French Revolution History PDF

## Menschenrechte in historischer Perspektive ### Vorgeschichte und Ausbruch der Revolution #### Revolution als neue Erfahrung * From today's perspective, the French Revolution (1789-1799) falls within a longer period of upheaval in European history, which lasted from roughly 1750 to 1850. * Duri...

## Menschenrechte in historischer Perspektive ### Vorgeschichte und Ausbruch der Revolution #### Revolution als neue Erfahrung * From today's perspective, the French Revolution (1789-1799) falls within a longer period of upheaval in European history, which lasted from roughly 1750 to 1850. * During this period, medieval Europe transformed into modern Europe. * The centuries-old feudal social order was gradually replaced by a new, bourgeois social order. * This was based on the ideas and concepts of the Enlightenment, first realized in the American Declaration of Independence and its Constitution. * The French Revolution intensified and accelerated political, economic, and social changes within ten years. * For the first time in modern European history, a political order was overturned suddenly and violently, resulting in a complete upheaval of power relations. * This fascinating and shocking experience changed language as well: the existing term “revolution” took on a new meaning in 1789. * Previously, it referred to a process that led to the restoration of an old order that was considered right. * After 1789, “revolution” became synonymous with a complete upheaval of political and societal conditions: after a “revolution,” nothing was the same as before. * During the same period, the term *Révolutionnaire* emerged for a person who actively overthrows and abolishes an existing order. * The concepts "revolution" and "revolutionary" reflect a fundamental and completely new experience: political conditions can be changed by people. #### Absolutist Monarchy and Estate Order * Before 1789, it was unthinkable that political conditions could be changed by people. * Before the Revolution, in the *Ancien Régime*, society was hierarchically organized. * Every person belonged to an estate, with certain rights and duties connected to it. * The two upper estates, the clergy and nobility, who only comprised around two percent of the population, were privileged, socially, politically, financially, and legally, compared to the Third Estate. * There was a significant difference between the people. * At the top of the estate society and the state was the monarch, who embodied the highest power in his person. * He combined legislature, judiciary, and executive power, i.e., he was the supreme law-maker, judge, and regent. * Contemporaries were aware that this social and political order had existed for over a thousand years. * They considered it unchanging and in accordance with divine plan. * This old view held that divine will was the only source of law. * The absolute monarchy was legitimized and possessed its sovereignty from this divine will. * "All power comes from God" could summarize the motto of the old, sacral monarchy, where the church had a state-supporting role. * To rebel against the king and estate order in the 18th century meant to violate the order ordained by God. * As the First Estate in a social order based on the will of God, the clergy had an outstanding role. * The Catholic Church supported the French monarchy and, at the same time, formed its own system of government with its own legal proceedings. * It had great wealth and land holdings, and it levied its own tax. * Catholicism shaped the thinking and way of life of the people, from the king to the peasant. * The church registered births and deaths and performed marriages. * Life was shaped by the rhythm and holidays of the church calendar: schools, hospitals, and almshouses were supported by the church. * Especially in the countryside, clergy enjoyed high esteem. * The Second Estate, the nobility, possessed large landholdings and occupied all leading roles in government, administration, and the military. * It was exempt from taxes and enjoyed a range of special privileges and rights of honor. * As feudal lords, the nobles were allowed to exercise lower jurisdiction and to levy taxes or demand services from their subjects. * The nobility, whose lifestyle was imitated by the wealthy bourgeois, was the politically dominant social class. * The Third Estate, in contrast, who comprised about 98 percent of the French people, was excluded from political co-determination. * Furthermore, the Third Estate was taxed and subject to levies: it paid taxes to the king, to the church, and in some cases, to a feudal lord. #### Causes of the Revolution * What were the reasons that led to the old, stable social order being fundamentally challenged and abolished? * When looking for the reasons for the outbreak of a revolution, one must distinguish between long-term and short-term causes. * Long-term causes include the fact that French society changed significantly during the 18th century. * The notion of a static, three-estate order fit less and less with the reality of a very young and rapidly growing population. * Although over 80 percent of the French people continued to live as peasants in the countryside, dependent on a feudal lord, i.e., in traditional ways of life shaped by the church, more and more people moved to the cities, which grew rapidly. * Here, different social strata lived side by side and interacted with each other in a small space. * The aspiring, wealthy, and educated bourgeoisie