1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:10,960 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 2: and I'm Holly Frye. One of the papers that I 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 2: had bookmarked to maybe talk about in our most recent 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 2: installment of Unearthed was about the Great Fear of seventeen 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 2: eighty nine, which took place over just a few weeks 8 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,839 Speaker 2: in the early part of the French Revolution. We have 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 2: talked about the French Revolution in quite a few episodes, 10 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,280 Speaker 2: and some of them have focused on other things that 11 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 2: also happened in seventeen eighty nine, like the Women's March 12 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,240 Speaker 2: on Versailles, which took place in October of that year. 13 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 2: But I don't think we've ever specifically gotten into this 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 2: one thing. 15 00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: A lot of our. 16 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 2: French Revolution episodes have also been mostly focused on things 17 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 2: that were happening in Paris or in Versailles, and the 18 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 2: Great Fear really moved primarily through the countryside and small 19 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:07,600 Speaker 2: towns and villages. The specifics of exactly what happened could 20 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 2: vary from place to place, but the common thread across 21 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 2: all of it was this chaos that developed was rooted 22 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 2: in people's belief in a conspiracy theory, So it. 23 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: Can be tempting to sum up the French Revolution as 24 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: an uprising of the common people, many of whom were 25 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:29,319 Speaker 1: struggling against an out of touch, privileged monarchy, and that was, 26 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 1: of course, definitely part of it, maybe even the easiest 27 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: part to visualize and explain, especially if you're focusing on 28 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: the period of the revolution that took place before the 29 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: Reign of Terror. But the French Revolution had so many layers, 30 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: in moving parts and contributing factors. Even if we focused 31 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: just on that one aspect, which we largely are today, 32 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: there were a lot of different issues feeding into the 33 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: struggles of the common people, and a lot of those 34 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: issues feed into the Great Fear. 35 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 2: Basically, most people on the poorer end of the economic 36 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 2: spectrum in France had been in a precarious position for decades. 37 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 2: If everything went well, most people got by, but only barely, 38 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 2: and if anything happened to throw things off balance, people 39 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:19,399 Speaker 2: quickly went from kind of making ends meat to basically starving. 40 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 2: Anything that affected people's livelihoods or the cost of living 41 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,640 Speaker 2: had the potential to just cause chaos, even if that 42 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 2: shift seemed like something minor, or if it wasn't something 43 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 2: that was happening anywhere near France. 44 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: One of the go to examples here is the price 45 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,239 Speaker 1: of bread. Most people did not have a way to 46 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: bake bread at home, so they purchased it, and for 47 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: a lot of people, bread was their biggest source of 48 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: nourishment in a day. Consequently, even a tiny increase in 49 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:53,399 Speaker 1: bread prices could lead to food riots. This was interconnected 50 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:57,239 Speaker 1: with the price of grain. Efforts to boost grain prices 51 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 1: to help the farmers who were growing it also made 52 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: bread more expensive. So while farmers might theoretically be doing 53 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: better after they sold their harvest, people who were subsisting 54 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:11,119 Speaker 1: on bread wound up doing worse. Yeah, and sometimes those 55 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: were the same people, and the increased amount of money 56 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: from the harvest wasn't enough to offset the increased price 57 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: of bread. A lot of our prior episodes about things 58 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:26,920 Speaker 1: like peasant uprisings or famines, including the Great Famine in Ireland, 59 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: have talked about predatory and exploitive landlords as a major factor, 60 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: but taken as a whole, the peasant class in France 61 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: actually owned a significant amount of land in the eighteenth century, 62 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: maybe as much as a third of the land in 63 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: the country. But owning land didn't. 64 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 2: Necessarily put people in a better financial position than being 65 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,119 Speaker 2: a tenant did. By the late eighteenth century, a lot 66 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 2: of families had been dividing up their land among their 67 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,760 Speaker 2: heirs for generations. As a result that a rich farm 68 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 2: plot had become extremely small. It was too small to 69 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 2: comfortably live off the proceeds of and in a lot 70 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 2: of cases, too small to even just subsist on. Everyone 71 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 2: owned land, though, and the percentage of landless people really 72 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:17,719 Speaker 2: varied from one part of France to another. So in 73 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:21,160 Speaker 2: some places maybe twenty percent of the peasantry was landless, 74 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 2: but in others it was sixty percent or more. Unlike 75 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 2: in many other parts of Europe, some landlords in France 76 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,599 Speaker 2: were willing to lease small homesteads to people, and that 77 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 2: made it somewhat easier for landless people to find a 78 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 2: place to live and land to farm. These tenant farmers 79 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 2: had to pay dues to their signeur, who played a 80 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 2: similar role. 81 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,359 Speaker 1: To kind of like a feudal lord. Some of the 82 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: signors were nobles and others were members of the bourgeoisie, 83 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: and in some areas the church acted as a signeur, so. 84 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 2: These dues could include both cash and a portion of 85 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 2: the crop, and signors also required tenants to do unpaid 86 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 2: labor on their own estates, or at least they had 87 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 2: the right to make their tenants do that, and owning 88 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 2: land did not completely free people from paying dues or 89 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 2: dealing with the signior either. People also had to pay 90 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 2: things like market