The French Revolution was a complex and tumultuous period driven by deep-seated economic inequality, political disenfranchisement, and the spread of Enlightenment ideals, ultimately leading to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic.
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hello welcome back to our lecture series
for Western Civilization 102. we now
turn our attention to the French
Revolution and of course what starts it
the origins of the French Revolution
now remember of course that Louis XIV
you've learned quite a lot about Louis
XIV in previous lectures died and he
left a very young grandson by the name
of a son by the name of Louis XV okay
and of course you know Louis XV was not
his father definitely not his father and
he also doesn't inherit a very stable
France remember all the wars that Louis
XIV had had gotten France involved in
well it depleted the French Treasury
and not to mention the the monarchies
extravagant Lifestyles
peasants paying taxes a lot of the
aristocracy we're getting out of that
and it causes major discontent
now when Louis XVI comes to power this
these Louis XV and Louis XVI they're
called the old regime are they Ashan
regime and
they were not extremely popular
in France at this time
the aristocracy is trying to gain more
power you have weak monarchs during this
old regime period and
and
you also have France France had actually helped
helped
the Americans during the American Revolution
Revolution
you they didn't get involved officially
until the Battle of Saratoga which was
actually the turning point of the
American Revolution
but France had been helping the
Americans because their long-standing enemy
enemy
was Britain
and they were true enemies so obviously
the French will come on the side of the
Americans when they are fighting the
Great British Empire
this cost a lot of money as well but any
of the French soldiers that were that
had come to the North American continent
fighting in the American Revolution um
also read American papers and and read about
the American government we don't need a
monarchy in fact there were arguments
saying that a republic could work we
didn't have to have a king and so the
French are are being exposed to all this
not to mention the fact that one of the
enlightened philosophs or thinkers by
the name of Rousseau talked about what's
called popular sovereignty popular
sovereignty means the people could
decide the people could decide and the
American government that comes out of
the American Revolution we are an experiment
experiment
no one knows if it's going to work or
not but so far it's proving to work and
France also had that huge War debt it
just could not pay it at all
now Louis XVI was not very proactive in
in any effort to reform
or alleviate any suffering in France and
his wife of course was the very famous
Maria Teresa I mean I'm sorry thinking
Austria Marie Antoinette very famous
wife of Louis XVI Marie Antoinette yes
she lost her head
um as part of this French Revolution
you'll see that the American Revolution
was was never radicalized
yet we'll see the French Revolution
going down a path of radicalism and uh
we'll see of course this reign of terror
that will eventually take place during
the French Revolution with thousands of
the nobility in France dying execution
getting their heads cut off
by Mr Guillotine Louis XVI his wife Marie
Marie
Antoinette also died by the guillotine
and I want to say their son mysteriously disappeared
disappeared so
so
the guillotine was actually invented by
the way thinking of the guillotine it
was invented as a humanitarian gesture
because it was quicker
to execute using the guillotine as long
as you kept the blade sharp and uh you
know when you're using an ax or a sword
sometimes you may miss partly it may
take longer to die and actually a doctor
invented it and it was supposed to be a
humanitarian gesture but the French
found that it was also a very expedient
way of execution you could kill a lot of
people in a short amount of time using
the guillotine
so it seems that Louis XVI and his wife
were not
just they were isolated from reality it
didn't seem like they they were totally
aware of what was going on
you know at the worst part of the France
was suffering and The Peasants were
suffering Marie Antoinette had this
whole village built in her Gardens I
mean you know and had parties and such
not very good message to send at this time
time
also you'll probably learn about in the
upcoming lectures that Louis XVI
obviously needed money
um was we're having a problem
and so he tries to register a royal
edict for a land tax a new land tax
and he had to go before this group of
aristocracy and church members to get it approved
approved
and they said the only way that you can
get this new land tax approved is if you
go through the Estates General and
you've heard about this in previous
lectures I think Dr Price has mentioned
it how you know all these different
countries usually had an advisory body
or an assembly Britain had Parliament
Germany had the diet and of course
France has what's called the Estates General
General um
um
problem is the Estates General had not met
met since
since
1614. the year 1614 yes we are now in 1789.
