The French Revolution
1789-1799
The French Revolution
The French Revolution
In May 1774, a young man of 19 became
Louis XVI, king of France.
 He had married an Austrian princess—
Marie Antoinette—when he was 15 (she
was 14)…and they were married seven
years before they had their first child.
 France had about 26,000,000 inhabitants
divided into distinct social classes.

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Before the Revolution,
French society was
stratified into three
“Estates”:
 The First Estate: the
Clergy/Church; they
represented .5% of the
population, owned
10% of the land, and
PAID NO TAXES.

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The Second Estate:
the Aristocrats
(nobles); they had
titles and most had
wealth.
 They represented
1.5% of the
population and
owned 20% of the
land… but PAID NO
TAXES.

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
The Third Estate: the Commoners (all nontitled people. Merchants, doctors, lawyers,
bankers, professionals, and peasants). They
represented 98% of the French population,
owned 70% of the land, and PAID ALL the
TAXES.
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The philosophe found the French system
too rooted in tradition and proposed that
talent/merit supersede birth as the main
determinant of social standing.
 They did not believe that social differences
should be defined by law.
 Traditionalists countered that a hierarchy
of social orders was necessary to hold
society together.

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The French Revolution
The French Revolution began because of a
financial crisis.
 With half of the national budget going to
pay interest on debt from past wars
(including the American Revolution), the
king (Louis XVI) needed to overhaul the
inefficient and inequitable tax system.

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In 1788, the debt crisis was so severe,
Louis XVI was forced to call for a meeting
of Estates General (a legislative body that
hadn’t met since 1614) to find a way out.
 Since the nobility had been freed from
paying taxes, it would be the job of Louis
XVI to convince the nobility to give up
their tax-free status…not an easy job for a
weak man.

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The nobles wanted the king to guarantee
that the government wouldn’t implement
any economic reforms that would put
limits on their privileges.
 The nobles also demanded that the Third
Estate (commoners) should not have the
ability to limit their rights/powers.
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
The meeting was to take place in one year
and each Estate spent those 12 months
preparing a list of grievances against the
government.
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When the delegates arrived at Versailles in
May 1789 (300 in the First, 300 in the
Second, and 600 in the Third) the first two
Estates were welcomed while members of
the Third Estate (the commoners) were told
to wait.
 The nobles wanted each Estate to meet
separately and vote as an entire body (so
their one vote plus the one vote of the
clergy could thwart any vote from the Third
Estate 2-1).
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In frustration, delegates from the Third Estate
left and on June 10th, invited the First and
Second Estates to join them (some of the more
liberal-minded members of each Estate did
join).
 On June 17th, the Third Estate began the
French Revolution by declaring that they would
not meet as a medieval estate based on social
status but only go before the king as a National
Assembly representing the political will of 98%
of the French people.
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
On June 20th, the Third Estate was locked out
of its meeting hall so it moved to a nearby
indoor tennis court where the delegates took
what became known as the Tennis Court Oath,
vowing not to disband until they had drafted a
constitution.
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In a very famous pamphlet, the Abbe Sieyes
wrote about the Third Estate:
 “What is the Third Estate? The answer is
simple. What is the Third Estate?
Everything.
 “What has it been in the political order until
now? Nothing.
 “What does it want to be? Something.”

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The king ordered the Third Estate to disband
immediately but they refused, so on June
27th he ordered the First and Second Estates
to join the Third Estate.
 Most of the Second Estate refused and
joined the king against the Third Estate.
 The king then ordered thousands of troops
(including foreign troops) to guard Paris and
Versailles.
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Fearing the king was going to use troops
against them, Parisians began to arm
themselves.
 Tensions also ran high because of the
price of bread. In August of 1788, 50% of
an urban worker’s income went just
towards bread.
 By July 1789, it had risen to 80%.
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On July 14, between 800-900 Parisians
(mostly women) stormed the Bastille—a
fortified prison that symbolized royal
authority. They were looking for
guns/gunpowder (little was actually captured).
 The garrison commander ordered his troops
to open fire on the crowd.
 A fierce battle left over 100 people dead,
including the garrison commander.
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
July 14, 1789: the Bastille Prison
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The fall of the Bastille (which since 1880 the
French consider to be their Independence
Day) set an important precedent by
demonstrating that common people (not
soldiers) were willing to intervene violently at
a crucial political moment.
 There was now no turning back.
 Louis XVI, at Versailles, heard about the
Bastille and asked “Is this a revolt?” to which
an answer came “No sire, it is a revolution.”
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
Revolutions then
broke out
throughout France
(28 of France’s
largest 30 cities
experienced this)
causing “The Great
Fear,” a panic that
ran throughout
France in the
summer of 1789.
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Besides unrest in the cities, peasants in
the French countryside, angry with high
rents, high taxes, and frustrated with
aristocratic privileges, attacked their
landlords.
 To restore order from the Great Fear, the
National Assembly abolished special
aristocratic legal privileges and serfdom.

