Background in 1780s
1) World
both smaller and larger
a) “known”
world smaller-what was known
i)
main outlines of continents but little of interiors
ii) Population
distribution in 1800
(1) 2 of
3 humans Asian
(2) 1 of
5 Europeans
(3) 1 of
10 Africans
(4) 1 of
35 American
b) Much
vaster because of sheer difficulty of travel and communication
i)
by land
(1) London
to Glasgow postal service
(a) in
1760, 10-12 days
(b) in
1800, 62 hours
(2) Most
goods moved by carts
(a) Even
by early 19th C in France, 5/6 of all goods transported by cart
ii) by
water
(1) much
easier and safer
(2) Plymouth
“closer” to London than a village in East Anglia
(3) World
capitals “closer” than English Midlands
iii) Mobility
(1) As
late as 1861 9 out of 10 people in 70 out of 90 French departments lived in the
departments of their birth
2) World
overwhelmingly rural
a) really
divided urban, provincial and rural
b) provincial
tied more closely to rural economy than urban
c) agrarian
world divided into three types of economic relationships
i)
colonial worked by slaves
ii) feudal
worked by serfs
iii) “modern”
freeholders or tenant farmers
3) Into
this “Enlightenment”
a) Reason
is the most significant and positive capacity of the human
b) reason
enables one to break free from primitive, dogmatic, and superstitious beliefs
holding one in the bonds of irrationality and ignorance
c) in
realizing the liberating potential of reason, one not only learns to think
correctly, but to act correctly as well
d) through
philosophical and scientific progress, reason can lead humanity as a whole to a
state of earthly perfection
e) reason
makes all humans equal and, therefore, deserving of equal liberty and treatment
before the law
f) beliefs
of any sort should be accepted only on the basis of reason, and not on
traditional or priestly authority
g) all
human endeavors should seek to impart and develop knowledge, not feelings or
character
French Revolution
1) Why
the French Revolution is so Fundamental
a) France
the most populous (except Russia) and most influential (excepting none) state
in Europe
b) A
mass social revolution with very radical elements
c) Ecumenical—leaders
sought to export revolution (literally) through its Army; was exported as an
idea
2) What
brought it about?
a) Failure
to reform
i)
Turgot, Louis XVI’s finance minister sought to enact
reforms (1774-6)
(1) more
efficient use of land
(2) free
enterprise and trade
(3) a
bureaucratic state (rational procedures)
(4) single
homogenous national territory
(5) equitable
treatment for all areas of nation
ii) reforms
failed because
(1) opposed
by vested interests: noble landowners; clerical landowners
(2) opposed
by king
h) The
“Feudal Reaction”
i)
Monarchy ruled absolutely—stripped nobles of all power
ii) Nobles
(about 400,000 out of 23 million French in 1780) enjoy some privileges
(exemption from certain taxes, able to levy dues on peasants) but are barred
from earning income in any profession
iii) Therefore
they increasingly take government jobs although they are not trained to do
them, thus squeezing out the middle class more capable of performing these
tasks
iv) Nobles
also attempt to increase income by further squeezing peasants
v) Peasants
(about 80% of population) were free and some even owned land, but majority were
landless and powerless—they paid dues (sort of like rent but unlike rent not
tied to market) to nobles, tithes to the church, and taxes to the king
vi) French
economy a disaster waiting to happen
i)
Financing the American Revolution
i)
France’s help to US (to defeat its most significant
rival England) bankrupts the state
ii) Royal
extravagance, popularly cited as cause of French bankruptcy but it was not; in
1788
(1) Court
expenditure 6%
(2) Armed
Forces 25%
(3) Debt
service 50%
4) The
Various Revolutions
a) 1788-1789
i)
Nobles attempt to use bankruptcy to restore noble
power—parlements and so forth
ii) National
Assembly formed to write constitution
iii) Counter-Revolution
produces real revolution—threat of pro-monarchy forces moving against nobles
and bourgeosie lead to mass social revolution
(1) Bastille
falls
(2) “Grande
peur” of July/August 1789
(3) French
gov’t in fragments
b) 1789-1791
i)
Constituent Assembly formed
ii) King
resists reforms, flees, and is captured
iii) Institution
of free market principles produces price fluctuations and widespread hardship
and panic
iv) Rise
of radical factions opposed to moderate attempts at reform
(1) Sans-culottes
pushes for “little man”—essentially return to idyllic past free of private
property
(2) Jacobins—far
left, radicalize revolution
c) 1792
i)
War pushed by extreme right and moderate left
(1) Extreme
right, monarchists, sought foreign intervention to restore monarchy; foreign
states worried about domino-effect—the spread of revolutionary ideas to their
own states
(2) Moderate
