WEBVTT 1 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:23.600 Hello, and Welcome to Western CIV. Episode four hundred and 2 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:30.120 ninety two, Bread and the Church. The year seventeen ninety 3 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.000 was a year of both triumph and fracture in the 4 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.359 French Revolution, a year that began with hungry voices of 5 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:44.799 the people in the streets, surging forward with radical legislative reform, 6 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:50.399 and ended with a bitter confrontation between the Church and 7 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:54.759 the revolution, laying the groundwork for all the division and 8 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:58.640 the violence that was to come. Before I talked about 9 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:00.719 the events of that year, I need to talk about 10 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:04.040 one of the guiding forces of the early Revolution, someone 11 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:06.000 that I've mentioned a couple of times, but I really 12 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:09.159 need to bring formally onto the board, and as Jean 13 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:15.000 Paul Marat. Jean Paul Marat's life before seventeen ninety was 14 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:20.920 one already of restless ambition, relentless struggle, and an almost 15 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:24.599 prophetic sense of being destined to collide with the forces 16 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:29.400 that will be the revolution. When the revolution opened in 17 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:33.359 seventeen eighty nine, Maraut stepped into history not as a 18 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:37.159 polished statesman or an eminent man of letters, but as 19 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:42.439 an outsider, an immigrant intellectual, a doctor, a scientist, and 20 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:45.480 a radical journalist. Who was determined to speak for those 21 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:50.719 he believed had no voice. Jean Paul Moratt was born 22 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:54.760 on the twenty fourth of May seventeen forty three in Baldris, 23 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:59.239 a small village in the Prussian Principality of Nichelle, which 24 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.079 today is actually part of Switzerland. His father, Giovanni Mara, 25 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:08.439 was of Sardinian origin and worked as a teacher. His mother, 26 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:13.840 Luis Cabral, was a Calvinist from Geneva. Marnt grew up 27 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:19.879 in modest circumstances, but quickly distinguished himself through intelligence and determination. 28 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.400 By his own account, he left home as a teenager 29 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:26.919 to make his way in the world, A wandering scholar 30 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.840 in search of opportunity, Marot studied in Geneva, then moved 31 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:36.680 across Europe, briefly in Italy, Holland, and finally England, pursuing 32 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:41.800 medicine and philosophy with equal fervor. He adopted the French 33 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:45.400 form of his name Marat, seeking to blend more easily 34 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:50.520 into the Francophone world. Marat spent more than a decade 35 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:54.479 living in London, where he supported himself through a variety 36 00:02:54.520 --> 00:03:00.080 of means, tutoring, translating, and practicing medicine. He absorbed the 37 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:04.479 ideas of the English radical thought, especially John Locke and 38 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.800 the empiricists, but also the writings of David Hume and Voltaire. 39 00:03:09.639 --> 00:03:12.080 It was in England that he began to form his 40 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:16.520 view of society as divided between a small, selfish elite 41 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:21.039 and the oppressed many. He gained some modest success as 42 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:25.199 a physician. His reputation was bolstered when he claimed to 43 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:30.520 have cured cases of venereal disease and tuberculosis with unconventional methods, 44 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:37.360 though his colleagues doubted his effectiveness. He cultivated aristocratic clients, 45 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:44.599 but his sympathies increasingly drifted towards the disadvantaged poor. Marat 46 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.639 also pursued science and philosophy. In seventeen seventy four he 47 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:55.159 published an essay on the Human Soul, reflecting his interest 48 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:00.360 and metaphysics and the mind. His ambition was to make 49 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:05.360 his mark as a thinker of European renown. By the 50 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:10.240 mid seventeen seventies, Maraunt returned to France and sought recognition 51 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:15.000 as both a doctor and a scientist. In Paris, he 52 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:18.199 secured a post as a physician to the personal guards 53 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:22.319 of the Comte de Artois, the king's youngest brother and 54 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:26.839 the future Charles the tenth. This gave him a degree 55 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:32.240 of prestige and income. Though he never abandoned his outsider status. 56 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:39.800 Marut threw himself into scientific experimentation. He published works on optics, 57 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:45.279 light and electricity, including Discoveries on Fire in seventeen seventy 58 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:49.160 nine and Memoir on the Theory of Light in seventeen eighty. 