FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789.   Term Paper ID:19992 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Social, political, economic & historical factors. Paper Introduction: THE FALL OF THE ANCIENT REGIME IN FRANCE The series of events that rocked France between the year 1789 and the fall of Napoleon in 1815 was violent, complex and was to have an incalculable impact not only on France and Europe but on the entire world. The social, political and economic environments in which the drama was played out were the legacy of Europe's Age of Enlightenment and the American Revolution. The immediate causes of the conflagration, however, can be traced to the agrarian distress and economic hardship that gripped the country, the financial chaos of the central government, and the intransigence of the aristocracy and the monarchy. The year 1788 found France in the grip of an economic crisis. The grain harvest of that year had been disastrously poor Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. It declared that "men are bornand remain free and equal in rights" and that the rights are "liberty,property, security and resistance to oppression." It was a stirringrevolutionary credo, and its message spread throughout France, Europe, andthe world (McKay, 1992, p. The Jacobins railed against all"useless aristocrats" and "despotic monarchs" and turned their attention toroyal courts outside France. The immediate causes of the conflagration, however, can be traced tothe agrarian distress and economic hardship that gripped the country, thefinancial chaos of the central government, and the intransigence of thearistocracy and the monarchy. The events that occurred during the fall of the ancient regime can bediscerned and described. Even inParis, where bread was subsidized by the government to prevent popularunrest, the price had risen to four sous. He left alegal and administrative system that survives in present-day France. But hislegacy was deeper. A second National Assembly convened. Less than one-fifth remained ofthe entire national budget for the normal functions of the state. The second factor that contributed to the violent passage of theancient regime was the weakness of the central government, largely due toits dire financial straits. Candide. But at home, political and economic turmoilprevailed. Had there been a full harvest in 1788, the people ofParis, their bellies full, would not have stormed the Bastille. AHistory of World Societies. (1966). The mood in the city grew increasingly sullen andbitter as angry crowds formed and roamed the streets. He has a gathering of six ex-Rings, with theinference that reigning monarchs should take note of their mortality(Voltaire, 1966, Chapter 26). Thenational debt and annual budget deficit soared. Had there been noAge of Enlightenment, the minds of Frenchmen would not have been primed toconceive and enunciate the Declaration of the Rights of Men. Had there been no American Revolution in the immediate past, therewould have been no model for revolution fresh in the minds of the men whoswore the Oath of the Tennis Court, with its ringing affirmation of thefundamental need for a constitution. 8 8). On July 14 theBastille was stormed by a mob. 8 3). The clergy owned about 1 percent of the land and paid only a "voluntary gift" to the governmentevery five years. The second estate consisted of 4 , nobles who ownedoutright about 25 percent of the land and were taxed very lightly. In April 1792, the National Assembly declaredwar on Austria-Hungary. These two events -- the Age of Enlightenment and the AmericanRevolution provided the primer for the great evolution. With no market for manufactured goods, thousands of artisans andsmall traders were thrown out of work. Prussia joined Austria, and soon France founditself facing the royal armies of almost all of Europe. His head and that of the mayor of Paris were stuck on pikes andparaded through the streets. The National Assembly next abolished the French nobility as a legalorder. The National Guard savedthe lives of the royal family but they were driven to Paris through ascreaming, mocking crowd. In a hierarchy inherited from the Middle Ages, Frances' 25 millioninhabitants were legally divided into three orders or "estates." These werethe clergy, the nobility and everyone else. In 1787, faced with a failing economy and falling tax revenues, LouisXVI's minister of finance attempted to impose a general tax on all landedproperty. The governor surrendered but was hacked todeath. Voltaire inCandide struck at religion with his abbe, who is a shabby trickster(Voltaire, 1966, Chapter 22). Absolute monarchy in France was collapsing (McKay,1992, p. But words and proclamations could not fill empty bellies. The Assembly, noblemen and high-ranking clergy, was opposed tothe plan which struck at their financial status. 8 6). Faced with the intransigence of thenobility, the king called for a meeting of the Estates General, which hadnot met since 1614. Adams. Thegrain harvest of that year had been disastrously poor and it was grain thatwas the basis of the diet of the ordinary people. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company.