left wanted to spread the revolution to all of Europe
ii) War
declared in April 1792; France defeated within months; Duke of Brunswick with
troops at the edge of Paris issues an ultimatum to the French people
iii) Defeat
seen as responsibility of royalist sympathizers
iv) Result
(1) Royal
palaces overrun
(2) Monarchy
overthrown
(3) King
imprisoned
(4) Mob
violence exacted on “sympathizers” of the king (1200 publicly executed)
v) Girondins
come to power, but as moderates in a polarized state they cannot hold power for
long
d) The
Terror
i)
Jacobins overthrow Girondins; Terror begins
ii) Committee
for Public Safety under Robespierre becomes most powerful ministry
iii) 17,000
executed in fourteen months (including all of royal family)
iv) Eventually
Jacobin leaders themselves (Danton, Marat, Saint-Just, Robespierre) are
executed
e) Jacobin
Success
i)
Preserved country and revolution
(1) brought
all of France under central control
(2) Repelled
foreign invaders
(3) stabilized
currency and economy
ii) mobilized
mass support for revolutionary principles
(1) abolished
all remaining feudal rights
(2) abolished
slavery
iii) Policies
win war, but overall masses alienated
iv) Jacobins
overthrown in Ninth Thermidor (July 1794)
f) Thermidor
i)
Government by the Directory—a weak unpopular gov’t that
relied on the Army
ii) Army
rises in power
(1) looting
finances gov’t
(2) open
to talent (democratic institution)
(3) Myth
of Napoleon—common man who becomes world leader
English Responses
1) France
finally taking steps already taken by English—“revolution” of 1688
2) Unfinished
revolution of 1688: Dr. Richard Price “On the Love of our Country” (4 Nov 1789)
a) 1688
based on
i)
liberty of conscience
ii) right
to resist power when abused
iii) Right
to choose and reject rulers
b) Unfinished
business
i)
should abolish Test and Corporation Acts (which violate
(1) above)
ii) should
reform representation in Parliament
3) Dangers
of Revolution: Burke
a) responds
to Price sermon
b) best
societies and political structures were organic—grew and matured over time
c) political
societies were partnerships between the dead, the living, and the yet born
(mortmain)
d) best
arrangements sanctified by custom and tradition
e) Other
Loyalist Responses
i)
Burke’s support of war—war as ideological; English
constitutionalism under threat
ii) Anti-Jacobin
Review—gov’t sponsored satiric “journal”
iii) Hannah
More—class training: Cheap Repository Tracts
iv) Church
and King mobs
4) Support
for Revolution: Paine
a) men
had the right to decide for themselves on their form of gov’t
b) this
could not be set by prior generations
c) no
justification for custom or tradition in gov’t
d) Other
Radical Variations
i)
Thomas Spence—Spenceans: abolition of private property;
supported armed insurrection
ii) John
Thelwall—natural rights: responsibility of society to workers
iii) William
Godwin—human perfectability: not natural rights, but future perfectability of
humanity; “universal benevolence” will rule; no one had the right to use
his/her talents for his own benefit; no ties stronger than universal ties
iv) Mary
Wollstonecraft—early “feminism”: calls for education for women so that they
might be better partners for men and better mothers to children
5) These
responses part of larger argument between ideas of
a) The
Enlightenment—Reason
b) Romanticism—more
than reason? (note that this division does not hold up)
c) Whig
historiography implies that the radicals “won the intellectual arguments of the
1790s, but that they were repressed by a British ‘terror’ . . . [however more
recent work] suggests that a strong faith in the virtues of the British
constitution, together with a general resistance to chance, meant that radical
ideas were defeated as much, if not more so, by the appeal of an innate
conservatism rather than by government-sponsored repression” (Emsley 20)
Edmund Burke
1) Revolution
Contradictory to nature
a) Revolution
is out of nature (109)
b) “spirit
of innovation” contrary (111)
c) True
gov’t in line with nature—organic (111)
2) Conservation
a) liberty
an “entailed” inheritance (i.e. comes with conditions)
b) mortmain—our
responsibility to the past and to the future
3) Real
rights
a) equal
rights but not to equal things
b) open
to talent, but subject to inheritance—present equality built on historic
inequality
4) Death
of Chivalry
a) gothic
images, language—polluted palace (113)
b) lurid
image of Queen’s arrest (113)
c) Age
of Chivalry dead (114)—paternalistic view
d) “swinish
multitude” (116)
Thomas Paine
1) Rejects
heredity and mortmain
a) “Man
has no property in man” (128)
2) Revolution
rational and principled
a) Distinguishes
between practice of despotism and principles—must eliminate principles not just
practice
b) rational
contemplation of the rights of man (131)
c) All
history points to “unity of man”—born equal (132)