59 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:54.399 He corresponded with leading scientists of the day and hoped 60 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:58.480 to gain recognition from the academic des sciences, but he 61 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:04.040 never broke into its inner His scientific ambitions often met 62 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:09.920 with skepticism or outright dismissal. That sense of being rejected 63 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:13.480 by the elites, convinced of his own brilliance yet denied 64 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:18.759 entry into their institutions, would shape his incredible bitterness in 65 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:25.800 later years, as we will see with consequences. Even before 66 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:30.600 seventeen eighty nine, Murat wrote about politics, and he wrote 67 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:35.399 about politics a lot. In seventeen seventy four he published 68 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:40.920 Chains of Slavery, a fiery denunciation of tyranny which warned 69 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:45.920 the rulers inevitably sought to reduce their people to servitude. 70 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.600 He drew on examples from Rome and England, and his 71 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:54.959 message was clear, liberty must be guarded with vigilance. This 72 00:05:55.079 --> 00:06:02.480 book anticipated the tone of his revolutionary journalism, apocalyptic, accusatory, 73 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:09.160 and relentless in its suspicion of authority. Throughout the seventeen eighties, 74 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:14.560 Maraaut continued to practice medicine in Paris, offering cheap treatment 75 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:17.319 to the poor, which earned him a degree of affection 76 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:22.480 in the city's working class districts. He lived simply, often 77 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:26.319 in cramped lodgings, and cultivated a reputation as a doctor 78 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:30.680 who would not refuse those who could not pay. When 79 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:34.759 the Estates General was summoned in seventeen eighty nine, Marat 80 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.560 was not a deputy. He was an outsider. He didn't 81 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.920 have political office, and he certainly didn't have a noble rank. 82 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.839 But he was drawn irresistibly, like the proverbial moth to 83 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:52.240 the flame, right of to the unfolding revolution, to the 84 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:56.560 simple speed and pace of events. The fall of the 85 00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:00.680 Bass Deal and the subsequent explosion of political debate convinced 86 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:04.480 Marat that he had finally found the arena in which 87 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:09.839 his voice could matter. In September of seventeen eighty nine, 88 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:16.800 Marat began publishing a small journal, Publicite Parision, in which 89 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.439 he soon renamed the Alimid the People the Friend of 90 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:24.879 the people. With this paper, this is when Marat really 91 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:32.560 forges his identity as the watchdog, the uncompromising watchdog of 92 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:38.600 the revolution. The title was no accident. He cast himself 93 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:42.720 as the lone defenders of the sans culottes, the poor 94 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:48.399 artisans and workers who crowded Paris. Marat's style was unlike 95 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:54.160 the measured tones of most deputies. His writing was raw, angry, 96 00:07:54.759 --> 00:07:59.759 and often violent. In its prescriptions, he accused ministers of 97 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:06.199 true reason, denounced nobles's parasites, and warned constantly of conspiracies 98 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:11.879 against the revolution. He had little patience for moderation, as 99 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:16.399 he declared in one issue quote, five or six hundred 100 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:23.439 heads cut off would have assured your repose, liberty and happiness. 101 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:29.800 By the time seventeen ninety began, Maraut was already notorious. 102 00:08:30.519 --> 00:08:35.559 He had attacked Jacques Nequier, the popular finance minister, in January, 103 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:40.399 accusing him of betrayal and incompetence. His ceaseless calls for 104 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:46.120 vigilance and punishment alarmed authorities. On January the twenty second. 105 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:50.240 The Paris municipal police attempted to arrest him for sedition, 106 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:53.879 but a crowd of the Sans Culottes came to his defense, 107 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:59.799 allowing him to escape. Pursued and threatened, he fled temporarily 108 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:05.159 to London, where he continued to write and plan his return. Thus, 109 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:09.320 on the eve of seventeen ninety, Marat stood as both 110 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:13.679 fugitive and profit. He was no great man of birth 111 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:19.600 or office, but a self made intellectual, physician and journalist 112 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:25.039 who had fused personal resentment with revolutionary zeal. The revolution 113 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:29.240 had given him the platform he had long sought, and 114 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:32.799 his enemies would soon discover that Marot's pen was as 115 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.720 dangerous as any