Modern World Civilization
Spring 2009
The Situation Before The
Fall of the Bastille
The National Assembly met while
France faced a series of popular disturbances.
They were the result of the
economic situation.
Also there was fear in the air
of a counterrevolution led by the king and aristocracy.
Troops did maneuver in and
around Paris.
The popular distrust of the king
increased with the kings dismal of the popular finance minister Necker.
The Fall of the Bastille
The new city government was
established.
A National Guard was organized
loyal to the National Assembly.
Crowds roamed the city looking
for cheaper bread.
On
July 14 mobs broke into govt buildings looking for arms.
The attacked the
Invalides,
a military hospital in Paris.
Then they attacked the
Bastille,
a prison in Paris and only seven prisoners were freed.
The Great Fear
The peasants feared that the
Brigands would return.
The brigands were to destroy
crops and force a return to the pre-Revolutionary period.
In reality, there was no such
threat.
The rural population just went
hysterical.
They attacked chateaux and
destroyed documents.
If they nobles didnt leave,
they were lynched.
The
Revolutionary Events of the Summer of 1789
A
Constitutional Revolution
with the creation of the National Assembly.
The
Paris Revolution
culminating in the storming of the Bastille.
Revolutions in
Provincial Capitals throughout France.
The Great Fear.
The Last Crisis of 1789
The 1789 Harvest was good, yet
the lack of rain crippled milling operations.
The public had to que up for
bread.
A rumor spread that the queen
said: let them eat cake.
On
Oct. 5,
a band of women march from Paris to Versailles.
They demanded the baker, the
bakers wife, and the bakers son.
They returned the king to the
Tuileries Palace.
The
Achievements of the National Assembly
Equal taxation.
Church give up the tithe.
Aristocracy gave up their feudal
rights.
Abolished serfdom.
Ended venality of office.
Issued the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen.
Seized church lands and issued
money on the land. The currency was called
Assignats.
Other Changes
Banned strikes and labor
organizations.
Nationalized the Church.
The Church was nationalized by
The Civil
Constitution of the Clergy
(1790)
The
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Reduced the number of
bishoprics.
Turned the clergy into civil
servants.
Clergy had to swear and oath of
loyalty to the State.
Reduced the power of the Pope in
France.
The
Constitution of 1791
Departments replaced old
provinces.
Each was subdivided into further
administrative units.
Established an independent court
system.
Established a unicameral
legislature.
The king was now King of the
French, not King of France.
Took over functions of the
church.
Created two classes of citizens
-- Passive and Active -- only active citizens could vote.
Enemies of the Constitution
The Society of Friends
of the Revolution, better known as the
Jacobins.
The Society of the
Friends of the Rights of Man, the
Cordeliers.
The King, the Nobles, and those
of the Clergy that refused to swear the oath.
Power of the Jacobins
Planted rabble rousing articles
in the press.
Established a network of
political clubs.
Captured the city governments.
The former two Estates fled
France providing the Jacobins with a cause.
Then the king fled France in
June of 1791, but was captured at the border.
The Composition of the
Legislature under the Constitution of 1791
The Right composed 265
delegates [Constitutional
Monarchists]
The Center composed 345
delegates [Swamp
or the Plain]
The Left composed 130 members [Jacobins
and
their allies]
The Problems for the Plain
The Plain had power and they
were indecisive.
The capable political leaders of
the Left intimidated them.
The Plain/Center had no strong
commitment to either the king or the republic.
This made them vulnerable to the
Left.
The Leadership of the
Gironde
Most came from Bordeaux in the
Gironde Department.
They were excellent in Political
oratory.
They depicted France as a victim
of the Emigres
and Non-Juring Clergy.
They argued that they were
enemies of France and in league with Francis I of Austria.
They were indistinguishable from
the Jacobins.
The
War with Austria
On April 20, 1792, the Girodins
managed for France to declare war on Austria.
But the war went badly because
so many officers of noble birth defected to the enemy.
Then the Prussians entered the
conflict on July 25.