1789.
so it's been a long time since they've
actually met
and so
there's no experience there and we're
going to have problems because it's made
up of three Estates the first estate is
made up of the clergy which is
aristocratic the second estate is made
up of the nobility
um which is hereditary and obviously
Aristocrats nobility
and the Third Estate were the elected
common people
uh you know it could be wealthy middle
classes you still had to be able to
afford to serve in this kind of body
okay not everybody could do that but
writers doctors
we had skilled Artisans shopkeepers that
made up this Third Estate and and the
major problem here is how do they vote
the Third Estate is the biggest okay
obviously the Third Estate the common
people want it to go by person each
person gets a vote they would dominate yeah
yeah
the era the aristocratic classes the
first and second estate said no we vote
by a state so Estates one and two
theoretically would always have the vote
over the Third Estate which was the
common people so this was a big big
problem leading up to the French Revolution
Revolution
so much so that the Third Estate will
end up walking out
of the meeting they will set up their
own uh it's called National Assembly and
everything disintegrates from there so
let's learn more about the origins of
the French Revolution
the French Revolution met a perfect
storm in 1789 when the French Revolution
broke out but it was brewing in the
Years leading up to it during the 18th century
century
France as a nation had grown in
population the economy had grown the
monarchy that had been built on
absolutism had been put in place by
Louis the 13th and Louis XIV now was
being ruled during the 18th century by
Louis the 15th and he would leave that
Throne to his son Louis XVI and that's
when the problems begin but in many
respects what happens leading up to that
time is what will send the French
monarchy down and the French system of government
government
into what is known as the French Revolution
Revolution
it's the people of France that will
bring the French monarchy down in the
institutions the old institutions or the
old regime down those feudal
institutions will come crashing down
very abruptly and and it will be at the
hands of the French people themselves
during the 18th century even though the
population had grown from 20 million to
26 million and the economy had grown
quite a bit during those years as well
France Got itself into debt a series of
wars that the French participated in
including the war of the Austrian
secession the Seven Years War the French
also helped out the Americans in the
American Revolutionary War those Wars
helped to put the French more and more
in debt coupled with an inadequate tax
system for France on inadequate banking
system this debt is what will help bring
the monarchy down in the dramatic change
that will take place in the French
government during the 18th century now
Louis the 15th Reigns for a very long
time he's by the by the time that Louis
XV dies in 1774. he's generally uh
unpopular uh he leaves the throne to his
son Louis XVI who's even more unpopular
uh and someone who is seen as not well
suited to be a leader and not well
suited to make decisions he's also Louis
XVI is also married to Marie Antoinette
who is not liked very much in France
because she is an Austrian Habsburg
Marie Antoinette is the daughter of
monorail Teresa of Austria and the
marriage of the king to Queen Marie
Antoinette is not very popular one of
the factors in that is the fact that
Marie Antoinette has not produced an
heir to the throne and as time goes on
that becomes a problem now it's also or
something that will be resolved
eventually but it won't matter because
the monarchy will come Crashing Down now
now
when Louis the 16th takes over the debt
problems begin to mount the
participation of the French in the
American Revolutionary War escalates the
debt and the debt in France is
short-term debt most of it is privately
held the banking system that the French
have not really adequate to transfer or
to transform that debt into more
long-term debt and
bankruptcy really is looming for the
French government now when Louis XVI
takes over in 1774 he's only 20 years
old his wife is even younger she's 17
years old and he himself feels that he's
not up to the job
he's also someone who seems to be
influenced by the last person that he
talked with or that he spoke with or
that that advised him and he seemed to
side with that particular person that's
not something that you usually equate
with leadership someone who's swayed by
the last person that they talk to but
that seemed to be the case with Louis
XVI now he does recognize that France
has this problem the
in the interest for the debt that they
have eats up about 50 percent about half
of the expenditures for France is being
eaten up just by the interest payments
on the debt
so something has to be done uh it can't
really be restructured because the
banking system is not adequate so he
needs a new source of Revenue and the
new source of Revenue has to be with the
French people now most of the French
people are taxed out but there's a group
uh specifically the clergy and the
nobility who is virtually exempt from
paying taxes they are the possible
source of revenue for the French King at
this point now cool
cool
at the same time
the nobility is not being taxed uh
uh
they themselves realize that this might
be an opportunity for them to gain a
little bit of independence from the the
institution of the monarchy which had
developed into an absolute monarchy in
the previous Century under Louis XIII
and Louis XIV that absolutism continued
into the 18th century and that
absolutism of course was
was
established through
taking the power away from the nobility
over time and the nobility wants to
exert their Authority or their
independence from the monarchy
at the same time they see this
opportunity that okay well maybe we will
be taxed
uh but you have to do something for us
in return
now what ends up happening Louis
is finally going to be persuaded in 1788.
