The Great French Revolution—rights, liberty, and conflicts over their definition and limits
Lecture Outline:
I. The Great French Revolution, 1789-1799
A) Causes
1)
"rigid" system of legal privileges based upon system of 3
"estates" (clergy, nobles, commoners), and King Louis XVI's claims to
absolutist power
2) fundamental social and economic tensions (noble fear of losing privilege, middle class lack of political power, artisans pressed by growth of merchant-driven market economy, peasant resentments re. taxes, tithes, and land). Moreover, France is a "kingdom" with no real sense of "national" unity or identity, and remains fragmented by language, culture, etc.
3)
growth of "liberal" public opinion—the spread of
Enlightenment ideas re. rights, liberty, limited state power, need for rational
administrative reforms, laissez-faire economic policies, a society in which
people rise in status on basis of talent and ability, etc.
4) state financial crisis—need to increase revenues leads to discussion of taxing nobles (etc)
B) First Phase ("moderate revolution"), 1789-1792
1)
revolt of the nobility --nobles refuse to accept Louis XVI's
proposed fiscal and tax reforms
2) the gathering of the Estates General –Louis XVI tries to do an "end run" around the nobility by gathering the E-G to approve his reforms. But the majority of the 1st and 2nd estates intend to use the E-G to protect their privileges, and the majority of the 3rd estate intend to use it to force fundamental political change. Seiyes document, "What is the Third Estate," lays out the view of this movement for political transformation. Debate over "doubling the 3rd"
3)
the 20 June 1789 Tennis Court Oath—Louis XVI understands threat posed
by the E-G (esp. by the 3rd estate) and attempts to shut it down.
In the "Oath," the E-G (esp. 3rd estate)
declares itself a "NATIONAL" assembly and says it will keep meeting
until it rights a constitution.
4) the July 1789 Paris uprising—Louis XVI understands that a constitution will limit his power, that he must stop the "Nat. Assembly," and prepares troops to shut it down. Rumor of this sparks demonstrations, led by the middle class but with the lower-classes providing most of the crowds; these turn into street fighting, and "the people" take control of Paris, defeat the army and police, and declare a "provisional" revolutionary city government (again, under middle-class leadership). The social context—2 years of bad harvests had forced up food prices, which led to a general economic depression—about 1/3 of workers in Paris were unemployed in summer 1789, and food (etc) prices has skyrocketed. Lower classes saw the King as failing to help "the people," and viewed the National Assembly as the voice of the People—they felt that the "tyrant" King was trying to silence the People and take their Liberty, and so the revolt…
5) reverberations of the revolution in the provinces --provincial urban uprisings, the Great Fear, peasant attacks to seize land and drive out the nobility
6) the 26 August 1789 Declaration of Rights of Man ends the "estate
system"—all men born equal in rights, purpose of government is to protect
rights, the nation as source of sovereign power, limits to state power—state
can not deprive men of liberty except under certain conditions, special
reference to property rights
7) the issue of constitutional monarchy—decision to keep the King in place as the executive power in a "constitutional" monarchy, with legislative power exercised by the Assembly.
8) the question of who exercises what rights--restrictions of vote to property owners, but the lower classes clearly see this as "their" revolution, too, and expect that it will give them equal political rights; the best politically organized artisans and shopkeepers see a connection between political rights and social rights (eg, in reaction to food shortages, unemployment, etc).
C) Second Phase (radical or Jacobin revolution), 1792-1794--CONTINUED NEXT TUESDAY