The
Duke of Brunswick
issued the Brunswick Manifesto.
The
Impact of The Brunswick Manifesto
Paris would pay a dear price if
anything happened to the King and Queen.
It also contained the war aims
of the Allies.
The Brunswick Manifesto didnt
frighten the French.
But the Jacobins were planning a
coup and won the working class sections of Paris to their cause.
This was the result of the
deteriorating economic problems.
The Jacobin Coup
Quickly the 48 sections fell
under the control of the Jacobins.
The night of August 9-10, 1792
the leaders of the Jacobins toppled the Paris government.
Then they attacked the Tuileries
forcing the King to flee with his family to the National Assembly.
The mobs proceeded to massacre
the Swiss Guards.
The National Assembly and the
King were prisoners of Paris.
The
Lower Social Orders violently disliked the Upper Classes
There was Tension in the
Air
France was facing one crisis
from August 10 to September 21, 1792.
The value of the Assignat
dropped by 40%.
The Jacobins were still inciting
the public.
The Prussians had invaded
Northern France.
Danton,
the Justice Minister, then made the declaration: Boldness, more boldness,
always boldness.
Danton
The September Massacres
Started on September 2, 1791.
Mobs traveled from prison to
prison and held impromptu courts followed by immediate executions.
The number of victims may have
reached 1,000
The greatest horror involved the
Princesse de Lamballe.
She was the Queens maid of
honor and the mob took her head to the Temple.
The Miracle of Valmy
The French managed to stop the
invasion.
This reduced the threat to
Paris.
But by 1793, France found
themselves at war with nearly everyone.
Then there was the election to
the Convention.
The Election to the
Convention
This brought real political
democracy to France.
Only 10% of the possible
electorate voted.
The rest failed to participate.
The Republicans were victorious.
But there was split in the
Jacobin ranks between right and left.
The right were the
Girondins
and the Left the Mountain.
The Split between The
Girondins and The Jacobins.
Mountain represented Paris.
Gironde represented the rural
regions.
Both were influenced by the
Philosophes.
The Girondins wanted to relax
the Revolutionary spirit.
The Jacobins wanted to increase
it.
The Girodins wanted
Federalism.
The Jacobins wanted
Centralization.
Meet Maximilien Robespierre
(1758-94)
He didnt look like a
revolutionary.
He was a fanatic.
He wanted to turn the Social
Contract into political reality.
He believed he knew what the
people wanted.
He thought he knew the General
Will.
He wanted to establish a
Republic of Virtue.
If the French didnt like it,
the would force it on them.
Robespierre
The Execution of Louis Capet
This was the first victory of
the Jacobins.
The Gironde attempted to delay
and even wanted the people to decide.
But that was blocked.
Instead, the King was executed
on Jan. 21, 1793.
With this defeat the Gironde was
seen as counter-revolutionary.
The Gironde was doomed and with
the arrest of 21 of their leaders, the Terror was on.
The Execution of the King
The Constitution of 1793
Universal manhood suffrage.
Single legislature.
Committee of Public Safety
served as executive body.
Police functions fell to the
Committee of Public Security.
The Courts were in the hands of
the Revolutionary Tribunals.
Eliminating Enemies
The Terror moved into the rural
regions with the Deputies on Mission.
About 20,000 people were killed.
Potential enemies were
eliminated too.
Rebels in the Vendee were
eliminated as well.
The Guillotine was not the only
method.
So was the Noyades [drownings].
Marie
Antionette Before
Marie Antionette After
Achievements of the Terror
The introduction of the
Levee-en-Mass.
Introduced the Maximum: Wages
set at 50% of 1790 wages and food prices 33% of 1790 levels.
Law of Ventose, authorizing
seizure of emigres properties.
Stabilized the Assignat.
Abolished Slavery.
Altered the calendar.
Introduced the metric system.
The
Guillotine, No. 1
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, a
delegate to the National Assembly proposed a more humane form of Capital
Punishment.
He advocated a form of surgical
instantaneous death.