1788.
to call a meeting of the Estates General
now this is a pretty significant the
Estates General was a representative
body of sorts that had been sort of like
the Legislative Assembly or the
parliament for
for France but it hasn't met since 1614
the last time that it met was when Louis
the 13th took over as the king and since
absolutism was established that that
time the Estates General this
representative body that France had had
gone away
it's 1788 this is more than a century
and a half later
Louis is being told to call the estate's
General back which hadn't met again in
over 150 years and so he calls for an
election to take place for the Estates
General now the people in France are are
happy about this they they see an
opportunity for themselves to be
represented uh in the French government
something that they hadn't had for
almost two centuries and they go about a
process of electing members
representatives to serve in this Estates General
General
the early the Early part of 1789 is when
the elections will take place and by the
time you get to May of 1789 the Estates
General will meet as an elected body at
Versailles on May 5th 1789
now traditionally
the traditional rules of the Estates
General when you go back to when they
did meet in the previous Century the
Estates General is made up of three
Estates you have the first estate which
represents the clergy or the church the
second estate which represents the
nobility and the Third Estate represents
the commoners or pretty much everybody
else if you're not a member of the
clergy or if you're not a member of the
nobility you're in the Third Estate but
you are represented in that estate now
the way that it worked with the Estates General
General
is that each house or each estate met
separately and made a decision about a
law that they might enact separately and
then they would have one vote so each
estate would have one vote in the
Estates General the clergy the nobility
and the commoners would get one vote uh
it's uh this one Estate One vote system
is the traditional way in which it was done
done now
now
when we get to 1789
the Third Estate which is by far the
largest in fact the Third Estate
represents about 97 percent of the
population of France the nobility in the
clergy represent just three percent and
they have two votes and they can always
out vote the Third Estate but when they
get to Versailles there's an immediate
debate over exactly which or exactly how
to proceed which uh which way are they
going to go with are they going to go
with the traditional way that they used
to use in the previous Century where you
had one estate that would get one vote
or would it be a vote by head in other
words that
since the Third Estate had the most
people represented 97 percent there were
more representatives in the Third Estate
when they finally met in the Estates
General at Versailles and of course the
Third Estate wants to vote by head the
other two Estates are going to want to
vote in the traditional way which means
one Estate One vote the first and second
estate wants to meet separately the
Third Estate though wants to meet as one
unit and then they all just simply vote
by head and of course that would give
you might say power or dominance to the
Third Estate
now they're going to Wrangle with this
for several weeks it comes you know they
start meeting on May 5th it goes for
several weeks and they get into June and
finally by June 17th the members of the
Third Estate just simply Proclaim
themselves to be the National Assembly
uh instead of the Estates General they
are the National Assembly for France
they are essentially the the equivalent
of parliament or the equivalent of
Congress in the United States
uh for the whole nation and they do
invite the other two Estates to join in
with them and some of the members of the
first two Estates some of the clergy and
some of the nobility do sympathize with
the Third Estate some of these people
that are in the first and the second
estate as well as many of the members of
the Third Estate had been influenced by
the enlightenment which of course was uh
centered to a large degree in Paris the
salons of Paris were the location for
the Enlightenment ideas and of course
those Enlightenment ideas included
things like Liberty and equality in
terms like the citizen and the general
will those are things in that sort of
thinking are going to influence the
delegates of the Estates General you
also have the influence of what happened
in America the participation of France
in the American Revolution and the
Declaration of Independence and the
formation just two years earlier of the
new constitution in America the
establishment of a republic which is a
government without a king and these
people are starting to think in a
completely different way than the
traditional or old ways of thinking the
enlightenment of course challenged
traditional institutions traditional
beliefs and focused on things like
reason and that influence of the
Enlightenment heavily influences members
of the Estates General so the Third
Estate proclaims themselves to be the
National Assembly some of the members of
the first and second estate join in with
them they do this on June 17 1789 at
Versailles of course Versailles is the
location of the French government it's
also the house of
Louis the 14th it's the Royal Residence
at the same time it is the seat of
government for France now
when they do this on the 17th
you know there are of course members of
the first and second estate that do not
