The French Revolution

Background:
 18th c. France: industrial development ->

People can hardly bear with the limits of the estate society

 Paris had a population of 1,000,000 by now -> Large masses of workers

 Enlightenment spread among the bourgeoisie and noblemen -> they questioned the
authority of absolutism
 1780: bad harvests -> expensive food + femine -> dissatisfied people
 During LOUIS XVI (1774-92): financial crisis (more expenses than incomes) -> solution: levy
taxes on the nobility -> rejected by them -> solution: loans -> the state became indebted
 By 1778- French state: bankrupt -> couldn’t pay for the interests of their loans, army + bad
harvest -> LOUIS summoned the Estates General (first time since 1614)

Estates General:
 First estate: Catholic clergy problem:
 Second estate: nobility each had one vote
 Third estate: everyone else (95+% of society)

 Each: 300 representative (3rd wanted 600(only for themselves)[got] + personal vote [didn’t])
 Tennis Court Oath, June 1789: 3rd estate started calling themselves: National Assembly ->
agreed not to dissolve until they create a new constitution
 goals: civil / bourgeoisie transformation(more money) & constitutional monarchy(not even
the ruler is above the law)

Outbreak of the Revolution:

 The ruler increased the number of his troops in Paris cuz’ he was afraid of the masses there
 People thought he was intimidating them -> 1789, July 14 – storming of Bastille
 Bastille: medieval castle used as a prison (7 prisoners)
- Guards killed, prisoners freed (symbolic act, not useful politically)
- Motto: liberty, equality, fraternity

End of Feudalism (=people are given lands & protection – worked on them, fought)

 1789, August 26: Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen published
 Ideas of Enlightenment appear in it – seen as a new social contract between the people and
the state (free-religion, man, etc.)
 Basis of the new constitution
 Included: all men born equal, equity before the law, basic human rights(freedom of religion)
 Popular sovereignty=(basis of power is the population of the states -> grant the power to the
leader of the state)
 Rule of law= compulsory regulations made by laws, no one is above the laws
 Solving the crisis:

 People wanted the ruler to move to Paris (not Versailles) so he can be checked
 1789, October: Women’s March on Versailles -> ruler moved to Paris
 Property of the church was sold + assignats(=bonds with interest) issued (too many) ->
inflation
 Solving the crisis was unsuccessful
 1791: new constitution created- based on Enlightened ideas (e.g. separation of power
branches)
 BUT: impatience, NO compromise (led to many conflicts)

Political Parties:

 Royalists: supported absolutism

 Constitutional monarchists: supported the current system
 Moderate republicans: Gironde (not satisfied with the constitutional monarchy and
rejected ending the revolution)
 Radicals: Jacobins (led by Robespierre)

 The king didn’t like the restriction of the constitutional monarchy -> he was hoping for an
intervention by foreign powers (based on the power balance policy) -> afterwards, he could
restore his power

 Only Gironde wanted to fight against other countries (hoping for the “export” of the
revolution) -> wanted the same as the ruler BUT for different reasons

 The ruler named a Gironde government in 1792 -> they sent a declaration of war to the
Habsburgs & Prussia

End of the Kingdom:

 The ruler blocked the formation of the military with his vetos + Brunswick Manifesto ( 1792,
July): a Prussian military leader wrote that if the ruler is harmed, it will be retailed  the city
masses became furious with LOUIS XVI
 1792, August: Storming of the Tuileries (king’shome in Paris): LOUIS fled to the building of the
National Assembly, but was arrested and dethroned there
 1792, September: National Assembly became the National Convention – proclaimed the
Republic

Death of LOUIS:

 After he was arrested: debated about punishment

 Girondins didn’t want to kill him, BUT Jacobins did
 Girondins agreed to execute him with the guillotine – 1793, January 21
 Anti-French coalition formed after his death:
- Successful attacks (all directions)
- Peasants became dissatisfied, cuz’ many of them were drafted in the army, their crops
were taken away for military purposes -> Peasant Uprising
Jacobin Dictatorship:
Start:

 Characterized by terror (e.g. martial law, law of suspects)

 Suppressed the Vendée uprising and executed ~35-40 thousand people
 Robespierre, leader of Jacobins dictatorship
 His goal: “Renew the society”
 New calendar, laws about clothing

End:

