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HIST 211 L1 France, 1763 Pt. 2 of 2 (Summer 2026) — Transcript

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0:06Okay, everybody. Um, posted this is Dr.
0:10Joseph Pearson. Video two of two for
0:13lecture one, week one for our history
0:16211 uh class on the French Revolution. I
0:20made sure the first video posted, it's
0:22up now. Of course, I'll share those with
0:24the Canvas works uh work site for our
0:27class. We were just discussing the kind
0:30of background for the French Revolution.
0:32We did an overview right of the
0:34comparative situation with the
0:36Anglo-American right from the Magna
0:37Carta through the glorious revolution
0:39and the founding of the American
0:40colonies. What made the American
0:42Revolution possible? We also talked
0:45about the Enlightenment and the
0:46Reformation. We were just finishing up
0:48with the Enlightenment there and the new
0:49assumptions regarding the good, the
0:51beautiful, and the true. Right? We're
0:53looking at the good, right? Which would
0:55be the political situation. You can see
0:57on the slides there. Um
1:03in the old regime um the feudal order
1:06was based on privilege, hierarchy and
1:08received status. Right? Its features
1:10included things like society divided
1:12into orders or estates. We have three in
1:15France. Rights and duties offered by
1:17status, nobles possessing uh legal and
1:20tax privileges that other people don't
1:22have.
1:24peasants owing dues, labor, rent, and
1:27taxes. Political authority was often
1:29personal and hierarchical and therefore
1:31transactional.
1:32Um, local customs and privileges varied
1:36enormously by place, position, status,
1:39even geography, proximity to the king or
1:42distance. The church held land and from
1:45it money and from that influence. The
1:48king also ruled over a patchwork not
1:50just of people but of ancient and more
1:53near and sold privileges.
1:56Um in this world inequality was not seen
1:58as a problem. Inequality was just the
2:01way it was. That all shifts right post
2:05enlightenment.
2:07We get classical liberalism and I'll
2:09define some of that next week as we go
2:11along these different political ideas.
2:13don't think modern classical liberalism
2:15has far more in common with modern
2:17conservatism than modern liberalism. But
2:20it stresses less a fair economics,
2:21right?
2:23Increasingly emphasizes the role of
2:25rational law, equal citizenship under
2:27the law, natural rights, constitutional
2:29limits, representation, religious
2:31toleration, legal reform, merit matters
2:34more than birth, and public education as
2:37a fundamental right all citizens have.
2:41Built into all this is a critique of
2:43arbitrary or absolute power. Right? So
2:45it's for limited government, unlimited
2:48economic freedom, political freedom,
2:50freedom of speech, on and on and on.
2:53Right? The key shift was from privileges
2:56to rights.
2:58In the old regime, it was asked, "What
3:00is your rank? Who are your family?"
3:03Enlightenment politics asked, "What are
3:05your rights? How do we achieve and
3:07secure them?" And that was astonishingly
3:10radical. Here
3:13are a few more enlightenment
3:15philosophers or philosoph. We have John
3:18Lockach famous both for British and
3:20later American context and he'll
3:22certainly influence Declaration of
3:24Rights and Citizen in France, right? Um
3:27I didn't put him on here, but there's
3:28Hobbes. He matters for understanding of
3:30sovereignty and social contract. He's
3:32also a kind of lynch pin of conservative
3:34thinking because he feared disorder more
3:36than tyranny.
3:38um he shows the social contract theory
3:39does not automatically mean democracy
3:44because of the social contract doesn't
3:46necessarily mean the hops he's not on
3:48the slide um there's also John Lockach
3:51we care about him there's his famous
3:53treatise on government the second
3:54treatise on government no one ever reads
3:56the first one um he we matter because he
3:59cared about the importance of natural
4:01rights consent of the govern and role of
4:04property and resistance to tyranny he is
4:06central to an understanding of liberal
4:08constitutionalism. Small L, small C.
4:11Right?
4:13There's also Jean Shock Rouso. We care
4:16about him because of his ideas on
4:18popular sovereignty, the role of the
4:19general will, and his critique of both
4:21power and inequality. Rouso also
4:24inspired far more radical revolutionary
4:26politics after him. He's also um
4:29dangerous and complicated because the
4:32general will can be used to justify
4:33coercion in the name of the people. who
4:35speaks for the people.