like this the king is not someone who is
going to like this as well
they go to a meeting three days later on
June 20th 1789 at Versailles and the
meeting Hall is locked up where the
Estates General is is to meet and this
is just after they Proclaim themselves
to be the National Assembly the meeting
Hall is locked and
some of the members of the national the
newly proclaimed National Assembly begin
to look at themselves and say
they've locked us out we don't have a
place to go and they start to think are
they trying to shut us down right now
well what the National Assembly do does
the members they will go into an area
that is an indoor tennis court and it's
it's actually sort of a handball court
but they uh they're going to call it a
tennis court at Versailles and they go
on to this tennis court and they meet
there and they're all congregated there
and they on June 20th 1789 they are
going to take what's known as the Tennis
Court Oath and this National Assembly is
going to vow to meet until they form a
new constitution for France this really
is the point where the French Revolution
begins although it is associated mainly
with another event that will take place
a few weeks later that I'll get to in a
moment but when the National Assembly
vows that they're going to write a new
Constitution that transforms the
government of France that's a pretty big
deal now Louis the 16th uh
uh
he of course is not someone is going to
want this to happen and there are
members of the nobility members of the
clergy of the other two Estates that do
not want this to happen although there
are some members of the first two
Estates that do join in in this effort
to create a new constitution
uh Louis is going to demand that they
meet separately and then he's going to
say okay well you don't have to be
separately you can meet together
um this is all taking place at
Versailles meanwhile out in the
countryside and in the city of Paris
things begin to develop this perfect
storm in in a sense begins to develop in
France coupled with the Enlightenment ideas
ideas
the debt problem that Louis has the
indecisiveness of the of the Monarch himself
himself
couples with the fact that there is a
tremendous shortage of grain and and
flour and therefore bread for the French people
people
to this day bread is a very important
part of the diet of the French a loaf of
bread and a bottle of wine it could be
lunch for someone who lives in Paris
today and it wouldn't be too dissimilar
more than 200 years ago in 1789 the
problem was there was a very big
shortage of bread and the price had
skyrocketed it was said that at this
time this was the main diet I mean the
average French person it was said ate
about two pounds of bread a day and
there was none or I should say a very
very small Supply which jacked up the
price of bread tremendously the price of
bread soared way out of the reach of
people to the tune of two-month salary
for a loaf of bread and that of course
is not something that the people are
going to be able to to deal with and you
start having a clamoring for for bread
for flour for grain bakeries are being
rated uh by the time you get to July of 19
19
excuse me July of 1789
and you start having a situation where
people are beginning to rise up because
of the hunger that they feel the literal
hunger that they feel and uh to some
extent there's a there's a hunger for
things like Liberty and equality that
had been uh
had been sort of the trademark of the
Enlightenment now
there was also because of what the
National Assembly had done and the
rising tensions in Paris itself
Versailles about 11 or 12 miles away
from the center of Paris uh the king
began to mobilize some of his troops uh
around Versailles bringing them from the
countryside closer to Paris itself and
because of this people in Paris began to
organize a resistance effort
basically mobs going through the streets
going through the bakeries looking for
extra food
they decided that they needed weapons
they did find some weapons thousands of
people got a hold of a storehouse of
weapons which was located in the
basement of a hospital in Paris that had
been put there by the Royal government
they needed gunpowder for the weapons so
someone said that gun powder was located
or could be found at the Royal prison
near the the same river in Paris the
Royal prison known as the Bastille which
was an old fortress this Royal prison
was an old medieval castle that served
as a symbol for uh the past in many ways
a symbol for Royal tyranny and it's
where prisoners were thrown political
prisoners as well as people that would
get into
uh conflicts with the royal family they
could be tossed into the Bastille there
weren't a whole lot of prisoners there
but it was said that there was Gunpowder
there and this mob on July 14 1789 will
enter the present or go up to the prison
and get into an immediate uh fight with
the prison guards who will easily be
overthrown uh the warden of the prison
will finally surrender to this mob
he will be executed pretty much on the
spot by the mob and his head will be
severed and paraded around Paris on a on
a pike and the mob will subsequently
begin to tear this symbol of the royal
family and the symbol of the past down
the Bastille prison Brick by Brick will
be taken down in the subsequent weeks by
this mob now Louis XVI had gone off on a
hunting trip on that day and he comes
back and he wanted to know if there was
any news of what happened in uh in Paris
that day and he was told of what
happened to what happened at the
Bastille and what happened to the warden
