european history

• Storming of Bastille


  1789, July 14th
• Context of the French Revolution

  • Glorious Revolution (1688 - 1689, England)
  • American Revolution (1755 - 1783)
• Glorious Revolution


  • Abdication of catholic king and replacement by protestant king
• American Revolution


  • American independence from Great Britain
• Impact of these revolutions

  • England: breach with tradition of "divine right to rule"
  • USA: rights of representation and revolt against "unjust" rule
• John Locke (1689)


  Two main premises: 1) No government can be justified by one's appeal to the divine right of kings, 2) Legitimate government needs to be founded on the consent of the governed
• Social contract theorist


  Justification for the "state": State of nature - rational man, Civil government founded on popular sovereignty
• Run-up to the French Revolution

  • Economics - financial bankruptcy
  • Politics: struggle with provincial "parlements"
  • Dismissal of Jacques Necker, controller-general of Finance
  • The gamble of Louis XIV (1787 - 1788)
• Ancien regime economics of France

  • LOOK AT SLIDES!
• Ancien regime - politics


  • King ruled by divine right
  • Absolutist rule = absence of a constitution
  • Intendancy system
  • "Parlements" = source of resistance against absolutist rule
• Parlements


  Provincial courts of appeal (judiciary power), Historical origin: King's council, "droit de remontrance": power to appeal to royal edicts
• Estates-general: legislative body


  • Prayer: first estate = Catholic clergy
  • Military: second estate: nobility
  • Work: third estate: commoners
• Estates-general


  • Advisory body to the king; presenting petitions from the three estates, Late 15th century: elective character (third estate) incompatible with the divine rights of the kings, Met only intermittently, on the King's initiative
• Three estates


  Rigid socio-economic and political structures but: 1) Estates cannot be equated to distinct socio-economic groups, 2) Opportunities for social mobility, 3) Inter-marriage between classes, 4) Frey area between bourgeois and aristocracy
• 1789 meeting of the Estates-general


  1. Widespread political participation: all male tax-payers over 25 years are invited to elect their deputies

  2. 1 vote per estate

  3. Representation: deputies present cashiers de doléances (list of grievances)

  4. Debate on the organization of the estates-general and the source of the sovereign power
• Pamphlets: what is the third estate

  • Abbé Sieyès (Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès): What is the Third Estate?
• Abbé Sieyès (Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès)


  Plea for a numerical count: majority decision rule, Conception of popular sovereignty (Rousseau): The third estate is "the people" (= community of equals), Equality: clergy/nobility can only join the nation when abandoning their privileges
• Abbé Sieyès (Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès): '"1° What is the Third Estate? EVERYTHING. 2° What has it hithero meant in the political order? NOTHING. 3° What are its demands? To become SOMETHING."'
• Tennis court oath (20-06-1789)


  1. 3rd Estate declares itself the Nationalist Assembly of People (17.06.1789)

  2. Tennis Court Oath: 3rd Estate members constitute a legitimate authority equal to the King's. They vow: "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of a new parliament is established"

  3. "We are here by the will of the people and we shall leave only by the force of the bayonets"

  4. 27-06-1789: support across the country, royal party gives in

  5. 9-07-1789: reconstitution as the National Constituent Assembly
• From elites to the masses

  1. Storming of the Bastille (14th of July, 1789)

  2. 4th of August: National assembly = "abolition of feudalism" (property rights, end to servitude)

  3. 26th of August: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
• Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen (1789)

  • Equality before the law
  • Freedom from arbitrary imprisonment
  • Fiscal equality (shared equally based on ability to pay)
  • Freedom of thought, opinion, and religion
  • The people = the source of sovereignty
• From elites to masses: Women's March on Versailles (5-10-1789)


  1. Marketplace riots over the price/scarcity of bread

  2. Women are joined by constitutional reformers; frustrated by King's refusal to accept early reforms

  3. March to Versailles assisted by French guard; invasion of the palace; king is forced to return to Paris
• Three phases of the revolution

  • The moderate stage (1789 - 1792)
  • The radical stage (1793 - 1794)
  • The directory (1795 - 1799)
  • The age of napoleon (1800 - 1815)
• The moderate stage (1789 - 1792)


  1. 1791 Constitution of France: "King of the French" (as opposed to France)

  2. 1791 first gathering of the National Assembly

  3. Restructuring state-church relations: sale of church lands, government officials/assembly/administration paid in paper bills (assignats), civil constitution for clergy members
• Growing conflict among revolutionaries

  • Girondins (moderate political group)
  • Montagnard's ("the mountain": radical political group)
• The radical stage (1793 - 1794)


  1. France in military conflict with all of its neighbours

  2. Expansionist politics fuel tensions with neighbouring countries

  3. Warfare provokes protest among peasants and urban poor

  4. Tensions culminate in a state of siege: Reign of Terror

  5. Implementation of popular demands: price control, mass conscription, de-Christianisation, revolutionary calendar
• Maximilien Robespierre (1794, speech): '"If the basis of popular government in peacetime is a virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful (destructive); terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie [homeland, fatherland]."'
• The directory (1795 - 1799)

  1. Coup: Thermidorian reaction

  2. "La politique de bascule": to retain legitimacy, a constant balancing of principles of popular sovereignty and control of the masses

  3. Institutional design for stabilization: voter requirements, two legislative councils, 5-member executive "The Directory"

  4. 1799: Coup de Brumaire (18-19 Brumaire XIII; 9-10 November 1799): Strengthening of executive, government of 3 consuls (among which Napoleon Bonaparte)
• The age of napoleon (1800 - 1815)


  1. First consulate (1799 - 1805): Plebiscitary dictatorship, Control executive over Legislative chambers, Expansion and growing centralization of public administration, Control over workers, Public education

  2. French Empire
• Directory


  1. member executive (5 years – replaced every year)
• Directory


  • Separation of powers: directory has no say in legislation; highly dependent on parliament for budgets
• Coup de Brumaire (18-19 Brumaire XIII; 9-10 November 1799)


  Strengthening of executive: government of 3 consuls (among which Napoleon Bonaparte)
• First Consulate (1799 – 1805)

  Plebiscitary dictatorship: universal male suffrage but limited impact due to indirect voting (4-tier system)
• First Consulate


  • Control executive over Legislative chambers: appointed Senators, repressed opposition, legislation was initiative by Consulate
  • Expansion and growing centralization of public administration
  • Control over workers: workers' passport/employment record
  • Public education (literacy, control over future political elites)
• French Empire: Napoleon was appointed, by referendum, as hereditary Emperor


  1805-1815
• Treaty of Amiens (1802)


  Brought peace but Napoleon failed to meet the provisions (i.e. withdrawal from territories beyond the Alpine and Rhine frontiers)
• Napoleonic wars (1802-1814)
• Invasion of Russia in 1812
• Cost of Napoleonic wars
• Private land ownership


  Facilitated by the sale of Church lands