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Some historians believe that one of the
causes of the Great Fear was consumption
of ergot, a hallucinogenic fungus.
 In years of good harvests, wheat with
ergot was thrown away, but when the
harvest was poor, the peasants could not
afford to be so choosy.
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In late August 1789 the National Assembly
adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
 Written by Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson,
this document (along with the American Bill of
Rights) were products of Enlightenment
thinking.
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
By arranging the articles on
tablets, the artist clearly meant
to associate this document with
Moses’ Ten Commandments.
Such a link could establish the
revolutionaries’ handiwork as
equivalent to that of God.
Reinforcing this is the all–
seeing eye located at the top of
the tableau. However, this is
not the God of biblical
revelation but a benevolent
creator and founder of general
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The most important ideas were:
 Political sovereignty rested with the
people, not the monarchy.
 ALL citizens were equal before the law.
 All men are “born and remain free and
equal in rights.”
 All men could enjoy freedom of religion, of
speech, of the press, and the ability to
pursue the economic activity of their
choice.
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But the Declaration raised the question
about the inclusion of people of color (free
and enslaved), Jews, Protestants, and
women.
 Jewish men and Protestants received the
right to vote, and women were declared
citizens but didn’t get the right to vote.
 Lafayette and Jefferson were quite literal
when they referred to the “Rights of Man.”
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Like most men of the period (even
enlightened ones), they did not believe
women were entitled to the same rights as
men.
 The “purpose” of a woman was purely
domestic; a role which precluded a life
beyond the household.
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Nevertheless, the language of liberty
tugged at women’s sense of independence
and in 1791, “The Rights of Women”
appeared.
 “The Rights of Women” argued that
women should also enjoy fundamental
rights (to an education, to control their
own property, to initiate a divorce).
 Women WERE NOT asking for full political
rights…yet.
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After the announcement of the Declaration,
Louis XVI had an extravagant party at
Versailles, condemning the “revolt.”
 It was reported that troops loyal to the king
trampled the flag of the revolution (the
tricolor) as a gesture of their opposition.
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Blue means vigilance, truth, loyalty,
perseverance, and justice.
 White stands for peace and honesty.
 Red means hardiness, bravery, strength, and
valor.

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Louis XVI continued to refuse to accept
the demands of the National Assembly.
 In early October 1789, angry and
frustrated at the king’s insensitivity to
their plight, a mob of nearly 8,000 women
shouting “Bread!” marched over 10 miles
in a cold rain to the king’s palace at
Versailles to confront the king.
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
The mob of angry women was accompanied
by Lafayette and the new National Guard (a
militia of mostly middle-class men).
Once at Versailles, the mob searched for the
queen, screaming “Death to the Austrian!
We’ll wring her neck! We’ll tear her heart
out!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeEIW8J
kF_s
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Marie-Antoinette lived
extravagantly (she
spent millions on
clothes and jewels)
while many children of
the Third Estate wore
rags and starved.
 She even had her own
“peasant” village on
the palace grounds.
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The mob killed several palace guards (and
paraded their heads on pikes) and refused to
leave Versailles until the king met their
demand to return with them to Paris.
 Reluctantly the king agreed, so the next
morning the royal family followed the crowd
of women back to Paris.
 At the head of the procession were women
riding on the barrels of seized cannons.
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The women sang “Now we won’t have to go
so far when we want to see our king.”
 The royal family moved into the Tuileres
(TWEE luh reez) Palace where they were
virtual prisoners for the next three years.
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
Louis XVI finally agreed to the Declaration of

