The French Revolution, often known as the French Revolution (French: Révolution française; 1789–1799), was a significant historical event that occurred in France in the late eighteenth century. During this time, liberal-democratic and republican forces ousted the country's absolute monarchy. This revolution was put to a stop in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte, following a coup, was appointed consul of the First French Republic. It abolished feudalism in this Western European nation, which is regarded as more significant than other later revolutions in France. Additionally, it weakens authoritarian power while boosting popular power.
Between 1760 and 1840, France had a significant impact on world politics, had a profound influence on nations like Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, etc., and was the epicenter of eighteenth-century intellectual movements. The world's science has been led by France. The majority of artistic and political works are written in French, and intellectuals from many different nations read them. People all over the world also read about the ideas, initiatives, and inventions of the French. French developed became an international tongue, spoken by many European nobles and intellectuals.
Midway through the 18th century, France had a population of 24 million, making it the richest and most populous country with a centralized government. At the same time, neighboring Germany was still split, and the Russian empire was just getting started, even though Scotland and England together only have a population of roughly 10 million. Paris, the capital of France, is twice as big as Vienna and Amsterdam, despite having a smaller area than London. Half of all transactions involving foreign currency were made using French gold coins, which were widely used throughout Europe. France also exported far more commodities to other European nations than England did.
But in such a developing environment with such a wide influence, the French Revolution broke out, shook Europe, overthrew the old regime with a "new society" and was a model that the later revolutionary movements focused on, seeing the French Revolution of 1789 as a prior revolution. The values of the Revolution still have a great influence on French and European politics to this day. The slogan "Liberty, equality, fraternity" as well as the French national anthem La Marseillaise was born from the revolution.
The Age of Enlightenment beliefs, which have as their goal the establishment of a society based on humanity, reason, and freedom, are considered to have led to the French Revolution.
The French Revolution ended feudalism, freed the populace, divided the country fairly, eliminated elite privileges, and established universal equality. The French Revolution marked the end of feudalism as we know it on a global scale by sparking democratic uprisings and the establishment of republics.
European intellectuals were motivated by the French Revolution to think that everyone could improve society. It created the foundation from which all contemporary political ideologies sprang, giving rise to and promoting liberalism, extremism, nationalism, global secularism, socialism, communism, and numerous other ideas.
In particular, the revolution of 1789 not only changed the face of France but also gave all mankind confidence in a more progressive and just new age.
However, the exuberance of some revolutionary leaders and the masses led to a violent period (the Age of Terror), which was followed by many devastating wars across Europe. These wars spread the spirit of the French Revolution to the whole of Europe, upset the order, and profoundly changed the social structure in European countries.
French Revolution Causes
Economic Situation
France was still an agrarian country at the end of the eighteenth century. The tools and farming practices are primitive and outmoded; the land has been abandoned; and the yield is extremely low. Farming is the primary source of income for the majority of the inhabitants. Peasants were given the lord's land to farm and were required to serve and pay exorbitant rents to the lords. Because of the excessive exploitation of the feudal master and the Church, the peasant's existence grew increasingly unhappy. Famines are common.
Machines were increasingly being used in industry and commerce, particularly in the textile, mining, and metallurgy industries, which employ thousands of people. Foreign trade has also advanced; French trading businesses now do business with numerous nations in Europe and the East. During this time, French industry and commerce flourished, with a focus on the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions. However, the authoritarian feudal system hampered the development of public and commercial activities with high taxes, no single monetary unit of measurement, and the poor's very restricted purchasing power.
Socio-Political Situation
By the end of the 18th century, France still maintained an absolute monarchy (led by King Louis XVI). Society was divided into three castes: Priests, Nobles, and Third Estates. Although the first two castes account for only a small number of the population, they enjoy all privileges, do not have to pay taxes, have many perks, and hold high positions in the government, the army, and the Church. Therefore, they wanted to maintain the power of feudalism and did not want to change the political regime. The third caste includes many classes: bourgeois, peasants, and urban commoners. They were subject to all taxes and duties but had no political rights and were subordinate to privileged castes. Thus, by the end of the 18th century, due to the conflict of economic interests and political status between the Third Estate and the clergy and aristocracy, France fell into a deep social crisis, signaling a deep social crisis. A revolution is approaching.
