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0:08
Rarely in history do we witness such a dramatic series of events that permanently changed the world and continue to shape people's lives even 200 years after they occur. Events that can teach us so much and help us better understand the world around us. Events that still plague the world even today. Good day, good people. Welcome to history and beyond, where today we dive deep into a revolution that many claim to be one of the most significant moments in the entire history of the human race.
0:35
Today we discuss the French Revolution. We often forget just how bloody and brutal the French Revolution actually was, how miserable, but also how scared and lost people felt in the chaos and terror that unfolded around them. We must not underestimate the brutality that people endured to fight for basic human rights, rights that some countries still struggle to achieve today.
0:56
Don't worry, you will not have to endure any brutality, because I'm here to guide you through this indescribably complicated hell. Subscribe and let's dive deep into the French Revolution. Let's go.
1:18
You, my dear friend, may not have taken me seriously when I said everything was going to become very complicated, but you will be convinced by the fact that even historians today can't agree on how long the French Revolution actually lasted. Yes, everyone takes 1789 as the starting point, but it arguably started even earlier and ended somewhere between 1794 and 1799. Or even later, according to some. Personally, I don't care.
1:44
What matters is that we start from the beginning and everything will become crystal clear. Maybe. Probably not. Le France, the land of wine, baguettes and men with weird mustaches. But back in the day, a land of poverty, feudalism, and a super rich elite that doesn't feel the need to pay the taxes because the poor already do that for them. Although this might remind you of many countries in the world today. No, this is France in the 1700s.
2:08
Technological advances from that period had allowed the lifespan of the average person to massively extend to an impressive 30 years, meaning fewer people were dying. So the population in the 18th century grew from about 18 to 26 million, which was even more than Russia. This meant more food was needed to sustain this population. However, a series of hot summers and cold winters had been destroying the harvest for several years.
2:33
As a result, the the price of bread skyrocketed, which the common people couldn't afford. And why couldn't they? Good question. France was a kingdom in the 18th century, as it had been for many, many centuries before. In 1774, King Louis XVI ascended to the throne, who, with all due respect, was absolutely Incompetent. He was somehow so insecure, so unprepared. I mean, just look at him. Back then it was considered very important for the King to have a male heir.
3:00
The problem was that the King couldn't have an heir at all because he didn't want to consummate his marri marriage with his wife. He was maybe afraid, I don't know. Anyways, this greatly affected his reputation because if he couldn't produce children, how could he even manage the state? But that was not the main reason people didn't respect him. That would be quite childish. They were just fucking around with him. Or actually nobody was. Still, they ended up having four kids. God knows how.
3:26
The King and his lovely wife Marie Antoinette enjoyed organizing lavish parties on which they spent insane amounts of money, while at the same time the people they were leading were starving. These parties were attended only by the nobility, who also had loads of cash. So what if they had loads of cash? At least they paid their taxes. They didn't pay their taxes. Look, the French society was divided into three estates. First was the clergy, second the nobility.
3:53
And both had various privileges, loads of cash, and often weren't exactly obliged to pay taxes. While the Third Estate us, the common peasants, had to carry them on their backs and were the only ones who actually had to pay a lot of different taxes. Plus keep in mind that feudalism was still a thing.
4:09
So yeah, it's worth mentioning that the Third Estate included both the peasants and the educated people, as well as the bourgeoisie, which did have solidity pockets, but not deep enough to have the privileges of the higher states. At the same time, on the world stage, France was fighting for dominance over North America, more importantly over Europe, against a long time enemy, the British.
4:31
After a significant loss in the Seven Years War, which we can maybe even view as one of the first world wars. Before World War I, France found itself in financial trouble. Deep trouble. But why would the artificial concept of money stop you when the Brits needed to be destroyed? What the Americans want independence. Well, we always have supported independence of colonies and the freedom of peoples. Just don't mind all the colonies we own. Here is a significant financial assistance for you.
4:55
The Americans successfully carried out their revolution. However, this little maneuver cost France dearly, as it was now in even more debt. Banks no longer wanted to give them loans. So what do you do when you have no money but still love to throw a good old house party and don't want to offend your elite friends? That's right, tax the peasants even more because you don't even know them anyway, they don't really exist for you. The Third Estate, as I said, wasn't necessarily uneducated.
