Notes 2/8- France

• Thomas Jefferson argued for pastoral democracy
• France did not have that tradition. there was a lot of separation between the peasants and the nobility
• The third estate was anyone from wealthy professionals or businessmen to university teachers, to peasants, to lots of people.
• no paper money, everything was done in real value: gold
• Marie Antoinette was despised by the French people
• Number one- decrease in farm-able land
• Number two(causes of revolution, im assuming)- the fear of grain shortages, and the main food for them was bread. if there is a crisis in the farms, the peasantry is either going to starve or revolt. so, they revolt
• Number 3- Taile- the nobility taxed the poor through the thing called taile 
• Major cause of the french revolution
• This is how not to run a country- dont put the burden of your government services on the poor
• Louis XV appoints a chancellor- during his reign had appointed Maupeou as chancellor
• His commission was to try to find a way to tax the nobility
• 1788- with the country on the verge of bankruptcy, Louis called the estates general
• There had not been estates general in over 100 years, 
• There was a problem in it- they had made up a rule that voting in the estates general would be equally dispersed between all three estates. the problem is that the third estate is humongous. 
• january 1789- a very influential pamphlet is printed. 
• "What is the third estate?"
• that was the pamphlet
• basically, the thesis is that you could get rid of the first estate and the second estate, and france would be better off. he argues that france fundamentally is the third estate. 
• it gives the third estate ideas that they can overthrow the other estates, and that franace will be better for it. 
• the meeting of the estates general began in 1789********* IMPORTANT YEAR
• The meeting started out poorly. The first and second estates refused to meet with the third estate. the third estate went to the king and refused to take part in the estates general until the other two estates would actually sit down with them. 
• This 'battle of wills' went on for about 6 weeks
• the third estate calls their own national assmebly, saying that they are the true representative of the french people. 
• Now, the first and second estate lock the national assembly out of the meeting room, and wont let them in. 
• They literally, like, locked the doors. They would not let  them into the hall to debate
• June 20, 1789 ****** the national assembly moved to an indoor tennis court as a meeting place. and they swore to continue to meet there as the national assembly, fundamentally driving a wedge between the clergy and nobility on one side and the people on the other side.
• They said that they would stay there until they wrote a new constitution for france. it was called the tennis court oath. 
• The king basically dismisses the third estate from the meeting of the estates gerneral
• bad move ^^^
• as all of this is happening, bread prices go through the roof because there had been a bad harvest. 
• and withing the 6 weeks, the price of the staple of most people's diet became unaffordable and unavailable. 
• there was a lot of panic
• on July 14th, a mob attacked the Bastille
• The Bastille was an old jail that at this time was being used to house ammunition and things. 
• a nymber of nobles who were in fear for their lives, they became emigres. their point person became this guy by the name the duke of artois. he became the leader of the emigres, and is the brother of louis XV
• Peasants are revolting at all the same time and burning things and stuff
• Emigres are basically nobles who are worried about what is going on. 
• the king sees that there is rouble going on in Paris, sop the king allows the people to appoint a new government thing in paris. they called it the citizens committee. 
• The emigres were against the revolution people 
• the king put Lafayette  in charge of the national guard or something
• it is lafayette who starts to use the three part flag thing
• that flag becomes a symbol of the french revolution
• the guy that bring the flag into place to begin with was appointed by the king. 
• August 1789- the assmebly completed the writing of what they called declaration of the rights of man and citizen(it is in the primary sources)
• ****basic rights it said are:
• liberty
• property
• security
• resistance to oppression
• freedom of religion
• due process of law
• taxes by common consent
• officially only men were only allowed to take part of the matters of politics in France, but many women did have a lots to do with the revolution
• Olympe de Gouges- she writes an essay called 'The Rights of Women" (in our primary sources)
• argued on behalf of a woman's right to education, a woman's right to control property within a marriage, and the right to initiate divorce
• she talks about the social contract in terms of gender relations
• that it is fundamental for there to be a social contract between men and women, and between husbands and wives. 
• the National Assembly actually will put some of this in the constitution
• The french revolution had a direct affect on gender equality in france, and they were far ahead of other countries, in terms of dooing something about this. 
• October 1789- 
• a huge mob, 100,000 people, most of the women, march on Versailles
• they have two demands
• bread
• and that the royal family return to paris
• the king submits to the some of the claims of the assembly
• the things that the king agrees to:
• the king lost veto power over everything that came from the assembly, but he was granted suspending power, which means he could hold up legislation. 
• slavery was abolished
• it had been a part of european culture for a really long time
• the national assemnly seems to be getting it's was
• but there is no one to collect taxes, at all
• no taxes are being collected. 
• when a government can't collect taxes, it cant work
• this leads louis XVI to seize property from the church
• for the first time he issues paper money- assingats
• then he makes a big mistake
• he sells the property
• the government is broke, they have no way to collect taxes, so he seizes property, and then he uses the property to back up the 100 million dollars worth of money that he prints, or however much he prints, but then he sells the properties. so then the value of the money goes down
• it destroys it
• Inflation goes through the roof, and the king starts to sell anything he can get his hands on, just to get money
• the emigres manor hoses are acquired by the king and sells them. 
• the nobility- they are unhappy now that louis is confiscating their property
• so basically, everyone hates him
• (The government cant tax because the national assembly says no. and then the king cannot veto this.)
• the church in france can't support itself because its property is gone. 
• the national assembly passes a bill that will not just separate church and state but actually change the way in which the church elects its officials. now the vatican cannot install an archbishop in france without first getting it passed by the national assembly
• then, they start holding elections for the local offices. 
• jacobin club- met in a jacobin monastery. they werent relgious, that is just where they met
• the revolutionary documents covered the years of 1789-1791
• in 1791 the royal family tries to flee and is not able to do so
• some critics of the government try to get a republic
• ***KNOW THESE NAMES:
• george jaques danton (or something)
• jean paul marat
• the legislative assembly
• the new constitution goes into effect in 1791
• the declaration of Pillnitz