The motto and rallying cry of the Revolution
became:
the Rights of Man and Citizen.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
(How is this different from the American
Declaration of Independence?)
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 Liberty meant:
 1. Individual freedom from governmental
constraints and interference: (this is the
cornerstone of the 19th century ideology,
LIBERALISM).
 2. Liberals see government as the enemy of
individual liberty.
 3. Liberals demand representative and
constitutional government.
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4. Government is to stay out of the
economy—no restrictions, etc. (laissezfaire)
 5. To protect liberty, you must limit the
power of the government.
 6. Jefferson’s idea that a “Government
that governs least governs best.”
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 Equality meant:
 1. One law and one tax system for everyone.
 2. Equal opportunity to advance based on
merit, not on birth (every Frenchman had an
equal right to hold public office “with no
distinction other than that of their virtues and
talents”).
 3. By 1914, liberals wanted political equality –
one man = one vote.
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 Fraternity meant:
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 Fraternity meant:
 1. Fraternity is the idea of brotherhood of
all, in this case all Frenchmen.
 2. From this, NATIONALISM was born,
another great 19th century ideology.
(Before this, men were identified by their
religion, village, estate, family, etc. (all
local identity).
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After the Revolution, men were identified
by their language, ethnic background,
territory. Men thought of themselves as
Frenchmen.
 3. Loyalty to one’s nation was one of the
great unifying ideologies of the 19th
century.
 Out of the Revolution came the notion that
the rights of the many outweighed the
rights of the few.

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•

Since the Church was part of the “old order,”
the National Assembly forced reforms on the
Church called the “Civil Constitution of the
Clergy” (1790).
The people now elected their bishops and
priests, and their salaries were paid by the
state.
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Papal authority was dissolved, and
convents and monasteries became the
property of the government (which it sold
to raise money to reduce the national
debt).
 The new French government now totally
controlled the Church.
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reaction towards the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy was swift and
angry…The pope condemned it.
 Most bishops and priests refused to
accept it.
 Most French peasants, who were
religiously conservative, rejected it.
 The
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 When
the government punished clergy
who didn’t support the Civil Constitution,
a large gulf opened between the
revolutionaries in Paris and the
peasantry in the provinces.
 Many historians consider the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy to be the first
major blunder of the National Assembly.
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 Less
than ½ of the French clergy and
only 7 out of more than 100 bishops
took the oath to support it.
 Though the government declared that
clerics that opposed the Constitution
were “refractory” and had them
removed from office, most defied the
government.
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Pope Pius VI condemned the Civil Constitution
of the Clergy and declared all of its provisions
void.
 French Catholics now faced a dilemma between
political loyalty and religious devotion.
 This caused a division in the French population
between those who supported the
constitutional priests and those who followed
the “refractory” clergy.

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In April 1791, the king attempted to travel
from Paris to his mansion in nearby St.
Cloud to celebrate Easter with a loyal
priest.
 As he set out, crowds surrounded his
carriage and refused to let him leave.
 He realized he was a prisoner in Paris and
that he and the royal family needed to
escape.

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Two months later (June 1791), the royal
family disguised themselves and fled Paris
heading for the border of the Austrian
controlled Netherlands (and the protection
of Marie-Antoinette’s brother).
 The king was dressed as a servant, the
queen as a governess.
 The king hoped to reach the border where
he could rally the country against the
revolution.
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
In a town forty miles from the border, they
were stopped, asked to show their travel
papers, and found out.
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The local postmaster held up a piece of
money with the king’s face on it and
recognized him.
 Soldiers loyal to the Revolution brought
the royal family back to Paris as prisoners.
 Along the road back to Paris, people
hurled insults, spat, and threw things at
the royal family.
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
To many, this
showed the king
was conspiring
with foreign
powers to destroy
the Revolution
and was therefore
a traitor.
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To make matters worse for the king, a
letter was found after his escape that
criticized the revolution and railed against
the anarchy of the people and the idea of
unrestrained political freedom.
 Before this letter was found, many people
in France still had some affection for the
king…this letter changed that.

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
In August 1791, after
hearing about Louis’
failed escape, Austria
and Prussia openly
declared they would
support Louis and the
monarchy (the emperor
of Austria was MarieAntoinette’s brother,
Leopold II).
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It took two years (1791) for the National
Assembly to finish the new Constitution
(known as the Constitution of 1791),
but it was completed in September 1791.
 Almost immediately, the king was forced
to accept the new Constitution.
 The constitution stated that if the king left
the country, retracted his oath to the
constitution, or led a rebellion against
France he would be removed from power.

