February 1, 2016: Chapter 21 – Proactive vs. Reactive & New Calendars & Edmund Burke

August 1789: The National Assembly’s abolishment of feudal privileges and the consequent Declaration of the Rights of Man

Was the abolishment of the feudal privileges and the Declaration of the Rights of Man reactive or proactive? – When the National Assembly abolished the feudal privileges on August 4, 1789, they soon followed with the issuing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The revolutionaries in the Assembly who wanted to transform France from a republic to a constitutional monarchy created the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which laid out basic liberties. The Declaration was created for the establishment of freedom of speech and religion and a liberalized government in which people voted on certain things such as priests. This voting was only one example of the secularization of France.

                  Proactive- The Declaration could be considered proactive in that it was trying to make progress, not as much a solution to a common problem.

                  Reactive- The Declaration could also be considered reactive in that it was reacting to the Great Fear and the ravaging of the countryside. The Assembly wanted to do something to placate the crazy peasants before everything went up in flames. Following the same reasoning, one can say that the poor was the elemental force that drove the revolution forward, making things happen.

Why abolish feudal privileges first? – At this time peasants did not have a say and the middle class was not suffering from a lack of food, only caring about social progress, so one must ask why would the Assembly abolish feudal privileges. The Declaration opened the gateway for the people to take power. Without the structurally hierarchy and unfair privileges of the feudal system, the lower classes were more mobile and social mobility increased.

Effects of the Revolution Culture and Trends

There was a clear secularization of culture as seen in the replacement of religious holidays with democratic festivals, the remaking of the calendar and the voting for priests.

                  Democratic festivals replaced religious holidays as to shift power away from religious influences. Such democratic festivals can be likened to the Fourth of July, a patriotic celebration in which feelings of national unity were abundant.

                  The French changed their existing calendar, to a completely new calendar in an attempt to move away from the pre-existing, engrained religious influences. As everything was changing, so was the calendar, in renaming the months to those pertaining to the seasons, and reworking the week. Saints days were taken out of the calendar and the length of the week changed from 7 days (revolving around Sunday, a holy day) to 10 days.

                  The reworking of the geographic districts of France, making 83 equal districts was yet another effect of the revolution. In redistricting the state, the original districts were abolished and the land was divided into 83 even districts. In doing this, the power was taken away from the nobility, as they no longer had power over what was going on (previous districts under feudal structure).

                  The change of people voting for the priests as well as making them state employees, made the church lose even more of its previous power. A democratic method of appointing the bishops and priests were established in addition to set incomes, making the clergy increasingly dependent on the state. In addition to this, the loyalty of the clergy to the state through taking the oath of the civil constitution of the clergy caused a significant loss of clergy.

                                    Nonjuring clergy vs. juring clergy- If a priest or bishop did not take the oath, swearing their loyalty to the state, they became a nonjuring clergy, but if they did take the oath, then they could remain clergy under the new restrictions of the state. The nonjuring clergy no longer had power and had an inability to preach. The church was extremely influential as it always has a way of guiding people and leading people through hard times.

Another heavy influence of the time other than the church was education, or indoctrination centers.

Priests fighting the state by not taking the oath of loyalty to the state. 

Edmund Burke:

Edmund Burke was a conservative leader of the French Revolution.  Burke did not believe that an absolutist ruler is okay, but he believed that the people ruling against the monarchy would lead to chaos. He also believed that the French were throwing the baby out with the bath water, or were trying to get rid of the bad but in doing so, they were getting rid of the good. The vast majority of people in Europe shared this conservative reaction to the French revolution. Particularly the rulers of the other European countries were against the French revolutionary mindset as they saw this uprising as a threat to the security and unity of their own countries, worried that what was happening in France would inspire their own citizens to revolt. 

Domino effect's ability to take down the monarchies of other European nations.

Thank you! 
Love y'all - Franny <3