european history

Subdecks (3)

Cards (1041)

  • 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