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This set up a system
similar to Britain’s. It
allowed for a king but he
had to follow the laws of
the newly created
Legislative Assembly
(this replaced the NA).
 The absolute monarchy
that had ruled France for
centuries was over.
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

The Legislative Assembly had 745 members
who were mostly members of the middle
class; i.e. wealthy/property owning.
The Legislative Assembly had the power to
make laws, collect taxes, and create foreign
policy.
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Members of the Assembly were elected by
tax-paying males over the age of 25.
 The Legislative Assembly made
government more efficient by replacing
the old provinces with 83 departments of
roughly equal size.
 The old provincial courts were abolished
and the legal system was reformed.

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Do you know where the political terms
“left, center, and right” came from?
 In the Legislative Assembly, those who sat
on the right felt that reform had gone far
enough and those who wanted to turn the
clock back to pre-Revolution days.
 In the center sat those who wanted
moderate reforms.
 On the left were the Jacobins who wanted
radical changes.

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To the moderates, the Revolution had now
accomplished its goals…there was equality
before the law for all male citizens and the
Church’s power to interfere in the
government was over.
 Fear of similar revolutions (known as the
“French plague”) spread throughout Europe
as some nobles and clergy escaped from
France and told horror stories.

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

But faced with unending economic
problems and war with Austria and
Prussia, the Legislative Assembly became
more radical.
As several hostile groups competed for
power, one group emerged, known as
the Jacobins (mostly middle class
lawyers and intellectuals).
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By early 1792 everyone in France seemed
to want war with Austria.
 The king and queen hoped this war would
end the Revolution, while those who
wanted a republic thought a war would
end the monarchy.
 In April 1792 Louis declared war on
Austria. Prussia immediately sided with
Austria.

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The Legislative Assembly hoped the
war would spread the ideals of the
Revolution.
 But thousands of French aristocrats,
including 2/3 of the army officer corps had
fled France (brain drain).
 Here the Legislative
Assembly backed Louis
and declared war on
Austria.

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Louis’ own brothers had left France and
gathered along the eastern border,
expecting to join a counterrevolutionary
army.
 Everyone expected a brief war…instead
France would be at war with Europe for
nearly the next 23 years (through the age
of Napoleon).

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Initially, the disorganized, untrained
French troops got trounced in battle which
further radicalized French politics.
 The French looked for scapegoats and the
king was the biggest target.
 The commander of the Prussian army
declared that wanted to end the anarchy
and restore the king’s authority. Paris
would be destroyed if the royal family was
harmed.

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The Prussian declaration, meant to frighten
Parisians, strengthened their desire to resist
any forces wanting to restore power to the
king.
 In August 1792, the ordinary people of Paris,
known as the sans-culottes (means “without
breeches” because they wore long trousers
instead of the fancy knee breeches of the
upper-class), frustrated with military defeat
and facing military retaliation, stormed the
Tuileries Palace looking for the king and royal
family.
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The royal family had to
seek shelter in the
meeting rooms of the
Legislative Assembly
(all their guards had
been killed).
 Mob violence ruled, and
the mob forced the
Legislative Assembly
to suspend the
monarchy.

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The Legislative Assembly also voted to disband
themselves and call for new elections. The new
body would be called the Convention.
 The body was named the Convention after the
American Constitutional Convention of 1787.
 For the first time in history, all men in France would
be eligible to elect members to the Convention,
eliminating property and tax qualifications for
voting, creating universal male suffrage.

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


The National Convention met in
September 1792 and was controlled by
the Jacobins.
The first major step of the new National
Convention was to declare France a
Republic (a system of government where
leaders are elected).
Lands of the nobility were seized and all
titles of nobility were abolished.
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The republic would now only answer to
the people, not to any royal authority.
France was now the most democratic
nation in the world.
 The French, who had never known any
government but the monarchy, were now
ending that 1000+ year institution.