sword, Which brings us back to the 116 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:42.720 new year of seventeen ninety, a new year that opened 117 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.000 with hunger. On January the seventh, a riot erupted in 118 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:53.320 Versailles as crowds demanded lower bread prices. Bread had always 119 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.879 been the measure of life in France. When prices rose 120 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:01.200 beyond the reach of workers, rebellion was never far behind, 121 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:05.360 and it was only days later when Jean Paul Morant, 122 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:09.200 who I just introduced, turned his pen of the friend 123 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:14.519 of the people against Jockncaire, the finance minister who had 124 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:17.440 once been hailed as the savior of the King's finances. 125 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:24.480 In January the eighteenth, Mauraut accused Necare of weakness, compromise, 126 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:30.200 and the betrayal of the revolution. Neckaire, once the darling 127 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.799 of the people was starting to lose his sheen, his popularity, 128 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:40.840 and his protection, as I mentioned, the Paris authorities quickly 129 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:45.279 moved to silence Marut. On January the twenty second, the 130 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:49.000 municipal police attempted to arrest him for his violent denunciations, 131 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:53.600 but when they came for him, a crowd of Sansculeau gathered, 132 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:58.440 their fists raised and their long sworn loyalty to the journalist, 133 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:03.600 protecting the man who spoke their language. Moraunt managed to 134 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.559 escape the authorities and fled across the channel to London. 135 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:14.759 For now, his absence only heightened his legend now. Meanwhile, 136 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:19.519 the National Assembly pressed ahead with sweeping reforms. On February 137 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:24.519 the thirteenth, it suppressed the contemplative religious orders forbidding new 138 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.519 monastic vows from being taken. The cloisters and abbeys that 139 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:33.159 had stood for centuries as sanctuaries of prayer were declared 140 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:37.480 obsolete in the new order of reason. Ten days later, 141 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:42.039 on February the twenty third, the Assembly required coures, the 142 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:46.440 humble parish priest scattered across France to read its decrees 143 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:50.960 aloud from the pulpit. The revolution was carried not just 144 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:57.759 in Paris, but into every village, every parish, every soul. Meanwhile, 145 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:02.759 the nobility's last bastion of privilege was under assault. On 146 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:06.720 February the twenty eighth, the Assembly abolished the requirement that 147 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:10.600 army officers be of noble birth. The path of honor 148 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:14.639 in the military, once a birthright of aristocrats, was now 149 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:20.799 open to everyone. But in the colonies, liberty stopped short. 150 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:26.600 Now the stakes were enormous. Francis Caribbean colonies San domini Ke, 151 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:30.960 which is modern Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe were among the 152 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:36.639 richest territories in the world. Sanamini Ka alone produced about 153 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:40.279 forty percent of Europe's sugar and more than half of 154 00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:44.679 its coffee. That wealth floated into the pockets of French 155 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:48.399 planters and merchants and threw them into the coffers of 156 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:53.320 the kingdom. The colonial economy, however, rested on the brutal 157 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:58.440 labor of nearly half a million enslaved Africans ruled over 158 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:02.919 the fewer than maybe forty thousand whites and thirty thousand 159 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:08.799 free people of color. When the Revolution began, colonial planters 160 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.480 feared that metropolitan reformers might extend the principles of the 161 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:18.440 Declaration to the colonies. Planters and merchants in France quickly 162 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:23.279 organized themselves into the Club Massaic, a powerful lobbying group 163 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:28.080 in Paris. They insisted that colonial matters were a special case, 164 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:33.600 bound by delicate balances that could not be disrupted without ruination. 165 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:39.159 The Assembly ultimately took up this question in March of 166 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.679 seventeen ninety. The issue was not abstract at all. Free 167 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:47.919 people of color in San Dominique had already begun petitioning 168 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:51.679 for the rights of citizenship. Citing the Declaration of the 169 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:56.440 Rights of Man. They argued that, as property holders and 170 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:00.600 often slave owners themselves, they were entitled to re presentation 171 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:06.559 and equality before the law. Their petitions alarmed white planters, 172 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.639 who saw them in a slippery slope that might eventually 173 00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:15.080 lead to emancipation. The planter's allies in the Assembly, men 174 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:20.200 like Barnave and Moreau de Saint Marie insisted that the 175 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:24.360 colonies were just too valuable to risk with rash reforms. 