HISTORY

• France in the late 18th century was ruled by an absolute monarch, Louis XVI
• France


  • Significant regional difference across the country
  • Strong tradition for each part of France to deal with local issues in its own way
  • Different legal systems
  • Different systems of taxation
  • Customs barriers between some parts of France
• Social divisions in France

  • 80% of the population were poor peasants
  • Peasants were heavily taxed
  • Peasants had to maintain roads for landlords and local community without pay
  • Landlords had the right to hunt on peasants' land
  • Peasants forced to use landlords' wine presses and flour mills at high prices
• There were only three good harvests between 1770 and 1789, resulting in rural poverty and hunger
• Increasing poverty, worsened by a decline in real wages, led to growing urban unrest, including bread riots
• Middle class in French towns

  • Growing in number
  • Well educated and rich
  • Owned around 20% of the land in France
  • Involved in commerce, industry, law and medicine
  • Frustrated by their powerlessness and lack of political representation
• The Roman Catholic Church


  • Very wealthy organisation
  • Owned 10% of the land across the country
  • Paid no taxes
  • Controlled most of the education in France
  • Approved all publications
• The aristocracy


  • Tiny minority of the population owned around 30% of the land and most of the wealth
  • Paid virtually no taxes
  • Exempt from conscription and road repairs
  • Dominated all the key posts at court and in the government, the Church, the judiciary and the army
• There was a division between the 'higher' and 'lower' aristocracy, with the 'higher' nobility living at Versailles and the 'lower' nobility often resenting their power and wealth
• Parlements


  Traditional courts that could delay or prevent the implementation of royal wishes
• Intendants


  Royal agents appointed by the king to administer the localities, often hated by local parlements
• Louis XVI was deeply religious and determined to rule well, but was weak and indecisive, and reluctant to accept the reality of the situation he found himself in
• The Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that had a major influence on the whole revolutionary process in France
• Important figures of the Enlightenment

  • Voltaire
  • Montesquieu
  • Rousseau
  • Diderot
• Many of the later revolutionary leaders, and Napoleon Bonaparte himself, were very well read and were influenced by the ideas of these Enlightenment thinkers
• Pressures for change

  • Social
  • Economic
  • Political, including the Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment

  An intellectual and philosophical movement in 18th century France that had a major influence on the revolutionary process
• Important Enlightenment figures

  • Voltaire
  • Montesquieu
  • Diderot
  • Rousseau
  • Quesnay
• Enlightenment thinkers

  • They challenged established ideas, institutions and social structures
  • They encouraged argument and debate on a wide range of major public issues
  • They argued that there could be improvement in all areas of public life
• The writers wrote at a time when confidence in the French government was low, there was often famine and riots, and France had just been humiliated in a war with Britain
• Many of the future leaders who emerged during the revolution had read, thought about and debated the ideas of the great Enlightenment writers
• When the Ancien Régime collapsed after 1789, it was the Enlightenment thinkers who provided ideas that led the way forward for the new governors of France
• In 1778, France formed an alliance with the American colonists fighting for independence from Britain, declaring war against Britain
• 1. R-J Turgot


  An admirer of François Quesnay, he was the finance minister when Louis became king in 1775 and warned against further involvement in wars, but was ignored
• Comte de Vergennes


  The foreign minister who was interested in France's (and his own) prestige, and did not worry about the cost of the war
• Jacques Necker


  The unusual choice of a middle-class Swiss Protestant banker as finance minister in 1777, indicating awareness of France's dire financial state
• Necker promised to reform the financial system but did not deliver, hiding the huge cost of the war with Britain
• The war with Britain came to an end in 1783, but France gained nothing except deeper national debt
• Charles de Calonne's reforms in 1786

  • Reform the system of taxation by increasing taxes for the wealthy
  • Stimulate the economy generally and encourage commerce and industry
  • Create confidence in France and its economy so it could borrow more money at lower rates of interest

  
• The king approved Calonne's reform plans, but the Assembly of Notables, made up mostly of nobles and clergy, disliked Calonne and had no clarity on their role
• The king's dismissal of the Assembly of Notables caused great anxiety and protest among the educated public, marking the start of the financial and political crisis leading to the revolution
• Attempts by the finance minister Brienne to raise money through taxes and borrowing failed, as the parlement of Paris refused to support tax increases without an accurate picture of the royal accounts

  
• The king's arrest of parlement leaders resulted in countrywide protests, demonstrating high public interest and support for reform
• By 1788 it was clear the state was virtually bankrupt, and the king's solution was to recall Necker as finance minister and summon the Estates General, which had not met since 1614
• Demands in the cahiers de doléances from the three Estates

  • Clergy (First Estate): Retain Church rights and privileges, ban other religions, control education and publications, remain tax-exempt
  • Nobility (Second Estate): King should have sole lawmaking power, no tax changes without Estates General consent, strengthen Estate distinctions, reform legal system
  • Third Estate: Pay off national debt, equal taxation, end compulsory landlord work, reform justice system, abolish salt tax and hunting privileges, reform Church, local elections
• On 5 May 1789, the Estates General met for the first time since 1614, with great hopes and conflicting aims
• The three Estates - clergy, nobility and commoners - met in different parts of the palace, each with an equal vote, but the king and ministers expected the First and Second Estates to support them against the Third Estate
• The opening meetings of the Estates General did not go well
• There had been immense interest in choosing the members of the Estates General, particularly from the middle class
• The three Estates - the clergy, the nobility and the commoners - met in different parts of the palace, but each had an equal vote when it came to making decisions