Talk:Abolition of feudalism in France

Too much discussion about the US constitution —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.226.21.158 (talk • contribs) 5 Nov 2005. Could we shorten the title?

What was abolished

The Abolition of Feudal Rights is one of the most important legends of the French Revolution. We are led to believe that the seigneural rights that oppressed the peasants were abolished. That was not the case. The rights remained, it was feudalism that was abolished (see Kropotkin - the title of his chapter 18 is "The feudal rights remain"). The feudal rights were transferred from the noble owner to the citoyen-owner (the same person). The feudal oppression received a new, modern basis. The feudal rights got other names (e.g. mainmorte became droit de succession). And in the process of recasting the oppression in modern forms, the new citoyen-owners dotated themselves with harsh legal means to end the peasant revolts violently. Who, in the Ancien Régime had been a protesting peasant, now became a criminal (the terms used in the Moniteur were brigand and voleur) who could be shot at by the militia. In the Moniteur of 6 June 1790 : Those who incite the people to violence against property, are enemies of the Constitution. Martial Law is applicable against them. Under the Ancien Régime, Monsieur le Baron had to sit out the protestations of his peasants. Thanks to the new revolutionary freedom, le citoyen-baron can now call the militia and have them shot.
The citoyen-owners were very thorough in legalising the injustice of the Ancien Régime - whereas the noble owner might have usurped (illegally) some right, he is now an honest citoyen: the Law of 15 March 1790 decides that illegally acquired rights have to be paid, unless the peasant can prove that they are not due. Illegal rights, exerted since 30 years, become definitive.
Revolutionary justice is now applied: on 18 June 1790, the Assembly decrees all tithes, ecclesiastical or feudal, must be paid this year only, to whom they are due and in the accustomed way. Interesting abolition. Article 2 of he same law: the dues of the champarts (feudal right on the harvest), grounds and other dues payable in kind which have not been suppressed without indemnity, are due for this year and the years to come. The law of 20-23 February 1790 orders the municipalities to proclaim martial law, and renders the communities collectively responsible for damages during revolts. You break the windows of the baron-citoyen ? Everybody pays.

Bad for the peasants. But the working man did not fare any better. The Loi Le Chapelier forbade any form of syndication by laborers. Those who negotiated (within the city walls) their wages collectively through the Ancien Régime's compagnonnages now faced their employer directly, and had to negotiate their (reduction of) wages with him without hope of syndical assistance, collective negotiation, or strike.

Women's rights disappeared completely. Passive citizens. Whereas the Ancien Régime saw queens governing France (as regents), noble ladies holding important fiefs, voting in the second Estate, and abesses voting in the first Estate, nothing was left after 1789. Some women's rights activists, like Olympe de Gouges, ended under the guillotine - and their memory was smeared by "historians" such as Jules Michelet.

The slaves were also disappointed. Nothing changed for them. Slave trade was maintained, as well as slavery itself. The Droits de l'Homme remained limited to rich white males. The revolutionary politician Antoine Barnave actively defended slavery ("le nègre ne peut croire qu'il est l'égal du blanc") - he is still fondly commemorated by the name of a street in Grenoble (rue Antoine Barnave) and Valence.

The article cites "historian" Georges Lefebvre to enumerate all the good things decided by the Assemblée. Like freedom of worship. That freedom of worship (protestants, Jews) was already decreed by the King in 1787 (Édit de Versailles) - don't think that a "historian" would not know this. The King may have had honest intentions, the revolutionaries hadn't: they could hardly wait to abolish religion all together. First cut the means of the Church (tithes), then confiscate the goods. In little time they proceeded to closing churches, killing and deporting priests, and forbidding worship entirely.

Note that the Revolution swept away another old-fashioned thing from the feudal Ancien Régime: democracy as we know it. When the King called together the Estates, he held elections, and every Frechman (man) could vote, whatever his status or wealth. Such injustice was done away with by the revolutionaries: in order to vote after the Revolution, you needed to have income and pay taxes. And in order to represent yourself for office, you needed to satisfy even more stringent conditions. Imagine the disappointment of Jean Dupont: he goes voting under the King's rule, and then finds himself back in a new, illegitimate, revolutionary state, governed by demagogy, and stripped of his voting rights.

Riyadi (talk) 18:34, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Merging

Yes, I support that proposal of January 2017, to merge articles Abolition of feudalism in France and August Decrees. As AddMore-III correctly stated(27Jan): the topic of the articles seems exactly the same. Presently I'm kind of very busy on some other articles, I hope someone will make the effort to merge these two articles. --Corriebertus (talk) 09:49, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

  Y Merger complete. Klbrain (talk) 17:42, 22 July 2018 (UTC)