French Revolution: Causes and Impact

• Revolutions in the late 18th century were triggered by social inequality, Enlightenment ideals, and financial crises.
• The American and French Revolutions were interconnected due to the circulation of goods, people, and ideas across the Atlantic.
• The American Revolution (1775-1783) resulted in an independent United States.
• The French Revolution (1789-1815) led to the collapse of the monarchy before Napoleon's rise.

Factors Behind the Revolutions

• Social and economic inequality was a primary cause.
• In France, less than 2% of the population(nobles) controlled one-quarter of agricultural land, were exempt from taxation, and held exclusive privileges
• The French middle class had economic advantages.
• French peasants and urban workers bore heavy taxes without any political or economic privileges.
• Investors and merchants profited from overseas trade, increasing economic divides.
• A mixed elite emerged through commoners buying titles and marrying into aristocracy.
• Racial laws in the colonies ensured that Africans and people of African descent remained enslaved.
• Free people of color faced property, marriage, and clothing restrictions.
• White European settlers enforced racial hierarchies.
• Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Montesquieu advocated for individual rights, representative government, and checks on monarchical power.
• The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen challenged absolute monarchy.
• Liberals advocated for sovereignty of the people, legislative representation, and opposed government censorship and arbitrary rule.
• Liberalism's limits included denying women political rights and largely ignoring racial equality.

Financial Crisis and War Debt

• European powers faced massive war debts after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
• Governments raised taxes to cover debts, leading to unrest and calls for reform.

The Seven Years’ War and its Consequences

• The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was a global conflict between Britain and France fought in Europe, North America, and India.
• In North America, tensions over territorial claims led to war, with both sides allying with Indigenous nations.
• In 1759, The British navy blockaded French commerce and destroyed its fleet, leading to a decisive British Victory in Quebec
• The 1763 Treaty of Paris granted Britain Canada, French lands east of the Mississippi, and Indian territories.
• France ceded Louisiana to Spain.
• Britain became the dominant global power but faced massive war debts.
• France retained its Caribbean colonies but faced financial ruin, which paved the way for revolutionary unrest.
• Taxation in both Britain and France triggered widespread demands for reform, setting the stage for the American and French Revolutions.

Forging an Independent Nation

• The thirteen American colonies established a new government based on liberal principles after revolting.
• The revolution didn't resolve social and political equality, excluding enslaved people, free people of color, Indigenous communities, and women.

Origins of the Revolution

• The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) left Britain with massive debt, leading to stricter control over the colonies.
• The Stamp Act (1765) on legal documents and the Tea Act (1773) were imposed
• The Tea Act (1773), gave the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales
• The Boston Tea Party (1773) was a protest because of British Taxation, prompting Britain to pass the Coercive Acts (1774).
• The Coercive Acts (1774), closed the port of Boston and curtailed local government

Political Conflict

• Britain argued the colonists were represented indirectly in Parliament, but Americans demanded direct representation and self-rule.
• The First Continental Congress (1774) sought peaceful solutions, but tensions led to the start of the American Revolution in 1775 with armed conflict in Lexington and Concord

Independence and the Revolutionary War

• Revolutionary sentiment spread with Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" (1776), arguing for full independence from Britain.
• Written by Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) proclaimed natural rights and declared sovereignty of the American states.
• The revolution was a civil war between Patriots, supporting independence, and Loyalists, who remained loyal to the British Crown
• France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic provided military aid.
• The marquis de Lafayette of France became a key military leader.
• The Treaty of Paris (1783) granted the United States full independence and territory stretching to the Mississippi River after Britain weakened.

Framing the Constitution

• After Independence, under the weak Articles of Confederation, the U.S. experienced economic instability and political uncertainty.
• The Constitutional Convention (1787) created a stronger federal government in Philadelphia.
• A system of checks and balances was established across executive, legislative, and judicial branches
• The Bill of Rights (1791) was added to protect individual freedoms because it gave the federal government too much power

Limitations of Liberty and Equality

• The Three-Fifths Compromise counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation, which strengthened power of slaveholding states.
• Congress banned the importation of enslaved people in 1808, slavery still endured domestically
• State governments and settlers seized Indigenous lands, forcing many tribes to relocate, despite constitutional protection promised to Native Americans
• Women's Rights were Overlooked despite women playing roles in boycotts, fundraising, and managing businesses while men fought as they were excluded from voting and political participation.

