FRENCH REVOLUTION 1789-1791
Summer
1789 THE GREAT FEAR: fear of aristocratic conspiracy: famine &
invasion
1) 1788: single worst harvest of 18th C, after series of poor harvests
pacte de famine: aristocrats believed to
be hoarding grain
because prices (espec. bread) rise 3 times
higher than wages
"brigands:" famine, unemployment generate
3 million vagrants;
belief that aristocrats using them against
people
2) fear of invasion: emigres, aristocrats allied w/ foreign interests
defensive military reaction, preventative
arrests, executions
OCTOBER
DAYS: bad harvest, rise in bread prices, leads to bread riots
October 5 PARISIAN BREAD RIOT: women gather at Hotel de Ville, demand
bread
decide to march on Versailles to appeal
to King
Municipal Council commissions LAFAYETTE to bring King
to Paris
October 6 Armed mob of 20,000 attacks Versailles palace, kill royal
bodyguard
invade Queen's apartments (note Edmund Burke's reaction
to this)
royal family forcibly brought back to Paris accompanied
by mob
1789-1791 CONSTITUENT or NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (renamed to prepare Constitution)
1.
FINANCIAL CRISIS: tax collection breaks down completely, but Assembly still
1) resumes payments on royal debt to restore confidence;
2) abolishes all venal offices, but with compensation
(note that
43% of assembly members are venal office holders,
most lawyers)
Solution: SALE OF CHURCH LANDS, proposed by TALLEYRAND, Bishop
of Autun
condition: state assumes financial responsibility for Church,
clergy
ASSIGNATS: paper money issued against proceeds of sale of
Church lands
source of continuing revolution due to steady fall in value
Jan 1791 to 91% of face value; July 1791 to 87%; then
steep drop
2.
CIVIL CONSTITUTION OF THE CLERGY: ideological source in Enl. anti-clericalism
formation of STATE CHURCH, with salaried and elected priests &
Bishops
OATH required of all clergy = constitutional clergy (1/3 of lower
clergy)
those who refuse = refractory clergy (all but 7 of 160 Bishops)
1791: Pope condemns Revolution, Civil Constitution and freedom of
thought
church becomes enemy of Revolution & leader of Counter-Revolution
3.
ADMINISTRATIVE REVOLUTION: abolition of historic provinces with their
customary exemptions (such as pays d'état, provincial
parlements)
83 departments established = RATIONALIZATION and CENTRALIZATION
of administrative process; each department approx.
equal in size;
anti-feudal motivation, suppression of local noble control
4.
CONSTITUTION OF 1791 establishes constitutional monarchy (lasts 1791-92)
Legislative Assembly: has sovereign power as representative
of people
King: weak executive power, only "suspensive veto;"
Louis forced to sign
indirect election through electors (like American electoral
college)
categories: 1) active citizens (right to vote) adult male property
holders
(excludes Protestants,
Jews, actors, servants)
2) passive citizens = granted civil rights (including Prot. &
Jews)
5.
ECONOMIC POLICIES: bourgeois concept of property introduced; end feudal
dues
1791 LE CHAPELIER LAW abolition of guilds (restraint of trade; price
fixing)
effect = banning all strikes, & later labor unions
as well
FREE TRADE =central economic policy; opposed to mercantilism &
govt control)
THEME OF REFORMS = FREEDOM examples: abolition
of slavery in French colonies
freedom of press, theater, speech; abolition of primogeniture (equal heirs)
abolition of torture; reform of death penalty (guillotine)
1791 Events -- June: flight to Varennes by King and Queen: attempt
to escape
September: Constitution signed by unwilling King = CONSTITUTIONAL
MONARCHY
August: DECLARATION OF PILLNITZ Austria & Prussia offer
to restore French
monarchy by force if other European powers
will join them
October: Legislative Assembly elected under terms of Robespierre's
"self-denying ordinance": members of National
Assembly ineligible
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY (1791-1792)