5:23
Many were intellectuals or had created successful businesses themselves. Yes, the majority were farmers, but the Third Estate was not unaware of their situation. Quite the contrary. Thanks to philosophers like Let the mispronunciation Begin. Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Rene Descartes, Spinoza and John Locke, a period of history called the Enlightenment was sparked.
5:44
A period that promoted the use of reasoning, empiricism, science, progress, freedom and equality for all, tolerance, but also secularism, that is the separation of church and state. This last point made people think, does God really want such an incompetent king to rule our magnificent country? Maybe God didn't choose the King. Maybe the King is just using God to justify his position. Such thinking spread throughout Europe.
6:09
This doesn't mean the people were all atheists all of a sudden, or even necessarily against religion. But they began to suspect that rulers were abusing religion to present themselves as something they might not be, chosen by God. Now the economic instability forced the French Finance Minister to take the most shockingly drastic measure possible, to tax even the first two estates in 1787. Many consider even this to be the beginning of the Revolution.
6:35
However, the government didn't have the balls to enforce it. So they decided to convene the estates General in 1789. Throw the responsibility over to them. I want to emphasize that the kings were such hardcore dictators that they hadn't convened the estate general in 175 years. Meaning a lot of problems were piled on for decades. Which means this can only end well.
6:57
As the name suggests, the Estate General gathered all three estates to create a false hope that the voice of the ordinary citizen would be heard. But not in Paris, but in Versailles, since. Since that was the real capital, because the King's court was there and he didn't want to have to drive all the way to the city and, God forbid, see the common citizen. So let's see how this played out. The first estate, the clergy.
7:19
There were about 100,000 of them among 26 million inhabitants, so less than half a percent of the population. But they still held about 10% of all land and took separate taxes from the third estate. They had 303 representatives in the assembly. The second estate, the nobility numbered about 400,000 members, so about 1.5% of the population. But they held a quarter of the land and had 282 representatives.
7:47
The third estate, ordinary people made up 98% of the population, but only had 578 representatives. Now, although this might not seem fair to the average person, it was actually much worse. Essentially, the number of representatives was irrelevant, as it was decided that each state would have only one vote. This means that if the third State wanted to tax the first two states, the other two would always outnumber them and vote against it. This meant they had no influence at all.
8:17
So, just to emphasize, 98% of the population had less voting power than these 2%. Naturally, the third estate went crazy and began calling itself the new national assembly, which greatly worried King Louis xvi. So he banned them from entering the Estate General by locking the doors. His wisdom and prudence know no bounds.
8:37
This didn't stop the people, however, so a man named Guillotine suggested they continue their work in a nearby indoor tennis court, where they took a note not to disperse until they brought a new constitution to France. Seeing that the Third Estate wouldn't back down, the King had to relent and officially support and push the higher estates to participate in the new assembly, which now changed its name to the National Constituent Assembly.
9:01
This hesitation of the King regarding the assembly began to worry the assembly itself and also the people back in Paris, as it seemed like he didn't want it to. And I forgot to mention that he brought the army around Paris, so the paranoia was justified. Plus, Louis also dismissed the Finance Minister who had tried to impose taxes on the nobility and the clergy. It seemed like the King had completely turned against the third estate.
9:26
Paranoia turned into a revolt, and on July 14, 1789, thousands of Parisians stormed the Hotel des Invalides. I'm so sorry. Where they took weapons. The only problem was there was no gunpowder. So they then jumped over to the Bastille prison for the gunpowder. But also because it symbolized the tyranny the monarchy imposed on its citizens. The fight was very bloody, with around a hundred people killed, including the chief warden, whose head was cut off with a saw and paraded on a pike.
9:57
If you find that gross, you won't like the rest of the story. The fall of the Bastille is generally marked as the beginning of the French Revolution. And this crucial event is still celebrated today as Bastille Day. The King had to relent again and handed over control to the famous Marquis de la Fayette. To restore order and peace, Lafayette played a huge role at the beginning of the Revolution. He even proposed adding a white collar to the Parisian red and blue flag.
