French Revolution

• Louis XVI ascended the throne of France in 1774
• Storming of the Bastille


  1. 7,000 men and women gathered in front of the town hall and formed a peoples’ militia

  2. They broke into government buildings in search of arms

  3. A group marched towards the Bastille and stormed it

  4. The commander of the Bastille was killed and prisoners released

  5. The fortress was demolished and its stone fragments were sold
• Peasants were burdened with feudal dues and obligations to the nobles and Church
• French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates, with only the third estate paying taxes
• Following the storming of the Bastille, there was rioting in Paris and the countryside, with protests against the high price of bread
• Long years of war and maintaining an extravagant court at Versailles drained France's financial resources
• New words: Livre - Unit of currency in France, discontinued in 1794; Clergy - Group of persons invested with special functions
• France helped the thirteen American colonies gain independence from Britain
• The morning of the storming of the Bastille

  14 July 1789
• The French government had to increase taxes to meet expenses, leading to discontent among the third estate
• Historians later saw the storming of the Bastille as the beginning of events that led to the execution of the king in France
• The Bastille was hated because it stood for the despotic power of the king
• The burden of financing state activities through taxes fell on the third estate alone
• The nobles and clergy enjoyed privileges by birth, including exemption from paying taxes to the state
• In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right
• The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone
• The population of France rose from about 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789. This led to a rapid increase in the demand for foodgrains. Production of grains could not keep pace with the demand. So the price of bread which was the staple diet of the majority rose rapidly. Most workers were employed as labourers in workshops whose owner fixed their wages. But wages did not keep pace with the rise in prices. So the gap between the poor and the rich widened. Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the harvest. This led to a subsistence crisis, something that occurred frequently in France during the Old Regime
• If a firm increases advertising then their demand curve shifts right. This increases the equilibrium price and quantity
• Explain why the artist has portrayed the nobleman as the spider and the peasant as the fly

  Artist's interpretation
• The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of social groups, termed the middle class, who earned their wealth through an expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods such as woollen and silk textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society. In addition to merchants and manufacturers, the third estate included professions such as lawyers or administrative officials. All of these were educated and believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth. Rather, a person’s social position must depend on his merit. These ideas envisaging a society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all, were put forward by philosophers such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau
• New words

  • Livre – Unit of currency in France, discontinued in 1794
  • Clergy – Group of persons invested with special functions in the church
  • Tithe – A tax levied by the church, comprising one-tenth of the agricultural produce
  • Taille – Tax to be paid directly to the state
  • Subsistence crisis – An extreme situation where the basic means of livelihood are endangered
  • Anonymous – One whose name remains unknown
• Young refers to 'slaves' as those who are ill-treated and not well-treated
• Speaker: 'Quote'
• Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary in The Spirit of the Laws
• Young senses dangers in the situation of 1787 related to the mistreatment of individuals and the potential consequences that may arise
• The news of Louis XVI planning to impose further taxes to meet the expenses of the state generated anger and protest against the system of privileges
• The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates sent their representatives
• On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes
• The American constitution and its guarantee of individual rights served as an important example for political thinkers in France
• When the king rejected the proposal, members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest
• Young is conveying a message about the consequences of treating others poorly and the dangers that come with such actions
• The model of government proposed by Montesquieu was put into force in the USA after the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain
• Rousseau proposed a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives
• The ideas of philosophers like Rousseau and Montesquieu were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and newspapers
• Louis XVI had to increase taxes and called an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes
• The last time the Estates General was called was in 1614
• The third estate demanded that voting be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote, which was a democratic principle put forward by philosophers like Rousseau
• The representatives of the third estate viewed themselves as spokesmen for the whole French nation
• Formation of the National Assembly

  1. Members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest

  2. They assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the grounds of Versailles

  3. Declared themselves a National Assembly and swore not to disperse till they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the monarch
• Peasant revolts in the countryside

  1. Rumours of hired brigands by lords led to fear among peasants

  2. Peasants attacked chateaux, looted grain, and burnt documents

  3. Many nobles fled from their homes