French Revolution

Destruction of the Symbols of the Monarchy, Place de la Concorde, August JO, 1793, an oil painting on canvas by Pierre-Antoine Demachy; Musee Carnavalet, Paris.

Hatred of the monarchy in France increased because of King Louis XVI's efforts to end the revolution. Louis was exe­cuted on Jan. 21, 1793, and the revolution became more ex­treme. About seven months later, a crowd in Paris burned a crown and a throne that had belonged to the king.

The Death of Marat i1793), an oil painting on canvas by Jacques Louis David; The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium.

The death of Marat spurred on the Reign of Terror. Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, fatally stabbed the Jacobin leader while he took a bath.

French Revolution brought about great changes in the society and government of France. The revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, also had far-reaching ef­fects on the rest of Europe. It introduced democratic ideals to France but did not make the nation a democ­racy. However, it ended supreme rule by French kings and strengthened the middle class. After the revolution began, no European kings, nobles, or other privileged groups could ever again take their powers for granted or ignore the ideals of liberty and equality.

The revolution began with a government financial cri­sis but quickly became a movement of reform and vio­lent change. In one of the early events, a crowd in Paris captured the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, which had become a symbol of oppression. A series of elected legislatures then took control of the government. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed. Thousands of others met the same fate in a period called the Reign of Terror. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general, took over the government.

Background. Various social, political, and economic conditions led to the revolution in France. These condi­tions included much dissatisfaction among the lower and middle classes, interest in new ideas about govern­ment, and financial problems caused by the costs of wars.

Legal divisions among social groups that had existed for hundreds of years created much discontent. Accord­ing to the law, French society consisted of three groups called estates. Members of the clergy made up the first estate, nobles the second, and the rest of the people the third. The peasants, who earned very little, formed the largest group in the third estate. The third estate also in­cluded the working people of the cities and a large and prosperous middle class made up chiefly of merchants, lawyers, and government officials.

The third estate resented certain advantages of the first two estates. The clergy and nobles did not have to pay most taxes. The third estate had to provide almost all the country's tax revenue. Many members of the mid­dle class were also troubled by their social status. They were among the most economically important people in French society but were not recognized as such be­cause they belonged to the third estate.

The new ideas about government challenged France's absplute monarchy. Under this system, the king had al­most unlimited authority. Fie governed by divine right— that is, the monarch's right to rule was thought to come from God. There were checks on the king, but these came mainly from a few groups of aristocrats in the par- lements (high courts). During the 1700s, French writers called philosophes and philosophers from other coun­tries raised new ideas about freedom. Some of these

thinkers, including Jean Jacques Rousseau, suggested that the right to govern came from the people.

The financial crisis developed because France had gone deeply into debt to finance fighting in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783). By 1788, the government was almost bank­rupt. The Parlement of Paris insisted that King Louis XVI could borrow more money or raise taxes only by calling a meeting of the Estates-Ceneral. This body, also called States-Ceneral, was made up of representatives of the three estates, and had last met in 1614. Unwillingly, the king called the meeting.

The revolution begins. The States-General opened on May 5,1789, at Versailles, near Paris. Most members of the first two estates wanted each of the three estates to take up matters and vote on them separately by es­tate. The third estate had as many representatives as the other two estates combined. It insisted that all the es­tates be merged into one national assembly and that each representative have one vote. The third estate also wanted the States-General to write a constitution.

The king and the first two estates refused the de­mands of the third estate. In June 1789, the representa­tives of the third estate declared themselves the Na­tional Assembly of France. They gathered at a tennis court and pledged not to disband until they had written a constitution. This vow became known as the Oath of the Tennis Court. Louis XVI then allowed the three es­tates to join together as the National Assembly. But he began to gather troops around Paris to break up the As­sembly.

Meanwhile, the masses of France also took action. On July 14,1789, a huge crowd of Parisians rushed to the Bastille. They believed they would find arms and ammu­nition there for use in defending themselves against the king's army. The people captured the Bastille and began to tear it down. At the same time, leaders in Paris formed a revolutionary city government. Massive peas­ant uprisings against nobles also broke out in the coun­tryside. A few nobles decided to flee France, and many more followed during the next five years. These people

were called emigres because they emigrated. The upris­ings in town and countryside saved the National Assem­bly from being disbanded by the king.