uh and reportedly he said is this a
revolt and his aide said no sire this is
a Revolution and the French Revolution
from a symbolic standpoint is with the
storming of the Bastille prison
and what happens with the National
Assembly back at Versailles they are
not going to
condemn the violence that had taken
place in Paris uh or the destruction of
the prison of the Bastille prison in
fact they're going to basically side
with the mob uh and so you have a
joining of the of the
the urban
masses in Paris with the events at
Versailles with the National Assembly in
the subsequent weeks
what happens is the the peasants in the
countryside begin to revolt uh against
the rule of sort of the old Noble ways
out in the countryside you're going to have
have
a Revolt that uh
that takes place throughout the
countryside and they're really this
Revolt of the peasants uh in the French
Countryside in July and August of 1789
uh in in many ways the nobility is going
to wake up and at the National Assembly
you're going to really you're going to
have an event that takes place on the
night of August 4th that really breaks
down the old feudal system that the
peasantry had risen up in the in the
last few weeks against anyway and
basically the peasants rose up against
paying their dues and taxes and minorial
fees and things like that and at the uh
the National Assembly on August the 4th
is going to Proclaim an end to the old
feudal system in France which is a this
is a a huge deal because this breaks
down the the the whole system that
France had been built on for the last
several hundred years and during that
session nobleman after noblemen would
stand up and renounce the Privileges of
the nobility and they would pass a
series of articles article one the
National Assembly hereby completely
abolishes the feudal system it decrees
that among the existing rights and dues
all those originating in or representing
real or personal serfdin or personal
servitudes shall be abolished all
Memorial courts are hereby suppress the
memorial courts are ruled by those are
court systems throughout Paris that are
ruled over by the nobility and the
clergy taxes of every description as
well as the dues have been that have
been substituted for them or hereby
abolished and another method devised to
collect taxes shall be instituted the
sale of Judiciary and municipal offices
privileges personal or real in the
payment of taxes are abolished and this
means the the personal privileges that
the nobility had at the time where they
were exempt from taxes this is being
abolished taxes shall be collected they
say from all citizens and from all
property in the same manner and in the
same form
also the peculiar privileges of the
provinces principalities districts
cities and communes or once and for all
abolished and absorbed into the law that
is common for all French lands in other
words one system in one province that is
established because of the traditions of
the local nobility that's out of the way
and we're going to have common law
throughout the land that was what they
had in England and they're During the
period of the Enlightenment you had
people like Montesquieu who lived in
England who admired the system that was
in England admired to a great extent the
relative religious freedom that they had
there and the system of government the
system of common law that they had in
England so this
this system in in France where you had
all of these different Law Courts and so forth
forth
in different ways of doing things are
going to be stripped down to a common
law all citizens without distinction of
birth and or eligibility are now allowed
to have any office
uh whether civil ecclesiastical or
military and no profession
shall be denied to that person so you're
not going to have these certain
positions within the church certain
positions within the government or or
the military that are restricted just to
certain classes of people the nobility
and so this feudal system is going to
come crashing down on the night of
August 4
1789. so in June you have the National
Assembly being proclaimed the Tennis
Court Oath June 20th the storming of the
Bastille the rise up of the peasants
throughout the provinces of France
August 4th you have the
proclamation of the new of the old
feudal system and really the class
system of abilities being destroyed now
later in that month August 26th and this
is a couple of months after the National
Assembly is proclaimed the assembly will
draft a document known as the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
citizen this is the Declaration to some
extent it's similar to the Declaration
of Independence that had been written
about a decade and a half before in
America it proclaims things like equal
rights and that men are born free and
equal it also proclaims certain freedoms
of religion and freedoms of speech and
and press and things like that in the
Declaration of Rights of Man now
uh it is limited by the way to to men at
this time there is a declaration of the
rights of women
and the citizen that will be drafted as
well uh
the king is not going to
sign off on
what the National Assembly had produced
on August the 4th
with the
destruction of the feudal rights or on
the Declaration of Rights of Man and the
citizen he does not sign those documents
he basically is is not signifying that
he agrees with that and so what as time
goes by as we get into September the the
situation with the bread and and the
shortage of grain and flour producing
skyrocketing costs that will
