Download THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The Storming of the Bastille The

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The Storming of the Bastille
The execution of King Louis XVI
INTRODUCTION
The term the "French Revolution" designates a period in French history during which a series of
violent upheavals brought about a fundamental transformation of French society, politics, economics, and
culture. While historians disagree as to how long the revolution lasted, few question its significance. It
brought changes not only to French society, but was to have a profound impact on the systems of
government throughout the world to the present day.
Throughout the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, the French
monarchy developed and maintained a
social and political system that
excluded the majority of the French
people from the business of running the
nation. While this was not an
uncommon practice at this point in
history, kings of the Bourbon dynasty
grew increasingly isolated from their
subjects. As the French economy
weakened during the first threequarters of the eighteenth century, the
Bourbon monarchs spent more and
more on themselves. At the same time,
philosophers in England, France, and
the American colonies began to
develop new ideas about how
governments should treat the people
they govern. Members of the French
middle- and upper-classes grew worried about the reckless and selfish behavior of the monarchy.
In the late-1780s they attempted to implement these new ideas and reform the French
government. At first, they wanted only to put the monarchy under some form of constitutional control;
but the forces for change they unleashed sent the course of revolution in many, often-uncontrollable
directions.
While the revolution resulted in the establishment, in 1799, of essentially a military dictatorship,
the “Old Regime,” as it had existed prior to 1789, was irrevocably destroyed. This decade, then, of
revolutionary activity is best understood by first examining the characteristics of the “Old Regime,” or
pre-revolutionary France.
Part 1
France Under the “Old Regime”
A. Social and Political Systems
Before 1789, French society was divided into three separate groups or classes called "Estates."
The First Estate was composed of high-level members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The
Second Estate was made up of the hereditary nobility, many of whom were directly or indirectly related
to the Bourbon family. Together, these first two estates included about 3% of the population of France.
The Estates
The remaining 97% belonged to the Third
First Estate
Estate. This included lawyers, bankers, middle class
Second Estate
shopkeepers, tradesman and peasants. On the eve of
Third Estate
the revolution, well over 80% of the population
were peasants. Most did not own their own land, but
instead paid a "taille," or rent, for the use of the
land. The peasants paid this to the nobility and the
Catholic Church, which owned the majority of the
arable land in the country.
The leaders of the Third Estate were drawn from the "bourgeoisie," or middle class. The city and
town dwellers - artisans, shopkeepers, lawyers, etc. - were those who traditionally represented the
interests of the entire Third Estate. No matter how wealthy or poor a person was, class in France was
determined by birth and there was very little social mobility (movement between classes).
In medieval times, representatives of each of the three Estates were called upon by the various
Kings of France to assemble and then carry out the wishes of the royalty. Prior to 1789, the last meeting
of the three Estates was in 1614. Historically, the powers of this assembly had been limited to an
advisory capacity - a means by which the King could secure promises of loyalty. In fact, throughout the
1600s and 1700's the Bourbon Kings created an absolutist government with substantial privileges for the
First and Second Estates.
Each Estate had only one vote when the Estates General was convened; therefore the Third
Estate would never, by itself, be able to challenge the decisions of the privileged classes. It was an oldfashioned form of representative government which had little real power to balance the power or the
absolute monarch.
The governing principle of political power before 1789 was the belief in the "divine right" of
kings, that the king was chosen by God to rule on behalf of his people. This had been an accepted truth
since the beginning of the French nation a thousand years before; anyone who challenged the authority of
the king was, therefore, challenging the word of God. The Catholic Church supported this belief and, in
turn, received special privileges from the French monarchy. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s the
Bourbon dynasty depended on the loyalty and respect of its retainers, courtiers, lords and nobles.
"Governing" France meant very little in the modern sense of the word.
Absolute monarchy did require, however, the ability to tax the people without their formal
consent. Taxes were collected by officials appointed and licensed by the crown. In fact, all jobs in the
royal government were given to members of the nobility. Many positions in the government were
inherited and stayed in the same family for generations.
B. The Financial Crisis
When Louis XIV died in 1714, he left the French treasury empty and in debt. Having ruled for
over seventy years, Louis XIV had embarked on a series of wars of expansion, designed to make France and himself - the greatest power in Europe. Furthermore, he and his grandson, Louis XV (who ruled from
1714-74), expanded the royal retreat at Versailles. All of this was done at public expense. When public
money ran out, the Bourbon monarchy sold certificates representing loans
to the government. The majority of these were purchased by members of
the Second Estate and the bourgeoisie.
