Sep
20
Chapter 17: Revolution in France
September 20, 2009 | | Comments Off on Chapter 17: Revolution in France
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Significant contributing events
-The Enlightenment
Voltaire
Enlightenment ideology spreading through Europe, which emphasized freedom and equality. Philosophers including: Voltaire, Turgot.
-Western Influence
US Constitution
- -With the success of the American Revolution, the idea of a revolution being plausible was renewed, sparking increased dissent among proponents of radical thought.
- -Interaction between notable Americans and french philosophers, helped to foster new thought.
-Economic crisis
- -Increasing amounts of debt in France, due to heavy spending of the crown, caused increased taxing of both the lower and upper economic classes.
- -Funding of the colonists in the American Revolution, had severely depleted French reserves.
-Famine
- -With a poor harvest of grain, the lower class was effectively on the edge of starvation. When the Little Ice Age struck, grain (the primary crop for the lower class) became non-existent. This caused a large influx into cities due to unemployment, increasing the shortage and resulting in disease.
Important reading notes 
- -Louis XVI took the lead in a time of economic trouble.
- -The French and Indian War had been made possible on bad loans by the government, which were only to be paid back if a victory occured.
- -The aristocracy and noblesse de robe refused to pay taxes, due to their control of the government.
- -The poor were heavily taxed, and once the American Revolution started, increases in dues were made again.
- -Reform was made impossible, due to the Church not accepting reform on the rights of the clergy.
- -Louis XVI called a The Estates General meeting, which involved laborers, peasants, business people, lawyers, etc.
- -This council was one of the first times that common people were given the opportunity to influence government affairs.
- -When the council met on May 1789, there were 300 delegates from the First and Second Estates (Nobles and Clergy), with 600 from the Third Estate.
- -With first and second estates refusing to allow a fair voting process on issues, tensions rose.
- -This caused the Third Estate to declare itself the National Assembly of France.
- -This was in effect until a new constitution was drafted.
- -The council caused a large media storm, which awakened the peasants to the issues at hand.
- -Fall of the Bastille
- -Louis XVI refused to acknowledge the presence of the National Assembly, and called for extra troops in a show power.
- -This was seen as a threat by the peasants who stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
- -The army of the Third Estate was formed, and was named the National Guard.
- -With the battle of the Bastille, similar riots began to occur throughout the country.
- -The suspension of the king by the Legislative Assembly resulted in eventual death by guillotine for he and Marie Antoniette.
- -Radical Jacobins assumed control of the convention, resulting in strong central control over government departments and emergency powers that were overseeing the economic and military crisis.
- -The urban lower class supported radical policies, and arrested the moderate members of the convention.
- -These moderate members (the Girondins), were executed.
- -This led for limited opposition to the Jacobins, who took control over all departments.
- -The Jacobins took control of the 12 member Council of Public Safety, which they used as a tool to increase radical power.
- -An army was built with numbers of 800,000, who fought for the ideals of the people (liberty and equality).
- -This greatly helped the struggle against Austria and Prussia, whom the nation was at war with.
- -The army succeeded in pushing back troops in Belgium and Rhineland, taking the offensive for the first time.
- -Meanwhile, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was elected to lead the Jacobin Public Safety Council, which led a fight for financial equality, based on Republic of Virtue thought, which was created to ensure not extremes of wealth and power. A Law of the Maximum was made, to control the price of bread and flour.
- -Robespierre led riots and convictions against members of the convention who he deemed to be threats of the people, resulting in a killing spree, which ended after the convention itself rejected the Jacobins, and killed them by Guillotine.
- -The war on the domestic and international fronts were won, causing the convention to see its mission as complete.
- -A new constitution was drafted at the same time, which did not give the right to vote to nobles.
- -A Directory was founded, which served as a temporary government.
- -With the revolution complete, the changes were large: rejection of feudalism, ban on noble exemption, removal of the throne, and provisions against the church from influencing affairs of the state.
-Sources of interest
–en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution
–List of revolutionary leaders
–1
–2
–3
–4
–5
–6
–7
–8
–9
By SETH HELLER
Comments