Brett Bowen
History Tells A Story
Brett Bowen, an accomplished teacher of European history, demonstrated that history can be interesting, entertaining, and yes, even relevant.
To do so, Brett took us for a whirlwind tour of the 150 years that preceded the French Revolution. At times he (literally) had us sitting on the edges of our seat – no small feat when you consider we all know how the story ends.
Brett’s presentation had an underlying theme: when privilege and arbitrary power are legitimized in an authoritarian state, revolution and change are sure to follow. History indicates it is a matter of time before sometimes random circumstances align to cause significant political and social change (Change with a capital ‘C’).
Brett set the stage by briefly tracing the turbulent reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. Louis XIV transformed France in his lifetime from an inward-looking, insignificant monarchy to the center of European power. Louis XVI on the other hand perished at the guillotine, confused and out of touch with reality.
Brett then introduced the notion of ‘privilege’ by describing the famous ‘Three Estates’ of France. The First Estate was the clergy who comprised 1% of the population. By paying a tithe of 10% the clergy had full access to all royal land. They paid no taxes. Louis XIV famously cemented his authority and power by claiming God and He were so united that a crime against one was a crime against the other.
The Second Estate was the nobility, which made up 2% of the population. The nobility owned their own land and exercised complete feudal privileges. They and only they could be called to the Church or be commissioned in the military. But Louis XIV feared the nobility. In a stroke of genius, he imposed a 10% tax on the nobility, with the condition that if they moved to Versailles where he could control and spy on them, he would not tax them. In so doing, many nobles may have kept their wealth but they lost their power and authority. Meanwhile, Louis XIV thrived.
The Third Estate was of course the remaining 97% of the French population, and not just serfs and the trades, but what we would now call the middle class: lawyers, retailers and financiers. They had no wealth. They had no privileges. But it was they who paid all the taxes that supported the other two estates under the umbrella of the monarchy.
Brett noted that when the Bastille was captured on July 14, 1789, it was not a revolt, it was a revolution. And it was a revolution fueled by the science of the Enlightenment. It was so all-consuming a political revolution that in just one night, with the stroke of a pen, the Second Estate was abolished!
The results were astonishing. The revolutionary leaders began the creation of a new and equal society based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man, written in the month after the fall of the Bastille. Between 1792 and 1794, they abolished slavery abroad; introduced free secular education for males and females; established state-run welfare for the poor; and created textiles and arms factories to employ the destitute.
European monarchs watched this development with dread. They could not and would not stand for it. A similar revolution in their regimes would threaten monarchial and feudal peace and security. The Powers of Europe came together in a military coalition and defeated the upstart French Republic. France imploded. The leadership was crushed and its nation-building terminated. A violent period of anarchy, the Reign of Terror, followed.
In Brett’s 45-minute story, we witnessed the growth of Monarchist absolutism, followed by the sudden and unpredictable birth of a semi-egalitarian republic, which soon plunged into violent anarchy. The monarchies of Europe lived for another day.
The lessons of history were not lost on our members. Their questions mainly focussed on the issue of privilege in our western industrialized societies, recent elections in Britain, France, and India, and soon-to-be held elections in the US and Canada.
There is no doubt that Brett’s story stimulated our thinking and offered much from which we can learn.
Report by Terry Kelly
