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French Revolution

The period 1789–1799 that saw the end of the monarchy in France. The revolution began as an attempt to create a constitutional monarchy, where the powers of the king would be limited by a parliament. By late 1792, however, demands for long-overdue reforms resulted in the proclamation of the First Republic and the execution of King Louis XVI in January 1973. The violence of the revolution, attacks by other nations, and bitter factional struggles, riots, and counter-revolutionary uprisings across France severely weakened the republic. This helped bring the extremists to power, and the bloody Reign of Terror followed. French armies then succeeded in holding off their foreign enemies and one of the generals, Napoleon Bonaparte, seized power in 1799.

The States General

In the decades before the French Revolution, France was involved in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) and the American Revolution (1775–1783), also known as the War of American Independence. The cost of these wars brought about a financial crisis. The French government did not have the money to pay for the wars, so borrowed large amounts of money at high rates of interest to finance them. By 1787 it was clear that the French monarchy and government was bankrupt, and King Louis XVI and his government were forced to seek new solutions to their problems.

In 1788 King Louis XVI decided to summon the States General (three ‘estates’ of clergy (first), nobles (second), and commons (third)) in order to raise taxes. It was the first time that the States General had been called since 1614, indicating major weakness in the monarchy. By calling the States General, King Louis XVI was admitting that the monarchy was in a desperate position, leaving him at the mercy of his enemies in France.

The States General met in May 1789. During the meeting, the representatives of the third estate (all the people of France who were neither nobles nor Catholic priests) insisted that the three estates should be merged into a single national assembly. The demand was designed to force the king to recognize the rights of the French nation and people. Priests from the first estate soon joined the deputies of the third estate, along with many liberal-minded nobles from the second estate. When Louis XVI tried to lock the doors of the National Assembly hall, the deputies met in a nearby tennis court, and issued the ‘Tennis Court Oath’. In this statement they swore that they would never stop meeting until Louis XVI recognized their rights.

Louis was forced to back down and accept the existence of the National Assembly. At the same time, however, large numbers of soldiers were gathering on the hills surrounding Paris. Their intentions were unclear, but the people of Paris were unlikely to believe that their king was entirely peaceful towards them. The combination of the attempt to stop the creation of a national assembly and the presence of troops around Paris created a highly tense atmosphere in Paris by the second week of July 1789.

The National Assembly

Louis's actions led to the storming of the Bastille prison by the Paris mob on 14 July 1789. On the same day the price of bread in Paris had reached its highest ever level. The Bastille was the symbol of the repressive power of the monarchy. It was also believed to hold ammunition that would allow the Parisians to defend themselves against the king's soldiers. The storming of the Bastille was followed by the formation of a revolutionary city government in Paris, known as the Paris Commune, and a number of peasant uprisings outside Paris.

In August the National Assembly introduced the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen’, which contained the ideas of liberty and equality; the right to own property; and the right of all citizens to resist oppressive treatment. The king refused to agree to the Declaration, however, and in October there were more uprisings in Paris. In 1791 the royal family attempted to flee the country in the ‘flight of Varennes’, but Louis XVI was captured and was later forced to accept a new constitution.

The constitution of 1791

The new constitution established a constitutional monarchy. It reduced Louis's powers and gave authority over lawmaking and financial matters to the National Assembly. Power had passed from the hands of the monarchy to the representatives of the French people. Under the constitution, France was reorganized into 83 départements. This was for the purposes of efficiency and to mark a break with the past. The constitution also reformed the court system by abolishing the old parlements which had been dominated by the nobility. It also gave government control over the Roman Catholic Church by requiring both judges and priests to be elected to office, as well as extending religious tolerance to Protestants and Jews. The National Assembly also took ownership of much of the Catholic Church's vast lands and property, which were sold off in order to pay off the nation's debts.

War with Austria and Prussia

During this period some of the aristocracy moved abroad, and tried to encourage other nations to fight against the revolutionary government. These aristocrats were known as émigrés, and many settled in Prussian (German) towns in the Rhineland. They used their fortunes to raise armies and produce propaganda pamphlets against the revolution. They wanted to get the Prussians and Austrians to launch a war to restore Louis XVI and the monarchy to its pre-1789 position in France. The émigrés were particularly confident of getting the Austrians to attack the revolution, as the Austrian emperor, Joseph II, was the brother of Marie Antoinette, the French queen.

The revolution's supporters outside France were also suffering increased attack, and France eventually went to war with Austria and Prussia (who supported Louis XVI) on 20 April 1792. The Austrian and Prussian armies invaded France, and for a time the war threatened to destroy the revolution. The armies of the revolution lost every battle they fought with the Austrians and Prussians, and it seemed inevitable that Paris and the revolution would soon fall. By 2 September 1792 the Austrians had captured the fortress at Verdun and the road to Paris was open to them.

However, on 10 August the Paris mob had stormed the Tuileries Palace, where Louis XVI had been living, and had imprisoned the king and his family. The constitutional monarchy established by the 1791 constitution was brought to an end. On 20 September 1792 the French won a crucial victory at the Battle of Valmy and effectively saved the revolution. A National Convention had been formed by election and, on 21 September, the Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Louis XVI was put on trial, found guilty of treason, and executed at the guillotine on 21 January 1793.

