French Society

Ancien Régime

• Literally the Old Regime.
   
• A term used to describe the Absolute Monarchy which ruled France before the Revolution.
   
• An Absolute Monarchy is when a King or Queen has complete power and control and is not answerable to any elected government (popular representation).
   
• Focuses on the “Divine Right” of Kings.

The Estates System
[You should have your own notes from the text regarding the Estates System.]

Economic Causes

Money

• The standard currency was the livre.
   
• It was printed as paper money at this time.
   
• A farm labourer would earn 1 livre for 1-2 days work.
   
• 1 livre = 3 pounds of butter, 2 geese or a bushel of rye.
   
• Rent for an average farm was 500 livre per year.

Tax System

• Chaotic and inefficient. 
   
• Main tax, called the taille, fell mostly on the third estate. 
   
• Peasants in particular were burdened. 
   
• Indirect taxes targeted food, salt and even goods entering a town. 
   
• Taxes were collected by tax farming which reduced the tax take. 
   
• This caused resentment and deficit. 
   
• So, King Louis XVI borrowed more money.

Changing Attitudes

The Enlightenment

• Intellectual movement of writers and thinkers.
   
• Challenged ideas about religion, nature and absolute monarchy.
   
• Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu led the way in France
   
• They targeted church and despotic govt
   
• The church was seen as wealthy, corrupt and intolerant.
   
• The King was challenged as God’s servant.
   
• These ideas appealed to revolutionaries. 

 
Growing Resentment

• Between tithes, feudal dues, taxes and corrupt laws/judges anger grew.
   
• Taxes were raised between 1749 and 1783 to pay for France’s wars. Church tithes alone took between 5-10% of peasants’ income.
   
• Rents, however, increased as the population grew and demand for farms grew – Popn: (1705 - 22.4m) to (1790 - 27.9m).
   
• Urban workers’ prices rose by 65% (1726-1789) but wages only went up by 22%.

Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy is the ideas and actions a nation takes in relation to nations outside its borders.

The Seven Years War

• France had been long term enemies with Austria and Britain since the 1400s. 
    
• 7 Years War brought Austria and France into alliance.
   
• 7 Year War was an epic fail for France, with massive defeats to Britain and their American Colonies.
   
• France lost nearly all territory in North America and West Africa.
   
• This left them grumpy, and yearning for revenge!  

The American Revolution

• France saw a chance for vengeance and joined the 13 American Colonies in Revolt (1778-1783)
   
• This wasn’t because they agreed with the Enlightenment principles but because they wanted to minimise British influence in America (Mercantilism).
   
• Managed to significantly help in the defeat of Britain.
   
• But this introduced soldiers to revolutionary ideas.
   
• France incurred massive national debts.

Financial Crisis

Money Problems

• Louis XVI ran huge deficits

• This accounted for 20% deficit.
   
• In 43 yrs, war had cost 1066 million livres.
   
• Tax had reduced, and the privileged classes were unwilling to change.
   
• Louis XVI had his officials attempt reforms of the tax system, including tax on all land, whether the owners were from any estate.
   
• These failed and as high class revolt spread, Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General
   
• It contained 939 representatives of the church, nobility and third estate.
   
• Considered unreliable it had last met in 1614.
   
• With financial crisis, Louis XVI had ended payments from the royal treasury in Aug 1788

Economic Crisis

Economy in Crisis

• In the 1700s, good harvests had helped population growth and prosperity.
   
• Bad harvests were a major event in 1788 as a result of a wet spring and freak hailstorms.
   
• This led to unemployment.
   
• Food price rises led to less demand for manufactured goods at a time when workers and farmers needed income.
   
• The percentage of a labourer’s daily wage to pay for bread increased from 50% to 88%.
   
• Textile industry output halved
   
• Tithe owners and landowners were blamed for hoarding grain and causing price rises.
   
• Food riots occurred

 

Meeting of the Estates General

The Fall of the Ancien Régime

• 1789 is not only one of the most important years in French history, it is also central to European history.
   
• As events escalated out of Louis XVI’s control, resulting in the collapse of the Ancien Régime in France, new structures were created.
   
• The emergence of a more democratic system of govt as a consequence of popular upheaval set a precedent for other people in Europe.

Key Dates

Estates-General Meeting 

• All three Estates met on 5 May 1789 aimed to stop absolute rule and to limit the King with an elected assembly.
   
• The Third Estate declared themselves National Assembly on June 17. The Clergy voted to join on June 19th.
   
• A royal session was prepared by the King to announce reforms in reaction on June 23.
   
• The Third Estate were not allowed in their usual hall on 20th June as it was being prepared for the Royal Session. They instead met outside in a tennis court…

Tennis Court Oath

• Call to remain united.
   
• Pledged to remain until the constitution was written “upon solid foundations”

The Storming of the Bastille

Revolution!

• Each night in late June thousands of people gathered to listen to revolutionary journalists and politicians.
   
• By 11th July Louis XVI had about 25,000 troops around Paris and Versailles.
   
• The deputies of the Estates-General expected Louis to use force to dissolve the assembly and arrest its leaders.
   
• Speakers called upon Parisians to take up arms against the Ancien Régime.
   
