Modern World History Fall 2001
Web linked documents for Week 2
The French revolutions of 1789-99 and of 1848.
There are two sections to this web-linked reading assignment. DO BOTH PARTS!
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Part One
The first three web-linked documents are from 1789, 1795, and 1804. Each is a declaration of the rights of men as recognized by the new French government during a particular state in the revolution.
The first document if the "The Declaration of Rights of Man (1789)" (located at the website http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm). This document represents the views on rights of those men who "made" the first stage of the French Revolution.
The second document is a list of rights laid out in "The Constitution of the Year II (1795)" (located at http://www.napoleonseries.org/reference/political/legislation/constitution3.cfm ). This document represents the views on rights of the men who overthrew the Jacobins in 1794 and ended the "radical stage" of the revolution--it is a document from the third, "reactionary" stage of the revolution.
The third document is a list of rights in the "The Constitution of the Year XII (1804)" (located at http://www.napoleonseries.org/reference/political/legislation/constitution12.cfm). This document comes from the Napoleonic era, after Napoleon Bonaparte seized power and then declared himself the emperor of France.
As you read these three documents, ask yourself these questions:
What fundamental rights recognized in 1789 were still recognized in 1795 and 1804, and what does that tell us about the course of the revolution?
What NEW elements were added in 1795, and what does that tell us about the course of the revolution?
What new elements were added in 1804, and what does that tell us about ways Napoleon's Empire differed from the French Republic?
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Part Two
The linked documents for Part Two of this assignment are from the collection 1848 in France, ed. by Roger Price (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975).
Here is some background to the documents:
In February 1848 King Louis Philippe was overthrown in a revolution that created a new (Second) French Republic. This new government was at first based upon a coalition of various political parties, including liberals and several socialists; it was also based upon the support of both the middle class and workers and artisans.
As a result of this political and social-class coalition, the new government issued a number of political and social reforms, including granting universal manhood suffrage and establishing "national workshops" to give work to the unemployed. For the liberals, these social reforms were necessary but temporary measures. For workers, these social reforms were based upon their rights--their "social rights"--which they said included the right to have work and earn a decent living. Many workers and artisans felt that the only way that there could be true liberty and equality was if private property in the form of businesses was eliminated (socialized, so that the workers themselves, of the state in the name of the workers, owned the businesses).
Tensions between the various elements in this coalition grew in Spring 1848, and the liberal-socialist coalition fell apart completely in May. The new, more conservative government leadership was made up of a new coalition of liberals and conservatives--this government had support from the middle class and peasants, but less support from workers and artisans. When in June the government decided to shut down the national workshops, many workers felt that they (and the revolution) had been betrayed.
In June 1848, tens of thousands of workers and artisans in Paris and in other French cities rebelled. They said that they were trying to overthrow the government because the government had betrayed the revolution. The government responded by calling in the army, and the rebellion was crushed.
But the June uprising in France frightened members of the middle class, who feared that the government was too "soft" on the rebels (who they considered criminals). More and more people from the middle class, as well as peasants, came to support presidential candidate Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who promised "law and order."
In December 1848, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of France. He used the army to crush all rebellions, and he used the influence of the government to get the French economy growing again. But the constitution allowed the president to serve only one term, and Louis Napoleon wanted to remain President once his four-year term in office ended. And so in December 1851, he seized power and declared himself Emperor. The Second republic was dead, and the Second Empire was born.
There were no major rebellions against Louis Napoleon, and the middle class seemed relieved that there now was an authoritarian ruler who would preserve order.
Now, read the excerpted documents from 1848 in France, ed. by Roger Price (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975).
As you read these documents, ask yourself these questions:
What kinds of rights did workers in France demand in 1848, and how did their vision of rights differ that of the middle class?
We know that the radicals felt that they were fighting to save the "real" revolution in June 1848--how did their opponents define this uprising?
Why would people in the middle class, like the businessmen of the city of Grey, support Louis Napoleon's seizure of power in 1851?