1642 After the death of Li Sailiu, Louis XIV (1643- 17 15), who was only five years old, succeeded to the throne, but the state power was in the hands of Prime Minister Madzar-Ran.

From 65438 to 0648, the "Fron" movement against absolutism broke out in France. In May of that year, the Paris High Court and the local court passed a resolution requesting the king to withdraw the supervisors sent to various places. If the king wants to announce new tax and other financial laws, he must be examined and registered by the court, abolish the poll tax and tax package system, punish corrupt officials and unscrupulous bankers, and must not arrest people arbitrarily without announcing the charges. The arrested person must be brought to court for trial within 24 hours. Mazar-e-Ran ordered the arrest of the leader of the Frond movement in the High Court. An uprising broke out in Paris on August 28th. The French king and courtiers fled to Saint-Germain, and then mobilized troops to besiege Paris. 1649 March uprising was suppressed by the officers and men under the command of Prince Comte. 1650, the stone-throwing party movement broke out again, which lasted for two years and was also suppressed in 1652.

166 1 Madzar-Holland died in March and Louis XIV came to power. French absolutism entered its heyday. Louis XIV obeyed everything and concentrated state power in his own hands. Declare that "I am a country" and "the law comes from me", declare that the prime minister is no longer needed and exercise the royal power alone. Louis XIV convened a Supreme Council composed of only 3-5 people every 3-4 days to deal with state affairs. Louis XIV also established internal affairs, foreign affairs, finance, military and religious committees, but these institutions only played an advisory role, and the decision was still in Louis XIV's hands. Louis XIV declared that the Council of Priests must obey the king, and ministers were not allowed to issue any decrees without the king's consent. 1665, announcing that the high court and local high courts are not allowed to discuss and vote on the king's decrees. 1664, he sent officials to all counties to purge local officials, improve the supervision system and strengthen the control of all counties. In the later period of Louis XIV's personal rule, the Ombudsman became an administrative official representing the central government in each county.

Louis XIV promulgated a series of new laws, namely, civil law (1667), water conservancy and forestry law (1669), criminal law (1670) and commercial law (1673). Louis XIV effectively maintained the order of the country's political, economic and social life through the rule of law.

In order to maintain feudal rule, Louis XIV accelerated the army building. The number of French troops increased from 80,000 in the first few years to 380,000 in the last few years. Among the generals, a large number of people from civilian backgrounds were promoted to generals, and at the same time they were made nobles. For some nobles with rebellious tendencies, the method of weakening military power was adopted, and they were placed under the supervision of the Minister of State in charge of the army and the overseers appointed by him. Therefore, the army is completely under the control of the king. In order to fight against the British navy, Louis XIV established five naval arsenals in Brest and rochefort. 168 1 year, France has nearly 200 warships, 1. 1 10,000 navy. Louis XIV also opened several artillery schools to train artillery commanders and set up artillery regiments in the army.

Louis XIV adopted a mercantilist economic policy. The firm promoter of this policy is its financial director Jean Batista Kolbe (1619-1683). Colbert first straightened out the finances, supervised the tax collectors, and strived to make ends meet, so that the national treasury turned from deficit to surplus within one year. Colbert believes that in order to make France rich and strong, it is necessary to make foreign trade surplus, thus increasing the country's gold reserves. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage the development of national industry and commerce. Kolber implemented protective tariff policy to protect domestic industry. He encouraged the production of Venice mirrors and lace, English stockings, Dutch woolen cloth and German bronzes in France. He recruited foreign craftsmen and gave patents and various subsidies to business owners. During the reign of colbert, 45 handicraft workshops were established, which increased the number of handicraft workshops to 1 13. Kolber made the handicraft workshop regulations to punish unqualified products. He cancelled domestic checkpoints, improved roads and dug canals. He founded monopoly companies, including East India Company, West India Company, Levant Company and North Company, and gave these companies trade monopoly rights, which promoted the development of overseas trade. In order to establish the French world empire, colbert vigorously expanded its navy and competed for maritime hegemony. He built 1000 warships and merchant ships, and transformed port facilities such as Marseille, rochefort and le havre. During the reign of colbert, the French expanded overseas colonies, occupied local governance in India, occupied Louisiana in North America, and occupied the Madagascar coast in Africa and the Senegalese estuary.

