• No uniformity in the system

• positions of Power were bought → used for personal gain (venality)

• slow communication between "pays d'état" (six ancient provinces of France)

• King of France couldn't keep an eye over all the administration he was in charge of: "Intendants" (royal officials that some of the Kings tasks were transfered to for a certain provinces

  → all of these points slowed down administration processes

• No Central Treasury → chaotic → no efficient accounting/overview over finances → severe debt

  
  

  Social inequalities

• Noble privileges: tax exemptions (taille, gebelle), exemption from corvées, allowed to wear swords in public, trial in special trials possible

• Feudal rights of landowners (seigneurial courts, fines, harvest dues)

• Feudal dues of peasants (money paid to landlord/nobles)

• abuse of the tax system

• Tithes (produced crop paid to clergy)

- Political authority lies with the people and their will (not divine right)

Separation of powers (Montesquieu)

- Judiciary, Legislative, Executive power to be divided (not be concentrated on the king)

Natural rights (Locke)

- Life, liberty and property

Freedom of speech and press (Voltaire)

- Questions authority and censorship of monarchy

Economic competition (Adam Smith)

- reduce monopolies and restricting feudal structures (free markets)

General Enlightenment ideas

- Equality, Liberty, reason,

- Expensive support of American Independent War

- Until 1776 economy boomed, afterwards shortfall felt accordingly heavier

- Factory production was underdeveloped compared to European rivals

- No state banking system

- Overall corrupt and self-interested system with many tax exemptions as constitutional right

Inherited a financially ruined country from his father

Absolutist measures could not solve the problem

Summoned the Estates-General after more than 175 years again

Agreed to individual freedom, freedom of the press and to vote per person and not estate

Had to accept constitutional monarchy in 1792

20th June 1791: Tried to leave France, was captured in Varannes and brought back to Versailles

13th August 1792: royal family is arrested

21st January 1793: publicly guillotined

Radical democrat sind 1789

Advocat of the constitutional monarchy until flight to Varannes in 1794

27th July 1793: National Convent appoints him member of Wohlfahrtsausschuss (Comitee for Public Safety)

10th October 1793: Reign of Terror begins, Robbespierre declares gouvernment „revolutionary“ —> legalisation of his own personal reign

30th March 1794: Arrests opponents of Reign of Terror

10th June 1794: Law of 22 Prairial—> death penalty without trial

28th July: Robbespierre is arrested and guillotined without trial

Leader of bourgeiosie in Estates-General against noble privileges

Later powerful under the Directory, them retired until

Napoleon‘s coup which he organised

Summer 1793 executed for being a royalist

Supported the overthrow of the monarchy

Organized the storming of the Tuileries Palace which led to fall of Louis XVI.

Radical opinion in the beginning became more moderate opinion: voted for Kings execution, but later preferred reconciliation

Founded Committee of Public Safety but disagreed with its radical measures later

Argued for ending Terror and making peace with enemies, was subsequently executed

Therefore killed leader of Jacobins Marat and was executed

Revolution enabled him to join army and climb career ladder

He was a believer in meritocracy and opponent of political chaos

Military success in Italy against Austria gained him fame and popularity

Staged a coup d’état, overthrowing the infunctional Directory

Became First Consul/Dictator

May Edicts, Revolt of the nobles

Abbé Sieyès: Que-ce que le tiers Étát?

Cahiers de Doléances

May 4th

Estates General

June 17th

Third Estate = NA (National Assembly)

June 20th

Tennis Court Oath

July 14th

Storming of the Bastille

August 4th

August Decrees

• NA abolishes feudal rights, tax exemptions, tithes, financial privileges, seigneurial courts, venality (= corruption), guild restrictions, personal subjection to a lord, corporate and provincial privileges

August 26th

Declaration of the Rights of Men and of the Citizen

October 5th-6th

Women‘s march on Versailles

• half clergy takes oath to constitution

• Clergy are elected in the future

• Pope no longer has a say in accepting or rejecting bishops

June 20th-21st

Flight to Verennes of Louis XVI

July 16th

Suspension of Louis XVI -> public trust lost

July 17th

Champ de Mars Attack

September 3rd

Constitution

France = Constitutional Monarchy

October 1st

First meeting of Legislative Assembly

April 20th

Declaration of war on Austria

May

Prussia + Great Britain join Austria in the war

August 1st

Brunswick Manifesto

August 10th

Storming of the Tuileries

• monarchy overthrown

• Louis XVI taken into custody

September 2nd-6th

September Massacres

• violence against suspected royalists

September 20th-21st

Newly elected NC (National Convention) declares France a Republic

January 21st

Execution of Louis XVI

February

War deaclared on Britain & Holland

Vendée Revolts (royalists in the Vendée region)

March

War declared on Spain

March-May

Measures taken to enforce control of the state

June 2nd

Jacobins seize power (Jacobin Coup), Girondins purged

Summer

Revolts in Normandy, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles, Toulon

Increasing pressure

July 13th

Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday

August

Levée en masse

September 4th/5th

Journée: Terror the order of the day

September

Law of suspects

• new revolutionary comittees, watch comittees

• mass arrests

• armées révolutionaires

• representatives-on-mission

August-December

federal revolt silenced

December

Law of 14th Frimaire

• Armées revolutionaires disbanded in provinces

• Comittee for Public Safety: Power over Ministers, Generals, Local Government,...

• Comittee for Public Safety: power over Police, Revolutionary Tribunal

Vendée Revolt silenced

March

Hébert guillotined

April

Danton guillotined

June

Law of Prairial

• floorgates opened

Summer

Great Terror

Over 1000 per month guillotined

July 28th

Robespierre executed (10th Thermidor)

Thermidorian reaction

—> inspired other european nations

The Germinal Rising

May 20th/21st

The Rising of Prairial

March in Convention

→ shortly after: sans-culottes disarmed, finished

June

Regular Army under General Hoche

In the course of a year: suppressing guerillas, restoring order

October 5th

Rising of Vendémiaire

• Convention besieged

The Constitution of the Year III

The Directory

Peace with Prussia (because of the Partition of Poland)

Peace with Spain

Concept of the divine right was replaced by the concept of power from the people

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen became a foundation for human rights charts to come

Separation of religion and state was a role model for the future

Inspired revolutions e.g. in Italy and Germany

Napoleonic Code introduced property rights, contracts, and civil law to the wide public

Coup of Fructidor

October

Treaty of Campo Formio

British naval victories

Law of Floréal

Jacobins: one third of seats in Vote

Directors overturn their election

People not content

Warfare under Directory

Bank of Rhine handed over to France

→ That revolution wouldn't spread to their monarchies

July

Law of Hostages

• government able to arrest and seize property of nobles + émigré relatives

Directory guilty of suspending Constitution twice

Order and Local government disintegrating

November 10th/ Brumaire 19th

Coup of Brumaire: Napoleon: First Consul

End of the Directory