Finally deciding to base my research around the 'trigger' of a revolution has made things a dozen times easier for me (it means I only have to read the first few pages or paragraphs of a source documenting the entire revolution). In terms of ideas, its a very large scope, but I think a few of the sources I have looked at do a good job of uncovering what I mean in terms of ideas - I think it should be better referred to as 'ideology'.
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| A Facebook Depiction of the revolution |
Now, because i've decided exactly what i'm looking at, i've decided to do this blog post a tad differently to the Chinese Revolution one. On this blog, i'm only going to recount where relevant, and talk about the french revolution being specific to its origins and the force of ideology behind it. So i'm not just going to blurt out everything I know about the revolution, or everything i've found about the revolution, because that would seriously take me forever... (On a side note, I may need to redo my chinese revolution post like this... eek!)
So for this particular revolution, as one could imagine, I found a tonne of sources and a really great list of sources here. However, like the chinese revolution, I have decided to use only three sources as I used three for the chinese revolution, which should equate to 9 sources overall for the revolutions, plus like five for the historians and whatever else I happen to find after i'm finished pulling apart the separate revolutions.
In case you, the reader, were going to freak out at the fact that you know nothing at all about the french revolution, what I have done is included a video below, from horrible histories, that does a good job at covering the revolution in three minutes.
But as I have said previously, it isn't what happened in the revolution that matters, but rather, why the revolution had occurred at all.
All three sources I have investigated include mention to 'the age of reason' or 'the enlightenment'. In fact, it is clear that is post middle age philosophy that I am beginning to investigate, and why it has provoked revolution.
My three sources are:
The Political and Cultural revolutions in France 1789-1815 - H.R. Cowie
The Ideology of the French revolution - Raymond F. Betts
The French Revolution: Origins - Paul Halsall
The Political and Cultural Revolutions in France 1789-1815 - H.R. Cowie
Cowie, once again, spends a considerable amount of time relaying the causes of revolution in this chapter before relaying the subsequent events that built up for the revolution to actually occur. Cowie looks at a statement made by the foster brother of Marie Antoinette, Joseph Weber to relay 'the' four primary causes of this revolution. They are:
- The Disorder in the Finances
- The State of Minds
- The Character of King Louis XVI
- The War in America
My focus will be of course the point about the 'State of Mind', however, it would be logical to consider the three other points since I am considering the 'role' of ideology in revolution, and its role cannot be entirely determined without having a quick look at the role of other factors.
Disorder in the Finances
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| A French Cartoon depicting 'The Burden of the Third Estate' The writing around the circumference reads: "Explaination of the allegory. The third estate alone bears the weight of the kingdom, under which he sags; a noble, instead of easing the burden, adds to the weight by leaning on it; the Priest seems to want to help but uses only the tips of his fingers". - Perfect depiction of the inequality suffered by the Third Estate |
This, in other words, should be considered as the economic, and in part the social conditions of pre revolutionary France. This disorder is easily demonstrated through the economic conditions of the three estates.
The First Estate: The Office Bearers/Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church
- Position highlights the connection between the monarchy and church
- Estimated to have owned 10% of the land
- Collected a tax (tithe): Usually equated to 10% of the income of all common people
The Second Estate: Aristocratic landowning nobility
- Made up 1% of the population
- Owned over 20% of all the land
- Had privileges but little and ineffective political power (monarchy was absolute)
The Third Estate: 'Everyone Else' - Subdivided into the Bourgeoisie, the Peasants, the Town Artisans and Poverty-stricken Unemployed
- The Bourgeoisie owned 25% of land & Commercial capital: "All the ramifications of the feudal system were regarded by the bourgeoisie as intolerable intrusions upon the liberty of the individual. They resented the taxation they paid, the trade barriers that restricted their activities as merchants and the codes of privilege that denied them entry into the government service" (Cowie)
- The Peasants made up 67% of the population - used land of wealthy landowners but had to pay for this concession through tax or service - taxed a tithe, the taille and the gabelle and paid a corvée (service) - paid between 70 to 80 per cent of income in taxes - source of wealth for the kingdom
- 4 million poverty stricken and unemployed individuals became a dangerous pool of discontent
As would be understood, the Third estate were particularly angry at the fact that they were being exploited in such a manner - That the poor were getting poorer and that the rich were getting richer. This inequality in wealth and the disorder of finances simply proved to the French people that the ancien régime (old order) was not working and henceforth they looked to the philosophies and political ideologies with alternate political systems that could serve them better.