This period is also a period when France frequently launched wars of external expansion. The rapid development of French industry and commerce during Louis XIV laid a solid material foundation for France's foreign war. Louis took advantage of the split between Germany and Italy, Spain and Portugal began to decline, Britain and the Netherlands became hostile, and successively launched wars against Spain, allied with augsburg (Netherlands, Austria and Brandenburg), and Spain succeeded to the throne.

The continuous foreign war consumed a lot of financial and human resources in France, the bloated bureaucracy spent money like water, the aristocratic life was luxurious, the national strength was constantly consumed, the national tax burden became heavier and heavier, and autocratic France began to decline rapidly.

Louis XV era

Louis XIV died in 17 15, and his great-grandson Louis XV (17 15- 1774) ascended the throne at the age of five, and was regent by the Duke of Orleans. The crisis of French absolutism during Louis XV was exposed. When Louis XIV died, he left behind 2.4 billion lithium bonds, of which 1/3 had expired. The national financial net income of 17 15 was only 69 million lithium, and the financial expenditure reached14.47 million lithium, so the national financial difficulties were numerous. 17 16 The national fiscal deficit is close to 1 100 million lithium. The government tried to collect fines in the name of cracking down on speculation and usury, but only got 10 million lithium.

In order to solve the financial difficulties, the Duke of Orleans used john law to carry out financial reform. John law is a Scottish banker. 17 16, he founded a private bank and issued bank notes, which are as effective as cash when paying state taxes. 17 18, John's bank was declared as a national bank, and its reputation was greatly improved. Both the government and nobles use this paper money to pay their debts. John law also issued shares of the West India Company, which enjoys the right to trade, colonize, grow and sell tobacco in the United States. This caused crazy speculation in France, and many people became nouveau riche. From then on, john law was promoted to finance minister on 1720. However, due to the lack of a solid economic foundation, this reform has plunged French finance into greater chaos. 1At the end of 720, the bank notes issued by john law Bank reached 3 billion lithium, while the bank's reserves were only 700 million lithium. After the news came out, it caused a frenzy of exchanging gold and silver. John law fled to other countries and the bank closed down. Many nobles and wealthy businessmen holding bank notes went bankrupt one after another. Although the government paid off most of its debts with bank notes, it had to restore the old financial system in this case, which caused dissatisfaction from all walks of life.

1723, Louis XV came to power, but the national finance did not improve. Louis XV was extravagant, and the annual palace expenditure accounted for one-third of the national fiscal revenue. Noble groups imitate the luxury of court life. Premier Fleuri once reformed finance, but he was unable to save the crisis. The lower classes live in poverty, and social class contradictions are sharp.

Louis XV inherited Louis XIV's expansion policy and launched foreign wars constantly. He successively participated in the wars of succession to the throne in Poland and Austria, all of which ended in failure, and withdrew from occupied Belgium, the Netherlands and other places. In the Seven Years' War (1756- 1763), France suffered a crushing defeat and lost its commercial stations in Canada, the Ohio River valley, Louisiana and Senegal. It also lost a large number of Indian colonies, leaving only five trading posts. The seven-year war established British colonial hegemony, while France's status as a powerful country was seriously damaged. The long-term foreign war consumed France's national strength and plunged France into the crisis of absolutism.

/kloc-socio-economic situation and class relations in France in the 0 th and 8 th centuries

/kloc-France in the 0/8th century was still a feudal and autocratic agricultural country. Most of the land in the country is concentrated in the hands of nobles and monks headed by the king. Farmers, who account for more than 95% of the country's population, are basically tenant farmers and cultivate the land of landlords. Although capitalist farms began to appear in the northeast of France from the beginning of18th century, on the whole, capitalist relations of production did not go deep into the countryside like Britain.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 8th century, French capitalism had developed to a considerable extent. In some cities and regions with relatively developed industries, such as Lyon, Orleans and alsace-lorraine, a large number of capitalist handicraft workshops have emerged, including scattered handicraft workshops with more than 1000 people and concentrated handicraft workshops with about 100 people. By the middle of18th century, some industrial sectors, such as mining and smelting, had begun to use advanced machines. In terms of trade, Rouen, Aix, Amiens, Bordeaux and many other cities were foreign trade centers at that time. France mainly exports alcohol and all kinds of luxury goods. Imported goods mainly include cotton, spices, leather, coffee and so on. Due to the developed industry and commerce, France has concentrated more than half of Europe's currency.

