2.6.1 Political Factors — The Ancien Régime Under Attack

Should nation be the foundation of nationalism?

Big Ideas:

  • Political, geographic, and historical factors shaped nationalism during the French Revolution.

  • Nationalism is shaped by social, economic, political, geographic, and historical factors.

  • Individuals or groups may have various perspectives about nationalism.

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The man in the painting (left) is about to die in a public execution. The execution weapon is a guillotine, which was popularized during the French Revolution as a supposedly humane form of execution.

The man, Louis XVI, had been the king of the strongest kingdom in Europe for eighteen years before he lost his head. So what led the French to kill the monarch and declare the country a republic in 1793?


Growing Unrest in the Third Estate

By 1789, the traditional Ancien Régime, with its unequal class structure of estates, was coming under heavy attack. The Enlightenment ideas helped to increase the unrest that already existed in the Third Estate. The unhappiest members of the Third Estate were the educated middle class (the bankers, lawyers, and merchants). The middle class were the most determined to bring about change. Since they were (for the most part) wealthy and educated, they asked, "Why shouldn't we be considered equal to the other estates?".

Enlightenment ideas were also beginning to spread among the poor and uneducated (such as peasants and workers) of the Third Estate. Soon the peasants became unhappy with the Ancien Régime. They asked, "Why can't we have a say in government decisions?".

Joseph Sieyès, 1817
by Jacques-Louis David
An example of these ideas was the pamphlet "What is the Third Estate?" by the Abbé Sieyès ("Abbé" was a French title for a low-level clergyman). The pamphlet, written in January 1789, became popular with the Third Estate, especially with the middle class. Sieyès had been influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke, and although Sieyès was a member of the First Estate, his pamphlet voiced the complaints of the Third Estate against the privileged First and Second Estates.

"What is the Third Estate?" became an important underlying philosophy of the Third Estate when it participated in the Estates General.

Reflect

Read this excerpt from "What is the Third Estate?" by Abbé Sieyès (written January 1789). According to the excerpt, what was Sieyès's national vision of France? How did he view the future of France?

Go to your textbook, Understanding Nationalism, and read pages 49 to 50. These pages will further your understanding of the French Revolution's political factors that shaped French nationalism.
Return to the 2.4 Notebook Organizer (Word, PDF, Google Doc) to complete your notes. When you are done, return here to continue.

Riots and Recognition

During the summer of 1789, most of France's cities and rural areas had fallen under control of revolutionary groups. King Louis XVI was forced to agree with the National Assembly's decisions. While rioting occurred throughout France, the National Assembly (consisting primarily of the Third Estate) was busy writing a new constitution for the country.

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly issued laws (but not yet the constitution) that

  • abolished the feudal system of the Ancien Régime,
  • made everyone equally subject to taxation,
  • abolished the "tithe" (Church tax)
  • gave every Frenchman the right to hold public office, and
  • allowed Louis XVI to remain king (instead of being an absolute monarch, he was to be a constitutional monarch, a ruler bound by a set of laws made by the people).

The Great Days of the French Revolution

An illustrated history of the beginning of the revolution.
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© Thinkstock

The first steps toward a new identity for the people of France had been taken! No longer were the French merely subjects of a king. They were to be equal partners in the building of the nation-state of France.
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Although French revolutionaries revolted against the privileges of the First Estate, it did not mean they did not believe in God. After all, France had been Catholic for centuries.

As you can see by this drawing of the Declaration (left), religious images were used (such as the angel) and the articles of the Declaration appear to be set in stone (like the Ten Commandments). This was done to promote nationalism, the vision being that God was on the side of the French nation-state. The preamble of the Declaration also states a belief in a Supreme Being.

The Enlightenment and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen


More than almost any other set of ideas in history, the ideas of the Enlightenment had a direct effect on the development of nationalism in France. When the French Revolution began in 1789, the revolutionaries had Enlightenment ideas very clearly in mind. These ideas are most evident in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, issued by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789. The Abbé Sieyès, the author of "What is the Third Estate?" had an important role in the creation of the Declaration. This historic document laid down the principles the revolutionaries wanted to follow in governing France.

Prior to the French Revolution, the king was the state, with no power afforded to the nation's citizens. The Declaration, adopted by the National Assembly in the early days of the French Revolution, reflected national values and a pledge of what the Assembly intended to accomplish for the people of France. It is full of grand ideas of freedom, equality, and nationalism. As the Declaration circulated around Europe, these ideas were spread among the people of other European kingdoms. Click the tabs below to view the fundamental key ideas within the Declaration, and add them to your 2.4 Notebook Organizer.



One of the key ideas fundamental to the Declaration is egalitarianism, the belief that humans are all equal. This is not to say that everybody has equal abilities, but rather that all human beings are of equal worth and should, therefore, be equal before the law.


Another key idea of the Declaration is liberty. Human beings should be free to do what they wish as long as they don't oppress or injure others.

Both the ideas of egalitarianism and liberty are summed up in the opening statement of the Declaration, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights."