Origins Of The French Revolution

Question 1

What were limitations of power for Louis?

Answer 1

• Assembly of clergy - independent body with rights and privileges granted by law
• Council of ministers and Advisers- controller general
• Provinces- Intendants had powers in generalities - 34 areas in which France was divided

Question 2

Who were sub-groups in the 3rd estate?

Answer 2

1- Bourgeoisie
2- Urban workers
3- Peasants

Question 3

What date was the Estates General last summoned before 1789?

Answer 3

1614

Question 4

What year did France enter the American war of independence?

Answer 4

1778

Question 5

How was the will of the sovereign law?

Answer 5

• Anyone could be arbitrarily arrested without trial on a royal writ - letter de catch et

Question 6

What is evidence of the 1st estate’s power?

Answer 6

• Collected revenue of around 150 million livres - through tenant rents and tithes- compulsory donations, ‘church tax’ paid by its parishioners
• Owned roughly 10% of all land in France
• Offered don gratuit to the king (effectively a bribe)
• Could only be prosecuted in ecclesiastial courts

Question 7

What is evidence of discontent among lower members of the clergy?

Answer 7

Cahiers de doleance (ledgers of discontent)

Question 8

What were problems with the first Estate?

Answer 8

1- Plurality (younger sons of noble families occupied higher posts) and Absenteeism (many never visited their diocese)
2- Tithes
3- Tax exemption
4- Power over the people (censorship of books critical of the church)

Question 9

What were some positives of the first estate?

Answer 9

• Poor relief
• Kept a list in the parish of all births, marriages and deaths
• Ministry of information in the government

Question 10

What were privileges of the Second Estate?

Answer 10

• Exempt from gabelle/ taille
• Exempt from corvee- forced labor on the roads
• Received feudal dues
• Banalities- monopolies to operate mills, ovens and wine presses

Question 11

How could an individual enter the nobility?

Answer 11

• Appointment by the king

- Buy venal offices- 12000

Question 12

What was serfdom?

Answer 12

Part of the feudal system where inhabitants of the land are property of the land owner

Question 13

What were the grievances of the peasants?

Answer 13

• Bore the burden of taxation- taille, feudal dues, corvee
• Tried in feudal courts where the lord acted as both judge and jury
• Taxes increases to pay for the wars France was in as well as rent to landlords due to a growing population

Question 14

What were causes of discontent for the Sans culottes?

Answer 14

• Lived in unsanitary housing blocks- tenements
• Corvee
• SOL went down as prices increased by 65% but wages by only 22%

Question 15

What were the values of Enlightenment thinkers?

Answer 15

• Against the church and despotic government
• In favor of liberty
• Challenged literal interpretation of the Bible

Question 16

Who were some important Enlightenment thinkers and what did they do?

Answer 16

1- Voltaire- against the church
2- Montesquieu- challenges absolutism
3- Rousseau- ideas of democracy

Question 17

What were some drawbacks of enlightenment thinkers?

Answer 17

• Not essentially opposed to the regime- not revolutionary
• More theoretical
• Accessible to the Second estate only

Question 18

What was the long-term economic crisis?

Answer 18

• Largely agrarian economy- seigneurial arrangements and divisions between sons
• Low yield from farms and so food production could not keep up with population
  - Decline in French textile industry
• Banking system was not advanced

Question 19

What were problems with taxation?

Answer 19

• Tax-farming: Farmers general collected indirect taxes and kept anything above agreed figure-> Led govt to borrow for war effort as they did not receive enough and had to pay interest payments on debt
• Venality- officials bough positions and did corruption and wastage

Question 20

What reforms did Turgot try to implement?

Answer 20

• Tried to abolish trade guilds and corvee which led to protests and his dismissal

Question 21

What were long term causes of the French Revolution?

Answer 21

1. Royal Structure and three estates (emphasized inequality and lack of fairness)
2. Enlightenment ideas (invigorated 2nd estate- not a monolith had liberal members like Lafayette)
3. Problems with taxation and the economic concerns (inefficiencies + unfair)

Question 22

What is the timeline for short term causes of the FR?

Answer 22

Ten years before the outbreak of the Rev (1779 onwards)

Question 23

What were foreign policy problems?

Answer 23

1- 7 years war- lost over seas empire + profitable sugar producing islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe
2- American war of independence 1783- war cost a lot of money and worsened the financial state of the crown
Exposed French soldiers to ideas of liberty and democracy

Question 24

Who were the main figures in France’s financial system?

Answer 24

1. Turgot
2. Necker- very popular with the people of France as he reduced venal offices but dismissed by Marie Antoinette
3. Joly de Fleury- undid necker’s work by selling venal offices and borrowed more heavily than necker
4. Calonne- reforms plan for tax system (single land tax applicable to all free movement on grain), reforms failed

Question 25

What was the financial crisis of 1781-87?

Answer 25

• It was caused by expenses from the war (funded through raising loans) and the inefficient tax system (tax-farming)
• Calonne’s financial reforms failed as the Assembly of notables that was called instead of the EG believed that they did not have the authority to approve the reforms- led to calonne’s dismissal

Question 26

What was the timeline of the political crisis?

Answer 26

• Calonne was replaced by Brienne
• Brienne’s edicts were rejected by the Parlement of Paris ( Fundamental Laws of the Realm said only EG could approve)
• Louis exerts absolute power but the parlement rejects, he exiles them which leads to aristocratic revolt (country nobles meet in unauthorized assemblies and assembly of clergy)
• 16th August 1788- French crown is bankrupt
• Necker recalled and agrees to call EG for may 1 1789

Question 27

What was the significance of the political crisis?

Answer 27

1. Showed how laws and customs of the realm prevented reform
   2. Showed how reliant Louis was on his ministers which made second estate question him
2. Showed limitations of absolute power and how nobles and parlement were hostile to raising taxes

Question 28

What was the day of the tiles?

Answer 28

• Grenoble May 1788
• Explosion of popular support for the parlements
• Riots in Paris and provincial capitals

Question 29

What was the short-term economic crisis?

Answer 29

1- Bad harvests from 1781-87 and led to a disaster by 1788- unemployment, less production and employment in the textile industry, workers did not receive wages (Treaty of Eden of 1786- let British textile imports in at reduced import duties which negatively affected industrial production)
2- Food shortages- Tithe and landowners blamed, food riots in spring and summer of 1789 when grain prices were at their peak- start of the politicization of the 3rd estate

Question 30

What were short-term reasons for the FR?

Answer 30

1. France’s foreign policy (focus more on current impacts such as how it led to the financial crisis)
2. Financial crisis (focus on how it showed resistance to reform)
3. Political crisis (focus on Louis’ mishandling + aristocratic revolt)
4. Economic crisis (focus on how it politicized the third estate)