French Revolution

Taking of the Bastille July 14 1789

The French Revolution, as a period in the history of France, covers the years 1789 to 1799, in which republicans overthrew the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church perforce underwent radical restructuring. While France would oscillate among republic, empire, and monarchy for 75 years after the First Republic fell to a coup by Napoleon Bonaparte, the revolution nonetheless spelled a definitive end to the ancien régime, and eclipses all subsequent revolutions in France in the popular imagination.

Causes

See main article Causes of the French Revolution.

Many factors led to the revolution; to some extent the old order succumbed to its own rigidity in the face of a changing world; to some extent, it fell to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who had come under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed.

Certainly, causes of the revolution must include all of the following:

Resentment of royal absolutism.
Resentment of the seigneurial system by peasants, wage-earners, and a rising bourgeoisie.
The rise of enlightenment ideals.
An unmanageable national debt, both caused by and exacerbating the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation.
Food scarcity in the years immediately before the revolution.

History

Prelude

1770s-May 1789: See main article Prelude to the French Revolution.

Proto-revolutionary activity started when the French king Louis XVI (reigned 1774 - 1792) faced a crisis in the royal finances. The French crown, which fiscally exactly equated to the French state, owed considerable debt. During the régimes of Louis XV (ruled 1715 - 1774) and Louis XVI several different ministers, including Turgot and Jacques Necker, unsuccessfully proposed to revise the French tax system to tax the nobles. Such measures encountered consistent resistance from the parlements (law courts), which the nobility dominated.

The subsequent struggle with the parlements in an unsuccessful attempt to enact these measures displayed the first overt signs of the disintegration of the ancien régime. In the ensuing struggle:

Protestants regained their rights.
Louis XVI promised an annual publication of the state of finances.
Louis XVI promised to convoke the Estates-General within five years.

After Etienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne's resignation on August 25, 1788, and with Necker back in charge of the nation's finances, the king, on August 8, 1788, agreed to convene the Estates-General in May 1789, for the first time since 1614.

The prospect of an Estates-General highlighted the conflict of interest between, on the one hand, the First and Second Estates (the clergy and nobility respectively) and, on the other, the Third Estate (in theory, all of the commoners; in practice the middle class or bourgeoisie). According to the model of 1614, the Estates-General would consist of equal numbers of representatives of each Estate. The Third Estate demanded (and ultimately received) double representation (which they already had in the provincial assemblies). However, this double representation would prove something of a sham.

From the meeting of the Estates-General to the storming of the Bastille

For a more detailed description of the events of May 5, 1789 - July 27, 1789, see main article French Revolution up to the storming of the Bastille

The Estates-General and the Communes

When the Estates-General convened in Versailles on May 5 1789, many in the Third Estate initially viewed the double representation as a revolution already peacefully accomplished. However, with the etiquette of 1614 strictly enforced, an immediate impression emerged that they had, in fact, achieved little, and that the royal decree granting double representation was something of a sham, or at best a symbol. Voting would occur "by orders": the 578 representatives of the Third Estate, after deliberating, would have their collective vote weighted exactly as heavily as that of each of the other Estates. The king and Barentin, the Keeper of the Seals, apparently intended that everyone should get directly to the matter of taxes.

In trying to avoid the issue of representation and focus solely on taxes, the king and his ministers gravely misjudged the situation. The Third Estate wanted the Estates to meet as one body and vote per deputy ("voting by poll" rather than "by orders"). The other two estates, while having their own grievances against royal absolutism, believed - correctly, as history was to prove - that they stood to lose more power to the Third Estate than they stood to gain from the king.

The Estates-General reached an impasse immediately. The first item on the agenda involved the verification of powers. Instead of discussing the taxes of the king, the three estates began - separately - to discuss the organization of the legislature. Shuttle diplomacy continued without success until May 27, 1789, when the nobles voted to stand firm for separate verification. The following day, Abbé Sieyès moved that the Third Estate, now meeting as the Communes (English: "Commons"), proceed with verification and invite the other two estates to take part, but not to wait for them.

On June 17, 1789, the Communes completed their own process of verification, thereby becoming the only Estate with appropriately legalized powers. Then they voted a measure far more radical: they declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of the People. They invited the other orders to join them, but made it clear that they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them.