 By 1794, Robespierre has many Jacobins executed too -> terror was unleashed
 People had enough of terror so Robespierre was arrested, executed in 1794, July
 The National Convention made peace with the anti-French coalition in 1795, introduced the
Directory (=name of the new executive power as well) with a new constitution
 Goal: keep the radicals away from power

Napoleon (Bonaparte)
His Rise:
 One of the best generals of the French army
 Gained lots of respect (during & after the revolution- fights against Anti-French coalition)
- Couldn’t defeat the English in Egypt
- Defeated the Habsburgs in Italy
- Resulted in- peace with the coalition: treaty of Amiens, 1802
 Goal: glory of France
 Method: mass army with strong nationalism + being a great leader

Consulate:
 System of Directory couldn’t be maintained – Napoleon took over with a coup d’etat, 1799,
November 9
 New system: Consulate
- 3 consuls had the executive power
- First Consul = Napoleon – biggest power
- Goal: inner peace, stability

 Introduced the Code Civil, 1804 : regulated the rights of the society
- Equality, freedom of enterprise(=an economic system in which private business operates
in competition and largely free of state control)

Empire:
 Directory and the Consulate both kept the republic as a from of the state
 1804, December: Napoleon crowned himself the emperor -> end of republic -> instead:
empire BUT the bourgeoisie state remained untouched
 He wanted European hegemony and to start a dynasty
 - Anti-French coalitions were born again: England, Prussia, Russia
- Habsburgs teamed up against Napoleon

Fights against the Coalition:

 Defeated his enemies on land, but couldn’t on sea (England)
-1805:Austerlitz ; 1806:Jena ; 1809:Győr
 Wanted to take revenge with the continental blockade: forbid trading with England –
Unsuccessful (could trade elsewhere)
 Results of the Napoleonic warfare:
- Last “insurrection” of noblemen in Hungary (Győr, 1809)
- End of the Holy Roman Empire (1806)

Russian Campaign:
 Russia violated the continental blockade
 Revenge: Napoleon attacked Russia, 1812, June
 Russian were retreating and used scorched-earth policy (burned everything down)
 Battle of Borodino (1812, September): French victory, BUT huge losses
 March into Moscow (also burned)
 Cold winter + no resources
 Napoleon had to retreat, was defeated on his way out of Russia – Battle Of Berezina, 1812,
November

Napoleons Fall:
 His defeat in Russia excited the rest of Europe
 United against him again -> Battle of Leipzig, 1813 – “battle of the nations”
- 1814 exiled to the island of Elba – 10 month later: 100 day rule (1815)
 Napoleon was defeated in 1815 (ultimately at the battle of Waterloo (1815))
 Now: exiled further- Island of Saint Helena, died there

Congress of Vienna and the Holy Alliance

Congress of Vienna 1814-1815
 Aim: To settle post-Napoleonic Europe
 Participants:
- Britain (constitutional monarchy, democratic, bourgeoisie in power)
- Prussia, Austria, Russia, restored France <- feudal power – absolutistic
 Intentions:
- Permanent balance of powers, stability (all, including Britain)
- Oppress the revolutionary movement, preserve traditional dynastic monarchies (all,
Britain in contradiction)
Balance of Power:
 Britain is primarily concerned about Russia
 Russia comes out strengthened from the Napoleonic wars: Extends its Polish territories,
occupies Finland and Bessarabia (1812)
 Russia has worked off its deficit enough, to become a threat cuz of its size and ambitions
 Traditional powers want to regulate and keep a close eye on France
 Solution:
- to create balancing powers against Russian expansion
- Buffer/collision states bartering territories (contradicting tendency with that of the
nationalist movement which wants to create nation states)

 French not restricted to its original territory

 Balancing Powers: Strengthening Austria, Prussia
 Austria/Habsburgs: Italian territories Lombardy, Venice
 Prussia: Ruhr area, important German territories.
 Collision states: The Netherlands, the kingdom of Piemont-Sardinia.
 The Netherlands gets: Belgium.
 Sardinia gets: Genova
 Britain:
- Colonial expansion (India, Cape Colony)

Oppression of the revolutionary movement

 The Holy Alliance is formed by the dynastic powers.
 Why holy? It is based on the dynastic state principle: the source of power is divine and it is
embodied by the sovereign(=supreme ruler)
- Austria, France, Prussia, Russia
 Intervention(=beavatkozás): military intervention to oppress revolutions in any of the allied
partners
 Was formed to uphold conservative principles, suppress revolutionary ideas

