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7/29/2019 Casca Scasdasd

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Brandon Chan

AP Euro Day 1+2

I . B o o k s , n e w s p a p e r s , a n d m a g a z i n e s p r o v i d e d t h e n e w l y d e v e l o p i n g

r e a d i n g p u b l i c /accounts of American events.

A.Too many Europeans, it seemed to portend an era of significant changed, including new arrangements

in international politics.

B.It proved too many Europeans that the liberal political ideas of the Enlightenment were not the vapid

utterances of intellectuals. The Americans had created a new social contract, embodied it in a written

constitution, and made concepts of liberty and representative government a reality.

C.The premises of the Enlightenment seemed confirmed; a new age and a better world

could be achieved.

I I . E u r o p e a n s o b t a i n e d m u c h o f t h e i r i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t A m e r i c a f r o m r e t u r n i n g

s o l d i e r s , especially the hundreds of French officers who had served in the American war.

A.

The marquis de Lafayette had volunteered for the war in an attempt to hurt England,Francesold enemy. He

returned to France w/ideas of individual liberties and notions of republicanism and popular sovereignty

.B.Ch.E. became a member of the Society of Thirty, a club composed of people from the

Paris salons who were influential in the early stages of the French Revolution.Background to the French RevolutionI . I n t h e 5 0 y e a r s b u f f 1 7 8 9 , F r a n c e h a d e x p e r i e n c e d a p e r i o d o f

e c o n o m i c g r o w t h d u e t o a n expansion of foreign trade and an increase in industrial

production, although many people, especially peasants, failed to share in the prosperity. Social Structureof the Old Regime

I.

Although France experienced an increase in economic growth in the 18thc, the wealth was not

evenly distributed.II . B/ f the Re vol ut i on, Fr enc h so cie ty wa s gro und ed in th e

inequal i ty of r ights or the idea of privi lege.

A.This population was divided into 3 orders or estates The First Estate

III.The 1st Estate consisted of clergy.A.The church owned approxima tely 10 percen t of the land.

B.Clergy were exempt from the taille, Frances chief tax, although they had agreed to pay a voluntarycontribution every 5 years to the state.II. Th e cl er gy we re ra di ca ll y di vi de d, si nc e th e

hi gh e r c l er gy , st e mm i n g f ro m a r is to c r a ti c families, shared the interests of the nobles while

the parish priests were often poor commoners.

The Second Estate

III.The 2nd

Estate was the nobility who owned 25 to 30% of the land.

Asunder Louis XV and Louis XVI, the nobility had continued to play an important role in French society,

holding many of the leading positions in the government, the military, the law courts, and the higher church offices.

B.Mus. heavy industry in France was controlled by nobles, either through invest ment or by

ownership of mining and metallurgical enterprises.

I I I . T h e F r e n c h n o b i l i t y w e r e a l s o d i v i d e d .A.

The nobility of the robe derived their status from office holding. These nobles now dominated the royal

law courts and important administrative offices.

B.Th. nobility of the sword claimed to be descendants of the original medieval nobility.

C.As a group, the noble s sought to expand their privileges at t he expense of the monarchyto defend liberty by resisting the arbitrary actions of monarchy, as some nobles assertedand to maintaintheir monopolistic control over positions in themilitary, church, and government.IV


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. A l t h o u g h t h e r e w e r e p o o r n o b l e s , o v e r a l l t h e f o r t u n e s o f t h e

w e a l t h y a r i s t o c r a t s out stripped those of most others in French society.

A.

Although their privileges varied from region to region, the very possession of privileges

remained a hallmark of the nobility.

B.Common to all were tax exemptions, especially from the taille. The Third Estate

III.The 3rd Estate, the commoners of society, constituted the overwhelming majority of the French

population. They were divided by vast differences in occupation, level of education, and wealth.

A.

The peasants, who were the largest group of the 3rdEstate, owned 35 to 40% of the land, although their

landholdings varied from area to area and over half had little or no land on which to survive.

Serfdom no longer existed on a large scale in France, but peasants still had obligations to

their local landlords that they deeply resented.

