French Revolution, Part I:

Cultural Origins

The French & Indian War, AKA, The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)

• French and English contest the Ohio River Valley
• George Washington and Fort Duquesne (1754)

Map of British and English territory in 1750s

• Discuss the paper.
• Two major transformations of the 19th century.
  • Social issues of representation.
    • What is the state? Who does it represent? Who should participate?
    • These are fundamentally post-French Revolutionary questions.
  • The other is the outcome of the Industrial revolution.
    • Now there is more food than people can eat. Poverty is not a result of scarcity.
    • What then explains poverty?
      • The liberal response and the socialist response.

The American Revolution (1776-1783)

• Benign Negligence ends in 1763
  • More troops to defend the colonies
  • Stamp Act (1765), Tea Act (1773)
  • Cycle: English create new laws, a minority of the Colonists revolt

• Indirect Representation
  • No taxation without representation
• Colonies agree to Rebel
• French Support
  • military advisors: Marquis de Lafayette
  • money

• Stamp Act (1765) - For documents to be legal they must be printed on official stamped paper. This was a tax on the colonies to pay for the French and Indian War.
• Tea Act (1773) - The British East India Company was given a monopoly on tea. Lowered Taxes.
• Intolerable Acts (1774) - Punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
  • Boston Port Act: Closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for.
  • Massachusetts Government Act: Removed Massachusetts’ charter and restricted town meetings and brought it under the direct control of the British Government. Position in the colony appointed by British government.
  • They limited town meetings, closed the Boston port, and allowed British officials to be tried in England.
  • Seen as a violation of the rights of the colonists and their self-rule.
  • Led to First Continental Congress in 1774.
  • War broke out in April 1775 at the battle of Lexington and Concord.
  • Declaration of independence in 1776.

A French Economic Crisis in 1780s

• Bankruptcy in France
• Tax reform and the Assembly of Notables (1787)
• Marquis de Lafayette calls for an Estates General
• Try tax reform with Parlement, Fails (1788)

Why Does an Economic Crisis Lead to a Revolution?

• Desacralization of the Monarchy.
• Division of sovereignty: Court vs Public Sphere.
• Growing Criticism of Seigneurialism.

Three Kings, 149 Years

• Louis XIV (1643-1715)
• Louis XV (1715-1774)
• Louis XVI (1774-1792)

Jansenist Controversy

• Jansenism (early 1700s)
• Parlement of Paris and Jansenism
• Deists
• Criticisms of the Monarchy no longer associated with blasphemy.

• Jansenism: A religious movement within the Catholic Church that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was seen as a challenge to the authority of the Pope and the Jesuits, leading to conflicts within the Church and with the monarchy.
• Significant followers in the Paris Parlement.
  • Many thought the King’s oppression of Jansenism was acting despotically.
  • Argued for conciliarism in the state.
    • Just like in religion councils were the true arbiters of religion, parlement were the true

The Public Sphere and Public Opinion

• Newspapers and Coffee shops = discussion of current events.
• Otherwise Private Events became Public Discussion
• Marie Antoinette and the Diplomatic Revolution (1756)
• Louis XV and his mistresses.
• Louis XVI and his love life with Marie Antoinette
• Lawyers published legal briefs to the public.

• After the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748), France and Austria were enemies. In 1756, they became allies in the Diplomatic Revolution. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess, married Louis XVI in 1770. She was unpopular because of her foreign birth and the perception that she was influencing French politics in favor of Austria.
• This was a major shift to the French populace.
• Louis XV had publicly supported diplomacy counter to an alliance with the Austrians.
• He managed a secret diplomacy for years.
  • Deeply unpopular.
  • France at war with Hapsburgs for centuries
  • Marie Antoinette married to Louis XVI in 1770 to cement the alliance.
  • She became a sign of the unpopular alliance.
• Louis XV took multiple mistresses.
  • Madame de Pompadour was a mistress of Louis XV and a major patron of the arts. She was influential in politics and diplomacy, which was controversial.
  • Madame du Barry was another mistress and became influential in politics.
    • Came from humble beginnings and was a courtesan.
    • Louis XV ordered she should marry someone of high repute and come to court (she married the Count Guillaume du Barry). King let her participate in state councils (she had little interest).
    • Outrage over her in public.
• Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette criticised intensely for a lack of having children.
  • Marie Antoinette criticized supposedly dominated Louis and cuckolded him.
• Diamond Necklace Affair (1785)
  • A scandal involving a diamond necklace that tarnished Marie Antoinette’s reputation, even though she was not directly involved. It was used to fuel public outrage against her and the monarchy.
  • Louis XV ordered a necklace made for Madame du Barry that cost 2 million livres.
  • He died, du Barry banished.
  • Marie Antoinette refused to buy the necklace.
  • Jeanne de la Motte (con artist)
  • Cardinal de Rohan (wanted to get back in Marie Antoinette’s good graces)
  • Jeanne targeted Cardinal pretending to be Marie.
    • long correspondence, made Rohan believe he was
    • Jeanne told Rohan Marie wanted to buy the necklace.
    • Rohan organized the purchase of the necklace for installments summing 2 million livres.
    • He delivered it to Jeanne and it was picked apart and sold on the black market.
  • Trial found Marie blameless, Rohan innocent, but Jeanne guilty. (but rohan was exiled by the King)
    • Public Opinion:
      • Marie Antoinette used la Motte as a dupe.
      • Marie seen as more interested in vanity than good of the people.

Declining Support for Seigneurialism

• Growing seigneurialism.
  • Nobles reacting to economic situation.
  • Found ways to extract more from peasants.
• Led to popular Outrage.
  • A debate over festival in Salency (1773)

• Seigneurs searched the archives to old rules that allowed them to extract more money from peasants
• More frequently, particular cases involving private individuals were used by idealistic or ambitious lawyers as metaphors for larger social concerns. When the seigneur of a hamlet in Normandy tried in 1773 to bully his villagers over the details of a local festival, lawyers writing in defense of the peasant community portrayed the lord as a brutal tyrant and identified the cause of the village of Salency as that of “the Nation”

Tax Reform in the 1780s

• Assembly of Notables (1787)
  • Marquis de Lafayette
• Estates General (1789)

• This was the world Louis XVI inherited when he was dealing with the great financial crisis of the 1780s.
• There was declining support for the institution of the monarch himself.
• Even within the elites of society, there was a growing sentiment that the monarch could betray the people.
  • Jensenist controversy.
  • Criticism from Parlement, Lawyers, and the public sphere and grub street.
• Growing sentiment that there is something called the patrie or the nation.