Primary Source Assignment: French Revolution
The French Revolution was a peasant revolt over ten years from 1789 to 1799, predominantly carried out by Napoleon and then by the French Empire. The French Revolution triggered a deceleration of absolute monarchies and monarchial power and pushed toward liberal and republican democratic governments. The French country was severely in debt following the Seven Years War and the American Revolution and overtaxed their citizens, causing quality of life of the lower class to decline. And therefore, a popular discontentment from people living in the lower class towards Aristocrats and the Catholic clergy.1
The illustration, on page 443 of the Western Heritage textbook2, depicts nobility and the clergy riding on the back of the poor, starving, chained, Third Estate. This is how the social hierarchy was viewed prior to the revolution. With the Third Estate clearly disregarded and incapable to continue on in this state. The Third Estate encompassed 98% of the French population at this time.3 The Third Estate had little to do in government in the Ancien Regime and little say in how they were governed and controlled.
The Cahiers of 1789, the Third Estate of Carcassonne by J.H Robinson was a document that explained that the Third Estate needed to be governed and controlled with a series of rules that stripped them of their individuality and rights and freedoms. Dictating religion, free thinking, and politics for any man in the lower class. Making such claims that “public worship
1“French Revolution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution.
2 Kagan, Donald, and Donald Kagan. The Western Heritage. Pearson, 2013.
3 “The Third Estate”. French Revolution, 2018, https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/third-estate/. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.
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Casey Ascott Primary Source Assignment: 1049649625 Western History The French Revolution
Janay Nugent
November 20th, 2018
should be confined to the Roman Catholic apostolic religion, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship; its extension should be promoted and the most efficient measures taken to reestablish the discipline of the Church and increase its prestige” and allowed for the over taxing that sent the lower class into terrible living conditions. This document assisted in the Revolution by kickstarting the discontent into actions.4
After the Third Estate attacked the Bastille, “The Storming of the Bastille”, in June of 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in following August. The Declaration thereby stated that all men were born free and equal in rights and passed law that such declaration would be obeyed in all facets of law and government. Including now basic rights such as equality under law, resistance to oppression, and innocence until proven guilty. This forced a change in politics and society by allowing people of the Third Estate to have a voice and a solid ground to stand on in light of law and politicians. Giving people of lower income the same amount of power as land owners and monarchs5, working to shift the hierarchy of volume of opinions and needs from some are represented to all are represented. In the name of democracy, men of the lower classes fought for their voice and in result, they were empowered to a document that allowed them to meet their needs societally.6 This changed French culture in that time period because it pushed forward in the direction of “basic rights”. An example of this would be “A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in
4 Petrarch, history.hanover.edu/texts/cahier.html.
5 Internet History Sourcebooks, sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sieyes.asp.
6 The Avalon Prject – Laws of War : Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907, avalon.law.yale.edu/ 18th_century/rightsof.asp.
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Casey Ascott Primary Source Assignment: 1049649625 Western History The French Revolution
Janay Nugent
November 20th, 2018
proportion to their means.”, which, in simpler terms, just agrees that taxation can not be fluctuated from one financial or political standing to the next. In this portion of the Declaration, the dangerous over taxing of citizens ceased. Therefore, holding those in a higher financial status more accountable for their citizens and communities. Improving the quality of life of the lower class men.
Following the Declaration was the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, July 12th, 1790. This constitution worked to increase civil involvement in church and, more importantly, in state by means of democracy and representation by population. In doing so, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, took power away from the absolute monarchy at the time and restored it in the newly liberated lower and middle class of the French population. This constitution helped include all citizens in decision making and allowed for rights and freedoms such as “All elections shall be by ballot and shall be decided by the absolute majority of the votes”. By instigating the constitution, laws such as the previous mentioned protected the Third Estate from slipping back under the foot of absolute reign.7 By giving lower class people a piece in deciding how they are to be governed slowed the push back from the Third Estate in regards to their social standing and how much they were used as a social punching bag previous to the Storming of Bastille. By liberating their citizens, France’s political and social atmosphere changed in positive ways and worked in a modern way to restore peace and to give the people what they were pushing so hard for.
Treading on the heels of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was Olympe de Gouge’s The Declaration of the Rights of Women 1791, who were not previously taken into account in the
7 Petrarch, history.hanover.edu/texts/civilcon.html.
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Casey Ascott Primary Source Assignment: 1049649625 Western History The French Revolution
Janay Nugent
November 20th, 2018
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. These rights were early stages of feminism and helped give women the recognition and rights of being a human being and worked to make men and women equal under law. And in doing so created a document, a social contract, between a man and woman who were getting married. This document stated that, in simple terms, they were acting on their own free will and were entitled to a fair division if wealth in such time that death does them part. This also helped families in their entirety because the concrete document protected any future children from losing their family money because of the fathers death, which was a popular problem at this time. The declaration completely stood against all the ideas about women and their role in this time. Women were seen as the lesser intelligent, meek gender. Unfortunately, the free thinking woman behind the Declaration was captured, tried, and finally executed by guillotine November 3rd, 1793.8 And with her, the feministic idea of equality faded and did not make any lasting affects on the revolution. 9
The French revolution helped incorporate basic rights and democracy into law and government, which in turn, helped to abolish the absolute monarchy in France and other countries. As well as increasing the quality of life of citizens living in 18th century France.