Following the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the French monarchy declined significantly, while the major powers in the East—Russia, Prussia, and Austria—grew, and Britain ascended to become a contender. The French dislike it. Many factors contributed to the revolution; in some ways, the old regime could no longer withstand its own rigidity in the face of a changing world; on the other hand, it fell to the ambitions of an emerging bourgeois class as well as the concerns of farmers, wage earners, and individuals from all walks of life who were affected. As the revolution developed and power shifted from the court to legal institutions, the initial coalition parties' conflicts of interest became a cause of contention.
Certainly, the causes of revolution must include all of the following:
- Resentment towards the contemporary totalitarian monarchy.
- Resentment toward the feudal system was on the part of the peasantry, wage earners, and, to a large extent, the bourgeoisie.
- The emergence of ideas of the Enlightenment.
- The national debt is out of control, caused by the added burden of a huge tax system.
- There was a shortage of food in the months immediately before the revolution.
- Resentment towards the privileged aristocracy and domination of public life on the part of ambitious professional classes.
- Influence of the American Revolution
Calonne, who had been watching France's finances for a long time, felt they were still salvageable and created a unified land tax as a means of bringing them back into line. long-term suffering. In the near term, he believed that a show of support from the carefully chosen Council of Nobles would restore trust in French finances, allowing for additional borrowing until the land tax went into effect, and began repaying the debt.
Although Calonne convinced the king of the need for his reforms, the Council of Nobility refused to endorse his measures, demanding that there be only one real representational structure; At best, the kingdom's États Généraux (Congress of the Estates), could pass new tax laws. The king, seeing that Calonne himself was an obstacle, dismissed him and replaced him with Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, the Archbishop of Toulouse, who later led the opposition in the National Assembly. Brienne was then in an open position to carry out reforms, granting the people many civil rights (including religious freedom for Protestants) and promising to convene a conference representing the castes in the country. five years, but in the meantime, he also tried to advance Calonne's plans. When these measures were brought before the "King's Council" in Paris (also thanks in part to the insolence of the king), Brienne objected, forcing the dissolution of the entire Council and collecting more types of capital taxes without regard to them. This led to a wide response from many parts of France, including the famous "Day of the Tiles" in Grenoble. Even more important, the turmoil across the country has forced short-term lenders, on whom the French treasury depends, to persuade them to stop withdrawing their loans, bringing about an almost impossible situation where bankruptcy forced Louis and Brienne to surrender.
On August 8, 1788, the king consented to call the first extraordinary assembly of the États-Généraux since 1614 in May 1789. Necker took over after Brienne resigned on August 25, 1788. Financial accountability on a national scale. He solely utilized his position to suggest new reforms in preparation for a meeting of national delegates.
Summoning of the Estates General, 1789
The call to convene a Conference of the Estates-General led to growing concerns from the opposition that the government would try to convene a conference with elements in their favor. In order to avoid this situation, the "Council of the King" of Paris, which had returned to its role of power in the city in victory, declared that the Conference must be convened in the same manner as it was conducted the first time. Previous conference. Although it seems that the members of the Council of Paris were not fully aware of the "1614 ways" when they made this decision, it caused quite a stir. The 1614 convention included an equal number of delegates from each caste, and the order was the First Estate (clerics), the Second Estate (nobility), and the Third Estate (including the upper classes). The great bourgeoisie, the industrial bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeois, and the poor classes of the people have one vote, and each caste (all its representatives) has one vote.Almost immediately the "Committee of Thirty", an organization of liberal Parisians and primary aristocrats, began to agitate against it, demanding a doubling of the Third Estate and voting by vote as has been done in many local councils). The Royal Council in Paris quickly countered, claiming only electoral processes; proxies were elected by local "magistrates" and the "Royal Council" and not by provinces; the new estate needed to be decided by the 1614 model. Necker, on behalf of the government, eventually came to the conclusion that the Third Estate needed to be doubled, but the issue of suffrage remained the Society. self-resolving proposal. But the resentments from that controversy still abound, and pamphlets, such as Abbé Sieyès' What is the Third Estate, propagate that the privileged castes are parasites and that the castes themselves It was the representatives of the Third Estate who represented the country, allowing those resentments to persist.
