1 Rena Levin History 102 Notes 7 8 OUTLINE I Causes PART I CAUSES Bourbon Dynasty o Louis XIV o Louis XV o Louis XVI The French Revolution 1789 1799 A Bourbon Monarchy 1594 1792 B Financial Crisis Phases of Revolution II A Constitutional Phase National Constituent Assembly 1789 1792 B Radical Phase aka Jacobin Phase Committee of Public Safety 1792 1794 C National Directory Phase 1795 1799 Ruled from 1661 1715 for over 50 years Wanted to rule over basically every part of his subjects lives Religious bigot Catholic Taxed his subjects to support his many wars Great grandson of Louis XIV who told him to avoid war and bankruptcy Ignored advice and his subjects welfare Grandson of Louis XV Rules from 1774 1793 Takes throne when France is in middle of economic decline Unlucky because he walked into bad situation but didn t cause it Non confrontational personality but his subjects view him as two faced duplicitous untrustworthy Marries Marie Antoinette daughter of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa Princess teenager immature insensitive tactless indifferent American Revolution 2 Ignorant of subjects lives and therefore not so compassionate Foreigner common bc most king married foreign women for political strategy Troubled marriage from beginning bc of Louis physiological problem but eventually they reproduce Louis has some money left over from predecessor but not a lot Gets into war with England and loses French Canada to England huge loss bc Canada is entryway to other territory and has fur for freezing French winter o April 1775 US fires into England o France doesn t believe US will be able to defeat England but if France aids US it will at least do some damage to England so then if England and France ever get into war again France will have some advantage o 1775 1777 France contributes 90 of US resources to their army excluding militia o 1777 Battle of Saratoga NY British try to disrupt line of communication between New England colonies and mid Atlantic states British elect slow moving General John Burgoyne to divide and conquer the Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold plan and execute crossfire on Burgoyne land forcing British surrender o 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce French give aid to US in the form of war materials and French troops this time o 1781 Battle of Yorktown VA peninsula guarded by British General Cornwallis Troops running out of food supplies while staying in vulnerable position Cornwallis sees ship coming from sea assumes it is British Ship is French led by French de Grasse who is working with American George Washington to ambush British Washington and de Grasse ambush British forcing surrender o France is now bankrupt because they helped America achieve independence o France is still agrarian agriculturally dependent o 1787 Louis XVI asks for money but there is none so he summons help from the Assembly of Notables economic advisors whose first suggestion is to tax the nobility Nobility consists of two groups Nobility of the Sword warriors force peasants to grow their food while the nobles go to war tax exempt etc Financial Crisis 3 Nobility of the Robe pay nobleman fee to king who in exchange knights them with title of nobility looked down upon by the Nobility of the Sword for not being born into wealth Nobility of the Robe progressively becomes poor bc they don t practice primogeniture eldest child gets most if not all inheritance rather the nobility give each of their children some money resulting in everyone getting a smaller piece of the pie so each generation gets poorer and poorer To offset this problem they begin intermarrying with the o Nobility do not want to be taxed and Louis doesn t argue so the Assembly s next Sword suggestion is to tax the bourgeoisie Bourgeoisie consist of Wealthy influential businesspeople money power Merchants professionals lawyers doctors accountants etc Produce lucrative service BUT No real voice in government Bourgeoisie begin publicizing the philosophies of John Locke all people have natural unalienable rights of life liberty and property the king is in power to protect those rights of subjects Montesquieu democracy does not work if polarization and income inequality are too large otherwise there s no room for compromise o Bourgeoisie do not want to be taxed either so Assembly s next suggestion is to tax the peasants Peasantry consists of two groups Rural peasantry RP cannot pay taxes in money so they must engage in barter economy in which they pay with whatever commodity they produce Barter Economy is not efficient which leaves Urban poor UP already pay taxes on Taille for being alive Aides sales tax Millfees use of nobility s mills to grind their own grain Hunting and Fishing to use nobility s woods streams Corv e obligation of forced labor for public project Lettres de cachet imprisonment without knowledge of alleged crime signed and sealed by king 4 o If the urban poor are too heavily taxed already o The rural peasants make it too difficult to collect taxes AND AND AND o The bourgeoisie have heavy political obligations and philosophical opposition o The nobility do not want to pay taxes o Louis XVI gathers the Estate General which will be difficult bc the last time it convened was in 1614 so they re all dead PART II PHASES Constitutional Phase National Constituent Assembly o Originally the Estates General consists of 3 estates Catholic Clergy Younger children of nobles who did not receive inheritance Tax exempt Revenue came through renting land while not paying taxes on it Nobility see previous notes Bourgeoisie Property owning people Pay taxes Literate representatives of the poor and peasantry o EG votes based on rank CC is 1 not based on headcount B would be 1 o Tennis Court Oath Bourgeoisie locked out of EG meeting so they gather to form the TCO Oath to stick together and help both the poor and the peasantry Henceforth called National Assembly o Storming of the Bastille 7 1789 Rumor that King Louis is going to physically disband the NA o Great Fear People try to find out if Louis has been storing weapons in prison of Bastille Prison guard fires into the crowd People storm prison killing guards retrieving as many weapons as possible Louis gets scared and commands EG to now vote based on headcount 5 Peasants band together following Bastille to attack nobles castles and burn them in the hopes of destroying all records of their obligations toward them o Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 8 1789 NCA s attempts to