• A frantic search for muskets and ammunition began…

14th July 1789 - Storming the Bastille

• The search for weapons took them to Les Invalides where they took 28,000 muskets and 20 cannon.
   
• A subsequent search for gunpowder took them to the Bastille.
   
• The Bastille was a large prison fortress and a symbol of the king’s tyranny.
   
• The governor de Launay ordered his troops to fire on the crowd as they tried to enter, killing 98.
   
• Parisians joined by a defecting army fought back angrily.
   
• De Launay was forced to surrender. He was murdered and then decapitated with his severed head paraded throughout Paris.

Video Links

Storming of the Bastille 1
Storming of the Bastille 2
Storming of the Bastille 3

Revolution

Revolution Spreads

• While Louis was still king, the damage to his power and authority was severe...
   
• As news spread, provincial towns pledged to obey only orders agreed to by the newly formed National Constituent Assembly.
   
• Rural peasants reacted by:
• Looting grain stores
• Attacking châteaux
• Seizing feudal documents
   
• Attacks on landlords came to be known as the “Great Fear”.

The August Decrees

• August 4th 1789.
   
• The National Assembly passed decrees including:
• Church tithes were abolished
• All tax privileges relating to land or persons were abolished.
• All citizens were to be taxed equally.
• All citizens regardless of birth were eligible for all offices – church, civil or military.

Church Land & the Rights of Man

Declaration of the Rights of Man & Citizen

• All men are born free and equal
   
• The main rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression
   
• Power (sovereignty) rests with the people
   
• Freedom of worship
   
• Freedom of expression
   
• Speech/publication
   
• Taxation according to means
   
• Freedom to own property

Nationalisation of Church Land

• They took responsibility for looking after the clergy, and, for helping the poor.
   
• Bonds were sold to people as currency against the land and 400m livres were generated.
   
• Under financial pressure, in Nov 1789 the National Assembly seized all of the property of the church. 

Reform & the October Days

The October Days

• The king protested the nationalisation of the church.
   
• The assembly decided they could take Legislative Power (Making laws) while the king took Executive Power (Ruling the Country).
   
• The King refused to approve any assembly decree. 
   
• A hungry and angry mod descended on Versailles, the King was given no choice but to accept the decrees and go to Paris with Antoinette on 6th October.

Voting & Tax Reform

• Three tiers of active citizens were made but favoured wealthy men at higher levels.  
    
• But 61% of Frenchmen could take part in some lower level bodies (compared to 4% in England).
   
• In 1791 the new tax system had three parts:
   
• Land tax, for all land owner
• Movable goods tax
• Commercial profits tax
   
• these benefitted the poor, but were inefficient and poorly administered.

 Economic, Legal & Church Reforms

•  Free trade in grain throughout France was introduced, without customs duties.
   
• Workers’ guilds were ended to allow easier entry, and the Assembly outlawed strikes
   
• Justices and courts were standardised to make the legal system universal.
   
• Church was reorganised and democracy was applied. Corrupt practices like absenteeism removed. 

Constitution & Revolutionary Wars

1791 Constitution

• The Assembly aimed to establish Constitutional Monarchy.
    
• A legislative assembly would have 745 members – elected every two years. 
   
• The King appointed ministers and military commanders.
   
• The King could have suspensive veto, except financial and constitutional matters.
   
• Waging war required agreement.
   
• The King was subordinate to law. 

“…so monstrous that it can not survive for long.”

- Marie Antoinette on the 1791 Constitution.

Émigré & War

• Many elites unhappy with reforms left for countries like Austria and opposed the new France.
   
• Austria and Prussia declared support for the King, also worried revolution may spread to their nations.
   
• The Revolutionary War, including also Britain and Spain, lasted 10 years, resulting in the death of 1.4m French.

Execution & Reign of Terror

The Execution of Louis XVI

• Amidst war and political tension, a radical Maximillian Robespierre, suggested changes. 
    
• The Assembly split into radicals and monarchists, Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were arrested, and a new Republic announced on 21 Sep 1792.
   
• They were both executed following trial in January 1793, Louis shortly after and Marie Antoinette in October.
   
• The Republic now had to fight external and internal opposition.

Reign of Terror

• In 1793, Robespierre led Committee of Public Safety oversaw 300,000 arrests and 40,000 executions, of those who threatened change.
   
• Church power was curtailed.
   
• Eventually Robespierre was arrested himself by the National Convention for going too far.
   
• A new National Convention struggled to create a new order.

Long Term Consequences

Constitutional Change

• The 1795 Constitution created an Upper House (250) and a Lower House (500)
   
• A new Executive called the Directory had power to appoint positions.
   
• Without addressing economic conditions the new system was weak.
   
• As the Army grew, and with some military success, Napoleon seized on the chaos to stage a coup and declare himself Consul in 1799
   

[Note: You will should have notes here on Napoleon's rise to power]

 

Long Term Consequences

• The changes in France influenced Europe for years.
   
• After the Napoleonic Wars the Congress of Vienna divided Europe into clearer states.
   
• Nationalism and democracy eventually spread in the following 50yrs.
   
• Social and economic reforms happened throughout Europe.
   
• An emerging bourgeoisie class gained power from the monarchy.
   
• The power of church was altered.
   
• Despite continuing poverty, fairness and equality became important goals.