Upon ascending to the throne in 1774, Louis XVI decided to
continue the expansionist foreign policies of the previous Bourbon
monarchs. When the American colonies declared their independence from
Great Britain, he saw an opportunity to substantially weaken one of
France’s major enemies.
For hundreds of years, France and Great Britain had been antagonistic competitors for the
resources of Europe and the world. Only ten years before, in the Seven Years’ War (known in the
colonies as the “French and Indian War”), Great Britain had forced France to give up its holdings in
North America. By supporting the American colonists in their war for independence, the French could
help to separate Great Britain from its most valuable colonial possession. Once the new
United States was formed, the French believed, the new nation would be indebted to
France and need a strong ally to protect its interests. In time, the French would be able
to use friendly ports in the United States to eventually retake its captured territories in
North America (mainly Quebec). To Louis XVI, whatever it would cost to support the
American colonists, the eventual returns for France would be more than profitable.
Like all the plans of the Bourbon monarchs, this too did not take into serious
consideration the economic realities of the French government. By the time the United States finally
gained its independence in 1783, French troops, armaments, and financial support amounted to over 80%
of the cost of waging the war. Though some of this colossal debt was repaid, not enough made it back to
France to avoid financial disaster.
An audit in 1788 revealed to King Louis and his ministers that the crown was heavily in debt and
would continue to be so burdened without some way of raising new money. Louis appointed a new
finance minister, Jacques Necker, to examine the problems. Necker
was a respected banker and financier, but a member of the Third
Estate. His recommendations, therefore, were not always respected
by the lords who advised Louis. In fact, Necker pointed out that the
only way of raising enough money was to create additional taxes and
eliminate some of the exemptions.
Furthermore, the winters of the late-1780s were severe in
France. Not enough wheat survived, and the price of bread - the most
basic food staple - soared. Droughts and famine in parts of France
further heightened people’s resentment toward Bourbon policies. A
tradition of tax exemptions for the First and Second Estates, coupled
with rampant corruption in the system of tax collection. It has been
estimated that roughly 60% of the gross revenue collected never
reached the government. The government was faced with an
unprecedented financial crisis by the autumn of 1788.
In order to create a consensus, so that taxes could be raised,
Necker proposed that the King call on the long-dormant EstatesGeneral. In the Spring of 1789, Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to call
the Estates-General into session. Elections were held throughout the kingdom for representatives to each
of the three Estates. Still, only those who owned property were, by law and tradition, allowed to cast
votes.
New taxes, of course, were not going to be popular. Taxes on the peasants’ agricultural
production, for farm animals, on salt, for marriage licenses, for burial, trade, religious tithes, etc. had
accumulated into a heavy burden on the peasantry and the bourgeoisie of the Third Estate.
The famines prior to the revolution of 1789 sparked peasant uprisings against the oppression of
the landowners and the royal tax collectors. The fear of renewed uprisings if more taxes were imposed
troubled some of the nobility, but the vast majority of the ruling class in the Old Regime was wellremoved from the concerns of the peasants. The system of exploitation and class had so long endured,
that many believed it was the natural state of affairs and would continue for generations. They would
soon be proven wrong.
A document from residents of the parish Pithiviers-le-Viel, provides an example of the concerns
of the peasantry and Third Estate bourgeoisie. The following passage is taken from a "List of
Grievances..." written by an assembly of the town's cultivators in early 1789. The "List..." was to be
taken to the Estates-General and publicly presented. The townspeople recommended that the EstatesGeneral:
Succeed in reducing certain taxes which are crushing the countryside . . The deputies will be
charged to ask that all taxes generally, of whatever sort, be paid equally by the three orders - that
is, by the Clergy, Nobility, and the Third Estate.
(Dawson, The French Revolution)
Complaints from scores of other towns and villages gave the delegates to the Third Estate a clear
message to reform the tax laws and limit the power of the Catholic Church.
