Summary AS History: Why were the French Governments unstable
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Course
A Level History
Institution
11th Grade
A fully summarised document of section 1.2 of the French Revolution.
This chapter summaries the instability of the French government.
The summary is easy to follow and focuses on the key points
1.2 Why were French governments unstable 1790 -1795?
§ Lack of agreement among decision-makers over who should
govern the country and how it should be governed.
§ Made worse through the hostility from Paris and France
regions who resented Paris.
§ The social and economic problems continued
§ War broke out against Austria in 1792, this worsened the
situation as well as creating additional problems.
§ Saw many changes –
§ the abolition of the monarchy and aristocracy
§ vast religious changes
§ new calendar with different names for the months.
§ The calendar started on 22 September 1792, the day after the
acceptance of the new republican constitution for France. They
were given new names, such as Prairial, Brumaire and
Thermidor. Napoleon abolished this calendar and returned to
the old system in 1805.
v Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary groups: their views and
aims
§ Two problems remained.
1. get the king to accept the changes
2. Whether the Assembly was capable of carrying out these great
decisions.
§ There was a new type of government created in France. Most
members of the Third Estate agreed broadly on:
1. France should still have a monarch, but it should not be an
absolute monarchy. Power had to be shared with the people.
2. Aristocratic and Church privileges should be abolished, and jobs
should go to the most able candidates.
3. There should be a fair system of taxation.
, 4. There should be proper accountability in government and a
fairer system of justice.
§ No clear picture on how this would be done, there were no
obvious leaders and no inclination on what the people wanted
§ A system like this had never existed before with many
Assembly members inexperienced in making laws and decisions
§ In the course of 1790 the Assembly started the work of
reconstruction and change.
§ Their focus was on the four areas that had been of most
concern to the majority of the French people before 1789:
The unfair system of taxation
The inefficient and corrupt system largely controlled by the
aristocracy
The out-of-date justice system
The role, status and wealth of the Roman Catholic Church.
§ Many of the changes that the Assembly introduced in 1790
lasted for many years after the revolution.
v The principal revolutionary groups
§ The representatives who met in the Assembly in 1790 were
mostly men of property that were influenced by the ideas of
the Enlightenment.
§ Many realised to make a change they needed to join a group of
like-minded people – known as clubs
§ Three main groups emerged: representing conservatives,
moderate reformers and radical reformers within the
Assembly.
§ The most influential was the Jacobins.
§ Formed in 1789 - open to all and had linked groups all across of
France.
§ It was powerful in Paris and had strong connections with the
Parisian working classes.
§ They argued strongly for the execution of the king and the end
of the aristocracy and the Roman Catholic Church in France.
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