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