Nobles of the Second Estate, and indeed the King himself, were faced with an explosive
situation. The imposition of new taxes could result in further peasant uprisings. For those who had
invested heavily in the Bourbon government, the fear grew that continued economic mismanagement by
the monarchy would lead to the government collapsing and defaulting on their investments. They, too,
came to desire some major reforms of the absolutist system.
In early 1789, during his campaign for election to the Estates-General, Mirabeau, a "fallen"
nobleman who was decidedly anti-royalist and who had cast his lot with the Third Estate, chose to
exploit feelings of class antagonism to his advantage. Responding to a newspaper description of him as
‘a mad dog,' he retorted: “A good reason to elect me, for despotism and privilege will die from my bite.”
The public expression of these sentiments during the first days of the Estates-General in the summer of
1789 marks the onset of the revolution.
Part 2
The Early Stages of the Revolution
Within a few days of the first meeting, it became clear that the Estates-General had come to be
dominated by unruly members of the Third Estate, in alliance with "disloyal" members of the other two
Estates, including Mirabeau. For all the reasons detailed above, the need to reform the government was
obvious.
A. Acts of Open Defiance
The first major issue was the voting procedure. The Third Estate members were proposing that
since they represented the vast majority of the population, they should be given more than just one vote.
The historic voting privilege of the first two Estates would be jeopardized by a more equal representation
of the interests of the Third Estate. But other revolutionary ideas, such as making the clergy more
accountable, reforming the tax system, abolishing the nobles' feudal privileges, and even demands for a
permanent legislature or Parliament were also dividing the two sides. None of these ideas, however,
were debated in the context or overthrowing or eliminating the monarchy. The revolution began as a
rebellion not against the monarchy or the
nobility, per se, but rather as a rebellion
against perceived abuses of the
monarchical system.
Many in the bourgeoisie expressed
their desire to create some form of
constitutional monarchy. In June of
1789, the Third Estate members were
locked out of their meeting hall at
Versailles palace by an order of the King. The members quickly found an empty indoor tennis court and
resolved, "Never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of
the Kingdom shall be established and fixed upon firm foundations." This famous statement, later called
the "Tennis Court Oath," reaffirmed the delegates’ commitment to kingship and "Kingdom" as much as
it expressed a desire for change.
The Third Estate, together with growing numbers of delegates from the other two Estates,
declared themselves to be the sole representatives of the people of France; they called themselves the
"National Assembly." They resolved to create a permanently new form of constitutional government.
Meanwhile, some Frenchmen and women pushed ahead of the politicians of the Third Estate by
attacking a symbol of royal oppression and tyranny, the Bastille. Built in the 1300s as a defense against
the English, the Bastille had been converted into a prison by Charles VI in the early 1400s. An immense
fort with several towers and eight-foot thick walls, it stood near the edge of Paris as a sinister reminder of
royal authority. And, while at the time of the revolution it no longer housed large numbers of political
prisoners, it had a deserved reputation as a place of torture throughout the eighteenth century.
Surrounding the entrance to the Bastille on July 14th, 1789, was an angry mob of about 900
Parisians. Most were workingmen, who would later be called sans-culottes, because they did not wear
upper-class britches but simple trousers. Many of their families were hungry since bread prices had
reached an all-time high. Others had been in the streets to protest the King's dismissal of Necker as
finance minister.
Rumors that troops had been ordered to encircle Paris provoked many to search for arms to
protect themselves. Others knew that the Bastille contained a new
supply of gunpowder sent to the fort earlier In the week. The
commander of the Bastille, de Launay, refused to surrender his arms
or relinquish control to the citizens, who were calling themselves "the
militia of the city of Paris." The commander, was by all accounts a
loyal functionary of the King and refused to surrender without direct
orders from the mayor of Paris or the King.
The impatience of the crowd grew and eventually a siege of
the fort began. The angry citizens got support from several
companies of soldiers. Realizing he could not withstand a prolonged
siege, de Launay surrendered the fort by early evening. Eighty-five
citizens of Paris had died that day; and once de Launay came away
from the fort. the fury of the crowd was vented upon him. He was
spit upon, beaten, stabbed, and eventually decapitated. The Bastille
was itself ransacked and destroyed stone by stone. The demolition
lasted several months and employed an army of vagrants from the
poor neighborhood. Pieces of the Bastille were ingenuously carved into models of the prison itself and
sold as souvenirs of the revolution throughout France.
