The French Revolution

I. The Fall of Absolutism

A. Definition--a type of monarch not restrained by institutions, like a legislature or other social elites, the church, etc.

B. Calling the Estates General--during much of he mid-18th century, Great Britain and France were at war with one another. For most of this time, the French monarch had been able to rule without having to convene the Estates General, whose sole power over the king was the fact that the king needed the Estates General to approve levying new taxes on the French people

1. Chateau de Versailles--located about 10.5 miles from the center of Paris; built by Louis XIV to escape his distaste (and fear) for the common people of Paris.

2. Government during the reign of Louis XVI was on the edge of bankruptcy, a result of several decades of war, and the assistance the government had given the United States in their war against Great Britain.

C. The Structure of French Society--the Ancien Regime

1. Noblesse d’epee (nobility of the sword)--the traditional nobility

2. Noblesse de robe (nobility of the robe)--made up in part of successful merchant families who were able to buy sinecures from the king (which provided a stream of income independent of the Estates General); these men operated the court system as judges and court administrators. Another part of this Estate was the higher ranking clergy in the Roman Catholic Church--bishops and abbots for the monasteries (some of whom were not ordained ministers)

3. Third Estate--everyone else, although the only people who could vote for representatives to the third estate were relatively wealthy citizens, because there was a substantial property qualification.

D. Stress in French Society

1. Population boom--by 1700, France had a population of about 20 million people, easily making up 20% of the non-Russian European population. 80% of this population lived in the countryside or in villages with a population of less than 2,000. This in practice meant that a large portion of the population were landless peasants, and depended upon their labor for both shelter and food. Some of these people practiced a variety of trades, but never gained enough capital to open their own shop. A number of peasants would have also owned small plots of land, from which they might, in good times, be able to eek out a bare subsistence--or not. In bad times, they would have been exceedingly hungry.

2. Urban Populations--Paris was by far the largest city, with a population in 1780 well in excess of 600,000. Marseilles, Lyon, and Bordeaux were other important urban centers, with populations in excess of 100,000.

a) Living conditions--in these cities were usually even worse than those conditions found in the countryside, because sanitation problems and abject poverty many found themselves living in.

b) Urban artisans had little chance for economic advancement, in large part because of the shift to capitalist modes of production meant many never got the capital necessary to enlarge their operations.

II. Reformers, Revolutionaries, and the Sans Culottes

A. The Tennis Court Oath

1. The National Assembly--when Louis XVI called the Estates General into session to discuss ways of raising new revenue, the Third Estate refused to go along with the request until they procured a written constitution. Adjourned to the Tennis Courts at Versailles when they were locked out of the Estates General, where all present took an oath not to give in on this issue until the king promised to grant written constitution.

2. Members of the Third Estate were hoping to bring about the reform of the monarchy into something akin to the English model--a constitutional monarchy.

3. King’s response--attempted to dismiss the Estates General and called out 20,000 troops to intimidate--or remove--the Third Estate representatives.

B. Revolutionaries at The Bastille

1. Symbol of absolutist power--the Bastille was both a prison for nobles and religious dissenters, as well as an ammunition dump.

2. Rumors of the impending military coup by the King made people in Paris extremely anxious, and they sought weapons to defend the city--which they sought to obtain first by negotiation with the commanding officer of the Bastille; failing that, the opened fire on the fortress, and eventually force it to surrender.

3. Emboldening the National Assembly--in face of the King’s threats, the newly-named National Assembly had begun to waver; the actions of the poor people of Paris renewed its resolve, and the National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which became the basis for the modern conception of human rights.



4. Women’s March on Versailles--much of the impetus for the Revolution from below was caused by the great hunger of the poor people in France. The poor women in Paris marched on Versailles in October of 1789 to force King Louis XVI to move back to Paris in order to “focus” his attention on this problem.

C. The Sans Culottes--much of the revolutionary momentum of the crowds in the cities (mainly in Paris, but in other cities as well) was driven by the hunger that many felt because of a succession of poor harvest in the countryside, which drove up the price of bread upon which they largely relied upon for subsistence. The crowd became personified by the sans culottes, so-called because they wore trousers rather than the knee-length breeches of the upper class.