However, the development of French capitalist industry and commerce was hindered by feudal relations of production. In the development of French capitalism, financial capital has always been in a dominant position. Since16th century, tax system and national debt system have been the main means of primitive accumulation of capital. French financial capitalists have gained huge income by collecting various state taxes and lending money to the state, becoming the richest class in French society. However, since Louis XVI ascended the throne, in order to alleviate his financial crisis, he obtained money from financial capitalists by various means, which destroyed the cooperative relationship between the monarchy and the bourgeoisie since Louis xi and forced the big bourgeoisie represented by financial capitalists to embark on the road of opposing feudal autocracy. In the industrial sector, due to the existence of feudal guild system, a large number of handicraft workshops could not be transferred to handicraft workshops. Because the guild system protected by feudal system has strict restrictions on the number, production scale and technology of craftsmen and apprentices. A series of industrial laws and regulations enacted in the Louis XIV era, by the18th century, not only failed to promote the development of productive forces, but became the shackles of production development. It makes the development of French industry and technological progress difficult, and the existence of the remnants of feudal separatism makes the laws, weights and measures, monetary systems and so on different among provinces, which leads to the difficulties in business contacts between places. Under the cruel exploitation and oppression of feudal autocracy, farmers, who account for the vast majority of the country's population, are in abject poverty and their purchasing power level is extremely low, which makes the domestic market shrink day by day. /kloc-since the 0/8th century, France has suffered many wars and defeats in foreign wars. Not only has the national treasury been empty, the people are miserable, but also many overseas markets have been lost. During the only seven-year war, many French colonies in North America, including Canada and India, were occupied by Britain. Aristocrats at all levels, led by the French royal family, regarded French industry and commerce as an important source of wealth and levied extremely heavy industrial and commercial tax, which made most of the profits earned by workshop owners and businessmen flow into their hands, thus greatly limiting the accumulation of capital. All these make France's emerging capitalist relations of production in sharp contradiction with the old feudal relations of production.

Before the Great Revolution, France still maintained a strict feudal hierarchy. According to this system, all people are divided into three grades. The first rank is Catholic priests, the second rank is aristocrats, and the bourgeoisie, peasants, urban poor and employees of handicraft workshops constitute the third rank.

The Catholic Church is the main spiritual pillar of French feudal autocracy. In order to maintain the feudal autocratic system, the Catholic Church tried its best to publicize the rationality of feudal superstition and feudal system, and advocated that people should guard know life and not make any resistance. All "heretics" who opposed the Catholic Church and the feudal system were brutally persecuted. The Catholic Church opposes science, stifles knowledge and desperately promotes obscurantism. Therefore, to develop capitalism and emancipate people's minds, we must first eradicate the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is also the largest feudal owner in France. Church land accounts for110 of national land. Monks, like other feudal nobles, exploit farm labourers and extract feudal land rent. Most of the prelates were born in the nobility, mainly concentrated in the cities, and lived the same luxurious life as the nobles. However, most of the junior monks in the first grade were born in poverty. They have low income, poor living conditions, hostility to monks, and sympathy.

As a second-class aristocrat, there are two classes, one is a "noble with a sword" and the other is a "noble robe". The so-called sword aristocrats mainly refer to hereditary feudal nobles. Most of them are big noble, living in Versailles, far from their own territory, and living a very luxurious life by receiving annuities. Because of their privileges, they monopolized important positions in the army, government and church. Small and medium-sized aristocrats among the "sword-dancing aristocrats" have lived in the countryside for many years. Although they can't enjoy the luxury life like big noble, they directly exploit farmers and become the main representatives of rural feudal autocracy.

