French Revolution (1789-1799)
Introduction
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with
the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the
formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal
democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
Its causes are generally agreed to be a combination of social, political, and economic factors, which
the Ancien Régime proved unable to manage. A financial crisis and widespread social distress led in May
1789 to the convocation of the Estates General, which was converted into a National Assembly in June.
The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July led to a series of radical measures by the Assembly, among them
the abolition of feudalism, state control over the Catholic Church in France, and a declaration of rights.
The next three years were dominated by the struggle for political control, exacerbated
by economic depression. Military defeats following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary
Wars in April 1792 resulted in the insurrection of 10 August 1792. The monarchy was replaced
by the French First Republic in September, while Louis XVI was executed in January 1793.
After another revolt in June 1793, the constitution was suspended, and adequate political power
passed from the National Convention to the Committee of Public Safety. About 16,000 people
were executed in a Reign of Terror, which ended in July 1794. Weakened by external threats and
internal opposition, the Republic was replaced in 1795 by the Directory. Four years later, in
1799, the Consulate seized power in a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte. This is
generally seen as marking the end of the Revolutionary period.
Main Causes:
The Revolution resulted from multiple long-term and short-term factors, culminating in a social,
economic, financial and political crisis in the late 1780s. Combined with resistance to reform by
the ruling elite, and indecisive policy by Louis XVI and his ministers, the result was a crisis the
state was unable to manage. Between 1715 and 1789, the French population grew from 21 to 28
million, 20% of whom lived in towns or cities, Paris alone having over 600,000 inhabitants. This
was accompanied by a tripling in the size of the middle class, which comprised almost 10% of
the population by 1789.
Despite increases in overall prosperity, its benefits were largely restricted to the reinter and
mercantile classes, while the living standards fell for wage laborers and peasant farmers who
rented their land. Economic recession from 1785, combined with bad harvests in 1787 and 1788,
led to high unemployment and food prices, causing a financial and political crisis. While the
state also experienced a debt crisis, the level of debt itself was not high compared with Britain's.
A significant problem was that tax rates varied widely from one region to another, were often
different from the official amounts, and collected inconsistently. Its complexity meant
uncertainty over the amount contributed by any authorized tax caused resentment among all
taxpayers. Attempts to simplify the system were blocked by the regional Parliaments which
approved financial policy. The resulting impasse led to the calling of the Estates General of
1789, which became radicalized by the struggle for control of public finances.
Louis XVI was willing to consider reforms, but often backed down when faced with opposition
from conservative elements within the nobility. Enlightenment critiques of social institutions
were widely discussed among the educated French elite. At the same time, the American
Revolution and the European revolts of the 1780s inspired public debate on issues such as
patriotism, liberty, equality, and democracy. These shaped the response of the educated public to
the crisis, while scandals such as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace fuelled widespread anger
at the court, nobility, and church officials.
Key Events:
Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789): Symbolic start of the Revolution
Declaration of the Rights of Man (August 1789): Enshrined liberal principles
Royal Family's flight to Varennes (1791): Attempt to flee France
Reign of Terror (1793-1794): Radical Jacobin rule and executions
Napoleon's coup (1799): Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
1. Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when
revolutionary insurgents attempted to storm and seize control of the
medieval armoury, fortress and political prison known as the Bastille. After four hours of
fighting and 94 deaths the insurgents were able to enter the Bastille. The governor de
Launay and several members of the garrison were killed after surrender. The Bastille then
represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. The prison contained only seven
inmates at the time of its storming and was already scheduled for demolition, but was
seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power. Its fall was the
flashpoint of the French Revolution.
2. Declaration of the Rights of Man
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , one of the basic charters of human
liberties, containing the principles that inspired the French Revolution. Its 17 articles, adopted
between August 20 and August 26, 1789, by France’s National Assembly, served as the preamble
to the Constitution of 1791. Similar documents served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1793
(retitled simply Declaration of the Rights of Man) and to the Constitution of 1795 (retitled
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Citizen).
The basic principle of the Declaration was that all “men are born and remain free and
equal in rights” (Article 1), which were specified as the rights of liberty, private property,
the inviolability of the person, and resistance to oppression (Article 2). All citizens were
equal before the law and were to have the right to participate in legislation directly or
indirectly (Article 6); no one was to be arrested without a judicial order (Article 7).
