Lesson

RESOURCES

Watch the following short introduction to the French Revolution and Nationalism.

Read and refer to Chapter Two as your resource for completing this lesson's assignment.

Chapter Two Highlights

What are Some Understandings of Nation?

Watch the song version of France Before 1789 

LESSON

People have not always enjoyed the freedoms we, as Canadians, sometimes take for granted today. Under the Old Regime in France, a group called the Third Estate, by far the largest group, enjoyed virtually no rights yet bore the greatest burden for taxes. Christians were powerful and the Church was the center of society.  It controlled education, healthcare and culture.  The government and the Church worked together to control the people.  Over the years, the people from the Third Estate began to question the feudal system. Society was ripe for change and nationalism was on the rise. 

This age was referred to as the Dark Ages because so many of the cultural, political and educational advances made by the Greeks and Romans were lost.  As time passed and nation states developed, enlightened philosophers studied the democratic ideas of  Ancient Greece and Rome and asked why these ideals were no longer applied.

As enlightened ideas spread, citizens of the Thirteen Colonies, began to protest British control and waged a war against them. This is what lead to the French Revolution.

To understand nationalism, it is important to analyze how nationalism developed in the past and address the following questions:

  • What happened during the French Revolution?
  • Why did it happen?

To answer these questions, it is essential to understand the following Estates System  and the factors that gave rise to nationalism.

Factors that shape nationalism include the following:

Historical Factors
No single event caused the French Revolution. The path to revolution was a long process that unfolded over decades. Still, a single event can often capture a people's collective imagination and inspire them to take action. In the case of France in 1789, this event was the storming of the Bastille.

The Bastille was a Paris prison where, it was rumoured, the king locked up people who spoke out against him. On July 14, 1789, about 600 angry Parisians successfully attacked the Bastille and took control of this symbol of tyranny. These citizens formed a 'Collective Consciousness' and this event is usually considered to be the beginning of the French Revolution, and July 14 is now celebrated as a national holiday in France.




estates  

Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.

Social Factors
Before the French Revolution, France was divided into strict social order that was defined largely by birth. The monarch and aristocrats, who also made up much of the high-ranking clergy in the Catholic Church, held most of the power.

Estates System

In 1789, this ruling elite made up about four percent of France's total estimated population of 26 million. The remaining 96 percent were considered common people. The ruling elite paid few taxes, but their power enabled them to accumulate great wealth by collecting taxes, rents, and other fees from the common people.



 


Geographic Factors
At the same time as Louis XVI was demanding that people pay more taxes, large parts of France were suffering severe weather. The winter of 1788-89 was bitterly cold, with piles of snow that blocked roads and made trade and travel impossible. When the snow melted, it caused floods in some areas. Then, in the spring and summer of 1789, parts of the country were hit by drought - a long period of dry weather.

These conditions combined to destroy grain crops and create a shortage. As the shortage worsened, the prices of flour rose. As a result, many people could no longer afford to buy bread, which was a staple of their diet.



Political Factors
By late summer 1789, the National Assembly had put the finishing touches on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This political action, which abolished the traditional privileges enjoyed by the monarch, the clergy, and the aristocracy, sparked a bloody struggle that eventually led to the creation of a French nation based on new principles. It establish France as a secular - non-religious - republic.

The 17 articles of the declaration set out these principles and became the basis of the new French constitution. This document has influenced all subsequent declarations and charters of rights.

Watch the Reign of Terror Documentary to gain an understanding of the connections to France that people held and the background to how the Reign of Terror developed in France. (NOTE: this short video will stop part way through, but it covers the most important concepts).
Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror

The first acts of the newly named National Convention were the abolition of the monarchy and the declaration of France as a republic. In January 1793, the convention tried and executed Louis XVI on the grounds of treason. Despite the creation of the Committee of Public Safety, the war with Austria and Prussia went poorly for France, and foreign forces pressed on into French territory. Enraged citizens overthrew the Girondin-led National Convention, and the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, took control.

Backed by the newly approved Constitution of 1793, Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety began conscripting French soldiers and implementing laws to stabilize the economy. For a time, it seemed that France’s fortunes might be changing. But Robespierre, growing increasingly paranoid about counterrevolutionary influences, embarked upon a Reign of Terror in late 1793–1794, during which he had more than 15,000 people executed at the guillotine. When the French army successfully removed foreign invaders and the economy finally stabilized, however, Robespierre no longer had any justification for his extreme actions, and he himself was arrested in July 1794 and executed. 

The new government was week and set the stage for Napoleon's takeover.  Napoleon Bonaparte led France at an exciting time in history.  France had recently overthrown a powerful king and survived a year of bloodshed (during the Reign of Terror). You would think the people of France would have wanted a democratic leader to replace the old monarchy.  But, Napoleon was far from a democratic man...read the notes below to learn more about his form of rule.

NOTES - Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?