4:38It's a from fiction to fact, right? If
4:40you're a Star Wars fan, Palpatine
4:42certainly um the Emperor
4:45claim to speak for the people in the
4:46world of history. Pretty much every
4:48desperate I'm aware of, at least of the
4:5020th century, claimed to speak for the
4:52people. Mussolini,
4:54Franco,
4:56um Hitler, Stalin, they all claimed to
4:59be the people's champion and use that
5:01power, that cloak of the people to
5:02stifle descent, right? And Rouso was one
5:05of the first to really talk about this
5:06in a sophisticated modern way.
5:12There's also Monuscu, right? He was
5:14important because he cared about the
5:15separation of powers, arguing that
5:16liberty required institutions, sturdy
5:19ones, that prevent any one branch of
5:21government from becoming despotic. And
5:23so you check power with power, right?
5:26His ideas also influence constitutional
5:28debates in both France and before France
5:31and England. And you can certainly write
5:33those down and look those up if you
5:34wish. Um but do know lock rouso and
5:37monuscu along with some of the others
5:38we've discussed.
5:42Now important in all of this
5:46is the rise of the bushoisi that is the
5:48middle class. Now the boogeoisi were
5:51educated and commercial for the most
5:53part. They were the people of money in
5:55the old feudal order right there were
5:57three ranks roughly analogous to the
6:00three estates of France. But there are
6:02those who pray, the church, the clergy,
6:04the monks, the priests, the nuns, those
6:06who fight, the nobles,
6:09right? From the baron to the king, and
6:12those who work, the peasants. The bgeoa
6:15are someone else. Those are those who
6:17earn those with money. They don't have
6:19traditional title or land, although they
6:20can purchase it later. What they do have
6:22is money. They kind of explode after
6:25both black death kills off a lot of the
6:28peasant population making labor more
6:29valuable and um
6:32after the reformation people go off the
6:35farms and you start to see a spiking
6:36private incomes.
6:38So who do this include? There are
6:40merchants of course lawyers, office
6:43holders, kind of bureaucrats, tenencers
6:45and bankers
6:47um urban professionals. So tradesmen
6:49basically um you cobblers, chandlers,
6:53ways, anything that required a skill
6:55that could be then sold for money from
6:57shoes to wagons or carriages you can
6:59make money and become part of the
7:00bajgeois manufacturers and it literally
7:02meant handmade manufacturer later
7:05becomes industrial uh doctors some
7:08writers and musicians um most notably at
7:11this era you're talking Mozart
7:15before them Hondo and others now they're
7:17not all revolutionary Aries, not even
7:19now. The bajgeois want to protect their
7:21money, the institutions that make them
7:23possible. But they are amiable and
7:25flexible. Most of them want reform. They
7:29want status and they want access to
7:31power. They have money. They're starting
7:35to understand that money makes the world
7:36go.
7:43So why do we care? The bourgeoa often
7:45had wealth, education, literacy, legal
7:48training, and therefore they're logical,
7:50which makes them fairly solid candidates
7:52for administration. They were exposed to
7:54enlightenment ideas and had economic and
7:57social ambition.
7:59So, they're people with money and time
8:01that understand how things work. What do
8:03they lack? They don't have noble status.
8:06They're the sons and grandsons and
8:08granddaughters of people that shoveled
8:10crap for a living. They don't have
8:12access or equal access to high office.
8:14They don't have social prestige. Not
8:16yet, especially not in France. Um,
8:18political representation proportional to
8:20their importance and their wealth.
8:23They don't have that either. And that
8:24makes many of them grouchy.
8:28What this does is create political and
8:30social and even cultural resentment. And
8:33that is a powerful thing when you face
8:35some of the problems I'll describe next
8:37week. um facing France,
8:40the Bajois could reasonably ask the
8:42Bajoisi, right? Baja being the singular,
8:46if we pay taxes, if we manage commerce
8:49and read philosophy and lend money to
8:51the state and run most of society now,
8:54why are we politically inferior to
8:56nobles or anyone else simply by birth?
9:00That's an almost unanswerable question
9:01for the king, which is probably why the
9:04old order crashes down. One of the
9:05reasons this is the central question of
9:081789 of the French Revolution. The thing
9:10that gets the whole thing going. If we
9:13pay taxes, manage commerce,
9:16business houses, great accounting
9:18houses, right? Read the great works of
9:21literature, philosophy, history,
9:23theology. So, plenty smart, plenty
9:26educated, actually lend money to our
9:28betters.
9:30Why should we accept being politically
9:32inferior to anyone?
