ORIGINS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION 1774-89🇫🇷

Absolutism and the structure of the Ancien Regime👵📜

Ancien regime definition
term used to describe system in France before the rovultioon. first used in 1790 as an insult and means old rule

Absolutism 🔋
Head of Ancien regime is king who was in theory an "absolute monarch". at coronation swore on oath to God not subjects. absolutism means there are no legal limits to kings power. In reality it was limited by 4 factors
-been taught to take advice on important matters
-his advisors/minister came from a pool of career administrators and courtiers(experienced)
-bound by laws and customs of France.
-He needed the consent of a noble elite

About the honorable Louis XVI🤴
-born in Versailles in 1754
-became dauphin(heir to throne) following early deaths of older brother and father
-succeeded his grandpa in 1774
-well educated fluent in english and italian
-married Marie Antoinette in 1770 daughter of Austran🇦🇹Empress Marie Theresa. This was unpopular as Austria was blamed for the defeat in the seven year war (1753-63).
-It was 1778 before they had a child and 1781 before they had produced a male heir
-He was supposedly lacking in will, honest an well intentioned. devoted to his subjects, committed to reforms etc..

Government👨🏼‍⚖️📜
-Gov. consisted of Luis, his advisers and ministers.
-based in palace in Versailles
Ministers did not meet collectively to make descitions instead Louis met with each seperatetly to talk about the work of their department.
-So Louis decided the overall direction of government policy
-created problem of ministers and court factions working against each other and not co-operating
-Another problem is wide varation in laws and customs across France
-France had no single representative body which could pass laws covering the whole country
-All royal legislation had to be ratified by one of the 13 regional parlements.
-France was a patchwork of different forms of administration , different legal systems, taxes and rules on who paid them (so no single solution to any problems.

Intendants🧑🏼‍✈️
-previous kings had attempted to create one system by splitting the country into 36 généralités or administrative areas each under the control of a royal official Intendants
-they were responsible for carrying out Gov. policy but were hindered by local law courts and parlements and seen as overly authoritarian
-were overworked and allocated to few staff
-role overlapped with many other officials

.

Social division➗🤬

The First estate🥇- The clergy ⛪️
-formed less than 0.5% of population but church owned roughly 1/10 of french land
-controlled almost all education, most hospitals and poor relief.
-Church had power of censorship and published the Gov.'s messages
-In many towns the clergy dominated whiles in the countryside the parish priest (curé) was influential

The Second estate 🥈- the nobility 🎓
-roughly 120,000 nobles, less than 1% of the population but owned between a quarter and a third of French land⛰️
-Noblesse de court-at Versailles, very wealthy provided the king's advisers, ambassadors, intendants and ministers and had access to royal patronage
-Noblesse de robe created by the monarchy selling legal administrative offices with a hereditary title venality. in 1789 there were over 70,000 venal offices.
-most over nobles lived in their country estate. many were not that wealthy and jealous of court nobles
-protective of their own status and privileges and dependent on their own feudal rights

The Third estate🥉- Peasantry 🤕-made up rest of soceity nearly 28 million


-At top where theBourgeoisie

  • mostly in towns
    -growing in wealth snd numbers.
    -owned most of the industrial and all commercial capital
    -owned about 1/5 of all private French wealth and roughly 1/4 of french land
    -ambition was to become nobility
  • In countryside were the peasant Proletariats, over 80% of the population
    -majority farmed at subsistence level and worked as labourers on the land, industries or as migrant workers in towns
  • In the towns were the small property owners, skilled workers and unskilled labourers

Privileges and burdens 🤑😧

Clergy⛪️

  • paid no taxes
    -church made a voluntary annual grant of 16 million livres, just 5% of total church income (how unfair)

Nobility🎓
-exempt from heaviest tax the taille (land tax) and the corvées royales (labour service on the roads)
-payed some new taxes linked to income but were often able to avoid paying full amount .

  • were exempt from military conscription although many volunteered to fight by buying commissions.

The Peasantry🤕
-poorest of society carried hardest burden
-to lord of the manor Seigneur they payed rents and taxes on their grain harvest and some had to do labour service.
-To the state they performed labour service on the road and paid and paid taille and gabelle (salt tax). they could be conscripted or have soldiers billeted upon them.
-payed tithe to the church

  • their main concern was to stay alive and this was dependent on the price of bread.

Strengths and Weaknesses💪🤒
-in 1783 France was arguably the most powerfull European country and had just defeated B.
-Although structure of Ancien Régime was inefficent and unfair it worked .
-however the king could not make radical changes so its key weaknesses, the problem of government and taxation, could not be reformed and tensions in society grew.

THE IDEAS OF THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHES💡👩‍💼

Letter de cachet✉️
letter bearing royal seal by which the king could order imprionment without trial.