Insignificant in terms of immediate results, the storming of the Bastille came to be the symbolic
heart of the rebellion. It was now up to the leaders of the National Assembly to secure political gains
from the demise of royal power and authority.
As violence increased, alarm spread among the members of the National Assembly. On the night
of August 4th, the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens" was issued. In it, all the members
of the National Assembly - including many nobles - pledged to abandon their feudal claims, privileges
and tax exemptions. Many of the deputies believed that such a gesture would satisfy the workers of Paris
and the peasantry.
Essentially, the Declaration listed basic rights as "liberty,
property, security and resistance to oppression." Law was defined as the
expression of the "general will" of "the people,” and all "citizens ...
personally, or by their representatives" had a right to take part in the
formation of government. Freedoms of the press, "opinion," and even
religion were listed by the delegates in the document.
The purpose of the Declaration was to raise public confidence in
the National Assembly. The Declaration abandoned the legalized
inequalities of the Old Regime. It was widely read, having been placed
on public bulletin boards and pasted up in public squares throughout
France. It had wide appeal in France and was enthusiastically supported
by many members of the Third Estate, including peasants. The
Declaration expressed the possibility of creating a republic out of the
Old Regime.
But rather than turn their country over to the masses, the
bourgeoisie remained staunch supporters of private property rights and created a method whereby
peasants could purchase lands from the nobles and bourgeois landowners. The delegates had not yet
adopted radical revolutionary ideas, such as redistributing land and allowing all people to vote in direct
elections.
However, during the first year and a half, the revolution was directed by a liberal National
Assembly that sought to create a constitutional government that would split power between the King and
the legislature and would, above all, preserve the interests of the propertied bourgeoisie.
B. Revolution Becomes More Complex
During October of 1789, the King refused to agree to the demands of the National Assembly
(including signing the Declaration). The populace of Paris was stirred again to demonstrate its power to
change the course of events. During October 5th and 6th, several thousand women and men marched
from the heart of Paris out to the Palace of Versailles,
several miles to the southwest of the city.
In front of Versailles, the crowds skirmished
with royal guards and demanded that the King vacate
the Palace and return with them to face the realities of
governing a starving city. Eventually the King gave
in. and moved his household to the Tuilleries Palace in
the center of Paris. The age of luxurious and
absolute rule from Versailles was
over.
Despite his presence in Paris, Louis XVI
remained a weak and ineffectual leader, and was
never at the center of the revolutionary
struggles. He reluctantly signed the Declaration
and agreed in principle to sharing some power with an elected legislature. But Louis became offended by
the measures the revolutionary government took to limit the power of the Catholic Church.
Louis sympathized with those nobles and First Estate clergymen who resisted the decrees of the
Assembly government, for they had been a loyal part of the Bourbon tradition of “divine right”
monarchy. Rumors abounded that Louis was plotting counter-revolutionary schemes that would involve
the invasion of France by foreign governments and his return to authority.
The National Assembly in 1790 held elections for a new "Legislative Assembly." In the process
of defining who could vote in the Assembly, the scope of what the "Declaration of the Rights of Man"
seemed to promise for Frenchmen greatly narrowed. The Assembly divided French society into "active
and passive" citizens. By instituting this distinction based on property and adding a poll tax, about onethird of the adult males of France were denied the right to vote. Those denied were peasants at the
lowest end of the class structure. Of course, no women were allowed to vote. Furthermore, the use of
electors - rather than direct popular elections for delegates - reduced the level of democratic
participation, and resulted in the election of a moderate bourgeois Legislative Assembly.
By the spring of 1791, the Legislative Assembly had completed their constitution. Included in the
Constitution of 1791, was a section giving the Assembly the right to confiscate the lands and property of
the Catholic Church in France. The Assembly voted to place these properties at the disposal of the
government, which would then assume the responsibility of paying the clergy, meeting the expenses of
running the churches, monasteries, etc.
The Church, then, was essentially taken over by the government and the clergy was forced to
swear allegiance to the new government and what became known as the "Civil Constitution of the
Clergy." Priests, now essentially like postmen or policemen, were asked to reject their connection to
Papal authority in Rome. This policy of the Legislative Assembly caused widespread dissent among the
First and Second Estate and resulted in religious strife, resistance, and persecutions.
