CHAPTER 20: THE REVOLUTION IN POLITICS (1775-1815)
Pre Chapter
I. Series of revolutions and wars challenged old order of monarchs and aristocrats in late 18th cent
A. Ever-changing ideas on freedom and equality flourished and spread
B. Revolutionary era - begins in 1775 North America
1. 1789 France becomes leading revolutionary nation - most populous west Euro country; center of culture
and intellectual life
a) Went from constitutional monarchy → radical republic → empire under Napoleon lasting till
1815
2. Period of constant domestic turmoil
3. French armies wanted revolution - eager to establish new govts throughout Euro
4. Slaves of Saint-Domingue rise in 1791 - inspired by ideals of Revolution and internal colonial conditions
a) Rebellion → creation of Haiti
Background to Revolution
I. Pre-Notes - What social, political, and economic factors formed the background to the French Revolution?
A. Debated topic of the origin of French Rev includes many factors
1. Deep social changes in France
2. Long term political crisis eroding monarchical legitimacy
3. Practical and ideological effects of American Rev
4. Impact of new political ideas derived from Enlight
5. MOST IMPORTANT: financial crisis from France’s participation in overseas wars
II. Legal Orders and Social Reality
A. France population still divided into three orders
1. Estates - three orders of clergy, nobility, and everyone else
a) Clergy - 1st estate; around 100k ppl
(1) Privileges: owned around 10% of land; paid “voluntary gift” instead of regular taxes to
govt every 5 years
(2) Tithe - church property taxes (10% of total earnings)
b) Nobility - 2nd estate; around 400k ppl; “those who fought” during Middle Ages
(1) Privileges: owned around 25% of land; also lightly taxed
(2) Privileges of lordship - rights to hunt and fish, village monopolies on baking bread and
pressing grapes for wine, fees for justice, etc
(3) Honorific privileges - right to precedence on public occasions; right to bear swords
(a) Rights proclaimed nobility's legal superiority - elevated social position
c) Everyone else (commoners) - 98% of population
(1) Some were educated and rich - prosperous merchants, lawyers, officials
(a) May have purchased manorial rights to obtain profit and social honor
(2) Bourgeoisie - wealthy, well-educated; embracers of Enlight; readers of Enlight themes
(a) White collared workers - worked with education not hands (doctors, lawyers,
teachers, etc)
(b) Could move to 2nd estate by buying positions or serving govt
(3) Artisans - skilled tradespeople with specialized skill; shopworkers, etc
(a) Lived in cities (urban)
(4) Peasants - rural agricultural workers, farmers, laborers
(a) Enlight ideas don’t serve them any practical purpose
(5) BOTTOM LINE: third estate was conglomeration of different social groups only united by
shared legal status
B. Growing tensions btwn nobility and third estate bourgeoisie
1. Bourgeoisie increasing in size, wealth, culture, and self-confidence
a) Got irritated by feudal laws (restrained economy) and pretensions of a nobility (closing ranks
against middle-class aspirations)
(1) ⤷ Bourgeoisie rise up - lead third estate in social revolution destroying feudal
privileges; established capitalist order based on individualism and market economy
C. French Rev’s origins subject to revisionism (new interpretations) abt bourgeoisie and nobility social conflicts
1. New research challenges past theories
2. Revisionist historians questioned growing social conflict btwn progressive capitalist bourgeoisie and
conservative feudal nobility
a) See both bourgeoisie and nobility as highly fragmented with numerous internal rivalries
, (1) I.e. Ancient sword nobility (people from oldest noble families) separated by differences
in wealth, education, and worldview from newer robe nobility (acquired noble titles
through service in royal administration and judiciary)
b) BOTTOM LINE: Bourgeoisie and nobility form two || social ladders linked together at top by
wealth, marriage, and Enlight culture
D. Revisionist historians note Bourgeoisie and nobility were good in economic sphere
1. Both preferred investment in land and govt service
a) Ideal of merchant capitalist: gain enough wealth to retire from trade, purchase estate, livenobly
as large landowner
b) Wealthy third estate could move into second by serving govt and purchasing noble positions
c) Wealthy nobles also acted as aggressive capitalists - invested in mining, metallurgy, foreign
trade
2. Key areas of nobility were liberal - generally joined bourgeoisie in opposition to govt
E. Revolutionists have shaken belief that bourgeoisie and nobility were inevitably locked in growing conflict
1. BUT they also made clear the Old Regime had ceased to correspond w/ social reality by 1780s
a) Illegally, society still based on rigid orders inherited from Middle Ages but these distinctions
were often blurred
F. SItuations of the wealthy and influential class and common poor
1. Upper’s frustrated by bureaucratic monarchy that claimed right to absolute power
2. France’s laborers had strong, stable traditions and struggled in life
III. The Crisis of Political Legitimacy
A. Louis XV and regent duke of Orleans counter absolute power
1. Louis XV (1715-1774) - absolutist rule system challenged
a) Regent duke of Orléans (Philippe II, 1674-1723)
(1) New institutions retrieves powers they lost under Louis XIV
(2) Parlements regain right to evaluate royal decrees publicly in writing before registration
and given force of law - suspended by Louis XIV
(a) A counter-weight to absolute power - allowed fixed branch of nobility to
evaluate king’s decrees
B. War expenses strained state treasury during 18th cent War of Austrian Succession
1. Privileged escaped direct taxes, indirect taxes relatively low → tax revenue couldn’t meet war costs
2. War of Austrian Succession - France goes into financial crisis; pushed state to attempt tax reform
3. 1748 Louis XIV’s finance minister decreed 5 cent income tax on everyone
a) Sparks protest led by Parlement of Paris w/ nobility, clergy, towns, some wealthy bourgeoisie
(exempt from protest)
b) Monarchy drops new tax
C. War expenses from Seven Years’ War
1. Govt tried to maintain emergency taxes after war ended
a) Parlement of Paris protested - challenges royal authority
(1) Claimed kings power had to be limited to protect liberty
(2) Govt drops taxes again
(a) Judicial opposition said king couldn't levy taxes w/o consent of Parlement of
Paris
D. Louis XV finally defends his absolutist inheritance
1. “The magistrates are my officers… In my person only does the sovereign power rest”
2. 1768 appoints Rene de Maupeou as chancellor to crush judicial opposition
a) Abolished existing parelements; exiled members of Parlement of Paris to provinces
b) Geins taxing privileged groups
c) Maupeou parlements - new and docile parlements of royal officials
(1) HOWEVER majority sided w/ old parlements - widespread criticism of “royal despotism”
E. Louis XV and his mistresses from court nobility
1. Madame Pompadour - favorite mistress from 1745-1750; daughter of disgraced bourgeois financier
a) Exercised large influence over literature, art, decorative arts - used patronage to support Voltaire
and promote rococo style
b) After affair: maintained influence over king - helped bring about Austrian influence after Seven
Years’ War
(1) BOTTOM LINE: Pompadours low birth and hidden political influence generated stream of
resentful and illegal pamphleteering (writing/publishing of controversial pamphlets)
F. Louis XV sinks lower in immortality and scandalmongering is strong after Pompadour
