Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to our second lesson in our enquiry on whether the French Revolution was Enlightened.

My name is Mr. Arscott.

And if you don't recognise me, you probably haven't done our first lesson, which is really important you have a go at doing that.

Now I'm really excited about today's lesson, because this is what I believe is the most important event in history.

Today's title is the 1789 Revolution, and I believe this is the most important year in history and it's one that everyone needs to know about.

So, can't wait for you to find out a bit more about it.

For today's lesson, you need a piece of paper and a pen, and once you've got those things, you're ready to start the lesson, and I'll get my head out of the way.

As we look at the events of 1789, I want you to keep in the back of your mind our enquiry question for these four lessons.

Was the French Revolution Enlightened? But before we get into the detail of 1789, I want us to briefly consider the kind of evidence we should be thinking about in the back of our minds to help us answer this question.

Now, to do that, I'm going to introduce you to two historians who have strong views about whether the French Revolution was Enlightened.

On the left we have Ian Davidson, and he believes the French Revolution was Enlightened.

He thinks there is lots of evidence of Enlightenment ideas in the actions of the French Revolutionaries.

And then on the right, we can see Simon Schama.

You might recognise him from some TV history programmes, and he argues against Davidson.

So let's look a bit about what they both say to find out why they hold these views.

So, have a brief read what they both say, about why Davidson agrees the French Revolution was Enlightened and Scharma disagrees.

I'll give you about 30 seconds to do that now.

So the key reason is that Davidson believes new ideas from the Enlightenment did shape the Revolution, whereas Sharma thinks the Revolution was shaped more by popular violence.

Now what he means by this is that ordinary people pushed the Revolution forward and they often did it in a violent way.

So over the next few lessons you're going to be looking for evidence to see which of these historians you agree with most.

Firstly, let's briefly recap our story so far.

So have a read through these five sentences, and write down a note about whether you think each sentence is true or false.

So please pause the video for one minute now, whilst you do that.

Right, welcome back.

Let's go through the answers.

So, for A, well done if you put false.

French society had long been divided into four estates.

Well, that's not true, it had been divided into three estates.

So you might want to correct that if you thought that was true.

Okay, B, well done if you put false again.

Louis XVI ruled France, not as a constitutional monarch, but instead as an absolute monarch.

And that means he didn't rule with a parliament, whereas a constitutional monarch does rule with a parliament, and Britain was the best example of constitutional monarchy at this time.

For C, well done if you put true.

Louis XVI could look up his critics in a prison called the Bastille.

This prison was in the middle of Paris, and lots of people looked at it as a hated symbol of Louis' potential despotism.

For D, well done if you put false.

France had built up a large debt by fighting against the American Revolutionaries? No, they fought with the American Revolutionaries against Britain.

And for E, well done if you put true.

By 1789, the French government could not collect enough taxes to pay its debts.

Now, this is really important.

This takes us up to the start of our lesson today.

So by 1789, France was in a crisis and the French King, Louis XVI, was facing a very difficult choice.

So, in 1789, France had so much debt that the French could not afford to pay for it without massively changing the way they collected taxes.

So Louis knew he needed to try to carry out some kind of change, and he could either achieve this in two ways.

So firstly, he could try to build agreement and introduce Enlightenment reforms. So he could use some of the things people were talking about in the salons, get people to agree to it, and then try to change things.

Alternatively, he could use his absolute power to force through changes.

Now with the second option, which I've called despotic force, the idea of him acting as an absolute king, using absolute monarchy to force his way, Louis was worried he might lose support because he didn't want to appear like he was a tyrant and he was worried it might lead to a rebellion.

So he decided to go for the first option.

He called a big meeting to try to carry out some form of Enlightened reform.

He was reluctant to carry out Enlightened reform, but he thought this might be the best way for him to keep as much control as possible.

So this big meeting was called the Estates General and it was going to include representatives from all three estates.

Now these kind of meetings were very rare.

In fact, a meeting like this had not happened for well over 100 years.

So as they prepared for it, a huge excitement spread across France, the poor peasants and the poor sans-culottes were desperate for changes to make their lives easier.