dues when selling their crops, and both 91 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,240 Speaker 2: landless and land owning people in France were expected to 92 00:05:22,279 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 2: pay a tithe to the church. Signiors were also the 93 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 2: people who usually owned the machinery like the grain mills 94 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 2: and the wine presses, and people had to use that 95 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 2: machinery on the senior's terms. Often the ovens that were 96 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 2: used to bake the bread for the community were also 97 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 2: owned by the seignior as well. Seniors had their own 98 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 2: courts that people on their estates were beholden to, and 99 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 2: they had a lot of leeway in how those courts 100 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:55,039 Speaker 2: were run. So both landless and land owning people were 101 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 2: part of this hierarchical system, and both wound up in 102 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,679 Speaker 2: the same basic struggle of not being able to support 103 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 2: themselves on the land that was available to them. A 104 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,400 Speaker 2: lot of farmers were doing other jobs in addition to farming, 105 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 2: like running an inn or a tavern, or selling eggs, 106 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 2: or doing paid agricultural labor on a big estate. In 107 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 2: addition to the work on their own farm, some towns 108 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 2: and villages had become home to other industries that provided 109 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 2: additional jobs, some of which could be done from home, 110 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:29,560 Speaker 2: like spinning and weaving. Trying to scrape together a living 111 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 2: on a farm that was too small for the family 112 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 2: while also doing other jobs to make ends meet just 113 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 2: sounds difficult, and it was not possible for a significant 114 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 2: portion of the population to do that. About a tenth 115 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,720 Speaker 2: of the population of rural France had no other option 116 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 2: but begging, and in some areas that number could go 117 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 2: even higher. The vast majority of people who were living 118 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 2: off of begging were elderly or disabled, or they were 119 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 2: widows who were trying to take care of young children 120 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 2: or orphans with no adults to care for them. And 121 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 2: then there were landless laborers who could only find work 122 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,080 Speaker 2: during some parts of the year, like during the harvest. 123 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:15,240 Speaker 2: For the rest of the year, they didn't really have 124 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 2: anywhere else to go or any other way to earn 125 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 2: a living. Because the harvest was the one time that 126 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 2: farm workers had some leverage over landowners. There was often 127 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 2: labor unrest around the time of harvest, and if the 128 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 2: harvest was poor and there wasn't as much of a 129 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 2: need for labor, issues with vagrancy skyrocketed. By the mid 130 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 2: to late eighteenth century, a situation that was already really 131 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 2: precarious had started getting worse. Standards of living had actually increased, 132 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 2: and adult mortality had gone down as a result. This 133 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 2: seems like a good thing, fewer people dying. That seems good, 134 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 2: but that also meant that the population of France had 135 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,040 Speaker 2: grown significantly, and that had led to more demand for 136 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 2: the food and land that had already been in really 137 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 2: short supply. The food crisis got worse as many parts 138 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 2: of France experienced a series of bad harvests starting around 139 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 2: the seventeen sixties. The seventeen eighty three Lockey fissure eruption 140 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 2: in Iceland, which we covered on the show in July 141 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four, caused acidic rain in cooling temperatures, 142 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 2: and that contributed to bad harvests across much of the 143 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,559 Speaker 2: northern Hemisphere. In seventeen eighty eight, bad weather, including hailstorms, 144 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 2: ruined a lot of that year's crops. Also, in seventeen 145 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 2: eighty eight, the Habsburgs went to war against the Ottoman Empire. 146 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 2: France was not directly involved in this conflict. There monarch 147 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:50,120 Speaker 2: was Bourbon, but some of its allies and its trading 148 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 2: partners were Parts of the Mediterranean became unsafe for shipping, 149 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 2: Some of the places where France sold its exports essentially 150 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 2: closed to trade, and Spain also banned imports of French cloth. 151 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 2: So even though France was not one of the active 152 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:11,560 Speaker 2: belligerents in this war, this added to the disruption and 153 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 2: the economic stresses that the common people were facing. England 154 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 2: and France had also signed a trade agreement in seventeen 155 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 2: eighty six which was intended to foster competition between English 156 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 2: and French industries and encourage French industries to adopt English 157 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 2: manufacturing and production methods. What wound up happening was that 158 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 2: a lot of French workers in these industries lost their 159 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 2: jobs in the face of inexpensive goods being imported from England. 160 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 2: The textile industry was particularly hard hit, putting a lot 161 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 2: of those people who had been spinning and weaving at 162 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 2: home out of work. All of this fed into both 163 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 2: the French Revolution and the great fear, which we will 164 00:09:54,120 --> 00:10:07,719 Speaker 2: talk about after a sponsor break. Before the break, we 165 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 2: were focused on the issues that were facing France's peasant class, 166 00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 2: but of course the nation as a whole was also 167 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 2: having some problems. In seventeen eighty seven, France's Controller General 168 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:22,680 Speaker 2: of Finances arranged a meeting to try to reform the 169 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 2: French economy and manage a severe financial crisis. This meeting 170 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 2: was not successful. Among other things, the proposed plan would 171 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:35,400 Speaker 2: have involved increasing taxes on the rich, and the rich 172 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 2: did not want to do that. So in August of 173 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 2: seventeen eighty eight, King Louis the sixteenth announced that he 174 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 2: was summoning the Estates General to meet at Versailles and 175 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 2: work all this out. The Estates General was made up 176 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 2: of representatives from the three estates. Those were the nobility, 177 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 2: the clergy, and the commoners, and it had not convened 178 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,960 Speaker 2: since sixteen fourteen. The king had asked each of the 179 00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 2: three estates to submit lists of grievances. People all across 180 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:06,880 Speaker 2: France were given the opportunity to submit their grievances, and 181 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,680 Speaker 2: roughly forty thousand kaye de dollons were created before the 182 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 2: Assembly convened. The third Estate's grievances had three prevailing themes 183 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 2: that France's tax system was unfair, that the signorro system 184 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,800 Speaker 2: needed to be abolished or reformed, and that the payments 185 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 2: they were required to make to the church were burdensome. 