French revolution (PART 1) : SHIKHAR PANDEY

FRENCH REVOLUTION (PART I)

So in this article you will learn everything about French Revolution in details.How it happened? , What were the causes?, What happened after that?

This is Part 1 of the article. 

WHAT WAS IT?

French revolution was actually a 10 year period of events in France from 1789 to 1799 due to which a wide range of Social and Political changes occurred.

The Revolution abolished Monarchy, made France a republic and ended in dictatorship of Napoleon.

(1). CAUSES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION:-

·         POLITICAL

·         SOCIAL

·         ECONOMIC

·         INTELLECTUAL

POLITICAL: Ruling dynasty of France was Bourbon Dynasty. We will start our story when Louis 14^th (1643-1715) was the ruler of France.

·         Louis 14^th : (i) He was known as an Absolute Despot(one who don’t care about people).

(ii) He tried to keep all the power in his hand only i.e. Centralization of Power.

(iii) France won many wars under his leadership due to which France went into heavy debt.

·         Louis 15^th (1715-1774): (i) During his time period a 7 year war was fought between France and England.

(ii)He was not considered as a good administrator.

(iii)Debt increased in his time period.

·         Louis 16^th (1774-92): (i)His intentions were good but he was not able to bring bold reforms which were required at that time as france economy was falling badly.

(ii)He had an Austrian wife(Marie Antoinette) who was also a bad advisor.

(iii)At that time America was also fighting with Britain(America war of Independence) so France helped America and this war ruined France completely because they had to take a lot of loans.

v  SOCIAL CAUSES: France’s society was divided into three Estates, it is also known as Ancien Regime

·         First Estate i.e. ‘Clergy’(Church) : People of church like Bishop, Father, Priests. They were around 10 lakhs in population at that time.

·         Second Estate i.e. ‘Nobility’ : Feudal Lords. They were around 4 lakhs in population at that time. They also had around 25% of France land.

·         Third Estate : Farmers, Artists, Factory workers, Traders, Public officers etc. They were considered as middle class at that time. They were around 2.7 crore(around 95%) in population.

Now let us look at the Taxation Regime:-

1. No tax on 1^st and 2^nd estate. All the taxes were paid by 3^rd estate.

2. 3^rd estate was drowning in various taxes.

3. 1^st and 2^nd estate people were living lavishly.

Educated middle class was known as Bourgeoisie.

Urban workers were living in very poor conditions , there was no concept of public hygiene or public safety at that time.

v  ECONOMIC CAUSES: 
(i) Rising Population: The population of France was increasing rapidly. It was 2 crore in 1700 and it became 2.8 crore in 1789.
(ii) High debt of wars lead to large interest payments. At that time half of the total national budget went to debt repayments.
(iii)Overall socio-economic scenario of France was very bad.
(iv) Peasants and common people were angry.

v  INTELLECTUAL CAUSE : 

(i)17th-18^th century is also known as the age of enlightenment.

Many philosophers and thinkers came and they developed science and philosophy. They started rational thinking, they wrote books about it.

Famous Philosophers and thinkers of that time :-

· John Locke

·Jean-Jacques Rousseau:He wrote about people’s sovereignty.

· Immanuel Kant

· Montesquieu : He wrote that there should be a separation of power between church and state, the King or the church shouldn’t have power of Judiciary, Executive as well as Legislature.

·Voltaire : He wrote about freedom of speech and expression.

These intellectuals started to questioned the King’s right to rule, his mandate from god, role of Catholic Church. Their ideas spread via newspapers, books and salon discussion.

v  ESTATE GENERAL (5^th May, 1789):  So the first event of the French rev. was calling of Estate General. Estate General was a super parliament with representatives of all estates.

It was the first meeting in 175 years.

Agenda of this meeting was to manage the financial crisis (Raise Taxes).

King’s finance minister Necker suggested to raise the taxes and also include 1^st and 2^nd estate people in it, but king was not ready for it so that’s why they called estate general .In the meeting 300 delegates came from 1^st estate, 300 from 2^nd and 600 from 3^rd estate. The meeting was organised in the Palace of Versailles.

There was a Deadlock in the meeting over voting rights due to which 3^rd Estate declares itself as “National Assembly”.

Louis 16^th was very angry, he locked out the ‘National Assembly’ from main hall. He said that 3^rd estate members are no more allowed in the great hall. So these people went to a Tennis Court and they took the ‘Tennis Court Oath’- Not to disband until a constitution is in place.

Some members of the clergy also joined this oath because the lower people of clergy were aware of the pain of this people. Also some Liberal and Progressive people of Nobility joined them.

As soon as this news spread all over the country, Peasants started revolting against their Feudal lords- loot granaries, burn land records. This time period is called The Great Fear.

There was complete breakdown of law and order; revolutionary spirit takes over.

Under such circumstances Louis 16^th ordered military to assemble in Paris and outside Versailles.

v  On 14^th July,1789 another important event took place i.e. Storming of the Bastille(an old fort used as prison).

The Bastille prison was looted and torn down by rioters. The main reason was to get the weapons. It is still celebrated as ‘Bastille day celebrations’ in France

v  NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (Later became National Constituent Assembly): Now this assembly took power in their hand. They started giving out orders.

One of the most important decision they took was the Abolition of Feudalism and levied uniform taxes for all

Due to this many nobles fled to neighbouring countries in Europe like Italy, Switzerland, England etc. to their relatives. They were known as Emigres.

Also the Clergy were reduced by 1/3^rd  and they were made civil officers. The national assembly told them if you want to work then work for the govt., so many priests are not required. This made the Pope very angry.

SO NOW THE FRANCE WAS ACTUALLY MOVING FROM ABSOLUTE MONARCHY TO CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.

To Be Continued in Part 2...........