Waves of the revolution

 The 1820’s
 The year 1830
 The year 1848

Revolutions of the 20-ies

  The most contradictory wave – didn’t want revolutions/revolutionary ideas to happen, but
they started ones
 Spanish- Oppressed by the Holy Alliance
 But: Greek war of independence!!
 Fought against the Ottoman Empire!
- Brits helped the Greek
- Ottomans helped the Russian
 But, it is based on revolutionary ideas
 What’s more, Russia supports it
- as a defender of Pravoslav Church
- also in the name of Panslavism and (Bulgarians, Serbs in the territory of the Ottoman
Empire)
 If Russia interferes, and succeeds, the whole Balkan fells in their hands!
 If Russians fight against the Greek, they have to fight allied to the Ottoman Empire! That is
unacceptable for the European
 Brits also side up with the Greek, so that the Russian couldn’t take all!

Revolutions of 1830:
 France: It is a British-like constitutional monarchy. The property conditions of revolutionary
France had not been changed. The bourgeoisie has the land.
 XVIII. Louis tries to slowly compensate the aristocracy and the Church
 Legislation is in the hand of high bourgeoisie. They are afraid that the king wants to restore
the ancient regime.
 When the king disbands legislation, the second revolution of France breaks out.
 High bourgeoisie grabs power and they get rid of the Bourbons.
 BUT: to avoid intervention, they keep the monarchy!

Louis Philip of Orlean (1830-1848):

 The bourgeois king!
 Constitutional monarchy

Belgium:
 As a result, the Belgians break away from the Netherlands

Poland – The 1830 Polish revolution

 Russians oppress the brave and valiant Polish war of independence.
National hero: Josif Bem
Ideologies and Movements in the 19th century
Ideologies:
 “Replace” some role of religion
 Have their own moral values
 The 19th c. is the c. of ideologies
 They meet with enthusiasm, many with fanatism

Liberalism:
 Based on: enlightenment ideas, after the French revolution
 Demands: constitutional systems, separation of power branches, free competition and
freedom right (speech, press, religion, conscience, property, assembly), ending feudalism
 John Locke
 Liberal (Latin) = free
 Equality based on rights (not property or skills)
 The traditional systems are corrupt, intolerant, have to be replaced or radically reformed
 So: it is a revolutionary ideology
 Refuses any political authority – politics is service, not an authority
 Constitutional state
 Free economy (Capitalism)
 Cause of problems: tyranny, ignorance
 Major thinkers: John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville

Nationalism:
 Overcomes social, religious, regional differences
 Basis: belonging to the same nation
 Goal: rise of the nation
 Method: creating a nation state(=a state where there is only one ethnicity) <->great feudal
powers (=multiethnic)
 Sharing the same national identities became important (mother tongue, traditions, history)
 Historical success, heroes became important
 Nation: a politically conscious community of people of the same culture
 ROMANTICISM
 Often intertwined with liberalism

Conservatism:
 NOT an ideology in itself
 Born as an answer to radicalization of the French Revolution
 Response to the new ideologies – it rejects the effectiveness of new ideologies
 Main principle: preserve values and traditions
 Most important value: religion
 Rejects radicalism, revolutionary changes
  Key world: Organic
 Organic structures - society, state, culture are spontaneous, organic formations, complex
systems, cannot be changed radically
 Major thinker: Edmund Burke

Movements of the 19th century:

 National – bourgeoisie movement, civic transformation.
o Aim:
- Gain political right for the bourgeoisie
- To ensure constitutional nation states based on human rights
- Overthrow the „tyranny of feudal absolutism”
- Ensure free trade
 Imperialist movement
o Aim:
- Whoever rules Europe, rules the world
- Traditional powers of Europe try to take as much of the rest of the world as possible

The birth of the Labour Movement

 Appeared:
- as a result of the industrial revolution
- in Britain
- at the beginning of the 19th c.
 Labour market:
- unbalanced supply, oversupply of labour force, as a result of urbanisation
- The newly rich high bourgeoisie takes advantage of the working class

 Terrible labour conditions:

- 16 or more hours workday

- child labour
- low wages.