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
With the Jacobins in power,
Lafayette, who commanded
an army guarding the
French border, was
denounced as being too
conservative and a warrant
was issued for his arrest.
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He, and many other liberal aristocrats who
supported a constitutional monarchy, fled
into exile in Austrian held Holland.
 Unfortunately, the Austrians captured
Lafayette and held him in a dungeon for
five years before releasing him (which
actually saved his life).
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Also in September 1792, as Prussian
soldiers approached Paris, mobs stormed
Parisian prisons looking for traitors who
might help the enemy.
 Many of the prisoners were priests,
nobles, or common criminals.
 In what was known as the “September
massacres,” over 1200 inmates, many of
them innocent, were killed in the hysteria.
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
The princess of Lamballe, a favorite of MarieAntoinette, was hacked to pieces by the mob
and her head was put on a pike and
displayed under the window where the royal
family was under guard.
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After the September
massacres, the sans
culottes believed Paris was
safe from counterrevolutionaries from within.
 Filled with patriotic
enthusiasm, thousands of
sans culottes rushed to the
front and overwhelmed the
Prussian army.
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One pressing issue of the Convention was
the question of what do with the king.
 In December 1792, the Convention
decided to put the king on trial for treason
against the Republic.
 Two factions argued over which course to
take, but the most radical argued that this
king, or any king, challenged their idea of
the Revolution and must be executed
(Jacobins).
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The other side believed the king should be
given a hearing and that the people of France
vote on his fate (Girondists).
 Some argued the king should be exiled.
 Louis XVI was convicted and a narrow
majority (380-310) voted to have him
executed.

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
Louis XVI went to the guillotine January 21,
1793.
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As he mounted the scaffold, the king said:
“Frenchmen, I die innocent. I pardon the
authors of my death. I pray God that the
blood about to be spilt will never fall upon
the head of France…”
 Unfortunately, only those closest to the
scaffold heard his words because the roll
of drums drowned out his voice.
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The executioner lifted
his head out of the
basket by the hair and
showed the cheering
crowds.
 With this, the “old
order” of France was
destroyed, much to
the horror of every
European monarch.
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One news account
reported “We have just
convinced ourselves that
the king is only a man,
and that no man is
above the law.”
 Nine months later the
queen was also
convicted of treason and
beheaded.

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
The execution of Queen Marie Antoinette.
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Before 1789, only nobles were executed
by beheading; commoners were executed
by hanging (beheading, if done well was
considered quick and painless; hanging,
on the other hand, was slow and
torturous.
 One of the Revolution’s ideals, equality
before the law, also meant equality in the
application of the death penalty.
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Dr. J.I. Guillotin, a member of the National
Assembly and a professor of anatomy first
proposed the device associated with his
name.
 Based on the Enlightenment ideal of
rationality and avoidance of torture, Dr.
Guillotin’s “machine” (actually created by
a French physician, Dr. A.Louis) was
decreed by the Assembly to be the
method of execution in June 1791.
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The first victim of the guillotine was a
highwayman (bandit) in April 1792.
 The last victim was in 1981, when France
abolished the death penalty.
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Initially, most of Europe was ambivalent
towards the revolution in France.
 Those who favored political reform looked
at the revolution as a wise and rational
reorganizing of a corrupt and inefficient
government.
 Most European governments, horrified at
what happened to the royal family, secretly
hoped France would cease to be a major
player in European affairs for many years.

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Even with the execution of the king and
the destruction of the “old order,” the
Revolution faced many challenges at
home and abroad.
 In November 1792, a month before the
National Convention condemned Louis XVI
to death, the Convention declared it would
aid all peoples who wished to cast off
aristocratic and monarchial oppression.

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Because of this, and the subsequent
execution of the king, an informal coalition
of Spain, Portugal, Britain, the Dutch
Republic, and even Russia joined Austria
and Prussia by taking up arms against
France.
 By the late spring of 1793, this coalition
was poised to invade France.
 If successful, both the Revolution and the
revolutionaries would be destroyed, and
the Old Regime would be reestablished.

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Adding to the widening crisis was rampant
inflation and continued food shortages.
 Throughout much of France, there was a
sense that protecting the national borders
wasn’t the main issue, it was protecting
the new political and social order that had
emerged since 1789.
 The French people understood that the
achievements of the Revolution were in
danger.

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Thousands of people from all walks of life,
peasants, nobles, clergy, business and
professional people, etc were arbitrarily
arrested, and in many cases executed.
 Much of France, including several cities,
rejected the authority of the National
Convention, creating additional pressures on an
already overburdened government.

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Paranoia was rampant.
 The immediate need to protect the Revolution
from enemies, real or imagined, was
considered more important than the security of
property or even of life.
 The actions to protect the Revolution, silence
dissent, and deal with growing crises became
known as the Reign of Terror (1793-94).

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
Responding to these
issues, in April 1793 the
National Convention gave
broad powers to a special
committee of 12 men
known as the Committee
of Public Safety.

