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French♥revolution 1789–1799 the 10 horrible years | |
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Sunday, March 22, 2009, 5:21 PM
Cause of the war
Enlightment The intellectual and philosophical developments of that age (and their impact in moral, social, and political reform) aspired toward more freedom for common people based on self-governance, natural rights, natural law, central emphasis on liberty, individual rights, reason, common sense, and the principles of deism. -were a revolutionary departure from theocracy, oligarchy, aristocracy, and the divine right of kings. -marks a principled departure from the Middle Ages of religious authority, guild-based economic systems, and censorship of ideas toward an era of rational discourse and personal judgment, republicanism, liberalism, naturalism, scientific method, and modernity. -Many of these ideas are clearly manifested in the demands and declarations of the Revolution. -The thoughts were invoked in 1685 after King Louis XIV revoked the rights of Protestants and philosophers began to criticize the monarchy and its absolute rule They emphasized rationalism and reason over honoring outdated traditions and demonstrated a desire for liberty, equality, and civic responsibility. Economics France in 1789, although facing some economic difficulties, was one of the richest and strongest nations in Europe. France had over 28 million inhabitants. France had 260,000 square kilometres under cultivation; the entirety of Europe outside Russia France had 5.3 million of Europe's 30 million male peasants. In short, while not having quite the per capita wealth of the Low Countries and possibly Switzerland, the sheer size of the French economy made it the premier economic power in continental Europe. Debt The French monarchy had operated for over a century without resorting to a legislature. Since 1614, French kings had managed their economic affairs by 1. increasing the burden of the ancient and unequal system of taxes 2. by borrowing money, 3. sometimes by selling noble titles and other privileges; However, because noble titles exempted the holder from future taxes, the purchasers of titles were effectively buying an annuity. This led to the long-running economic crisis of the French government. On the eve of the revolution, France was so deeply in debt as to be effectively bankrupt. Extravagant expenditures by Louis XVI on luxuries such as Versailles were compounded by heavy expenditures on the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence. Britain too had a great debt, but Britain had a far more advanced economic structure to deal with it. France was a wealthier country than Britain, and its national debt was no greater than the British one. In each country the servicing of the debt accounted for about half the annual expenditure of the government. Where they differed was in the fact that the rate of interest in France was almost double than of across the Channel. This implied a much higher level of taxation and less scope for any increase to deal with a specific emergency. Because of the successful defense by the nobles of their privileges, the king of France lacked the means to impose a "just and proportioned" tax. The desire to do so led directly to the decision in 1788 to call the Estates-General into session. Taxation France is not a major trading nation, thus it is needed to raise most of its government's revenues internally rather than from external tariffs. While average tax rates were higher in Britain, the burden on the common people was greater in France. Taxation relied on a system of internal tariffs separating the regions of France, which prevented a unified market from developing in the country. Taxes such as the extremely unpopular gabelle were contracted out to private collectors who were permitted to raise far more than the government requested. These systems led to an arbitrary and unequal collection of many of France's consumption taxes. Other taxes the peasants were required to pay 1. included a tenth of their income or produce to the church (tithe), 2. a (taille) to the state, 3. a 5% property tax (vingtième), 4. and a tax on the number of people in the family (capitation). Further royal and seigneurial taxes were collected in the form of compulsory labor (the corvée). The peasants also had numerous obligations to their landlords – 1. rent in cash (cens), 2. a payment related to their amount of produce (champari), 3. and taxes on the use of the nobles' mills, wine presses or bakeries (banalitées). In good times, the taxes were burdensome; in harsh times, they were devastating. Many officials had to buy their positions from the king, as well as the right to keep this position hereditary; they tried to have these expenses repaid by making a profit out of their appointment. Failure of reforms During the régimes of Louis XV and Louis several ministers, most notably Turgot and Necker, unsuccessfully proposed to revise the French tax system to tax the nobles. Such measures encountered consistent resistance from the parlements (law courts). Members of these courts bought their positions from the king, as well as the right to transmit this position hereditarily (the so-called Paulette tax). These positions often led to the elevation into the nobility (the so-called noblesse de robe – "nobility of the robe", as opposed to the nobility of ancestral military origin, the noblesse d'épée, nobility of the sword). While these two categories of nobles were often at odds, they both sought to keep in place their privileges. Turgot, Chrétien de Malesherbes, and Jacques Necker successively attempted to revise the system of taxation and to make other reforms, such as Necker's attempts to reduce the lavishness of the king's court. Each failed in turn. In contrast, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, appointed finance minister in 1783, restored lavish spending more reminiscent of the age of Louis XIV. By the time Calonne brought together the Assembly of Notables on February 22, 1787 to address the financial situation, France had reached a state of virtual bankruptcy: no one would lend the king funds sufficient to meet the expenses of government and court. According to Mignet, the loans amounted to "one thousand six hundred and forty-six millions... and... there was an annual deficit... of a hundred and forty millions [presumably of livres]." Calonne was succeeded by his chief critic Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Sens, but the fundamental situation was unchanged: the government had no credit. To try to address this, the assembly "sanctioned the establishment of provincial assemblies, a regulation of the corn trade, the abolition of corvées, and a new stamp tax; it broke up on the 25th of May, 1787." Famine These problems were all compounded by a great scarcity of food in the 1780s.
The little ice age was also affecting agriculture: many other areas of Europe had adopted the potato as the staple crop by this time, whereas the French generally refused it as a dirty food or the devil's food.
Many peasants were relying on charity to survive. The peasantry became a class with the ambition to counteract social inequity and put an end to food shortages. The 'bread riot' evolved into a main cause of the French Revolution. Mass urbanization coinciding with the beginning of the industrial revolution led residents to move into French cities seeking employment. French cities became overcrowded and filled with the hungry and disaffected. The peasantry suffered doubly from the economic and agricultural problems. |