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HIST 213 THE TERROR, PT 2 — Transcript

by Dr. Pearson's History Channel · 3,337 words · 592 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00All
0:05right, apologies for that. Um, here we
0:07are for part two of this week's chat on
0:11the terror. We were just talking about
0:13the ideology behind it. They're not
0:15necessarily I mean probably some of them
0:17were um sociopaths. This is a lot of
0:20people led by fear, right, of people
0:23undermining the very laable ideas of the
0:26revolution. They want purity tests. Um a
0:29sense of um a bunker mentality as the
0:31whole world's against you and a hope for
0:34a purified kind of mythical new rever um
0:37rev
0:39revised France and France population
0:43um that would be free of all the great
0:46things you can think about with the free
0:47republic. And so that's kind of where we
0:49get um some of these themes right terror
0:53and irony. It's you're def violating
0:55liberty to defend liberty.
0:58Um,
1:01another thing I wanted to tell y'all
1:03about was the strange French calendar,
1:06right? The calendar um called a
1:09Republican calendar was introduced in
1:111793 meant to purge France of Christian
1:14and royalist influences. It replaces the
1:17Gregorian calendar that we all know with
1:19a supposedly rational secular structure
1:22based on nature and a decimal system.
1:26Um, so some of the biggest changes,
1:28right, New Year's Day was reset to year
1:311, September 22nd, 1792, the day the
1:35first French Republic was declared. Um,
1:38the year was divided into 12 months,
1:40each exactly 30 days long, named by the
1:44poet Fabre
1:46Donging
1:48um after seasonal um my French isn't
1:50great. After seasonal weather, right? Um
1:55we see autumn,
1:57uh winter, spring, and summer. There is
2:01messador, thermodor, fructoador,
2:04harvest, um, heat, thermodor, fruit,
2:08spring, uh, germinal, thorio, pio, um,
2:13seedlings, uh, flowers or blossoms, um,
2:17meadows, prairies, winter, nervosa,
2:21pubio, ventos, snow, rain, and, uh,
2:25wind. and then autumn um von de mira
2:30bumier um and fier
2:33vintage mist and frost. We also see a
2:3710-day week. The 7-day week was replaced
2:39by three 10day work weeks. Instead of
2:42Sunday, workers rested only on the 10th
2:44day. So, you kind of got ripped off if
2:47you're um instead of four Sundays, you
2:50get three decad sucks. And your work
2:53week's now nine days long.
2:56The saints uh days were removed. Each
2:58day was named for a plant, a tree, some
3:00kind of tool, whatever. Um,
3:04this calendar was intensely unpopular.
3:08Um, the 10-day work week resulted in
3:11fewer days off. The decimal clock caused
3:14mass confusion. Um,
3:18people hated it.
3:20So, when it finally goes away,
3:22everyone's really happy. I just wanted
3:23to show it to you here so you can kind
3:25of see how radical the revolutionary
3:27revolution was.
3:30[clears throat]
3:31Now, one of our interludes of terror
3:33then to think about is the terror in the
3:35church.
3:37The revolution's conflict of course with
3:39the Catholic Church does begin with
3:42legitimate, I think, philosophical,
3:44economic, and political critiques of the
3:47privileges the church enjoyed under the
3:48old regime. Um however that suspicion
3:52gradually gradually transforms into
3:54ideological fanaticism leading first to
3:57coercion then persecution and finally
3:59the murder of priests, nuns and ordinary
4:01French Catholics.
4:03Um
4:05remember the first estate of course is
4:07130,000 clergy. They own six to 10% of
4:10the French land that is the church. They
4:12collect a tithe onetenth of agricultural
4:15production and were exempt from any
4:17direct taxes. uh they also exercise
4:20outsiz influence over poor relief
4:23hospitals and education.
4:26Now there is a distinction remember
4:28between the high clergy those bishops,
4:29cardinals and other wealthy politically
4:32connected clergymen um and village
4:34priests who overwhelmingly sympathetic
4:37coming from common families live
4:39modestly and sympathize with ordinary
4:41people. So criticism that's usually
4:44directed toward the wealthy hierarchy
4:47didn't mean most people were mad at
4:49their local parish or their local
4:50priest.
4:52Nor did it imply the religious believer
4:54wanted to jettison faith entirely.