9:35Why risk our money, our investments on
9:37stupid plans by noble just because they
9:38were born in some family?
9:42That's the central question. So if you
9:45tune out a little bit, do circle that in
9:47your notes. I give you a few
9:49consequences of the enlightenment
9:50thinking and changes in politics, right?
9:53From the basis of government being found
9:55on the consent of the governed, basic
9:57individual human rights have to be
9:59respected,
10:00toleration of religious diversity,
10:02checks and balances, on and on and on.
10:03So there's all these really really great
10:05things I think that we should lot as we
10:07move toward um the 250th anniversary of
10:10American independence because these
10:11ideas are on that side of things too.
10:15It's not all good though, right?
10:19So what might be a negative or problem
10:22of this, right?
10:26Not everybody experiences liberty the
10:29same way, right? While the boogeois did
10:32help weaken the idea that birth alone
10:34should determine status, a more
10:36individualistic order can also free that
10:39frees people from an oppressive
10:40hierarchy can also weaken bonds of
10:42community that had held society together
10:45since the fall of Rome.
10:48Throw everyone off their own largest
10:50strength, intelligence, grit. You've
10:53thrown them all off on their own. You
10:54take away the village that supported
10:55them, right?
11:03The bajgeois could miss that not
11:05everyone experiences liberty the same
11:07way which gives us what kind of
11:08consequences? Loneliness, social
11:11fragmentation, a sense of drift and
11:13meaninglessness, a weaker communal
11:15obligation. Why help the poor? They're
11:17broke because they're stupid. Politics
11:19produced a naked self-interest. Market
11:22values invading all aspects of life when
11:24everything becomes transactional, even
11:26marriage. less respect for tradition,
11:28inherited wisdom, inequality justified
11:31as individual successes or individual
11:34failures
11:36until the 19th century. So after the
11:39French Revolution, right? Failure was
11:41just a calamity that happened to people
11:42through inscrable mean. No one knew. And
11:45so there was an expectation of your
11:46family and your town or your village to
11:48help you after this, right? The rise of
11:51the atomized individual, the you, the
11:53isolated person, man or woman. If you
11:56succeed, it's because you are smart,
11:58you're brilliant, you're clever, you're
12:00cunning, you're better. But if you fail
12:03in a world that's that atomized, right?
12:05It's because you're stupid, lazy,
12:08um incompetent. It's your fault. So
12:11failure gets success and failure get
12:14driven into the person.
12:18For the bajgeois right, liberty meant
12:20property rights, free commerce, equal
12:22access to the law, access to office, and
12:25constitutional government. Right? And
12:27this will be a problem because the third
12:28estates made up both these people in
12:30France. For peasants, however, liberty
12:32could mean relief from taxes,
12:36the end of feudal dues, access to land,
12:39bread, just bread that didn't make them
12:41go broke for urban workers, right? and
12:44they're another chunk of the um third
12:47estate in France. Liberty might mean
12:49better wages or any wages, food
12:51security, price controls, protection
12:53from unemployment. For women, it could
12:55mean access to education, legal
12:56personhood, not being the property of
12:58your dad, your brother, or your husband,
13:00such as being able to be yourself with
13:03legal rights, not attached to a man. U
13:06political reform, marriage reform, so
13:08you could not necessarily have to deal
13:09with some abusive husband for years and
13:11years and years. For enslaved people,
13:13and the French did have these, most
13:15notably in Santa, Haiti,
13:18liberty could mean literal emancipation,
13:20not being bought and sold as cattle
13:22property. I'm certain the white bajgeoa
13:24in France didn't think about that. Now,
13:27the boogeoa could speak of universal
13:29rights
13:31while unconsciously prioritizing the
13:33rights most useful to property owning
13:35white dudes.
13:37That's what they miss. I talked a little
13:39fast. Just kind of run that back.
13:41Another
13:45reminder, put that both the first and
13:48second video here. Um, keep up with your
13:51reading
13:53and save yourself time to watch this.
13:55It's long.
13:58Okay, so we've talked about the true
14:00making God the epic thing, God a
14:04subjective thing. Now, we've talked
14:06about the good political stuff that's
14:07sort of linked back to God and kind of
14:09received tradition. Blowing that up and
14:11putting it all on the individual.
14:13There's good parts of that and bad parts
14:15of that.
14:17You see the same with the beautiful.
14:19What is art? What is lovely?