Some of them were struggling and might even starve.

And across France, people were chosen to represent their views.

So they chose representatives from every single part of France and they were going to go to the Estates General and represent the views of the people.

Now for the Third Estate, these representatives were almost entirely from the bourgeoisie.

So though they were going to represent the views of the peasants and sans-culottes, most of the representative, in fact all the representatives, were actually members of the bourgeoisie, so they were a bit wealthier.

And what the bourgeoisie wanted to do is they were hoping to introduce Enlightenment changes and take France to somewhere which might, to something that was a bit more like Britain.

So maybe giving people equal rights, maybe giving people a parliament.

Right, to check we're all paying attention.

What was the background of representatives of the Third Estate? So did the representatives tend to be from the bourgeoisie, from the peasant class or were they sans-culottes? So please pause the video now, whilst you answer this question and finish the sentence starter.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So the representatives for the Third Estate were from the bourgeoisie.

So if you wrote the bourgeoisie, that's the correct answer.

But it is worth remembering that the people who were going to go to the Estates General were meant to represent everyone.

So they did listen to the complaints and the ideas of the sans-culottes and the peasants as well.

Now, before the Estates General meeting took place, some of the excitement was lost.

And this is because people worried that the voting in some way would be fixed.

Now, as we can see in this diagram, the Third Estate represented around 97% of the French population in 1789, whereas the clergy and the aristocracy only represent around 3%.

So the First Estate was the clergy and the Second Estate was the aristocracy.

Now, members of the Third Estate thought this was really unfair and they complained about it.

So Louis agreed to allow the Third Estate to send more representatives than the other two Estates.

They would send 648 people to the meeting, which would be more than the other two estates combined.

Now this reassured the Third Estate because they thought it was going to be okay, they thought they were going to be able to get their voice heard.

But there was still a problem.

The way the Estates General was going to work was that there was going to be lots of discussions, lots of meetings, and then afterwards there would be a vote on whether or not the people that were the representatives would agree to the changes.

Now, the reason this was a problem was that each estate would only get one vote.

So this meant that even though the Third Estate represented 97% of the population and had more representatives, they could still be outvoted by the First and Second Estates.

So the Third Estate started to become very suspicious, and they began losing trust in Louis XVI.

What the Third Estate did is, they were fearful that the other Estates, they might decide to intentionally vote against the Third Estate.

They knew that the other two estates in some way benefited from the Ancien Regime.

So they might decide to block any changes and keep taxing the Third Estate too much.

Okay, let's see if we can answer this difficult question.

Why did the voting arrangements at the Estates General seem unfair? So pause the video for one minute to try to finish this sentence.

The voting arrangements at the Estates General seemed unfair because.

So pause the video now please.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you're right.

So you might have finished your sentence with something like this.

The voting arrangement at the Estates General seemed unfair because the Third Estate represented 97% of the population but could be outvoted by the clergy and aristocracy.

Now you might have exactly that, but if you've roughly got something which says something similar, well done.

So, as a result of this unfair voting system, suspicions between the Third Estate and Louis XVI got even worse.

Then on one day, the representatives of the Third Estate found their meeting room was locked.

The Third Estate were furious and thought they'd been kicked out of the Estates General.

So they did something revolutionary.

Now this painting captures what they did.

What can you see? Pause the video to see if you can see any clue about what they did.

Well, what they did, is the representatives of the Third Estate left the Palace of Versailles, which is where the Estates General had been meeting and they found a local tennis court.

It's a bit odd, but that's what they did.

And here they made a special promise, and this special promise became known as the Tennis Court Oath.

And here the Third Estate promised each other that they would continue to meet, whatever the King said.

And they decided to call themselves a National Assembly, which is kind of another word for a parliament.

Now this implied they represented France and the King did not represent France.

So in effect, they were saying that they, the Third Estate, or they, the National Assembly had sovereignty.

So immediately we can see the influence of this Enlightenment idea again, which suggests that people, and not the monarch, had sovereignty.

Now this National Assembly went even further.