The CoPS came to be led
by Maximilien Robespierre,
the leader of the Jacobins.
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For the year long period 1793-1794, the
Committee of Public Safety controlled
France with almost dictatorial power (they
were not very democratic).
 The CoPS had two major problems
(among the many) to deal with, wage a
war and secure support for the war effort.

The French Revolution
Robespierre believed France could create
a “republic of virtue” only through the use
of terror… “Liberty cannot be secured
unless criminals lose their heads.”
 In a speech in early 1794, Robespierre
said “…The first maxim of our politics
ought to be to lead the people by means
of reason and the enemies of the people
by means of terror…”

The French Revolution
The Committee of Public Safety, believing
they were creating a “republic of virtue”
based on Rousseau’s book The Social
Contract, set up revolutionary courts to
“protect” the Republic from its internal
enemies.
 The presence of armies closing in on
France made it easy to forget about the
legal due process.

The French Revolution
Revolutionary court’s promoted the notion
that the sacrifice of one’s self and one’s
interests for the good of the republic
would replace selfish aristocratic and
monarchial corruption.
 To this end, the courts had an estimated
30,000 people executed between 1793-94.

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The French Revolution
Most of the executions occurred in places
that openly rebelled against the authority
of the National Convention.
 The Committee of Public Safety said this
bloodletting was only temporary.
 Once the war and domestic crises were
over, the CoPS said the true republic would
follow and the Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen would be fully realized.

The French Revolution
Revolutionary armies were set up to bring
rebellious cities back under the control of
the National Convention.
 For example, the city of Lyon rebelled when
the Republic was in peril. To punish the
city, the CoPS ordered the executions of
nearly 2,000 people.
 When using the guillotine proved too slow,
cannon fire and grapeshot (a cluster of
small iron balls) was used by firing squads
to blow the condemned into open graves.

The French Revolution
In the city of Nantes, the prosecutor didn’t use
the guillotine.
 Over a two month period he executed over
2,000 people by forcing them into the hulls of
boats and having them sunk or capsized in the
Loire River.
 Anyone who attempted to climb out, including
children or pregnant women, were hacked to
death with swords.
 Because of the large number of bodies in the
river, disease broke out killing even more.

The French Revolution
To save the republic from its foreign
enemies, the Committee of Public Safety
decreed the first universal draft of men in
history (known as the levee en masse).
 Mobilization of the nation (including
women) began in August 1793.
 Almost all men were conscripted into the
military and economic production was
geared towards military purposes.
 The National Convention decreed:

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
Young men will fight. Young men are called to
conquer. Married men will forge arms, transport
military baggage and guns, and will prepare food
supplies. Women, who at long last are to take their
rightful place in the revolution and follow their true
destiny…will make clothes for the soldiers, they will
make tents, and they will extend their tender care to
shelters where the defenders will receive the help
that their wounds require. Children will make
bandages of old cloth…it is for them that we are
fighting. And old men, performing their missions
again, as of yore, will be guided to the public
squares of cities where they will kindle the courage
of young warriors and preach the doctrines of hate
for kings and the unity of the Republic.
The French Revolution
In less than a year, the
French revolutionary
government raised an
army of over 650,000
men; in 18 months, the
army swelled to nearly 1.2
million.
 The Republic’s army was
the largest ever seen in
European history (up to
that point).

The French Revolution
The revolutionary army was able to push
the invading allies back across the Rhine
River, they invaded northern Italy, and
they even conquered the Austrian
Netherlands (Belgium).
 Revolution and republicanism was poised
to spread beyond France.
 The revolutionary army was an important
step in the creation of modern nationalism
(devotion to one’s country).

The French Revolution
Before this, wars had been fought between
governments or ruling dynasties by relatively
small armies of professional soldiers.
 This new French army was the creation of a
people’s government.
 Its wars were now the “people’s” wars.
 Unfortunately, warfare became more
destructive since more segments of the
population were involved.
 This became the model for the total wars of
the 20th century.

The French Revolution
Creating the “Republic of Virtue” manifested
itself in other ways too.
 A cultural revolution occurred and
everything was “republicanized”.
 For example, powered wigs and the old
(aristocratic) styles of dress were out.
 In was dressing in trousers (like the sansculottes) and for women, simple dresses or
dresses that emulated ancient Greco/Roman
styles (to symbolize the democratic ideal) .

