AP European Causes Of French Revolution
Published on Nov 18, 2015
Ancien Regime, Estate System, Causes of the French Revolution, Third Estate
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
French Revolution
Background and Causes
This lecture seeks to explain both the long and short term causes of the French Revolution. It devotes a significant amount of attention to covering the Ancien Regime or the Old Regime in Europe.
Ancien Régime
The Old Regime
The Ancien Regime refers to the social, political, and economic configuration of French society on the eve of the French Revolution. It has become shorthand for describing the same thing for all of Europe although Western Europe and Eastern Europe differ in important ways. These differences will be discussed as well in this lecture. This political cartoon is a great way of imagining the relationship between the social groups, or Estates as they were called in France.
In this illustration the King of France is burdening the clergy who is atop a member of the nobility and all are oppressing the lower classes of the society. Many countries in Europe, including France had erected a system that privileged the Clergy and Nobility while directing the brunt of taxation and work requirements on the rest of society.
In this illustration the King of France is burdening the clergy who is atop a member of the nobility and all are oppressing the lower classes of the society. Many countries in Europe, including France had erected a system that privileged the Clergy and Nobility while directing the brunt of taxation and work requirements on the rest of society.
Social Class: Identity and Privilege
- The Clergy: 1%, no taxes, 20% land ownership
- The Nobility: 2-4%, manorial rights, 25% land
- The Bourgeoisie: 3-5% could buy titles, resented upper 2
- The Peasants, Laborers, Merchants: 90%, tax burden, 40% of land
This information is specific to French Society. In France the estate system was a legal division of the social classes. The First Estate was made up of members of the Clergy who were exempt from taxation and collectively owned about 20% of the land in France. The Second Estate was made up of the nobility who were also exempt from taxation, possessed the exclusive right to hunt and gather resources on their land (manorial rights) and owned about 25% of the land in France. These manorial rights were a new development coinciding with the Agricultural Revolution and the resulting enclosure or privatization of previously common lands. Peasants resented these privileges because they had traditionally been able to hunt and fish in the commons. It's important to note that the nobility and the clergy were not monolithic in their great wealth or in their political opinions. One could find small town priests and cardinals of France or lesser nobility and great nobles that would possess vastly different amounts of land and wealth and as a result would view politics and society in different ways. The Third Estate was made up of a large spectrum of French society, from the wealthy middle classes (the Bourgeoisie) to the lower rural (peasants) and urban (sans-culottes) classes.
The Bourgeoisie and the Nobility were becoming hard to tell apart. The new wealthy members of French society often resented the privilege of the nobility and the fact that they were subject to taxes. They had much of the wealth but none of the power or status that went along with it.
The Bourgeoisie and the Nobility were becoming hard to tell apart. The new wealthy members of French society often resented the privilege of the nobility and the fact that they were subject to taxes. They had much of the wealth but none of the power or status that went along with it.
Group Identity
- People did not enjoy individual rights
- Privileges and rights were assigned communally
- According to what group or community you belonged to
In France, and in many other areas of Europe there was no notion of national citizenship bundled with individual rights and privileges. The most important locus or source of identity was the group you belonged to. Privileges, rights, and exemptions were assigned communally or according to what community you belonged to. In France, this was done through the legal division of society into 3 groups or estates in what was known as the estate system.
Untitled Slide
This painting reflects not only the leisure and land wealth of the nobility but also their manorial rights, symbolized by the gun and hunting dog.
Nobility
- Resist Absolutism in England and later in France
- Pass Sumptuary Laws to protect status
- Made it harder to buy nobility
- Reserve highest positions in bureaucracy and military
- Manorial Rights - exclusive right to hunt game, fish
The nobility's status and power were under threat from both royal absolutism and the rising wealth of the bourgeoisie. Royal absolutism was resisted through legislative bodies like Parliament in England or through the parlements in France. In order to check the growing influence of the bourgeoisie the nobility reserved the highest governmental, military, and religious offices for themselves, exercised manorial rights on what used to be considered common land, and made it more difficult to buy positions of nobility. They also encouraged the passage of sumptuary laws that governed what certain classes could wear so even if the bourgeoisie could afford the latest fashions of the aristocracy they were not permitted to wear them in public.
Peasants and Serfs
Western and Eastern Europe
There is an important distinction to be made between the rural poor of Western Europe and those of Eastern Europe and Russia. Western Europe peasants were not bound to the land they worked or a particular noble's estate. As tenants of the land, they enjoyed mobility throughout the countryside. Eastern European serfs, however, were bound to the land they worked and were often required to marry within the serf population of a particular estate thereby binding their future children to the same land. Both populations were taxed by the nobility locally and were subject to the same nobles' judgments in courts of law.
Peasants
- W. Europe - Tenants
- E. Europe - Serfdom
- Higher number of peasant revolts in E.
- Pugachev's Rebellion 1773-1775
The differences explained on the previous slide led to a much higher incidence of peasant/serf revolts in Eastern Europe. Pugachev's Rebellion raged on over three years under Catherine the Great's reign in Russia. While the largest political problem in Western Europe was the growing influence of the bourgeoisie or middle class, the largest source of political unrest in much of Eastern Europe was the severely oppressed serf population.