As part of the Tennis Court Oath they promised they would keep meeting until France had a proper constitution.

So effectively, on that day, the Third Estate declared Louis XVI was no longer an absolute monarch.

Right, let's quickly check that we understand the importance of the Tennis Court Oath.

So please pause the video to read through these four options and then decide which one you think is correct.

Unpause the video when you think you've got the correct answer.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So the correct option was three.

Member of the Third Estate declared themselves a National Assembly.

Now, what happened next was equally exciting.

The sans-culottes had heard about what was happening in Versailles, and they were really excited, really happy, about the Tennis Court Oath.

And they were happy because they thought the National Assembly would be able to change their lives for the better.

Remember, the sans-culottes, they're quite desperate, they're very hungry, and they hope the National Assembly would be able to sort out these problems. But they started to hear rumours that worried them.

They started hearing rumours that the King was furious and he wanted to shut down the National Assembly.

Now rumours even started to spread that the King was going to use a foreign army against his own people.

So the sans-culottes decided to take action.

So remember the sans-culottes, they're the poor people of Paris.

And what they did is they stole guns to defend themselves.

And then they decided to attack the symbol of Louis XVI's power, the Bastille.

And here they hoped to do two things.

Firstly, release the prisoners and steal gunpowder to use for the guns they'd stolen earlier.

So an angry mob storm the Bastille.

Many of the sans-culottes who were in that mob, they died, but eventually the prison governor surrendered.

He was dragged out by the sans-culottes, and then he was stabbed over and over again.

And the sans-culottes went even further.

To prove a point that the people now had power, the sans-culottes wanted to parade their victory.

So they decided to cut off the head of the governor.

Unfortunately, they only had a penknife, so it was quite a messy job cutting his head off.

Now this act of mob violence, however horrible it was, actually might have saved the Revolution.

King Louis then allowed the National Assembly to keep meeting.

He was scared that his people would rise up against him, so he decided to allow the National Assembly to keep doing what it was doing.

And because they were allowed to keep meeting, they spent the next month writing an amazing document for France.

So after the Storming of the Bastille, the National Assembly got to work and they produced this document, the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen.

It's quite a big name for it, but it's worth having a long name, because it's so amazing.

So this Revolutionary document was full of Enlightenment ideas.

It made all French people legally equal and gave them individual rights.

So it ended the old estate system from the Ancien Regime, which said that some people were different from others.

It also probably promised freedom of religion.

So that meant that groups that previously had been persecuted, like Protestant Christians or Jews, now were protected.

It also gave the people a new slogan, and they chanted it to show how excited and happy they were with the Revolution.

The slogan was this, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." And what that meant was, everyone should be free, everyone should be equal, and everyone should treat each other as if they were brothers.

Now this was immediately popular, not just for the Third Estate, but across the country.

In fact, a member of the aristocracy and a member of the clergy helped write it.

It was also, in fact, that, well, there was also an American who helped write it, who'd helped write the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.

So, let's quickly put all this new information in order.

Now the French Revolution can be very confusing.

So I want us to try to create a quick timeline to try to make the events of 1789 make some sense.

So what I'm going to ask you to do is pause the video to see if you can put the four bulleted events, bullet-pointed events, in the right order, then unpause the video when you're done.

Right, let's check your answers.

So well done if you got the following order.

Firstly, meeting of the Estates General, secondly, the Tennis Court Oath, thirdly, the Storming of the Bastille, and fourthly, the Declaration of Rights of Man.

Now let's quickly just think back to our historians from earlier, which of these events might show Enlightenment influences and which of these events show popular violence? You might want to pause the video briefly to have a quick think.

Well, the Tennis Court Oath and the Declaration of Rights of Man could definitely be used as evidence of Enlightenment influence.

At the Tennis Court Oath, the Third Estate effectively created a parliament and they declared the people were sovereign.

With the Declaration of Rights of Man, the unequal Three Estate system of the Ancien Regime was abolished.

By contrast, the Storming of the Bastille is clear evidence of popular violence.

So already in 1789, we can see evidence which supports the views of both those historians.

