sans culottes

• Taxes to the king: 27%
• Feudal dues: 10%
• The Enlightenment


  A "movement of criticism" which emphasised the importance of human reason guiding society
• What the Enlightenment advocated/believed

  • That men could control their own destiny
  • That change was necessary to destroy the inequalities of the ancient regime
  • Questioned the power of the church
  • Believed that more could be done to improve the daily lives of ordinary people
  • Challenged the King's role as God's representative
  • Believed that rulers should use their power more effectively to benefit their subjects
  • Promoted the importance of using reason and common sense to promote human progress, wealth and happiness on earth
  • Developed the idea that government was based on a 'contract between the king and his subjects, with obligations on both sides
  • Believed that anything that wasn't shown to be useful to humanity or promote human happiness wasn't just
• How the Enlightenment spread

  • French architecture, furniture and fashion dominated continental taste and all educated Europe adopted the French language as its primary tongue
  • It was the language spoken in courts Europe wide with the exception of England and Spain
  • New ideas, books and newspapers were being regularly sold and discussed, with over half a million copies sold
  • Although not all could afford newspapers, the development of subscription libraries and reading rooms encouraged the reading of Enlightenment ideas
  • The suppression of the Jesuits who had dominated the Higher Education in the Catholic world since the late 16th Century, allowed for the spread of rational thought, in particular the natural sciences
• The 7 year war 1756-43 greatly fueled public discussion and the impact of the enlightenment
• The American War of Independence led to journals and books regarding the revolt as well as foundational documents such as the Declaration of Independence being read by Frenchmen as French soldiers returned from the war in 1783 and informed often
• The American revolt acted critically on French society and politics
• By the last quarter of the 18th Century, there were some signs that the ideas of the Enlightenment were beginning to take effect in France. The numbers taking up careers in the church and the number of religious books and pamphlets published declined
• Voltaire


  • A great wit and crusader against injustice and intolerance
  • Jesuit educated at the college of Louis le grand
  • Pursued legal training before becoming a writer
  • Saw that equality was just an ideal
• Voltaire's 'Equality'


  Claims equality is unachievable because the poor will always lose as they do not have the money or resources to win against the rich and powerful
• Montesquieu


  • Became a baron when his uncle died in 1716
  • Member of the Bordeaux and French academies of science
  • His 'Persian Letters' criticised the lifestyle and liberties of the wealthy French and the church, attacking the nobility
  • He uses irony and satire to show the ridiculous pomposity of the nobles
• Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws'


  • Outlines his ideas on governance of republics, monarchical states and empires
  • Points out the difficulties in governing territories of these sizes
  • Criticises the governance of France, in many ways suggesting it should be reformed
• Rousseau


  • Born in Geneva, Switzerland
  • Fled to France aged 16
  • At age 30 became a philosophe of the Enlightenment
  • His philosophy contained idealistic AND realistic elements
  • Identified a lack of representation in society
  • Concentrated on the relationship between man and society
• Rousseau's views on women

  • Accepts that women and men are similar in terms of their basic organs
  • Women should be weak and passive and men should be strong and active
  • The main function of a woman is to please men, as men are dependent on women and women are dependent on men
• Rousseau's 'The Social Contract'


  • Expresses Rousseau's belief that if men could achieve morality by joining a social contract and living under laws that they themselves made
  • Such a law would be applicable to all estates and have equal force
  • Suggests the social contract would adopt a more egalitarian approach to benefit the public
  • Establishes that the function of the government is essentially to bridge the gap between the sovereign and the subjects
• Medical and theological teachings on women

  • Men are the superior sex
  • Women are only needed to uphold the human race
• Legal status of women in marriage in civilised societies

  • Authority is given to men as they have greater strength of mind and body
  • Women should be subordinate to their husbands
  • Although a woman can execute authority in a marriage between two people of equal status
• Moral and equality of men and women

  • Women don't have the right temperament for education
  • Men have imposed laws which increase their strength and women have exercised power by making themselves harder to obtain
• Juridical status of women

  • Women are more nubile and develop earlier, too fragile for certain tasks unlike men
• By the time the revolution was about to begin, Louis XVI was facing bankruptcy
• France was regarded as a large and prosperous nation. Its agriculture was thriving as small-scale industry was growing
• International trade had also expanded, with overseas trade in wine and luxury goods flourishing, with established colonial and European trading links
• France fought a number of financially ruining wars in the 18th century - the wars of the Spanish (1701-13), Polish (1733-35), Austrian (1740-48) had occupied the first half of the century
• The 7 years war (1756-63) against Great Britain in the colonies had proved expensive and disastrous for France
• The Peace of Paris (1763) was when Britain took control of French parts of Canada and India, West Africa and a number of islands in the West Indies
• The French opted to support the American colonists in their fight against Britain in the American War of Independence
• The war proved crucial in providing the ideas for the French Revolution, with those French soldiers that fought in America believing the ideas should be passed onto France
• France joined the war in 1778, providing military and financial help for the US, with the Marquis de Lafayette as a key general
• The cost of the war was huge and caused problems for the finance of the country, it plunged France into financial crisis even though they were victorious
• The wars were funded by borrowing and so every time the crown took out a loan it faced future repayment debts
• To try to meet costs, the king and ministers had tried to squeeze the maximum amount from existing taxation and also introduced a number of temporary taxes
• One that was particularly resented was the Vingtieme, which was a levy on income paid by all except the clergy. It was introduced in 1749 and was very much still being levied in 1780
• Whilst France was comparatively well off, its money was locked up by its system of government, the organisation of society and the attitudes of the ancient regime
• Those in the first and second estates were largely exempt from taxation and it was the overriding ambition of the most successful merchants and traders to amass enough wealth to buy office in order to do the same - there was a resistance to taxation which made it difficult for the government to fund the wars and repayment debts
• The pattern of land distribution, with tiny peasant holdings, meant that there was limited investment in land and that therefore productivity was relatively low - no mass production
• The economy was largely rural and a bad harvest could therefore send prices rocketing and hit industry and trade
• The 1770s and 80s had been dominated by bad harvests, with a scarcity of food, particularly in the 80s a shortage of grain and consequently the price of bread rose by 89% in 1789 from ? sous to 14-15 sous, which led to starvation
• The population was steadily increasing and so food prices began to rise out of proportion to income
• There was a decline in the manufacturing industry and a further increase in urban and rural unemployment, making it harder for the government to collect taxes and so more loans were taken out