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Summary OCR History A-Level - French Revolution Revision Guide
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HistoryA-level
French Revolution
,Why was the Ancien Regime weak?
- Formed in the 1400s: didn’t work in the late 1700s because it is based on absolute monarchy(they have total power),
below him were the Three Estates; he did nit belong to any of them.
- The king stands above the Ancien Regime, not at the top but above it. Three revolutions all at once:
-Nobility
- City workers tear down the Bastille -Bourgeoisie
The Ancien -Peasants (lower third estate)
Regime All want change but different for different
Overall
competing for their preferred change.
King -Divided
Above not part of -Unequal
it
-Poorly structured
First Estate - Clergy
Catholic Clergy
<0.5% pop, 10% land, paid an annual grand of 16m livre (5% of income)
Second Estate - Aristocracy
Nobility (2% of the population but own 20% of the land <1% of pop, 33% of land, exempt from most taxes (e.g. taille) & got all the top jobs
Third Estate - Everyone Else
1)Bourgeoisie- merchants & skilled workers Upper third (well educated), three fold increase in their numbers over 18thce to 2.3mil, 1%
2)City workers – servants, etc pop, 33%V land\
3) Peasants- 85% of population
Overall, doesn’t work because their classes are actually very different
Lower third, even varies here as some peasants owned their land and could make money from
crops, at the very bottom serfdoms still existed(people were the property of the land owner)
their children could not inherit anything without paying considerable dues to their lords. Bad
weather could further still push these people down to be vagrants who survived by stealing o
begging.
,First Estate Second Estate Third Estate
-exemption from taxes (the monarch is reluctant to tax them -exempt from taxes Bourgeoisie
because they will turn against him, Louis XV builds Versailles -tired in their own courts -had no power under absolutism
for them to keep them sweet and on his door step) -exempt from military services. -felt that their power should be reflected in the political system as it bo
-income from taxes equaled around 100mil livres per year -exempt from paying gabelle part of the tax revenue paid to the crown, they want power for their m
- its annual payment(instead of tax) was around 5% of the -exempt from corvee (working on the spent.
income and far less than it could afford roads) -their simmering anger is deemed a long term cause of the revolution.
-power over the people -received a variety of feudel dues -Bourgeoisie didn’t want to power the peasants because they are uned
- The influence of the church was considerable and touched - Exclusive rights to hunting and fishing to gain power.
many areas of people’s lives - Monopoly tights to operate mills, -take inspiration from the American Revolution
- They had wide ranging power over censorship, provided ovens and wine presses -no social mobility
poor relief, hospitals and schools - Also had issues Peasants
-tithes - Resentment against nobility for non- -peasants angry because their bore the burden of taxation, paid tithes
-plurality and absenteeism sons of nobility got important payment of direct taxes 10% of income) to the state and feudal dies to their lords.
positions just because of their title. - Feudal rights resented by tenants -peasants could be tried in the seigneurial court where their lord was b
-Also had issues -rent was increased due to a growing population and therefore a growi
-vast differences in wealth between the upper clergy and farming.
ordinary priests Urban Workers
-Resentment against the church regarding tithes and the don - The majority of workers in the towns lived in crowded and unsanitary
gratuit as tenements, they were unskilled and poor
- Small property owners and artisans in Paris known as sans-culottes.
- Skilled craftsmen were orgnised into guilds, 1776 100,000 men 1?£
The Enlightenment were part of a guild.
- Increasingly worsening economic situation causes resentment as pri
-18thce intellectual movement of writers and thinkers.
1789) but wages only by 22%. This was a long term factor of the rev
-questioned generally accepted views and idea, particularly relating to religion, nature and absolute
monarchy
-Based on reason and rational rather than superstition and tradition.
-Knowns as Philosophes in France, and were writers rather than philosophers.
-Most famous were Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau. -main object of their attack was the church and despotic governm
-wrote on problems of the day and attacked the prejudice and superstition they saw around them. -condemned the catholic church saying it was intolerant, wealthy
-Many of them contributed to the most important work of the French Enlightenment, The took up Voltaire’s Cry ‘crush the infamous’- meaning the church.
Encyclopaedia, edited by Diderot -they were not revolutionary themselves as they did not necessa
Aims of Philosophes Ancien Regime, but they had an impact as their ideas attacked on
-apply rational analysis to all activities, didn’t accept tradition or revelation, as in the Bible, as a foundations on which t is was based on, namely the position of th
reason for doing anything – e.g miracles the role of the king as God’s servant.
-More in favour of liberty – of the press, speech, trade, of freedom from arbitrary arrest– than of
equality, although they did want equality before the law.
, Louis XVI – Character Profile
Louis XVI - Reigned from 23 August 1754 until 21 January 1793 when he was executed for treason. Married to Marie Antoinette
He was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution.
In 1765, upon the death of his father, Louis Dauphin of France he became the new Dauphin. When his grandfather Louis XV’s death on 10 May
1774.
He assumed the title King of France and Navarre, until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of King of the French until the Monarchy
was abolished on 21 September 1792.
Character and Education Becoming King
Louis XVI grew up strong and healthy, though very shy. He was When Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, he was nineteen years old. He lacked matu
confidence. This was not helped by the fact that he had an enormous responsibility, as the
tutored by French noblemen and studied religion, morality and was deeply in debt, and resentment of despotic monarchy (where the king in the single gre
humanities. He excelled in Latin, humanities and was fluent in
force) was on the rise. He himself felt unqualified to resolve the situation. His failure to su
both Italian and English. Louis enjoyed physical activities
address serious problems related to taxation would dog him for most of his reign. Louis lac
including hunting and wrestling. However, Louis' parents paid strength of character and decisiveness to tackle the influence of court factions or give supp
little attention to him, instead focusing on his older brother, the reformers in their efforts to improve France's government. His character also did not mean
heir apparent, Louis duc de Bourgogne, who died at age nine in suited to the position of a despotic monarch. His indecisiveness meant a lack of change an
1761. Then, on December 20, 1765, his father died of ultimately, he was the sole person with power to make and over-rule decisions.
tuberculosis, and Louis Auguste became Dauphin at age 11.His
mother too died soon after. Despite all of his interests he was ill
prepared for the throne. After the death of his parents Louis’
tutors provided him with poor interpersonal skills. They made Problems in his Policies
his shyness worse by teaching him that austerity was a sign of a Louis XVI’s had a policy of not raising taxes and taking out international loans, including to
American Revolution, this increased France’s debt, setting in motion the French Revolutio
strong character in monarchs. As a result, he presented himself
1780s the country was nearly bankrupt, this forced the king to support radical fiscal refor
as being very indecisive, not a trait that is typically good for taxation). This didn’t make him popular with the nobles or people. When the pressure mo
being king. Often swayed by those around him and his wife. reverted to his earlier teaching of being austere and uncommunicative, posing no solutio
and not responding to others who offered help. By 1789, the situation was deteriorating r
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