C.The relics of feudalism included the payment of fees for the use of village facilities, such as the

flourmill, community oven, and winepress, as well as tithes to the clergy. The nobility also had the right

to hunt on the peasants land.

II.Another part of the 3rd Estate consisted of skilled artisans, shopkeepers, and other wage-earners in the

cities.

A. In the 18th

c, consumer prices rose faster than wages, w/the result that these urban groups experienced

a decline in purchasing power. The economic discontent of this segment of the 3 rd.Estate led them to play an important role in the Revolution, especially in Paris.

Sudden incre ases in the price of bread immediately affec ted public order. Pe ople expected

bread prices to be controlled. They grew desperate when prices rose, and their only resource was mob

action to try to change the situation.

III.

The bourgeoisie or middle class owned about 20 to 25% of the land. A.This group incl uded

merchants , indust ria lis ts, and bankers who con tro lled t he resources of trade, manufacturing, and

finance and benefited from the economic prosperity after 1730.B.They al so include d professionalpeopl e s uch as doctor s, lawyer s, holde rs of publi c office, and writers.

C.

Many members of the bourgeoisie sought security and status through the purchase of land.

Dithery was often excluded from the social and political privileges monopolized byte

nobles.

I n v i t e w a s p o s s i b l e f o r w e a l t h y m i d d l e - c l a s s i n d i v i d ua l s t o e n t e r t h e r a n k s

o f n o b i l i t y b y obtaining public offices and entering the nobility of the robe.

A.This aristocr ats were also engaging in capitalist activities on their estates such as mining,

metallurgy, and glassmaking, and were investing in foreign trade.

B.

Many members of the bourgeoisie and nobility formed a single class. The new ideas of the Enlightenment

influenced both of them. Members of both groups shared common world of liberal political thought.C.

Both aristocratic and bourgeois elites, long accustomed to a new socioeconomic reality based on wealth

and economic achievement, was increasingly frustrated by a monarchial system resting of privileges and

on an old and rigid social order based on the concept of estates.

C.The opposition of these e lites to the old order ultimately led them to take drastic action

against the monarchial regime, although they soon split over the question of how far to proceed in

eliminating traditional privileges. Other Problems Facing the French Monarchy


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I I I . T h e f a i l u r e o f t h e F r e n c h m o n a r c h y w a s e x a c e r b a t e d b y s p e c i f i c

p r o b l e m s i n t h e 1 7 8 0 s .

A.Although the countr y had enj oyed 50 years of growth overa ll, periodic economic crises

still occurred.

Bobbed har vests in 1787 and 1788 and the beginning of a manufacturing depr ession resulted

in food shortages, rising prices for food, and unemployment in the cities.

C.The number of poor reached crisis proportions on the eve of the Revolution. Ideas of thePhilosophes

I.

Increased criticism of existing privileges as well as social and political institutions also characterized the

18th

century

A.Although the philosophes did not advocate revolution; the ir idea s were widely circulated

among the literate bourgeois and noble elites of France.

Failure to Make Reforms

I.

The French Parliaments often frustrated efforts at reform.A.Respons ible fo r regis tering royal

dec ree s, these 13 law courts cou ld block royal edicts by not registering them.

B.

The Parliaments had gained new strength in the 18The

C as they and their noble judges assumed the role of defenders ofliberty against the arbitrary power of

themonarchy.C.They of ten pushed their own i ntere sts, espec ially by bl ockin g new ta xes.

Financial CrisisI I I . T h e i m m e d i a t e c a u s e o f t h e F r e n c h R e v o l u t i o n w a s t h e n e a r

c o l l a p s e o f g o v e r n m e n t finances.

A.French government expenditures continued to grow due to costly wars and royal

extravagance.

Since the government responded by borrowing, by 1788 the interest on the debt alone

constituted the governments spendingC the verge of financial collapse, the govern ment was finally for ced to call meeting of the

Estates-General. By calling the E-G, the government was virtually admitting that the consent of the nationwas required to raise taxes.

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