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God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I

2010-11-05 · John · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · explainer learning

John explains the causes and first events of the French Revolution (debt, famine, Enlightenment ideas, the Estates General, the National Assembly, the Bastille, the Women's March), arguing that in 1789 France went from a stable if broke monarchy to a country where no one knew who was running the show.

What is said

00:00:10 — Background: the Enlightenment, France's debt from the American Revolution and the Seven Years' War, debt service then and now, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Versailles, the 1789 famine

  • ★★ John says the Enlightenment, including French thinkers Rousseau and Voltaire, argued that rational thought rather than God's interpreted will should be the source of truth and authority, troubling the monarchy, whose authority rested on God's will. — 00:00:15
  • ★★ John says the US had just won its Revolutionary War, which would have been impossible without France's support. — 00:00:38 · United States, France
  • ★★ John says France had racked up tremendous debts supporting the American Revolution and fighting the Seven Years' War. — 00:00:44 · France
  • ★★★ To show the scale of France's debt, John says the US spent 5% of its federal budget servicing its debt in 2009, while France in 1789 spent 50%. — 00:00:51 · United States, France
  • ★★ John says that while France was broke, King Louis XVI was not, and he and Marie Antoinette lived comfortably in the palace of Versailles, which would annoy a starving peasant. (playful) — 00:01:05
  • ★★★ John says that in 1789, besides the debt crisis, there was a famine: the price of bread rose 50% in one year while wages did not rise at all. — 00:01:25 · France
  • ★★ John sums up the crisis of 1789: hungry peasants, intellectuals questioning whether power should rest with the church and monarchy, and a nobility failing to make financial reform. — 00:01:33 · France

00:01:42 — 1789: the Estates General, the Third Estate becomes the National Assembly, the Tennis Court Oath, the storming of the Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man

  • ★★★ John says that in May 1789 Louis XVI called the Estates General, a meeting of the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second) and everyone else (Third), about 98% of the population. — 00:01:42
  • ★★ John says the Third Estate paid all the taxes, produced the wealth and fought the wars, while the clergy paid no taxes; he jokes the nobility spent its days competing over costumes. (playful) — 00:01:59
  • ★★ John says the Third Estate came with about 600 representatives against about 300 each for the others, and wanted one assembly where it would have a slight majority; the others refused. — 00:02:15
  • ★★★ John says the Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly; locked out by Louis XVI, it met in an indoor tennis court at Versailles and swore the Tennis Court Oath to write a constitution, and Louis backed down. — 00:02:30
  • ★★ John says Louis XVI was meanwhile flooding Paris with loyal troops, so people suspected he meant to destroy the National Assembly by force. — 00:03:21
  • ★★★ John says that on 14 July 1789 revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, less to free its seven remaining prisoners than to get its many guns, a big turning point. — 00:03:34
  • ★★ John says the Bastille's governor negotiated a ceasefire that saved lives on both sides, but the revolutionaries killed him, decapitated him and paraded his head on a pike. — 00:03:49
  • ★★ John says the ceasefire would have been a great time for everyone to recognise that shooting at each other would probably make things worse. — 00:03:54
  • ★★★ John says the National Assembly next issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France's equivalent of the Declaration of Independence, giving all men (not women) liberty, property and security. — 00:04:06
  • ★★★ John says the French Revolution would in the end do an exceptionally poor job of protecting the rights the Declaration proclaimed. — 00:04:13

00:04:21 — The Women's March moves the royal family to Paris; summary of May-October 1789; 'Napoleonically worse' teaser for next time

  • ★★★ John says that with France looking like a constitutional monarchy, a rumour that October that Marie Antoinette hoarded grain led armed peasant women in the Women's March to force the royals from Versailles to Paris. — 00:04:21
  • ★★★ John says that between May and October 1789 France went from a stable, if broke, monarchy to a country where armed peasant women could put the king under house arrest and no one knew who was in charge. — 00:04:51 · France
  • ★★ John says the problem will get better, then worse, then much worse and finally 'Napoleonically worse', and tells viewers to stay tuned for the next part. (playful) — 00:05:06

00:05:15 — Sign-off: Hank teaches on Monday; four-minute rule suspended for the educational week; the suit reveal

  • ★ John says Hank will teach him something on Monday. — 00:05:15
  • ★★★ John says that, with Nerdfighteria's permission, the brothers have temporarily suspended the four-minute rule to get through the week of educational videos. — 00:05:18 · Nerdfighteria, Four-minute rule

Humor (significant)

  • Giving 'quick background' on the French Revolution, John explains that this is France and France is in Europe. — 00:00:10 > «French people like to eat food.»
  • The nobility, the second estate, spends most of each day playing an increasingly high-stakes game... — 00:02:09 > «of who can develop the most humorous costume.»
  • Louis XVI locks the Third Estate out of its meeting room. — 00:02:47 > «And if you can't assemble... You can't be an assembly.»
  • Armed peasant women demand that Louis and Marie Antoinette move from Versailles to Paris. — 00:04:48 > «Which they did, because everyone is afraid of armed peasant women.»
  • John previews the Revolution getting better, then worse, then much worse, then better... — 00:05:06 > «and then NAPOLEONICALLY worse»
  • Commenters say John looks punished in his suit; he says they missed the end of the video. — 00:05:25 > «Which means you missed out on me proving that my suit - ... - isn't all business!»

Threads in this video

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