3. SOCIAL CLASS DIVISION (CLASS STRUGGLE).
The
Marxist interpretation of the French revolution is that it was a
product of class struggle between the unprivileged and privileged
classes. The 1789 French population was partitioned into three
discriminative and rival estates. The first estate was composed of the
clergy and royalists, the second was for the nobles and die third estate
was composed of peasants and the bourgeoisie (middleclass).
Generally,
the 1st and the 2nd estates were called the privileged class. Although
the privileged class numbered about 300,000 out of25 million, they
enjoyed a lot of unjustifiable privileges. This includes owning 1/5 of
the whole property in France, domination of key government posts,
exemption from taxation, forced labour and conscription into the army.
These widespread privileges were seriously opposed by the peasants and
middle class, which provoked them to revolt.
The
influence of the Catholic Church and the clergy in the social,
political, economic and religious affairs of France made the outbreak of
the revolution inevitable. The church arid the Pope had a lot of
influence on politics and administration of France. The clergy who
dominated key government positions were hot only incompetent but messed
up the country through corruption, bribery and embezzlement of public
funds. They enjoyed a yearly income of500 million Francs and exploited
peasants through feudalism and serfdom. They also denied the Frenchmen
freedom of worship and made the church tithe to be compulsory to
everybody in France yet they were exempted from all forms of taxes.
Thus, the church pursued worldly interest more than spiritual interest,
which provided philosophers with issues to criticize and incite the
Frenchmen to revolt.
However, even within the
privileged class, there existed contradictions and sharp divisions. The
1st estate (clergy) was subdivided into upper clergy who enjoyed the
highest pay and key positions in government yet they did little pastoral
work and the lower clergy who were overworked with little payments. The
salary of an upper clergy was 10times more than that of a lower clergy.
The nobles were also subdivided into the upper nobility, the lower
nobility arid the nobility of the robe (those who brought their noble
status). The upper nobility were more privileged than the lower
nobility. They (the upper nobility) were very arrogant and despised the
other two nobles and this why the French developed a maxim that; that
the nobles fight the clergy pray and the people pay. This discrimination
within the privileged class boosted the revolution because some of such
nobles and the clergy joined the peasants and the middle class during
the revolution.
The third estate was for the
peasants and the middle class. The peasants were about 23 million out of
a total population of 25 million. However, they were denied all sorts
of freedom and subjected to unjust practices like taxation, denial of
land, forced labour etc. By 1789, they were in a very desperate
condition that made them to flock the streets of Paris where they ended
up becoming revolutionary mobs, this greatly led to the success of the
revolution.
The Bourgeoisie (middle class) was
composed of businessmen and professionals like teachers, lawyers,
doctors, scientists, philosophers, industrialists and merchants. Inspite
of their economic strength (wealth) and education, the middle class was
unprivileged and deprived of political rights. For instance, they were
excluded from top positions in the church, army, education and the
judiciary. A number of them had lent huge chunks of money to the
government and were not sure of recovering their money due to financial
crisis. By 1789, they had read and interpreted the writings of political
philosophers to the peasants and urban dwellers, making them more aware
and conscious of the need for change. It is important to stress that
revolutionary leaders like Mirabeau, Dalton, Herbert and Robespierre
were middle class men. Moreover, political philosophers who made
remarkable contributions to the revolution were also middle class men.
Nevertheless
like political unfairness, social class division was not anew thing in
the history of France. It existed during the reigns of Louis xvi and
Louis xv without causing any revolution. One can therefore argue that
maintaining social class system without other grievances could have
caused discontent but not a revolution. But this kind of argument should
not be over emphasized because unfairness in France was the outcome of
social class divisions. Even financial crisis was due to the fact that
the privileged class who were most wealthy was exempted from taxation.
From this point of view, one can conclude that social stratification is
one of the paramount long term causes of the French revolution.
Emphasis
must be made that class system led to the failure of the Estates
General meeting of5th may 1789 through which the revolution emerged. It
must be noted that the French revolution was sparked off by disagreement
over the seating arrangement, when the representatives of the
privileged classes insisted on the ancient system of voting based on
class system. This was resisted by the representatives of the
unprivileged class who wanted voting by universal suffrage i.e.
individual show of hands. This is why class struggle is considered one
of the immediate causes of the 1789 French revolution.
