A Brief History of the French Revolution - PrfMaestro
taken from a Teacher Pager response of 95-01-08 08:29:41 EST
The French Revolution is a fascinating and enormous subject, with many parallels to the American Revolution, and it would be impossible to discuss every aspect of it in only a few paragraphs. However, here is a general overview.
The American Revolution officially began with a document, the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. The French Revolution officially began with an action, the Storming of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789. The French Revolution continued for 10 years, and officially ended when Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and was crowned First Consul and Master of France in 1799. During these 10 years the King and Queen of France and thousands of aristocrats were executed on the guillotine. Revolutionary leaders later rose and fell and were themselves executed on the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
At the beginning of the French Revolution, the King held supreme power in France. At the end of the French Revolution, power had passed into the vast new middle classes. France did not become a complete democracy but instead a limited monarchy. It would be many years before France became and remained a republic.
What caused the French Revolution? In the 1700s French commerce and industry grew rapidly, and a new middle class of manufacturers and merchants amassed great wealth. However, the government and social order of France had evolved during the Middle Ages, and no changes were made to accommodate this new class. The King and Queen ruled the country by a doctrine of Divine Right and the Aristocracy lived in luxury, but many people in the lower classes starved. Most of the tax burdens were placed on the lower and middle classes, because the Aristocracy and Clergy were not required to pay taxes on their lands.
At about this time new ideas began to circulate among the people about freedom and government. The doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings was questioned and the concept evolved that the King should rule only with the consent of the people. The growing middle class felt unfairly constrained by the legal, political and religious institutions. The middle class began to organize the people and prepare for revolution.
In the 1600s and 1700s the Kings of France ruled with more regard for their own luxury and power than for their people. King Louis XIV forced much of the Aristocracy to live with him at Versailles so he could watch them more closely. This isolated the Aristocracy from the tenants on their lands, whose hardships were thus increased. In 1655 Louis XIV made a famous remark that summed up his feeling of absolute power: "L'etat, c'est moi!" (I am the state!). His great-grandson King Louis XV reigned from 1715 to 1774. He was a selfish, wasteful and inefficient ruler who was more concerned with his own pleasure than with the welfare of France. At first he left the administration of government to his ministers, and France prospered. However after 1743 Louis XV ruled France without ministers, and he looted the treasuries to support his mistresses and luxurious lifestyle. By the end of his reign, France was almost bankrupt. Louis XV foresaw the coming disaster but he cared little, as shown by his famous sarcastic remark: "Apres moi, le deluge" (After me, the deluge).
When his grandson Louis XVI ascended to the throne in 1774, France was on the edge of disaster. King Louis XVI had good intentions, but he was a weak ruler. He refused to follow the advice of his ministers to bring about badly-needed economic and government reforms. Soon the King last the sympathy of his people. During this time, France helped the United States gain its independence in the American Revolution against the United Kingdom. This military and financial aid further increased the French national debt.
Queen Marie Antoinette did not directly affect the course of events. However, her frivolous and luxurious lifestyle aggravated the already explosive situation. She became very unpopular with the people, who blamed her for government corruption. A rumor began to circulate which illustrated the haughty attitude associated with her. She once asked an official why the Parisians were angry. "Because they have no bread," was the reply. Whereupon the Queen reportedly replied, "Then let them eat cake." This story is probably false, but the people believed it.
The situation in France had reached such a desperate level that the King could raise more money only through a meeting of the States-General, or National Assembly. It convened in 1789 for the first time since 1614, but internal squabbles brought the situation to the breaking point. The National Assembly was divided into 3 Estates according to the system which had evolved in the Middle Ages. Clergymen comprised the First Estate, the Aristocracy comprised the Second Estate and the rest of the people comprised the Third Estate. The Third Estate could not hope to make any reforms because the other 2 Estates refused. The Third Estate then broke away and formed the Constituent Assembly into order to give France a new constitution. King Louis XVI was finally forced to recognize the Constituent Assembly.