was to become politically influential, increasingly questioning the estate order. * The largely propertyless city dwellers, such as small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and laborers, on the other hand, were constantly threatened by poverty and hunger. * At the same time as the population, France's economic output increased in the 18th century, leading to social and political problems because wealth was distributed very unevenly. * Along with modernization in agriculture and business, economic growth led to rising prices, especially for land and grain. * This, in turn, led to the impoverishment of small farmers and wage earners. * Higher grain prices raised the price of bread. * Since poor city dwellers spent a large part of their income on bread, rising bread prices often led to food riots. * Another long-term cause was the spread of the new ideas of the Enlightenment, because more and more people learned to read and write. * Paris had the highest level of education, where before the revolution, about 600,000 people lived. * The *Encyclopédie* founded by Denis Diderot and a steadily increasing production of newspapers and books ensured that knowledge was no longer a matter for a minority but was accessible to everyone who could read. * In academies, reading societies, lodges, cafés, and salons, people read and discussed, regardless of their social status. * Here, the news of the American Declaration of Independence was received with enthusiasm, and here, the privileges of the king and the top two estates were questioned. * In Paris and other cities, a critical Öffentlichkeit, the public sphere, gradually developed which escaped the control of the king. #### The State Crisis Before the Revolution * In the years before the Revolution, these developments intensified and culminated in a series of crises that the royal central government could no longer handle. * The declining prestige of the ruler also has to be counted among the short-term causes: Ludwig XVI was considered uncharismatic and weak, and many pamphlets circulated about Queen Marie-Antoinette, criticizing her extravagance and scandalous love life. * The countryside was a crucial site of the crisis: here, the population's dissatisfaction grew. * Peasants resisted their feudal lords, who tried to demand higher taxes or to reintroduce forgotten taxes and duties. * At the same time, small farmers were suffering under the gradual advance of the capitalist economy, which drove up land prices and rents, threatening traditional income models and communal rights. * The other site of the crisis was the city, above all, Paris. * Crop failures and an economic crisis led to high unemployment and rising bread prices in the 1780s. * Among the poorer city dwellers, who often suffered from hunger, there were repeated violent uprisings. * Besides economic and social problems, the monarchy faced a financial crisis: the French state had run up so much debt during the 18th century that it was on the verge of bankruptcy. * All attempts by the king and his ministers to reform the old tax system failed because of the resistance of the nobility, which refused to give up its tax privileges. * While the nobility even wanted to assert further political rights for itself, it was at the same time criticized by the bourgeois leadership, which, for its part, demanded the abolition of estate privileges. * In 1788, the king was faced with an opposition of nobles and bourgeois, who were demanding a reform of the absolutist system of government. #### Convening of the Estates-General * To overcome the serious state crisis, the French king revived the so-called Estates-General (États généraux), an assembly of representatives from the clergy, nobility, and Third Estate that dated back to the Middle Ages. * Originally, these representatives of the estates, who met in Versailles in the spring of 1789, were supposed to approve the king's reforms but instead sparked the Revolution. ### The Outbreak of the Revolution #### The Revolution of the Third Estate * Full of hope and with great confidence, the representatives of the Third Estate, mainly men from the owning class and the educated public, who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and inspired by the American Declaration of Independence, traveled to Versailles. * They had previously secured the right to send twice as many men (600 delegates) as the First and Second Estate (300 representatives each) because they represented 98 percent of the population. * It was unclear, however, how voting was to take place: by heads or by estates? This question led to long debates between the representatives of the estates. * Weeks passed without any significant decisions being reached in Versailles. In mid-June 1789, the representatives of the Third Estate rebelled against the inactive king. Influential delegate Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who formulated new, revolutionary ideas about the nation in his widely read work "What is the Third Estate?" had a major role to play. * At his initiative, the representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, declared themselves the National Assembly, against the will of Ludwig XVI. * On June 20, they took the solemn oath in the Ballhaus de Versailles to create a constitution for France. * This was more than just an act of defiance against the king. * By declaring themselves to be representatives of all French people, the delegates showed that, from that moment on, only they would represent