When the Conference was convened at Versailles on May 5, 1789, the lengthy speeches of Necker and Lamoignon, the keeper of the seals, did not give much guidance to the delegates, who had to return to the meetings. group meeting to delegate to its members. The question of voting by suffrage or by caste was not raised, but the Third Estate delegates then demanded that a caste vote be valid only when representing all of the caste's representatives. there at the Conference. However, negotiations between the delegates at the Conference of the First and Second Estates to accomplish this were fruitless, for there was only a negligible majority of the clergy and a larger majority of the aristocrats who continued to support caste elections.
Congress
On May 28, 1789, the cleric Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès suggested that the Third Estate delegates, currently meeting as "Commons", conduct a verification of their own powers and invite two groups of representatives of the other two castes joined, but did not have to wait for them. They did so, completing the process on June 17. They then voted in favor of a more fundamental measure, declaring themselves the Parliament, a representative body not of the castes but of the castes. belongs to "the people". The first act of parliament was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. They invited representatives of the upper castes to join them but made it clear that they intended to carry out national affairs with or without the participation of the other delegates.Louis XVI closed the National Chamber, where Congress met. Congress moved their discussions outside the king's Jeu de Paume courtyard, where they performed the Oath of Jeu de Paume (June 20, 1789), under which they agreed not to return until established. A constitution for France. Most of the clergy representatives soon joined them, along with forty-seven members of the nobility. By June 27, the royals had publicly made their concessions, although armies began to move in large numbers around Paris and Versailles. Messages of support for the National Assembly flew in from Paris and other French cities. On July 9, the National Assembly reorganized itself as the Constituent Assembly.
In Paris, the Palace of Versailles and its grounds became the gathering place for many continuous gatherings. Some armies turned to the righteous side of the people.
Constituent Assembly
Breaking the Bastille
On July 11, 1789, King Louis, under the influence of conservative nobles in the Privy Council, as well as his wife, Maria Antonia of Austria, and younger brother, Duke of Artois, expelled the minister Necker and restructured all ministries. Most of Paris's people, seeing it as the beginning of a royal coup, rebelled. Some military forces joined the crowd; others are neutral.
After four hours of combat, the revolutionaries captured the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Although a cease-fire order was to avert mutual killing, the warden, Marquis Bernard de Launay, and many of the guards were killed. The crowd paraded around the city with the warden's head on a stick. Despite the fact that the Parisians only released seven inmates (four con artists, two noble sons imprisoned for bad morals, and a murder suspect), the Bastille is still seen as an evocative symbol of all that was loathed about the "old regime."
When the mob returned to City Hall, they accused the prévolt des marchands (equivalent of mayor) Jacques de Flesselles of being a traitor; he was assassinated on his way to what seemed to be a courthouse at the Palais Royal.
However, following this bloodshed, the aristocrats, still relatively secure by the king's and people's temporary reconciliation, proceeded to liberate the country from "immigrants," some of whom were plotting civil war within the kingdom and stirring the European Coalitions against France.
Necker was restored to power, but his triumph was fleeting. He overemphasized his role as a clever banker rather than a shrewd politician by seeking and winning a nationwide amnesty, losing much of the public's support. He even believed he could save France by himself.
The aristocrats were uneasy with the apparent reconciliation between the king and the people. They began to flee abroad, and some began plotting a civil war and calling for a European Coalition against France.
The rebellion and the spirit of popular sovereignty had swept throughout France by the end of July. Many peasants went overboard in the countryside, burning the chains and many of the castles as part of a general peasant rebellion known as La Grande Pearl (Great Fear). Furthermore, conspiracies at the Court of Versailles and the high number of vagrants as a result of unemployment led to indiscriminate rumors and paranoia (particularly in the countryside), producing terror and turbulence in the land (Hibbert, 93).
Abolish Feudalism
Parliament abolished feudalism on August 4, 1789, abolishing both the lordship of the Second Estate and the tithes of the First Estate. Nobles, clergy, towns, provincial capitals, companies, and towns all lost their right of way within hours.