Decapitation would reduce pain,
but would give the criminal a noble sense of purpose.
Guillotine,
No. 2
The nickname was the Machine.
In 1792, a piano maker, Tobias
Schmidt, received a contract to build a prototype, which he completed in a week.
He tested the machine on
corpses.
Robespierre
on Terror
The Fall of Robespierre
Robespierres Republic of Virtue
caused fear among many in the Convention.
Many already thought that the
Revolution had gone too far.
Then Robespierre took a
vacation.
When he reappeared on June 26,
1794 he made a number of threats.
For example traitors must be
punished.
On the following day,
Robespierre and his allies were arrested and immediately executed.
The Elimination of
Robespierre and his Allies
The Thermidorian Reaction
Disbanded the Revolutionary
Tribunals.
Recalled the Deputies on
Mission.
Reduced the power of the
Committees of Public Safety and Security.
Closed the Paris Jacobin Club.
Allowed Catholic priests to hold
mass.
The press was freed.
The White Reaction
A White Terror took place
after the fall of the Jacobins.
It was also directed at those
who purchased church and noble lands.
Economic
Situation
Prices soared as the Maximum was
phased out.
The Assignats collapsed to all
time new lows.
The Constitution of 1795
Denied the right to vote to the
poor.
Required office holders to own
considerable amounts of property.
It established a bicameral
legislature -- Council
of Five Hundred
and the Council of Elders.
The Elders had to be at least 40
and married or widowed.
The Council of Five Hundred
selected the Elders.
The Elders selected the
Directors,
which served as the executive branch.
Enemies of the Directory
The Directory made enemies on
the Left.
Because it supported the Middle
Class at the expense of the working class.
The Directory had to defeat the
Conspiracy of Equals.
And beat off the Jacobins with a
whiff of grapeshot.
Women and Revolution
Women marched on Versailles
during the October Days.
Women managed to make men take
decisive action.
Some women had influence over
their husbands.
Some women even went to the
Guillotine with their husbands such as Mme. Roland.
It is Not Nice to Anger a Lady
This was Charlotte Corday.
An aristocratic woman, but from
the lower aristocracy.
She was a devoted Catholic.
She came from Normandy.
She was a Girondist.
When Marat in the Committee of
Surveillance ordered the arrest of 22 Girondists.
She decided to kill him
especially after the arrest of another Girondist Jacques Pierre Brissot.
Marat
Was a Swiss-born scientist and
physician.
Spent considerable time in
England.
But is better known as a French
Revolutionary.
He helped launch the Reign of
Terror.
He advocated the end of the
monarchy.
And thought the September
Massacres would cleanse France.
But more important, he composed
the death lists of those going to the guillotine.
The Deed
Carrying a copy of Plutarchs
Parallel Lives she traveled from Caen to Paris on July 9, 1793.
She stayed at a local hotel.
But first she purchased a knife.
Then she wrote Speech to the
French Who are Friends of Law and Peace.
Explaining the reasons for her
act.
She then went to Marats
residence to see the demon.
She was initially turned away.
Her entry was to tell Marat of a
Girondist plot in Caen.
Her Fate
Once in.
She told him of the plot.
And Marat started writing down
the names.
She then pulled out the knife
and began stabbing Marat.
Piercing his chest and cutting
his aorta and lung and left ventricle.
Crying out, Oh my, my dear
friend.
She was arrested, tried, and
went to the guillotine.
Women Revolutionaires
Theroigne de Mericourt sat with
the men in the Jacobin Club and wore the National Guard Uniform.
She even helped storm the
Tuileries on Aug. 10, 1792.
Some women even organized the
club Revolutionary Republican Citizenesses to combat the women that ran the
markets.
These women were so
revolutionary that the Conveniton banned them.
The Case of
Olympe de Gouges
She was a playwright and
pamphleteer who wrote the
Rights of Women and Citizen.
She attacked Robespierre.
Offered to defend the king.
Failed to avoid the Guillotine,
despite feigning pregnancy at the age of 45.
How did Men Think about
this?