Freedom of religion (Article 10) and freedom of speech (Article 11)
were safeguarded within the bounds of public “order” and “law.” The document reflects
the interests of the elites who wrote it: property was given the status of an inviolable
right, which could be taken by the state only if an indemnity were given (Article 17);
offices and position were opened to all citizens (Article 6). The sources of the
Declaration included the major thinkers of the French Enlightenment, such
as Montesquieu, who had urged the separation of powers, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
who wrote of general will—the concept that the state represents the general will of the
citizens. The idea that the individual must be safeguarded against arbitrary police or
judicial action was anticipated by the 18th-century parlements, as well as by writers such
as Voltaire.
French jurists and economists such as the physiocrats had insisted on the inviolability of
private property. Other influences on the authors of the Declaration were foreign
documents such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) in North America and
the manifestos of the Dutch Patriot movement of the 1780s. The French Declaration went
beyond these models, however, in its scope and in its claim to be based on principles that
are fundamental to man and therefore universally applicable.
3. Royal Family’s Flight to Varennes (1791):
The royal Flight to Varennes (French: Fuite à Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June
1791 was a significant event in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of
France, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family unsuccessfully attempted to
escape from Paris to Montmédy, where the King wished to initiate a counter-
revolution by joining up with royalist troops. They escaped as far as the small town
of Varennes-en-Argonne, where they were arrested after being recognized at their
previous stop in Sainte-Menehould.
This incident was a turning point after which popular hostility towards the French
monarchy as an institution, as well as towards the King and Queen as individuals, became
much more pronounced. The King's attempted flight provoked charges of treason that
ultimately led to his execution in 1793.
The escape failed due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations and poor
judgments. The King's decisions on a number of matters, including the means and timing
of the journey, allowed seemingly small matters to escalate. Furthermore, he
overestimated popular support for the traditional monarchy, mistakenly believing only
Parisian radicals supported the revolution and that the populace as a whole opposed it. He
also mistakenly believed that he enjoyed particular favor with the peasantry and other
commoners.
4. Reign of Terror (1793-1794):
The Reign of Terror was another key event of the French Revolution when, following the
creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place
in response to revolutionary fervor, anti-Catholic sentiment, and accusations of treason by
the Committee of Public Safety. While terror was never formally instituted as a legal policy by
the Convention, it was more often employed as a concept. There was a sense of emergency
among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and
counter-revolution.
Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the convention: "Let's make terror the order
of the day!”. This quote has frequently been interpreted as the beginning of a supposed "system
of Terror", an interpretation no longer retained by historians today. Under the pressure of the
radical sans-culottes, the Convention agreed to institute a revolutionary army but refused to make
terror the order of the day. According to French historian Jean-Clément Martin, there was no
"system of terror" instated by the Convention between 1793 and 1794, despite the pressure from
some of its members and the sans-culottes.
The members of the convention were determined to avoid street violence such as the September
Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government. The
monarchist Jacques Cazotte who predicted the Terror was guillotined at the end of the month.
By then, 16,594 official death sentences had been dispersed throughout France since June 1793,
of which 2,639 were in Paris alone. An additional 10,000 to 12,000 people had been executed
without trial and 10,000 had died in prison.
5. Napoleon’s Coup 1799:
The Coup of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In
the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and would soon lead to
the coronation of Napoleon as emperor. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory,
replacing it with the French Consulate. This occurred on 9 November 1799, which was
18 Brumaire, Year VIII under the short-lived French Republican calendar system.
After Habsburg-controlled Austria declared war on France on 12 March 1799, [1] emergency
measures were adopted and the pro-war Jacobin faction triumphed in the April elections. With
Napoleon and the republic's best army engaged in the Egypt and Syria campaign, France suffered
a series of reverses on the battlefield in the spring and summer of 1799. The Coup of 30 Prairial
VII (18 June) ousted the Jacobins and left Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, a member of the five-man
ruling Directory, the dominant figure in the government. France's military situation improved
following the Second Battle of Zurich. As the prospect of invasion receded, the Jacobins feared a
revival of the pro-peace Royalist faction. When Napoleon returned to France on 9 October, both
factions hailed him as the country's savior.
Outcome of French Revolution:
The Estates-General was convened for the first time in more than 150 years. That led to the
formation of the National Constituent Assembly. The Assembly issued the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Assembly was replaced by the National Convention,
which abolished the monarchy and established the French republic.
The events of the revolution worried other European countries, leading to war between France
and Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, were
executed for treason.
When the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention, they unleashed the Reign of
Terror in which suspected enemies of the revolution were executed. Girondins who survived the
Reign of Terror approved a constitution that created a bicameral legislature and a five-member
Directory. The Directory relied heavily on military, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, to maintain their
authority. Bonaparte overthrew the Directory, ushering in the Napoleonic era.
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