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
Aristocratic styles…OUT!
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
Styles of the Sans-culottes…IN!
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
Rococo style…OUT.
Simple, loose styles
were IN:
The French Revolution
Out: the old forms of addressing someone
Monsieur (my lord) and Madame (my lady).
 In: addressing someone as Citizen or
Citizeness.
 Out : the Gregorian calendar, 7 day weeks,
old measurements.
 In: the new calendar, 10 day weeks, the
metric system.
 Year 1 started on Sept 22, 1792 (when the
Republic was established).

The French Revolution








The months of the new 
republican calendar were

as follows (it started in

Autumn):
1. Vendemiaire (“Grape 

harvest”)

2. Brumaire (“Fog)

3. Frimaire (“Frost”)

Winter:
4. Nivose (“Snowy”)
5. Pluviose (“Rainy”)
6. Ventose (“Windy”)
Spring:
7. Germinal (“Germination”)
8. Floreal (“flower”)
9. Prairial (“Pasture”)
Summer:
10. Messidor (“Harvest”)
11. Thermidor (“Heat”)
12. Fructidor (“Fruit”)
The French Revolution
Everything, from the
new national anthem
(La Marseillaise) to
playing cards had
revolutionary slogans
and symbols.
 Everywhere was the
symbol and figure of
Liberty.

The French Revolution

Even naming your children changed…from
traditional Biblical names like John, Paul,
Peter, Mary, Sarah, Rachel, etc to those of
ancient Roman heroes like Brutus,
Gracchus, and Cornelia, or revolutionary
heroes, or flowers.
The French Revolution
The most dramatic step taken by the
“Republic of Virtue” was the National
Convention’s attempt to de-Christianize
France starting in the Fall of 1793.
 Religion (especially Catholicism) had long
been seen as an instrument of the Old
Regime…an insensitive and out of touch
oppressor, like the aristocracy, that
needed to be dealt with.

The French Revolution
When the Convention proclaimed the new
republican calendar in November 1793, it
eliminated all Christian references and all
Christian holidays.
 Every tenth day, instead of every seventh,
was a day of rest or holiday.
 Festivals replaced traditional Christian
holidays by trying to create a “moral order of
the Republic.”

The French Revolution
Many revolutionaries hoped the festival system
would replace Catholicism altogether.
 In November 1793 the Convention decreed the
Cathedral of Notre Dame to be a “Temple of
Reason” (and no longer a Catholic church).

The French Revolution

The medieval statues of kings at the
Cathedral of Notre Dame were beheaded.
The French Revolution
The Convention sent loyal members out into
the country to enforce de-Christianization.
 Churches were closed, members of the clergy
were persecuted (both priests and nuns), some
priests were forced to marry, some members of
the clergy were just killed outright.
 Churches were desecrated, some were torn
down and their stones sold off, some were
turned into barns or warehouses.

The French Revolution

The Convention’s most radical members
wanted Christianity to be replaced with a
new religion, what they called the Cult of
Reason.

Rather than being based on the JudeoChristian God, the Cult of Reason was based
on the Goddess of Reason.
The French Revolution

Here the Goddess of Reason sits upon the
high altar at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
The French Revolution
But Robespierre objected to the deChristianization campaign’s atheism, and
other members of the Convention worried
about turning the rural, devout population
against the republic.
 The Committee of Public Safety halted the
de-Christianization campaign and in June
1794, Robespierre tried to promote an
alternative: the Cult of the Supreme

Being.
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
Robespierre’s Cult of the Supreme Being was
modeled after the Deist inspired religion of
Rousseau.
The French Revolution

The Festival of the Supreme Being inaugurated
Robespierre’s new civic religion. The Festival’s
climax occurred when the statue of Atheism
was burned and the statue of Wisdom rose
from the ashes.
The French Revolution
It became popular for devout
revolutionaries to baptize their children not
with Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit but
with Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; the
motto of the Revolution.
 Neither Cult attracted many followers, but it
showed the lengths the Convention would
go towards overturning the old order and its
supporting institutions.

The French Revolution
Revolutionary laws also changed the rules
of family life.
 The state took responsibility for all family
matters away from the church.
 People had to register all births, deaths,
and marriages at city hall, not the local
parish church (further separating the
church from the state).

The French Revolution
Marriage became a civil contract, not
bound by religion, so it could be nullified.
 A new divorce law (Sept 1792) was the
most liberal in Europe: a couple could
divorce by mutual consent or because of
insanity, abuse, abandonment, or criminal
conviction.