Men of the French Revolution
believed that a womans place was that of wife and mother, bearing the children
for the Homeland.
Leave the politics to the guys.
The Words of Pruhomme
Be honest and diligent girls,
tender and modest wives, wise mothers, and you will be a good patriots. True
patriotism consists of fulfilling ones duties and valuing only rights
appropriate to each according to sex and age, and wearing not the [Liberty] Cap
and pantaloons and not carrying the pike and pistol. Leave those to men who are
born to protect you and make you happy.
The State of Slavery on
Saint Domingue
Only a small number of slaves
were actually born on the island.
The slaveholders were even worse
than American slaveholders.
The French constantly imported
more slaves.
The slaves came from 10 or 12
African tribes.
The slaves spoke a Patois, a
creole language.
While many were Christian, they
practiced Voodoo.
Triangular Trade or The
Atlantic Crossing
The French Revolution in
Haiti
Haiti was divided into two
classes -- Grand Blancs and Petite Blancs.
The Grand Blancs owned the most
of the wealth.
The Grand Blancs were known as
the Pompons Blancs.
The Petite Blancs were known as
the Pompons Rouge.
The Situation in Saint
Domingue in the 1780s
Was the wealthiest colony in the
Carribean.
It was called the Pear of the
Antilles.
The population was broken down
to included 500,000 Slaves; 40,000 Europeans; and 30,000 free persons of color.
The islands whites were united
racially but were divided along class lines.
Planters were united against the
bourgeoisie and both were united against the poor whites.
Gens de Coleur
The free people of color were
wealthy and populous.
Some even became planters too.
They may even own slaves as
well.
Even though they were wealthy,
they suffered discrimination too.
They were never accepted by the
white population.
Yet they had to serve in the
militia and do all the things that whites did, but that they did not have equal
rights.
The Slaves
With the 500,000 slaves, Saint
Domingue had the largest slave population in the Caribbean.
The slaves did not have much in
common other than their skin color.
On any given plantation, a
listener could hear up to 20 different languages.
Slaves were then divided by
their origins, such as Bantus were called Congoes.
Native born slaves composed only
one third of the slave population.
They were called Creoles.
Persons of Color in Haiti
Another class was the Mulattoes,
mixed ancestry -- White and Black.
They had wealth but no power.
They sought help from
Les Amis Des Noirs.
Then there were the slaves.
Impact of the French
Revolution in Haiti
The fall of the Bastille
mobilized the petite blancs into a form of Sans Culottes.
In France the
Amis de Noir
championed the end to Slavery.
Gens de Coleur
sought equal rights with the
Colons.
In Oct. 1790,
Vincent Oge,
a gens de coleur returned from France and championed for equality.
He then recruited a group of 300
to fight for their rights.
The Start of the Slave
Insurrection
In Aug. 1791 around the town of
Le Cap, the slaves revolted.
Looting, raping and murder was
common.
Soon the revolt spread
throughout the island.
Arms came from the Spanish half
of the island.
What was amazing was that it
escaped detection.
The role of gens de coleur as
complex.
But at first it was contained.
The Revolt was Violent
The Slave Revolt in Haiti
Like the French Revolution, it
was a social conflict.
Slaves attacked their masters.
Mulattoes lost their civil
rights.
The slaves found a remarkable
leader -- Toussaint L Overture,
who managed to keep the French at bay.
When the French sent troops, the
slaves were not awed.
Meet Toussaint LOverture
Toussaints Background
Born on the Breda Plantation.
He was the oldest of eight
children.
Took the name LOverture in
1793.
Was influenced by the
Histoire Philosophique
of
Abbe Raynal,
who attacked the institution of slavery.
He was more intelligent of other
slaves and worked in the big house.
Later becomes a Brig. General
who served the Spanish and the French.
By 1801 was a master of the
whole island.
Why
were the French Defeated?
The French were defeated by
Yellow Fever.
Napoleon then decided to sell
Louisiana to Jefferson in 1803, since he could not pacify the island.
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