Chapter+18+Notes

Please post your notes on chapter 18. Much appreciated.

Section 1

 * Ben's Notes**

-Nobles weren’t worried about the economic crisis in France, and thought economic reforms would help. -Reforms didn’t work, and the unemployed, hungry, and poor took up arms. -In 1789, France (and the rest of Europe) still went by the ancien regime, or old order, where everyone was divided into three social classes, or estates. First Estate- clergy Second Estate- nobility Third Estate- vast majority of the population. -French Clergy Enjoyed Wealth and Privilages Church owned about 10% of land paid no direct taxes to the state -First Estate provided social services, like running schools, hospitals, and orphanages. -Philosophes targeted the Church for reforms. -Second Estate was the titled nobility in France. -First noble knights defended the land. In the 1600’s, Richelieu and Louis XIV crushed the militaries power and gave them other rights like top government jobs, the army, the courts and the Church. -Nobles received little financial income. -Nobles hated absolutism and resented the royal bureaucracy. They feared losing their rights like freedom from paying taxes. -bourgeoisie- middle class in the Third Estate. They included prosperous bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, and lawyers. -Most of the Third Estate is consisted of rural peasants. -The poorest of the Third Estate were urban workers. -Enlightenment ideas led to people questioning the inequalities in the old regime. -Economy starts to collapse. One of the causes is deficit spending. -Louis XIV left France in deep debt, and the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution didn’t help much. The government borrowed money to narrow the gap between income and expenses. To help pay the debt, the government needed to increase taxes, which didn’t go over well with the clergy and nobles. -Louis XIV ruled from 1715 to 1774. During that time, he rose debts. His financial advisor, Jacques Necker, wanted the king to try reduce unnecessary court spending, reform government, and proposed taxing the First and Second Estates. When he proposed this, they forced the king to dismiss Necker. -The upper classes demanded that the king meet with the Estates-General, the legislative body with representatives from each class, before making changes. -At the end of 1788, France was close to bankruptcy. So, Louis XIV called the Estate-Generals to meet at Versailles. -Louis XIV had the three estates prepare cahiers with their grievances. They called for reforms that made taxes fairer, or regular meetings with the Estate-General. -Delegates for the Estate-General from the Third Estate were elected, though only landowning men could vote. -The Estate-General planned on making reforms besides trying to help the financial crisis. -The Estate-Generals declared to be the National Assembly. When their meeting hall became closed off by the king, they moved to an indoor tennis court and swore by the Tennis Court Oath that they would meet whenever needed until a just constitution was established. -On July 14, 1789, a crowd of 800 people of Paris gathered around the Bastille, a medieval fortress used to keep prisoners. The people wanted weapons and gunpowder they thought was stored there. The commander of the Bastille wouldn’t open the gates, so the crowd attacked and eventually overwhelmed the Bastille. The commander and five guards were killed and some prisoners were released, but no weapons were found.

French Society Divided In 1789 France was still under Ancien regime or old order, every one in France was divided into one of three social classes, or estates.
 * Jacob's Notes**

The First Estate- made up of clergy

The Second Estate- was made up of the nobility

The Third Estate- Comprised the vast majority of the population.

The Clergy Enjoy Wealth- During the middle ages, the church had exerted great influence throughout christian Europe. In 1789, French clergy enjoyed wealth and privileges

The first Estate did provide some social services. Nuns, monks, and priest ran schools, hospitals and orphanages. The church was a target for Reform.  They criticized the idleness of some clergy, the churches interferences in politics, and its intolerance of dissent In response, many clergy condemned the Enlightenment for undermining religion and moral order. The second Estate or titled as nobility of french society. In the middle ages, noble knights defended the land. In the 1600’s Richelieu and Louis XIV had crushed the nobles’ military power but gave them other rights - under strict royal control.

At Versailles, ambitious nobles even though they had land they did not receive much financial income.

Many nobles hated absolutism and resented the royal bureaucracy that employed middle-class men that once had been reserved for them. They feared losing their freedoms including being able to pay taxes.

Section 2
The political crisis of 1789 coincided with the worst famine in memory
 * Zach's Notes**

Staring peasants roamed looking for food

As the prices of grain went up they didn't sell as much because people where spending 80% of the money on bread

There were rumors going around about attacks on villages and towns spread panic

There were also rumors that the government troops were going around and seizing peasant crops

Faction : Dissenting groups of people, completed to gain power

Marquis de Lafayette : The aristocratic "hero of two worlds" who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution

The Paris Commune, replaced the royalist government of the city

On August 4th, in a combative all-night meeting, nobles in the National Assembly voted to and there own privileges

"Feudalism is abolished," announced the proud and weary delegates at 2 a.m.

There was a document molded in part of the American Declaration of Independence, that all men that were born remain free and have equal rights

In 1791, Olympe de Gouges, a journalist, demanded equal rights in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizens

Section 3

 * Ben's Notes**

On August 10, 1792, a crowd of Parisians went after the king’s family, after suspecting that he was in league with the enemy. They escaped the mob by fleeting to the Legislative Assembly. One month later, prisons that held nobles and priests were attacked. 1200 prisoners were killed.

Radicals took over the National Assembly and wanted to make a new legislative body called the National Convention. Suffrage, the right to vote, was given to all male citizens.

The Convention wanted to abolish the monarchy and the old order, and wanted to replace it with the French Republic.

The Convention also convicted Louis XIV as a traitor of France and, in January 1793, he was executed. In October, Marie Antoinette was also executed.

By 1793, France was at war with Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Prussia. Also, rebellions were being led against the government, and in Paris, sans-culottes demanded relief from food shortages and inflation.

To deal with the surrounding problems, the Convention formed the Committee of Public Safety. The committee prepared France for all-out war, by issuing a mass levy tax that required all citizens to contribute to the war effort. The committee was also in charge of trials and executions.

France soon overran the Netherlands, and later invaded Italy. They also controlled the peasant revolts.

Maximilien Robespierre rose to leadership of the Committee of Public Safety. He supported Rousseau’s idea of general will as the source of all legitimate law.

Reign of Terror-Summer 1792-Political turmoil, nobody knew who was in control because everybody thought they were in control.

In the third stage of the Revolution, the Convention made the Constitution of 1795.

The new constitution made a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature elected by male citizens who owned property.

Peace was made with Prussia and Spain, but fighting still continued with Austria and Great Britain.

The Directory quickly suppressed the sans-culottes that rioted because of rising bread prices.

In the election of 1797, supporters of a constitutional monarchy won the majority of seats in the legislature.

Politicians planned to use Napoleon Bonaparte to advance their own goals, but Napoleon wound up outwitting them and becoming the ruler of France.

By 1799, the French Revolution had removed the old social order, the monarchy, and brought the Church under state control.

Changes to Statues of Society (pg. 590)

Nationalism started to spread through the France.

Revolutionaries set up state schools to replace religious ones and organized systems to help the poor, old soldiers, and war widows.

Slavery was also abolished in France’s Caribbean colonies.