It is also worth noting that the French Monarchy was in a lot (and I mean a lot) of debt.
The Character of King Louis XVI
Put simply, he was a moron. This factor could be labelled as leadership, and how ineffective leadership, or the ineffective nature of this leadership could trigger the belief in a different system, or an alternate ideology. The leadership in general of the monarchy came down to two people:
- Louis XVI who was well-meaning but weak-willed and vacillating
- Marie Antionette was strong willed but impulisive
And henceforth, when any crisis came, the King and Queen acted with poor judgement and imprudence. This factor however, is said to have caused a complete deposition of the monarchy as opposed to what a portion of the Third Estate strived for - A constitutional monarchy. The incompetent leadership of the King and Queen eliminated any possibility of this.
The War in America
This particular factor made me realise that I probably should have looked at the American revolution first, but silly me worked backwards. Anyway, this War in America refers to the American revolution whereby Amercian colonies, with the aid of the French, won independence from the British. This war had two major effects on France.
- Increased the intensity of the French debt - Weber states that: "The French participation was of critical significance to France because the enormous associated costs precipitated the financial crisis of the monarchy".
- It provided the French with an example where an established order had been successfully overthrown with a popular uprising - It demonstrated that these particular ideologies were functional and effective.
The State of Minds
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| The Monarchy, The First and Second Estate, 'catching a ride' on the labour of the Third Estate. (The French seem to enjoy their riding.... ) |
Cowie doesn't actually go into much detail specifically about the 'State of Minds' however it is alluded to throughout the entire chapter and is rooted in all the other three factors. Specifically, he states that "Drastic change to centuries old established practices was unlikely to occur unless the leaders of a rebellion have an alternative system under consideration". He then goes on to state that it was the philosophies of the enlightenment that had contributed to this challenging of authority.
These philosophies of the enlightenment include:
- Abolition of Absolutism (a system where one person would have absolute authority and control over all others in the state)
- Based on the fact that humanity was intellectually intelligent enough to work out better systems of government as opposed to traditional ones.
- René Descartes promoted humanity's ability to think for themselves through the statement Cogito ergo sum; I think, therefore I am
- Eighteenth century saw a movement towards intellectual freedom and challenging tyranny
- There came a great demand for individual freedom in religion, social standing and conduct of commerce
And from all of this Cowie concludes that "The activities of the philosophies created a reforming state of mind in the active literate members of society. There was a surging demand for the emancipation of the individual from the political tyranny of absolute monarchy, the intellectual dominance of the church, and the social inhabitations of the feudal system."
This comparison is made through the fact that these philosophies:
- Advocated principle of government by consent - yet France still obtained absolute monarchy
- Advocated freedom and promotion of talent - yet France privileged only the church and nobility
- Advocated capitalism through free trading - yet they were inhibited by restrictions from the system
- Promoted the individual mind - yet France faced traditionalism of the middle ages and inhibitions to social and intellectual progress from the teachings of the church.
All of these aspects of the philosophies and ideologies indicated that a change needed to take place in their systems of government, and this way of thinking was critical in giving the french an alternative to Absolutism and Traditionalism. A free system based on liberté, egalité, fraternité.
It is said that the ideals of liberté, egalité, fraternité in themselves promote certain ways of living and thinking for the french.
Liberté (Liberty) - It was the demand for freedom of the individual in economic endeavor, expression and arbitrary authority
Egalité (Equality) - It stressed that all men (are not equal, but) should enjoy equal opportunity and be equal in the eyes of the law
Fraternité (Fraternity) - The concept of brotherhood within a nation - This led to agressive nationalism of the French
Overall, Cowie has made it clear that ideology had quite a significant role in triggering, or being the cause behind this particular revolution (since the trigger, I suppose, were more practical factors), and therefore he becomes one thorough source that suggests the importance of ideas in this revolution.
À SUIVRE (TO BE CONTINUED) ....
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