The French revolution has its roots deeply set in the Enlightenment; it was an intellectual movement, with a collective set of ideals which served as a foundation to the revolution. Enlightened thinkers often questioned society as a whole; they questioned the idea of divine monarchy, which seemed to defy reason and root itself in superstition and tradition. Enlightened ideas questioned the foundations of the current society and suggested alternatives such as constitutional monarchy instead of divine right absolutism. The idea of “popular sovereignty” was created by the enlightenment, this in essence meant that the government can only truly be authentic if it has the express consent of the people it governs and enforces laws that reflect the general will of the people. The Enlightenment also brought about the idea of “Meritocracy”, this meant that jobs were allocated according to skills rather than to birthright. The second estate controlled all the top jobs and thus no consideration went into how well a person could perform the allocated job.
Religious consequences must also be taken into account. Before the revolution the first estate enjoyed exemptions from many taxes and collected some taxes such as “The Tithe”, which took 10% of a typical annual salary. The church owned more than 10% of the land in France; the major bishops were extremely wealthy. The church also donated a certain amount to the king every year, this was an amount decided by the church and it was called the “Don Gratuit”. The king had a certain influence in church policy as he was in charge of appointing bishops and archbishops.
During the revolution, the privileged status of the church was attacked. The government in place at this time was anti-clerical, they hated the church as an institution, this did not mean that they were not religious as they remained essentially catholic. The main aims of the government were to combat abuses and corruption within the system, this meant getting rid of corrupt bishops. The privileges that the church enjoyed, such as exemption from many taxes, were to be abolished. The wealth of the church was to be removed and given to the state. They wished to make the church more democratic so they decided that the clergy were to be elected. All links with the pope and Rome were to be cut-off. The church was also to allow freedom of conscience which granted people to worship any religion of their choosing.
As part of the policies of the new government, many monasteries were attacked and those which did not benefit the community were closed. There were not going to be any new monks or nuns. The civil constitution of the clergy was drawn up; this meant that the church had to take a loyalty oath to the government, salaries were to be introduced for church members, the number of clergy was to be reduced, the clergy were to be elected, the pope no longer had the rights to confirm the bishop and the system of church was linked to the government structure.
This was extremely controversial and split the church in half. The constitutional church was loyal to the state and the revolution but was rejected by Rome. The non-juring church were supported by Rome and refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the government, they were persecuted, but they did hold the moral high ground and they became the focus of counter-revolutionaries.
The clergy lost financial privilege; they were no longer exempt from taxes. They lost the right to collect “The Tithe”. The “Don Gratuit” is made a compulsory tax, all of the church land is confiscated and sold off by the state (Biens Nationaux), to the middle-class and peasants, they were in essence buying into the revolution. These drastic changes in religion affected everyone in the country.
Politics also changed greatly during this period, the idea of popular sovereignty, which had its roots in the enlightenment, became popular. In the Estates General, each of the three estates had a vote each, but due to the first two estates siding together on most issues, the third estate was out voted almost on every issue, even though they represented 90% of the population. The third estate demanded a fairer representation, led by Abbe Sieyes, a clergy man. The king gave in eventually and gave the third estate double the vote. On 17th June 1789, the third estate broke away from the Estate General and setup the National Assembly; this was made the prominent government after ‘The Tennis Court Oath’.
The economy would also need to be considered as it is crucial to the survival of any country. The finance of the country was extremely low, attempts to maintain the tax system of the ancien regime was met with extreme hostilities and resulted in riots in heavily taxed areas. In November 1789 the constituent assembly decided to sell church property to aid the country’s financial crisis. Assignats (government bonds which were brought and exchanged for Church lands) were issued; by 1790 the Assignats became a form of paper currency but as inflation rose the value of the Assignats fell. Nobles who emigrated had their land confiscated and sold off; this was also another source of income for the government. Many bourgeois bought church land; this was not exclusive to the bourgeois as many peasants also seized the opportunity to purchase cheap land. Those who bought land from the government were inevitably buying into the revolution.
The state took over much of the responsibility of the church; the government paid the clerical salaries and financed education. New taxes, such as tax on property were introduced to help pay-off the governments debt. The Gabelle and many indirect taxes were removed. There were still variations on tax being paid, from area to area but the poor paid less and the exemptions had been removed and thus the peasants found this system to be more agreeable. Free trade was introduced particularly in grain, guilds and internal tariffs were abolished, and a uniform system of weights and measures were introduced. Despite all the measures the economy of France was still in shambles.
The military consequences were far more severe, many countries felt threatened by the revolution that had occurred, they wanted to crush the revolution and re-instate the king. Some counter revolutionaries were counting on a war to occur and wanted France to loose so that the king may be re-instated. Army commanders wanted war to strengthen the king’s position and bring about political stability. France declared war on Austria in April 20, 1792, Prussia entered into the war a month later. Initially there were many losses, many of the experienced generals were nobles and held fled earlier, and this left the French army with ill-equipped and inexperienced soldiers.
Overall the destruction of privilege was the most important consequence of the revolution as it destroyed a whole way of life and created another one, which was far more balanced. Balance was finally brought back to the state with popular sovereignty and meritocracy; the French people had finally gained the freedom they had so longed for.
