Monday, February 7, 2011

Yale Lecture: Maximilien Robespierre and the French Revolution Notes

  • Maximilien Robespierre
    • never had a family
    • orphan at the age of 8
    • he was a man of order
    • he was marked by a feeling of his father's guilt for his mother's death
    • enjoyed isolation and solitude
    • very smart
    • the prime mover and shaker of the execution of Louis XVI
    • came from a broken home without a mother
      • they were poor
    • he became a lawyer
    • he took the side of the poor
    • he did not believe in capital punishment in the beginning
    • spoke with passion and conviction
    • thought all male citizens should have the right to vote
    • ascetic- preferred being alone
    • ends up living in western Paris- a more prosperous area
  • France comprised of three estates
    • clergy
      • Church operated schools and kept records
      • cared for the poor
      • collected a tithe- 10% of the income of every French person
    • nobility
      • men in the nobility were in the French Catholic clergy
      • parish priests came from the working and the poor
      • a lot of hostility between the parish priests in the poor communities and the priests with the nobility
      • nobility made up 2% of the population
        • earned 1/4 of the land in France
      • were no serfs/feudal system was over
      • France did not have the agricultural economy that England had at the time
        • not directly involved in running the agriculture
    • wealthy merchants to the lowest peasant
      • bulk of the population
      • had a direct effect on the causes of the French Revolution
        • the educated middle class had a lot of resentment to the nobility
        • 1730-1780: the prices for goods and commodities rose 50%
          • the standard of living only rose around 25%
  • the state is slowly running out of money
  • France did not have paper money; everything was done in gold
    • inflation could not be adjusted by any means
    • could not get a handle on the inflation
  • Louis XVI becomes king in 1774
    • he is a very weak monarch
    • very young/ married to Marie Antoinette
      • she was from Austria
      • despised by the French people
    • decrease in the availability of land for farming
    • fear of grain shortages
      • bread is the staple food of the peasantry
      • the peasantry is either going to starve or revolt
    • the talle- tax on the poor
      • nobility got out of paying taxes
      • poor were forced to pay taxes
      • poor were also hit with giving 10% of their income going to the Church
        • along with the talle
  • France's debt was half that of England's and they have more people, but there economy is being desiccated from within
    • this is because they are making the poor people pay for everything
    • the burden of government services is on the poor
  • Louis XV
    • during his reign appointed a chancellor; Maupeou
      • tried to find a way to tax the nobility, but it just made them angry
  • 1788: the country on the verge of bankruptcy
    • Louis XVI calls the estates general
      • a calling of citizens to come up with a solution to the problem
      • first in 175 years
      • there was a problem
        • the last time the estates general met they made a rule that voting would be equally dispersed through all three estates
          • there are too many people in the third estate for it to be equal
  • 1789: a pamphlet is printed
    • Joseph Syeses
    • thought you could get rid of the first and second estates and France would be fine
  • 1789: estates general begins
    • the estates refused to take part in the estates general
    • the third estate calls their own national assembly
      • saying they are the true representative of the French people
    • the first and second estate lock the third estate (National Assembly) out
  • June 20, 1789: the National Assembly moved to an indoor tennis court as a meeting place and they swore to continue to meet there, driving a wedge between the clergy and nobility on one side and the people on the other side, until a new constitution was written
    • called the Tennis Court Oath
    • the King dismisses the third estate from the meetings of the State General
  • bread prices raise, as all of this is happening, because there was a bad harvest
    • the price of the staple of most people's diet  became unaffordable and unavailable
      • there was panic in the streets
  • July 14, 1789: a mob attacked the Bastille; an old jail that was being used to house munitions
    • Bastille Day is still celebrated in France today
    • the National Assembly is working to make a new constitution
    • outside the tennis court all hell is breaking loose
      • there are mobs, peasants attacking manner houses and farms
  • some nobles became known as the emigrate; the ones who are worried about what is going on
    • their point person became known as the Count of Artois
      • the brother of Louis XVI
    • against the revolution
  • the King allows the people to appoint a new government of the city of Paris
    • the Citizens Committee
    • brings up the National Guard to bring order
      • Lafayette is appointed by the King to be the head of the National Guard
        • this is the first time the national flag of France is seen
          • the flag becomes a symbol of the French Revolution
  • August 1789: the Assembly completed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
    • listed the basic human rights
      • liberty, property, security, resistance to oppression, freedom of religion, due process of law, taxes by common consent
  • important women
    • Olympe deGouge
      • writes an essay called the Rights of Women
        • argued on behalf of a woman's right to education, the right to control property in a marriage, right to initiate a divorce
      • talks about the Social Contract in terms of gender relations
        • must be a social contract between men and women
