This chronology cover the main events and structure of our topic time period 1774-1815.
This Key Idea introduces the many weaknesses and challenges to royal authority between 1774 and 1789. A clear understanding of the background is very important.
An assessment of how ‘absolute’ Louis’ monarchy was is an important first step in understanding the Ancien Regime, as pre-Revolution France is called.
This Key Idea explores firstly the running of France as an 18th C kingdom and how the old feudal systems worked. The economic weaknesses which crippled France, and then the new ideas which challenged the old thinking and the traditional ideas about monarchy and running countries. Lastly we will examine the first tentative assaults upon royal authority looking at the Revolt of the Nobles.
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The Origins of the French Revolution, 1774–1789
• The Ancien Regime: absolutism, the Estates and Parlements
• The financial crisis of the monarchy in the 1770s: the costs of war and the issue of taxation
• The ideas of the Enlightenment: the philosophes and challenges to the existing order
• The failure of the Finance Ministers: the Assembly of Notables and the Revolt of the Nobles