French Revolution

Sub Chapter 1: French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

1774 Louis XVI of Bourban family became the new king. He was 20 years old and
married to Austrian princess Marie Antoinette.
After becoming the king, he found an empty treasury. Reasons behind that:
1. Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.
2. Cost of maintaining the Palace of Versailles was very high.
3. France helped 13 American colonies to gain freedom from common enemy
Britain.
All this added more than a billion livres (currency of France) to an already existing
debt of 2 billion livres.
With increasing loans, lenders started to increase the interest rates to be paid. As a
result, to meet regular expenses like running government offices, universities,
maintaining an army they were forced to increase taxes.
France at that time was a society of estates also called as the old regime (France
before 1789)

ClergyGroupofpeopleinvestedinthespecial
functionsofthechurch.

NobilityTheroyalfamilies.

Theclergyandnobilityenjoyedcertainprivilegesbybirth.Themostimportantonebeingexemption
frompayingtaxestothestate.Theyalsoenjoyedfeudalprivilegeslikemakingthepeasantsprovide
servicestothem.Foreg.Workinginhousesorfields,servinginthearmyetc.
Taxesthathadtobegivenbythethirdestatewere:
1. Tithes:Giventothechurchorthe1ststate.Itwasonetenthoftheagriculturalproduction.
2. Taille:Directtaxthatwaspaiddirectlytothestate.
3. Anindirecttaxthatwasleviedonarticlesofeverydayconsumptionlikesaltortobacco.

ThestruggletoSurvive(SubsistenceCrisis)
ThepopulationofFrancerosefrom23millionin1715to28millionin1789.
Thisledtoanincreaseindemandoffoodgrains.

Priceofbread,whichwasthestaplefoodincreased.
Mostworkerswerelaborerswithfixedwages.Thewagesdidnotincreasewithincreaseinprices.
Thegapbetweentherichandpoorwidened.
Thisincreasedincaseofdroughtorhail.
ThishappenedfrequentlyduringtheoldregimeandiscalledtheSubsistenceCrisis.

Growing role of middle class

Initially peasants and workers had participated in revolts against increasing taxes,
but they were not successful because of lack of resources.
However, eighteenth century saw an increase in social groups who had earned
their wealth through increasing trade and manufacture of goods like silk textiles. In
addition they were educated. They believed that no group or society should be
privileged by birth. Rather a persons social position must depend on merit.
Some philosophers also put forward their ideas:
1. John Locke- In his book Two Treatises of Government refuted the doctrine of
divine and the absolute right of the monarch.
2. Jean Jacques Roussaeau- In his book The Social Contract, the government
should be based on a social contract between the people and their
representatives.
3. Montesquieu- In his book The Spirit of Law, he wrote about the division of
power in the government between legislature, executive and judiciary.
These ideas gained importance as they were discussed extensively in salons,
coffee houses and was spread among the people through books.

Sub Chapter 2:The Outbreak of the Revolution

To maintain the army, Louis XVI had to increase the taxes. In the old regime
system, Louis XVI himself did not have the power to increase taxes.
To do the same, he had to call a meeting of the Estate General, which would then
pass his proposal of increasing taxes.
The Estate General was a political body to which the three estates sent their
representatives. Only the king could decide when to call a meeting of the Estate
General.
On May 5, 1789 Louis XVI called a meeting to pass the proposal of increasing
taxes.
The meeting was held in the Palace of Versailles. The structure of the Estate
General is such that
1st Estate sent 300 representatives
2nd Estate sent 300 representatives
3rd Estate sent 600 representatives
The voting structure was that according to principle each estate had one vote.
However, in this meeting the members of the third estate demanded a change in
the voting policy. They wanted each member to have one vote.
When the king rejected this proposal, the third estate walked out of the meeting.

Tennis Court Oath

On 20th June 1789, they assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the grounds of
Versailles. They declared themselves a national assembly and decided not to leave until
they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the king. They
were led by Mirabeau and Abbe Sieyes.
-

Mirabeau was belonged to the 2nd estate as he was born in a noble family, but he
fought for the rights of the third estate.
Abbe Sieyes belonged to the first estate as he was originally a priest and had
written an influential pamphlet called What is the third estate?

While the National Assembly was busy in drafting a constitution, the rest of France was
facing a lot of problems.
Because of severe winters, there was a bad harvest resulting in rise in the prices of
bread.
A situation of hoarding started to take place where the shopkeepers used to hide
food grains until their price increased and thus selling it at a higher cost.
After spending hours standing in queues in front of shops, the angry woman
stormed into the shops
At the same time, the king ordered the troops to move into Paris.
On 14th July, 1789 the angry crowd formed a peoples militia and stormed the
Bastille.
Rumors spread that the royal families had hired people to destroy the ripe crops.
Caught in fear, the peasant attacked the castles, looted grains and burnt down
documents containing record of manorial dues.
Scared a large number of nobles migrated to neighboring countries.
With no choice left, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly
and accepted that his powers would from now on be checked by the constitution.
On 4th August 1789, The National Assembly passed a decree
- Abolishing he feudal system of taxes.
- Members of the clergy were forced to give up their privileges.
- Tithes were abolished.
- Land owned by the Church was confiscated.
- As a result, the government, acquired assets worth at least 2 billion livres.
France becomes a constitutional monarchy
The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution by 1791.
Main objective was to limit the powers of the monarch.
The powers were now assigned to separate institutions i.e. the Legislature, the
executive and the judiciary.

The Constitution of 1791 gave the power to make laws to the National Assembly,
which was indirectly elected.
Citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the National Assembly.
To become an elector and then a member of national assembly, a man had to
belong to the highest bracket of taxpayers.
The right to vote was only given to- Men above 25 years of age who paid taxes
equal to at least 3 days laborers wage. These were called active citizens.
The remaining men and women were called passive citizens.
The constitution began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Rights such
as right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law were
established as natural and inalienable rights which meant that they belonged to each
human being by birth and could not be taken away.