The National Assembly. In August 1789, the Assem­bly adopted the Decrees of August 4 and the Declara­tion of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The decrees abolished some feudal dues that the peasants owed their landlords, the tax advantages of the clergy and no­bles, and regional privileges. The declaration guaran­teed the same basic rights to all citizens, including "lib­erty, property, security, and resistance to oppression," as well as representative government.

The Assembly later drafted a constitution that made France a limited monarchy with a one-house legislature. France was divided into 83 regions called departments, each with elected councils for local government. But the right to vote and hold public office was limited to citi­zens who paid a certain amount in taxes.

The Assembly seized the property of the Roman Cath­olic Church. The church lands amounted to about a tenth of the country's land. Much of the church land was sold to rich peasants and members of the middle class. Money from the land sales was used to pay some of the nation's huge debt. The Assembly then reorganized the Catholic Church in France, required the election of priests and bishops by the voters, and closed the Church's monasteries and convents. Complete religious tolerance was extended to Protestants and Jews. The As­sembly also reformed the court system by requiring the election of judges. By September 1791, the National As­sembly believed that the revolution was over. It dis­banded at the end of the month to make way for the newly elected Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly. The new Assembly, made up mainly of representatives of the middle class, opened on Oct. 1,1791. It soon faced several challenges. The government's stability depended on cooperation between the king and the legislature. But Louis XVI re­mained opposed to the revolution. He asked other rul­ers for help in stopping it, and plotted with aristocrats and emigres to overthrow the new government. In addi­tion, public opinion became bitterly divided. The revolu­tion's religious policy angered many Catholics. Other people demanded stronger measures against oppo­nents of the revolution.

The new government also faced a foreign threat. In April 1792, it went to war against Austria and Prussia. These countries wished to restore the powers of the king and emigres. The foreign armies defeated French forces in the early fighting and invaded France. Louis XVI and his supporters clearly hoped for the victory of the invaders. As a result, angry revolutionaries in Paris and other areas demanded that the king be dethroned.

In August 1792, the people of Paris imprisoned Louis XV! and his family. Louis's removal ended the constitu­tional monarchy. The Assembly then called fora Na­tional Convention to be elected on the basis of universal adult male suffrage, and for a new constitution.

Meanwhile, French armies suffered more military de­feats. Parisians feared that the invading armies would soon reach the city. Parisians also feared an uprising by the large number of people in the city's prisons. In the first week of September, small numbers of Parisians took the law into their own hands and executed more than 1,000 prisoners. These executions, called the Sep­tember Massacres, turned many people in France and Europe against the revolution. A victory by the French Army at Valmy on September 20 helped end the crisis.

The National Convention. The king's removal led to a new stage in the revolution. The first stage had been a liberal middle-class reform movement based on a con­stitutional monarchy. The second stage was organized around principles of democracy. The National Conven­tion, chosen through an election open to nearly all adult French males, opened on Sept. 21,1792, and declared France a republic. The republic's official slogan was "Lib­erty, Equality, Fraternity."

Louis XVI was placed on trial for betraying the coun­try. The National Convention found him guilty of trea­son, and a slim majority voted for the death penalty. The king was beheaded on the guillotine on Jan. 21,1793.

The revolution gradually grew more radical—that is, more open to extreme and violent change. Radical lead­ers came into prominence. In the Convention, they were known as the Mountain because they sat on the high benches at the rear of the hall. Leaders of the Mountain were Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Jacques Danton, and Jean Paul Marat. Their bitter opponents were known as the Gironde because several came from a department of that name. The majority of the deputies in the Con­vention was known as the Plain. The Mountain domi­nated a powerful political club called the Jacobin Club.