So what happened next in the year 1789? Already a lot's happened, and in fact more is going to happen.

So Louis XVI agreed to become a constitutional monarch who was going to rule alongside the National Assembly.

Now, although he agreed to do that, it wasn't that clear he truly supported the revolution.

Lots of people were very suspicious about him and cartoons like the one on the right started to appear, which were mocking King Louis XVI.

Now this cartoon, which is actually from a few years later, shows Louis XVI wearing some Revolutionary clothes.

He's got a cap on, which has a little badge, which was a symbol of the Revolution.

Now this cartoon is actually mocking King Louis XVI.

It's suggesting that he wouldn't truly support the revolution.

Now, although this is trying to be funny, there was a genuine fear that Louis XVI might try to do something to reverse the changes, to take back power, to abolish the National Assembly and to abolish the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

So, what happened next was amazing.

There was a group of women who were from the sans-culottes class, so these were poor women, and they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Now the sans-culottes women were the ones who had to cope with the difficulties of feeding families without much money.

So they therefore believed they needed the Revolution, they thought it was really going to help them.

So, a group of these sans-culottes women decided to march to the Palace of Versailles, which is just outside Paris.

And when they got there, they demanded Louis must come and live in the capital city.

Now they hoped that this would make Louis XVI definitely support the Revolution, but they also believed it would make it much harder for him to try to raise a foreign army that might be used against his own people.

Amazingly, it worked.

The sans-culottes women, who were armed with very basic weapons, forced their King to leave his palace and live in Paris.

And you can see a picture of this march right here.

Okay, so what we're going to do now is we're going to read through a bit information and then have a go at answering some comprehension questions to really make sure we remembered everything from today.

Now we've looked at a lot of information, so hopefully it'll be good to take a breather and read that information.

So, like previously, I'm going to ask you to go to the next page and then read through some information and then have a go at answering five questions in full, meaningful sentences, after which we'll come back and we'll go through the answers.

Now I'll just read through the five questions first, and then I want you to read through the information.

So one, which group of people attack the Bastille? Two, what was the Estates General? Three, what happened at the Tennis Court Oath? Four, how did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen change France? And five, why was the Tennis Court Oath sworn? So, if you want to pause the video now, go to the next page, read through the information and then come back to this video when you're done.

Right.

Welcome back.

So let's go through the answers.

Now remember if you didn't get exactly these answers that does not mean you got it wrong.

Look for common language and you can still give yourself a tick if you've got something similar.

So which group of people attack the Bastille? So an acceptable answer, you could have written the sans-culottes, or the people of Paris, you could have written a mob.

Now a good answer which puts that in a full sentence.

The Bastille was attacked by sans-culottes of Paris, if you say the sans-culottes even better.

They formed a mob which stormed the hated symbol of Louis XVI's absolute power.

That second sentence just gives a bit of extra context.

Okay, question two, what was the Estates General? So an acceptable answer would be a meeting.

A good answer which gives you a bit of background information and explains it clearly, the Estates General was a meeting called by Louis XVI.

It included representatives from all three estates, the clergy, the aristocracy, and the Third Estate.

At the meeting, they were meant to decide on a solution to France's taxation and debt problems. Right, question three, what happened at the Tennis Court Oath? So acceptable answers, a National Assembly was created, or promised to keep meeting could also be acceptable.

Now, a good answer that puts that in a full sentence.

At the Tennis Court Oath, the representatives of the Third Estate promised to keep meeting until France had a new constitution.

They declared themselves a new National Assembly.

Question four, how did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen change France? So an acceptable answer, it ended absolute government and made all the French legally equal.

That's important because before, in the three estate system, people were not legally equal.

The Third Estate were much more inferior or inferior to the other two estates.

So, good answer, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen gave all French people equal rights and protected their liberties.

It therefore ended the estate system and Louis XVI's ability to rule as an absolute monarch.

Right, question five, the challenge question.

Why was the Tennis Court Oath sworn? So an acceptable answer because voting at the Estates General meeting was unfair.

Now a good answer, which gives you a bit more information.

