Kaleigh DeVoe
What Does That Have to Do With the Price of Bread in France?
In 1789, a wave of enlightenment lit a powder keg in France. The explosion led to nearly a decade of bloodshed and violent political sparring. The citizens beheaded Louis XVI, along with most of his immediate family. They summarily executed anyone who opposed their radical regime. Though the new republic crumbled in its infancy, this era left an indelible mark on the French people.
This paper will show that repetitive political upheaval in post-revolutionary France was at least in part the result of limited suffrage and an ever-widening gap between the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the peasants. Without the lower class, the middle class would not have had the …show more content…
Peasants and liberal thinkers had slaughtered thousands in the revolution of 1789, mostly prominent members of French society. This fear created a balancing act in the early 19th century. While there was a strong conservative movement in favor of re-instating the monarchy—and the monarchy was indeed restored on two occasions—even most conservatives realized that an absolute monarchy was no longer possible. This recognition did not prevent the conservatives from attempting to limit suffrage to only the wealthiest members of society at every opportunity. These attempts, combined with economic crisis, would ultimately contribute to their …show more content…
His constitutional monarchy incorporated many of the more successful concepts Napoleon implemented.(Popkin) He severely restricted voting rights but gave the larger part of the bourgeoisie an opportunity to participate in government, thereby preventing the resentment of those with enough of a voice to create real trouble for him. The first law of the “Public Law of the French” in his constitutional charter of 1814 referenced the sentiment expressed in the revolutionary document, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen,” stating, “Frenchmen are equal before the law, whatever may be their titles and ranks.” His government contained enough revolutionary thought to maintain his control over the French people until his death in
What Does That Have to Do With the Price of Bread in France?
In 1789, a wave of enlightenment lit a powder keg in France. The explosion led to nearly a decade of bloodshed and violent political sparring. The citizens beheaded Louis XVI, along with most of his immediate family. They summarily executed anyone who opposed their radical regime. Though the new republic crumbled in its infancy, this era left an indelible mark on the French people.
This paper will show that repetitive political upheaval in post-revolutionary France was at least in part the result of limited suffrage and an ever-widening gap between the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the peasants. Without the lower class, the middle class would not have had the …show more content…
Peasants and liberal thinkers had slaughtered thousands in the revolution of 1789, mostly prominent members of French society. This fear created a balancing act in the early 19th century. While there was a strong conservative movement in favor of re-instating the monarchy—and the monarchy was indeed restored on two occasions—even most conservatives realized that an absolute monarchy was no longer possible. This recognition did not prevent the conservatives from attempting to limit suffrage to only the wealthiest members of society at every opportunity. These attempts, combined with economic crisis, would ultimately contribute to their …show more content…
His constitutional monarchy incorporated many of the more successful concepts Napoleon implemented.(Popkin) He severely restricted voting rights but gave the larger part of the bourgeoisie an opportunity to participate in government, thereby preventing the resentment of those with enough of a voice to create real trouble for him. The first law of the “Public Law of the French” in his constitutional charter of 1814 referenced the sentiment expressed in the revolutionary document, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen,” stating, “Frenchmen are equal before the law, whatever may be their titles and ranks.” His government contained enough revolutionary thought to maintain his control over the French people until his death in