186 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 2: The three estates did have some points of agreement in 187 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:35,479 Speaker 2: their lists of grievances, like obviously the clergy, the nobility, 188 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:38,880 Speaker 2: and the commoners. They had different priorities, but there were 189 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 2: points of overlap, and that included overall support for creating 190 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,680 Speaker 2: a French constitution and moving toward a more representative system 191 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,559 Speaker 2: of government. But when the Estates General finally met on 192 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:57,199 Speaker 2: May fifth, seventeen eighty nine, they strongly disagreed on how 193 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:01,840 Speaker 2: to vote. There were six hundred Depts representing the commoners, 194 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,439 Speaker 2: and then three hundred each for the nobility and the clergy. 195 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 2: If each estate as a body got one vote, then 196 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 2: the nobility and the clergy can team up and outvote 197 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:17,360 Speaker 2: the commoners. But if each delegate got a vote, then 198 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,840 Speaker 2: the commoners had the largest number of votes, they would 199 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 2: be more powerful than either of the other two estates. 200 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,920 Speaker 2: It would be easier to rally some support among the 201 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 2: nobility and the clergy than to outvote united fronts that 202 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:34,560 Speaker 2: were united against them. 203 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: This led to one of the moments that is sometimes 204 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: marked as the beginning of the French Revolution. The Assembly 205 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: was at an impasse over this voting question, and on 206 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,559 Speaker 1: June seventeenth, the commoners declared themselves to be the National 207 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,959 Speaker 1: Assembly and said they would be meeting and voting without 208 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 1: the other two estates if necessary. They had some support 209 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 1: among the clergy, including parish priests. Royal officials locked them 210 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: out of their meeting room three days later, prompting the 211 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,199 Speaker 1: National Assembly to meet in the Tennis court and swear 212 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: an oath that they would continue to meet until a 213 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:13,679 Speaker 1: written constitution had been created for France. The king tried 214 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: and failed to disperse the Assembly, and he ultimately asked 215 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: the nobility and the clergy, who had not already done so, 216 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: to join with the National Assembly. Together they formed the 217 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:30,400 Speaker 1: National Constituent Assembly. But the king also summoned troops to Paris, 218 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: and two days after the establishment of the National Constituent Assembly, 219 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:40,359 Speaker 1: he dismissed Finance Minister Jacques Nickaire. Some of the economic 220 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: problems that France was dealing with were ones that had 221 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: been caused or exacerbated by Nickcair's policies, but he was 222 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,000 Speaker 1: also perceived as being on the side of the common people. 223 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 1: He had, for example, taken steps to try to deal 224 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:58,199 Speaker 1: with the food shortages and crop failures that had started 225 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 1: really affecting farmers in seventeen eight. His dismissal provoked an 226 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:09,080 Speaker 1: uprising that included Parisian commoners storming the Bastille on July fourteenth, 227 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, and afterward members of the nobility started 228 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:18,520 Speaker 1: fleeing from France. Meanwhile, in the country, people were getting 229 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: news about this, often delayed by at least a day 230 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: or two. The idea of a daily newspaper was still 231 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: a pretty new thing. The first daily newspaper in France 232 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 1: was the Jeanald de Barrie, established in seventeen seventy seven. 233 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 1: Most rural people did not have access to newspapers, and 234 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: while literacy rates were increasing, many people spoke local and 235 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: regional dialects of French that would not be comprehensible to 236 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:49,720 Speaker 1: someone speaking Parisian French, or vice versa. In some regions, 237 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 1: people spoke other languages entirely, including Breton, Carolin, Bosque, and Alsatian. 238 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,400 Speaker 1: Among others. So people got the news through letters from 239 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: Balliage or Baile who wrote to the jurisdictions that they 240 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: were responsible for, and those letters were then read aloud 241 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,360 Speaker 1: in the town hall or the public square, in addition 242 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:11,400 Speaker 1: to the time that it took for the letter to 243 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: get to the community. If the bailiff didn't send a letter, 244 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,880 Speaker 1: or if that letter didn't make it to its recipient, 245 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: people often just had no other way to get information. 