4 ECONOMIC FACTORS
Land
The
feudal system of land ownership was important in bringing about the
French revolution of1789. Land Was unfairly distributed amongst the
nobles and the clergy at the expense of the majority peasants. For
instance they owned up to 3/5 of the land yet they formed only 1/8 of
the total population. The church had 1/5 of the fertile state land on
top of a yearly income of 500 million Francs. The 23 million peasants
(majority) inspite of being producing agents and taxpayers were landless
and survived as tenants or serfs on their landlords' estates. The
conditions of the peasants could better be felt than described. They
suffered constant harassment and exploitation from their landlords and
that is why they demanded for land reforms during the revolution.
Taxation
By
1789, the taxation system of France had made the ancient regime "very
sick" and no wonder that it was referred to as” the cancer of the
ancient regime” The poor peasants and them idle class, who were least
able to pay, were forced to pay while the wealthy nobles and the clergy
were exempted from all forms of taxes. The tax system was particularly
so burdensome to the peasants that it claimed over 80% of their annual
income. This left them under a very miserable socio-economic condition,
which can be better felt than described. Worst of all, the taxation
system was privatized and the tax farmers (tax collectors) were so
brutal that they often killed or inflicted physical injuries like
mutilation of tax defaulters. Besides, the profits of the Bourgeoisie
were seriously reduced by heavy taxation. All these dragged-the peasants
and the middle class in the revolution in a bid to bring an end to
unfair taxation system
Financial crisis/Bankruptcy
By
1789, France was bankrupt with a heavy debt burden mostly from the
middle class. Financial crisis was brought about by corruption,
embezzlement of government funds, financial mismanagement, extravagancy
of court nobles and Marie Antoinette which constituted 1/12 of
government revenue leave alone the wastage of state resources on useless
and expensive wars like the 7years war with Britain in India (1656-
1663), the American war of independence (1776-1783). The roles of
financial crisis/bankruptcy in the French revolution were as below:
(a)
The government resorted to internal borrowing from the middle class in a
desperate attempt to service .the heavy debt burden and meet the cost
of administration. However, Louis xvi resoled to drastic measures of
reducing interest on small loans and refusing to pay back huge loans. By
1789, it was abundantly clear that the Bourbon monarchy under Louis
xvi's leadership could not repay the debts of the middle class. Thus,
the middle class decided to "do away" with the monarchy and establish a
new government that would clear their debts, hence the revolution.
b)
It undermined people's confidence in the government and exposed the
dangers of financial mismanagement and extravagancy. This made the
monarchy unpopular and vulnerable to the
revolution of 1789.
c).
It made the government very inefficient in providing basic necessities
and state enterprises like education, health, agriculture, industry, and
transport. Besides, the government failed to pay civil servants, the
army and resorted to unpopular policies such as retrenchment, excessive
taxation, and free trade treaty with Britain etc. All these led to
inflation, unemployment, general poverty and starvation, which forced
the masses into the revolution.
d) Financial crisis
made the government incompetent in combating the effects of natural
disasters especially winter. There was no money to stock food and
provide relief to the people. This worsened famine leading to the
creation of mobs like those of Paris that cheered the revolution.
e)
Financial crisis forced Louis xvi to call the estate general from where
the French revolution exploded. He wanted to consult the
representatives on the solutions to financial bankruptcy. Otherwise, if
France was not in an awkward financial situation, it would probably not
have been called after all, I had never been called for 175 years (since
1614).
(f) Financial crisis lead to the dismissal
of reform oriented financial ministers i.e. Turgot (1774 -1776), ,
Necker (1776-1781), Colonne (1781-1787) and Bishop Brienne (I787-l78.8),
They had suggested reforms like the scrapping of privileges in France
and taxing the wealth of the nobles and the clergy. However, these
reforms made them very unpopular to the Queen and the court nobles.
Consequently, the strong-minded queen and the court nobles engineered
their dismissal and replacement, one after the other. The dismissal of
reformist financial ministers undermined confidence in the monarchy and
was a total disaster for Louis xvi and the Frenchmen. Voltaire puts this
very clearly on the strength of the following words: - " I see nothing
before me now but death, I am struck to the heart of this blow and I
shall never be consoled for having seen the beginning and the end of the
golden age that Turgot was preparing for us” It should be emphasized
that unfair dismissal of financial reformers worsened financial crisis
and made the outbreak of the French revolution inevitable.
It
made the monarchy the focus of criticism by economists, physiocrats and
encyclopaedists like Diderot, Adam Smith, Turgot, Mira beau etc. They
criticized the French financial system, its mismanagement and
consequences such, as inflation, unemployment, poverty and starvation.
This enlightenment due to bankruptcy contributed to the outbreak of the
French revolution of1789.
