Shaping Nationalism Chapter 2

1
Shaping NationalismChapter 2 Understanding
NationalismTo What Extent Should We Embrace
Nationalism

• Many historians believe that the French
  Revolution marked the birth of European
  Nationalism
• The French attempted and successfully
  accomplished a complete change in the way their
  society worked
• They beheaded their monarch and many of the
  nobility because they enjoyed luxuries and
  wealth, while the poor starved and went without
  the basics
• Revolutionaries changed France from an absolute
  monarchy to a republic
• Peoples general loyalties shifted from a focus
  on the King to a focus on the nation
• The French Revolution showed that Nationalism can
  be affected by external factors including
  historical, social, economic, geographical, and
  political factors that often overlap and feed one
  another.

2
Factors that Shape NationalismHistorical Factors
From Revolution to Republic

• Louis XVI ruled France with absolute power over
  the people
• He would often punish, imprison, or even execute
  those who spoke out against him
• The Bastille was a fortress prison that was a
  symbol of Louis power and authority over the
  people
• On July 14, 1789, 600 angry Frenchmen stormed and
  captured the Bastille marking the start of the
  French Revolution and the inevitable end of
  Absolutism in France.
• The capture of the Bastille, inspired people of
  all classes to take action against the king
• Even today, the Storming of the Bastille is
  ingrained in the French Collective Identity. It
  is a symbol that reminds people that even
  ordinary citizens can effect change.

3
Factors that Shape NationalismSocial Factors

• Social factors refer to the relationships among
  people in a given society
• In some societies, peoples roles are decided
  before they are born, as it was in
  Pre-Revolutionary France
• If you were born a peasant, worker, or a
  commoner, you would remain a commoner for your
  whole life. If you were born into nobility, you
  enjoyed wealth and privilege. The king and the
  aristocrats, including high ranking officials in
  the Catholic Church held the majority of the
  power in France.
• The King made and enforced laws, and cared little
  for the common people

4
Factors that Shape NationalismSocial Factors

• The aristocrats (nobility), collected taxes from
  the commoners, yet paid very little themselves.
  This allowed the ruling elite to grow extremely
  wealthy.
• If a commoner lived and worked on the land owned
  by one of the ruling elite, they were required to
  work for free, and often pay rent to the land
  owners.
• In 1789, 96 of the population of France was
  considered a commoner.

5
Factors that Shape NationalismSocial Factors
Changes in Ideas about Society

• During the 1700s, France was one of the cultural
  centers of the world
• People of a variety of classes (social groups)
  met in cafes and in salons (places where people
  would meet and discuss important matters of
  society)
• During the meetings, they would discuss matters
  such as, the days events and the meaning of
  those events in the light of a changing set of
  ideas about individual rights and freedoms
• They discuss the monarch and the treatment of the
  common people by the nobility, clergy, and
  royalty
• They resented not having a say in their
  government, unlike Britain who had an elected
  parliament and a monarch (who held little
  authoritative power).
• They watched and discussed the American
  Revolution in 1783, where the British colonies
  rebelled and declared independence from Britain.
• They regularily discussed what was wrong with
  society and tried to think of ways that society
  could be improved.

6
Factors that Shape NationalismSocial Factors
Speaking Out

• Freedom of speech was not guaranteed in
  Pre-Revolutionary France.
• The royal police regularily threw people in
  prison for speaking out against the nobility and
  the king. To speak out against the king, was to
  speak out against the nation.
• Despite this, people still published their
  opinions in books, pamphlets, and newspapers (the
  times mass media)
• Voltaire once wrote In general, the art of
  government consistsin taking as much money as
  possible from one class of citizens to give to
  another.

man is free at the moment he wishes to be. Is
this true? Voltaire
7
Factors that Shape NationalismSocial Factors A
Growing Middle Class

• The common people of France included a growing
  middle class called the Bourgeoisie.
• The Bourgeoisie included factory owners, doctors,
  laywers, witeres, philosophers, and other highly
  skilled workers like clockmakers and artists.
• Not only was the class growing, but they were
  developing the ability to grow wealthy using
  their skills.
• As they became wealthier, they invested in
  education, and welcomed ideas of equality and
  freedom.
• They also became more aware that they were being
  forced to pay the majority of the taxes which
  enabled the aristocrats to live in opulent luxury.