5:02Um the church remember had certain
5:05financial privileges. It was a large
5:07landholder
5:09exempt from direct taxes. The church has
5:11offered a kind of a off sort of a
5:14tribute to the king. Um it also had
5:17immense wealth through all the ties.
5:21Um
5:23there was also political privilege. It
5:26enjoyed political representation in the
5:28first estate. It had great influence
5:30over the monarchy. Uh the church could
5:33censor books and did. It controlled
5:34education. It also registered people's
5:37births, their marriages and their
5:38deaths.
5:40Finally, it was opened to a lot of
5:41enlightenment criticism by guys like
5:43Voltater Dero and of course Rouso. Um,
5:47they don't like the church because it's
5:49seemingly irrational and I would argue
5:51religion super rational more than faith
5:54but not necessarily counter to reason.
5:57Super rational more than reason.
6:00Um, they criticized so these guys
6:02criticized its intolerance, its supposed
6:04superstition, the privilege, the
6:07alliance between throne and altar and on
6:09and on. Um,
6:11most enlightenment thinkers criticize
6:13institutional power, not necessarily
6:16ordinary believers, at least not
6:17necessarily initially. And people that
6:19sympathize with them also share that
6:20critique of power, but not necessarily
6:22of parish priests and religious belief
6:25itself.
6:29But it starts to turn and your book
6:31talked about this. Um,
6:35in 1789,
6:37the National Assembly will nationalize
6:39church property. Now, what's the point?
6:42To take property from the church and to
6:45solve France's financial crisis by real
6:47estate sales. Um, it's also meant to
6:51back u newspaper currency with church
6:54land, right?
6:57monasteries are dissolved, church lands
6:59are confiscated, religious orders more
7:01or less um suppressed
7:04unless they're dealing with hospitals or
7:07um directly educating people. Now, a
7:11consequence however that is basic market
7:13economics. If you flood the market with
7:16a product necessarily, demand goes down
7:19and price follows demand. So the
7:22confiscation of church lands was not
7:24nearly as lucrative as the National
7:26Assembly and later National Convention
7:28leaders hoped. There's what I explained
7:30to you. The civil constitution clergy
7:32right requiring priests to be elected by
7:34citizens, bishops to be elected, um
7:37clergy paid by the state
7:40and um a loyalty oath.
7:43This oath divides the French clergy.
7:46Those who swore the oath called
7:49constitutional clergy accepted
7:51revolutionary reforms at least tacidly.
7:54They were called refractory or
7:56non-juring clergy priests and nuns that
7:58would not take the oath. They remain
8:00loyal to the pope and they said to
8:02Christ. So we then have our two
8:05competing churches
8:08abiding loyalty of France.
8:13So why does resistance grow? Because I
8:15just told you there's a lot of
8:16legitimate critiques that many people
8:17shared. First of all, Pope, the bishop
8:20of Rome, the leader of the Catholic
8:22Church, condemns all this legislation.
8:26So if you agree with all of it, you're
8:29now hostile to your own church. So it's
8:30putting two loyalties. Loyalty to the
8:32revolution or loyalty to the church at
8:34loggerheads.
8:35Two,
8:37rural France is not Paris. Just like
8:40Barberville and Knox County are not
8:42Lexington.
8:44Many peasants were very religious. They
8:47maybe didn't like some of the leadership
8:49of the church, but they liked their
8:50priests in their parish. So, they will
8:52protect priests, hide clergy, attend
8:55secret masses, um, and deeply distrust
8:58what they would consider Parisian
9:00elites. So, religion then becomes
9:02intertwined with local identity.
9:08Revolutionaries then become increased.
9:09So, it's kind of circular, increasingly
9:12suspicious, right? If priests oppose the
9:14revolution, they oppose liberty. So
9:16religious disagreement then became
9:18viewed as political treason. That's a
9:21dangerous thing to do. Mixing church and
9:23state.
9:27War also radicalizes the revolution.
9:29Remember invasion and fear of it
9:32intensifies everybody's fear. Refractory
9:35or non-jurian priests, right? Those that
9:36didn't swear the oath were accused of
9:38aiding the Germans, supporting
9:40immigrants, people getting out, um
9:42encouraging rebellion, undermining the
9:44republic, um being counter to the
9:48reformation, right, of the revolution.
