Unit 4 - Lesson 3 - Causes of
the French Revolution.
This is
the first lesson on the most important event in modern
history, the French Revolution. It is one of the few
events that is studied in history lessons all around the
world. To some extent, you already know why it is going
to happen. The old feudal order, the 'ancien regime'
of powerful great landowners (aristocracy), had slowly
been decaying in the face of Protestant individualism
and international merchant capitalism. The political
form of feudalism, the absolute monarch, had been
replaced or weakened in the economically advanced countries of
Britain and the Netherlands. Even where 'enlightened'
absolute monarchs still ruled, their enlightened reforms
throughout the 18th century, often weakened the
institution of absolutism itself.
And then, there were the radical new
ideas. Beginning with the Scientific Revolution, the
application of reason resulted in rapid developments in
our understanding of the natural world. When this same
rational approach was applied to the science of society
and politics, the works of Locke, Voltaire and Rousseau
condemned the idea of the 'divine right of kings' to the
dustbin of history. If kings remained in power, it was
not because it was rational for them to do so, but
because they were willing to reject reason itself.
Those, like Voltaire, who had seen alternatives to
absolutism up close were full of praise for
constitutionalism.
'The way the English run their country is excellent.
This is not normally the case with a monarchy, but
because there is a parliament, English people have
rights. They are free to go where they wish; they can
read what they like. They have the right to be tried
properly by law and all individuals are free to follow
the religion of their choice.' - Voltaire, Lettres
Anglaises, written in about 1750
The Seven Years' War was, in many ways, the last of
the wars of religion. The Protestant nations of Britain
and Prussia defeated the largely Catholic forces led by
France. The economic consequences of French defeat and
her subsequent successful, though expensive, support of
the American revolutionaries, almost bankrupted the
French state. But above all, it was the example of the
American revolt, an ordinary people overthrowing a
'tyrannical monarchy', that was was most important about
1776. The Marquis de Lafayette the young French noble
who went to fight with the Americans against the British
at the age of 19, 'returned home to his native
land full of ideas about liberty and republics.' As
Joseph Weber, a relative of Mane Antoinette
wrote 'He and others like him, believed in the night of
people to throw out any government that was unfair.
Little did he know what would happen as a result of
this.' The radical ideas of Tom Paine's Common Sense
and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, 'We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal', provided a rational but revolutionary
basis for the legitimating the power of the state.
Democracy was to be the future.
'Even the best
king will do what he likes, if he feels like it.
There is one reason why a republic will always
be better than a monarchy. If the people have
power, they will appoint men of talent and
experience to the highest post. Ministers
appointed simply by a nod from the King are
often a disgrace to their position.'
Rousseau, 'Kings and
Republics', about 1760
Long-term causes of the French Revolution
As in our lesson on the causes of the
Reformation, (Unit
2 - Lesson 6) Understanding causes is central to what history is
about. Historians like to link different events together
that share something in common. For example, as we saw
in
Unit 1, historians use categories like political,
economic, social and cultural (PESC) to explain clearly
why things happen. Another way of organizing causes (and
consequences) is to divide them into long-term and
short-term. Long-term causes take place a long-time
before the event and are not an obvious, direct cause of
the event. They often provide the context in which the
event is more likely to happen. Short-term causes happen
immediately before the event and are obviously and
directly linked to the event. In explaining the causes
of French Revolution, we are going to combine a
short-term/long-term analysis with PESC.
First a reminder about teleology.
We studied the Black Death because it was important in
explaining why feudalism began to collapse. We studied
the Seven Years' War because it helps explain the
American Revolution. But as I said last time, to give
importance and meaning to events simply because they
cause something afterwards is to be overly teleological.
These events are important in their own right. But, if
we are to fully understand what came later, we can only
do so in the light of what came before.
Teleological
From ancient Greek philosophy. To define
the quality of something in terms of what it
has the potential to become. Aristotle
claimed that an acorn's telos is to become a
fully grown oak tree, yet in reality very
few acorns do.