enable the the urban poor of France to
to rise up again and this is going to be
a an event that's led by the women of
France mainly I mean
if you have a situation to where you're
hungry you're starving
um you might be able to endure that at a
certain point but if you're a woman who
also has to feed her children they are
going to be even more passionate about
it than if it was just for themselves
and you have the women of Paris rising
up coming together Banning together and
then in the rain marching the 11 miles
out to Versailles
the headquarters of the French
government the residents of the king and
the Queen and of course a lot of prop a
lot of
information and to a certain degree
propaganda by the people at the time had
been circulating about the extravagant
lifestyle that the Royals had been
leading I mean Versailles is the largest
Palace in the world uh the The Gardens
of Versailles and the fountains of
Versailles and the extravagance of the
parties and the balls and the in the
ceremony all of that information was
being relayed and the fact that Marie
Antoinette was someone who spent her
time at Versailles
in this really Fairy Land World at the
palace all of this was something that
the French people in in the city when
they were hungry
began to resent a great deal and so
these women March out to Versailles of
course the women or the reason that they
go there the the the the pull is not
just that the king and the queen are
there is that they hear that there is
grain and and flower uh that are stored
up there for the use of the for the
palace in the Royals and they want
access to it there's none to be found in
in Paris and an empty stomach is going
to makes is going to motivate people uh
to take action and these women take
action uh bringing with them pikes
um you have the the famous fish ladies
uh down at the fish market uh Burly
women who had been used to carton around
large crates and scaling fish and shark
fish knives they're gonna head out there
uh they're joined by others that have
their own arms you have Lafayette who will
will
organize an armed band of citizens that
will come in after the women march to
Versailles this is in October October
the 5th and the 6th of 1789 is when this
takes place and they get there and the
guards the royal guards at Versailles
realize immediately that they're
outnumbered and they're outgunned to a
certain extent
and the royal family is in real danger
at this point and they're going to get
into the palace and guards are going to
be killed and Marie Antoinette herself
is going to uh have to Scurry from her
residence to the king's residence that
is heavily guarded more heavily guarded
than her residents and of course the the
Marie Antoinette to show how out of
touch the royal family is it was
reported that when she heard that the
people didn't have enough bread to eat
she uttered the famous well the most
famous lines that were never really
uttered by Marie Antoinette were let
them eat cake
that was propaganda something put into
uh you know attributed to Murray
Antoinette that she didn't say and of
course it does show the the out of touch
nature between uh
if you if you for the royal family uh
maybe if you didn't have bread you can
eat cake and of course the materials to
make bread and Cake would be uh would be
what happens with this is
the king and the queen and the royal family
family
will be forced to go back to Paris the
the mob basically says look you live out
here isolated in this bubble in essence
as we would refer to it today and you're
you don't really know what's going on
the people are suffering and they forced
the king and the queen to come to Paris
with them the carriage is
being uh you know the carriage brings
the king and the queen back to the
center of Paris they do have a palace
there that they get to live in uh
the teleres palace is where the king and
the queen will reside in Paris and it's
going to be a virtual prison for them as
they live in Paris because it will
they're not going to be able to really
go anywhere they're just going to have
to sit in this in Pat in this Palace in
the center of town
um and what happens from this point the
National Assembly is going to get the
ball rolling beginning to right the the
new Constitution and establishing this
really new system of government for
France this new way in which France will
operate From This Moment forward what
the National Assembly does is they
establish a constitutional monarchy what
the similar system to what they have in
Great Britain the National Assembly is
the legislative body making the laws the
king is still there as the chief
executive for the state and the symbol
for the State uh signing off on the laws
but of course the heavy presence and the
heavy pressure that he has he is going
to be forced to to go along with the
National Assembly from this point now
the National Assembly will revamp
the the institutions the old
institutions that were torn down what
they will do when they establish this
this uh new Constitution and this new
way of governing is that they will
establish 80 they basically decentralize
the government of France which of course
with an absolute monarchy had become
heavily centralized everything sort of
centralized back at Versailles they
decentralize everything to these 83
departments instead of the French
provinces being divided up by the
nobility the 83 departments will be
these 83
kind of like parishes or states that
they have in France that will have
elected officials where they were
that would run each of these 83