Conclusion on American Revolution

• The American Revolution expanded political participation for white men, but true equality wasn't reached
• The new government was based on liberty and self-rule, as slavery, racial discrimination, and gender inequality persisted.

The French Revolution and the Rise of Constitutional Monarchy

• French officers, influenced by Marquis de Lafayette, were inspired by the American Revolution
• While the American Revolution influenced France, the French Revolution was more radical, complex, and transformative in European politics
• France's debt caused by involvement in the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence led to tax reform attempts, which the nobles resisted.
• The parlements (high courts) opposed taxation on nobles and accused the monarchy of despotism.
• King Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) failed to implement reforms, leading to a decline in royal prestige fueling opposition.
• 1787 saw Louis the XVI finance leader trying to tax all Landowners, requiring the Estates General (clergy, nobility, and commoners) to convene in 1789
• Third Estate (commoners) demanded individual rights, a constitutional monarchy, and economic reforms.
• Abbé Sieyès' pamphlet "What is the Third Estate?" argued the estate represented the population
• On June 20th 1789, the "Tennis Court Oath" was taken with the promise that the third estate members refused to disband till a new constitution was written

July 14th, 1789 and August 27 1789

• On July 14, 1789: the Bastille was stormed by people resistant to Royal forces, Louis XVI had to reinstate his finance minister.
• Peasants revolted in Great Fear era and burnt feudal records
• August 4th, 1789: Noble priviledges were abolished
• August 27, 1789: rights of man were declared

1789-1791 Government and the Rise of The Directory

• On October 5, 1789: Versailles was marched down on by 7,000 women
• June 1790: nobility was gone. July 1791, Louis XVI swore allegiance to the new government
• Legislature was controlled by the National Assembly

Radicals

• The monarchy was removed and suffrage was introduced
• Angry revolts led to the September Massacre of 1792
• Loius XVI was charged for treason and executed in 1793
• The comittee of public safety was established by Robspierre to deal with threats
• The Reign of Terror (1793-1794), aimed to enforce loyalty, leading to 40,000 executions and 300,000 arrests.
• Nationalism was high and French armies were created
• Napoleon overthrew the Directory

Napoleon's Rule of France

• Napoleon Bonaparte rose to become First Consul in 1799
• Napoleon created the Napoleonic Code (1804), which established legal equality for men, protection of private property, and abolition of feudalism.
• The Bank of France (1800) was also founded by Napoleon
• He curtailed speech and restricted women's rights

Napoleon's expansion

• Napoleon expanded France, defeating Austria and Britain in 1802, expanding France. In 1805, he crowned himself Emperor and defeated Austria, Russia, and Prussia
• The Treaty of Tilsit (1807) made Russia and Prussia allies
• 1810: controlled much of Europe through expanded borders, satellite kindoms and allied states
• The Continental System, a blockade against Britain, failed and hurt European economies.
• Nationalist uprisings began in Spain (1808)
• Russian invasion (1812) was a disaster
• In 1814, the Quadruple Alliance (Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain) defeated Napoleon, forcing him to abdicate

Saint-Domingue Background

• Saint-Domingue was France's most profitable colony, dependent on enslaved labor
• August 1791: revolt led to the enslaved rising up
• 1794: the French National Convention abolished slavery in all French
• Toussaint L'Ouverture supported France

Haitian Revolution

• Dessalines declared Haiti's independence on January 1st 1804
• Haiti became the second independent state in the Americas and the first in Latin America

Explore the causes and consequences of the French Revolution. This quiz covers social disparities, the influence of Enlightenment ideals, and key events like the Tennis Court Oath. It also covers racial laws and financial crises in fostering revolution during the late 18th century.