FRENCH
REVOLUTION
French Revolution, also called Revolution of 1789, the revolutionary movement that shook France between
1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789. Hence the
conventional term “Revolution of 1789,” denoting the end of the ancient regime in France and serving also to distinguish that event
from the later French revolutions of 1830 and 1848.
The causes of the French Revolution are
complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and
the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt and
attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes.
Years of bad harvests leading up to the
Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and
the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals
and caused the convocation of
the Estates-General in
May 1789.
The first year of the Revolution saw members
of the Third
Estate taking control, the assault on the Bastille in
July, the passage of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in
August, and a women's
march on Versailles that forced the royal court
back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage was the
abolition of feudalism and the old rules, taxes,
courts and privileges left over from the age of feudalism on
4 August 1789.
The next stage was dominated by struggles
between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters
of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was
proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to international
condemnation, King Louis XVI was executed on
21 January 1793.
Financial crisis
Louis
XVI ascended to the throne amidst a financial crisis;
the state was nearing bankruptcy and outlays outpaced income.[9] This was because of France’s financial
obligations stemming from involvement in the Seven Years' War and its
participation in the American
Revolutionary War.[10] In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was
dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms.
Estates-General of 1789
The Estates-General was organized into
three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the rest of France. It last met in
1614. Elections were held in the spring of 1789; suffrage requirements for the
Third Estate were for French-born or naturalised males, aged 25 years or more,
who resided where the vote was to take place and who paid taxes. Strong turnout
produced 1,201 delegates, including 303 clergy, 291 nobles and 610 members of
the Third Estate.
The First Estate represented 100,000
Catholic clergy; the Church owned about 10% of the land and collected its own
taxes (the tithe) on peasants. The Second Estate represented the
nobility, about 400,000 men and women who owned about 25% of the land and collected
seigneurial dues and rents from their peasant tenants. The Third Estate
representation was doubled to 610 men, representing 95% of the population. Half
were well educated lawyers or local officials. Nearly a third were in trades or
industry; 51 were wealthy land owners.
Constitutional Monarchy
Abolition of feudalism
On the
night of 4 August 1789, the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism
in the August Decrees, suppressed
the old “orders,” established civil equality among men (at least in
metropolitan France, since slavery was retained in the colonies), and made more
than half the adult male population eligible to vote, although only a small
minority met the requirement for becoming a deputy.
Writing the first constitution
Necker, Mounier, Lally-Tollendal and
others argued unsuccessfully for a senate, with members appointed by the crown
on the nomination of the people. The bulk of the nobles argued for an
aristocratic upper house elected
by the nobles. The popular party carried the day: France would have a single,
unicameral assembly. The King retained only a "suspensive veto"; he could delay the implementation of a
law, but not block it absolutely. The Assembly eventually replaced the historic provinces with
83 départements,uniformly administered and roughly equal in area
and population
Women's March on Versailles
The women were responding to the harsh
economic situations they faced, especially bread shortages. They also demanded
an end to royal efforts to block the National Assembly, and for the King and
his administration to move to Paris as a sign of good faith in addressing the
widespread poverty.
Getting unsatisfactory responses from
city officials, as many as 7,000 women joined the march to Versailles, bringing
with them cannons and a variety of smaller weapons.
On 6 October 1789, the King and the
royal family moved from Versailles to Paris under the "protection" of
the National Guards, thus legitimizing the National Assembly.
Revolution and the Church
The
Revolution caused a massive shift of power from the Roman Catholic Church to
the state
The
Church was exempt from paying taxes to the government, while it levied a tithe—a 10% tax on income, often collected in the form of crops—on
the general population, only a fraction of which it then redistributed to the
poor
This
resentment toward the Church weakened its power during the opening of the Estates General in May 1789. The Church composed the First Estate with 130,000 members of the clergy. When the National Assembly was later created in June 1789 by the Third Estate, the
clergy voted to join them, which perpetuated the destruction of the Estates
General as a governing body. The National Assembly began to enact social and economic
reform.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed on 12 July 1790, turned the remaining clergy into
employees of the state. This established an election system for parish priests
and bishops and set a pay rate for the clergy. Many Catholics objected to the
election system because it effectively denied the authority of the Pope in Rome
over the French Church. Eventually, in November 1790, the National Assembly
began to require an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution from all the
members of the clergy.
During
the Reign of Terror, extreme efforts of de-Christianization ensued, including
the imprisonment and massacre of priests and destruction of churches and
religious images throughout France. An effort was made to replace the Catholic
Church altogether, with civic festivals replacing religious ones.
