Outline Lecture Three—From Theory to Revolution: American and French Experiences
Compared
Key Focus:
1) How did Enlightenment ideas inspire the two revolutions?
2) What “blue-prints” or legacies for modern revolutions did 1776 and 1789 establish,
respectively?
I) 1776—An American Revolution for Economic Independence
a) Appeal for “Return” to Former Economic Privileges
i) Benefits of British Mercantilism and Protection
(1) 1754-1763 French-Indian War
(2) 1756-1763 Seven Years War
ii) Shift in British Colonial Policy due to Financial Crisis
(1) Series of special taxes to raise revenue
b) Colonial Response through Boycott and Circumvention
i) Adams’s use of Lockean social contract theory
(1) “No property (i.e. taxes) can be taken away without consent”
(2) Inalienable right to revoke their “social contract” with the British crown
ii) Rallying call of “no taxation without representation”
c) The Economic Impasse
i) Franklin’s economic analysis of the catalysts of American secession
(1) “Obstructing business” and “harassing commerce”
(2) Mutually beneficial relationship became a mutually debilitating one
ii) Parliament’s limited concessions
d) Legacy of the American Revolution
i) 1787—Constitutional government based on Lockean ideals
ii) French detractors dismissed it as disingenuous, impure revolution
iii) Divergence of the two models
The French Revolution (Emily Goodman)
I.
II.
The French Revolution and the American War for Independence
1789—France’s Revolution for Radical Socio-economic Transformation
a. The French Pre-conditions for Revolt
i. Deeply entrenched feudal/aristocratic heritage
ii. Arbitrary and non-transparent legal system
iii. Church-sanctioned religious intolerance
iv. Widespread urban squalor and poverty
b. French Catalysts for Revolution
i. Fiscal Crisis of 1780s
ii. King Louis XVI took the unprecedented path of taxing the aristocracy
iii. Meeting of the Estates General in May 1789
1. The Three Estates
a. First Estate: Clergy (100,000 priests)
b. Second Estate: Aristocracy (400,000 nobles)
c. Third Estate: The rest of society (24 million peasants,
artisans, merchants, etc.)
iv. Cahiers de Doléances (1789) – was prepared in advance and was really
the starting point of negotiations, each group had its own vested interest in
the meeting
1. Clergy the most conservative—protect tradition
2. Nobles more invested in economic change and stimulus
3. Third Estate more invested in social equality
v. Breakdown of Negotiations
1. Delegates of Third Estate walked out of the negotiations and began
meeting on their own
a. Declare themselves the “National Assembly”
b. The Tennis Court Oath
c. National Assembly dissolved on July 9, 1789, replaced
with National Constituent Assembly
2. July 14—storming of the Bastille by a Parisian mob
a. Out of fear of royal reprisal against the National Assembly
b. The Bastille was a strategic and symbolic target
c. Overran the garrison defending the Bastille
i. Mob hacked the soldiers to death
ii. Set free the prisoners
d. A revolution that would reach the heights of terror had its
birth in terror
c. Phases of the Revolution
i. National Constituent Assembly
1. Abolished Feudalism
2. Passed a “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,”
3. Developing a French constitution
4. The people of France continued to protest
a. The Bread Riots and the Women’s March on Versailles
ii. Legislative Assembly
1. In 1791, the National Constituent Assembly was replaced by the
Legislative Assembly
2. Lasted less than a year and was generally divided along two main
factions
3. Legislation held up by the King
4. Anti-monarchy sentiment both in the Legislative Assembly and
among the French People
a. Flight to Varennes – June 20-21, 1791
iii. The National Convention
1. On September 20, 1792, the Convention met for the first time and
on the next day they declared the abolition of the French Monarchy
2. Set out to reform all of French society, not just its political
structure
a. New System of Weights and Measures
b. The Revolutionary Calendar
c. Secularization of Holidays/Festivals
d. The French revolution was not just about suffrage or independence
i. Defined by its violent rupture from the past—not a “return” but a
transformation
ii. By its radical and complete re-structuring of society
iii. As opposed to being a pursuit for economic freedom by a propertied class,
it symbolized a struggle for social equality by commoners
1. Most essential core value for American Revolution—liberty
2. Most salient core value for French Revolution—equality