----------------------- 8 TheNational Assembly abolished many of the economic controls and printed morepaper currency and runaway inflation again drove Parisians to the streets.The government put them down with force and the revolutionary fervor of thelaboring poor finally subsided, its key role in the revolution concluded. In August theAssembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a great liberaldocument with strong American overtones. By the 178 s, half ofFrance's annual budget was absorbed by interest payments on theevermounting debt. Napoleon, as Consul and then as Emperor, led armies which forgedthrough Europe and stirred in France a fierce nationalistic pride that wasto endure even after his final defeat on the fields of Waterloo. The failure of the harvest and the resultant high bread pricescreated an economic depression of the type that marked the preindustrialperiod. By the end of 1789 one person ineight in France was a pauper and an estimated 15 , of Paris' 6 , citizens were jobless. France'stax system was archaic and unfair and increased revenues were possible onlythrough fundamental reforms. THE FALL OF THE ANCIENT REGIME IN FRANCE The series of events that rocked France between the year 1789 and thefall of Napoleon in 1815 was violent, complex and was to have anincalculable impact not only on France and Europe but on the entire world.The social, political and economic environments in which the drama wasplayed out were the legacy of Europe's Age of Enlightenment and theAmerican Revolution. The king called an Assembly of Notables to gain support for themeasure. Had thecourt's coffers been full, the king's ministers would not have created acrisis by seeking to revise the tax laws. 814). Radical neweconomic measurers supplied the poor with bread and the armies withweapons. The era of NapoleonBonaparte was to last until 1815. By July 1789, the priceof bread in the provinces had soared to eight sous per pound. Robispierre lost his power and was himself executed. While the delegates to what had been renamed the National Assemblydebated and proclaimed, the Bastille fell in Paris and peasants in thecountryside looted manor houses and burned feudal documents. Another quarter went to maintain the military and 6percent was devoted to the royal court. In the countryside,the long-sufferingpeasants joined the urban masses and began to rampage and pillage inspontaneous, violent insurrection against their lords (McKay, 1992, p.8 8). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. References McKay, John P., Hill, Bennet D., and Buckler, John. 8 5). On October5, a mob of 7, women marched from Paristo Versailles and invaded and looted the palace. It was dominated by youngermembers who were loosely allied as "Jacobins" and were led by thefirebrand, Maximilien Robespierre. He issued the famous Civil Code of 18 4, whichestablished the fundamental principles of equality of all citizens beforethe law and absolute security of wealth and private property. And here the king and the aristocracy cameinto conflict (McKay, 1992, p. When the price had been halfthat, a laborer with a wife and three children was forced to spend half hiswages on bread alone (McKay, 1992, p. Theessence of the French Revolution had survived a generation of war anddictatorship. The king sent troops to Versailles and dismissed hismore liberal ministers. And had the coffers been emptybut the aristocrats more willing to pay their just share of taxes, thefinancial crisis would not have escalated and created confrontation. The causes are more complex. TheParlement of Paris, dominated by the clergy and nobility, declared theroyal initiative null and void. Voltaire, translated by Robert M. Striking at all signs of dissent, Robispierre initiated a Reignof Terror, and some 4 , men and women were executed or died in prison(Mckay, 1992, p. The fall of the ancient regime, therefore, was not triggered by asingle event but by the juxtaposition in time and place of a series ofevents, unrelated in their inception but forged together to create thesocial political and economic conflagration that was the fall of theancient regime. The Estates General met in Paris and petitioned for an end to royalabsolutism in favor of a constitutional monarchy in which laws and taxeswould require the consent of an Estates General. By mid-1979, Pariswas a cauldron ripe for the violence of revolution. 8 9-81 ). France had alsoendured enormous additional expenditures during the American War. On the military front,the armies of France, stirred by a deepnationalistic fervor, fought with ferocity and skill, and French armieswere largely victorious. But what of theimmediate causes? It nationalized the property of the church and sought to establisha national church, a move which brought condemnation from the pope in Rome(Mckay, 1992, pp. The wars and extravagances of the Sun God,Louis XIV, had left his successors a debt-ridden state. Facing bankruptcy, theking dismissed the notables and established new taxes by decree. (1992). In 1799, a brilliant young general returned from the field, led acoup d'etat and gained control of the government. The year 1788 found France in the grip of an economic crisis. These then were the three immediate forces that combined to cause thefall of the ancient regime in France: agrarian distress and the resultanturban turmoil, the dire financial straits of the central government, andthe conflict between the monarchy and the aristocracy which precludedfinancial reform through the revision of obsolete and unfair tax laws. They swore the famousOath of the Tennis Court, pledging never to disband until they had awritten constitution. 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