The Reign of Terror

In the period after Louis XVI's death, tensions within the National Convention resulted in a power struggle between the moderate Girondins and the more radical Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Jaques Danton, and Jean Paul Marat. The Jacobins arrested the Girondin leaders in June 1793, and control of the country was passed to the infamous Committee of Public Safety, which was headed by Robespierre, Lazare Carnot, and Bertrand Barère. The committee announced a policy of terror against all those seen as rebels or opponents of the revolution, supporters of the king, and Girondin sympathizers. During the Reign of Terror, an estimated 18,000 citizens were sent to the guillotine (though figures vary), and many more died in prison without being formally brought to trial. One of the more famous victims of the Terror was Marie Antoinette, the widow of Louis XVI.

The Revolutionary Government introduced many other radical policies during the period 1792 to 1794. Attempts were made to destroy the Catholic Church once and for all in France, and to replace it with a new ‘Cult of the Supreme Being’. The Revolution attempted to move away from the dating of events from the birth of Jesus by introducing its own calendar starting at the Year I. It also abolished the months and days of the week, replacing them with 10-day weeks, and months named after the weather and natural features. Months such as Ventose, Prairial, and Brumaire were introduced. Each 10-day week had one rest day, and the marking of Saints' Days or religious festivals was not accommodated. The revolution wanted to end the power of the Catholic Church and the old ways of pre-1789 by totally reordering the daily life of France. However, apart from in Paris and some of the major cities, this effort proved to be a total failure. The cultural life of France remained predominantly Catholic and traditional for many decades after the revolution had ended.

The end of the revolution The National Convention worked to extend the benefits of the revolution to the poorer people of France. It introduced price controls, free primary education for both sexes, and income-based taxes, as well as calling for the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. Many of these changes were never actually carried out, however, because of increasing tensions and conflict within the National Convention. Marat had already been assassinated in July 1793 by the Girondin sympathizer Charlotte Corday, and Robespierre had Danton and other former Jacobin leaders executed in April 1794. The excesses of the Terror led to the overthrow of the committee and Robespierre on 27 July 1794, and the Reign of Terror came to an end with Robespierre's execution on 28 July. By this time Robespierre's justification of the Terror on the grounds of the threat posed by the war with Europe and internal rebellions no longer held true. The rebellion in the Vendée region had been totally crushed, and the French were proving successful in the war against Austria and Prussia.

In 1795 the Directory was established to hold a middle course between royalist supporters, who wanted a return to the monarchy, and the radical Jacobins, who had been responsible for the Terror. It was troubled however by war, economic problems, and continuing political intrigues, and in October 1799 the Directory turned to the popular and powerful general Napoleon Bonaparte, in an attempt to gain military support against a number of political leaders who were plotting to overthrow its powers. The revolution was finally brought to an end when Napoleon seized power as dictator on 9 November 1799 in the Coup of Brumaire.

See also France: history 1515–1815.

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French Revolution - events

14 July 1789	France	A large crowd of the common people of Paris, France, (including some 5,000 women led by Théroigne de Méricourt) storms and captures the Bastille (a medieval fortress, symbol of the ancien régime) in Paris. The emigration of French aristocrats begins.
4 August 1789	France	The French National Assembly in Paris removes the feudal privileges of the nobility – including seigneurial rights and hunting rights.
26 August 1789	France	The French National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
2 November 1789	France	Following a proposal by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the bishop of Autun, church property in France is placed ‘at the disposal of the nation’ with the aim of selling it off to the public.
14 July 1790	France	A vast rally (the Fête de la Fédération) is held in the Champ de Mars, Paris, France, on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. King Louis XVI accepts the new constitution drawn up by the National Assembly.
8 July 1792	France, Prussia	France declares war on Prussia, in response to the Austro-Prussian alliance of 7 February 1792.
10 August 1792	France	A huge mob storms the royal palace in the Tuileries, Paris, France, massacring the Swiss Guard. The Legislative Assembly declares the king's authority suspended. A new revolutionary Commune de Paris (municipal government) replaces the original body set up in 1789, sharing power in the French capital with a Provisional Executive Council and the Legislative Assembly.
13 March 1793	France	French royalists revolt in the Vendée, west France, against the revolutionary government.
2 June 1793	France	The final overthrow of the Girondins by the Jacobins, and the arrest of the Girondin leader, Jacques Brissot, begins the Reign of Terror in France.
5 April 1794	France	Georges-Jacques Danton, Jacobin leader in the French Revolution, instrumental in overthrowing the monarchy and establishing France's First Republic, is guillotined in Paris, France, during the ‘Reign of Terror’, following a show trial organized by Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the Committee of Public Safety (35).
28 July 1794	France	In France, a conspiracy by Montagnard moderates and Dantonists against the leader of the Committee of Public Safety, Maximilien Robespierre, succeeds in abolishing the Commune de Paris (municipal government). Robespierre and Louis St-Just are executed.
20 May 1795	France	On ‘Prairial 1’ of the revolutionary calendar, popular unrest again threatens the National Convention in Paris, France, leading to the ‘White Terror’ purge of extreme revolutionaries and the end of Montagnard influence in the Convention.
9 November 1799	France	Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the ruling Directory (ruling executive) in France in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (revolutionary calendar).