With this new property as collateral, the Constitutional government began to issue assignats, or
bonds. But by issuing far too many, the bonds began to depreciate and eventually they lost most of their
original value. The original idea had been to use the funds raised by the bonds to pay of the debts
incurred by the King. The huge debt the royal government had
created was eventually defaulted, and it was difficult for future
governments of France to secure credit or undertake new
projects without financing.
Part 3
Radicalization
Few people were satisfied with the new constitutional
monarchy. Radical revolutionaries wanted a republic rather than
a monarchy. For many nobles, the Constitution of 1791 went too
far. Frightened by angry crowds in Paris and in the countryside,
a growing number of nobles fled France. These émigrés, or
people who left the country for political reasons, urged
European rulers to oppose the revolutionaries in France.
In the summer of 1791, Louis XVI grew increasingly
alarmed at the actions of the National Assembly. In the hope of
securing outside help from his brother-in-law, King Leopold of
Austria, he attempted to flee the country. Captured at the border
by revolutionary guards who easily recognized them, the royal
family returned to Paris where they were held prisoner for more
than a year.
When the newly-elected Legislative Assembly met in October, the seating arrangements in the
Assembly reflected divisions among the revolutionaries. Moderate revolutionaries, who mostly wanted to
preserve the revolution as it was, sat on the right; The more radical revolutionaries, who supported rapid
and extreme change, sat on the left. To this day, the terms “left” and “right” (and “center,” for those
with views in the middle) are used to denote where a person or party fall on the political spectrum.
The king’s attempt to flee the country had deepened the divisions among the revolutionaries.
Moderates were embarrassed by the king’s attempted flight, but they wanted to preserve the
constitutional monarchy. Radicals claimed that the king could not be trusted, and demanded the
establishment of a republic.
However the radicals themselves were further split into two groups: the Girondin and the
Jacobins. Led by Jacques Brissot, the Girondin mostly represented the commercial interests of the
urban bourgeoisie. They wanted the wars to continue, hopefully to the point where France could begin to
acquire additional lands and resources; they believed that war would unite the people in defense of their
homeland.
Maximilien de Robespierre, who emerged as the leader of the Jacobins - a political
organization of radical sans-cullotes, extremist journalists, and lower- and lower-middle class craftsmen
and tradesmen - demanded a true democracy in which all male citizens had the right to vote and wealth
was equalized.
In the end, the Girondin carried the Assembly and France declared war on Austria in April of
1792. At first, the war went badly for France. French armies were disorganized and poorly led. Many
experienced army officers, who were nobles, had left France. Revolutionary ideas also caused some
problems. For example, in the heat of battle, one regiment demanded to vote on whether or not to attack
the enemy.
A. The End of the Bourbon
Monarchy
By August 1792, Austrian - along
with Prussian - armies advanced on
Paris. The Prussian commander, the
Duke of Brunswick, issued a declaration
warning that if Paris did not surrender
peacefully, Austrian and Prussian troops
would burn the city and put its leaders to
death.
Far from being frightened by the
duke’s message, the people of Paris
angrily declared that no émigrés or
foreign troops would crush the
revolution. All over France, people rallied to defend the revolution. In September, the French defeated
the Duke of Brunswick at Valmy. In the months that followed, revolutionary armies forced the invaders
to retreat from France.
The war against Austria and Prussia caused high prices and desperate food shortages for the
people of France. Even while foreign troops threatened Paris, angry Parisians and sympathetic troops
from the provinces joined in an uprising that has been called “the second French Revolution.”
Early in the morning of August 10, revolutionaries took over the Paris city government and
established a new administration, the “Commune.” A large force of revolutionary troops marched on the
Tuileries, where the king and his family
were living. The troops attacked the
palace, killing many of the king’s
guards. When the king and queen fled
to the Legislative Assembly, hoping for
protection, the radicals seized control
of the building. A vote was forced to
remove the king from office and
imprison the royal family. They then
called for a national convention to
write a new constitution
Massacres of political prisoners
suspected
of
being
counterrevolutionaries and sympathizers with
the nobility began in September. The
violence in the streets kept many away
from the polls on election day, and the
National Convention was dominated by
Jacobins, who tended to be far more
radical than the population in general.