        • the National Assembly will put many of these things into the constitution
  • October 1789
    • a huge mob, most of them women, march on Versailles
      • two demands
        • bread and that the royal family return to Paris
    • the king submits to some of the claims of the National Assembly
      • the king lost veto power over anything coming out of the National Assembly
        • granted suspended power
      • slavery was abolished
    • there is no one to collect taxes at all
      • no taxes are being collected
      • the government cannot work
    • Louis XVI seizes property from the Church
      • he issues paper money
      • the newly taken property is used as collateral for the money
      • he makes a big mistake and sells the property
        • he devalues the monetary system
        • inflation raises greatly
      • he begins selling anything for money
        • the king acquires the emigrates manner houses
      • the church cannot support itself without their property
    • the National Assembly passes a bill that will change the way in which the way the Church elects its officials
      • the Vatican cannot install an archbishop in France without it first being passed by the National Assembly
      • begin holding elections for political positions
    • supporters of the revolution were organized into clubs
      • Jacobin
        • met in a monastery
  • 1791: the royal family tries to flee
    • they are not able to do so
    • people begin to argue for a republic
      • Georges Jacques Danton
      • Jean Paul Marat
  • September 1791: the new constitution comes in to effect
    • constitutional monarchy
    • unicameral assembly (one body)
  • Declaration of Pillmitz
    • made by the kings of Austria and Prussia
    • Leopold, king of Austria, says, if necessary he would use military order to restore the government in Paris
      • he hoped that this would scare the revolutionaries
      • he dies and his son takes his place
        • his son is unhinged
        • France declares war on Austria
  • The French National Anthem is created
  • 1792: the Royal Family is under house arrest
    • year 1 of the French Republic
    • changed the names of the months to reflect the revolution
    • much secularization occurred
    • acts of de-Christianization throughout France
    • the word citizen is coined during this time
  • the folks of the Dutch Republic do not want anything to do with France
    • they call in the English to make a stand against the Habsburg Netherlands
  • the National Assembly was split between two parties
    • Girondins
    • Jacobins
      • said anyone against them was anti-revolutionary
  • another party begins to develop: the Mountain
  • January 1793: Louis XVI is found to be talking to the King of Austria
    • he charged with treason and executed
    • the working class demands monetary controls
      • they need a spokesperson to fight for them
  • Robespierre is the spokesperson for the Mountain
    • he is the hero of the working people because has been through the same things as them
  • the National Convention creates the Committee of Public Safety
    • made up of 12 representatives
    • they would now run the government
    • Robespierre was one of the 12
    • aim was to protect France
    • aim to suppress opposition to the French government
      • laws were created that negated the rights of the accused
      • women were banned from gathering
  • women's rights had made much progress and were now back to square one
  • the Terror begins
    • 1793-1794
    • the Convention and the Committee decide that the forces of the Mountains and the Jacobins would united against the emigrates, the nobles, the Girodins
      • begin a campaign to get rid of any enemies
      • people against the revolution were executed
        • Marie Antoinette
        • Olympe deGouge
        • Lavosiar
        • 18,000-40,000 were killed; the streets were filled with blood
  • July 1794: both conservatives and radicals in the Convention turn against Robespierre
    • killed by guillotine
    • Committee was disbanded
    • the economy was nearly destroyed; wages and job opportunities plummeted
  • The Thermodorians rise up
    • wrote a third constitution
      • goes into effect in 1795
      • allowed male citizens to vote
      • legislature made of two sections; bicameral
        • similar to the US
      • members were elected by the electors; members elected the legislators
      • the French chose an executive branch- lasts for 4 years; called the directory
        • made up of 5 people
  • people are nervous about the new government
    • Napoleon Bonaparte was put in the position to calm people's nerves
      • squashed resistance and gained people's respect
  • 1796: Bonaparte marries Josephine
    • she had close ties to the man who formed the directory of 5
    • helped Napoleon gain a military commission to go to Northern Italy
      • drives out the Habsburgs
    • sets up a new government in Italy called Cisalpine
      • Napoleon wants to keep the possessions from Austria
  • 1797: France has an election
    • the candidates leading the election were favoring the royalists and the return of the exiled Louis XVIII
    • the directory appeals to Napoleon
      • Napoleon sends a force against the royalists elements in the French government
        • called a coupdeta
        • leaves three left in the directory
          • decide to abandon the elections because of this situation
  • France makes a peace treaty with Austria
    • Napoleon makes maneuvers against Britain
  • impact of the revolution
    • 1789-1799
    • much had changed
    • no more absolute monarchy
    • looking at the rise of Napoleon
    • feudalism was gone
    • titles and privileges of the nobility were gone
    • manner houses were gone
    • ability for people to organize was gone
    • local governments and military leadership positions were now jobs
    • effects of the Terror

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