9:51Now, some clergy certainly did support
9:54counter revolution, others did not. Some
9:57just refused to take the oath. They just
9:59didn't want to do anything else. They
10:00just didn't want to take that oath. The
10:02issue was the leadership in the national
10:05convention, the assembly, then the
10:06convention really don't see a
10:09distinction.
10:11Either you're with us or against us.
10:18So then religion, the eyes of the
10:21leadership of the committee of public
10:23safety and the national convention is
10:25the enemy. religion. Um, during the
10:28terror, we see churches closed, church
10:30bells melted, crosses rem removed. It's
10:34called the decristianization campaign.
10:36Talk about that some depth just a
10:37second. Um, clergy arrested and killed.
10:41Um, the target will expand beyond
10:43political opposition to religion itself.
10:45Faith is seen as hostile. You can either
10:48choose reason or you can choose faith.
10:51And on the slide there, you see a
10:54um
10:56man being executed. It's some modern art
10:58in the guillotine and Madame Le
11:00Guillotine. There she got her bloody
11:01hands, blind justice. She's welcoming
11:04everyone because it's not justice.
11:07Everyone dies in the guillotine. Um this
11:10is part of the derchristianization
11:11campaign that happened all across France
11:13and wherever the revolutionary armies
11:15went till Napoleon reigns them back and
11:16kind of makes peace with the church.
11:20So the radical revolutionaries looked to
11:21replace Christianity with a civil
11:23religion. Churches were converted into
11:26temples of reason. Just told you the
11:28Christian calendars abolished, right?
11:31Sundays replaced. Christian holidays are
11:33eliminated. The revolution is going to
11:35try to root out and remake society
11:37itself and um burn where they can Bibles
11:40and missiles and prayer books.
11:47that dials up the violence especially
11:49against the religious themselves not
11:51just the ley right but the priests and
11:53the nuns and monks. So we see executions
11:56of the clergy by the thousands. They
11:59will be imprisoned, kicked out of
12:01France, deported if they stay executed.
12:05Um who gets killed? elderly priests,
12:08parish clergy, especially village
12:10priests, monks, benedictans, trappist, u
12:14priscans, not too many of them, but
12:16mostly capucian, caralites, so they're
12:19clustered um benedictans and um trappist
12:24who make really really good beer. Um
12:27[clears throat]
12:28also nuns, nuns were killed.
12:31Give you a couple examples. There were
12:3316 Carmelite nuns executed in 1794.
12:37Now Carmelites are um cloister. They
12:40spend their days in a convent praying.
12:44They refused to abandon their religious
12:45vocation, remain faithful to their
12:47community. They were walk calmly to the
12:49guillotine um singing hymns where they
12:53died.
12:56Then there were the drownings in the
12:58lore and known
13:00hundreds maybe thousands. The sources go
13:02back and forth and I don't want to tell
13:03y'all wrong. Of prisoners, including
13:05clergy and devout Catholics, were
13:07drowned on orders from Jean Baptiste
13:09Kedier, who is an absolute
13:12um looks like Jean Baptist Carrier if
13:15you're from Kentucky. Jean Baptiste
13:17Kier, he's not a nice man.
13:20Um they were forcibly drowned in the
13:22lure. Religion becomes just one reason
13:25among several lit individuals are going
13:26to be targeted um and killed.
13:31I think I have a couple. Yeah, you can
13:34kind of see in these pictures are I
13:36guess they're okay. Um there's the
13:38martyrs there
13:40singing to the, you know, to God before
13:43they're all executed and their white
13:44habits.
13:46Sure, it looked quite like that. I think
13:47they were probably a little more scared,
13:48but and then we have the drownings there
13:51and all.
13:57So it's targeting believers and faith
14:00itself, right? Burning churches, killing
14:03people.
14:08Okay, so back from the interlude.
14:11Got a little bit left here today.
14:13There's the von D. Western France,
14:16deeply religious, rural, far, hostile. I
14:19mean, they they were supportive of
14:21constitutional change and having more of
14:22a voice in government. They didn't want
14:24to kill the king and burn down the
14:25church.
14:27Um, so they are irritated about being
14:29drafted. They want to defend the
14:30monarchy, defend the church and their
14:32local priests. Um, also the government's
14:35insanely brutal because if you're
14:37enemies everywhere that the more you
14:40crack down on people, the more you
14:42inspire them to hate you.
14:44Mass executions and destructions of
14:46villages um demonstrate how political
14:50conflict is now ideological struggle and
14:53it'll be a brutal civil war. Oh, and the
14:55Vand are over here on the slide, right?