On July 14th, 1789, a mob in Paris stormed the fortress-prison the Bastille in order to secure arms and free political prisoners. Thus began the French Revolution. In October a mob invaded the royal palace at Versailles, and the Royal Family fled to live under guard at the Palace of Tuilleries in Paris. In various parts of France, peasants began to rise up against their lords. French noblemen began to flee the country.
During the next 2 years the National Assembly passed many laws to eliminate the abuses of the old feudal system. The Aristocracy gave up most of their privileges, rights and titles. The most famous act of the National Assembly was the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man on August 27th, 1789, which had much in common with the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Next a Constitution for France was adopted which severely limited the powers of the King. France was divided into departments, and these were subdivided into districts and cantons. The properties of the Clergy and the Aristocracy were seized by the governments. The National Assembly then dissolved itself in 1791 to make way for the new Legislative Assembly. That year the royal family attempted to flee France in disguise, but at Varennes the King was recognized from his picture on French currency and the family was returned to Paris under guard.
The Legislative Assembly convened in 1791 and declared France a republic in 1792. In this assembly, 745 members were seated according to their party affiliartion or club. The more radical members happened to be seated to the left of the Speaker, the more conservative members to the right. Thus the terms "left" and "right" for liberal and conservative political beliefs originated with this Legislative Assembly.
The Legislative Assembly eventually became dominated by radicals who wished to carry the revolution to its extremes. In January 1793 King Louis XVI was executed at the guillotine for treason. Radicals seized control of the Committee of Public Safety, which was in charge of internal security, and which in turn seized control of France. In June, moderate leaders were expelled from the government and executed. Thus began the Reign of Terror. Hundreds of people were accused of treason on only the slightest suspicions and were then executed at the guillotine. Aristocrats were executed first. Marie Antoinette was beheaded in October 1793. Then the radicals began to turn against each other and many of them were also executed, including Georges Danton and Maximilien de Robespierre. The Reign of Terror continued until it exhausted itself in July 1794.
Meanwhile, in April 1792 France was invaded by Prussia and Austria. French armies were defeated at first, but soon they began to win major victories on the battlefield. An army officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, began to attract notice as a military genius. In 1795 a group of moderates gained control of the government and ended the Reign of Terror. People rebelled against the new Convention, but French soldiers under the command of Napoleon suppressed the riots. After 1795 the revolutionary fervor abated, but French national affairs were in disarray, the people continued to be dissatisfied and foreign powers continued to threaten. The time was right for the restoration of a strong central government, and in 1799 Napoleon staged a coup d'etat and was crowned First Consul and Master of France. He made himself dictator, and the French Revolution ended after 10 turbulent years. Ironically, after all the upheavals of the revolution, the absolute power of the monarchy was replaced with the absolute power of a dictatorship.
The French Revolution has many parallels with the American Revolution. France and the United Kingdom were great powers in the 1700s, and they often clashed in their quest for lucrative colonies. British military power gradually stripped France of many of her colonies, most notably the British conquest of Canada in 1759. When the American Revolution erupted in 1776, King Louis XVI of France supported the American colonies in their bid for independence from the United Kingdom. Little did the King know that he had helped bring about his own downfall. French military and financial support seriously weakened the French economy. In 1789 the same revolutionary fervor crossed the Atlantic Ocean and erupted in France. The effects of these revolutions spread around the world, as absolute monarchies in many other countries were replaced much more peacefully with limited constitutional monarchies, republics and other democracies.
Personal Note: Quebec may provide a glimpse of the France that might have been if the French monarchy had not been been overthrown in a revolution. France lost Canada to the United Kingdom in the Battle of Quebec in 1759, when the French monarchy still ruled. Although it was replaced in Canada by the British monarchy, the essence of the French monarchy has remained in the hearts and minds of French Canadians to some extent even today. The name itself of Montreal (Mount Royal) reflects this. Many place names in the cities of Quebec Province retain their royal associations: Mont Royal in Montreal; Boulevard Royal and Rue Royale in Trois-Rivieres; and Place-Royale in Quebec City. Whereas in France the French monarchy was forcibly rejected, in Quebec the French monarchy simply and gradually faded away so that some of it remains in spirit if not in actuality.