1. Resistance from the aristocracy--both the king and the nobles attempted to cut off the drive to limit their power and privileges, and to begin making nobles pay some of the taxes the Third Estate was liable for. Each push-back on the part of the nobles (which often included collaboration with outside enemies of the revolution, like Prussians and Austrians) exacerbated the fears of the middle and lower classes that they would be victimized in a counter-revolution, and led to greater numbers of nobles being arrested.



2. Louis XVI’s attempted escape--in June 1791 the king attempted to sneak out of Paris and join forces with counter-revolutionaries. Louis XVI was captured, but not executed until January 1793.

3. Succession of political groups--attempted to lead the revolution, but failed to hold onto power for a variety of reasons.

a) Marquis de Lafayette--first leader of the National Assembly, largely because of his ties with the American Revolution; he attempted to retain a constitutional monarchy, but Louis’ attempted escape, the continual hunger of much of the population, and a series of military defeats caused by the defection of aristocratic military leaders (and the resultant wholesale slaughter of the troops they led) undermined his efforts.

b) Rise of the Girondins--in April 1792 a new political group succeeded Lafayette, named after the debating society that the members belonged to. The Girondins allied with Louis XVI to declare war on Austria and Prussia, who were threatening on the border they shared with France. Louis expected French forces to lose, and he would regain full control of the throne.

4. Rise of the Jacobins--another of the debating societies turned political party; the Jacobin’s dues were lower than the Girondin, so they had more lower and working-class members, although the Jacobins were still dominated by lawyers--in particular, one Maximillian Robespierre

a) Robespierre had counseled against the war

b) Duke of Brunswick promised retribution against revolutionists.

c) The National Assembly called for volunteers to fight the counter-revolutionary forces; got 15,000 volunteers from Paris alone

d) Large contingent of volunteers from Marseilles marched from the south of France to defend Paris.

e) National Assembly voted to suspend the monarchy, recognize a new revolutionary commune based upon the Paris section model, and to conduct elections based on universal manhood suffrage--also a first.

5. Ending the Counter-Revolution--the revolution was constantly under attack and undermined by the nobles--including the king--attempting to collaborate with external enemies.

a) King guillotined in January 1793

b) New volunteers recruited from the poor sections of Paris to reinforce the front lines

c) Killing collaborators--or suspected collaborators--the so-called “fifth column,” on the home front. The “September Massacres,” as they became known, did stifle dissent. This event also marks the beginning of the period known as The Terror, when supposed enemies of the Revolution were too often summarily executed without due process.

6. Declaration of the Republic--on 20 September, the Revolutionary forces turned back the combined armies of Austria and Prussia at Valmy; the next day the Republic was declared. For much of the next year, their was further radicalization of the revolution

a) “Ending” slavery--in February 1794, the Jacobins declared and end to slavery in French colonies--the first nation to do so. Slaves in Haiti had been in rebellion since 1791, and this proclamation did little to change that. When the Jacobins lost power later that year, attempts were made to reinstitute slavery, which the Haitians were able to resist after nine years of war.

D. The Demise of the Revolution--the struggle to sustain the Revolution contributed in part to its demise, particularly the continued use of the Terror

1. Guillotine--when it was first invented and used, it was seen as a more humane form of capital punishment. Previously, only nobles were beheaded, while common people under went long periods of torture (including disembowelment, breaking on the wheel, the rack, hanging by the neck, drawing and quartering, crushing to death). The guillotine was applied with discrimination to all classes.

2. Continued application of The Terror



3. The Thermidor--the execution of Robespierre



4. Establishment of the Directory--in September of 1795, a new constitution was passed, putting new limits on right of suffrage; the 5-man Directory was empowered to make most of the governing decisions.

5. Bonaparte seizes power--in November 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself “first counsel”



6. Emperor Napoleon--crowned himself Emperor (with the assistance of the Pope) in 1804.