Remove the influence of the Roman Catholic Church
The revolution brought about a great power shift from the Roman Catholic Church to the State. Laws enacted in 1790 included the abolition of the Church's right to tax crops (also known as "dîme"), the abolition of clerical privileges, and the expropriation of Church property, which then owned the most land in the country. Accompanying the revolution was a fierce counterattack on the part of the teachers, which was accompanied by the arrest and massacre of priests all over France. The treaty of 1801 between the National Assembly and the Church ended the anti-Catholic period and established the rules for the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French State. This treaty lasted until it was annulled by the French Third Republic to separate the Church and the authorities on December 11, 1905.
Formation of Parties
The divisions inside Congress began to emerge. The nobleman Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès and the bishop Jean-Sifrein Maury formed an anti-revolutionary movement known as the right wing. The "royal democrats" or monarchies, linked with Necker, wished to construct a France modeled after the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom. Jean Joseph Mounier, Count of Lally-Tollendal, Count of Clermont-Tonnerre, and Pierre Victor Malouet, Count of Virieu, were among them. Honoré Mirabeau, La Lafayette, and Bailly are members of the National Party, which represents the center-right sector of the National Assembly, whereas Adrien Duport, Antoine Barnave, and Alexander Lameth represent the far-right. Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer, is almost alone with the radical leftist.
During this time, Father Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was at the forefront of legislative measures, and he was sometimes successful in bringing the neutrals and the left together.
In Paris, several councils, mayors, representative councils, and separate arrondissements all claim independence from one another. The middle class is expanding. La Lafayette's National Guard gradually established itself as an autonomous political entity, comparable to other spontaneous groupings.
Based on reference to the United States Declaration of Independence on August 26, 1789, Congress issued the Declaration of Human Rights and Citizenship, with the famous slogan "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity". Similar to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, it consists only of statements of principle rather than a legally enforceable constitution.
To a Constitution
The Constituent Assembly serves not only as a legislative body but also as a cohesive entity in the process of drafting a new constitution.
Necker, Mounier, and Lally-Tollendal attempted but failed to organize a senate. They advocated a Senate made up of senators chosen by the royal family from among those nominated by the people. The nobility desired a Senate made up of descendants. However, the most popular party will have the upper hand: France will have a National Assembly with a single chamber. In which the king has just a "temporary veto": he can delay the introduction of a law but cannot veto it completely.
The people of Paris crushed all royalist attempts to oppose the new social order, marching on the Avenue de Versailles on October 5, 1789. Following various squabbles, the king and royal family agreed to extradition from Versailles to Paris.
The National Assembly replaced the French Provinces with eighty-three subdivisions (départements), which were run the same and were similar in size and population.
Originally formed only to deal with a financial crisis, the National Assembly has now focused on other issues and exacerbated the shortfall. Mirabeau took the lead in this case, in which Congress gave Necker absolute financial power.
Towards the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
In response to the economic crisis, Congress passed legislation on December 2, 1789, authorizing the transfer of all Church property to the national government on the condition that the government bear all costs associated with the Church's services and operations. To immediately monetize such immense riches, the government produced new paper money, the assignat, guaranteed to be worth the amount of land taken by the Church.
The monastic vows were eliminated by the code's subsequent passage on February 13, 1790. The Civil Code for the Clergy (Constitution civile du clerge) was passed on July 12, 1790 (though it was not signed by King George III until December 26, 1790), making the remaining clergy members state workers and requiring them to take an oath of unconditional devotion to the Constitution. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy also transformed the Catholic Church into a secular state force.
The Archbishop of Aix and the Bishop of Clermont organized and led a clergy strike in the Constituent Assembly in opposition to this legislation. The pope did not approve of this arrangement, which resulted in the clergy being divided into two factions: "jurors" (juror or "constitutional church"), who took oaths to accept the new arrangement, and "non-jurors" or "refractory priests," who refused to accept government arrangements.
