage, syncretic religion: vodou
- Code Noir: French doc. regulates the lives of enslaved people (applied to whole French territory), denied legal personhood, gave list of prohibitions, also limited power slaveholders had (e.g. sundays off)
french revo became global (no more feudality) -> revolt
1804 = independent nation of Haiti
- remains most/only successful slave revolt
- violent revolution: murder slave holders etc.
- incredibly destructive: coffee and sugar transplantations on fire 1790s
= a revolution within the revolution
Black Spartacus
Toussaint Louverture
- French enlightenment thinkers: the arrival of a Black Spartacus was bound to happen (e.g. said by Louis-Sebastien Mercier, Abbe Raynal)
- was a slave, worked as enslaved overseeer on a plantation -> got leadership skills
- could not read, barely spoke french (spoke creole)
- rose to prominance after initial wave of the revolt in 1791 - felt the slaves needed some sort of organizing to win
- famous for showing up at places, crossing the whole country by horse
- was good at training a disciplined army
- believed in public education to be able to lead a nation
became chief general
First French Republic (1792-1804)
monarchy seized to exist, radicals became more and more important
founded in 1972
coat of arms of the Frist French Republic: symbolic (liberty cap, civic crown, coq/rooster, fasces (symbol collective will))
The context of revolutionary wars
1793 = execution of the king (Louis Capet)
- was tried for crimes against the French people (incl. escape attempt)
civil war in the Vendee: the Vendee Uprising 1793-95
- organized counterrevolution encouraged by the church
- wanted to clear the region from republic influences
- deaths of 10000s soldiers + 100000s civilians
= first modern moment of total war: little/no distinction civilians and soldiers + large armies
*Europeans had not experienced such war since the 30 years war
the Jacobins
- tended to sit on the left side of the national assembly chamber = origins of divisions still visible now
- first to be seen as a party
two Jacobin leaders:
- Robespierre: really proper guy
- Danton: liberty, passionate, outspoken
National Convention - new constitution 1793 - Jacobins played a key role -> wealth redistribution (playing to their base: artisans, poor working class = the sans cloths)
revo never established stable constitutional order/basis
the Reign of Terror
= 10 months long
Jacobin leaders took control over two main committees responsible for internal security
Jacobins 1793 declared national state of emergency, took control of governor
until juli 1974 reign of terror: mass executions for crimes against the Republic (guilty until proven innocent, everyone could turn you in)
*it is possible that they couldn’t afford decent prosecution
Robespierre divided the Jacobins in right, left, center. turned against the left/populists and right (against the terror)
from abroad:
- caricatures produced in Britain
- terror was seen as the defining feature of the French revo.
*revo. as destructive
*in honesty: it was also creative: the cult of the nation: e.g. Republican Calendar (10 day weeks with incl. one restday), national holidays, Festival of the Supreme Being (impersonal god)
27 july 1794 Robespierre executed = end Jakobin rule + Terror (although this reactionate period was just as bloody as the Terror)