14:57They're on the west, that kind of orange
15:00pink. And then over there,
15:07so the terror is full on by in 93 and
15:1194. Um,
15:14by June 1794, the law of 22 y'all, it's
15:18a new month, right?
15:20um makes trials faster, reduces
15:22protections
15:24like due process um in a corpus for
15:28defendants. It leads to what's called
15:30the great terror. Executions in Paris
15:32especially just just just ramp up.
15:34They're they're alive. It's just just
15:36killing people.
15:38The terror becomes more extreme because
15:40the weirdly the emergency itself begins
15:43to ease, right? The French military is
15:45doing better. Your book talks about
15:47that. But conversely, the um inversely
15:52maybe a repression intensifies.
15:55This makes many deputies fear the terror
15:57has become less about survival and more
15:59about control, which is exactly what's
16:02happening.
16:04Um
16:05so then the terror right um turns
16:08against revolutionaries themselves, the
16:10leaders of it themselves.
16:16the Donus um uh linked to the um French
16:21revolutionary Don associated with
16:24moderation and cause to relax the terror
16:26um and repressions were executed. The
16:29aberist book talked about them a little
16:31bit. Um they're showed associated with
16:34extreme popular reform executed.
16:38You could not be radical enough. Loyalty
16:41was key.
16:44The terror is beginning to consume its
16:46own revolution like Saturn eats its own
16:48children.
16:52By summer 94, however, many of the
16:55convention were deeply afraid of Robes
16:57Pierre. Whoever he accused ended up
17:00dead. His language of virtue and treason
17:03had become threatening even to his
17:05closest friends and supporters.
17:11So they move to take him out before he
17:13can do it to them. On July 27th, 1794,
17:18which if you care about the French
17:20calendar, was nine thermodor year too.
17:24Um, Robes Pierre and all of his closest
17:26allies were arrested. All of them were
17:28executed the next day.
17:31This ends the most intense phase of the
17:33terror. So it ends when the
17:36revolutionary leaders became afraid of
17:37the system they created. Absur wrote
17:40Pierre's fall. Um France does not go
17:42back to the old regime. It also did not
17:45create a stable democracy.
17:48It enters a more conservative and
17:50unstable phase that eventually will open
17:51the door um
17:55or certain coursing in general.
17:59So wrapping up here, why did it become
18:02so extreme, right,
18:07fear,
18:09civil war, disloyalty, and paranoia? The
18:12people next door, we can't trust them.
18:13People below us, we can't trust them.
18:14The people above us, we can't trust
18:16them. This is a classic bgeoa paranoia,
18:19right? So fear, fear of invasion, civil
18:22war, conspiracy, the neighbors we can't
18:24trust, the unwashed masses below us, and
18:27the corrupt elites above us. Fear is the
18:29first thing you have to have fear. Two,
18:32rampant ideology. Virtue and kind of
18:35ideological purity require eliminating
18:37enemies. Three, political
18:40radicalization. It's just a radical
18:42time. Moderation itself becomes suspect.
18:45It means you're not committed enough.
18:46compromise
18:49feels like betrayal. You're not
18:51committed enough.
18:54So, you've got fear, ideology, a
18:57politically radical moment, which makes
18:59it very, very easy to dehumanize your
19:01opponents. They're not human beings.
19:04They're fanatics, traitors. They're
19:06evil. Once you label your enemies as
19:10evil, it makes anything possible because
19:13they're wicked and bad.
19:18So, how does this shake out?
19:23After Robes Pierre's fall in 1794, many
19:26revolutionary leaders reject the extreme
19:28policies of the terror. Um, the Jacobins
19:30themselves were closed. Revolutionary
19:32tribunals were reduced. Economic
19:35controls were weakened.
19:37Um, the silence kulot lost all political
19:40what was left of their political
19:41influence.
19:43This is called the Thermodorian reaction
19:45because it happens there um in that
19:46month. Thermodor
19:50after the terror many revolutionaries
19:51wanted to order more than they wanted
19:54radical democracy. People want peace and
19:56stability. Right?
20:03The Constitution of 1795 replacing the
20:05one of 1791 creates a new government
20:08called the Directory. It had a fiveman
20:10executive and a two house legislature.
20:12The goal is to avoid dictatorship and
20:14popular radicalism. Issue there is it's
20:17weak and no one likes it.