Completing the constitution
As most
of the Assembly still favoured a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, the various groups reached a
compromise which left Louis XVI as little more than a figurehead: he was forced
to swear an oath to the constitution, and a decree declared that retracting the
oath, heading an army for the purpose of making war upon the nation, or
permitting anyone to do so in his name would amount to abdication.
The
French Revolution in Action
• Leaders of the Third Estate outlined their desire for basic human
rights with the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” in 1789
• Maximillian Robespierre assumed a major leadership role in the French
Revolution
• Facing repression from the crown, hundreds of French citizens
destroyed the Bastille in July of 1789
• The more radical faction of the Revolution, known as the Jacobins,
assumed power
• Many French commoners took to the streets to demand change; the
monarchs tried to escape but were driven back to Paris in 1791 to face trial
Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)
Prelude
to the French Revolution: Monarchy in Crisis
As the 18th century drew to a
close, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution and
extravagant spending by King Louis XVI (1754-1793) and his predecessor had left
the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers
depleted, but two decades of poor cereal harvests, drought, cattle disease and
skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor.
Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed
heavy taxes yet failed to provide relief by rioting, looting and striking.
The Bastille and the Great Fear
Shortly after the National Assembly formed, its members took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing that they would not relent in their efforts until a new constitution had been agreed upon. The National Assembly’s revolutionary spirit galvanized France, manifesting in a number of different ways. In Paris, citizens stormed the city’s largest prison, the Bastille, in pursuit of arms. In the countryside, peasants and farmers revolted against their feudal contracts by attacking the manors and estates of their landlords. Dubbed the “Great Fear,” these rural attacks continued until the early August issuing of the August Decrees, which freed those peasants from their oppressive contracts. Shortly thereafter, the assembly released theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which established a proper judicial code and the autonomy of the French people.
Reign
of Terror
reign of Terror, also
called The Terror, French La Terreur, the period of the French Revolution from Sept.
5, 1793, to July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor, year II). Caught up in civil and
foreign war, the Revolutionary government decided to make “Terror” the order of
the day (September 5 decree) and to take harsh measures against those suspected
of being enemies of the Revolution (nobles, priests, hoarders). In Paris a wave
of executions followed. In the provinces, representatives on mission and
surveillance committees instituted local terrors. The Terror had an economic
side embodied in the Maximum, a price-control measure demanded by the lower
classes of Paris, and a religious side that was embodied in the program of
dechristianization pursued by the followers of Jacques Hébert.
During
the Terror, the Committee of Public Safety (of which Robespierre was the most prominent member) exercised
virtual dictatorial control over French government. In the spring of 1794, it
eliminated its enemies to the left (the Hébertists) and to the right (the
Indulgents, or followers of Georges Danton). Still uncertain of its
position, the committee obtained the Law of 22 Prairial, year II (June 10,
1794), which suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal
assistance and left the jury only a choice between acquittal and death. The
“Great Terror” that followed, in which about 1,400 persons were executed,
contributed to the fall of Robespierre on July 27 (9 Thermidor).
During
the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were
officially executed, and many died in prison or without trial.
The Directory (1795–1799)
The new constitution created the Directoire (English:
Directory) with a bicameral
legislature.
Power was in the hands of the five members of the Directory, only one of whom,Lazare Carnot, has a reputation for leadership or political
sagacity
It
included a bicameral legislature known as the Corps Législatif. The lower
house, orCouncil of Five Hundred (Conseil de Cinq-Cents), consisted of
500 delegates, 30 years of age or over, who proposed legislation; the Council of Ancients (Conseil des Anciens), consisted of
250 delegates, 40 years of age or over, who held the power to accept or veto
the proposed legislation. The Ancients also picked the executive—the five
Directors (Directeurs)—from lists drawn up by the Five Hundred. A Director had
to be at least 40 years old and to have formerly served as a deputy or
minister; a new one was chosen each year, on rotation. The Directors chose
government ministers, ambassadors, army generals, tax collectors, and other
officials. However, though nominally inheriting many of the centralized powers
of the former Committee of Public Safety, they had no
funds to finance their projects or courts to enforce their will. The Directory
was a fatal experiment in weak executive powers; it was created in reaction to
the puritanical dictatorship that had existed under the Reign of Terror of 1793–94, and it would end up
yielding to the more disciplined dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Directory suffered from widespread corruption. Its
policies aimed at protecting the positions of those who had supported the
Revolution and preventing the return of the Bourbons. Despite its unsavory
reputation, it consolidated many of the achievements of the National Convention, such as the
creation of a system of elite centralized schools, thegrandes écoles. The
French economy recovered from the disruption caused by the Terror, and the
successes of the French armies laid the basis for the conquests of the
Napoleonic period.