From Bastille's anniversary to Mirabeau's death
The National Assembly banned aspects of the "old regime" such as the national title, attire (clothes of noble attendants), and so on, isolating more than half of the traditional and patriarchal nobility. Increase the number of exiles. Crowds in the Champ de Mars celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Bastille's fall on July 14, 1790, and for many days afterward; participants swore an oath of "loyalty to the country, to the law, and the king and royal family also participated.
The citizens had previously elected the supreme government to seize power for the first year, but the Paris Commune was still permitted to have regular meetings continuously until the Constitution was promulgated, thanks to the Jeu de Paume Oath. The right wing now requested a new election, but Mirabeau was successful in claiming that because the essential organization of the National Assembly had altered, no additional elections were required before the Constitution was finalized. wall.
The final years of the 1790s were a frenzy of small-scale counter-revolutions in an attempt to assemble all or part of the army to deal with the revolution. These revolutions, however, all failed. According to François Mignet, the royal family "supported all counter-revolutionary efforts but did not concede in any case."
The army was in considerable difficulty, and General Bouillé, who had suppressed a series of minor uprisings, was even more loved and admired by the counter-revolutionaries.
Veterans and talented troops would be respected and recommended under the new army rule, regardless of the class to which they belong. Many present non-commissioned officers were dissatisfied with the new law and swiftly deserted to join the counter-revolution.
During this time, more and more "sects" in French politics emerged, most notably the Jacobins (transliterated "Jacobal"): According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, there were 152 Jacobin factions as of August 10, 1790. As the Jacobin faction gained momentum, some of its co-founders split out to form the '89 group. The Impartiaux, and later the Monarchique, were created by conservatives. These factions arranged the distribution of bread with the intention of earning the favor of the people, but they were often opposed and even became the subject of sabotage. Finally, in January 1791, the municipal government of Paris abolished the Monarchist faction.
In the midst of this situation, the National Assembly continued its work to complete the new Constitution. Accordingly, a new court will be appointed, provisional in nature, and the judges will be able to act independently of the king. Abolish the "hereditary" form of appointment in all state agencies, except for the Monarchy government. The king still has absolute power if he wants to wage war, but it is the legislature that decides whether to declare war or not. In addition, the National Assembly also abolished all domestic trade barriers, banned the opening of guilds, vocational workshops, and workers' organizations; any individual have a license to practice and trade, and made strikes illegal.
The National Assembly addressed the issue of noble emigration (émigrés) for the first time in the winter of 1791. During the National Assembly session on the enactment of a new law prohibiting evacuation, the safety of the country was prioritized over the freedom of each individual to leave the country. Mirabeau prevailed with a resolution judged "worthy of Draco's brutal code of conduct."
Unfortunately, Mirabeau died on March 2, 1791. "No one can match Mirabeau's power and popularity," Mignet noted, and within a year, the new Congress ratified Mirabeau's "brutal" bill.
Flight to Varennes
Although he struggled with the Revolution in the country, King Louis XVI still refused all scheming and unreliable offers of help from other European monarchs and shook hands with General Bouillé, who always confronted the National Assembly and strongly condemned the evacuation of nobles. Bouillé promised King Louis refuge in Montmedy and quietly supported him.
The Royal Family hurriedly departed the Tuileries on the night of June 20, 1791. However, due to overconfidence leading to recklessness, King Louis revealed a loophole the next day and was discovered and captured in Varennes (in the Meuse region). The king was returned to Paris in the afternoon of June 21 under the protection of the National Assembly.
Pétion, Latour-Maubourg, and Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, representing the National Assembly, met and accompanied the Royal Family in Épernay. Barnave became a Royal Family advisor and supporter from that point forward.
When they arrived in Paris, the masses were silent. The Provisional Parliament stripped King Louis of power. The king and queen, Maria Antonia, were kept under strict guard.
The Last Days of the Constituent Assembly
With a majority of the members in the National Assembly still in favor of the Constitutional Monarchy over the Republic, the factions came to an agreement for King Louis to be a puppet monarch: the king had to make a statement. swore an oath in the Constitution and issued a decree declaring that if he opposed that oath, commanded an army for the purpose of waging war on the Nation, or permitted anyone to do so in his name, he would abdicate.
