July and August 1789

• • Louis had lost control of the streets as well as the political assemblies.
  • Wealthy bourgeois feared for their property.
  • The Paris Commune was set up to keep order. The citizens militia was known as the National Guard and led by Lafayette.
  • Second Estate feared further revolution.
  • Mob violence had spread to the provinces.
• Aftermath of the Bastille:

  • National Assembly was renamed to the National Constituent Assembly.
  • Most NCA deputies favoured a moderate revolution.
  • Louis remained king but no longer made laws.
  • Necker was recalled 7 days after his dismissal.
  • NCA gained legislative powers - elected every two years.
• NCA was in a fragile position due to:

  • Dire economic situation.
  • Too moderate and not effective.
  • Weren’t elected.
  • Too elitist.
  • Rewrite the whole political landscape.
  • Social chaos (anarchy in the streets of Paris had spread to the provinces).
• Municipal Revolution:

  • Authority of the king had collapsed after the storming of the Bastille.
  • This caused the Municipal Revolution because small towns in France had revolted and only obeyed the king if it had been approved by the National Assembly.
• Description of Municipal Revolution:

  • Bordeaux —> electors of third estate, seized control, Lille, Rouen, Lyon.
  • Dijon and Pamiers —> former councillors could stay but integrated into committee so they were in a minority.
  • Every town —> National Guard formed to control popular violence, intendants abandoned their posts.
• Consequences of the Municipal Revolution:

  • King had lost control of Paris and provincial towns.
  • He also lost power over the countryside through peasant revolution.
• The cause of The Great Fear (Grand Peur):

  • The peasants were already suffering due to the bad harvests in 1788 due to increasing bread prices.
  • There was also a depression in the textile industry as there were small scale producers of cloth by their own hand looms.
  • Fear of grain horders.
• Description of The Great Fear (Grand Peur):

  • Suspected hoarders of grain.
  • Violence often occurred.
  • Chateaux attacked and burnt.
  • Law and order collapsed everywhere.
  • Aristocrats were allegedly supposed to burn crops as revenge for the protests so peasants felt they needed to defend themselves.
  • Landowners were killed.
• Consequences of the Great Fear (Grand Peur):

  • Spread throughout most of France.
  • Little bloodshed.
  • Now rural uproar.
  • Social discontent with the governmental system.
• Individual Revolutions within the French Revolution:

  • The Revolt of the Nobles (1789-88)
  • The Revolt of the Bourgeoise (1789)
  • The Revolt of the sans-culottes (1789)
  • The Revolt of the Peasantry (1789)
• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen:

  • Free and equal in rights.
  • Liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.
  • Power in elected Assembly.
  • Freedom of worship.
  • Freedom of expression.
  • Taxation to be equal.
  • Freedom to own property.
  • Meritocracy - freedom to own offices.
• The August Decrees:

  • Response to peasants demands.
  • All seigneurial courts were abolished with no compensation.
  • Tithes payable to the church were abolished.
  • Financial and tax privileges were abolished.
  • All citizens were taxed equally.
  • Special privileges for provinces were abolished.
  • Exclusive hunting and fishing rights to be abolished.
  • Meritocracy.
  • No more venality.