14:24Pre-Elightenment ideas of art. Elite
14:26culture was heavily shaped by all those
14:28kinds of things. Receive privilege,
14:30status, whatever. So, court patronage,
14:32church patronage, both have money.
14:34Aristocratic taste, the taste of the
14:36nobles, dictated everything else. Uh,
14:38classical ideas, everyone was trying to
14:40mimic or ape Rome or Greece, usually
14:42badly. Um, religious themes, often
14:45glorifying the state or the king, king
14:47or duke. Most a lot of art was made of
14:50wealthy, you know, nobles in their
14:51families.
14:53So, tended to make monarchy look
14:55awesome. And hierarchy and subject
14:57matter that ranks and people are pretty
14:58happy. I mean peasants and nobles and
15:00king right and so on so it's more or
15:04less grounded around religious themes
15:05ideas and imagery and this aristocratic
15:07or hierarchical understanding of the
15:09world art often celebrated certain
15:11subjects like kings biblical stories
15:14saints holy people of the Catholic
15:15church right heroes of the faith
15:17mythology aristocratic leisure donastic
15:20power conquest or battles social order
15:23culture was not exclusively elite right
15:26there were po popular festivals folk
15:28songs village iduals people drank a lot
15:31and so they had their own kind of rockus
15:33village culture but high culture was
15:35dominated by the court and the church
15:39post enlightenment culture moves into
15:41the broader public sphere and it still
15:43has public exhibitions like museums
15:45other kinds of things the nobles would
15:47consider crude and bad taste that's
15:49subjective art critiques novels
15:53church did not and both Catholic and
15:55protestant did not like novels or short
15:56stories or plays post enlightenment
15:59They're everywhere. People like them.
16:02Satirical pamphlets, political
16:04pamphlets, riyal theater, um an
16:07explosion, right, of the sex industry,
16:11um even low lowgrade mass produced
16:14pornography,
16:15reading, um clubs and commercial
16:19publishing. Taste becomes more public,
16:21more secular, and more contested because
16:24you have less gatekeepers. It's just
16:26open like the internet.
16:28So, you see a key shift here. Culture
16:30moves from court displays toward public
16:32debate. Art begins to reflect um
16:35changing values. I have a few examples
16:37for y'all to kind of see this. Uh these
16:41are religious imagery, right? So, that
16:44is not dear before burned. It's been
16:48restored. You can kind of see the great
16:50mosque at Cordova
16:52became a church but it's you can
16:53definitely see those eastern example of
16:55style and the concentric domes right the
16:59order of humanity or creation from human
17:01to God and back from God to people. So
17:04this kind of art and imagery privileges
17:06the sense that there is a cosmic order a
17:08purpose to things
17:10um that's recognizable and should be
17:12then celebrated and mimicked or prayed
17:15or praised through art and architecture.
17:18These are some of the biggest things
17:19human beings built massive edififices in
17:22a world where life expectancy somewhere
17:24just south of 40.
17:26The reason is um that religious
17:29understanding that you know this
17:30reflects the glory and praise of God.
17:35Afterward you can kind of see how light
17:37changes. There is a rail hub industry
17:40right Montichello that's um Jefferson's
17:44residence over in Virginia and the
17:46Eiffel Tower
17:48which many old nobles and there still
17:50were some this is 100 years after the
17:52revolution um thought was hideous and
17:55ugly.
17:57So, right, and I've already explained
18:00this, but you can kind of see how art
18:01goes from a broad public, not so many
18:03narrow elites,
18:05right? It should be moral instead of
18:07immoral, teaching people right from
18:09wrong. But it goes both ways because who
18:11defines what's moral?
18:14You've got racoo, which was associated
18:16with aristocratic pleasure, elegance,
18:18and intimacy.
18:20Um,
18:22neocclassicism.
18:25I think I have examples for y'all.
18:27emphasizing um civic virtue, moral
18:30seriousness, republican ideals,
18:33self-sacrifice.
18:35Neocclassical art right gave visual form
18:37to revolutionary values, things like
18:39virtue, citizenship,
18:41sacrifice, uh and the republic.
18:44What the enlightenment does then is help
18:46expand the audience for culture. Instead
18:48of it being mainly about or for kings,
18:52uh, nobles, the elites, right, or the
18:54church, it mainly address readers,
18:57consumers, citizenship, and citizens,
19:00right? Salon participants, newspaper
19:03subscribers, people that could pay.
19:04You're seeing the effect of the bajois.