departments through local elections they
would make decisions on what would go on
there through representatives of the
they also reformed the tax system
to where they establish a uniform
tax collection system no one's exempt
from the taxes the judicial system is
also revamped by the National Assembly
the judicial system is taking taken out
of the hands completely of the nobility
and the clergy which had traditionally
run those court systems in a new civil
and Criminal Court
system under common law is established
with elected judges rather than judges
from the noble class or the clergy you
also have the confiscation of church
property and this is to pay off debt the
church property is going to be
confiscated and sold off to help pay off
debt the National Assembly also
dissolves all of the monasteries and
convents throughout France and then at
this point which is something that has
been done in England in two centuries
before but this is where maybe the
National Assembly goes a little bit too
far after they dissolve
the monasteries in the convents and
confiscate the church lands they then
require the clergy
to take this oath of allegiance to the
government this national state of France uh
uh
they are going to say that the clergy is
not in the Bishops and the hierarchy of
the church is not going to be
uh selected anymore by the Roman
Catholic Church they will essentially be
elected by the people and the existing
members of the church the existing
Bishops and the clergy would be able to
keep their job if they took this oath of
allegiance to the the new French State
uh this vow and many of them half of
them roughly half the clergy aren't
going to do it almost none of the
Bishops are going to do it and what is
being established here is this civil
constitution of the clergy where all
members of the clergy are required to
take this oath and again half of them do
not do that and there's this divide that
comes down not only within the church
but within France as a whole the
Catholic church in the institution of
the church the reli the Catholic
religion was a part of the Frat fabric
of the French culture that many people
were not willing to depart with they may
have been willing to have these
tremendous changes within Society
outside of the church but not the
government demanding this action of the
church and that's going to lose some
steam for the National Assembly now this
process of writing this new Constitution
and these new rules goes forward
for the next couple of years
the king is still the king although he
is limited now instead of an absolute
monarchy you have a constitutional monarchy
monarchy
and he's forced to not when he left
Versailles with the
you know when the women go to and March
on Versailles in in October of 1789
that's the last time he sees Versailles
he's again a virtual prison prisoner
inside the palace in Paris where he
lives but he is the monarch and he is
part of the government and he
is giving his support kind of he acts
like he's going along with it but he
doesn't really believe in this whole
constitutional monarchy at all
well he is going to discredit not only
himself and his family and at the same
time he's going to discredit the new
government that is formed under the
National Assembly what he does in June
on June 20th 1791 this is two years
after the tennis court owed he
disguises himself and his family and
leaves Paris in a carriage and he tries
to escape into
out of Paris out of the bounds of Paris
hoping to possibly gain support for uh
gain support in order to form a an army
A Royal Army backing him that would be
able to go into Paris and put an end to
to all of the shenanigans that had gone
on uh but before he gets out he's
recognized by a postmaster uh so the
disguise must have not been all that
great he's recognized and then the king
and his family they're arrested and
brought back to
excuse me Paris brought back to Paris
and forced back in the palace and this
sort of discredits the whole National
Assembly because you have this
constitutional monarchy where the king
is part of it and the King acts like
he's going along with it but then he he
tries to escape and maybe form a an arm
maybe he's going to Austria where Maria
Therese is from maybe he wants the
austrians or maybe he's trying to get
the help from the prussians to to rise
up against the French people uh in favor
of the monarchy
uh he's viewed as a traitor by the
French people
and to some people
some of the more radical elements in the
French society they're starting to look
at this and say you know why do we need
a king anyway I mean what's the point of
establishing this constitutional
monarchy hey in America they don't have
a king they established a republic in
America why and of course the
enlightenment where you travel you know you
you
you basically question the traditional
institutions of you know monarchies and
why we have monarchies why is that the
system that is in place to begin with
and just because it happened to develop
doesn't mean it's the right way there's
a lot of that kind of thinking in in
France and in Paris and you have the
more radical elements of the Revolution
that begin to look at the monarchy
itself as being useless and since the
king doesn't seem to be buying into this
constitutional monarchy they certainly
aren't going to do it and so there's a
lot of pressure now on the National
Assembly is the king really on board
with this constitutional monarchy
apparently not because he tried to
escape uh tried to get out of the country
country