The National Assembly

This newly constituted assembly immediately linked itself to the capitalists -- the sources of the credit needed to fund the national debt -- and to the common people. They consolidated the public debt and declared all existing taxes to have been previously illegally imposed, but voted in these same taxes provisionally, only as long as the Assembly continued to sit. This restored the confidence of capital and gave it a strong interest in keeping the Assembly in session. As for the common people, the Assembly established a committee of subsistence to deal with the food shortages.

No longer interested in Jacques Necker's advice about moderation, Louis XVI shut the Salle des États where the Assembly met, and resolved to go in state to the Assembly and command the separation of the orders in a restored Estates-General. However, he delayed, and the Assembly simply moved their deliberations to the king's tennis court, where they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789), under which they agreed not to separate until they had given France a constitution. A majority of the representatives of the clergy soon joined them. When, on June 23 the king finally addressed the representatives of all three estates, the deputies stood firm.

Necker, conspicuous by his absence from the royal party on that day, found himself in disgrace with Louis, but back in the good graces of a National Assembly that soon added forty-seven members of the nobility to its numbers. By June 27, the royal party had overtly given in, although the military began to arrive in large numbers around Paris and Versailles. Messages of support for the Assembly poured in from Paris and other French cities. On July 9, the Assembly reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly.

Necker's dismissal and the storming of the Bastille

In Paris, the press published the Assembly's deliberations; political debate spread into the public squares and halls of the capital. The Palais Royal and its grounds became the site of a continuous meeting. Some of the military leaned toward the popular cause.

On July 11, 1789, the king, acting under the influence of the conservative nobles of his privy council, banished Necker, and completely reconstructed the ministry. The Parisians generally presumed that the dismissal of Necker marked the start of a coup. A growing crowd, brandishing busts of Necker and of the duke of Orléans, had a bloody encounter with the Royal-allemand (the king's German soldiers). A regiment of the French guard - favourably disposed towards the popular cause - joined the rebellious citizenry; as word of this spread, even the foreign troops refused to fight in what looked set to turn into a civil war with a divided military.

The French people to this day commemorate the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14th, 1789 on Bastille Day. After four hours of combat, the insurgents seized the Bastille, killing Marquis Bernard de Launay and several of his guard. Although the Parisians released only seven prisoners -- four forgers, two lunatics, and a dangerous sexual offender -- it became a potent symbol of everything hated under the ancien régime. Returning to the Hôtel de Ville (town hall), the mob accused the prévôt des marchands (roughly, mayor) Jacques de Flesselles of treachery; en route to an ostensible trial at the Palais Royal, he was assassinated.

By the morning of July 15, the outcome appeared clear to the Assembly and to the king. The king and his military supporters backed down, at least for the time being. Lafeyette took up command of the National Guard at Paris; Jean-Sylvain Bailly -- leader of the Third Estate and instigator of the Tennis Court Oath -- became the city's mayor under a new governmental structure known as the commune. The king announced that he would recall Necker and return from Versailles to Paris; on July 27, in Paris, he accepted a tricolore cockade from Bailly and entered the Hôtel de Ville, as cries of "Long live the Nation" changed to "Long live the King".

Nonetheless, after this violence, nobles -- little assured by the apparent and, as it was to prove, temporary reconciliation of king and people -- started to flee the country as émigrés, some of whom began plotting civil war within the kingdom and agitating for a European coalition against France.

Necker's triumph proved short-lived. An astute financier but a less astute politician, he overplayed his hand by demanding and obtaining a general amnesty, losing much of the people's favor in his moment of apparent triumph.

The successful insurrection at Paris spread throughout France. People organized themselves into municipalities for purposes of self-government, and into bodies of national guards for self-defense, in accord with principles of popular sovereignty and with complete disregard for claims of royal authority. In rural areas, many went beyond this: some burned title-deeds and no small number of châteaux.

From the fall of the Bastille to the establishment of the Legislative Assembly

August 4, 1789 - 1791

August 4, 1789: Feudalism Abolished

After the events surrounding the storming of the Bastille, the next major event of the revolution occurred on August 4, 1789, when the National Assembly abolished feudalism, sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes gathered by the First Estate.

While one can question motivations (and while many later expressed regrets and attempted retreat), historians agree that the Viscount de Noailles and the Duke d'Aiguillon proposed the redemption and consequent abolition of feudal rights and the suppression of personal servitude, as well as of the various privileges of the nobility. Not to be outdone, the bishops of Nancy and of Chartres proposed, even demanded, the abolition of tithes. In the course of a few hours, France abolished game-laws, seigneurial courts, the purchase and sale of posts in the magistracy, of pecuniary immunities, favoritism in taxation, of surplice money, first-fruits, pluralities, and unmerited pensions. Towns, provinces, companies, and cities also sacrificed their special privileges. A medal was struck to commemorate the day, and the Assembly declared Louis XVI the "Restorer of French Liberty."

Of course, this "Saint Bartholomew of abuses," as Mignet calls it, was a bit too good to be true. As the Russian anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin would write, "The Assembly was carried away by its enthusiasm, and in this enthusiasm nobody remarked the clause for redeeming the feudal rights and tithes, which the two nobles and the two bishops had introduced into their speeches — a clause terrible even in its vagueness, since it might mean all or nothing, and did, in fact, postpone [...] the abolition of feudal rights for four years - until August 1793. But which of us in reading the beautiful story of that night, written by its contemporaries, has not been carried away by enthusiasm in his turn? And who has not passed over those traitorous words, 'racbat au denier 30' (redemption at a thirty-years' purchase), without understanding their terrible import? This is also what happened in France in 1789." [1]

The structures of government in summer 1789

Following the events of July 14, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. In Mignet's words, "The assembly had acquired the entire power; the corporations depended on it; the national guards obeyed it. [...] The royal power, though existing of right, was in a measure suspended, since it was not obeyed, and the assembly had to supply its action by its own." [2]

Some of the leading figures of the Assembly at this time included:

Among the foes of the revolution who would come to be known as the "Right":
- Jacques Antoine Marie Cazalès — a forthright spokesman for aristocracy
- the abbé Jean-Siffrein Maury — a somewhat inflexible representative of the Church
The "Royalist democrats" (later known as "Constitutionals" or "Monarchicals") allied with Necker, inclined toward arranging France along lines similar to the British Constitutional model with a House of Lords and a House of Commons:
- Jean Joseph Mounier
- the Comte de Lally-Tollendal
- the Comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
- Pierre Victor Malouet, Comte de Virieu
The "National Party," at this time still relatively united in support of revolution and democratization, representing mainly the interests of the middle classes, but strongly sympathetic to the broader range of the common people. In this early period, its most notable leaders included Mirabeau, Lafayette, and Bailly (the first two coming from aristocratic backgrounds). Mignet also points to Adrien Duport, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, and Alexander Lameth as leaders among the "most extreme of this party" in this period, leaders in taking "a more advanced position than that which the revolution had [at this time] attained." Lameth's brother Charles also belonged to this group.

To this list one must add the abbé Sieyès, the leader in proposing legislation in this period, and the man who, for a time, managed to bridge the differences between those who wanted a constitutional monarchy and those who wished to move in more democratic (or even republican) directions.

Meanwhile, turmoil continued in Paris. Amidst occasional rioting over the food shortages, a hundred and eighty members, nominated by the city districts, constituted themselves as legislators and representatives of the city, but with no clear structure. The committees, the mayor, the assembly of representatives, and the individual districts each claimed authority independent of the others. The increasingly middle-class National Guard under Lafayette also slowly emerged as a power in its own right. Other self-generated assemblies arose, soldiers debated at the Oratoire, journeymen tailors at the Colonnade, hairdressers in the Champs Élysées, servants at the Louvre, and a particularly radical ad hoc assembly seated itself at the Palais Royal. None of these limited their competence to local issues: they felt free to debate the same issues as the National Assembly, to take positions more radically revolutionary than that Assembly, and to try (individually and sometimes jointly) to influence its decisions.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

Looking to the United States Declaration of Independence for a model, on August 26, 1789 the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Like the U.S. Declaration, it comprised a statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal effect. This statement of principles contained the kernel of a much more radical re-ordering of society than had yet taken place. The Declaration put forward a doctrine of popular sovereignty and equal opportunity:

"Article III – The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it."

(From Article VI) – "All the citizens, being equal in [the eyes of the law], are equally admissible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents."

Where the U.S. Declaration had singled out "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as inalienable rights, the French document opted for "liberty, property, safety, and resistance against oppression." It argued that the need for law derives from the fact that "... the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights". Thus, the declaration saw law as an "expression of the general will", intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid "only actions harmful to the society."

The Declaration also put forward several provisions similar to the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. Like the U.S. Constitution, it discusses the need to provide for the common defense and states some broad principles about taxation. It also specifies a public right to an accounting from public agents as to how they have discharged the public trust. Like the U.S. Bill of Rights, it provides against ex post facto application of criminal law and puts forward such principles as presumption of innocence, freedom of speech and of the press, and a slightly weaker guarantee of freedom of religion — "provided that [... the] manifestation [... of their religious opinions] does not trouble the public order established by the law". It asserts the rights of property, while reserving a public right of eminent domain:

"Article XVII - Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of private usage, if it is not when the public necessity, legally noted, evidently requires it, and under the condition of a just and prior indemnity [i.e., compensation]."

Towards a constitution

The Declaration stated broad principles, but did little or nothing to establish a form of government. For the time, the National Constituent Assembly, its membership drawn from the States General, functioned as a legislature, but that provided no model as to how to select a future government. Would it have a unicameral or a bicameral legislature? What powers should remain to the king? How often should elections take place (and precisely which offices should be elective)?

In the event, the Assembly invested all significant powers in itself, with only a "suspensive veto" left to the king (able to delay the implementation of a law, but not to block it absolutely). The assembly would sit continuously, so as not to give a king or other ambitious individual the opportunity (in Mignet's words) "to profit by the intervals in which he would be left alone." [3] Necker, Mounier, Lally-Tollendal, and others argued unsuccessfully for a senate, with members to be appointed by the king on the nomination of the people. The bulk of the nobles argued for an aristocratic upper house, elected by the nobles. The popular party opposed any upper house and, given the division between the other two groups, carried the day: France would have a single, unicameral assembly.

The stalwarts of the ancien régime, of course, regarded all this as anathema. While the Assembly moved in the direction of a constitution, the King continued to attempt to resist the Declaration. On the pretext of protecting itself against the Parisian mob, the Court summoned troops to Versailles, doubled the household guards, and sent for the dragoons and the Flanders regiment. Word of this spread to Paris, along with rumors that the king stood ready dissolve the assembly, or to flee to an area where his troops held control. The behaviour of the court confirmed these suspicions. At a banquet on October 1, 1789, guests drank the health of the royal family with swords drawn, while omitting or rejecting the health of the nation. Royalist black cockades were distributed; some present also allegedly trampled on the tricolore cockade. Similar events took place two nights later.

Mignet writes that, "This assembling of the troops, so far from preventing aggression in Paris, provoked it... To protect itself there was no necessity for so much ardour, nor for flight was there needful so much preparation." [4] By October 5, the people of Paris were once again in full insurrection and stood ready to march on Versailles. Even Lafayette could not ultimately prevent his National Guards from joining them. The Parisians, with the women in front, arrived in Versailles ahead of any warning of their approach.

Over the next two days various scuffles and incidents occurred, but eventually the king and the Royal Family kept the peace by allowing themselves to be brought back from Versailles to Paris. This reduced room for royal maneuver, placing the king amid the tumultuous populace and in a position where he had less scope to rally loyal troops around him.

In the wake of these events a new round of émigrés departed, including key royalist democrats from within the Assembly. Lally-Tollendal renounced his French citizenship and returned to England, the land of his ancestors. Mounier returned to his native Dauphiné, where he soon became the leader of an internal revolt.

Work on a constitution resumed. The Assemply divided France into eighty-three départements, uniformly administered and nearly equal to one another in extent and population, replacing the historic provinces. Similar arrangements were made down to the département and canton level, all with multi-round elections, providing a broad electoral franchise in the first round, but a franchise limited by property requirements in the subsequent round or rounds. This effectively abolished the local parlaments, and angered many of the nobility and the bishops.

The royal government had originally summoned the Estates-General in order to deal with a financial crisis, but to date the Assembly had focused on other matters. In fact, they had reduced taxes, had incurred financial obligations in the proposed redemption of feudal privileges, and had continued to borrow money. Mirabeau now led the move to address this matter, with the Assembly giving Necker complete financial dictatorship.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Laws passed on November 2, 1789, February 13, 1790 and April 19, 1790 confiscated Church lands on behalf of the State. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed on July 12, 1790 and signed by the king on December 26, 1790, turned the remaining clergy into employees of the State and required that they take an oath of loyalty to the constitution.

Paper money and inflation

The Assembly introduced new paper money in that same year, causing high inflation.

The Legislative Assembly and the Fall of the Monarchy

1791-1792

The King tried to flee in June 1791 to join the nobles in exile, but his flight to Varennes did not succeed. He reluctantly accepted the new constitution in September 1791, which made France a constitutional monarchy. The king had to share power with the elected Legislative Assembly (successor to the National Assembly), but he still retained his royal veto and the ability to select ministers.

New factions emerged, such as the Feuillants (constitutional monarchists), Girondins (liberal republicans) and Jacobins (radical revolutionaries). The King, the Feuillants and the Girondins wanted to wage war. The King wanted war: he expected to increase his personal popularity or to exploit a defeat: either would make him stronger. The Girondins wanted to export the Revolution through Europe. France declared war on Austria (April 20, 1792) and Prussia joined on the Austrian side a few weeks later. The French Revolutionary Wars had begun.

The first significant military engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars occurred with the Franco-Prussian Battle of Valmy (September 20, 1792). Although heavy rain prevented a conclusive resolution, the French artillery proved its superiority.

The Paris Commune

1792

Nonetheless, fighting soon went badly and prices rose sky-high. In August 1792 a mob assaulted the Royal Palace in Paris and arrested the King. On September 21, 1792 the Assembly abolished the monarchy and declared a republic. The French Revolutionary Calendar commenced.

The Convention

1792-September 26, 1795

The legislative power in the new republic fell to a National Convention, while the executive power came to rest in the Committee of Public Safety. The Girondins became the most influential party in the Convention and on the Committee.

January 21, 1793 saw King Louis condemned to death for "conspiracy against the public liberty and the general safety" by a 1-vote Convention majority of 361 to 360. The execution caused more wars with European countries.

When war went badly, prices rose and the sans-culottes (poor laborers and radical Jacobins) rioted; counter-revolutionary activities began in some regions. This caused the Jacobins to seize power through a parliamentary coup. The Committee of Public Safety came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre. The Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror (1793 - 1794). At least 1200 people met their deaths under the guillotine - or otherwise - after accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. The slightest hint of counter-revolutionary thoughts or activities (or, as in the case of Jacques Hébert, revolutionary zeal exceeding that of those in power) could place one under suspicion, and the trials did not proceed over-scrupulously. This series of events can reasonably compare with the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

In 1794 Robespierre had ultraradicals and moderate Jacobins executed, so eliminating his own popular support. On July 27, 1794, the French people revolted against the excesses of the Reign of Terror in what became known as the Thermidorian Reaction. It resulted in moderate Convention members deposing and executing Robespierre and several other leading members of the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention approved the new "Constitution of the Year III" on 17 August 1795; a plebiscite ratified it in September; and it took effect on September 26, 1795

The Directoire

September 26, 1795 - November 9, 1799

The new constitution installed the Directoire (English: Directory) and created the first bicameral legislature in French history. The parliament consisted of 500 representatives (the Conseil des Cinq-Cent (Council of the Five Hundred)) and 250 senators (the Conseil des Anciens (Council of Seniors)). Executive power went to five "directors," named annually by the Conseil des Anciens from a list submitted by the Conseil des Cinq-Cent.

The new régime met with opposition from remaining Jacobins and royalists. The army suppressed riots and counter-revolutionary activities. In this way the army and its successful general, Napoleon Bonaparte gained much power.

On November 9, 1799 (18 Brumaire of the Year VIII) Napoleon staged the coup which installed the Consulate; this effectively led to his dictatorship and eventually (in 1804) to his proclamation as emperor, which brought to a close the specifically republican phase of the French Revolution.

External links

An online timeline of the French Revolution

This article makes use of the out-of-copyright History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet (1824), as made available by Project Gutenberg.