Jacques Pierre Brissot drafted a petition, insisting that, in the eyes of Congress Louis XVI had been deposed since his trip to Varennes. A huge crowd gathered in Champ-de-Mars Square to sign this petition. Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins gave lively speeches. Parliament had to mobilize the city government to protect "public order". The National Guard, under the command of La Lafayette, stood up to the crowd. The guards had to shoot in the air as a warning after volleys of rocks were thrown from the crowd; but noticing that the crowd was still approaching without hesitation, General Lafayette ordered them to shoot directly at the advancing convoy, killing about 50 people.
Following the massacre, many patriotic clubs and radical journals, including Jean-Paul Marat's L'Ami du Peuple, were closed down by local authorities. Danton went to England in haste, while Desmoulins and Marat hid.
Meanwhile, the possibility of foreign invasion resurfaced: Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm II, and King Louis XVI's younger brother was Charles-Phillipe. The Duke of Artois released the Pilnitz Declaration, requesting King Louis XVI's release and the dissolution of the National Assembly. They would invade France if the revolutionary government did not meet these criteria. Invisibly, this comment drove King Louis farther into a bind. The French were unconcerned, and the threats to use force were merely battling outside the border zone.
Even before the trip to Varennes, the members of the Constituent Assembly decided that legislative power would be continued by the new Parliament (the Legislative Assembly). Now the National Assembly (Constituent Assembly) collects and selects many different articles of the Constitution that they have approved in the past to write a new Constitution, showing remarkable courage in not taking advantage of the Constitution. this opportunity to correct some important things, and then present it to the newly restored King Louis XVI. The king accepted the Constitution and wrote that "I pledge to uphold this Constitution in the Fatherland, protect it from all foreign attacks, and approve the implementation of this Constitution in any way that I will." The King gave a speech to the National Assembly and received enthusiastic applause from the audience and members of the National Assembly. Congress announced the end of its term on September 29, 1791.
Legislative Assembly and the Fall of the Monarchy
Congress
France maintains a constitutional monarchy under the 1791 Constitution. The king must share power with the elected Parliament, but he retains the ability to veto and appoint ministers.
The new Parliament convened for the first time on October 1, 1791, and began to disintegrate less than a year later. According to Britannica, "Congress failed in its attempt to govern, leaving behind an empty treasury, an undisciplined army and navy, and a depraved, rebellious people."
The National Assembly is made up of around 165 members of the Constitutional Monarch's Feuillant Royal House on the right, approximately 330 Girondin Liberal Republicans on the left, and approximately 250 deputies. neutral.
Initially, the king rejected the death penalty for immigrants and ordered that priests who had not been sworn in for eight days take the oath required by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. After a year, differences in the government's direction resulted in a crisis.
War
The political situation of this period led to the inevitable result of pushing France into war with the Austrian Empire and the Allies. The king, the Feuillant Royal Family, and the Girondin were dispatched eagerly to war. The king and many Feuillant members believed that war was a way to widely promote their image and power. The king also made a plan to exploit the defeated nations. Whatever the outcome, it can strengthen the king's influence. The Girondins wanted to expand the scope of the Revolution to include Europe. Only a few radical members of the Jacobin faction stood out against the war on the grounds that it should strengthen and expand the Revolution in the country. Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, brother of Queen Maria Antonia of Austria, probably did not want war either but died on March 1 March 1792.
On April 20, 1792, France declared war on the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia sided with the Austrians a few weeks later. The French Revolutionary War has officially begun.
The first important battle was the Franco-Prussian battle at Valmy on September 20, 1792. It was raining heavily, but the French artillery fire was still powerful. At that time, France was in chaos, and feudalism was now a thing of the past.
The Constitution in Crisis
On the night of August 10, 1792, rebels, with the support of the new revolutionary leader, the Paris Commune, attacked the Tuileries. The king and queen became prisoners, and the rest of the Parliament, which consisted of about a third of the MPs present, mostly Jacobins, suspended the power of the court.