"Noble robes" are not hereditary nobles, and their titles of nobility are mainly bought with money. Therefore, most of them come from the bourgeoisie. "noblesse de robe" is mainly a judge of courts at all levels and can be handed down from generation to generation. They squeezed people's money by taking all the lawsuits, and they also lived a dissolute life. However, the "sword-wielding aristocrats" discriminated against them and did not allow them to enter and leave the court. Therefore, I am also dissatisfied with the "sword aristocrats".

The composition of the third level is more complicated. Among them, the bourgeoisie is divided into large, medium and small. The big bourgeoisie is mainly tax contractors, arms dealers, monopolists and bankers. These people are inextricably linked with the feudal autocratic government, and sometimes they spend money to buy titles and become "virtuous nobles". Therefore, they are unwilling to overthrow the autocratic government. However, because they did not have any political power, their property was not guaranteed by the feudal government, and their economic activities were often interfered by nobles or kings, so they opposed the revolution and demanded improvement, hoping to improve their political status by limiting the power of the king without touching their fundamental interests. The middle class is mainly handicraft workshop owners and ordinary businessmen. They were oppressed and blackmailed by the feudal autocratic government, and their desire to develop capitalist industry and commerce was greatly restricted. Therefore, they strongly demand the elimination of feudal system, the establishment of a bourgeois republic and the protection of capitalist free economy. These people constitute the * * * faction of the bourgeoisie.

The petty bourgeoisie is mainly urban residents. These people are mainly small traders and small workshop owners. These people not only oppose the oppression of the big bourgeoisie, but also hate the endless exploitation of them by the feudal autocratic regime. But they also oppose the proletarians, fearing that the revolution will make them get rid of their old political and economic status, thus endangering their interests.

The largest number of students in grade three are farmers. They were brutally exploited by feudalism, and they had to pay not only land rent, but also various exorbitant taxes and levies to the landlords. In addition, they must pay income tax (land tax on income 1/20), poll tax and land tax to the king; Pay tithes to the church. After layers of exploitation, there are few farmers left and it is difficult to maintain food and clothing. /kloc-In the late 8th century, France entered a period of "feudal reaction" in history. The king resumed the corvee of farmers building roads and barracks. Landlords tried their best to raise feudal land rent, and at the same time seized the public land of rural communes, making farmers more poor and miserable. On the eve of the French Revolution, among the 23 million peasants in France, 6.5438+0.5 million were beggars. Therefore, in the third level, the peasant class hates feudal autocracy most and is full of revolutionary spirit. Although there are contradictions among the classes in the third class, they are consistent in opposing the feudal system. Therefore, the contradiction between the third class and the monks and nobles headed by the king is irreconcilable and can only be solved through violent revolution.

the Enlightenment

/kloc-The French Enlightenment in the 0/8th century was developed to meet the needs of the bourgeoisie and the broad masses of lower working people against feudal autocracy. This is an ideological emancipation movement initiated by some bourgeois thinkers, aiming at liberating people from the shackles of feudal autocracy and religious theology. They lashed out at feudal autocracy and the decadent reaction of the church, accusing the feudal aristocracy headed by the king of possessing all the wealth of society, while others groaned in extreme poverty. They oppose religious superstition and point out that God does not exist, that the Bible is fabricated, and that the miracle of Revelation is a lie made up by priests at will. They preach the liberation of personality and demand all the freedoms that people should have. At the same time, the enlightenment thinkers demonstrated the necessity of destroying the feudal system, advocated social reform, and outlined a beautiful picture of the future society.

/kloc-The Enlightenment in the 0/7th century was developed on the basis of rationalism. Descartes is a representative of rationalist philosophy. Although his philosophical thought is idealistic, it is of great progressive significance for him to replace the revelation of God with reason and the blind worship of God with analysis to break the spiritual and cultural monopoly of the Catholic Church. Thinkers put forward the principle of replacing authority and tradition with reason, and put forward that everything in the past, including the old traditional religion and state power, should be studied and criticized with reason. This rationality and critical spirit are the most prominent features of the Enlightenment. In addition, the occurrence of the Enlightenment was also influenced by the natural power theory, social contract theory and decentralization theory developed in Europe in the18th century. Enlightenment played an important role in promoting the outbreak of bourgeois revolution and attracting the broad masses of people to participate in the revolution. It also made the French Revolution different from the British Revolution, completely throwing away the cloak of religion and taking the form of open political struggle.

