19. The French Revolution

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  • The French Revolution
    • Events
      • Tennis Court Oath
        • National Assembly Convened in an outdoor tennis court and vowed not to disband until they'd given France a constitution.
      • Storming of the Bastille
        • Protestors break into Bastille
        • Symbol of authority of the state as the end of the beginning of the French Rev, when power seized by the people.
      • Declaration of the Rights of Man
        • Drafted by Abbe Sieyes and Marquis de Lafayette, in consultation with Thomas Jefferson and other National Assembly members.
        • Preamble to new French constitution, setting out basic principles upon which constitution based.
        • Principles included that men are born and remain free and equal in rights, state sovereignty and liberty.
      • Women's March on Versailles
        • They demanded food provision amidst shortages and inflation.
      • Terror
        • The revolution radicalises - de-Christianisation, revolutionary tribunal, growing violence, Committee of Public Safety.
        • National Convention embraced terror as form of government in 1793-94.
        • Conspiracy fears and theories paved way for Terror.
        • King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed.
    • Key figures
      • Olympe de Gouges
        • Wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.
          • Challenging inferiority presumed of women by Declaration of Rights of Man.
          • Wrote of a social contract between men and women.
            • Originally an idea from Rousseau and Locke.
          • Argued for legislation that protected women, including prostitutes.
        • Eventually executed by guillotine for sedition and trying to restore monarchy.
        • Argued that the revolution wasn't benefitting women.
          • 'Oh women, women! When will you cease to be bind? What advantage have you received from the Revolution?'
        • One of most outspoken and articulate female revolutionaries
      • Toussaint Louverture
        • Born a slave on Saint-Domingue.
        • Became a free man.
        • Became leader of Haitian Revolution, initially allied to Spanish before joining French.
        • Drafted constitution for Saint-Domingue in 1801 abolishing slavery.
      • Robespierre
        • A key architect of the Terror.
        • Used Enlightenment principles and thinkers (like Rousseau and Montesquieu) to justify violence and eliminating enemies.
        • Eventually executed.
    • Interpretations
      • Marxists (classic)
        • Bourgeois revolution: necessary stage in ultimate transition away from capitalism.
        • Revolution as force for progress.
        • Socio-economic reading.
        • A very dominant view in French Rev historiography for a long time.
      • Revisionists
        • "Return to politics" and away from social factors
        • Not a bourgeois revolution. Role of bureaucrats and educated classes.
        • Terror and violence built into revolution framework.
      • Post-revisionists
        • Varying focuses on religion, gender and role of public sphere.
      • Rights and revolution
        • What exactly were rights laid down by French Rev and what were their origins?
        • Legacy of French Rev in later liberal conceptions of rights.
        • Argument that French Rev gave birth to human rights and democracy.

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