246 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, we can also assume that not everyone was at 247 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 2: that meeting or at the public square, and so they 248 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 2: were hearing things passed through word of mouth from having 249 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,840 Speaker 2: heard the letter, right, And if one bailiff has a 250 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 2: bad day or doesn't have their act together that week, 251 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 2: nobody gets any information. Right. So all the issues that 252 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:45,239 Speaker 2: we talked about before the break combined with getting somewhat 253 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,680 Speaker 2: delayed news of what was happening in Paris and Versailles, 254 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,640 Speaker 2: and rumors started to spread across the countryside that the 255 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 2: aristocracy was plotting against the commoners. This was not a 256 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 2: completely new idea. The idea of a packed de famine 257 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 2: went at least as far back as the early to 258 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,720 Speaker 2: mid eighteenth century. This was the idea that the monarchy 259 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,880 Speaker 2: or the nobility, or some other privileged class of people 260 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 2: was intentionally keeping food from the commoners for some self 261 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:23,160 Speaker 2: serving or nefarious reason. This conspiracy theory had surged during 262 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 2: the seventeen seventy five Flower War, which was a series 263 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 2: of food riots across much of France that were sparked 264 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 2: by increases in bread and grain prices, as well as 265 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 2: food shortages. These issues had been caused in part by 266 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 2: reforms to French agriculture and trade, including the abolition of 267 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,600 Speaker 2: guilds and a move to a free trade system for grain. 268 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 2: It was easy for people to believe that these changes 269 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 2: had been made with the intent of making people suffer, 270 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 2: and since the king was responsible for making sure his 271 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 2: subjects were fed, it was also easy for people to 272 00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:01,400 Speaker 2: believe that his failure to do so was deliberate. Almost 273 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:05,840 Speaker 2: fifteen years after the Flower War, the paxstafamines still had 274 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:08,720 Speaker 2: a ring of truth to a lot of people. People 275 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 2: also understood that popular uprisings often ended in violence or 276 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 2: some other retribution against the poorest people who had risen up. 277 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 2: Before the convening of the Estates General, aristocrats had refused 278 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,440 Speaker 2: to agree to economic reforms that would have increased their 279 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 2: taxes while hopefully making things easier for the poor. The 280 00:17:31,119 --> 00:17:34,120 Speaker 2: king had tried to disperse the Assembly, and there were 281 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:39,159 Speaker 2: still aristocrats who wanted to disband it. Various levels of 282 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,680 Speaker 2: the French government were also known to let problems lie, 283 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 2: or even to make problems worse if they thought the 284 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,919 Speaker 2: ends justified the means. There was just a lot that 285 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 2: would make people think this was true. 286 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,159 Speaker 1: So in the wake of the National Assembly and the 287 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:57,760 Speaker 1: Tennis Court oath, and the storming of the Bastille and 288 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: skyrocketing bread prices, people started to believe that the aristocracy 289 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,159 Speaker 1: was hoarding all the food as leverage over the commoners, 290 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:08,800 Speaker 1: and that they would ruin the harvest to try to 291 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:12,760 Speaker 1: starve the third estate into compliance. One of the nobles 292 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,879 Speaker 1: who had fled from France was the Comte d'Artois, who 293 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: would much later become King Charles the Tenth of France, 294 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,679 Speaker 1: and people believed that he was coming back with a 295 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,520 Speaker 1: foreign army to pacify the commoners. 296 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 2: This conspiracy theory collided with actual problems that the rural 297 00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 2: parts of France really were facing, and one of those 298 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:38,760 Speaker 2: was large numbers of landless, unemployed people who were roaming 299 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:42,840 Speaker 2: around the countryside. This went beyond that roughly ten percent 300 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:46,600 Speaker 2: of the rural population who were subsisting through begging. These 301 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 2: were mostly farm workers who could not find employment and 302 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,880 Speaker 2: textile workers who had been put out of work by 303 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,119 Speaker 2: that trade agreement with England in the late summer of 304 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 2: seventeen eighty nine. They were going from farm to farm 305 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 2: demanding food and sometimes harassing people if they didn't get 306 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,600 Speaker 2: any or didn't get enough. Some of them took food 307 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,880 Speaker 2: from the fields before it was fully ripe, or they 308 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:13,119 Speaker 2: took firewood from the forests, or they even robbed people. 309 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:19,439 Speaker 2: So rumors also spread that mobs of brigands were marauding 310 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:23,280 Speaker 2: all around the countryside. They were stripping the fields completely bare, 311 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 2: destroying orchards, ruining farms, and completely clearing the forests of 312 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 2: all of their firewood. And people thought that these brigands 313 00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:38,320 Speaker 2: were being sheltered or enabled by the aristocracy. Communities started 314 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 2: sending word to Paris or nearby outposts to ask for 315 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 2: help defending themselves against the perceived threat. But because of 316 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,119 Speaker 2: what was happening in Paris, there just wasn't much help available. 317 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,720 Speaker 2: When help was dispatched, it could arrive long after it 318 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 2: was really needed. For example, Toma Alexandle Dumat, who was 319 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 2: the subject of our most recent Saturday classic, arrived in 320 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 2: the town of Villere Couterret with his unit on August fifteenth, 321 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,240 Speaker 2: having been summoned to protect both the chateau and the 322 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 2: villagers from a supposed mob of brigands. But by that 323 00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:15,119 Speaker 2: point the great fear was over and Duma mostly wound 324 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 2: up being the pampered guest of his host family. So, 325 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,120 Speaker 2: with help often coming too late to be of any 326 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:26,840 Speaker 2: use or not coming at all, farmers started arming themselves 327 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,680 Speaker 2: and trying to form their own defense forces to guard 328 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 2: their land. Small towns and villages ordered their residents to 329 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 2: take up arms and to be prepared to defend themselves 330 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 2: or to go to the defense of the Third Estate 331 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:43,040 Speaker 2: at the National Constituent Assembly if it was necessary. There 332 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 2: was an increasing sense of panic and paranoia in small 333 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:50,200 Speaker 2: towns and villages around Paris, and common people started greeting 334 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 2: one another and outsiders with the question are you for 335 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:58,520 Speaker 2: the Third Estate? On July sixteenth, residents of Lajare stopped 336 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,920 Speaker 2: a grain and flowershipment