20:20It tries to stabilize the revolution by
20:23limiting democracy doesn't work out. It
20:26faces um problems, criticisms from both
20:29its left for not being revolutionary
20:31enough and from its right for being
20:33weak. Royalists wanted to restore the
20:35monarchy. Um the jack of bins and
20:38popular radicals wanted something more
20:39democratic.
20:41The economy sadly for those trying to
20:43chart this middle row remained unstable.
20:46Corruption was widespread as it often is
20:48when there's little oversight and lots
20:49of money to be had and government
20:51dependent on the army. So force
20:58[clears throat]
20:59the revolution had destroyed the old
21:01regime but it had not solved the problem
21:03of legitimacy. it was still struggling
21:06to pay its bills. So the army then
21:09becomes increasingly important. A
21:11civilian government struggle to maintain
21:13order or deliver legitimacy, right? The
21:16army becomes a source of prestige,
21:18status, power and order. Or order.
21:23French armies defend the revolution
21:25expanding French influence and producing
21:27popular military leaders because they
21:30win.
21:33Most important of these
21:36was Napoleon Bonapart.
21:39His rise is no accident. It was made
21:41possible by the revolution's repeated
21:44failures to create a stable civilian
21:45government.
21:51He's a talented military commander who
21:54rose to the wars of the revolution. His
21:56victories making his fame possible,
21:58giving him credibility.
22:01The revolution of course weakened old
22:03aristocratic roots to power allowing
22:05military talent and ambition especially
22:07if you can win and he could win um to
22:10become far more important.
22:12It creates the conditions for Napoleon's
22:15rise by promoting talent through war and
22:17military authority.
22:19What's the other side of this? The
22:21directory needs him. It needs military
22:23power. It increasingly relied on the
22:25army to suppress opposition and maintain
22:27control that weakens civilian government
22:30and acclimatizes people to listening to
22:32military leaders.
22:34If a government needs its generals to
22:35survive, the generals become political
22:37actors and eventually wonder why do they
22:39need the government.
22:41When civilian authority is weak,
22:43something to write down, military
22:45authority becomes awfully tempting,
22:48especially when a people crave order.
23:00In November 1789 was called 18 Rere
23:04Napoleon participates in a coup that
23:06overthrows the directory. He becomes
23:09first console placing himself at the
23:11center of the French political life.
23:13This effectively ends the French
23:15Revolution as a period of Republican
23:17experimentation. After this, it'll be
23:20about conquest and war. Napoleon ended
23:23the revolution by claiming to preserve
23:25its achievements and end its
23:27instability.
23:29He saw himself as his supporters and
23:32think it's kind of fair as both heir and
23:34ender of the revolution, right? He does
23:36not bring back the old regime. What does
23:38he do? He preserves several
23:40revolutionary achievements such as legal
23:42equality, careers open to talent,
23:44ambition,
23:46um, and merit. He abolishes feudal
23:49privileges and centralizes the state,
23:53but he's not a champion of the people.
23:56He also limits political liberty,
23:58absolutely controls the press, uh
24:00weakens representative government, and
24:02concentrates power into his hands. He
24:05kept parts of the revolution but
24:07destroyed others.
24:12Now, it only makes sense if you see this
24:15as part of a movement from hope to
24:18emergency possibilities.
24:20The tennis court oath began with the
24:23claim that the nation uh had a right to
24:25expect a constitution, which certainly
24:26it did. That was powerful and hopeful.
24:30But once the revolution faced civil war
24:32and external war, economic crisis and
24:35political division,
24:37the question of who represented the
24:38nation became more dangerous.
24:42We can see right it's moving in a clear
24:45arc to secure order, stability and
24:47authority. Right? Financial crisis
24:49exposed the weakness of their fin onion
24:51regime. The estates general became a
24:54debate about sovereignty. The National
24:56Assembly and the and the tennis court
24:57oath and later the national convention
24:59launch a constitutional revolution.
25:01Popular pressure and war will radicalize
25:03that revolution. The terror will
25:06institutionalize emergency violence and
25:08alienate
25:09leaders of the directory right before
25:12the convention and the assembly. And the
25:15failure of the directory will absolutely
25:17open the door for Bunapart.
25:19Now you have questions, please let me
25:22know. Write those down. Send them to me.
25:25Um,
25:27and happy birthday, America.

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