8
Factors that Shape NationalismEconomic Factors

• During the 1700s the French Monarchy was
  constantly at war with other nations.
• These wars were very costly for France, and
  combined with extreme spending habits of the
  Kings, France was nearly bankrupt by the 1780s
  and in a serious economic crisis.
• To combat this, Louis XVI decided that he would
  raise the taxes of everyone in France, including
  the nobility and aristocrats. They denied him
  his taxation.
• Out of desperation, Louis XVI called the Estates
  General in 1789 (a parliament type group made up
  of representatives from the different classes in
  France)

9
Factors that Shape NationalismEconomic Factors
The Estates General

• The Estates General was comprised of
  representatives from the 3 different social
  classes in France.
• First Estate The Clergy (high ranking members
  of the Church)
• Second Estate Aristocrats and Nobility
• Third Estate Commoners and Peasants
• The 3 estates would meet and vote on issues
  seperately, the votes would then be combined and
  a majority vote would decide the outcomes. This
  meant that the first 2 estates could always
  outvote the third estate.
• On June 20th 1789, the third estate demanded that
  votes count by representation, the king denied
  the demand and locked them out of the meeting.
• They met at a Tennis Court and swore an Oath that
  they would remain there until they had
  established a constitution, and called themselves
  the National Assembly

10
Factors that Shape NationalismGeographic Factors

• In the summer of 1789, the King was worried about
  paying for his luxurious lifestyle, the
  bourgeoisie were after more power, the clergy was
  worried about losing land and privilege, the
  commoners were worried about the weather.
• As a result of a culmination of bad winters, poor
  crops, floods, and droughts, there was barely
  enough grain supply to feed the nation.
• This resulted in a huge increase in the price of
  bread, a necessary staple food for the commoners,
  and they could not afford to purchase it.

Figure 2-8 On October 5, 1789, many Parisian
women walked 25 kilometres to Versailles and
arrived there early in the evening. They carried
whatever weapons they could find and dragged
along a cannon. What caption would you write for
this picture?
11
Factors that Shape NationalismGeographic Factors
Bread Revolutions

• As the price of bread rises, it was not uncommon
  for the peasants and labourers to spend up to 90
  of their wages on a single loaf of bread.
• There were several riots over the price of bread
  in the past (1768, 1770, 1775), and as a result a
  good supply of affordable bread was necessary to
  maintain public order in France.
• The general public believed that those who
  governed were responsible for maintaining the
  bread supply.
• On October 5, 1789, a crowd of women marched on
  the Palace at Versaille and demanded that Louis
  XVI return to Paris with them and supply them
  with the much needed food supply that they felt
  was his responsibility. He agreed and by the
  time they returned to Paris, the crowd totalled
  close to 60,000 people.

12
Factors that Shape NationalismPolitical Factors

• Many French people did not feel any sort of
  National Identity
• Members of the Third Estate were frustrated by
  their lack of political power
• The Third Estate began to thing of the King, the
  clergy, and the aristocratst as them
• By late 1789, the newly formed National Assembly
  created a document entitled The Declaration of
  the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which
  removed the traditional power of the king, clergy
  and the aristocrats, and it stated that the role
  of government is to preserve the rights of its
  people.

13
Factors that Shape NationalismExternal Threats
to French Nationalism

• After the revolution in France, many other
  European leaders feared that the ideas of the
  French Revolution would spread to their own
  countries.
• In an attempt to prevent those ideas from taking
  root in their countries, many nations raised
  armies and invaded France in an attempt to
  restore Louis XVI to the throne and to power in
  France.
• However, Frances revolutionary army prevailed
  and prevented the reinstatement of Louis XVI to
  power.
• This external threat led to the eventual
  execution of Louis XVI to finally end the
  attempts to restore the monarchy in France.
• This execution did not have the desired effect on
  the French population, who were shocked and
  horrified that the revolutionary leaders would do
  this.
• As a result, the french people began to speak out
  against the Revolutionary leaders.

14
Factors that Shape NationalismPolitics of Fear
and Terror

• To crack down on the public outcry against the
  revolutionary leaders, they began what would
  become known as The Reign of Terror
• The Reign of Terror lasted for 11 months,
  during which time 200,000 people were arrested
  for various crimes, and 17,000 people were
  executed. One of the first executions was Marie
  Antoinette.
• Some were arrested for speaking in favor of the
  king, others for speaking out against the
  revolution
• Olympe de Gouges, a female activist, was executed
  because she spoke out against the Declaration of
  the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. She viewed
  it as an injustice to exclude women from it. She
  then wrote The Declaration of the Rights of
  Women and of the Female Citizen. This was
  enough to warrant an execution.