General Economic hardship
By
1789, Trance was messed up in a serious economic, hardship that turned
the masses against the ancient regime. There was acute food shortage due
to lack of modern methods of farming and under utilization of land by
the nobles and clergy. Inflation had made the cost of living impossible
for the common man. Louis xvi's free trade policy of Leissez fairre made
the British high quality goods to flood the French market thus forcing
the Frenchmen out of business. This led to the collapse of industries
and unemployment. All these caused widespread discontent and undermined
the reputation of King Louis xvi and the monarchy.
The effects of natural disasters
The
impact of natural disasters became one of the immediate causes of the
French revolution. On the eve of the revolution, there was bad weather
characterized by severe winter that blocked all big rivers including the
chief port of Marseilles. This was worsened by heavy rainfall
and
storm that destroyed crops. All these led to poor harvest, famine and
starvation to which the government had no practical solution. These
forced the desperate, hungry and unemployed destitutes to flock to towns
where they ended up becoming revolutionary gangsters.
N.B
If the economic hardship had not forced the idle, disorderly,
desperate, helpless mobs to town, there would have been no revolutionary
mobs to cheer and support the revolution. It was for this reason that
the repercussions of natural disaster are considered one of the
immediate causes of the revolution.
It should
further be argued that economic consideration was the primary reason
that brought disagreement when the estates general meeting was convened.
The crisis that arose over the seating arrangement was precisely
because the privileged classes wanted to safeguard their economic might.
This was rejected by the unprivileged class who wanted to improve their
economic standard. The peasants were discontented with the ancient
regime because they were denied land and subjected to burdensome taxes.
On the other hand, the bourgeoisie were disgruntled because they were
denied top political jobs that carried higher pay hence greater
prospects of wealth.
5 EXTERNAL INFLUENCE
Influence
of England The influence of England has been advanced as one of the
factors responsible for the revolutionary atmosphere in the 1789 France.
Britain had a constitutional monarchy with a functional parliament,
independent judiciary, modernized agriculture and industries. The French
people always demanded their rulers to follow the British example and
reform the social, political and economic systems of France according to
those of the English. The French writers and thinkers especially
philosophers were influenced by the apparently better social, political
and economic standards of England.
Nevertheless,
although such comparison made the Frenchmen to be more aware of the
extent to which they were cheated, it should not be over emphasized.
This is because man cannot go crazy, wild, violent, risk his life and
property just because he is being reminded that his colleague a broad is
leading a better lifestyle than himself. Thus, the conditions in France
might have been bad and that was why the French preferred those of the
English. In short, the social, political, and economic conditions in
France (bad conditions) contributed more than the influence of England
in the making of the French revolution.
b) American war of independence (1776-1783)
From
1776 - 1783, the 13 British colonies of America rebelled against the
British for their independence. The French government gave military' and
financial assistance to the Americans. The French army under General
Lafayette fought bravely, defeated tile British and the Americans
secured their independence where they created the United States
of-America in 1785. However, the victory of the French in America was
short lived as if contributed to the outbreak of the French revolution.
It had political and economic impacts, which led to the revolution
Politically,
the French soldiers who liberated the Americans came back with
revolutionary and democratic ideas. They had helped the Americans to
destroy the British oppressive and autocratic regime. They were
embarrassed to find that the very things they had liberated the
Americans from were the order of the day in France. It's therefore not a
surprise that politicized soldiers such as Lafayette fraternized with
the revolutionaries leading to the success of the French revolution.
The
republican constitution, which America adopted was a direct version of
Monetesque's ideas in his book "the spirit of the Laws" i.e. liberty,
equality and fraternity. These left the Frenchmen with great enthusiasm
for reforms against the Bourbon monarchy. Unfortunately, Louis had no
program for reforms in his mind, which made the Frenchmen to revolt.
Economically,
the war contributed to Bankruptcy of the French treasury. France spent
too much money to a tune of 2,000 million Livres yet she had no
financial benefit from the war. This forced the government to borrow
money from the Bourgeoisie who became very uneasy with the government
since there was no hope
ofrecoveringtheirmoney.Thiscannotheunderratedbecausetheestatesgeneralmeetingthatlater
turned in to a revolution was prompted by financial crisis to which
American war of independence was a contributory factor.
6 THE RESPONSIBILITY, CHARACTER AND WEAKNESSES OF KING LOUIS XVI
Louis
xvi was the last Bourbon monarch who ruled France under the ancient
system of despotism. He ascended to the throne in 1774 and ruled up to
1793 when he was guillotined/executed by the radical French
revolutionaries. Louis xvi was the weakest monarch in Europe. This
explains why France experienced a revolution alone yet the conditions
between France and other European states were generally the same.