the will of the nation. #### The Revolution in the Cities and in the Country * In the following weeks, violent uprisings erupted in the cities and in the countryside. These uprisings quickly led to the collapse of the old feudal order. * In Paris, street fighting and unrest broke out in July 1789. * On July 14, armed citizens stormed the Bastille, the Parisian city prison and symbol of the king's suppression of the people. Because the royal officials could no longer handle the situation, citizen militias (the National Guard) formed in Paris and other cities, taking over police and administrative tasks. * In the countryside, crop failures, bands of vagrants, and conspiracy rumors led to widespread and collective fear (Grande Peur) in the population. In many regions, peasants revolted against the feudal lords; castles belonging to the nobility were stormed and destroyed. * In the summer of 1789, the old political and social order collapsed. Within a few weeks, Ludwig XVI lost control of events in the country. * At that time, however, almost no one was thinking about the abolition of the monarchy. #### The Pre-Revolutionary Estate Society - Working with Image and Table * **Clergy:** * **Size:** Roughly ~130,000 people (~0.5% of the total population) * **Structure:** * High clergy: 143 bishops and abbots, 4000 deans and prelates, 25,000 monks and 40,000 nuns. * Low clergy: 70,000 parish priests and vicars. * **Privileges:** * Exempt from military service * Voluntary tax levy * Right to levy their own taxes (tithe) * Their own jurisdiction * **Nobility:** * **Size:** Roughly ~300,000-400,000 people (~1.3% of the total population) * **Structure:** * Hereditary nobility (~20,000 people). * Court nobility (~4000 families). * Country nobility. * **Privileges:** * Exempt from most taxes * Feudal rights and feudal privileges * **Third Estate:** * **Size:** Roughly ~25 million people (~98% of the total population) * **Structure:** * Upper middle class (bankers, industrialists, merchants, etc.) - ~10-20%. * Independent middle class (lawyers, doctors, teachers, writers, etc.) - ~10-20%. * Craftsmen and shopkeepers - ~65%. * Workers, apprentices, and laborers - ~15% * Farmers - 85% of the population, including 1 million serfs. * **Restrictions:** * Restrictions on trade and industry * No rights or privilege. #### Causes of the Revolution - Analyzing a Pamphlet * **What is the Third Estate?** * **All.** * **What has it been until now in the political order?** * **Nothing.** * **What does it demand?** * **To become something.** * **What is a nation?** * **A society that lives under common law and is represented by one and the same legislative assembly.** * **Isn't it a fact that the nobility enjoys privileges and rights, which it dares call its rights, and which are separate from the rights of the larger body of citizens?** * **By doing so, it steps out of the common order and the common law. Thus, its civic rights alone make it a separate people within the nation. This is truly an "imperium in imperio" [empire within the empire].** * **With regard to its political rights, it also exercises them separately. It has its own representatives, who do not have the authority of the people. Its deputies hold their sessions separately.** * **Even if it would gather in the same room with the representatives of the common citizens, it is equally certain that its representation would be fundamentally different. It is entirely foreign to the nation, first because of its origin, since its delegation does not come from the people, and then because of its subject, which lies in defending not the common interest but rather the private interest.** * **The Third Estate encompasses everything that belongs to the nation. And everything that is not the Third Estate cannot consider itself a constituent part of the nation. What is the Third Estate: All.** * **Tell us, from what positions and interests one could have given the nation a constitution. The nation exists before everything else; it is the source of everything. Its will is always legal; it is the law itself. Before it and above it, there is only natural law.** * **The government only exercises real power insofar as it is constitutional. It is only legal insofar as it remains true to the laws imposed on it. The national will, on the other hand, only needs its existence in order to be always legal; it is the origin of all legality.** #### Causes of the Revolution - Analyzing a Cartoon * **Taille, Impôts et Corvée** [Head Tax, Taxation, and Corvée - Forced Labor] #### Tasks 1. **History of the Revolution - Creating a Flowchart** * Read the textbook. * Define any unknown terms. * Create a flowchart of the central problems of France in the 18th century and evaluate the accompanying text. 2. **The Pre-Revolutionary Estate Society - Working with Image and Table** * Describe the picture "Tracht der drei Stände" [Costume of the Three Estates] from 1789. * Explain the structure of French society on the eve of the French Revolution using the table. 3. **Causes of the Revolution - Analyzing a Pamphlet and a Cartoon** * Describe the main demands in the pamphlet "What is the Third Estate?". * Evaluate whether the pamphlet "What is the Third Estate?" is a call to revolution. * Analyze the cartoon "Taille, Impôts et Corvée". 4. **The Outbreak of the Revolution** * Explain the historical significance of the Ballhausschwur [Oath of the Ballhaus] and the storming of the Bastille. * Discuss which causes were decisive for the outbreak of the French Revolution.