The French Revolution
Thousands of unhappy marriages were
dissolved, even though the pope condemned
the law.
 The National Convention also passed a series
of laws that created equal inheritance among
all children in the family, even girls.
 The tradition of most assets going to the
eldest son, or the child favored by the father,
was seen as aristocratic and anti-republican.

The French Revolution
Not wanting to passively watch the Revolution,
in May 1793, a small group of women created
the Society of Revolutionary Republican
Women.
 They sought to root out and fight internal
enemies of the revolution. They were initially
welcomed by the Jacobins.
 They would fill the galleries of the Convention
to hear the debates and cheer their favorite
speakers.

The French Revolution
But they became increasingly radicalized,
seeking stronger controls on the prices of food
and other commodities.
 They were constantly causing fights with
other women they didn’t feel supported the
revolution enough.
 They also demanded the right to wear the
revolutionary cockade that most men wore in
their hats.

The French Revolution
By October 1793 the Jacobins feared the
turmoil the Society was causing so they
banned all women’s clubs and societies.
 Perhaps the most famous woman of the
Revolution, Olympe de Gouges, (she wrote the
Declaration of the Rights of Women 1791) was
sent to the guillotine in November 1793
because she opposed the Terror and accused
the Jacobins of corruption.

The French Revolution
The French Revolution
In July 1793 another young woman,
Charlotte Corday, assassinated the
outspoken Convention deputy Jean-Paul
Marat who constantly demanded more heads
and more blood from those opposed to the
revolution.
 Corday considered it her patriotic duty to kill
Marat (“I killed one man to save 100,000!”).
 Marat was now considered a great martyr of
the Revolution and Corday went to the
guillotine vilified as a monster.

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
The Death of Marat,
by Jacques-Louis
David (1793).
 Neoclassical style.
The French Revolution
By November 1793, the Committee of
Public Safety had women excluded from
public political life.
 As part of the “republic of virtue,” men
would be active citizens in the military and
political spheres and women would only
be active in the domestic sphere.

The French Revolution
As the French were becoming successful in
their military ventures, there became less
need for the Reign of Terror, yet it
continued.
 Robespierre was obsessed with rooting out
all enemies of the Revolution and his power
frightened others in power.
 To assure expediency, those accused of
crimes against the Revolution were denied a
public trial and faced a Revolutionary
Tribunal.

The French Revolution
Robespierre put thousands of “enemies”
to death each month, including many
political rivals in the National Convention.
 In April 1794 he had his chief political rival
(Jacques Danton) convicted on the flimsy
charge of being insufficiently militant on
the war. Danton was beheaded.

The French Revolution
In late July 1794,
Robespierre spoke
before the Convention,
declaring leaders of the
government were
conspiring against him
and the Revolution.
 No member of the
Convention felt safe so
the Convention ordered
that Robespierre be
arrested as an “enemy”
of the Revolution.

The French Revolution
He was charged with being a dictator and
tyrant (an anti-revolutionary) and
sentenced to death.
 Desperate, he and his followers
congregated in the Hotel de Ville, where
Robespierre tried to commit suicide by
shooting himself in the head (he missed,
sort of—he ended up breaking his jaw).

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
He was arrested, and the next day,
Robespierre and 82 of his supporters were
sent to the guillotine.
The French Revolution
Robespierre’s execution
was met with cheers
from the Parisian crowd.
 The end of the Terror
came with the end of
Robespierre.
 FYI, the term terrorist
comes from those who
were involved with
promoting the Reign of
Terror.

The French Revolution



After the death of Robspierre, moderates
came to power in the National
Convention and the Reign of Terror
ended.
The National Convention lessened the
power of the Committee of Public Safety.
A new constitution was created in 1795,
and a new executive authority, called the
Directory (five elected Directors), ruled
France.
The French Revolution
Within a year, all Jacobin Clubs were
closed.
 Leading “Terrorists” were put to death.
 Churches reopened, and people sought
escape from the atmosphere and anxiety
of the Terror in a new pursuit of pleasure.

The French Revolution



The Directory ruled from 1795-1799.
Peace was made with Prussia and Spain,
but war continued with Austria and
Britain.
But because of its corruption and internal
problems, there was a military take over
of France in 1799 (coup d’ etat), under
the leadership of a young army general
named Napoleon Bonaparte (which takes
us to the next part of the story).