Economic causes
Economic and social factors are often
combined. They provide what the great Anglo-American
poet T.S. Elliot called the 'vast impersonal forces';
the gradual, seismic changes that are beyond the control
of any individual. As we saw at the beginning of
Unit 2, the 19th century German philosopher and
revolutionary Karl Marx, spent most of life explaining
why feudalism was replaced by the modern 'capitalist'
world. He argued that fundamental economic changes were
the key to understanding historical change; that our
ideas are largely determined by the age in which we
live. He once put it very simply:
‘Social relations are closely bound up with productive
forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change
their mode of production; and in changing their mode of
production, in changing the way of earning their living,
they change all their social relations. The hand-mill
gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill
society with the industrial capitalist.’ Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy 1847
As capitalism developed in the 18th
century, countries that had embraced the changes began
to dominate world trade. This economic strength was
matched by military might, the Seven Years' War was won
by countries that had future orientated economies. The
losers incurred debt and pressure from their people for
reform and modernise (see social causes below). Those
who wanted to change the political system, did so
because they wanted a government more responsive to the
needs of new businesses. But the ruling classes, the
aristocratic landlords, still wanted a political system
to govern in its traditional feudal interests, so they
were resistant to reform. As the economic situation
worsened, the state could only pay its debts by raising
more from taxation. The diagram below shows you how bad
the French government's financial situation was in 1786.
The problem with increasing the taxes
was that it fell disproportionally on the poor. The
aristocracy and the church were often exempt, or found a
way of evading payment of taxes. The main tax on land or
income was called the taille. Everyone paid it
except the clergy and nobles. In addition, the peasants
who made up about 80% of the population, still had to
pay the traditional feudal taxes like the tithe or taxes
to use the lord's mill or wine press etc. In addition,
they still had the traditional labour service called the
corvée which meant they had to give up their time
to help maintain roads or bring in the lord's harvest.
How do you interpret this contemporary cartoon?
Social causes
When we looked at medieval Europe, we
examined how the feudal system controlled people
socially. We were interested in how the social system
affected people's everyday life. The social causes of
the French revolution are best understood as the gradual
breakdown in the social system that had more or less
remained unchanged since medieval times. In France this
was known as the system of the Three Estates.
How the
estates system was supposed to be.
How the
estates system was in reality by the 1780s
By the 1780s the Estates system was no
longer working. The development of capitalism and the
growth of towns, gave rise to new social classes - the
urban working class (proletariat) and merchants and
businessmen (bourgeoisie) - who didn't fit into the
traditional three estates. The bourgeoisie, in
particular, were increasingly important, not least
because they might be very rich but have no political
power whatsoever. France remained an absolute monarchy,
supported by the First and Second Estates. It was a
system of mutual support which resisted change.
The monarch ruled through divine right which the
Catholic Church reinforced. The Church in return
benefitted from the tithe, land ownership, exemption
from taxation and its own legislative body to advise the
king. The aristocracy provided regional governance, law
and order and in return it was also exempt from many
taxes, received feudal dues and had its own
legislative body to advise the king. It was this social
system that many French people believed needed to
change.
These two contemporary cartoons
provide an identical message, what is it?
To bring about change you need clear
ideas about what is wrong and what needs to be done.
All of which brings us on to the cultural causes, the
essence of which you are already very familiar.
Cultural causes
The political ideas of the Enlightenment
were particularly widespread in France. As we have seen
the most important of the Enlightenment political
philosophers were French, they are known to history as
the philosophes. They were public intellectuals,
widely read but also heard in the many salon soirées
hosted by prominent ladies amongst the French social
elites. They strongly endorsed progress and
tolerance, and distrusted organized religion (most were
deists) and feudal institutions. Many also contributed
to Diderot's Encyclopédie. Perhaps most
importantly, the radical ideas of the philosophes had
recently inspired a successful revolution in America.
And nothing helps an idea spread quickly better than an
idea that has been applied successfully.
