The French Revolution
Liberty, Equality, and Nation
Overview
Stage I – July 1789-August 1792
Constitutional issues (peaceful)
Stage II – August 1792-July 1794
Crisis and consolidation (violent)
Stage III – 1794-1799
The Directory (Terror)
Stage IV – 1799-1815
The Napoleonic Era (Wars)
The issue of causes
• This is a major historiographical question
that has been long debated and will
continue to be
• The Marxist interpretation, which was
dominant in the 1960s and 70s, saw this
as a class conflict, based mostly on
economics and politics
• This is no longer the dominant view;
historians today tend to favour social
causes
Ancien Régime society
• A society of estates, or orders
• Since 1600, many wealthy merchants and
businessmen had purchased a noble title
– known as the nobility of the robe; the
older noble families were known as the
nobility of the sword
• About 2/3 of the nobility in 1789 had only
had noble status since 1600
• There was some ambiguity in the nobility
itself and between nobles and wealthy
non-nobles, who aspired to their class
Was there a middle class?
• There was no heterogeneous middle class
– and there were frictions between the
wealthy members and the less wealthy
members
• Many of these less wealthy, but educated
and middling people, as well as poor
nobles began to air their grievances in the
‘public sphere’ of printed books and salons
The Economy
• An influential group of economists, known
as the physiocrats, were arguing against
mercantilist policies and high taxes on
grain
• The peasants and urban labourers were
hardest hit by economic problems
• Resentment grew about the nobles’
exemption from taxation
Louis XVI (1774-1792)
• Louis attempted some
economic reforms – but
they failed because he
was not as absolute as
his predecessors had
been
• Louis attempted to
solve his financial
troubles with more
taxes – which failed
Summoning of the Estates General
• Louis needed more money to finance his wars –
but the Assembly of Notables, made up of
members of the nobility, would not approve new
taxes without the approval of the Estates
General
• The Estates General was an assembly of all
three orders in society; it had last met in 1614;
its job was to present grievances to the king
• There was disagreement over whether the
estates should vote as a body or as individuals
Abbé Emmanuel Sieyès (1748-1836)
• In a pamphlet entitled
What is the Third Estate?
(Jan. 1789), Sieyès
argued that the Third
Estate was the most
important part of the
country and thus should
have double the votes of
the other two order
• The king eventually
agreed to this formula
Opening of the Estates General
• The meeting opened in May, 1789
• Very shortly after, the Third Estate left the
proceeding, declaring itself a National
Assembly. They were locked out of the
Estates General after that, they went to an
empty tennis court at Versailles – and
declared that they would not disband until
a constitution for France had been drafted
• In essence, the National Assembly
proclaims it self to be the highest
sovereign power in France
The Tennis Court Oath, June, 1789
Jacques Louis David
The Revolution Begins –
Popular Revolts in 1789
• The Storming of the Bastille, July 14
– Led by the “sans-culottes” to get arms for the
citizens’ militia
• The “Great Fear”, August
– In the countryside peasants attacked and
burned manor houses
• The Women’s March on Versailles
– In October 1789, Parisian women marched to
Versailles to protest the high price of bread
and food shortages
The National Assembly Reacts
• September 1789, the National assembly
promulgates the Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen
• The Assembly moves to abolish all forms of
privilege to the church and to the nobility (like tax
exemptions, sale of offices)
• Confiscated church lands to help the economy –
priests become subjects of the state
• Guilds and trades are abolished – economic
enterprise is sanctioned
Radical Republicanism
• Summer of 1792 – the Assembly becomes
more radical
• Citizens become more politicized – join
political clubs to debate issues
• Lack of effective national leadership – the
king is a prisoner of the assembly
• International attention is focused on
France, polarizing opinion about it’s goals
The Counterrevolution
• Many nobles flee France and seek refuge with
other European nobles; They encourage Austria
and Prussia to restore the French nobility
• The National Assembly declares war on Austria
and Prussia on 20 April, 1792 – by August Paris
is threatened
• In Britain, Edmund Burke write the quintessential
conservative response to the French Revolution
Reflections on the Revolution in France
The Jacobins
• Member of the Jacobin Club take leadership
away from the moderate Girondins – they claim
that the Girondins only represent the wealthy
commercial class and claim to represent the
people
• In September 1792 members are elected to the
National Convention, which rules until 1795
• Riots break out and there are many summary
executions of “enemies of the Revoltion”
• The Convention makes an effort to reorganize
finances and direct the army; by 1794 they have
not only repelled their invaders, but become
invaders themselves
The Terror (Sept. 1793- July 1794)
• Advocates of Rousseau’s ‘general will’, the
Jacobins rule ruthlessly, giving more and
more power to the Committee of Public
Safety
• Maximilien Robspierre was responsible for
enlarging the Terror – and imposing a
dictatorship in France and persecuting
“enemies of the state”
The Directory
• Fuelled by the army’s success, many
people start to argue that the Committee
of Public Safety and its practices are no
longer necessary
• Five men chosen from the Convention to
rule and to have executive powers
• The rule precariously until 1799, when a
French general will capture the nation’s
attention
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
• After a number of daring
victories, he becomes a popular
leader
• Very quickly he begins to codify
the Revolution into laws
• He makes peace with Austria
and England
• In 1804, he becomes Emperor
Napoleon, sweeping away the
vestiges of Republicanism
Napoleon’s Empire
• Napoleon makes stunning victories against
Russia and Prussia in 1805 – the Battle of
Austerlitz
• His invasion of Spain goes badly in 1808 and
things start to fall apart
• In 1812, his rag-tag army retreats from Russia
• Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Britain renew
their attack
• He is finally defeated by the British in 1815 at
the Battle of Waterloo
• The Bourbon monarchy is restored and
Napoleon is exiled