Media, News, Publishing: News update 12/05/2020 (23)

At the end of the XVIII century. France experienced a deep social upheaval called the French Revolution.

A few years before her, the life of the kingdom could seem peaceful and calm. Nothing seemed to portend change.

The population of the country at that time was divided into three estates. Power was concentrated in the hands of two privileged classes - the nobility and the clergy. All other citizens, who made up 96% of the nation, peasants, ordinary citizens, artisans, merchants, industrialists, belonged to the so-called "third estate". The third estate bore the brunt of taxes, but in matters of government, his voice meant nothing.

Wealthy people from the third estate lived in constant anxiety. They invested their money in government securities, but the royal power did not report to them in their money spending. Every day could bring investors (rentiers) news of ruin.

The peasants were irritated and oppressed by countless feudal duties. The peasant was, like a cobweb, entangled in various restrictions: he could not graze cattle, cross a river, cross a bridge, sell goods at the market, catch fish, grind grain, dig a well without paying another predatory tax to the local nobleman. The right to hunt caused particular hatred - one of the most humiliating for the peasants. Only a nobleman could hunt game on any surrounding lands, trampling peasant crops. The peasant did not have the right to kill the game, although it destroyed his crops. He could mow the grass in his meadows only when partridges were not in danger of falling under the scythe. He was obliged to leave unmown areas for them.

Educated Frenchmen from the Third Estate were also not supporters of the old order. They were prepared for the revolution by the French philosophy of the 18th century. Enlightenment philosophers Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Diderot, d'Alembert in their writings wittily and sharply exposed obsolete orders and prejudices.

The reasons that pushed the revolution, as we see, were quite deep.

The reason for the revolution was the deficit of the state budget. Simply put, the royal treasury could not make ends meet.

The extravagance of the court and the carelessness of the ministers brought by 1788 the debt of the state budget of France to 140 million livres (for this amount in those days it was possible to buy a dozen royal palaces). But still, the situation was not hopeless - it was enough to tax the privileged classes - the nobility and the clergy, in order to strengthen the shattered edifice of the monarchy. However, the two upper classes stubbornly refused to give up part of their income.

Under these conditions, the royal government decided to convene the Estates General, an ancient body of estates that had not met since 1614. The opinions of the advisers of King Louis XVI on this issue were divided, their votes were divided equally. The case was decided by the vote of the king himself, filed for the convocation of the States General - having outweighed the scales, he became the "pebble" that moved the avalanche.

The decision to elect the deputies of the Estates General stirred up the whole country, and especially the third estate. When the States General were convened before, all issues were decided by representatives of the clergy and nobility. Only if they could not agree among themselves, the third estate entered into a dispute. Now the strengthened third estate could use the pretext (budget deficit) to overturn the whole old order with the help of the Estates General.

The task facing the Third Estate, deputy Abbé Sieyes, in the popular pamphlet What is the Third Estate? formulated as follows: “What is the third estate? All. What has it been until now in the political system? Nothing. What does it want to be? Become something."

On May 5, 1789, 18 km from Paris, in the Palace of Versailles, in the so-called "Hall of Small Amusements", the king opened a meeting of the Estates General. Along the walls of the vast hall in elegant suits and cassocks there were 300 deputies from the nobility and 300 from the clergy; 600 chosen ones of the third estate, modestly dressed in black, were in the center. In his speech, the king warned against "excessive striving for innovation" and condemned "general ferment" and "excitation of minds."

Already on the second day of the meetings, a dispute arose between the three estates in the Estates General on a question that may today seem unimportant. How should the deputies vote - without exception or each estate separately? In fact, it made a huge difference. A separate vote would allow the nobles and clergy to block any radical Third Estate proposal. The deputies of the third estate insisted on a universal vote. Disputes about this lasted a month and a half, and gradually a split emerged among the deputies from the clergy, among whom were many simple parish priests: the lower clergy began to move to the positions of the third estate.

On June 20, 1789, deputies from the third estate, approaching the main entrance to the meeting room, met armed guards. The head of security announced to them that the hall was closed, and as a pretext he referred to repairs.

But neither the soldiers blocking their way, nor the bad weather (it was pouring rain) did not embarrass the deputies: if necessary, the meeting will also be held outside. Nearby, the “Ball Hall” turned out to be free, entering which the deputies solemnly vowed not to disperse until the constitution was adopted - the basic law of the state, limiting the power of the king and abolishing feudal orders.

By the end of June 1789, the resistance of the top clergy and the majority of the nobility was broken and deputies from all three estates finally united in the National Assembly. It proclaimed itself Constituent—i.e. establishing the new statehood of France.

Many newspapers wrote with admiration in those days that the French Revolution, without shedding a single drop of blood, was approaching a happy conclusion. But from the end of June, the royal court began the movement of troops located around the capital, pulling them to Paris and Versailles. At the same time, the king dismissed all ministers who sympathized with the National Assembly. Unrest grew among the Parisian population: any spark ignited people. On one of these days, a young journalist, Camille Desmoulins, jumped up on a table in the street in front of a crowd, and exclaimed "To arms!" Hundreds of voices answered him "To arms!" Shouting: "We need an identification mark!", In a fit of inspiration, Desmoulins tore a green leaf - "the color of hope" - from a tree and attached it to his hat. Immediately, the headdresses of many revolutionary-minded citizens were decorated with pieces of green fabric.

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среда, 13 мая 2020 г.

News update 12/05/2020 (23)

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среда, 13 мая 2020 г.

News update 12/05/2020 (23)

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среда, 13 мая 2020 г.