that was being prepared for Paris 337 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,320 Speaker 2: because people were afraid it was going to be used 338 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,679 Speaker 2: to feed soldiers who they thought were preparing to attack 339 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,119 Speaker 2: the common people. All of this really came to a 340 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:14,160 Speaker 2: head on July nineteenth, which we will get to after 341 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:27,480 Speaker 2: a sponsor break. On July nineteenth, seventeen eighty nine, some 342 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:31,280 Speaker 2: soldiers from the Visual Garrison in the Franche Comte region 343 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,399 Speaker 2: of France arrived at Chateau de Quinsy. This was home 344 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 2: to Monsieur de Mimee, signor of Quincy, and a particularly 345 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 2: hated landlord. These soldiers said that they had been invited 346 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 2: and a servant let them in and gave them some drinks, 347 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 2: and then at about eleven PM, when they were leaving 348 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:57,280 Speaker 2: and were apparently intoxicated, there was an explosion in the 349 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 2: basement of the chateau. Men were killed and a lot 350 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 2: of other people were injured. 351 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 1: Today, this is all believed to have been an accident 352 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:10,520 Speaker 1: that one of the soldiers or maybe another guest, was 353 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: either lost in the house or was looking for food 354 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:15,800 Speaker 1: or money and got too close to a barrel of 355 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:19,520 Speaker 1: gunpowder while carrying a torch or a candle. But a 356 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,239 Speaker 1: rumor spread that members of the third Estate had been 357 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:25,400 Speaker 1: lured into the chateau in order to kill them. 358 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 2: Monsieur de mi May was not at home at the time. 359 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 2: He had been facing hostility from the area's commoners, and 360 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,400 Speaker 2: he had already fled. He was away, staying with his 361 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 2: mother in law over the next day. So on the twentieth, 362 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:44,240 Speaker 2: in retaliation for what people believed was an intentional explosion 363 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:49,440 Speaker 2: at the Chateau, peasants rose up in Franche Comti, looting 364 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 2: and burning many of the properties that he owned. 365 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: While fear and unrest had been increasing in the countryside 366 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 1: ahead of this, the uprising after the explosion is marked 367 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,880 Speaker 1: as the start of the Great Fear, which spread over 368 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,520 Speaker 1: most of France. The places that were mostly unaffected were 369 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,959 Speaker 1: almost entirely along the coasts or along the border with 370 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:14,040 Speaker 1: what's now Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Some of those areas 371 00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: had just been through some other agrarian uprising in the 372 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: months before the fear, and there's some speculation that this 373 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,879 Speaker 1: might have affected how susceptible they were to this misinformation. 374 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,359 Speaker 1: In most of the rest of rural France, the same 375 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: basic pattern played out over and over. First, people would 376 00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,439 Speaker 1: notice something that they thought was the aristocracy's army of 377 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 1: brigands coming for them. They would sound the tocsin or 378 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,400 Speaker 1: the alarm belt. They would send runners to their neighbors 379 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,160 Speaker 1: or to neighboring villages to warn them and to call 380 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:51,720 Speaker 1: for help. People would arm themselves with things like pitchforks, halberds, 381 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:56,879 Speaker 1: and pikes. If soldiers or armed peasants arrived in response 382 00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,359 Speaker 1: to that call for help, the local people would stake 383 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,359 Speaker 1: them for attackers and try to fight them off. People 384 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,000 Speaker 1: on the neighboring farms or neighboring towns or villages would 385 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,080 Speaker 1: see the smoke or hear the commotion, and that cycle 386 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,720 Speaker 1: would start again. This played out in tandem with uprisings 387 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,359 Speaker 1: against the aristocracy, which were interconnected with the Great Fear, 388 00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,439 Speaker 1: but in some ways were also a separate phenomenon. People 389 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 1: broke into manor houses to burn the records that were 390 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: used to determine people's signorial dues, or to reclaim the 391 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,560 Speaker 1: crops they had used to pay those dues. They attacked 392 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: the signor's wine presses and grain mills. Whole communities went 393 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 1: to their local monasteries demanding their tithes be returned to them, 394 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: or they just refused to pay their tithes. Nobles and 395 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:51,480 Speaker 1: aristocrats were subject to attacks vandalism and public humiliation, or 396 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: they were driven off their estates. When people saw smoke 397 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,359 Speaker 1: from these attacks, or large groups of people moving through 398 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: the countryside to attack back of manner or take back 399 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,040 Speaker 1: their tithes from a monastery, they would raise the alarm, 400 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: thinking that they were seeing was that supposed brigand army 401 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: burning something down or coming to destroy their harvest. 402 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 2: Not everywhere that was struck by the Great Fear also 403 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 2: rose up against the aristocracy, and it does seem like 404 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,560 Speaker 2: in places that there were these uprisings, people were at 405 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:30,240 Speaker 2: least somewhat selective about it. Only three landlords are known 406 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 2: to have been killed during the Great Fear. Obviously it 407 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,600 Speaker 2: is not great that three landlords were killed, but this 408 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:41,240 Speaker 2: was not like a widespread massacre of all the landlords. 409 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,840 Speaker 2: This was also not a situation of like every manner 410 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,360 Speaker 2: in rural France being torn or burned to the ground. 411 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,639 Speaker 2: Some of them were burned, but this was not like. 412 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 2: It didn't level the aristocratic estates of France across the board. 