July 14 is the Fête de la Fédération, generally known as Bastille Day in English speaking countries. The events leading up to that critical day in the French Revolution are instructive.
With his government facing economic crisis because of his war expenditures (i.e., his intervention in the American Revolution), King Louis XVI imposed heavy and regressive taxes on the middle class. He was unable to broaden his tax base because of the power of the small but entrenched and very conservative nobility.
Do these problems have a familiar ring? Can you think of countries where there is a middle class struggling with similar issues? What are some
ways they can achieve equality and fairness without violence?
On July 14, 1789, opponents of autocratic rule stormed the Bastille, an ancient fortress and prison, to liberate the vast stores of arms and ammunition there. Many French troops sympathized with the rebel cause and refrained from attack.
Soon after the storming of the Bastille, the leaders of the Revolution drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The principles in this Declaration include:
- Social equality and freedom of religion
- Ending the exemptions from taxation that had benefited the nobility
- Ensuring free speech while acknowledging the need to keep freedom of expression from being abused
- Calling for universal military service
Many of its principles were also included in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, and the document became a model for much of later human rights law. Moreover, the motives behind the storming of the Bastille and the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen continue to push for expression around the world today.
Following its Revolution, France experienced many years of violence — against its own citizens, against neighboring countries, and as part of its efforts to obtain and retain colonies in other parts of the world.
Today, France ranks 36 in the Global Peace Index, well ahead of the United States, ranked at 82. It has shown reluctance to be drawn into many of the armed conflicts of the day, often to the anger of the U.S. government, and its active role in the European Union helps to insure that it will not go to war with its neighbors again.
Perhaps that is another lesson to us all.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology