French Revolution (5 май 1789 г. – 9 ноя 1799 г.)

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The French Revolution was a period of drastic political and social change in France in which the nation had abolished age-old systems like the monarchy and the feudal system.

Social hierarchy was ingrained in the law, and certain classes had more privileges than others. Racial inequality became more based in law, as only Africans or their descendants were allowed to be slaves and people of color were denied rights. Growing demands for liberty ensued. Reformers, called liberals, wanted freedom to worship, an end to censorship, freedom from arbitrary laws, and a government ruled by the people. Some believed that nobility had no special birth rights, though most European men believed in their superiority to women and people of other races. Progress was slow in this sense. They didn’t believe everyone should be equal economically. Locke and Montesquieu were the most influential liberals. Some revolutionaries called for more rights and equality.

The Seven Years’ War was one of the most important events that led to a development of radical thought and action. France came out of it humiliated and broke and calls for fundamental reform ensued.

The American Revolution, which the French aided in, gave crippling debt, but also a stronger desire for a more representative and fair government. Many Frenchmen, like Lafayette, left the revolution with a love of liberty and republican ideals. However, the French Revolution was more radical, complex, and controversial than the American counterpart.

Louis XV tried to tax nobles, which was decried and resisted. Similar tax reforms failed again in 1776, and they had to be financed with borrowed money. By 1786, they were on verge of bankruptcy. Louis lost popularity because he had mistresses of low social origins and refused to take communion, and died not long after.

Louis XVI made attempts to reassert his authority by dismissing notables and establishing new taxes, and when that failed, exile judges, which was also met with resistance. He then reluctantly called for the Estates General (a legislative body with representatives from the three orders/estates of society: clergy, nobility, and the rest) for the first time since 1614, indicating a weakening of absolute monarchy.

The Estates General spoke in favor of replacing absolutism with a constitutional monarchy in which laws and taxes would require the consent of the Estates General in regular meetings, guaranteeing individual liberties by law, and loosening economic regulations. Support for the strength of the third estate (common people) rose. The third estate called itself the National Assembly and pledged not to disband until they had been recognized as a national assembly and had written a new constitution (this event was called the Tennis Court Oath).

At the time, commoners were suffering especially poor economic conditions. Poor harvest caused a huge spike in the cost of bread. The poor displayed their anger with the storming of the Bastille. Louis and his troops backed down. The Assembly then abolished all of the old noble privileges and issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which guaranteed equality before the law, representative government for a sovereign people, and individual freedom. This had little practical effect for the poor, and was met with uprising. The most notable of these uprisings was when around 7,000 women marched from Paris to Versailles, invaded the National Assembly, killed several guards, and searched for the queen.

The Assembly then abolished the nobility. In 1791, the first French constitution was passed, which legalized divorce and broadened women’s rights to inherit property and to obtain financial support for illegitimate children from fathers, but excluded women from political office and voting. The Assembly worked towards a more rational and systematic method of administration, imposed a radical reorganization on religious life (gave freedom to Protestants and Jews, abolished monasteries), and guaranteed a new paper currency, the assignats. They established a national church with priests chosen by voters. These changes found some resistance by the wide number of Christians.

Opinions on the revolution were sharply divided. Liberals and radicals saw a triumph of liberty over despotism, while conservatives like Edmund Burke were more troubled. Some people believed rights should be extended, including Olympe de Gouges, who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, calling for equal rights, but found little sympathy in the Revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft demanded equal rights for women, which was influential in later feminist movements.

Kings and nobles feared the impact of the revolution. The term Great Fear describes the fear of retaliation from the state and noble landowners against the uprising peasants. The royal family tried to escape and monarchs of Austria and Prussia proclaimed their willingness to intervene in France to restore Louis’ rule if necessary in the Declaration of Pillnitz. The new representative body, the Legislative Assembly, were younger and less cautious. Many belonged to the political Jacobin Club, who were willing to go to war. France declared war on Francis II of Austria. Prussia joined Austria and gained the upper hand. The Brunswick manifesto heightened suspicions of treason, and a revolutionary crowd attacked the royal palace at the Tuileries. The royal family fled to Legislative Assembly who then suspended the king from his functions, imprisoned him, and called for a constitutional assembly to be elected by universal male suffrage.

The fall of a monarchy led to the second revolution, which was more radical. Fearing that counter-revolutionaries would aid the invaders, crowds stormed prisons and killed priests and aristocrats in the September Massacres. The National Convention proclaimed France a republic.

The Jacobs were split into the Girondists and the more radical Mountain, led by lawyer and delegate Maximilien Robespierre. Mountain succeeded in getting Louis executed, as well as Marie Antoinette later that year. Prussians were stopped and French armies occupied the Austrian Netherlands. The National Convention then declared war on Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Spain. The sans-culottes, laboring poor and petty traders, increased in rowdiness. The republic’s army were beat in several battles by counter-revolutionary forces and were on the brink of defeat. A year later the central government had reasserted control over the provinces and the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland due to their use of a planned economy, revolutionary terror, and modern nationalism in a total war effort.

The Committee of Public Safety, led by Robespierre, was formed to deal with threats. The Committee established a planned economy with egalitarian social overtones and fixed the price of bread. Common people participated in supplies for the war effort. The Reign of Terror enforced compliance with republican beliefs and practices. 40,000 were executed or died in prison and 300,000 were arrested under the Committee. The committee also tried to bring about a cultural revolution, including the implementation of the metric system and a campaign of de-Christianization. They tried to appeal to a new sense of national identity and patriotism.

This mobilization of French resources created a patriotic and effective nation and army. By early 1794 French armies were victorious and domestic revolt was largely suppressed. Robespierre sent possible conspirators, including fellow leader of the Mountain Georges Jacques Dalton, to death. In the Thermidorian Reaction, radicals and moderates in the Convention put Robespierre to death. The National Convention put an end to the Reign of Terror, abolishing many economic controls and restricted the sans-culettes. They made a new constitution, established a bicameral legislature, and granted executive power to a five man body called the Directory, but its corruption and ineffectiveness caused it to only last two years.

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