and so by the time you get into the fall
of 1791 there's enough pressure on the
National Assembly to where they're going
to have to call new elections for the
possibility of rewriting the
Constitution and the call for elections
does happen in the fall of 1791 and the
more radical elements or representatives
are going to be put in place now and
they are going to establish essentially
a new government for France uh under a
new body known as the National
Convention this National Convention is
put in place by this election to rewrite
and to establish a new constitution to
throw out the one that they just put in
place the one that established this
constitutional monarchy they're going to
get rid of that and establish not a
constitutional monarchy but the French
Republic and that's what happens by the
time you get to 1792. and
and
once this happens this happens to
coincide with uh
lots of rumors and uh talk in the
streets of Paris about how the austrians
and the prussians are mounting armies to
invade France and to go to war with
France to try to put down this Rebellion
uh to sort of force
the Rebellion down in order to prop up
the monarchy these rumors are swirling
throughout Paris and that plays into the
hands of the radicals
now what happens
is you do have War by the time you get
to April of 1792 you do have a war that
breaks out between France and Austria
and Prussia and things do not go well
for for France and the early going a lot
of the military generals and so forth
are members of the nobility and they had
gotten out of the country long ago and
they're not there and things
to a certain degree or with the old
system or being discredited and so forth
but uh you you see an opportunity here
because the King has been discredited
the National Convention will
end up
helping to strip the king away the title
of King away from the you know this
Republic being established essentially
does that but uh you have a mob that
will break into the palace again the
royal palace in Paris in August of 1792
and the king and the queen are going to
escape with their lives and
end up in the in the legislative
assembly and try to protect themselves
but by this point
um you you have the establishment of the
French Republic the king is out and it's
not going to be long before this radical
element of the French Revolution will
put the King on trial uh for treason and
basically it's a it's an effort to get
rid of the monarchy altogether and by
the time you get to 1793 the king will
be executed and within 9 months the
queen will be executed and you have a
period as we get into 1793 and 1794 of
this reign of terror which is an effort
to get rid of all traces of nobility in
France uh to wipe out not only the royal
family but to wipe out the aristocracy
of France the reign of terror that will
take place will be during this radical
phase of the French Revolution under the
National Convention you have the
establishment of the Committee of Public
Safety that will be led by the the
radical leader of the Jacobin club which
is the more radical group within the
French government
Maximilian Robespierre will lead the
Committee of Public Safety and the
Committee of Public Safety is the
organization that conducts the reign of
terror in 1793 in the 1794. and again
the reign of terror the goal of it is to
wipe out all enemies of the Republic now
who's an enemy of the Republic well the
nobility the noble families the
aristocracy of France must be an enemy
of the Republic because the aristocracy
doesn't fit in with a republic and
you have the invention of the guillotine
which will be called the national razor
uh the guillotine will be a more humane
way of putting people to death but it
will be used extensively and it's not
only a humane way of putting people to
death because the blade always hit its mark
mark
but it would be more efficient and the
execution process could be uh
could gather speed as it went along and
during the reign of terror people would
be gathered up
uh captured arrested in the morning
tried by noon and then executed in the
afternoon literally tens of thousands of
people will be caught up in this reign
of terror and
when the aristocracy is gone
you have other people who are going to
be viewed of in as enemies of
of the Republic and before long I mean
anybody could be accused of being an
enemy of the if you had any words
against the Republic you could be
accused of being an enemy of the
Republican there's a lot of Revenge
that's that takes place with the
Committee of Public Safety with this
reign of terror it's all being led by
Robespierre who
leads this hoping to cleanse France of
all of the elements that uh
had existed in the past and there's even
an effort at this time to
de-christianize not only get rid of the
Catholic church but get rid of
Christianity within France an effort to
renaming the Notre Dame Cathedral the
Temple of reason for example uh
at this point the French Revolution in
1793 1794 spins out of control and it's
going to take another force that will
put it back together to some extent but
that won't come along until Napoleon
Bonaparte comes along
all right well we're definitely not
not Revolution for the next few lectures
of course we will talk about the the
French Revolution we'll talk about the
Warfare the reign of terror and
eventually of course very popular figure
in a western civilization will
eventually discuss the Napoleonic Empire
as well so we have a few lectures to go
discussing specifically the French until
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