Transcript

11.14.25 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radioized History Show and I'm
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your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt, so happy
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to be with you this time. And before we begin today,
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we go through the program today, so let's get the reading.
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I thought we would talk today about the French Revolution
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as the eighteenth century drew to a close. France's costly
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involvement in the American Revolution, combined with extravagant spending by
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King Louis the sixteenth had left France on the brink
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of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but
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several years of poor harvest, drought, cattle disease, and skyrocketing
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bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor.
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Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that
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imposed heavy taxes yet failed to provide any relief by rioting, looting,
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and striking. In the fall of seventeen eighty six, Lewis's
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Controller General, Charles Alexander de Chalon, proposed a financial reform
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package that included a universal land tax, from which the
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aristocratic classes would no longer be exempt. To garner support
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for these measures and forced all a growing aristocratic revolt,
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the king summoned the three Estates General. The first estate
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was an assembly representing France's clergy, the second estate representing
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the nobility and the middle class, and the third estate
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the commoners. These estates were not taxed equally. While the
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Catholic clergy the first Estate and the nobility the second
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Estate paid very little tax and had no interest in
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removing their ancient right to avoid taxation, everybody else in
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the third State, which was more than ninety percent of
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the population, had to pay a form of taxation despite
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their poverty. The royal tax was one of the most
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hated aspects of pre revolutionary France, despite being a small
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percentage of the French population. The Catholic clergy owned ten
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percent of the land, and the nobility owned a quarter.
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Those some peasants did own the land they worked on,
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they were the exception, not the rule. The vast majority
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of peasants had to pay feudal obligations to their landlords
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and received poor wages for their work. A series of
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poor harvests in the seventeen seventies and eighties exacerbated the
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plight of the peasantry. These unfortunate weather events raised food prices,
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leading to an increased level of poverty throughout the country.
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In seventeen eighty eight, just one year before the start
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of the French Revolution, the crop yield was particularly poor.
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Worse still, the political system was rigid and a higher
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article preventing poorer individuals from ascending the social ladder by
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blocking them from positions of power. Positions of the or
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rather in the royal bureaucracy, for instance, were reserved for
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members of the nobility. However, while its right to recognize
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the importance of the three estate system when discussing the
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causes of the French Revolution, it should be stressed that
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there were significant differences within each of the estates themselves.
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Bishops and abbots who belonged to the first Estate had
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much more wealth than the nuns who worked in orphanages,
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and country nobles did not have the same wealth as
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the court nobles. There was also a big difference between
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educated professionals such as lawyers and the non land owning peasantry,
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even though both groups belonged to the Third Estate. So
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the King's summoning of the Third Estate meeting was scheduled
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from May fifth, seventeen eighty nine, and in the meantime,
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delegate of the three Estates from each locality would compile
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lists of grievances to present to the King. Francis. Population,
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of course, had changed considerably since sixteen fourteen. The non aristocratic,
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middle class members of the Third Estate now represented ninety
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eight percent of the people, but could still be outvoted
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by the other two bodies. In the lead up to
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the May fifth meeting, the Third Estate began to mobilize
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support for equal representation and the abolishment of the noble veto.
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In other words, they wanted voting by head and not
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by status. While all of the orders shared a common
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desire for fiscal and judicial reform as well as a
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more representative form of government, the nobles in particular, were
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loathed to give up the privileges they had long enjoyed
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under the traditional system. Kings throughout French history believed they
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had a divine right to rule the people as God's representative,
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suggesting the monarch was morally superior to his subjects. This
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holier than now attitude alienated the French population. Furthermore, the
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mighty Palace of Versailles, which had been built during the
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reign of King Louis the fourteenth, symbolized the luxury of
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this royal court. Within its beautiful apartments and chambers and gardens,
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the palace seemed like a separate world when compared to
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the day to day work of peasants in the countryside
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or the industrial workers in the city. Marie Antoinette, the
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wife of King Louis the sixteenth, also fostered resentment among
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the French public. Married off to the future King of
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France when she was just fourteen years of age, Marie
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Antoinette enjoyed expensive fashion, art and entertainment. She had little
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consideration for the money she spent and gambled away fortunes
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playing billiards and cards. The French press picked up on
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their queen's liberal spending habits and gave her a cruel nickname,
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Madame Deficit. By the time the Estates General convened at Versailles,
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the highly public debate over its voting process had erupted