19:09Public opinion becomes a cultural force,
19:12possibly lowers taste, but it broadens.
19:19celebrates the everyday. Instead of
19:21being about a king, we have a lower
19:25middle class lady making food for her
19:26children. We're fairly well-dressed for
19:29the time.
19:31Right.
19:37Okay. So, that's all way of context to
19:40lead us to France at the end of the
19:42American Revol. Well, the seven years
19:45war. That's why it's 1763 on the title.
19:48The French had agreed to support, right?
19:51They had gone to war with England. They
19:52won't support the Americans yet and
19:54lost, which is going to matter for their
19:56budgets, right? But now you have all
19:58this context and background from a
20:01comparative standpoint with England,
20:02right? In America, you understand and
20:05the fracturing of the Western church
20:08through the Reformation. France is going
20:10to lean heavily into an established
20:13religion as all Europe does. So, it's
20:15still Catholic in 1763, but there's all
20:17this possibility for critique and a lot
20:19to be criticized, right? And we just had
20:22a lengthy perhaps too lengthy, but there
20:25it is. Um,
20:27explanation of the Enlightenment pre and
20:30post. Why should we care? That brings us
20:32to France, the French situation. All
20:35right, so let's get into this.
20:40French society before the revolution was
20:42hierarchical. That means it was ranked.
20:46French society before the revolution was
20:48legally and socially and culturally in
20:50every way you want ranked. People were
20:52not simply rich or poor. They belong to
20:54legally recognized orders with different
20:56rights and privileges. Some of those
20:58many of those privileges and rights
20:59dated back at almost to the time of
21:01Charlemagne from before. The traditional
21:03division were the three estates. The
21:06first estate was the clergy. The second
21:09estate were the nobility. The third
21:11estate was everybody else. The comment
21:14the third estate concluded nearly
21:16everyone. Bajgeois professionals,
21:18merchants, urban workers, and the broad
21:21mass of agricultural poor, the peasants,
21:24right? Why do we care? Because hierarchy
21:28is not only social, it's legal and it's
21:31fiscal and it's cultural. Privilege in
21:34this sense, I think I have a slide
21:36coming up that shows you this, meant tax
21:38exemption, honor, prestige everybody
21:41else owes you, access to office, which
21:43gets you money, which gets you more
21:44honor, legal advantages, and ancient
21:48feudal dues to say nothing of political
21:50process, right, and influence. The
21:52revolution is going to absolutely attack
21:54this system directly. And there'll be
21:56some bajois that aren't happy because
21:58they, you know, paid for recent access
22:00to this or lower ranking nobles who
22:02really depended on the rents.
22:06On August 4, 1789, right? Feudal
22:09privilege will be abolished is one of
22:10the key turning points of the
22:11revolution. We're not there yet, but
22:13just understand
22:15it's um coming. All this is built on
22:17privilege.
22:20The first and second estate have all
22:21these privileges, immunities, monies,
22:24exemptions that the third estate does
22:25not have when they want.
22:29First estate clergy, second estate, the
22:31nobles, third estate everybody else.
22:33It's basically the commons, but it's the
22:36bajgeoa urban and all those guys, urban
22:38workers, rural agricultural, farm
22:40workers, farmers.
22:43Then there is the monarchy, right? So
22:46you can kind of see this here. give you
22:49some numbers on the left side of the
22:50slide. I'm kind of a visual learner. The
22:53gods at the top. If you want to know
22:55what he's thinking, ask the king or the
22:56clergy. And then there's the bajgeois.
23:01Even the bajois though is not there.
23:04Third estate's different. It matters if
23:06you're a rich merchant in Paris as
23:08opposed to a poor um farmer say in to
23:18all right so the monarchy let's see here
23:26at the very top of French society was
23:28the king who cares well you should the
23:31France was an absolute monarchy in
23:33theory though not always in practice The
23:35clean king claims sovereignty over all
23:38aspects of French life. Law, justice,
23:40war, administration, taxation, all tied
23:44and administered through royal
23:45authority, royal power.
