Blogs

thursday, march 28, 2013

Posted by 2ndCourtney on March 28, 2013 at 9:30am

French Revolution: The Beginnings

  • 4 main causes
    • Debt
    • Taxation Issues
    • Failure of Reform
    • Famine
  • Debt
    • The debt of the French government was around 8-12 billion livre (their currency)
    • Louis XVI spent a lot of money on very luxurious things, instead of being financially responsible
    • Also they still had war debts from the Seven Year's War (with England) 1756-1763
    • Much of their debt was complied because they weren't exploring like than rival, England
    • England was able to use the colonies as a steady source of income
    • France had not completely bought into Mercantilism either at this time like England had
  • Taxation
    • France was heavily involved in trading (Good)
    • If you want to be a great trading country, you cannot have high tariffs, so you need to tax heavily on your people (Bad)
    • Masses of people of France, not too thrilled with this idea. Also nobles did not pay these taxes.
  • Failure of Reform
    • Some French "economists" stated that the nobles should be included in taxation
    • This plan backfired, as peasants had to pay even more than before
    • France continued to stick with their economic plan even though they were continuing to go deeper and deeper into debt.
  • Famine
    • Crop failure in the 1780's didn't help much either
    • Supply and demand occurs here with bread
    • Got to the point where peasants thought the crown had wished for them to die (conspiracy)

Question:

which of the four components does your group feel is the biggest reason for the French Revolution? Why?

  • Guillotine-Person that is condemned for a crime is secured at the bottom of the frame, with his or her neck held directly below the blade.
  • However, it continued to be used long after the Revolution and remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment with the backing of President Francois Mitterrand in 1981
  • Marie Antoinette- became the queen of France
    • married Louis the XVI, had two sons and two daughters
    • Very popular at the beginning of her reign, at the end of her reign, very unpopular.
    • Executed by the Guillotine
  • Napoleon- emperor of France, became Emperor of the French in 1804
    • known for:
      • Napoleonic Code
      • Height
      • Battle Tactics
      • Waterloo

  • Started in 1789 and lasted until 1799
  • in 1700's, France and England were considered the most advanced countries in Europe and the world
  • It had a large population and a great ( good and bad) foreign trade
  • However, much of the world did not know the extreme debt that France had occurred.
  • Old Regime- In the 1770's the social and political system of France was called the old regime
  • Under this Regime, there were 3 large social classes called estates.
    • First estate
      • Made up of clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (priest, bishops, deacons, cardinals)
      • Had to pay 2 percent of their earnings to taxes
      • Owned 10 percent of the lands in France
      • Their jobs were to provide religion, education, and relief services to the poor.
      • Less than 1 percent of French population were in this estate
    • 2nd Estate
      • This group was made up of rich nobles
      • they held the highest offices in the government if France
      • This estate paid 0 percent of income to taxes
      • Owned 20 percent of the lands in France
      • This estates had only 2 percent of the population of France.
    • 3rd Estate
      • Included everyone that wasn't in the 2nd estate

Beginnings

  • started in 1789 and ended in 1799
  • in 1700 France and England were considered the most advanced countries in Europe and the world
  • it had a large population and great foreign trade
  • much of the world did not know the extreme debt that France had obtained
  • Old Regime
  • the social and political system of France was called the Old Regime
  • there were three large social classes called estates
    • 1st Estate- made up of clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (priest, bishops, deacons, cardinals
  • Had to pay 2 percent of their earnings to taxes
  • Owned 10 percent of the lands in France
  • Their jobs were to provide religion education and relief services to the poor
  • less than 1 percent of French population were in this estate
    • 2nd Estate- made up of rich nobles
  • they held the highest offices in the government in France
  • 0 percent income tax
  • 20 percent of land
  • 2 percent of population
    • 3rd Estate- farmers merchant
  • hod no power to influence their government
  • 50 income tax
  • resented the first two classes
  • 70 percent of lands
  • 97 percent of population

Enlightenment ideals

  • is a complex with many influences from US
  • The 3rd estate was becoming very tired of the Old Regime
  • equality, liberty and democracy

Weak Leader

  • Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
  • very indecisive and paid very little attention to his advisors
  • Marie didn't help much either with constantly expressing her opinion and the fact that she was from Austria
  • He finally wanted to tax the nobles, but they weren't happy there either so the Estates-General was called

Estates-General

  • an assembly of representatives from all three estates
  • their goal was to approve the new tax.
  • the meeting was held on May 5 1789 in Versailles
  • It was the first the assembly had met in 175 years
  • in the past the three estates would meet separately and there would only be one  voted per estate
  • this allowed for the 1st and 2nd estate to always beat the 3rd
  • the king sided with the nobles again and they were outvoted

Research

  • individually
    • 1 paragraph for Tennis Court Oath
    • 1 paragraph for Storming of the Bastille
    • Use google doc for group but do it individually

Order of Events

July 14th 1789

  • Storming of the Bastille- know that France lost their governor, secretary of state, and the “mayor” of Paris

July 17th 1789

  • The Great Fear- the peasantry revolt against feudalism and a number of urban disturbances and revolts. Many members of the aristocracy flee Paris to become émigrés.  (Emmigrant- migrated out of country)

August 26th 1789

  • Declaration of the Rightls of Man and of the Citizen is adopted by the assembly
  • Is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal
  • Is like the Bill of Rights

Legislative Assembly

  • Late 1789
  • Émigrés are required to return back to Paris with the threat of death if they didn’t return
  • King is still scared to return so he removes the idea that they have to come back
  • This allows for new blood of 3rd estate to become part of the legislative assembly

Women’s March on Versailles

  • Also known as The October March, The October Days, of the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution
  • The March began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who on the morning of October 5th 1789 were near rioting over  the high price and scarcity of bread
  • The market women and their various allies grew into a mob of thousands and encouraged by revolutionary agitators they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles
  • The next day the crowd compelled the king his family and most of the French Assembly to return with them to Paris
  • These events effectively ended the independent authority of the king
E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

eXTReMe Tracker