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into open hostility between the three orders, eclipsing the original
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purpose of the meeting and the authority of the man
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who had convened it, the King. While tensions were building
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up gradually over time, the French Revolution officially began on
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June twenty, seventeen eighty nine, when the Estates General collapsed,
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when members of the Third Estate, representing the common people,
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formed their own National Assembly and began to campaign for
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constitutional reform. As popular support for the new National Assembly
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and its defenders grew in the first days of July,
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many of Lewis's soldiers joined the National Assembly and refused
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to fire on unruly protesters. The nobility and clergymen, meanwhile,
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were furious about the popularity and power of what they
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saw as the upstart Third Estate. They convinced the kings
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to dismiss or The King rather to dismiss and banish
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Jacques Necker, his highly competent Minister of Finance, who had
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always been an outspoken supporter of the third State and
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taxation reform. Until this point, Lewis had been largely undecided
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about whether to ignore or attack the Assembly, but the
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conservative move of sacking Necker enraged the Parisians, who rightly
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guessed that it was the beginning of an attempted coup
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by the First and Second Estates. As a result, instead
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of helping to diffuse the situation, necker dismissal brought it
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to a boiling point. Supporters of the Assembly, who were
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now paranoid and fearful about what moves Lewis would make
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against them, drew attention to the large numbers of troops
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being brought from the countryside to Versailles, where the Assembly's
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meetings took place. Over half of these men were ruthless
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US foreign mercenaries who could be relied upon to fire
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on French civilians far better than sympathetic French subjects. On
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July twelfth, seventeen eighty nine, the protests finally became violent
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when a huge crowd marched through the city displaying bust
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of Necker. The crowd was dispersed by a large or
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charge rather of Royal German cavalrymen, but the cavalry commander
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kept his men from directly cutting down protesters, fearing a bloodbath.
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The protests then descended into a general orgy of plunder
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and mob justice against supposed Royalist supporters throughout the city,
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with most of the royal troops either doing nothing to
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stop the protesters or even throwing down their muskets and
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joining in. What the protesters needed next was weaponry. The
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revolt had reached a point of no return, and knowing
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that armed force might be the only thing that could
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save them, the mob ransacked the hotel day Invalides in
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search of guns and powder. They met little resistance, but
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found that most of the gunpowder had been moved and
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stored in the old medieval fortress of the Bastille, which
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had long stood as a symbol of royal might in
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the heart of the capital. Though it was technically a prison,
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by seventeen eighty nine, the Bastille was fairly used and
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housed just seven inmates, though its symbolic value and imposing
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appearance still underlined its importance. Its permanent garrison was made
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up of eighty two invalids, or men who had grown
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too old for front line combat, but they had recently
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been reinforced by thirty two crack Swiss grenadiers. With the
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bastile also protected by thirty cannon, its taking would not
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be easy for an untrained and poorly armed mob. Two
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days later, on fourteen July, unhappy French men and women
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gathered around the fortress and demanded the surrender of the arms, gunpowder,
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the garrison, and cannon. This demand was refused, but two
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representatives of the protesters were invited inside, where they disappeared
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in negotiations for several hours. Outside the bastille, the days
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slipped from morning into hot afternoon, and the crowd was
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growing angry and impatient. Thenard Renee Delaunay, the governor of
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the bastille, watched in dread as a large and growing
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mob of angry revolutionists surrounded the fortress on July fourteenth.
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Upon receiving a demand to surrender, he invited revolutionary delegates
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again inside to negotiate. Lacking any direct orders from Lewis
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the sixteenth, he purportedly received them warmly and promised not
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to open fire. Yet, as the talks dragged on, the
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people outside grew restless. Some may have thought that the
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delegates had been imprisoned. Eventually, a group of men climbed
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over an outer wall and lowered a drawbridge to the
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bastille's court yard, allowing the crowd to swarm inside. When
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men attempted to lower the second drawbridge, della Nay broke
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his pledge and ordered the soldiers to shoot. Nearly one
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hundred attackers died in the onslaught and dozens of others
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were wounded, whereas the Royalists only lost one soldier. The
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tide turned later that afternoon when a detachment of mutinous
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French guards showed up, permanently stationed in Paris. The French
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guards were known to be sympathetic to the French revolutionaries.
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When they began blasting away with cannons at the bastille, Delonnay,
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who lacked adequate provisions for a long term siege, waved
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the white flag of surrender. A substantial force of Royal
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Army troops encamped close to the bastille did not intervene,
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and eventually the mobs sheer numbers carried it into the
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heart of the fort. Governor Delonnay knew he had no
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provisions to resist. He was taken prisoner. He was marched
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to city Hall, where the bloodthirsty crowd separated him from
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the others. Because of the deaths that he had caused,
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the crowd was demanding a sacrifice, and Delonnay was chosen.
