French Rev — causes, key dates, historiography
VCE History: Revolutions · French Revolution — causes · 6 flashcards, free to study.
Estates, 1789 timeline, key historians. Suits the AOS 1 'causes' exam question.
- Three estates of pre-revolutionary France
- 1st: clergy. 2nd: nobility. 3rd: everyone else (~97% of pop, paid most tax).
- Estates General — when last called before 1789
- 1614 — 175 years before, hence its summoning shocked France.
- What was the Tennis Court Oath?
- June 1789 — Third Estate (now National Assembly) swore not to disband until a constitution was written.
- Cause: financial crisis — drivers
- American War of Independence debt, regressive tax system, harvest failures of 1788.
- Tipping point: Storming of the Bastille
- 14 July 1789 — symbolic act marking the popular revolution.
- Historian view — François Furet
- Saw revolution as driven by ideology and 'revolutionary catechism', not just material conditions.