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30 views14 pages4.0 French Revolution
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/ 14
The French
Revolution
renment as an intellectual movement,
F™ was the centre of the Enl
and Paris was its uncontested international capital. Yet, France was the
major European country on the continent in which enlightened despotism was
least significant. In face, France was in trouble: constant warfare had crippled the
country’s finances, The crown did attempt to solve the problem, but it ran into
the opposition of the entrenched privileges of the ancien régime, for example,
exemptions for some from taxes. With France bankrupt, Louis XVI
(4774-1792) convoked the Estates-General, This body, which originated in the
Middle Ages, was composed of representatives of the three estates; it had not
met sincel615. There followed a series of events that led to a revolution that not
only swepe away the old regime and the monarchy, but also inaugurated a new
period in Western, and perhaps in world, history. For twenty-six years, from the
stoning of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, to the defeat of Napoleon in
1815, Europe and large parts of the world were absorbed in the repercussions of
this upheaval
THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION
There were many causes of the French Revolution, One was the hardship and
‘oppression experienced by many ordinary French families, burdened by increas
ing taxes and seigneurial obligations. They had endured harvest crises and rising
food prices in the years before 1789. There was also the influence of
Enlightenment thought; by the 1780s important people, including some mem-
of the nobility, had come to have stcong doubts about the legitimacy of the
sasting system,
Most important was the inability of the monarchy to deal with its desper-
ate financial siuation, Louis XVI, though not a man of great intelligence or abil-
CHAPTER
‘Communities: Loca},
National, and Global
+ What are the key factors that
led to the French Revolution?
‘Change and Continuity
+ Evaluate the pace ofthe
process of change during the
French Revolution,
Citizenship and Heritage
+ What did the National
‘Assembly try to accomplish
“with the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Ciczen?
‘Social, Economic, and
Political Structures
+ What did Olympe de Gouges
‘ry 0 accomplish with the
Declaration of the Rights of
Womant
“Executions, far from
being useful examples to
the survivors, have, Tam
persuaded, a quite con
‘mary effect, by hardening
she heart they ought to
serif”
IARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
759-1797)
Author 160 PART tts Enlightenment and Revolution, 1680-1840
ity, was well-meaning, generally liked, and ook his
responsibilities seriously. He and his ministers had
tried to increase royal revenues, but they ran into the
determined opposition of the privileged elite. As an
emergency measufe, the king and his ministers sum-
moned the Estates
ener.
The Failure of the Absolute Monarchy
From the beginning of his reign in 1774, Louis XVI
faced one crisis after another. The nobles objected co
the continuing centralization of the state, which had
gone on since Louis XIV, In effect, the nobles
‘aimed that France had an ancient constitution,
based on custom and tradition, and that the king
could not arbirarily change this system. ‘Thus the
resurgent nobility, including leading Church offi-
dials, came into confi with the absolute monarchy.
"The first and second estares (see Chapter 11)
asseried themselves through traditional bodies such as
the parlements, which had grown up out of the
medieval law courts. These bodies, especially the par-
lement of Pais, claimed that according to custom the
iparlements bad to register royal edicts before they
Could become laws. In the reign of Louis XVI, the
government ofien bypassed the purlements and the
nobility complained thatthe king was abandoning the
ancient heteditaty rights” of the French people in
favour ofa centralized “royal de
‘One reason for this opposition 10
royal reforms was the change that was
taking place within the upper class. In
the early cighteenth century, there had
been a considerable amount of move-
ment between classes, The kings often
selected their civil servants from the
third estate and sometimes rewarded
them with ticles, A wealthy man could
purchase a patent of nobility and the
Church provided an opportunity for tal-
cent co tise within che system. By 1788,
French society was becoming increas
ingly less mobile. Both old and new
members of the nobility were deter
mined co keep certain state and Church
rs for theaclves. Thus, on the cve A carctire ofthe French estates at che une of he Revlutin The fra fi
or he Revolution, all the bishops of the ure of asic s portrayed as supporting the represenave of he third esate
Cpa rd pate AA ae Lp
Church were of the noble class, and the officer comps
of the army was restticted to the old nobility. fe was
hhecoming more and more difficul for Frenchmen in
the third estate, no matter how intelligent, talented,
cor wealthy, co move upward
From Estates-General to
National Assembly
Calling the Estates-General was an admission that
tradicional absolutism had. failed. ‘The king's
announcement that che Estates-General would meet
jin May of 1789 at Versailles sec off che first public
discussion of political issues in the history of France,
In line with tradition, Louis invited the estares to
draw up lists of grievances (cahiers de doléances). Most
of the abiers, including many from the first and sec-
fond estates, asked for constitutional government and
freedom of speech and the press. Some members of
the first and second estates even asserted they were
willing to give up theie tax privileges, ‘The cabiers of
the third estate, generally written by members of the
riddle class, often went further, many calling for a
hnew constiuution embodying the ideas of the
Enlightenment about freedom and social equality
Though ic is impossible to generalize about the
cahiers itis worth noting that those ofthe third estate
often included a list of grievances about daily life and not simply comments on the government or state-
‘ments of political philosophy. One member of the
EstatesGeneral recalled how a group of villagers
composed their cabier:
| had trouble enough at fist in making my good
villagers understand chat the States