The first order of business
before this more radical government
was what to do with the king, who had been held prisoner for nearly a year. Most of the remaining
moderates preferred to offer him clemency or, at worst, exile. To most Jacobins, however, the matter
was clear: the king was a traitor and must be executed.
The trial of the king was hastened by the discovery at the Tuileries Palace of documents proving
that the King had tried to encourage Austria to invade France and put him back In power. In January
1793, a public vote was taken by the Convention. The vote (387 to 334) favored the Jacobins. The King
of France was publicly beheaded by guillotine a few days later. This dramatic event paved the way for
the "Reign of Terror" by the leaders of the Jacobins.
B. The Reign of Virtue/The Reign of Terror
Even though the King was executed, there was continued fear that nobles and foreign agents
were loose in France and were plotting to wage a counter-revolution and return France to the structure of
the Old Regime. Robespierre exploited these fears.
Heading the "Committee for Public Safety," Robespierre began to assert tyrannical control over
Paris and eventually, the outlying regions as well. In fact, the revolutionary government was in desperate
straits. The revolutionary armies had been beaten along the eastern borders and were in retreat. Whole
regions of France had revolted against the radical Jacobin government; and in some places alliances of
clergy, nobles and peasants were calling for the overthrow of the Convention government.
To achieve its goal of suppressing the counter-revolution, then, Robespierre enlisted regular
army troops and special units of revolutionary guards. He also encouraged the creation of revolutionary
"tribunals" composed of working-class sans-culottes who would judge arrested suspects and sentence
them. The Committee for Public Safety and the tribunals embarked on a reign of terror arresting and
executing thousands of men and women.
Analysis of the victims of the terror suggest that it was not strictly an issue of class conflict.
According to some accounts, only as many as 20% of the 40,000 victims of “the Terror” were aristocrats
or members of the clergy. Most victims were those who simply no longer agreed with Jacobin methods
or policies, and openly challenged the Jacobin version of the republic. Robespierre justified his actions
by saying: "Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows from virtue ... It is
wholly necessary to establish briefly the despotism of freedom in order to crush the despotism of Kings."
The French people respond enthusiastically to the levee en masse.
Indeed, the Convention government and the Committee for Public Safety were able to crush
opposition and salvage a few victories on the battlefield. The Convention had mobilized the population
to rise In defense through decrees such as the following “levee en masse":
Henceforth, until the enemies have been driven from the territory of the Republic, the French
people are in permanent requisition for army service. The young men shall go to battle; the
married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes,
and shall serve in the hospitals, the children shall turn old linen into lint; the old men shall repair
to the public places, to stimulate the courage of the warriors and preach the unity of the Republic
and hatred of Kings.
(Breunig, The Age of Revolution)
Constituting the first modern appeal for wartime mobilization of a people, this document is a remarkable
example of the kind of loyalty the revolutionaries hoped to inspire.
In fact, the Convention raised an army of over 800,000 men, with
several capable new generals including Napoleon Bonaparte. This “Grand
Army of the Republic” embarked on a series of counterattacks against
Austria, Prussia, and the other European nations that joined the war against
France in the spring of 1793. It was the most formidable fighting force
Europe had yet seen.
Once the victories and the “Reign of Terror” seemed to have
effectively quashed the perceived threats to the new republic, the need for
spilling more blood to “create a .. nation of Virtue," as Robespierre put it,
began to be questioned.
For little more than a year, the Committee of Public Safety waged a
brutal campaign against people it considered enemies of France. The
Committee had almost dictatorial powers. According to Robespierre, its leader, the Committee was
determined to create a “Republic of Virtue …in which our country assures the welfare of each individual
and where each individual enjoys the pride the prosperity and glory of our country…”
Robespierre, himself, was utterly honest and dedicated to his ideals, but he was also inflexible
and narrow-minded. Agents were sent across France to help local revolutionary committees uncover
traitors. One law declared that people suspected of being counter-revolutionaries could be arrested “for
their conduct, their relations, their remarks, or their writings.” Another set strict limits on prices and
wages, rationed food, and outlawed the use of scarce white flour. Citizens were required to use whole
wheat flour to make “equality bread.”
By the spring of 1794, the National Convention ordered Robespierre’s arrest. Along with his
supporters, he was quickly tried and guillotined. With his death, the Terror ended.