 Terrible living conditions

- in suburban urban areas

- one family – one room
- no sanitation

Conflict with capitalism:

 Labour movement appears as opposed to Capitalism(=free competition, everyone can
take part in business life)
 Capitalism is based on liberal ideas
 Basic human rights: „the pursuit of happiness” – theory of free economy!
 Free market – laissez faire:
 - The market regulates itself by the invisible hand (=in a free market economy, self-
interested individuals operate through a system of mutual interdependence)
- The laws of supply and demand regulate the value of any products

Labour value theory

 Question: can the value of any product be determined independently from the market,
independently from money?
 Money „doesn’t exist”! – it is only a matter of agreement
 Things that really exist in the economy are: resources and labour
 that the economic value of a product „is determined by the total amount of "socially
necessary labour" required to produce it
 This is already raised by early capitalist theorists: Adam Smith, David Ricardo,

Early labour movement

 The Luddite movement – workers destroy machines - 1811
 the name comes from a legendary worker Ned Ludd, who destroyed machines
 They thought machines take the job of people
 members act in the name of „general Ludd”
 Leaders arrested, some executed

Chartism
 real start of the labour movement in the 1830-s
 Official national protest movement of workers in Britain
 demonstrations
 List of demands – The Charter
 They demand:
- regulation of working conditions
- equal rights for the worker’s class
- universal right to vote for man
- eligibility for man
- Members of the Parliament should be payed
- so that the poor can become MP.

Trade Unionism
 Are the organised form of labour movement
 A trade union is very similar to a medieval guild – national or regional, instead of representing a
city
 It is an organisation that represents the common interest of the workers of a certain ‚trade’ or
profession!
 It negotiates on behalf of the workers with the employers
 It can organise protests and strikes – organised, collective refusal to work.
Results:

 1833 Factory act

 1842 Mine act
 The government interferes with the economy
- Regulates working hours (12 hours)
- Forbids the employment of children under 10 (!)
- employment of women in mines!

Socialism: people are rewarded(money) after their performance ;no different parties in
politics, there is only one who governs the country, everything is for the common good;
every men is equal;
 New ideology
 Goals: Social justice!
- Just distribution! – based on labour value theory!
- the early socialists are leading capitalists
- How can it be achieved?
o No free competition!
o Centralised distribution
o No free market – state control

Utopian socialism
 Utopians believe that people of all classes can voluntarily adopt their plan for society if it is
presented convincingly
 Naive ideology.
 They want to start their movement based on the bourgeoisie
 They want the rich, once convinced, to give up their position and introduce ideal factories,
working conditions
 Some have experimental communities, They immediately collapse

Marxism- scientific socialism =rule of the working class

 A complex political, economical and philosophical system

 History: instead of peoples and nations he looks at history as a series of conflicts of classes
 Internationalism – classes are international: working class
 The ‚haves’ the bourgeoisie, and ‚have nots’ the proletariat
 Class struggle

The prophesy of Marx

 Prediction:
- the class struggle will increase,
- from the economically and socially most advanced region the revolution of the
proletariat will spark
- it will spread all around the world – a world revolution
  World revolution: according to Marx this is a necessary condition for the birth of
communism, since communism in one country would not be compatible with other countries

Marxist political economic theory

 The Capital – his main economic work

 Surplus value theory!
- M – G – M + S (money, goods, money + surplus)
 Question: where does the surplus come from?
 Marx’s answer: labour is also a good, which creates a surplus value, but the capitalist refuses
to pay for it, so that value turns out to be his profit
 Thus the capitalist exploits the worker
 New enemy is identified: the corrupt imperialist – imperialism (wanting to establish an
empire; strong countries- smaller countries plundering, - colonization)

Communism: people are rewarded(money) in accordance to their needs-

bigger family-more money (even if they didn’t work); everyone is equal
 1848 February: The Communist manifesto
 A response to the failure of utopian socialist ideas
 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels drew the conclusion – justice can only be achieved by force!
 Similar goals as socialism - different means - new terms

The Proletariat: (=dictatorship)

 Ancient roots (ancient Rome) - People with no property
 New means: the only way to achieve social justice is:
- By the revolution of the proletariat!
- Which will be followed by the dictatorship of the proletariat!
- The dictatorship will demolish the class society, and eventually result in the
 ideal state of communism:
-no classes, private property, money, market

Relations to other ideologies

 Liberalism:
- Common:
o same enemy - the evil oppressors/ tyrant
o radicalism
- Opposing:
o different identification of the oppressor
o Human rights vs. dictatorship
 Conservativism:
- Common: the community is more important then the individual
- Opposing: radicalism, value of traditions
 Nationalism:
- Common: radicalism
- Opposing: opposes the idea of nations! They think the bourgeoisie forces the proletariat
to fight against their own class to serve the interest of the bourgeois!