The Origins of the French Revolution

Question 1

What did the problems that affected successive royal governments influence?

Answer 1

• The way France was governed, particularly the taxation system
• The carefully ordered, yet deeply divided, structure of French society
• The gradual spread of ideas that started to challenge this structure

Question 2

What were the Long term Causes of the French Revolution?

Answer 2

• Royal Government
• Taxation system
• The Estate System
• The Enlightenment

Question 3

What was the most significant long term cause of the French Revolution?

Answer 3

Royal Government

Question 4

Royal Government

Answer 4

• No elected parliament - no representation for the people
• France was in debt because of the leadership of Louis XVI
• Very few people have access to the King in terms of legislative
• Marie Antoinette was very unpopular with the French people
• Louis XVI believed strongly in his divine right to rule

Question 5

Taxation System

Answer 5

• Tax system is inefficient - leads to more debt
• Tax farming meant private individuals collected indirect taxes and kept a proportion for themselves - leads to corruption
• Unfair tax system, first and second estate pay almost no (indirect) taxes which means the burden of taxation falls on the third estates
• Louis XVI failure to reform

Question 6

The Estate System - The First Estate

Answer 6

• Corruption in the church
• Tithes paid to the church by members of the third estate
• Exempt from taxation
• Very powerful and influential
• Numbered about 115,000.

Question 7

The Estate System - The Second Estate

Answer 7

• Tried in their own courts
• Exempt from most taxes
• Privileges of birth
• Hugely powerful because of their political influence
• Large land owners

Question 8

The Estate System - The Third Estate

Answer 8

• Made up 98% of the population but had almost no political power
• Paid almost all the countries tax burden
• Very diverse economic group ranging from very rich bourgeoise (middle class) to serfs
• Very dependent on food prices and wages remaining stable
• Most had very poor living standards

Question 9

The Enlightenment

Answer 9

• Rejection of religion and superstition
• Encouraged free speech
• Equality in the eyes of the law
• Rejection of absolute monarchy

Question 10

What were the short term causes of the French Revolution?

Answer 10

• Foreign Policy
• Financial Crisis
• Political Crisis
• Economic Crisis
• Reform

Question 11

What were the actual attempts at reform?

Answer 11

• Tax on the land and not the people - No one exempt from it
• Stimulating the economy to ensure that future tax revenues would increase
• Abandoning controls on the grain trade and abolishing internal customs barriers
• Restore national confidence so that new loans for the short term could be raised

Question 12

The failure of reforms process

Answer 12

1. Calonne and Louis XVI reject the idea of calling the Estates-General to approve the reforms because they were too unpredictable
2. Calonne and Louis pick 144 members of the First and Second estate to approve the reforms, this was known as the Assembly of Notables
3. The Notables agreed that taxation should be extended to all. However the insisted the reforms could only be approved by the Estates General
4. It was soon clear the Notables would not agree to all reforms, as members of the First and Second Estates they had more to lose
5. Louis realised the strength of opposition to Calonne and dismissed him in April 1787

Question 13

What was the impact of the Seven Years War?

Answer 13

• Resulted in France losing many of its overseas territories
• France lost territories which had previously provided lucrative trade
• The loss of territories was a humiliation to France

Question 14

What was the impact of the American War of Independence?

Answer 14

• The French soldiers who fought in the conflict were exposed to ideas of liberty and democracy
• France supplied military and financial aid to the rebels fighting the British
• France’s intervention helped defeat the British but didn’t help them gain back their lost territories
• France’s intervention was massively expensive

Question 15

What was the impact of the Financial Crisis?

Answer 15

• Most important aspect was the huge deficit the government was building up
• The deficit had increased in 2 years to 126 million livres
• 2 reasons for this was because of War and Tax
  > War - they were at war for 20 years, War of Austrian succession, the Seven Years war and the American War of Independence, costing them a total of 1066 million livres
  > Tax - The Crown was not receiving much of the tax revenue, until it recovered control of finances, no reforms could occur.

Question 16

What was the main short term cause of the French Revolution?

Answer 16

The financial crisis

Question 17

Political Crisis - Lomenie de Brienne and Lamoignon

Answer 17

Lomenie de Brienne and Lamoignon: Retained Calonne’s land tax and introduced a number of new reforms - For example - education reform and an end to venal financial officials, reforming the army

Question 18

Political Crisis - Parlement of Paris

Answer 18

Parlement of Paris: Refused and said that only the Estates General who represented the whole nation, could consent to any new taxes. Louis’ reaction was to exile the Parlement to Troyes

Question 19

Political Crisis -Louis XVI

Answer 19

Louis XVI: He exiles the Parlement to Troyes. His action was considered to be high handed and the result was an aristocratic revolt, which proved to be the most violent opposition the government had faced yet.