413 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,880 Speaker 2: But the atmosphere across the French countryside was so paranoid 414 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 2: and suspicious that people raised the alarm over things that 415 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:08,320 Speaker 2: were completely innocuous. This included herds of livestock, raising clouds 416 00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:10,520 Speaker 2: of dust as they were being moved along the road, 417 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 2: or making a lot of noise as they were driven 418 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,959 Speaker 2: through a forest, or smoke from ordinary work like burning 419 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:22,680 Speaker 2: off unwanted vegetation or running lime kilns. In Paris, those 420 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,680 Speaker 2: letters people had written to ask for help were read 421 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:30,080 Speaker 2: before the National Constituent Assembly, and word of those letters 422 00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 2: being read made its way back to the rural communities. 423 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,400 Speaker 2: This wound up reinforcing the idea that there really were 424 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:42,879 Speaker 2: hordes of brigands who were funded and enabled by the aristocrats, 425 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,280 Speaker 2: and they were coming to attack the farms. While the 426 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 2: Great Fear and its interconnected uprisings are often described in 427 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 2: terms of the country, there was violence in Paris as well. 428 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 2: On July twenty second, Controller General of Finances Joseph Foulon 429 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 2: de Due was ruptured by peasants and taken to the 430 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,000 Speaker 2: Hotel de Ville. Foulon was widely hated and believed to 431 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,760 Speaker 2: be uncaring and merciless toward the poor. He's rumored to 432 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,840 Speaker 2: have said that if people had no bread, then they 433 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:16,400 Speaker 2: could eat hay, much like Marie Antoinette supposedly having said 434 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,639 Speaker 2: let them eat cake. This quote is also unsubstantiated, but 435 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 2: it does seem to be a rumor that was circulating 436 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 2: at the time, and it speaks to how people thought 437 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:30,200 Speaker 2: about him. The crowd unsuccessfully tried to hang him, then 438 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,679 Speaker 2: beheaded him, and they paraded his head around with his 439 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 2: mouth stuffed with hay and excrement. There wasn't really any 440 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:43,199 Speaker 2: kind of centralized leadership or organizational structure for what the 441 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 2: peasants were doing in the country, whether they were trying 442 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 2: to defend themselves from a perceived threat or attacking the 443 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:55,200 Speaker 2: nearest scenurial manner. There also wasn't a figurehead like Rebecca 444 00:27:55,359 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 2: during the Rebecca Riots or Ned Ludd during the Luddite uprising. Instead, 445 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,600 Speaker 2: the Great Fear was something that seemed to grow and 446 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:10,240 Speaker 2: recur almost spontaneously, kind of organically, largely following the lines 447 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:15,120 Speaker 2: of communication and trade all across France. Although troops were 448 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 2: deployed to some areas, including Franche Compte where this first started, 449 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,240 Speaker 2: there was no practical way for authorities to try to 450 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:27,360 Speaker 2: put down such a widespread, scattered uprising with force. There 451 00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 2: were just too many outbreaks of panic, violence and destruction 452 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,160 Speaker 2: happening in too many places at once, So the National 453 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 2: Constituent Assembly and its members had to find some way 454 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 2: to restore calm, which they did in part by addressing 455 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,280 Speaker 2: some of the Third Estate's grievances. On August fourth, seventeen 456 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,360 Speaker 2: eighty nine, the Assembly issued the first of what would 457 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:51,800 Speaker 2: come to be known as the August Decrees, abolishing the 458 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:56,360 Speaker 2: feudal system in France. There would ultimately be nineteen decrees, 459 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:01,440 Speaker 2: which also ended noble and clerical privilege and abolished the tithe. 460 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,480 Speaker 2: This fundamentally changed multiple aspects of French society and the 461 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 2: French economy, dismantling or changing systems and structures that had 462 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 2: been in place since the Middle Ages. By August sixth, 463 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,320 Speaker 2: two days after the first of the August Decrees, the 464 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:22,400 Speaker 2: Great Fear had basically ended, but the communities where it 465 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 2: had taken place had also changed. Very broadly speaking, the 466 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 2: Great Fear and the conspiracy theory that was connected to 467 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:33,000 Speaker 2: it really amped up people's hatred of the rich and 468 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 2: of the nobility. It also prompted villages and rural areas 469 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:41,680 Speaker 2: to organize themselves and to do that quickly. This new 470 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 2: found organization is seen as an influence on the way 471 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 2: the French Revolution progressed from this point and on the 472 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,360 Speaker 2: functioning of the French Republic after the abolition of the monarchy. 473 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,440 Speaker 2: But it's tricky to pin down the long term influence 474 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,600 Speaker 2: of the Great Fear in France in really specific terms 475 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 2: beyond the immediate events like the August Decrees and the 476 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 2: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 477 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 2: which was created by the National Constituent Assembly and then 478 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,280 Speaker 2: ratified by the King. The King ratified the Declaration almost 479 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,280 Speaker 2: exactly a month after the Great Fear was over. So 480 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,600 Speaker 2: much other stuff happened after that, and a lot of 481 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 2: it was truly monumental, including the creation of France's first 482 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 2: Constitution in seventeen ninety one, the executions of King Louis 483 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 2: the sixteenth and Marie Antoinette in seventeen ninety three, to 484 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,720 Speaker 2: the Reign of Terror which ended in seventeen ninety four, 485 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,160 Speaker 2: to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who became First Consul 486 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 2: in seventeen ninety nine and of course eventually declared himself 487 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,600 Speaker 2: Emperor of the French. Yeah, a lot of those core 488 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,240 Speaker 2: issues that people were dealing with also were still there, 489 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,200 Speaker 2: Like we have that prior episode about the Women's March 490 00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 2: on Versailles. That was connected to bread prices and food 491 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:58,280 Speaker 2: shortages still an issue after the Great Fear had kind 492 00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,440 Speaker 2: of come to a close, and since the Great Fear 493 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 2: largely came to an end without some kind of massive 494 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 2: military response across the whole country, for the most part, 495 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 2: the common people who were part of it did not 496 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:13,959 Speaker 2: face a lot of consequences when it was over. Especially 497 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:16,080 Speaker 2: in a lot of the more outlying areas. A lot 498 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,040 Speaker 2: of people just went back home without ever being charged 499 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 2: with anything or facing any kind of trial. But in 500 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,520 Speaker 2: places where troops had been deployed, people were more likely 501 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:29,360 Speaker 2: to face trial, and those who were convicted for their 502 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,000 Speaker 2: involvement were either executed or they were sentenced to serve 503 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 2: as galley slaves. This mainly affected people in places like Alsace, 504 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 2: Hanault and franche Comte. 