Similarly, he was the weakest monarch in France and that is why the
French revolted during his reign than those of his predecessors. He was a
fat, dull and inconsistent stupid man married to a beautiful "chicken-
brained" and irresponsible woman called Marie Antoinette. He lacked
mannerism and often drunk and ate excessively. Louis xvi's character and
personal weaknesses made the French revolution inevitable in a number
of ways;
i) Louis xvi confined himself in the royal
palace which made him very unpopular. He did not tour the various parts
ofthecountryandconsequentlylosthispersonaltouchwiththepeople.Hisattentionwas
centered at the capital where the nobles assembled from all over the
country to feast as parasites on state resources. Worst of .all he was
always asleep or hunting during crucial state meetings which isolated
him from even his very ministers. These left burning issues unattended
to and only opened way to the French revolution.
ii)
Louis xvi was never a real despot. He inherited a despotic
administration without himself being a despot He was a despot in name
and not in character since he had lost control over the army. The army
was divided in to two i.e. those loyal to him and those who were against
him. Louis could therefore not use to the army yet dictators survive on
the support of the army. This explains why the army fraternized with
the revolutionaries during the revolution.
iii)
Besides, he lacked firmness and often shed tears during heated debates
when his ministers failed to agree with him. Although Louis xvi desired
reforms, he was overshadowed by Marie Antoinette and the court nobles
who were out rightly anti reforms. This is what one time, he could
appoint reformist financial controllers like Turgot and Necker and
dismiss them without genuine reasons. This lack of firmness and
inconsistency made the forces of change to gather momentum which swept
Louis xvi and the Bourbon monarchy to the dustbin of history.
iv)
Louis xvi's submissive character also contributed to the outbreak of
the French revolution of 1789. Although he had good ideas, he was
nevertheless overshadowed in decision making by the Pope, clergy, royal
court officials and his wife, Marie Antoinette. They influenced Louis
xvi to implement unpopular policies like the dismissal of Turgot and
Necker that prompted the Frenchmen to revolt. This was because the king
lacked a strong will to make independent and correct decisions.
v)
Louis xvi is blamed for signing a free trade treaty with Britain in
1786 i.e. the Cobden treaty of 1786. The treaty led to the flooding of
French markets with superior and yet cheap British goods. This forced
the French industrialists and businessmen out of the market leading to
unemployment, poverty and famine that made the monarchy/government very
unpopular.
vi) Louis xvi is also blamed for
enacting the 1781 army law, which restricted promotion in the army to
the nobles. The law prohibited those from the unprivileged class
from-being promoted to commissioned ranks even if one had exceptional
abilities. The law created discontent and resentment in those who were
marginalised, which explains why a section of the army joined the
revolution to overthrow King Louis xvi from power.
vii)
Louis xvi had a loose administration with a relaxed press. News papers
pamphlets, books and revolutionary literatures written and printed
rapidly, circulated cheaply, passed and discussed openly amongst the
Frenchmen. On top of this, Louis xvi's administration encouraged free
migration ' and immigration which made the influence of England to be
greatest in France. All these were exploited by political philosophers
and other Writers to circulate their ideas throughout France which '
caused the revolution.
, NB. One can point out that
had Louis xvi been a firm and wise king, he could have followed reforms
earlier advocated by philosophers before he ascended the throne and
redressed the social, political and economic problems. What he did was
to simply dismiss their ideas which became fatal leading to his own
downfall and that of the monarchy.
viii) Louis xvi
is held responsible for economic mismanagement and hence economic crisis
that dragged France to the revolution. His loose administration paved
way for corruption, embezzlement, extravagancy and mismanagement of
funds, inflation, unemployment, poverty and starvation. He was not
bothered about these problems and even failed to provide relief to the
starving French peasants. All these forced the Frenchmen to revolt in
1789.
ix) Louis xvi is blamed for the dismissal of
reformist financial controllers such as Turgot, Necker and Calonne. They
suggested reforms like the scrapping of privileges of the nobles and
clergy e.g. tax exemptions as a way of raising money to address the,
problem of financial crisis. This provoked a furious opposition from the
queen, nobles and clergy who influenced King Louis xvi to dismiss them.