From where we sit, the two most
interesting of the philosophes were Rousseau (because he
was born in Geneva) and Voltaire (because he ended up
there).
Review our work from
lesson 1, read my
textbook and ideally watch the two videos from the
earlier lesson on
Rousseau and Voltaire. Which ideas of Rousseau and
Voltaire do you think would be most dangerous to the
French monarchy and the ancien regime?
For the third lesson in a row I recommend
this video!
Political causes
In any political revolution, political
causes are central. In the end, the people must be
willing to forcibly remove rulers whom they feel are
responsible for the country's ills. The economic and
social problems of France created a context in which
people wanted change. The ideas of the philosophes
provided arguments about what should change and why. But
history shows that revolution can be avoided when rulers
are skilled, determined and ruthless. Unfortunately for
the future of the French monarchy, Louis XVI was none of
these things.
Individuals in history can make a difference, even if in
simplistic historical explanations there is a temptation
to explain too much based on simple character traits.
The documentary at the top of this page is typical of
this 'bad King John' theory of history. There is little
doubt that Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette were not
ideal monarchs for a time of crisis. Louis was not
interested in ruling and their personal difficulties and
extravagance did much to undermine their authority. But
the fact that at Versailles they lived a life of
extraordinary opulence, surrounded by sycophantic
courtiers and were literally detached from the French
people in a 1000 room palace, 18km from Paris, was not
their fault. This was how it had always been.
Unlike in many other European
countries the French state had not been significantly
changed. The only nominal legislative body (parliament) was
the Estates General which had three separate assemblies
for each of the Three Estates: the clergy, nobility and
the rest. It had power in its own right -
unlike the English parliament it was not required to
approve royal taxation or legislation - instead it
functioned as an advisory body to the king. It was
appointed and dismissed by him and it hadn't met since
1614.
In reality, France was governed by the
thousands of noblemen who lived alongside Louis XVI at
Versailles. In the absence of any checks and balances on
their power, this rule became increasingly despotic. One
of the best examples of this was the widespread use of
lettres de cachet or sealed letters. Lettres
de cachet were royal warrants ordering the exile or
imprisonment of the person named in it. The king could
sign these and give them to his ministers to use as they
wished, it was up to them to put a name in it. Quite
often they were used by ministers to imprison rivals or
critics of the government. Voltaire, for example,
received two Lettres de cachet. They could be
entirely arbitrary, without either justification or
right of appeal. During the reign of Louis XVI 14,000
such letters issued. For many, Lettres de
cachet were a potent symbol of the injustice of the
King's rule.
Bad King John theory
of history.
Expounded by historian E.H. Carr in his
famous 'What is History?' lectures in the
1960s. This is the tendency for popular
history to explain the essence of an age,
its successes and failures, as being the
result of the actions of individuals,
whether good or bad. Carr call's this
tendency 'childish'.
Short-term causes of the French Revolution
The French Revolution was actually two
revolutions. The first was led by intellectuals and
lawyers, the men who led the Third Estate. The key event
in this first stage of the revolution was 'The Tennis
Court Oath', a dramatic moment when the representatives
of the Third Estate defied the king. The second stage of
the revolution happened less than a month later, when
the ordinary people of Paris violently stormed the
Bastille prison in search of gunpowder in order to
defend themselves from the kings soldiers. This was the
day the French chose to be their national day, 14th
July, Bastille Day.
Into the long term context we have outlined above,
a series of events begin to unfold in five discernible
phases.
1. The Assembly of Notables refuses a tax
reform
By 1786, Louis had run
out of money. He was unable to borrow any more. Charles
de Calonne, his finance minister, came up with a simple
solution. As things stood, the richer a person was, the
less tax he or she paid. Calonne said another tax was
needed. Everybody should pay this new tax, even the
clergy and the nobles. To try to get the nobles on his
side, Calonne called together some nobles to agree to
his new tax on land. This Assembly of Notables met in
1787, but Calonne's idea was rejected and he was
dismissed. The king then dismissed the nobles and tried
to force the Paris Parlement to agree to the new
law. They refused and insisted that only the Estates
General could approve such a measure.