Question 20

Political Crisis - An assembly of the clergy

Answer 20

An assembly of the clergy: Joined on the side of the parlements, breaking its long tradition of loyalty to the crown. It condemned the reforms and voted a don gratuit of less than a quarter the size requested by the crown.

Question 21

Political Crisis - Jaques Necker

Answer 21

Jaques Necker: abandoned his predecessor’s reform plans and, while indicating that he would try to raise new loans, stated that he would do nothing until the Estates General had met

Question 22

Bad Harvests

Answer 22

-In 1788 there was a very wet spring and hailstones in July resulting to a poor harvest. Affected peasants as they produced wine as a cash crop, a poor harvest in a pre-industrial society always led to massive unemployment.
- Food prices went up leading to:
< lower demand for manufactured goods, as more income was spent on food
< Price of bread increased dramatically
- Unemployment was rising at the same time as the cost of living and as production was either stagnant or falling, workers were unable to increase their wages

Question 23

What is the Ancien Regime?

Answer 23

• French society and government before the Revolution of 1789.

Question 24

What were the limitations to power of the king?

Answer 24

• Kings were bound by the laws and customs of their kingdom. For example, there were many independent bodies such as the assembly of the clergy which had rights and privilege’s guaranteed by law, which the king could not interfere with.
• The king also had to consult his council of ministers and advisers to make laws. This meant considerable power was in the hands of a small number of men, who dealt with the king individually, not as a cabinet system.
• The most important minister was the controller-general, in charge of royal finances.

Question 25

What was the royal government in the provinces like?

Answer 25

• It was carried out by intendants, who had far-reaching powers in the generalities.
• Intendants were officials directly appointed by and answerable to the Crown who were mainly responsible for police, justice, finance, public works, and trade and industry.

Question 26

What sort of character was the king?

Answer 26

• In 1774, Louis XVI, acceded to the French throne.
• He was well intentioned but never came to terms with the State’s financial problems.
• In an absolutist system the monarch needed to be a strong figure with a dominant personality.
• Louis was rather weak and indecisive.

Question 27

Who was Marie Antionette?

Answer 27

• She was married to Louis and Austrian
• Initially, they were very popular, but this dissipated over the following years due to Marie Antionette’s extravagance and scandals.
• She was portrayed very negatively and suggested to be wildly out of touch with ordinary people.
• Widely believed by revolutionaries that she influenced the king to avoid granting them concessions.

Question 28

What is tax farming?

Answer 28

• Taxes were collected in this way where the government agrees a tax assessment figure for an area, which is then collected by a company that bids for the right to collect it.
• The Farmers-General collected indirect taxes, keeping any money above the fixed sum for themselves.
• This meant the government never received enough money from taxes to cover its expenditure, and frequently borrowed money.
• Interest rates increased.

Question 29

What is venality?

Answer 29

• The sale and purchase of certain jobs which could be inherited by descendants.
• Many taxes were collected by venal office holders, who could therefore not be dismissed.
• Corruption and wastage were vast, so the crown could not receive an adequate income, and the taxpayers knew most of their money did not reach the treasury.

Question 30

How did Louis respond to the tax problem?

Answer 30

• He was very aware of the problems regarding finance.
• He appointed Turgot as Controller-General, who was influenced by philosophes and created a reform programme.
• His attempts to abolish trade guilds and the corvee and to reform the tax system sparked protest.
• So Louis removed his support and Turgot left office.

Question 31

Why did plurality and absenteeism cause unpopularity?

Answer 31

• Many bishops and archbishops came from noble families and earned large incomes.
• Some bishops controlled more than one diocese (made up of a large number of parishes), called plurality.
• Many never visited their diocese - absenteeism.
  Which made the church very unpopular with the people, who considered that bishops were more interested in wealth than in the religious needs of the people.

Question 32

Why was the church unpopular because of the tithes?

Answer 32

• The wealth of the church came from the land it owned - 10%, and the tithes paid to it.
• The tithes were paid yearly by landowners based on a proportion of crops they produced.
• The income provided the church with 50 million livres each year.
• Tithes were supposed to provide for parish priests, poor relief and the upkeep of church buildings, but most went into the pockets of bishops and abbots.
• It was greatly resented by the peasantry and ordinary people

Question 33

Why was the church unpopular because of tax exemption?

Answer 33

• Even though the church had an immense income from property (100 million livres), instead of paying tax, the church agreed to make an annual payment, which was under 5% of their income.

Question 34

Why was the church unpopular because of the power over the people?

Answer 34

• France was very religious and the Church had huge influence.
• They could censor books that were critical of it, provided poor relief, hospitals and schools, and kept records of all births, marriages and deaths.
• Its wealth and resistance to new ideas made it unpopular with the people.

Question 35

What are guilds?

Answer 35

Tightly control entry into a trade

Question 36

What are corvee?

Answer 36

Unpaid labour service to maintain roads

Question 37

What are parlements?

Answer 37

All edicts handed down by the crown had to be registered by them before being enforced as law.