10:23
Thus, the well known French tricolor was born. Meanwhile, the assembly, in order to calm the Citizens finally made one of the most significant decisions, abolishing feudalism. While Lafayette, with the help of one of the founding fathers of the us, Thomas Jefferson, drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which on August 26, 1789, proclaimed the equality of all men, except women and slaves.
10:47
Then freedom, inviolability of property, and many other very progressive stuff that would make life in France, at least on paper, more bearable. In one word, feudalism was abolished. The problem was that the King was not a fan of this, making it increasingly clear that he wanted to somehow get rid of the assembly and the rebels.
11:05
But another problem was that the King lived in the Versailles and had no contact with the real world, being shielded from the actual picture of how the average Frenchman lived. Marie Antoinette was so detached and so brash that when she heard that people had no bread, she famously said, let them eat cake, which was merely propaganda, because there's no actual evidence that she ever said that. But this perfectly describes how the common citizen was seen in the eyes of the elite.
11:31
Plus, there was even a rumor that the King was deliberately starving the people to stop the revolution. Now it was enough. Thousands of women gathered in Paris, who then marched to Versailles and demanded that the King return with them to Paris, which would be his new place of residence. As you might expect, the storming of the palace was very bloody, and although the King and his family remained unharmed, the same cannot be said for their friends and the guards.
11:55
So now Louis 16th was a resident of Paris, along with the Assembly. Paris once again became the capital of France, and the King would live among ordinary people to see the real state of the country, but also so that the people could keep an eye on him.
12:09
Due to the King's treatment of the citizens, the assembly constantly tried to reduce his real power and to create a constituent monarchy, where the King would have more of a ceremonial role with the right to favito, while the assembly would have the real power. The nobility and the clergy fled to surrounding countries, and all church property was nationalized, meaning no one had to pay taxes to the clergy anymore.
12:32
As the assembly was now finally preparing to draft the first constitution, a brief period of apparently peace and prosperity ensued. In 1790, everyone celebrated the fall of the Bastille, including the King. I bet that was very sincere of him. However, within the Assembly, a division arose, a division that would plunge the country into a period of terror. The French Revolution had just begun, and in the next few years, the people would learn the true price of freedom.
12:59
Political parties emerged, ranging from Royalists who supported the idea of maintaining the monarchy. Monarchy, but wanted the state to be parliamentary, like the UK today, all the way to the parties advocating for the complete abolition of the monarchy, and some even for the abolition of the monarch's life. The political situation in France was only briefly calm. The real power of the King rapidly declined. However, this was not enough.
13:22
The state was still in an enormous financial crisis, which couldn't be resolved by selling confiscated church properties. King Louis VI, 16th, increasingly feared for his safety, which was justified given the growing general dissatisfaction of the people, who remained hungry.
13:38
Despite all these significant changes, political parties opposed to the monarchy quickly gained popularity, most notably the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, dedicated to his goals of overthrowing the King and creating a republic in France, where all men would have the right to vote and where no one would be as slave anymore, not even the colonies. Robespierre was considered incorruptible, which earned him a huge support in the assembly and especially amongst the people.
14:05
The King could no longer bear distress, so he decided to flee France with his family to Austria and Holland, or rather the Netherlands, or more technically, Belgium. It doesn't really matter, because the point was they decided to run. The problem with this move was that they didn't disguise themselves very well. And when you're the most recognizable person in the kingdom, the King, it's really easy to spot you.
14:27
Thus they were recognized in the town of Varennes, near the border with Belgium, where they were arrested and returned to Paris. The King's fight had enormous psychological consequences for the populace. The King has now betrayed us. He fled from his own people. For the past two years, it seemed that Louis somewhat supported the changes and the modernization of France. It turned out he accepted all of the changes just to remain the leader of the country by any means necessary. Shocking, I know.
14:56
This flight proved he didn't care about any progress, but only about himself. So the assembly finally made a decision, reducing the King to a mere figure without any real power. France was now officially a constitutional monarchy. However, this was still not enough, and Robespierre and the Jacobins called for the establishment of a republic. People rebelled against the King and gathered on the Champ de Mars to sign a petition to depose the king.