The pioneers and founders of the Enlightenment were Voltaire (1694-1778) and Montesquieu (1689-1775). Their theory reflects the requirements of the big bourgeoisie, belongs to bourgeois moderates, and becomes the guiding ideology for the big bourgeoisie to establish a constitutional monarchy during the Great Revolution.

Voltaire was originally named Fran? ois Marie Arouet. His works are very rich, involving politics, philosophy, literature, history and natural science. His representative works mainly include Dictionary of Philosophy, The Age of Louis XIV, On the Customs and Spirits of Various Nationalities, etc. Voltaire mercilessly criticized the Catholic Church as the spiritual pillar of the feudal system, put forward the slogan of "removing ugliness", openly opposed the religious superstition, religious persecution, people's ignorance and various social ills caused by the church, and pointed out that the root of all these ills lies in the deception of the Catholic Church. He denounced the Catholic Church as a "nine-headed bird" and the Pope as a "liar". Catholic priests are "civilized villains". Politically, he advocated imitating the British constitutional monarchy, giving natural human rights to the people, equality before the law, abolition of privileges and restriction of royal power. However, because he stood on the position of the big bourgeoisie, he was often in contradiction in his thoughts. On the one hand, he criticized the Catholic Church, but he believed that social inequality was an unchangeable phenomenon. On the other hand, he advocated returning the "natural human rights" to the people, but he believed that the people were incapable of managing their own "mobs" and needed the care of "smart people". The duality of Voltaire's social and political views reflects the ambiguity and compromise attitude of the big bourgeoisie in the struggle against feudal autocracy.

Montesquieu was born into a noble family and served as a judge of the local high court. His major works include On the Spirit of Law, Letters from Persians, On the Reasons for the Rise and Fall of Rome, etc. Montesquieu, like Voltaire, resolutely opposed the ideological autocracy of the Catholic Church. In his works, he mercilessly criticized and mocked the cruelty and incompetence of the Catholic church and the church. At the same time, he also strongly opposed the tyranny and cruelty of the privileged class. However, he did not advocate the abolition of kingship, and thought that France should follow the example of Britain and establish a constitutional monarchy. All his political views are embodied in his book On the Spirit of Law. In this book, Montesquieu believes that the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers can limit the royal power, so there is no need for revolution to achieve this goal. This idea was later used by constitutional monarchists in the Great Revolution and embodied in the Declaration of Human Rights and 179 1 Constitution.

In the Enlightenment, the thinkers representing the middle class were the encyclopedic and physiocratic economists Quesnay. The main representatives of Encyclopedia School are Diderot (17 13- 1784), Holbach (1723- 1789) and helvetius (17/kloc-0). The Encyclopedia of Science, Art and Technology edited by Diderot reflects all their political and ideological views, so it is called "Encyclopedia School". Encyclopedia is the most representative of materialism and atheism in the French Revolution in the16th century. However, their materialism is mechanical and metaphysical. They think that nature is material and there is no supernatural God. By publishing encyclopedias, they teach people natural science and cultural knowledge, expose the absurdity of religious feudal superstition, criticize the ignorance and cruelty of Catholic churches and priests, and point out that religion is used to raise the price of kings and oppress people. When discussing social phenomena, they hold that the feudal system is inhuman and the capitalist system is a reasonable political system for human beings from the viewpoint of mechanical materialism. From this point of view, they proposed to limit the royal power to a minimum, in other words, to implement a constitutional monarchy, but revolutionary means were not necessary. Quesnay (1694— 1774) is one of the representatives of classical political economy, and his main works are Economic Table. He is the first economist to systematically understand and analyze the problem of surplus value in the process of capitalist production. He highly praised the bourgeois thought of economic freedom and creatively discussed the theory of reproduction.