C. The Impact on the French People
Between 1789 and 1794, French life had been significantly transformed. The monarchy was
gone, and the Bourbon king was dead. In place of the privileged Estates of the Old Regime, the
revolution had declared equality for all people. The National Convention had abolished all remaining
feudal dues and customs, and ended slavery in the French colonies. In addition, it had confiscated the
land of the émigrés.
Revolutionary leaders established a uniform system of weights and measures, known as the
metric system. They also called for free public schools so all citizens could receive an education.
However, the schools were never set up.
Although military victories had been achieved, the government was unable to fully solve the
economic problems of France. By the summer of 1795, inflation and bread riots brought down the
government. Several attempts were made by royalists to reestablish a monarchical government. Finally,
the Convention dissolved, but not before writing yet another constitution. This one reflected the more
conservative mood of the country.
Part 4
The Napoleonic Era
The Constitution of 1795 established a new
government known as the Directory. The Directory
consisted of two branches - an executive and
legislative branch. The executive held most power
and was composed of five ministers appointed by the
legislature. The legislative branch had an upper and
lower house, each with powers to create laws.
The achievements of this last revolutionaryera government were limited to defending itself from
conspiracy and armed attack from 1795 to 1799.
The five-man executive did not function efficiently,
and corrupt deputies in the legislature bargained for
political favors. Financial problems continued to
plague the republic, inflation eroded the purchasing
power and confidence of investors and made
development of the French economy difficult.
It was General Napoleon Bonaparte who
ended the rule of the Directory government and
brought to a close the decade of revolutionary change. In 1799, after a year's absence from France and
many victories with the army abroad, Napoleon Bonaparte secretly slipped back into France and
organized a coup d'etat. Members of the government were forced to resign or imprisoned, and Napoleon
began what would be essentially a military dictatorship for the next sixteen years.
A. From First Consul to Emperor
Napoleon joined with two directors and drew up another constitution, the fourth since 1789.
Under the new government, known as the Consulate, Napoleon was named “First Consul.”
“I am no ordinary man,” Napoleon once boasted. He certainly was a person who could command
the attention of friends, as well as enemies. He had a sharp mind and could quickly size up a situation
and decide on a course of action. He thought and spoke so fast that he could dictate letters to four
secretaries on four separate topics, all at the same time. Personal
qualities and military talents (or, at least, the talent to claim the
glory for himself) helped Napoleon win widespread popular
support. At age 30, Napoleon was the virtual dictator of France.
Between 1799 and 1804, Napoleon centralized power in
his own hands. In 1802, a plebiscite (popular vote) made him
First Consul for life. Two years later, Napoleon Bonaparte
proclaimed himself “Emperor of the French.” Once again, the
majority of the French voters endorsed his actions.
By 1804, Napoleon had gained almost absolute power.
He knew the French would never stand for a return to the Old
Regime, so he continued many reforms of the revolution. But at
the same time, he kept firm personal control of the government.
For example, he kept the system of dividing France into departments; but he appointed local officials to
replace the elected councils that had ruled during the revolution. He also allowed many émigrés to return
home and reclaim their lost land, but they had to agree not to demand the privileges they had enjoyed
before the revolution.
Napoleon’s greatest achievement in government was the Napoleonic Code, which has influenced
French law to the present. This law code brought together many reforms of the revolution into a single,
organized system. Napoleon directed his advisors to unify the different legal systems that existed in
different parts of France. The code formally recognized that all men were equal before the law and
guaranteed freedom of religion, as well as a person’s right to work in any occupation. No longer did birth
determine one’s future.
To a greater extent, the Napoleonic Code put the interests of the state above the individual. In
addition, it repealed laws passed during the revolution that had protected the rights of women and
children. Men were made the absolute head of the household with control over all family property,
including that which the wife brought into the marriage.
To strengthen the economy, laws were enforced requiring all citizens to pay taxes. A national
Bank of France was created in which the tax money was deposited. In turn, the bank issued paper
money and made loans to businesses. These policies gradually brought inflation under control.
Napoleon also set up lycees, government-run schools that could fill the demand for educated,
loyal government officials. Extreme patriotism was encouraged and the same curriculum was taught at
each school. Though only the children of the wealthy could afford the tuition, scholarships were
sometimes available. Thus, the lycees represented an initial step toward a system of public education - an
enduring goal of Enlightenment thinkers and the French revolutionary leaders.