Family Life
Family Life in the Ancien Régime
- Nuclear
- Children lived at home til teens
- Neolocalism - left to pursue servanthood
- Married late, had children late (mid 20s)
- Families rebuilt quickly after death of Father
Households in the Ancien Regime in Western Europe consisted of the nuclear family, or a father, mother, and their children. One did not find large extended families under one roof. Children were not always welcome additions to the household and were often sent away from birth to be wet-nursed. This came from probably two factors. Mothers were an integral part of the labor of the household and did not have the time to focus on child rearing and high infant mortality rates offered no incentive for the type of mother-child bonding that takes place today. When children returned to the household they would live there until their teenage years when they were expected to leave, learn a trade, and become economically self-sufficient. Boys would stay longer sometimes to learn a trade from their father. Girls would often leave to pursue servanthood, working in another household. This work allowed them to earn enough for a dowry (money contributed to a marriage). This explains why women often married and had children later than we sometimes imagine. It also explains the nuclear household. Given the life expectancy at the time, parents would rarely live to see their grandchildren grow up. The economic viability of the household was extremely fragile and the death of a father was often disaster as the widow and her children would often have to depend on public assistance or relatives to get by. Consequently, widows remarried quickly and household often had half siblings or step siblings.
Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions
- Rapid population growth
- Enclosure movement drove urbanization
- Rising food prices
- The Urban Poor and Riots
These topics will be covered in much more detail in the following unit but they both contributed to growing urbanization and general population growth in the 18th Century. The earlier Commercial Revolution had driven the establishment of the "putting-out" or "cottage industry" system and along with the increasing agricultural productivity encouraged the land-owners to enclose or privatize previously common lands. This drove many peasants to cities looking for work. Rapid population growth outpaced food production and the urban poor faced constant food shortages and increasing food prices. This led to a new phenomenon of urban riots and would characterize the period leading up to the French Revolution and the Storming of the Bastille.
Causes of the French Revolution
Leading up to 1789
The previous slides are meant to paint a broad picture of the social, political, and economic forces throughout the 18th Century. The confluence of these developments along with severe financial problems in France explain the outbreak of revolution in France in 1789. Compare the early events of the French Revolution to the experience of the British over one hundred years earlier under James I and Charles I. The major difference between the two was the extent to which the land owning nobility in England was able to maintain control over a conservative revolution while appeasing the middle classes.
Long Term
- Blurring of social boundaries
- Resentment between bourgeoisie and nobility
- Rising food prices and food shortages
On the eve of the French Revolution it was increasingly hard to tell the difference between the bourgeoisie and the members of the nobility in France. The bourgeoisie had wealth but no accompanying legal status, political power, or privilege. The poorer classes of France were being crushed by high food prices, climactic disasters that led to food shortages, and a higher and higher share of the tax burden.
Short Term - French Financial Trouble
- Compare to James I and Charles I
- Provincial parlements blocked all new taxes
- King Louis XVI forced to call Estates General
- Third Estate is doubled to 600 representatives and wants to vote by head rather than by estate.
Involvement in the Seven Years War (the first truly global war) and the American Revolution left France with significant but not insurmountable debt. Nor was this debt, when compared with other countries, considered to be too high. The problems in France were on the revenue side. King Louis XV and XVI relied on parlements to pass new taxes and these provincial legislative bodies made up of nobles were blocking all requests. Unable to raise new revenues while spending extravagant amounts of money on courtly life, King Louis XVI was forced to call the Estates-General, a body made up of representatives of all three estates that had not met for over a century. As the members prepared to meet a list of grievances (cahiers de doleances) was written up in every province and each list had in common a call for the abolishing of feudal privileges and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
Who then shall dare to say that the Third Estate has not within itself all that is necessary for the formation of a complete nation? It is the strong and robust man who has one arm still shackled. If the privileged order should be abolished, the nation would be nothing less, but something more. Therefore, what is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything, but an everything free and flourishing. Nothing can succeed without it, everything would be infinitely better without the others.
Abbé Sieyes: What is the Third Estate?
The Third Estate was particularly vocal about their complaints since it contained both members of the bourgeoisie and some peasant land owners. Abbe Sieyes wrote a pamphlet on the eve of the French Revolution, "What is the Third Estate?" outlining the frustrations and ambitions of its members and therefore, the bulk of French society. In this excerpt one can easily see the resentment directed toward the privileges of the first and second estates and guess at the direction the ensuing French Revolution would take.
Photo by damiandude
The Constitutional Revolution
- Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly
- Tennis Court Oath - pledge to write a new constitution for France
The bourgeoisie or merchant class of France desired a moderate revolution and one in which they could achieve political representation equal to the nobility and the clergy. However, this moderate vision of reform would be difficult to hold on to.
Popular Revolt
- Storming of the Bastille
- Great Fear
- Women's March on Versailles
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
- First declaration of the National Assembly
- Abolished feudal rights and privileges
- Based on individual liberty, natural laws, limited government, social contract
- Active vs. Passive Citizens - active citizens were male, tax payers or property owners