176 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:31.360 They advanced several arguments. Number one, pure economic necessity. The 177 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:35.960 colony is worthy quote unquote jewel of France providing wealth, 178 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:41.840 trade and jobs. Abolishing slavery or extending full rights to 179 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:47.320 freemen of color would destabilize the plantation economy. Number two, 180 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:53.080 special circumstances. The colonies, they argued, were different from France. 181 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:57.159 The Declaration of Rights of Man might apply in principle, 182 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:03.600 but in practice colonies this required exceptions. There was, also, 183 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:07.519 of course, the third argument, the ever present fear of 184 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.559 a slave uprising. Planters warned that even small reforms such 185 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:15.919 as extending political rights to free people of color, would 186 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:22.440 inflame racial tensions and risk massive uprisings among the enslaved majority. 187 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.480 One deputy bluntly stated that without slavery quote, the colonies 188 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:33.840 would be nothing more than a useless burden end quote. Now. 189 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:35.879 Of course, on the other side of the argument, so 190 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.879 the Society de mist Noirs Society of the Friends of 191 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:44.879 the Blacks, led by figures like Jacques Pierre Brissau, at 192 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:51.000 Tienne Cavier and Abbi Grenaire. They denounced the hypocrisy declaring 193 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:56.759 universal rights while condoning slavery. Their arguments drew on moral, religious, 194 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:01.840 and political grounds, arguing the universal of rights, declaring that 195 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:05.559 the revolution couldn't stop on the shores of France, that 196 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:10.440 the rights belonged to all men, regardless of color or birthplace. 197 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:16.159 They argued Christian morality, the perpetuating slavery was a sin 198 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:21.360 against God and against nature. They argued about the danger 199 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.519 of delay. The friends of the Blacks warned that refusing 200 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:29.799 reforms would only make rebellion more likely, as oppressed groups 201 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:34.840 would eventually rise on their own oppressient that third argument 202 00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:41.000 would eventually seem still their voices were a minority. Many deputies, 203 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:44.720 while sympathetic to the voices and ideals of equality, feared 204 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:50.080 economic and political consequences of radical change, And so it 205 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:53.840 was that on March the eighth, seventeen ninety, the National 206 00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:57.519 Assembly reached a compromise that revealed both the daring and 207 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:02.919 timidity of the revolution. The Assembly voted to maintain slavery 208 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.440 in the colonies, but to allow the establishment of colonial 209 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:13.319 assemblies composed of white colonists to manage local affairs. This 210 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:17.920 decision gave the planters greater autonomy while reaffirming the economic 211 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:23.240 system that sustained their wealth. The decree effectively dodged the 212 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.759 question of applying the rights of men to colonial society. 213 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:32.200 Deputies argued that they were not denying universal rights, only 214 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:38.960 acknowledging practical limits in far off distant territories. In truth, 215 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:42.319 though it was of course a retreat, it was obvious 216 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:46.920 that the language of liberty stopped at the plantation gates. 217 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:51.079 For the friends of the Blacks, the March decree was 218 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:54.799 a bitter disappointment. Brisseau wrote that France had betrayed its 219 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:59.319 own revolution. Abbi rire lamented that the Assembly had bowed 220 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:03.960 quote to and fear for the planters. That decision was 221 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.119 a course of victory, but it was only temporary. The 222 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.000 refusal to extend equality to freemen of color and the 223 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.119 preservation of slavery would eventually plant the seeds of a 224 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:18.559 deadly and vicious revolt and the colonies themselves. The news 225 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:22.319 was received with tension. In San Dominique, free people of 226 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:26.720 color continued to demand their rights. By June, biracial residents 227 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.920 of Martinique staged in uprising, and only a year later, 228 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.279 in seventeen ninety one, the enslaved of San Dominique would 229 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:38.680 rise in what became the Haitian Revolution, proving that the 230 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:44.720 assemblies compromise had only delayed, not preventing the reckoning to come. 231 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.400 Just four days after the slavery vote, on March the twelfth, 232 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:56.920 the Assembly authorized the sale of church lands, transferring vast 233 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:02.599 wealth into the hands of the municipalities. Pope reacted in alarm. 