Growing disputes between the Mountain and the Gi­ronde led to a struggle for power, and the Mountain won. In June 1793, the Convention expelled and arrested the leading Girondists. In turn, the Girondists' support­ers rebelled against the Convention. Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, assassinated Jean Paul Marat in July 1793. In time, the Convention's forces defeated the Girondists' supporters. The Jacobin leaders created a new citizens' army to fight rebellion in France and a war against other European countries. Compulsory military service provided the troops, and rapid promotion of tal­ented soldiers provided the leadership for this strong army.

Terror and equality. The Jacobin government was both dictatorial and democratic. It was dictatorial be­cause it suspended civil rights and political freedom during the emergency. The Convention's Committee of Public Safety took over actual rule of France, controlling local governments, the armed forces, and other institu­tions.

The committee governed during the most terrible pe­riod of the revolution. Its leaders included Robespierre, Lazare Carnot, and Bertrand Barere. The Convention de­clared a policy of terror against rebels, supporters of the king or the Gironde, and anyone else who publicly disagreed with official policy.

In time, hundreds of thousands of suspects filled the nation's jails. Courts handed down about 18,000 death sentences in what was called the Reign of Terror. Paris became accustomed to the rattle of two-wheeled carts called tumbrels as they carried people to the guillotine. Victims of this period included Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI.

The Jacobins, however, also followed democratic principles and extended the benefits of the revolution beyond the middle class. Shopkeepers, peasants, and other workers actively participated in political life for the first time. The Convention authorized public assist­ance for the poor, free primary education for boys and girls, price controls to protect consumers from rapid in­flation, and taxes based on income. It also called for the abolition of slavery in France's colonies. Most of these reforms, however, were never fully carried out because of later changes in the government.

The revolution ends. In time, the radicals began to struggle for power among themselves. Robespierre suc­ceeded in having Danton and other former leaders exe­cuted. Many people in France wished to end the Reign of Terror, the Jacobin dictatorship, and the democratic revolution. Robespierre's enemies in the Convention fi­nally attacked him as a tyrant on July 27 (9 Thermidor by the new French calendar), 1794. He was executed the next day. The Reign of Terror ended after Robespierre's death. Conservatives gained control of the Convention and drove the Jacobins from power. Most of the demo­cratic reforms of the past two years were quickly abol­ished in what became known as the Thermidorian Reac­tion.

The Convention, which had adopted a democratic constitution in 1793, replaced that document with a new one in 1795. The government formed under this consti­tution was called the Directory, referring to the five-man executive directory that governed along with a two- house legislature. France was still a republic, but once again only citizens who paid a certain amount in taxes could vote.

Meanwhile, France was winning victories on the bat­tlefield. French armies had pushed back the invaders and crossed into Belgium, Germany, and Italy.

The Directory began meeting in October 1795. But it was troubled by war, economic problems, and opposi­tion from supporters of monarchy and former Jacobins. In October 1799, a number of political leaders plotted to overthrow the Directory. They needed military support and turned to Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general who had become a hero in a military campaign in Italy in 1796 and 1797. Bonaparte seized control of the gov­ernment on Nov. 9 (18 Brumaire in the revolutionary cal­endar), 1799, ending the revolution.

The French Revolution brought France into opposi­tion with much of Europe. The monarchs who ruled the other countries feared the spread of democratic ideals. The revolution left the French people in extreme dis­agreement about the best form of government for their country. By 1799, most were probably weary of political conflict altogether. But the revolution created the long- lasting foundations for a unified state, a strong central government, and a free society dominated by the mid­dle class and the landowners.

Related articles:

Biographies

Corday, Charlotte

Danton, Georges Jacques

Du Barry, Madame

Lafayette, Marquis de

Louis (XVI)

Marat, Jean Paul

Marie Antoinette

Mirabeau, Comte de

Napoleon I

Robespierre

Roland de la Platiere, M. J.

Sieyes, Emmanuel Joseph

Talleyrand

Background and causes

Bastille

Divine right of kings

Estates-General

Rights of Man, Declaration of the Rousseau, Jean J.

Versailles

The revolution

Emigres

Girondiss

Guillotine

Jacobins

Marseillaise

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