The Tennis Court Oath was sworn because representatives of the Third Estate lost confidence in the ability of the Estates General to bring about real change.

Trust in Louis XVI was lost because the voting system was unfair, so that the Third Estate could be outvoted by the other two estates.

Okay, brilliant work if you managed to get some of those correct.

If you haven't, then do add to your answers using this video.

Now, if you're running out of time, I suggest you stop the video at this point and move on to the final quiz.

Now, if you've got a bit of extra time, it's a really good idea to have a go at this extension question, which is going to help us try to develop our thinking across the four lessons.

So the question is, did the 1789 Revolution succeed because of Enlightenment ideas? So, there's two main things I want you to think about when you're trying to answer this question.

Firstly, Enlightened ideas and where we can see them in the events of 1789.

So that can include things like the Declaration of the Rights of Man, or the Tennis Court Oath and those kinds of things.

Or did it succeed because of popular violence? Things like the Storming of the Bastille, or the March of the Women on Versailles.

Now the question's asking, what made the Revolution succeed? Now that's a really important workup to think about.

So if the revolution did not succeed, that would mean that Louis XVI was able to ignore what was happening and maybe maintain his absolute control? So what the question is really asking you is, was it the Enlightenment or was it popular violence which stopped Louis XVI being able to turn back time and keep controlling France in the way he always had.

So, let's remind ourselves of our two historical interpretations.

Ian Davidson, he's going to say the French Revolution was an attempt to create an Enlightened state.

So he's going to think there's lots of evidence of Enlightenment thought and Enlightenment ideas in the things that made the French Revolution successful.

Simon Schama, by contrast, he thinks the French Revolution was driven by popular violence.

So you can think now about what evidence we've learned today which could support one of these two historical view, or these historians' views.

Okay, so, what do I want you to have a go at doing? Well, I've written out two possible sentences.

One which supports the idea that the French Revolution was Enlightened in 1789.

That's one, and one which supports the idea that it was street violence or the sans-culottes that actually made the Revolution successful in 1789.

And what I want you to have a go at doing is trying to finish the second sentence, maybe think about what you could write in order to justify that viewpoint.

Now you only need to do it for one of them.

So you want to choose which one you agree with more, then think about what evidence you can give in order to back that up.

Now you might be in a good position to just do that now.

So if you are, you can pause the video at this point and try to write it.

If you're still a bit unsure about what to write then keep playing the video, and I'll give you a bit of extra support.

So if you want a bit of extra support, here are some examples that you could use.

Now there's two bits of evidence, or there's two examples that you could use to support the idea that it was the Enlightenment that made 1789 successful.

And there's two bits of evidence you could use for the idea that it was mob violence.

So, you choose whichever one you want.

So have a go including one of these bits of, one of the examples in your second sentence, and then think about how you can explain that.

So it's a good idea to pause the video at this point, and then have a go at trying to write your answer.

Afterwards, we'll look at what would be correct examples to use.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Let's have a go at looking at what were the correct examples to use.

So if you thought that Enlightenment ideas were the things that made the Revolution succeed in 1789, then you will talk about things like the Tennis Court Oath.

You might've explained that through talking about ideas like sovereignty or talking about the creation of a parliament, the National Assembly.

Or you might have given the example of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, because this had the Enlightened ideas of natural rights in it, and the ideas of equality.

Alternatively, if you decide to write the sentence saying that is mob violence or popular violence, which made 1789 succeed, then you might have talked about the Storming of the Bastille, you might have mentioned how that protected the National Assembly, or you might talk about the Women's March on Versailles.

And that was because it was this event which forced Louis to support the Revolution.

Notice how I put some speech marks around support.

We know that Luke XVI might not have in his heart of hearts, have supported the Revolution, but the the Women's March on Versailles made him pretend, or at least show that he supported it.

And that was good enough to make the Revolution succeed for the time being.

Well done for your hard work today.

You've done really, really well learning about what I think is the most important year in world history, 1789.

Now there's one more thing to do before you finished the lesson and that is to have a go at the end of lesson quiz.

So just stop the video now and then go on to the end of lesson quiz, and then you're done.

Well done.