234 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:06.640 On March the twenty ninth, Pius the sixth, in secret 235 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.839 condemned the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 236 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:16.359 as a heresy against devine order. The spring was a 237 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:20.440 restless one. Between April the fifth and June the tenth, 238 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:24.960 riots broke out across the provinces in France in Van's 239 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.400 names to loose to Laan and Avignon. These were not 240 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:34.359 riots for bread, but this time for God. Devout Catholics, 241 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:38.160 outraged by the suppression of religious life, took to the 242 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:44.440 streets to defend their faith. The revolution's political culture deepened. 243 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:49.279 On April the seventeenth, the Cordiers Club was founded in 244 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:55.039 a former convent, becoming a hotbed of radical democracy and 245 00:19:55.119 --> 00:20:00.000 popular politics. Meanwhile, the old Order was met with violence 246 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.319 On April the thirtieth, riots shook Marseilles. Three forts fell 247 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:09.559 to the insurgents, and the commander of Fort Saint Jean 248 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:16.519 de Chevier de Cavalier was assassinated. New societies sprang up everywhere. 249 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:21.799 May the twelfth, Lafayette and Bayi, seeking a more moderate path, 250 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:26.680 founded the Society of seventeen eighty nine. On May fifteenth, 251 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:31.880 the Assembly voted to redeem their feudal dues. Three days later, 252 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:35.880 Marat Remember, who had been in exile in London, returned 253 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:41.640 triumphant and resumed his fire republications. Then, on May the 254 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:46.559 twenty second, the Assembly took a decisive step in foreign policy. 255 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:50.680 It determined that once and for all, the people, acting 256 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.599 through the National Assembly were the only ones that could 257 00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:58.960 decide issues of war and peace, though the king would 258 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.720 retain a lie limited and often ceremonial role. Festivals erupted 259 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:08.440 as a response on May the thirtieth in Lyon, on 260 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:12.880 June the second in Lilie, in June the thirteenth in Strasbourg, 261 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:18.079 and finally in June nineteenth in Rowan. FETs de Federacion 262 00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:25.000 celebrated the revolution with music, oaths and civic unity, but 263 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:30.519 beyond the seas trouble stirred. On June the third, biracial 264 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:35.839 residents of Martinique rose up against colonial authorities, and on 265 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:41.160 June the nineteenth, the Assembly abolished noble titles entirely, stripping 266 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:46.279 dukes and counts of their ancient styles. That same day, 267 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:52.960 diplomats in Reichenbach, diplomats from England, Austria, Prussia, and the 268 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.759 United Provinces of the Netherlands met to consider for the 269 00:21:56.759 --> 00:22:02.880 first time whether foreign powers should end against the revolution. 270 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:06.920 The storm was gathering, though it would take some time 271 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:13.359 to break. Meanwhile, back at home, domestic affairs continued to pace. 272 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:18.079 On July the twelfth, the Assembly passed the civil Constitution 273 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:22.319 of the clergy. The church was now to be reorganized, 274 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:27.240 its bishops and priests elected by the people, and its 275 00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:30.960 allegiance owed not to Rome but to the French nation. 276 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:35.920 On July the fourteenth, the first anniversary of the fall 277 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.720 of the Bastille, the Fete de la Federacion on the 278 00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:43.599 Champ de Mars brought together the King, the Queen, Assembly 279 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:49.200 and the people. Lafayette, standing before the vast crowd, swore 280 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.880 quote to be ever faithful to the nation, to the law, 281 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:58.640 and to the king for one day at least France 282 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:05.880 stood un It would prove to be the last. The 283 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:10.319 Pope was the first to move against the crushing tide. 284 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:13.880 On July the twenty third, he secretly assured Louis the 285 00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:18.319 sixteenth of his support against these new laws. Days later, 286 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:23.839 Maraut escalated the confrontation, publishing a call on the twenty 287 00:23:23.880 --> 00:23:31.400 sixth of July for the execution seemingly indiscriminately hundreds of aristocrats. 