15:23
Lafayette, who was a royalist, suppressed the gathering by force. His guard killed up to 50 people that day. This move made it clear that the idea of a unified France was absurd. Royalists and the Jacobins were on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum, and this massacre didn't help calm things down. On the contrary, it only further popularized the Jacobins, while the reputation of the royalists became imaginary.
15:49
The first constitution was written on September 3, 1791, and the assembly again changed its name to the Legislative Assembly. Don't even bother trying to remember all these names, because this one lasted only for a year. Meanwhile, other European monarchs were afraid that they might face a similar fate in their own countries. So they looked for any way to help Louis and if necessary, even go to war against France to crush the Revolution and restore the King as an absolute ruler.
16:17
However, before they could even declare war on France, France declared war on Austria because prevention is the best cure. But it didn't go well for France because the country was in such chaos that it couldn't even organize itself properly. Also, one important detail. Marie Antoinette was the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor and the daughter of the Habsburg empress. So she was related to the rulers of the countries against which the French people were now at war.
16:43
People had no clue what was happening. Worry not, royalists. The Duke of Brunswick threatened the French people that he would burn their capital if they hurt the royal family. So the people completely calmed down and that was the end of the revolution. Thanks for watching. Pause there.
16:57
Actually, the people went crazy and they stormed the palace where the King lived on August 10, 1792, where, after a bloody fight in which over 800 people died, Louis XVI barely saved his head by fleeing to the Assembly. Unfortunately for him, there he was met by the Jacobins, who stripped him of his title of King and completely reversed the situation in September by declaring France a republic. This meant the assembly changed its name again, this time to the National Convention.
17:26
At the head of this new state was Robespierre, who initially opposed the use of death penalty in order to deal with his enemy. However, he now believed that there was no more time for sentimentality, and the guillotine became his favorite instrument for carrying out the revolution. Anyone who opposed him would feel the cold touch of steel on their neck. The guillotine was considered a humane way to take someone's life.
17:50
I mean, compared to how they executed convicts in the Middle Ages, this was indeed better. But the man named Guillotine did not invent this device. He only suggested its use because it was the most effective and painless way of execution, and any member of any estate would be killed in the same way, emphasizing the equality of all citizens. Very generous. And there was no end to his generosity. As Robespierre's Jacobins now arrested anyone who seemed like an opponent of the Revolution.
18:17
The prisons were practically Full. Which meant that those prisons would become the headquarters for making big plans for the counter revolution. Georges Danton au Bespierres for now, friend tried to control the losses in the war by forcing people to go and fight. What's most surprising is that, given the enemy's army was approaching Paris, a sense of national responsibility awoke in the people. Courage, more courage, forever courage. And the homeland was saved.
18:43
And indeed, many people went to the front and France even won some battles. But no one was there to guard the capital, where the fear was growing of prison prisons full of people who were against the revolution and who would, in case the enemy actually reached Paris, maybe even collaborate with them. In response to this, Jean Paul Marat hyped people through his newspaper to storm all the prisons across the country and kill as many prisoners as possible.
19:10
This led to the bloody September massacres, when in just a few days, 1600 people were killed. But the one because of whom whole revolution started, the one who represented the symbol of the tyrannical monarchy, King Louis xvi, was still alive. The assembly was hesitant about what to do with him. The Gandins, who also wanted France to become a republic, were moderate with the punishment and wanted just to exile him. However, this was a critical time, war time.
19:38
And if the king was considered a traitor during the war, the king deserved death. This logic was followed by Robespierre's Jacobi, the Montagnards. Both groups were originally Jacobins, but they split due to different views. The assembly eventually voted on what to do with Louis, and by one single vote they decided that his life had run its course. Stripped of his title, King Louis XVI, now just Louis Capet, was executed on January 21, 1793. In the same way as all other citizens.
20:13
His fate was also shared by the cake enjoyer. The revolution entered a new phase. If the king was unsafe, no one was. Panic spread throughout the country and Europe. What would be the fate of other kings? France soon found itself at war with almost the entire continent, and considering the internal state of the country, you can only imagine how it fared on the France.