Central Gov.⭐️
all met in presence of king (royal councils
-The conseil d'Etata (council of state). dealt with major issues of state and foreign policy
- the Conseil des dèpêches. received despatches from the kings officials in the provinces and dealt with church affairs
- the conseil Royal des Finances. this managed state finance and household cost ; from 1787* it also handled economic policy, why was previously ran by seperate council
there where also lesser councils that did not meet in the kings presence
-power still tended to fall into a restricted no. of influential individuals .

Local gov.🏡
-provincial governors were responsible for maintaining order in their regions and sometimes had the right to cal provincial parlement . some acted as provincial "dynasty"
-partly to curb there independence that Intendants where introduced in 17th century
-6 areas in France know as *pays d'etats which had been allowed privilege of negotiating directly with crown on taxation then paying a lump sum to king . To establish and agree taxes these areas had powerful assemblies with whom the Intendanrs were forced to share power with
-

The enlightenment💡

  • was an intellectual movement that spread across Europe (c1740-c1789)
    -writers and thinkers challenged a wide range of views such as religion, nature and absolute monarchy.
    -They considered nature of society peoples re;ationships with eachother
    -exploring ideas of freedom, liberty and equality.
    -had a very strong influence in France

The extent of Influence in France- the philosophes 🇫🇷😲
-Encyclopedia edited by Diderot and published in 1750-72
-aim was to change the way people think
-the scientific approach directly challenged ideas held by the church and other institutions causing controversy
-Most influential were *Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau who expressed deep dislike of organised religion and discussed how social and political institutions might be changed for the good of people.
-The questioned the institution o Ancien Régime but did no advocate for a revolution

MONTESQUIEU
-criticised royal absolutism but argued that it was the role of the aristocracy to limit royal power, not the people

VOLTAIRE

  • criticised the catholic church and religious intolerance but believed religion was necessary to preserve public morals
    -He defended royal authority
    -his popular novel candide was banned for blasphemy and was imprisoned in Bastille

ROSSEAU
-went the furthest

  • argued that a despotic monarch could be overthrown by their subjects and that sovereignty resided in the people rather than in the person of the king

Salons💇🏼‍♀️
-Enlightment ideas were spread through salons
-an aristocratic hostess would invite a range of guests, nobles, bourgeoisie to discuss are, literature and politics.
-sometime poltical decisions were taken and deals made between the kings ministers in salons

  • ideas also discussed in cafes and masonic lodges and in growing number on newspapers only 3 in 1700 but up to 80 in 1785

Impact of the American Revolution and war of Independence 🇺🇸
-Louis XVI entered the War of Idependence in 1778.
-US had ben fighting B. for 2 years and many french were sympathetic to colonists causse of freedom and democracy
-idealistic french aristrocrats such as
88 Marquis de Lafayette had already crossed atlantic to enlist in American forces
-when him and 8,000 troops who served came home in 1783 they brought with them renewed ideas of liberty and democracy plus example and experience of the overthrow of existing political authority and building new order in its place

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS AND ROYAL FINANCE💵

Royal debt💵💔

  • in1774 Luis XVI's biggest problem was money as monarchy was heavily in debt due to cost of foreign wars
    -** War of Austrain successions (1740-48) 1 billion livres
    -Seven years war (1756-63) 1.8 billion livres**
    -Louis could not pay off the debt as seven in peacetime royal income was not enough to cover expenditure due to size of the interest payment
    -in short term bank borrowed from international banks but in long term made things worse

Inefficient tax system💰
-MOST royal income came from taxation but this was not enough because
-the nobles were exempt from it..🧐
-tax collection was chaotic and incomplete due to regional differences
-tax farming reduced crown income

Attempts to improve royal finances😃
-Louis tried to follow a policy of reforms to improve royal finances the controller General was the minister responsible

TURGOT 1️⃣- In** 1776 Louis appointed Anne-Robert-Jacques TURGOT as Controller General
-Turgot was influenced by ideas of the physiocrats
-He removed price controls, abolished guilds and proposed a new property tax
-His reforms and the way he went about them aroused great hostility from those whose interests were threatened .
-Louis dismissed him

NECKER2️⃣
-In 1776 Jacques NECKER a Swiss banker was appointed
-He tried a different route of reforming royal expenditure and increasing the royal share of farmed taxes. He tried to cut venal offices but this drew hostility from the nobles who held them
- His key mistake was him convincing Louis that France had the finance to enter American war of independence which resulted in the cost of 1.3 billion livres worsening debt
-In 1781 he issued first public report of royal finances to show thats they were in "good order"
some minor details however were of expenditure were seized upon by enemies of monarchy as examples of extravagant royal spending.
Resulted in Necker losing support of court and resigning

CALONNE3️⃣
- From 1783 Louis chief minister Vicomte de CALONNE managed the royal finances by selling offices and lavish spending
spending maintained confidence in monarchy, which meant that it coul raise loans
He recognised this could not last indefinetly and that reform was still needed hopefully when a renewal of taxes was due in 1787 but events overtook him.
Calonned was unsuccessful in raising loans in 85 and early 86
-In August 86 he told Louis that the government was close to bankruptcy

THE ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, feb 87' to may 89'