23:48But
23:49by the mid to late 18th century, the
23:51monarchy had several problems. First of
23:53all, it was massively in debt for
23:54because it kept fighting wars with the
23:56Spanish and the French u or the Spanish
23:58and the English. It is the French. It
24:01had horrific inefficiency
24:04because if all administrative offices
24:05are tied to somebody's birth, it doesn't
24:07mean they're always great at being an
24:08administrator. Those are different
24:10things. You're giving job. It's like
24:12handling handing out jobs to stupid
24:13people in your family because they're in
24:15your family. Doesn't necessarily mean
24:17they're going to do it well. Court
24:19expenses, tax system had needed to be
24:22massively overhauled. Public critique,
24:25uh, resistance from privileged groups
24:27who didn't want any of this change, and
24:29weak leadership. Louis the 16th was a
24:30very weak man.
24:32The monarchy was powerful enough to be
24:34blamed for everything but not par power
24:37powerful enough to be able to reform
24:40anything.
24:41That's a bad place to be in. The French
24:44monarchy was absolutist in image but
24:46constrained in practice by privilege, by
24:48custom, by tet, by elite resistance and
24:51by its own stupidity.
24:54We got the king. There he is at the top.
24:58You can kind of see there is the great
25:00palace at Versailles in Kentucky. We
25:02call it Versailles built by the Sun King
25:05Louis the 16th or 13th. Right there it
25:08is.
25:13That's a heck of a contrast to someone
25:15living
25:17in a Huffle.
25:19That's what Versailles looks like. The
25:21hall of mirrors is beautiful.
25:25Kind of see how this would make you
25:26elitist and out of touch.
25:29Then there's the second estate, the
25:31clergy.
25:33Sorry, the first estate. We got the king
25:34at the top. It's been a long day, y'all.
25:38But we got the king at the top. The
25:39first estate then is the clergy. They
25:42owned a lot of land. And in a sense,
25:44they were Roman Catholic.
25:49They owned significant amounts of land,
25:51collected ties enforced by law, ran
25:54schools, hospitals, and held up major
25:56cultural authority across France. But
25:59they were also internally divided.
26:01Higher clergy like bishops and cardinals
26:04often came from noble families.
26:06Therefore, they lived rather comfortably
26:07and were sympathetic to the ruling
26:09class.
26:10Lower clergy, the ones in the actual
26:12parishes and churches that ministered to
26:15the great bulk of the French people were
26:17often quite poor. They lived in villages
26:19next to their people, much closer to
26:22ordinary people and often sympathize
26:24with the third estate, the commoners.
26:26Why should you care? Well, a lot.
26:29Because the church represents both
26:30spiritual authority and social
26:32privilege. Critics attacked its wealth,
26:35its tithes, its censorship because the
26:37church kind of censored everything as
26:38churches often do, its religious
26:40intolerance, its privilege, and the
26:43alliance between throne and altar. But
26:45not every most priests aren't rishelu
26:47down here, right? He's the great adviser
26:49to several French kings most made famous
26:52and the three musketeers.
26:55Many ordinary people are sincerely and
26:57rather devoutly Catholic. They like
26:59their priests. They like their church.
27:01They like going to church.
27:03This matters because revolutionary
27:05attacks on the church later create major
27:07resistance in rural areas where the
27:10people the peasants will rise to defend
27:12the priests because priests are there.
27:14They bury their ch their dead moms. They
27:17christen their babies. They marry them.
27:20The priests are always there. They're
27:21not all priests. You can be critical of
27:23sort of church authority and structure
27:25and very sympathetic to faith itself or
27:28to your parish priests.
27:32Um we want to avoid write a simple story
27:34where the people hated the church. No,
27:37many people hated church privilege
27:40and kind of the corruption at the top
27:43but rather love their religion.
27:49Then came the nobles, the second estate.
27:52They had social prestige, tax
27:54privileges, access to high military and
27:56church offices and collected feudal dues
27:59from who? The peasants. But the nobility
28:02was also diverse. Some nobles were very
28:05wealthy court aristocrats living near or
28:07by Versailles. Right? Some supported
28:10English reform and enlightenment
28:11thinkers. They like the English kind of
28:13this Anglo affiliate thing going on.
28:15Others defended their privileges
28:18fiercely. So you have some that are
28:20really happy. They're making a lot of
28:21money. Is doing really good. Others are
28:23not and they don't care if they are. You
28:26can hear
28:30as many of the supporters of the fellows
28:32were nobles the ones that had money.
28:34Noble privilege became a central target
28:36of revolutionary anger. So we should
28:38care about that, right? The nobility
28:40symbolized the injustice of birth
28:42status.
28:46The third estate could ask and did.
28:50Why should a noble pay less taxes enjoy
28:53more honor?
28:55Many early revolutionaries, however,
28:57were nobles. The Marque de Lafayette,
29:01Miraabbo, and others celebrated reform.