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He was marched through Paris murdered, his head being displayed
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on a pike. A few other royalist soldiers were also butchered,
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foreshadowing the bloodshed that would play a large role during
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and after the French Revolution. The fall of the Bastille
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left the population of Paris with the gunpowder for their
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recently seized weapons. Given the revelation lutionary city the means
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to defend itself. Just as the Bastille had been a
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symbol of royal tyranny before it fell, so after it
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was swiftly transformed by publicity and opportunism into a symbol
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of freedom. Indeed, the Bastille was much more important in
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its afterlife than it ever had been as a working
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institution of the state. After hearing of the Bastille storming,
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the king began to appreciate the severity of his predicament
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for the first time. Necker was recalled, while the troops,
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whose lack of trustworthiness had now been demonstrated were moved
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back to the countryside, and Jean Salvat Bayi, the former
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leader of the Third Estate, was made mayor as part
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of a new political system known as the Paris Commune.
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These were revolutionary times. Indeed, outwardly at least Lewis appeared
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to get into the spirit of things, and he even
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adopted the revolutionary cock cock dead in front of cheering crowds.
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In the countryside. However, trouble was brewing as the peasants
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heard about the revolution and began to attack their noble overlords,
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who began to flee as soon as they heard about
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the Bastile's storming. They rightly feared that the uneasy peace
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between king and people would not last, now that the
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power of the latter had truly been shown. Now for
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a little history on the Bastille. The fort was built
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in the thirteen hundreds during the One Hundred Years War
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to defend the eastern entrance to the city of Paris
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against the English. The formidable stone building's massive defenses including
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five foot thick walls and one hundred foot high walls
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and a wide moat, plus more than eighty regular soldiers
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in thirty Swiss mercenaries standing guard. It also functioned as
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a prison and held political dissidents, such as the writer
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and philosopher Voltaire. Many of the dissipants were locked away
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without a trial by order of the king. Dogs and
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cats were permitted inside to eat any rats running around.
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By seventeen eighty nine, however, the Bastille was scheduled for demolition,
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to be replaced by a public square. Moreover, it was
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down to just seven prisoners, four accused of forgery, two
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considered lunatics, and one kept in custody at the request
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of his own family. The infamous Marquis de Sade, from
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whom the term satist is derived, had likewise been incarcerated there,
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but he was removed earlier that summer after falsely shouting
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out the window that the prisoners inside were being massacred.
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In fairness, the image of the Bastille during the reign
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of Lewis sixteenth is now largely believed to have been
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an exaggeration, with a smaller number of prisoners treated better
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than the general public had been led to expect. In
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the aftermath of the storming of the Bastille, the prison
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fortress was systematically dismantled until almost nothing remained of it.
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After the Bastille fell, a long period of debate was
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had over a new constitution. In political reforms, the king
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was arrested in seventeen ninety two. Later that year, on
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September twenty two, the National Convention was established and the
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monarchy was officially abolished in favor of the French Republic.
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The king was tried and executed as a traitor on
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January twenty one, seventeen ninety three, and his wife Marie
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Antoinette months later on October sixteenth. Following this execution, the
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new French government went to war with various European powers,
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and infighting broke out within the National Convention. This opened
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the way for the radical Monteyards to take power and
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start a year long reign of terror, killing thousands of
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their enemies. In seventeen ninety five, power was taken by
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a new regime called the Directory, with the assistance of
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the army, led by the young general Napoleon Bonaparte, he
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led a series of successful wars. Belgium was annexed, the
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Dutch Republic surrendered, and peace was made with the Prussians
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in Spanish. Despite these military successes, there was general dissatisfaction
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with the leadership of the Directory. On November ninth, seventeen
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ninety nine, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup de ta, abolishing
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the Directory and appointing himself Francis First. This marks the
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end of the French Revolution in the start of the
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Napoleonic era, during which France would come to dominate much
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of continental Europe. Sources for today's program includes Collector dot
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Com The Six Major Causes of French Revolution, written by
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Jacob Wilkins March of twenty twenty five, History dot Com
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French Revolution written by History dot Com editors, History dot
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Com by Steel Day written by the editors in February
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twenty five, History Hit dot Com Causes Insignificance of the
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Storming of the the Steel written by Luke Tomis in
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January of twenty one, and Finally Thought dot Com the
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Best Stile and its role in the French Revolution, written
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by Robert Wilde February twenty nineteen. Well that's about it
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for today. Thank you so much for listening. I hope
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you enjoyed today's program as much as I did presenting
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it to you. Thanks again for giving me your time
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to day, I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and hopefully i'll
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be back for another chapter of radioized history. Until then,
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happy trails,