Charles de Calonne
2. Louis backs down and agrees to call
the Estates General.
Over the next year, the crisis
worsened. There were riots in many towns and Louis still
needed money. In August 1788, he made the following
announcement: 'We need an assembly of our faithful
subjects to help us get over our difficulties with
money. We have decided to call a meeting of the estates
of all the provinces so that they may tell us their
wishes and problems. Every kind of abuse will be
reformed.' This was a dangerous promise that raised
people's expectations. The Estates-General, was to meet
in May 1789 for the first time since 1614. This was what
many people had wanted for years.
3. The Estates General meets amidst a social
and economic crisis.
On 13 July 1788 a massive hailstorm had destroyed
cornfields, vegetable plots, orchards and vineyards all
over central France. This was followed by a drought. As
a result, the harvest in 1788 was very poor. The
drought was followed by the coldest winter in living
memory. Rivers froze over, stopping watermills from
grinding flour. Blocked roads prevented food from
reaching markets. And when the snow suddenly thawed in
the spring, floods ruined huge areas of farmland. The
price of bread increased dramatically, leaving people
with less money to spend on other essentials. This led
to a fall in demand for many goods which resulted in
unemployment and even less demand. There were riots and
strikes in may parts of the country. At this
point, in the spring of 1789, electors were invited to
draw up lists of complaints they wanted the Estates
General to discuss with the king. These cahier de
doléances were produced all over France and listed
in detail everything the people thought was wrong with
country. Most importantly, they raised expectations still
further that the Estates General was going to
solve France's problems.
4. The Third Estate defies the king.
When the Estates-General met in the
Palace of Versailles in May 1789, there were 1,201
deputies, or representatives. They were divided up as
follows: First Estate - 300 deputies. Second Estate -
291 deputies. Third Estate - 610 deputies However, each
estate had only one vote, so any ideas put forward by
the Third Estate could be rejected if the clergy and the
nobility were opposed to them. The Third Estate,
felt it was absurd that the nobles and clergy could
outvote them. On 17 June 1789, the Third Estate declared
that they were in charge. They called themselves the
National Assembly. On 20 June, Louis locked them out of
the hall, so they went instead to the indoor royal
tennis court at Versailles. There they swore an oath,
and promised to keep together until France was governed
fairly. This was known as the Tennis Court Oath which
was immortalised in the famous painting by Jacques Louis
David.
On 9 July, Louis gave in and ordered
the other two Estates to join them. So far, the power
struggle had been fought with words. It was soon to
become violent.
5. The storming of the Bastille.
Setting up the National Assembly was a
great victory for the third estate but a defeat for the
king. Louis XVI had lost control of the Estates General.
Riots in nearby Paris showed that he risked losing
control of the capital too. Urged on by the queen and
members of his court, Louis ordered 20,000 royal troops
to move into the area around Paris. He said this was to
keep order there, but most people suspected that the
troops were going to break up the National Assembly.
People in Paris started to feel afraid. Their fears grew
on 12 July. News came from Versailles that Louis had
sacked the popular finance minister, Necker, and
replaced him with a hardliner who opposed the third
estate. People assumed that Louis was about to crack
down on the National Assembly. Angry and frightened
crowds started looking for weapons to defend themselves
against the king's troops. The search for weapons went
on for two days. Crowds broke into arms stores and stole
thousands of guns. On the morning of 14 July rumours
went round that there were tonnes of gunpowder in the
Bastille, an old fortress in the cast end of Paris. The
rest, as they say, is history and we'll be continuing
with it after the exams.
Activities
1. With reference to the origin, purpose and content,
examine the value and limitations of Jacques Louis
David's Tennis Court Oath as evidence about the
causes of the French Revolution.
2. Design an essay plan that enables you
to consider the relative importance of long-term/short
term factors and relative importance of
political/economic/social and cultural factors.
3. Was the French Revolution inevitable?
Explain your answer.