29:03So the story is not simply nobles versus
29:05everybody else. It's more complicated.
29:10Then there was a bajgeois, the wealthy
29:13middle class, technically part of the
29:15third estate, but not necessarily
29:17representative of them. They're far
29:19wealthier and more educated than both
29:21peasants are urban workers, as I just
29:23told y'all about 10 minutes ago, right?
29:25They included lawyers, merchants,
29:27financiers, office holders, doctors,
29:29writers, professionals. Anybody that
29:31made money could not necessarily have to
29:32go work with their hands. Why do we
29:35care?
29:36Because they became major leaders of the
29:38early revolution. They matter. Why would
29:40they become leaders? Because they had
29:42the tools needed to make a revolutionary
29:44politics work and make it articulate and
29:46understandable.
29:48They had legal training, administrative
29:50expertise, literacy, access to
29:52enlightenment ideas, right? in ways they
29:54could explain economic power in a deep
29:57grievance and frustration with noble
29:58privilege. They did not necessarily
30:02stress that they did not necessarily
30:05want to destroy property or create
30:07radical democracy. When they were
30:09talking about liberty, they meant for
30:10them, not for the peasants. Many wanted
30:14a constitutional government, more equal
30:16rights and careers open to talent. So,
30:18their revolution at first was a
30:20revolution against privilege. It just
30:21gets more radical over time.
30:25But the other part of the third estate
30:28were these people,
30:31the rural and urban poor, the vast
30:33majority of France.
30:36They bore many, many burdens. Um, they
30:39believed that the king was there by
30:41God's will and had absolute authority to
30:43make laws.
30:45They had to pay royal taxes. They had to
30:47pay feudal dues to some lord. They tied
30:50to the church. They paid rents sometimes
30:52to both bushwo and the nobles. There
30:55were some labor organizations but not
30:57many. They were vulnerable to harvest
30:59failure and all those kind of things
31:01that shrinks people's pay. Many peasants
31:04own some land but many live near
31:06basically subsistence or starving. Why
31:09do we care?
31:10No revolution can succeed without the
31:12rural French. It just can't. There's too
31:14many. Right. Peasant anger will help
31:16drive the great fear of 1789 about
31:18hoarding grain. We'll talk about that
31:20next time. And will drive the abolition
31:22of feudal privileges. This is what the
31:24peasants want. But the peasants are not
31:27simply passive victims. They're not.
31:29They had their own agenda. What do they
31:31want? Relief from dues, secure land
31:33holding, lower taxes, food security, an
31:37end
31:39to privilege, and protection from
31:41hunger. So, makes sense. But the goals I
31:46just described are not the same as the
31:47bourgeoa goals. They're different.
31:51So everybody tracking king, church,
31:54nobles
31:56has three estates. The king's one of the
31:58nobles, but he's the highest at the very
31:59top.
32:02I'll finish this up y'all.
32:05Again, remember, first estates the
32:08clergy, second estates the nobility,
32:11third estates the commoners. Critical
32:14difference between the estates of the
32:15Rome was the burden of taxes. The nobles
32:18and the clergy were largely excluded
32:20from most of the taxes while the
32:21commoners paid disproportionately high
32:23amounts
32:26but you don't tax people that don't have
32:28money. It's the bajgeoa is paying a lot
32:30of that making them so grumpy.
32:33Okay, let's talk about the tai. This is
32:36a major source of royal income and
32:37therefore a major source of angst and
32:40anger.
32:42It was a direct tax on the French
32:44especially associated with the peasantry
32:46and commoners. It's one of the key
32:48symbols of fiscal inequality in the late
32:50Anseian regime or old regime. All right.
32:53So there were exemptions. The clergy and
32:56the nobles often enjoyed exemptions or
32:58special treatment from many direct taxes
32:59including all many forms of the ta
33:02though the system varied by region. And
33:04this is so overlapping and almost
33:07labyrinating that I'm not going to just
33:09confuse you. There's just all these
33:11layered levels of privilege from France,
33:13you know, not just France as a whole,
33:14but city town USA. It's almost like
33:17we're in Barberville right now, right?