288 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:37.039 The Assembly, alarmed, attempted to rein him in. On July 289 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:41.960 the thirty first, it initiated legal proceedings against Marnt and 290 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:47.920 Camille des Moyenes for their incitements to violence. The Assembly 291 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:52.200 now desperately moved to try to restore order. On August 292 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:55.880 the sixteenth, it created Justices of the Peace to replace 293 00:23:55.960 --> 00:24:00.440 old signiorial courts, while also calling for renewed scipline in 294 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:05.519 the army. But on August the thirty first, a mutiny 295 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:10.759 in Nancia exploded into violence between rebellious soldiers and members 296 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:15.720 of the National Guard. It seemed everywhere now discipline was collapsing. 297 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:21.599 Finance followed. On September the fourth, Jacques de Caire was 298 00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:27.039 finally in I guess refreshingly from his perspective, dismissed, and 299 00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:31.839 the Assembly assumed control over the treasury. The revolutionaries had 300 00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.240 now seized the purse strings of France, only to discover 301 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:40.759 the purse was empty. Days later, on September the sixteenth, 302 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:46.039 sailors mutinied at Brest, echoing the unrest in the army. 303 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:49.839 The King's confidence and the revolution now started to crumble. 304 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.160 On October the sixth, he wrote to his cousin, Charles 305 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:56.799 the fourth of Spain, expressing his hostility to these new 306 00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:03.319 ecclesiastical rules. On twelfth, the Assembly dissolved the colonial Assembly 307 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:08.480 of San Dominek, reaffirming slavery. Nine days later, on the 308 00:25:08.519 --> 00:25:12.279 October twenty first, it decreed that the tricolor flag was 309 00:25:12.359 --> 00:25:16.960 now the new national emblem, permanent, re replacing the white 310 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:20.960 banner of the Bourbons. And it was the colonies now 311 00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:25.880 that started to burn. On November fourth, there was an 312 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:29.920 insurrection on the Eele de France, which is present day Mauritius. 313 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:34.720 On November the twenty fifth, enslaved people on San demini 314 00:25:34.759 --> 00:25:38.160 Que rose up in defiance. This is the first spark 315 00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:41.960 of what is eventually going to become the Haitian Revolution, 316 00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:44.200 which to a large extent, is going to run on 317 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:48.079 a parallel track to what's going on in France. But 318 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:54.079 the biggest fracture came in late November of seventeen ninety. 319 00:25:54.119 --> 00:25:57.599 On that day, in November the twenty seventh, the Assembly 320 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:00.799 decreed that all clergy had to s where an oath 321 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:04.599 of loyalty to the nation, the law, and the King. 322 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:09.680 For many priests this was a rubicon, a line they 323 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:14.119 could not cross. To swear it meant betraying their oath 324 00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:18.359 to the Pope in Rome. To refuse meant to betray France. 325 00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:24.440 They didn't know what to do. They weren't alone. Louis 326 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:28.880 the sixteenth hesitated, but on December third he was writing 327 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:33.039 secretly to King Frederick Wilhelm the Second of Prussia, pleading 328 00:26:33.079 --> 00:26:38.319 for armed intervention to restore his authority. On December the 329 00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:42.759 twenty seventh, thirty nine clerical deputies in the Assembly took 330 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:45.920 the oath that had been requested to him, but everyone 331 00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:50.079 else refused, and so now the schism between the Revolution 332 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:56.759 and the Church was forever complete. The year seventeen ninety 333 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:01.279 began with riots for bread and ended with secret royal 334 00:27:01.319 --> 00:27:05.640 pleas for foreign armies. It saw the people in the streets, 335 00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:10.880 Marah in exile, and then once more in triumph, the 336 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:14.880 nobility stripped of its privileges, the church split from the state, 337 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:18.559 and the Tricolor now raised as the emblem of a 338 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:23.359 new France. It was a year of festivals and of mutinies, 339 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:28.400 of oaths taken and oaths refused. Above all, it was 340 00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:31.559 the year when the revolution truly ceased to be a 341 00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:35.799 reform of the monarchy, an attempt to change the old system, 342 00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:41.799 and instead became a true revolution, a struggle for the 343 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:43.279 soul of France.