505 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,320 Speaker 1: The paper we mentioned at the top of the show 506 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:46,360 Speaker 1: which inspired this episode was about how the Great Fear spread, 507 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,240 Speaker 1: and it was published in the journal Nature. Researchers used 508 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,959 Speaker 1: historical records of both the peasant uprisings and the rumors 509 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: of aristocratic plots. They also incorporated the work of French 510 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:02,040 Speaker 1: historian George Lefebre, whose nineteen thirty two La grampel To 511 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,760 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine was the first book length examination of 512 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 1: the Great Fear. That book was translated into English in 513 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, and it is still considered to be 514 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:17,160 Speaker 1: a foundational text on the Great Fear. The researchers then 515 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:22,680 Speaker 1: used epidemiological models to track the spread of misinformation over 516 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 1: the course of the Great Fear. They found that the 517 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,560 Speaker 1: quote viral misinformation that was driving this really did spread 518 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: a lot like an actual infectious disease. It had an 519 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,880 Speaker 1: ar not value of one point five, that's the average 520 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,440 Speaker 1: number of people that an infected person spreads. The disease 521 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: to the. 522 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 2: Great Fear spread almost exponentially until it peaked on July thirtieth, 523 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,720 Speaker 2: and then it declined before coming to an end on 524 00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 2: August fourth. Like a contagious illness. The misinformation spread largely 525 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 2: along main roads and postal routes. This paper also I 526 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,920 Speaker 2: identified risk factors for the areas which seem to have 527 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:07,960 Speaker 2: the highest risk of transmitting this information. They included having 528 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,880 Speaker 2: a higher population, which is similar to infectious diseases that 529 00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 2: need enough hosts to be able to spread effectively, as 530 00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:19,760 Speaker 2: well as places being more literate and wealthier communities at 531 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,320 Speaker 2: the highest risk were also ones that had higher concentrations 532 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 2: of land ownership and higher wheat prices. The researchers concluded 533 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 2: the paper by comparing the Great Fear to the role 534 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:36,600 Speaker 2: of rumors in uprisings today or within the last couple 535 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:43,360 Speaker 2: of decades, when information can spread almost instantaneously over social media, 536 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,320 Speaker 2: rather than having to travel along trade and mail routes 537 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,959 Speaker 2: by people who were carrying physical copies of letters or 538 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:55,360 Speaker 2: other media. But there's other research showing that even today, 539 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:59,840 Speaker 2: when we do have access to almost instant information, these 540 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 2: kind of rumors can still spread along very similar patterns 541 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,400 Speaker 2: to the way contagious diseases. 542 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:12,040 Speaker 1: Do tum Yeah. Uh, do you have listener mail that 543 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: hopefully involves no contagious diseases or horrible uprisings. I do 544 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,080 Speaker 1: have listener mail. I don't think it involves any of 545 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,200 Speaker 1: those things, but it's been fully two hours since I 546 00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:26,480 Speaker 1: reread it, so I could be forgetting something. 547 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:32,080 Speaker 2: This email is from Mad's, Mads wrote after our episode 548 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,480 Speaker 2: on Anna Maria von Sherman, and the email touches on 549 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:39,160 Speaker 2: other episodes as well. Mads wrote, Hi, Tracy high Holly, 550 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,120 Speaker 2: longtime listener and not first time writer, though It's been 551 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,720 Speaker 2: a while since I've last written in. I've been listening 552 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,160 Speaker 2: to your podcast for about a decade now, and you've 553 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:50,680 Speaker 2: accompanied me through so many hours of commuting, doing chores 554 00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 2: and taking walks, but also calms my nerves during one 555 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,560 Speaker 2: of my most dreaded and anxiety inducing modes of travel 556 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 2: aka flying on a plan and recovering from surgery. I 557 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,160 Speaker 2: was just listening to your episode on Anna Marie von 558 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,799 Speaker 2: Sherman when you mentioned two places I have connections to, 559 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,279 Speaker 2: the first of all, Cologne or I'm not going to 560 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,000 Speaker 2: try to say this in German because I feel like 561 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 2: I will now I'll not do a good job. But 562 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:24,480 Speaker 2: it's spelled differently from Cologne how we say it in English, 563 00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 2: which is very close to my hometown of Bonn and 564 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:28,879 Speaker 2: a city that is near and dear to my heart. 565 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,040 Speaker 2: Because of that, this alone would not have gotten me 566 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,840 Speaker 2: so excited that I would write in about the episode. No, 567 00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:39,560 Speaker 2: it was the mention of eastern Westphalian town Herford that 568 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,759 Speaker 2: got me. I've spent a lot of time there since 569 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:44,839 Speaker 2: my ex girlfriend was from that area, and I still 570 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,360 Speaker 2: have two very dear friends who live in the vicinity 571 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:50,840 Speaker 2: of it. However, Herford is not really a well known 572 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:54,320 Speaker 2: place unless you are from around there, and the small 573 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:56,600 Speaker 2: town in which my ex girlfriend lived is basically a 574 00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,200 Speaker 2: complete unknown, which meant that I would have had pretty 575 00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,520 Speaker 2: much the exact same conversation every time I went to 576 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,640 Speaker 2: visit her and got asked where she lives and from there. 