Notes+P+15-21+amypx2013+8.31.2010

Revolution in France (2)






Governors of France:
 * King Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette
 * Louis was an absolute monarch
 * Maire Antoinette was an Austrian archduchess
 * married in 1770
 * at first they were popular
 * but then people started to dislike them, especially Antoinette

Marie Antoinette
 * people disliked her because she:
 * was foreign (they called her "Autrichienne")
 * spent huge money on clothes, jewelry, and gambling
 * was considered unfaithful to Louis
 * Louis gave her the "Petit Trianon" in 1774- she spent huge money on gardens around the palace
 * She made a real-looking village called the "hamlet"
 * people thought that it was pointless-"imitating suffering of her subjects"; large sums of money were spent just to make the village look poor
 * yet inside the cottages everything was equipped for Marie Antoinette herself
 * other people supported the idea of the hamlet- Marie Antoinette sheltered 12 poor families in the village
 * the farm was run on commercial lines and brought in 6000 livres per year

Louis the Sixteenth
 * people thought that the king had way too much power
 * "sealed letters" - Lettres de Cachet
 * royal warrant ordering the imprisonment or exile of the person named on it
 * people hated the fact that the king's ministers could use sealed letters
 * around 14000 sealed letters were issued, mainly to those who were against the government
 * some were put into royal prisons such as the Bastille in Paris
 * Louis could use his authority however he wanted
 * People accused him as a "despot" - a dictator/tyrant

 Financial Problems
 * The French government was greatly in debt
 * It was because the government spends more than it receives (from taxes)
 * Calonne, the minister in charge of finances, said that the government was close to financial collapse
 * they must either 1)increase taxes 2)reduce spending 3)borrow more money
 * Calonne came up with a new tax system- a new tax was issued to the landowners on land
 * However, nobles and clergy avoided the taxes by refusing to register it in the Paris law courts (Parlement), which they controlled. All new lands have to be be registered by the Parlement- or else the new taxes cannot come into effect
 * Calonne invited 150 leading nobles and clergymen to Paris to discuss about the new tax. He thought that those nobles and clergymen would agree to the new tax because they were all loyal supporters of the king
 * those men, however, refused the new tax system by stating that they did not have the power to do so
 * they insisted that only the Estate General (parliament elected by all three estates) had to power
 * Louis then tried to issue the new taxes without people's approval
 * nobles in the Paris Parlement refused to register it
 * they also insisted that only the Estate General could approve it
 * Louis exiled the entire Paris Parlement from Paris



Protests
 * People protested everywhere against the government
 * In Grenoble, there was the "Day of Tiles"
 * 4 people died because protesters attacked soldiers with tiles torn from rooftops
 * Protests continued for 6 months
 * Then Louis finally decided to give in in August 1788.
 * He ordered elections to elect an Estate General
 * The date of the first meeting was to be May 1, 1789

My Summary:

Most people in the French Society before 1789 were extremely dissatisfied toward the government. The main reason for their hatred was the fact that Louis and Marie Antoinette had too much power, and that they could use their authority in whichever way they wanted. One example would be the use of "sealed letters", in which were "frightening and cruel attack on the liberty of citizens".

Then the government faced a serious financial crisis and called for a reform on the tax system. Many nobles and clergy refused the new system; Louis exiled almost all of them. This led to huge protests from people everywhere in France, and in August 1788, Louis the Sixteenth finally decided to give in.

Questions:

Why did the nobles and clergy dislike the idea of a new tax system so much- if the government experiences bankruptcy, wouldn't they get affected as well?