Lastly, religion was dealt with through an astute combination of reform and respect for tradition.
Napoleon realized that most French people still practiced Roman Catholicism and were disgusted by the
treatment of the Church during the more-radical stages of the revolution. In the Concordat of 1801, an
agreement between the French government and the Pope, the power to appoint Catholic bishops and pay
the clergy remained in the hands of the French government, but the Pope was returned authority over
them. Also addressed in this document was the issue of church property seized during the revolution. The
Catholic Church agreed that it would not demand the return of the property; this allowed Napoleon to
maintain the support of people who had earlier acquired church lands.
B. The Empire
Between 1792 and 1815, France was almost constantly at war. During the revolution, French
armies fought defensively against a coalition of European monarchs hoping to crush the revolution.
However, under Napoleon, France’s wars become offensive wars of conquest. By 1807, the entire
European continent - with the exceptions of Great Britain and Russia - had either been conquered
outright, forced to become satellite states, or bound by pledges of neutrality. In some cases, he made his
relatives the monarchs of conquered nations.
While ruling this vast empire, Napoleon helped
spread the ideas of the French Revolution across
Europe. He introduced religious toleration, abolished
serfdom, and reduced the power of the Catholic
Church.
At first, some people welcomed Napoleon as a
liberator from their own traditional social, economic,
and political systems. But the imposition of high taxes
on the conquered populations, and their desires to
return to their own customs and traditions, led to the
outbreak of revolts across Europe. These revolts reflected the developing sense of nationalism that
Napoleon’s - and France’s - accomplishments unintentionally stirred.
Alliances among the conquered states, coupled with Napoleon’s unsuccessful attempts to force
Great Britain into economic surrender, brought about a weakening in the hold he had over the continent.
In May 1812, Napoleon assembled an army of almost 600,000 soldiers and began an invasion of Russia.
A combination of shrewd tactics by the Russian army and the French leader’s lack of preparation for the
bitter winters of the region, led to a retreat back across Europe. Paris was eventually captured by an
alliance of liberated nations in March of 1914. Napoleon was sent into exile on the island of Elba, off the
coast of Italy. The victorious nations installed the brother of the executed Louis XVI as the new king.
Part 5
Legacies of the French Revolution and Napoleon
Some historians argue that Napoleon's rule marks yet another stage or phase of revolution in
French history. Certainly many social, political, and economic changes did occur during the reign of this
tremendous military leader. But the years of the Grand Army and the conquests of Napoleon over many
of the monarchs of Europe is a history of military expansion, and not of the internal disorder that
characterized France in the decade 1789 to 1799. The strength Napoleon drew upon to conquer much of
Europe lay in the great achievement of the revolution of 1789: the unification of France into a nationstate. As Napoleon himself once remarked: "The revolution destroyed all these little nations [the
provinces of France] and made out of them a new one. There was no more Normandy, Brittany,
Burgundy, there was one France."
Of course, the revolution transformed France politically. The revolution established a model for
a republican form of government, a more democratic form of government than the old feudal, absolute
monarchy. It swept aside many of the privileges of the aristocracy and clergy and allowed for more
bourgeois participation in the political life of the country. Wealthier peasants were allowed to purchase
land that had been the domain of nobles in the Old Regime. France slowly created a large, new class of
independent farmers that, in large part, still exists today.
The revolution brought about elimination of feudal guild restrictions and abolition of the internal
tariff and the creation of uniform commercial laws. Likewise, it helped launch a national and secular
system of education in France.
Finally, the revolution influenced the growth of democracy in many countries throughout the
world. Despite its violent phase, the French revolution became a model for revolutionaries elsewhere in
the world seeking to overthrow their tyrannical systems and institute new governments based on the
motto of the sans-culottes: "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity."
What struck many intellectuals in the late 1700s was the fact that revolution had occurred in
France, the oldest, most established monarchy on the continent. If the French monarch and aristocracy
could not hold back the tide of liberalism and radicalism, other European rulers might well have begun to
doubt their capacity to meet similar challenges in their own countries. The "revolutionary virus" could
not be indefinitely confined to France. The 1789 "Declaration of the Rights of Man" and the successive
constitutional governments became major ideological sources for revolutionary movements in the
nineteenth century throughout the world.