577 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:11,120 Speaker 2: It's sort of an explanation of increasingly small towns that 578 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 2: are close to Herford. In Germany, there is a very 579 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 2: popular joke slash meme slash conspiracy theory that this city 580 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,759 Speaker 2: simply doesn't exist and it's just a hoax made by 581 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 2: the government or whoever to fool people. I believe that 582 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,000 Speaker 2: joke originated at some student party after a lot of drinks. 583 00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,400 Speaker 2: I'm skipping ahead just a touch. The mention of Herford 584 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:34,839 Speaker 2: did remind me, though, of another episode I had meant 585 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,760 Speaker 2: to write in about, and that's the episode about Joan Arson, 586 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:39,920 Speaker 2: the last Catholic Bishop of Iceland. 587 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,080 Speaker 1: What does he have to do with Herford? 588 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 2: Well, the fact that the first Catholic Bishop of Iceland 589 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,319 Speaker 2: was in fact sent to Herford to study and spent 590 00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:51,400 Speaker 2: some years of his life there before being appointed Bishop 591 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,160 Speaker 2: of Iceland. I actually wanted to say even more, but 592 00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 2: it's late and I should really go to sleep, so 593 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,799 Speaker 2: I'll probably send you my other thoughts next time I 594 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,040 Speaker 2: get a random connection to some thing slash place I know, well, 595 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,080 Speaker 2: I will pause the email for just a second. I 596 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,480 Speaker 2: don't remember if we mentioned in that episode about jan Arison, 597 00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 2: but sending Catholic clergy members or people who thought they 598 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,320 Speaker 2: might join the clergy in Iceland, sending them to Germany 599 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,440 Speaker 2: to study was like sort of the thing to do 600 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,399 Speaker 2: at the time. A lot of the Catholic clergy, Yeah, 601 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:31,799 Speaker 2: went to Germany to study during that era. Returning to 602 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,279 Speaker 2: the reason that I just really wanted to read this 603 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,840 Speaker 2: email in particular today, attached you will find pictures of 604 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 2: my two kiddies, Peter and Ferby as pet tax when 605 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:42,960 Speaker 2: I adopted both of them from the shelter. They're both 606 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,799 Speaker 2: pretty anxious and weary and skittish, especially Ferby. I was 607 00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:49,040 Speaker 2: in fact warned by the shelter he might never be 608 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:51,440 Speaker 2: really comfortable with being touched and that he might never 609 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,560 Speaker 2: really warm up to the company of humans. Well, it 610 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:56,760 Speaker 2: took him about three weeks to turn into a super 611 00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,600 Speaker 2: sweet cuddle bug in total Mama's boy. He's a silly 612 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,879 Speaker 2: goose who manages to pretty much appear hair ties out 613 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,360 Speaker 2: of the air no matter how I hide them, playing 614 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,800 Speaker 2: with strings and laying in the most silly positions. Also, 615 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:09,560 Speaker 2: he has big round eyes and he looks at you 616 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:11,719 Speaker 2: with an expression I can only describe as and then 617 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:15,600 Speaker 2: it's the big round eye emoji. Peter is my wonderful 618 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,120 Speaker 2: void creature. He does look like someone who tried to 619 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,400 Speaker 2: draw a cat who has never seen a cat before. 620 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,879 Speaker 2: He has a shape. I adore him. There's some more 621 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,759 Speaker 2: details about these cats. It is very sweet, but I 622 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 2: feel like we are gonna run short on time, so 623 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 2: I want to describe these pictures. We have a kind 624 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 2: of tabby cat. I'm looking directly at yawning mouth and toebeans. 625 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:49,600 Speaker 2: It is incredibly cute, black void kitty, incredibly cute. Also, 626 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:52,760 Speaker 2: the thing that made me go I love this picture 627 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,720 Speaker 2: so much and I want to read this email today 628 00:38:56,160 --> 00:39:01,319 Speaker 2: is there is a picture of the black cat. The 629 00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 2: black cat was the one who was named Peter. Peter 630 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:10,200 Speaker 2: is standing on the open door of the dishwasher and 631 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,399 Speaker 2: the top rack of the dishwasher is pulled out as 632 00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:17,080 Speaker 2: though it is being either loaded or unloaded. This dishwasher 633 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,400 Speaker 2: looks really clean, so I think maybe we are about 634 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 2: to unload it, but Peter is standing there on the 635 00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,520 Speaker 2: open dishwasher door. And it makes me laugh because one 636 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,160 Speaker 2: of my cats is really fixated on when I put 637 00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:35,360 Speaker 2: the detergent pod into the dishwasher. If she hears me 638 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:39,200 Speaker 2: open the dishwasher door and then open the cabinet door 639 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,239 Speaker 2: where we keep those things, she will run into the 640 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:48,759 Speaker 2: kitchen and try to like put her paw on the 641 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 2: dishwasher pod. I don't know why she wants to do this. 642 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:54,239 Speaker 2: She has never tried to bite it or sniff it, 643 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,440 Speaker 2: or eat it or anything like that. This is some 644 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:02,040 Speaker 2: cat ritual all of her own, involving the pod and 645 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,279 Speaker 2: so having another black cat standing on the open dishwasher door, 646 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:08,640 Speaker 2: I was extremely tickled by. So thank you Mads for 647 00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:11,879 Speaker 2: sending this email. I really enjoyed the email, even though 648 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,640 Speaker 2: I abridged bits of it. This is also an email 649 00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,600 Speaker 2: from August, so I'm sorry it took me a while 650 00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 2: to read it. If you would like to send us 651 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,399 Speaker 2: a note about this or any other podcast, where at 652 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,359 Speaker 2: History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can also 653 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:32,920 Speaker 2: subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere 654 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:40,680 Speaker 2: else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you missed 655 00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:43,879 Speaker 2: in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more 656 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:48,279 Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 657 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,280 Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.