Rousseau (1712-1778) was a thinker who represented the interests of the petty bourgeoisie in the Enlightenment. Rousseau was born in the home of a watchmaker in Geneva. In his early years, due to his poor family, he lived a wandering life and deeply realized the sufferings and feelings of the lower classes. So his thoughts are more radical and revolutionary. His representative works mainly include Emily, On Social Contract, On the Roots and Foundations of Human Inequality, Confessions and so on. Rousseau believes that private property is the root of human inequality and all evil and misfortune. Therefore, in his works, he strongly criticized the inequality between the rich and the poor in society. But Rousseau does not advocate the elimination of private ownership, but hopes to achieve the goal of economic equality by retaining small private ownership. In political thought, he put forward the theory of "social contract" and "sovereignty belongs to the people". He believes that in order to maintain the freedom and equality of human society, the state should be established according to the principle of social contract. He pointed out that the king is not the master of the people, but the servant of the people, and the people can replace incompetent servants according to their own wishes. "Sovereignty lies with the people" is the basic principle in Rousseau's political thought. Rousseau, unlike Voltaire and Montesquieu, strongly advocated overthrowing the absolute monarchy and establishing a democratic republic. Rousseau's thoughts had a great influence on jacobins during the Great Revolution.

In the Enlightenment, there were also a group of thinkers who reflected the revolutionary demands of the lower class. The most representative thinkers are Meriye (1664- 1729), Marbury (1700- 1785) and Molleri (date of birth is unknown). The thoughts of these thinkers are obviously mechanical materialism and utopian productism. In her masterpiece "Suicide Letter", Mei Yeli denounced private ownership, pointing out that private ownership and social inequality are the root of all evils, and called priests, speculators and officials "rich slackers" and feudal landlords "devils". He advocates that everyone should do something beneficial to society and that social wealth should be enjoyed by the public. Call on the people to rise up for revolution and overthrow the feudal autocracy. In his book Natural Code, Morelj proposed to eliminate private ownership and establish a capitalist society where everyone is equal. However, he did not advocate achieving this goal through revolution, but believed that his idea could be realized as long as social prejudice and fallacies were eliminated. Marbury's view is roughly the same as Meyrier's. He believes that only by eliminating social inequality can tyranny and evil be eliminated. In his two books, On the Rule of Law or Principles of Law and On the Rights and Duties of Citizens, mably described the picture of his ideal country: in this country, "everyone is equal, everyone is free, everyone is a brother, and the prohibition of possession of property is the first law in this country". However, he proposed unrealistically that this ideal country could not be established under the social conditions at that time, and could only be built on an uninhabited island. This utopian thought is a side reflection of the despair of the working people in society at that time.

Because of the Enlightenment, the18th century was called the "Enlightenment Age". The Enlightenment is the second ideological emancipation movement after the Renaissance, which was carried out on the basis of higher rationalism. Under the banner of rationalism, the enlightenment thinkers put the sacred cloaks of feudal autocracy-Catholicism and Catholic Church, and all activities carried out by the feudal ruling class under the cover of this sacred cloak on the scale of rationalism for people to think and judge for themselves, thus exposing its hypocrisy and deception. The philosophical premise of the Enlightenment is that society should be based on the laws of nature. Enlightenment thinkers put forward that since there is no privilege of God, people are born equal and free, and the pursuit of happiness and survival is everyone's inalienable right. This idea of confronting and denying feudal privileges with human natural rights is the most important contribution of the Enlightenment to mankind. The Enlightenment also played an important role in advocating science and opposing obscurantism. Voltaire, Diderot and others are fanatical advocates and propagandists of natural science while opposing feudal autocracy. Enlightenment thinkers were full of confidence in the victory of the third class and drew a beautiful blueprint for the new society in the future, thus making full ideological preparations for the arrival of the French Revolution. Mobilizing the people to join the revolution played an extremely important role in promoting the development of the French Revolution. Although their thoughts reflect the requirements of different political and class factions, as far as the whole process of the French Revolution is concerned, traces of the influence of enlightenment thinkers can be found in every stage. At the same time, the Enlightenment in France also had different degrees of influence on the bourgeois revolution in Europe and America.