33:18Or I am
33:20having a complex
33:23contradictory series of obligations to
33:26Barberville, Knox County, Kentucky, the
33:28region, Appalachia, and America. And
33:31some of them don't always make nice or
33:33play well together. This is the
33:35situation in France talking the Ta. But
33:38the clergy and the nobles enjoyed a lot
33:39of exemptions from all that stuff,
33:42right? The privilege orders were not
33:44completely untaxed. The clergy did make
33:46a free gift to the crown and nobles did
33:48pay some. But compared to the burden
33:51borne by most commoners, the system
33:52looked and was deeply unjust.
33:56And perception, as hopefully you all
33:58know, matters.
34:04People who could best afford to pay
34:06often seemed best positioned to avoid
34:08pain.
34:09Now, the church at least to leadership
34:11of the church, not the common priests,
34:13the ones out in the countryside,
34:15supported the monarchy in important
34:17ways, but also maintained its own fiscal
34:19privileges. Instead of regular taxation,
34:22right, the clergy negotiated
34:23contributions to the crown. This
34:25reinforces a sense of privilege if
34:27you're looking at the church, right? So,
34:29who pays?
34:31The burden fell heavily on the third
34:33estate, especially peasants. They paid
34:35royal taxes like the Thai. They paid
34:38indirect taxes like taxes on salt and
34:40bread, sometimes wine and beer, feudal
34:43dues, church ties, rents, and local
34:45obligations. All this creates stacked
34:47burdens all the way down. So, the
34:49peasants simply didn't just pay a tax.
34:51He paid the king. He paid the Lord. He
34:53paid the church and the landlord all
34:56before he could feed his family. You can
34:58see how that would um be unattractive
35:02and make you really grumpy.
35:05Attempts at reform had often failed.
35:07French royal ministers knew the tax
35:09system was broken. They knew it was bad.
35:11The problem was not ignorance. The
35:13problem was politics. And politics is
35:15the art of the possible.
35:20We can kind of see right direct taxes.
35:23There's your pole your ta feudal dues,
35:25right? All right. If you want to grind
35:25your flour and make it into you don't
35:28want to just eat wheat, you have to turn
35:29into flour to make bread and taxes for
35:33the use of roads and bridges and to get
35:35anywhere. There all these tolls right
35:37from Tgo Neare Cologne Brienne. These
35:40are all just names out of wine but for
35:43ministers they all understood this but
35:45they had the same problem. The state
35:46needed more revenue but the privilege
35:48orders resisted reform that would make
35:49them pay for more. They didn't want to.
35:52Privilege is deeply entrenched.
35:55sort of the thing right
35:58throughout the 18th century I'll tell
36:00you here the French continuously
36:02struggle with budget deficits there's
36:04some attempts at reform under both L the
36:0714th and 15th but the greatest challenge
36:10was to introduce any change against an
36:12old um bargain that the French made with
36:14the nobility
36:16um the king was allowed to rule without
36:18too much opposition from the nobles only
36:20if he refrained from taxing them and so
36:23most kings did. New taxes introduced
36:25under Louis the 14th were a step toward
36:27equality that so many concessions and
36:29exemptions were won by the nobles that
36:31it really didn't matter. Although Louis
36:34the 15th had attempted to impose new
36:35taxes on the first and second estate,
36:37all their exemptions and reductions won
36:39by the privileged classes meant the
36:40burden once again rolled on down to the
36:43peasants and the bourgeoa.
36:48So you can kind of see how this is
36:50going, right? Monarchy needs elite
36:52cooperation.
36:54King appears absolute but he needs
36:56nobles, courts, office holders and
36:57others to cooperate to help him rule.
37:01Now all these different groups and
37:02they're legislated by these called
37:03parliament. They're like local councils
37:07are going to have to be called to help
37:09the king get more money. Everybody's
37:10pretty shocked at how bad the king's
37:12finances are. You can see that there the
37:14levels of estates there. who has land
37:16ownership.
37:18Terms of property,
37:20land ownership, right? The green is the
37:23commoners.
37:25They own like 60% of the land, but
37:27they're paying almost 100% of the taxes
37:29and almost 100% of the population. So,
37:30something's wrong there. All right. Next
37:33time we're going to talk about all the
37:35events leading into the first cracking
37:37of the colony of the states general and
37:38the cracking of the French kind of that
37:40consensus I just told you around um
37:43royal power. Here on the slide there,
37:46you can kind of see this critique,
37:47right? There's three estates, the noble,
37:51the bishop, and the peasant. There's the
37:54ta, the tax. If you have any questions
37:57at all, write them down and email me,
37:59and I will write you back. I hope you
38:01have a blessed, wonderful day.

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