The rest of the government depended on the support of the Revolutionary Commune. When the Commune sent squads of assassins to prison to try at will and kill nearly 1,400 people and sent notices throughout other French cities calling for their imitation, the National Assembly could only fend for one weak way. This situation continued until the National Convention met on September 20, 1792, with the task of drafting a new Constitution, which in effect became the new government of France. The next day, the government announced the end of the monarchy and the establishment of a Republic. This date was chosen as the beginning of the first year in the French Revolutionary Calendar.
National Convention
Domination of the Girondin sect
The National Convention has legislative power in the new Republic, and the National Security Committee has executive power. The Girondin faction rose to prominence in both the National Convention and the Commission.
In the Brunswick Manifesto, the Prussian Army threatened to avenge the French if France obstructed the Prussian king's efforts to restore the monarchy in the country. On January 17, 1793, former King Louis XVI was sentenced to death on the same charge of conspiracy against popular liberty and general security after a vote of the members of the Convention with 387 votes in favor and 334 votes against. The execution on January 21 sparked many wars with other European nations. Former King Louis XVI's Austrian queen, Maria Antonia, also followed Louis to the guillotine on October 16. The execution shocked conservatives across Europe, and the European monarchies cried out. called a war against revolutionary France.
The National Convention was divided into two major factions: the Girondin faction is the "right" side, and the French Jacobin faction is the "left" party. As war fever spread, increased costs prompted the sans-culottes (poor laborers and radical Jacobin faction members) to revolt: counter-revolutionary operations erupted in numerous places. Prices are rising, food is scarce, and people are disorderly. Price control, food distribution, and punishment for hoarders were among the demands of the tiny bourgeoisie, workers, and peasants. They accused the bourgeoisie of exploiting the unsettled situation. When the Girondin faction was unable to find a solution to the situation, it lost popularity.
This circumstance gave the Jacobins an opportunity to gain control. The Jacobins accused the Girondin faction of plotting with royalist forces to ensure their position. A coup d'état took place with the participation of the army, influenced by the masses due to unhappiness with the Girondin group, and by leveraging the strength of the sans-culottes in Paris. The coup resulted in the fall of the Girondin group, bringing the Jacobins to power and making them the dominant force in the National Convention.
The Jacobin Took Power
With the coup's success, the Jacobin-Sans-Culotte coalition became the foundation of the new government. To replace the Constitution of 1781, a new Constitution was proclaimed, further strengthening the people's rights such as the right to association, the right to education, and the right to rebel.
Policies were clearly progressive. Food prices are set at a level sufficient to buy food for people according to the "Law of Maximums". Slavery in the French colonies was abolished. The National Security Committee was established and issued a "Notice of the Law" (Bulletin des lois), which required everyone to follow the rules. The committee also concentrated power in the central government and called on all citizens to join the army through a document calling for "levée en masse" (collective mobilization). The government also controlled the amount of gold exported, preventing speculation and hoarding. Food was distributed through the Subsistence Commission so that the "assignat" currency was no longer depreciated. Agricultural brochures are distributed by the Commission to teach farmers how to grow rice efficiently. The opening of military schools and compulsory education programs are also among the action programs of the Commission.
The National Security Commission, led by Maximilien Robespierre, and the Jacobin faction were responsible for the Age of Terror (1793–1794). For being accused of counter-revolution, at least 1200 people were sentenced to death by guillotine. Just a fleeting thought or a minor manifestation of conduct is accused of being counter-revolutionary (or, in the case of Jacques Hébert, because he was more excited about the Revolution than the incumbents); and the courts are always primarily a matter of trial and error.
In 1794, Robespierre hanged extremist Jacobin members of the extremist and moderate factions, which significantly reduced the people's active support for him. With the September coup on July 27, 1794, the French revolted against the Reign of Terror. As a result, the National Convention's moderates ousted and executed Robespierre and his comrades on the National Security Commission's leadership. According to the French Revolution calendar, the "Constitution of the Third Year" was enacted by the National Convention on August 17, 1795, was publicly backed in a referendum in September, and went into effect on September 26, 1795.
Following the battle of Valmy, Prussia remained an important member of the anti-French coalition, defeating the French army in Alsace and the Saar region. However, they were preoccupied with other matters: on April 5, 1795, they signed the Treaty of Basle with Revolutionary France independently. Prussia benefited greatly from this agreement, but they have remained neutral in the face of the French Revolution since then.
