Bastille invaded, 14 july 1789, 7000 ppl,
Long years of war had drained financial resources.
Cost of maintaining the immense palace of Versailles.
Helped thirteen American colonies gain independence from Britain.
Over 2 billion livres of debt with 10% interest.
Cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices, universities.
Price of bread rose rapidly.
Wages didn’t keep pace with price and gap between the poor and the rich
widened.
Believed a person’s social position must depend on his merit.
Society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities
Privileges shouldn’t be decided by birth.
John Locke – Doctrine of Divine and Absolute Right of Monarch, Rousseau – Social
contract, elected representative, Montesquieu – Spirit of Laws, 3 separations of
power
These ideas were talked abt in salons and coffee-houses and spread among people
through books and newspapers.
These were read aloud in groups for those who couldn’t read and write.
The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates sent their
representatives. Only the monarch could decide to call a meeting of this body. The
last time it was done was 1614.
First and second estate, 300 members each, seated. 600 members, stood at the
back, all 3 had one vote each. Third estate represented by more prosperous and
educated members. Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the
assembly. 40,000 letters of other ppl were brought
Stood on 20 june 1789 in tennis court, swore to not leave till constitution was
drafted
In the countryside rumors spread from village to village that the lords of the manor
had hired bands of brigands who were on their way to destroy the ripe crops.
Caught in fear, peasants in several districts seized hoes and pitchforks and
attacked chateaux.
They looted hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of
manorial dues.
Many nobles fled from their homes, many of them migrating to neighboring
countries.
On the night of 4 August 1789, the Assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal
system of obligations and taxes.
Members of the clergy too were forced to give up their privileges.
Tithes were abolished and lands owned by the Church were confiscated.
Rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality
before law, were established as ‘natural and inalienable’ rights.
Although Louis XVI had signed the Constitution, he entered secret negotiations
with the King of Prussia
Rulers of other neighboring countries too were worried by the developments in
France and made plans to send troops
Political clubs became an important rallying point for people who wished to discuss
government policies and plan their own forms of action.
The most successful of these clubs was that of the Jacobins, which got its name
from the convent of St Jacob in Paris.
Women too, who had been active throughout this period, formed their own clubs.
The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women
The members of the Jacobin club belonged mainly to the less prosperous sections
of society.
They included small shopkeepers, artisans such as shoemakers, pastry cooks,
watch-makers, printers, as well as servants and daily-wage workers.
Their leader was Maximilien Robespierre.
A large group among the Jacobins decided to start wearing long striped trousers
similar to those worn by dock workers.
These Jacobins came to be known as the sans-culottes, literally meaning those
without knee breeches.
Sans Culottes men wore in addition the red cap that symbolizes liberty. Women
however were not allowed to do so.
The Jacobins planned an insurrection of a large number of Parisians who were
angered by the short supplies and high prices of food.
On the morning of August 10 they stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, massacred
the king’s guards and held the king himself as hostage for several hours.
Later the Assembly voted to imprison the royal family.
Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment.
All those whom he saw as being ‘enemies’ of the republic – ex-nobles and clergy,
members of other political parties, members of his own party who did not agree
with his methods, were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary
tribunal.
If the court found them ‘guilty’ they were guillotined.
Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and
prices. Meat and bread were rationed.
Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed
by the government.
Equality was also sought to be practiced through forms of speech and address.
Instead of the traditional Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men and
women were henceforth Citoyen(ne)
Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.
It provided for two elected legislative councils. These then appointed a Directory,
an executive made up of five members. This was meant as a safeguard against the
concentration of power in a one-man executive as under the Jacobins.
The colonies in the Caribbean - Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo - were
important suppliers of commodities like tobacco, indigo, sugar and coffee.
Reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant and unfamiliar lands meant a
shortage of labor on the plantations. So triangular slave trade between America,
Africa, Europe
Key – censorship abolishment, napoleon seen as modernizer, but invaded and
promoted slavery, private property, system of metric units.