20:34
The Girondins wanted the revolution to calm down a bit, for people to catch their breath, fearing that the country would plunge into civil war. However, the increasingly influential Jean Paul Marat accused them of being traitors to the revolution and demanded their heads. So the people radicalized rapidly. This meant that the Montagnards gained enormous popularity and Robespierre, as their leader, became a dictator. The period of terror had begun.
21:00
In the next few months, a dramatic series of events and changes Followed. France was now explicitly against the Church and the so called cult of reason prevailed, which wasn't really all that reasonable. The normal Christian calendar was abolished and replaced with the calendar where each minute had 100 seconds, each hour 100 minutes, and each day 10 hours. The months had random names like flower seed meadows. They did this so that the people wouldn't know when Sunday God's day was.
21:29
And the population was truly lost. No one knew what was happening anymore. Literally anyone could end up on the guillotine if there was even the slightest suspicion that you thought about thinking about something against the revolution. The exact number of those killed is not well documented, but what is certain is that there was definitely over 16,000 deaths. The number goes up even to 40,000, counting those who died in prisons or.
21:54
Robespierre, who initially opposed the guillotine, now found it as his favorite tool for enforcing his rule. Even his friend Danton was like, I really think it's time to stop before everything goes to shit. Robespierre, the eternal pragmatist, sent his friend to test the guillotine with his neck. The revolution turned the country upside down. Counter revolutions erupted everywhere which were increasingly difficult to control.
22:18
Jean Paul Marat was killed because of his publications by Charlotte Corday, who was also executed for that murder. Brutal suppression of uprisings followed throughout France. Horrific massacres. Without any respect for life. Robespierre just lost it. So he went even further and created a cult called the Republic of Virtue. What worried the people was that at the ceremony celebrating his cult of reason and virtue, he appeared on top of a mountain and behaved as if he was the Almighty God.
22:48
My guy was so drunk on power that one day he came to the assembly and said, good people, I have this paper here. On it is a list of some of you who will soon check whether the blade on the guillotine was still sharp. But just to spice things up, I won't tell you who's on the list. So they caught him and put him on the guillotine. Oh, Bespierre's death is just such a perfect example of irony and karma too. Yeah.
23:09
At the same time, for some reason, European countries didn't take the advantage of this chaos, which drastically backfired on them as France now pushed all the way to the Netherlands, kicked Spain and Prussia out of the war and turned the Benelux into a puppet state. In Paris, after Robespierre a somewhat calmer period followed the so called Thermidorian reaction.
23:31
The Trimidorians aimed to bring the country back to normal by of course, killing all who disagreed with them, AKA they were all of Robespierre's former associates. But they still drafted a new constitution in 1795, which again changed the name of the assembly to the Directory. Now the country would be led by five directors, in order to prevent any one person from having too much power. Again, however, this government was corrupt, incompetent, they just. They just sucked.
23:59
But someone who was competent was currently breaking through the Italian front. The one and only, Napoleon Bonaparte. With his legendary leadership of the army, Napoleon instilled fear into the Habsburgs, who immediately signed peace with France. He also previously crushed a royalist uprising, proving to the people that he was on the side of the revolution. This made him very popular amongst them. Finally, someone capable, a patriot, ended the side of the revolution.
24:26
Plus, seeing how the Directory was the complete opposite of what the people wanted, Napoleon realized it was time to take matters into his own hands. So on November 9, 1799, Bonaparte carried out a coup d'etat to establish a dictatorship, ending the Revolution.
24:44
The French Revolution aimed to remove a dictator and did achieve this, only to bring in another one, and then eventually a third one. Robespierre, however, learned firsthand the meaning of the saying, revolution devours its children. So many people died believing in change. So many people died, only to end up in the same place as before. The consequences of the period between 1789 and 1799 remained unclear in the following years.
25:11
But today we understand that these events sparked revolutions across Europe, including in Serbia just a few years later. Something that we will hopefully cover in the future. Subscribe and support my English lessons by donating to Patreon or the Super Chat or the Join button. New videos hopefully every other week, so don't you dare miss it. See you all very soon, my good people. Pozdrav!
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