Their dismissal one after the other, made the financial situation in
France to graduate from bad to worst, leading to the calling of the
estates general meeting and the outbreak of the revolution.
x)
It was Louis xvi who carried France to the disastrous American war of
independence. Although there might have been a case for revenge against
Britain, one could as well argue that it was not the right time to wage a
revengist war considering the political climate and economic crisis in
France. Louis xvi was too myopic,(shortsighted) to realize that the very
things the Americans were fighting against were the. Very things
happening in France. He was too shortsighted to realize the side effects
of the war and too weak to de-politicize the veterans of American war
of independence.
xi) Louis xvi made a fatal mistake
by calling the estates general meeting of 5th May 1789 which had been
discarded since 1614. He was ignorant of the degree of antagonism
between hostile and irreconcilable forces that had spent.175 years
(since 1614) in the grave. Perhaps his greatest mistake was his failure
to settle the disagreement over sitting arrangement which sparked off
the revolution. His refusal to allow the 3rd estate sit and vote in the
same house with other estates made the 3rd estate representatives to
declare themselves the national assembly and this was the beginning of
the revolution.
(xix) Even, at this stage, Louis
xvi could have used force if he was a real despot. Unfortunately, the
only “Jesus" to save him and the monarchy, had disloyal, elements that
could be relied on. These made him to try to quell the revolution using
foreign troops, which made the revolutionaries more revolutionary than
ever before. One can therefore argue that it was not despotism. But lack
of it or weakness in administration that eventually caused the French
revolution. Otherwise, despotism existed in. France before Louis xvi
without causing any revolution i.e. other previous leaders utilized
their despotic power to cling on the throne while Louis xvi failed to do
so.
Generally, France in 1789 was revolutionary
which needed a more dynamic and equally revolutionary king who could
direct changes from above rather than wait for changes to direct him
from below. Unfortunately, Louis xvi was more interested in divine rule
and most interested in despotism and hunting than national issues. More
interestingly, the French revolutionaries in the initial stage of the
revolution simply demanded for reforms within the monarchy and not a
revolution as it turned out to be. However, Louis' rigidity towards
reforms is what led to his death and the downfall of the Bourbon
monarchy.
7. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE FRENCH QUEEN
The
role of Marie Antoinette was very crucial in bringing about the French
revolution of 1789. She was an Austrian Princess who was hated by the
Frenchmen as a foreigner. Marie Antoinette had a narrow or limited
political experience and Education. Her mother, the empress of Austria
confessed that her daughter (Marie Antoinette) ....had never learnt how
to write a good letter, had no taste for reading and possessed none of
the accomplishments which the court of France expected (H L Peacock, A
history of modern Europe 1789 1981, 7th edition, PI7).
Her
poor education made her to lose respect amongst the Frenchmen who were
surprised to find that the beautiful queen was indeed illiterate. Her
narrow education also denied her enough skills that she could have used
to give proper guidance and advice to King Louis xvi. All these made her
very unpopular to the enlightened French masses and undermined the
Kings popularity hence leading to the outbreak of the French revolution
of 1789.
Besides, she was too proud, arrogant-and
reckless with her "tongue". She openly abused the hungry mob when she
told them to "Go and eat cakes if bread is too expensive". This was an
insult of the highest magnitude because cakes are far more expensive
than bread. This made the Frenchmen to be more radical and no wander
that she was guillotined during the course of the revolution.
The
Frenchmen disliked the marriage of Marie Antoinette because of alliance
between Austria and France in the seven years war of 1756 - 63 in which
France was humiliatingly defeated by Britain and Prussia. France
consequently lost her colonies in Canada and India to Britain yet a lot
of human and non human resources were also lost in the war. This was
because it was believed that France was defeated due to the weakness of
Austria. She was therefore hated as a living symbol of humiliation that
France suffered in the war.
Marie Antoinette made
Louis Xvi a lousy administrator by confining him to die palace, royal
gardens and the "bedroorn". She actually practiced "bed room politics"
from where she gave poor and often very unpopular advice to Louis xvi.
To this, Mira beau said; The king has only one man about himself, his
wife!
She advised the king to reject all forms of
reforms. She is even the one who told Louis Xvi to dismiss the reformist
financial controllers i.e. Turgot and Necker. In short she made Louis
xvi a very confused king, which explains why he pursued inconsistent
policy. This is why Denis Richards remarks; France's destiny rested on a
king who was too weak-minded to be stable and a queen who was too
strong-minded to be sensible.
Marie Antoinette
ranks high as one of the most extravagant women in the history of the
world. While the Frenchmen were dying of hunger, she was busy wasting
tax payers money on Luxurious parties and entertainment, gifts for court
favourites, 500 servants and buying 4 pairs of new shoes per week.
These and many others contributed to financial crisis and misery in
France which graduated to the French revolution of 1789.
Attachments
No attachments
No comments:
Post a Comment