Directoire Regime
The new constitution established Directoire Council and a bicameral legislature. The 500-member House of Representatives (Conseil des Cinq-Cents - Council of 500) and the 250-member Senate (Conseil des Anciens) make up the National Assembly. Executive power is held by five chief governors, who are nominated by the Senate each year from a list submitted by the House of Representatives.
With the establishment of the Directoire regime, the French Revolution seemed to have come to an end. The country wants to rest and heal its wounds. Those who wanted to re-establish King Louis XVIII under the same old regime, and those who wanted to return to the Age of La Terreur Terror made up a negligible number. The possibility of foreign intervention dissipated with the failure of the First Coalition. However, the four years of Catholicism were a time of autocratic government and constant insecurity. Past atrocities have made trust and goodwill between the parties impossible. The same instinct of self-preservation that led the members of the National Convention to occupy the majority of the legislature and the entire Directoire Council made them hold the upper hand.
When the vast majority of the French population wanted to get rid of them, they were only able to retain their power by unusual means. They have gradually ignored the provisions of the constitution and resorted to weapons when the election results turned against them. They were determined to prolong the war, which was the best way to prolong their power. As a result, they were led to rely on the military, which also wanted war.
The new regime was met with opposition from royalists and remnant Jacobin factions. Uprisings and counter-revolutionary actions were put down by the army. As a result, the army and its exceptional leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, grew even stronger.
On November 9, 1799 (the 18th of the Fog month of the 8th year of the French Revolutionary calendar), Napoleon staged a coup d'etat, establishing a dictatorship. The event that Napoleon proclaimed Emperor in 1804 marked the end of the period of the First Republic, the typical result of the French Revolution.
Influence of the French Revolution
The French people had little influence or authority prior to the French Revolution. Bishops, judges, and magistrates are now chosen by the people. When the king's power was abolished, the nobles lost all of their titles and most of their land, and the Church lost its monasteries and estates. With the emergence of political and civil liberty, republics and democracies were created.
From its pre-revolutionary hegemony in all spheres of life to its post-revolutionary near-collapse, the Catholic Church's influence was drastically diminished. Church property was seized, church leaders were imprisoned or killed by the revolutionary government, and Christian influences were gradually eradicated from society. Later, under Napoleon, the Church's old function was partially restored, but its authority was never the same.
Bishops and priests were not under the supervision of the Holy See in Rome but rather of the government in Paris. To provide an annual source of funding for hospitals, as well as for programs supporting education and the needs of the underprivileged, the revolutionary government seized church charitable funds.
How Did the French Revolution Affect the Rest of the World?
in England, The French envoy to England, John Frederick Sackville, informed the British Foreign Secretary on July 16, 1789, two days after the Bastille was broken, "So, my God, great revolution." The most that we've ever known happened... From this vantage point, we can think of France as a free nation, the king as a monarch with highly constrained authority, and the monarchs' rights. The nobility has been diminished to the level of the general populace.
The majority of the British aristocracy, on the other hand, actively backed the anti-revolutionary forces in France because they hated the French Revolution. The French Revolution was criticized by Edmund Burke in a book because he believed it threatened the aristocracy in all nations. Numerous fiery political arguments never previously seen in Britain were sparked by the new ideas of the French Revolution.
The French Revolution had a significant impact on Germany, promoting notions of liberty, democracy, equality, and fraternity among the populace and motivating their fight against feudalism, among other things. German society saw substantial changes as a result of the French Revolution, including the abolition of serfdom and the dissolution of guilds. The French Revolution sparked a national spirit of reform resistance in Ireland.
The Haitian Revolution of 1804 was greatly influenced by the French Revolution in Latin America. The French Revolution had a significant impact on Egypt, which encouraged change and modernization.
Additionally, Americans have learned numerous lessons from the French Revolution that will help them advance toward a more radical democracy outside of the triangle of power. Franco-American liberalism has mutual influences. During the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Civil Rights Movement, these conflicts not only greatly impacted the state but also America's advancements in civil rights. Additionally, the French Revolution served as inspiration for the Statue of Liberty, which France donated to America.
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