The Reign of Terror was the most violent phase of the French Revolution, a year-long period between the summers of 1793 and 1794. Vichy denied the principle of equality and tried to replace the Revolutionary watchwords "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" with "Work, Family, and Fatherland." Many feared their own survival depended on Robespierre's removal; during a meeting on 29 June, three members of the Committee of Public Safety called him a dictator in his face. [208] All church lands were nationalised, along with those owned by Royalist exiles, which were used to back paper currency known as assignats, and the feudal guild system eliminated. As well as external enemies, the Republic faced internal opposition from both Royalists and Jacobins and in order to deal with these threats, the French Directory took power in November 1795. This significantly reduced the yield from those that were approved and as a result, France struggled to service its debt despite being larger and wealthier than Britain. This led to the "Constitutional Act 1791", which split the Province into two separate colonies, each with its own electoral assembly, the predominantly French-speaking Lower Canada and predominantly English-speaking Upper Canada. In any event, the new constitution was suspended until France was at peace. [75], Despite calls to replace the monarchy with a republic, Louis retained his position but was generally regarded with acute suspicion and forced to swear allegiance to the constitution. Nominated to the Directory, his first action was removing Barras, using a coalition that included Talleyrand and former Jacobin Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother and president of the Council of 500. [190], The Liberty cap, also known as the Phrygian cap, or pileus, is a brimless, felt cap that is conical in shape with the tip pulled forward. [24] Each sat separately, enabling the First and Second Estates to outvote the Third, despite representing less than 5% of the population, while both were largely exempt from tax. It wasn't initiated by a rising capitalist bourgeoisie and ended in a victory for conservative property owners, a result which retarded economic development. Many left for the provinces. Parents often brought their children. While loyalties constantly shifted, around 160 of the 749 deputies were Girondists, 200 Montagnards and 389 members of La Plaine. [245], In Ireland, the effect was to transform what had been an attempt by Protestant settlers to gain some autonomy into a mass movement led by the Society of United Irishmen involving Catholics and Protestants. Compare the outcomes of the American Revolution with those of later Latin American revolutions. Colonial landowners also gained control of the Colonial Committee of the Assembly from where they exerted a powerful influence against abolition. "[150], Tocqueville emphasized, in L'Ancien Rgime et la Rvolution, the "immense central power" [151] created by the revolutionaries, and which Mirabeau had early rejoiced. He and Jean-Paul Marat gained increasing support for opposing the criteria for 'active citizens', which had disenfranchised much of the Parisian proletariat. They suggest that "areas that were occupied by the French and that underwent radical institutional reform experienced more rapid urbanization and economic growth, especially after 1850. One suggestion is that after a century of persecution, some French Protestants actively supported an anti-Catholic regime, a resentment fuelled by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire. Recent arguments over the use of Muslim religious symbols in schools, such as wearing headscarves, have been explicitly linked to the conflict over Catholic rituals and symbols during the Revolution. [99], The Girondins hoped war would unite the people behind the government and provide an excuse for rising prices and food shortages, but found themselves the target of popular anger. His success in that role resulted in promotion to the Army of Italy in April 1794, and the beginning of his rise to military and political power. Brown and Timothy Tackett, eds. In August 1789, colonial slave owners and merchants formed the rival Club de Massiac to represent their interests. As internal and external threats to the Republic increased, the position worsened; dealing with this by printing assignats led to inflation and higher prices. This site is created and maintained by Alpha History. As a result, the Directory was characterised by "chronic violence, ambivalent forms of justice, and repeated recourse to heavy-handed repression. Scholars such as Michel-Rolph Traillot and Anthony Hurley have emphasised the cultural traditions of colonial slaves, arguing that the Haitian revolution was not a derivative of the French revolution.[279]. Louis XVI - Execution, Marie Antoinette & Children - Biography [9], The other major drag on the economy was state debt. Black and coloured generals were effectively in control of large areas of Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue, including Toussaint Louverture in the north of Saint-Domingue, and Andr Rigaud in the south. Although those numbers have been challenged, Franois Furet concluded it "not only revealed massacre and destruction on an unprecedented scale, but a zeal so violent that it has bestowed as its legacy much of the region's identity. Although Robespierre himself was one of those excluded, his support in the clubs gave him a political power base not available to Lafayette and Bailly, who resigned respectively as head of the National Guard and the Paris Commune. To this end, symbols were borrowed from historic cultures and redefined, while those of the old regime were either destroyed or reattributed acceptable characteristics. [125] Despite his links to Augustin Robespierre, military success in Italy meant Napoleon Bonaparte escaped censure. The remaining 600 Conventionnels kept their seats, a move intended to ensure stability. [243], This exchange of ideas has been described as "one of the great political debates in British history". [138] The power of the Parisian sans culottes had been broken by the suppression of the May 1795 revolt; relieved of pressure from below, the Jacobins became natural supporters of the Directory against those seeking to restore the monarchy. [188], Its operation became a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. [32] Abb Sieys, a political theorist and priest elected to the Third Estate, argued it should take precedence over the other two as it represented 95% of the population. [80] Restricting the franchise to those who paid a minimum amount of tax meant only 4 out of 6million Frenchmen over 25 were able to vote; it largely excluded the sans culottes or urban working class, who increasingly saw the new regime as failing to meet their demands for bread and work. These policies were promoted by the atheist Hbert and opposed by the deist Robespierre, who denounced the campaign and replaced the Cult of Reason with the Cult of the Supreme Being. With the breakup of large estates controlled by the Church and the nobility and worked by hired hands, rural France became more a land of small independent farms. After Brissot's fall, the new constitution of June 1793 included a new Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, but excluded the colonies from its provisions. The latter derived rank from judicial or administrative posts and tended to be hard-working professionals, who dominated the regional parlements and were often intensely socially conservative. Ultimately these attempts not only failed but aroused a furious reaction among the pious; opposition to these changes was a key factor behind the revolt in the Vende. [64] On 13 February 1790, religious orders and monasteries were dissolved, while monks and nuns were encouraged to return to private life. [269][270] Albert Soboul, also writing in the Marxist-Republican tradition, published a major study of the sans-culottes in 1958. It hadn't met since 1614. [260][261] From 1815, narrative histories dominated, often based on first-hand experience of the revolutionary years. The Kingdom of France was an empire, and the existence of this empire was never questioned by the revolutionaries, who even maintained slavery for a long time. Uprisings followed in Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulon, Marseilles and Caen. The French Revolution | History Cooperative He was executed on 28 July with 19 colleagues, including Saint-Just and Georges Couthon, followed by 83 members of the Commune. Rgent states that the restrictions on the freedom of employment and movement of former slaves meant that, "only whites, persons of color already freed before the decree, and former slaves in the army or on warships really benefited from general emancipation." In a speech made to the convention on 26 July, he claimed certain members were conspiring against the Republic, an almost certain death sentence if confirmed. They also demanded vigorous price controls to keep bread the major food of the poor people from becoming too expensive. When this resulted in escalating inflation, the response was to impose price controls and persecute private speculators and traders, creating a Black market. Second, armies were primarily loyal to their generals, for whom the wealth achieved by victory and the status it conferred became objectives in themselves. They were followed by 15,000 members of the National Guard under Lafayette, who tried to dissuade them, but took command when it became clear they would desert if he did not grant their request. While all wars are political to some degree, this period was remarkable for the emphasis placed on reshaping boundaries and the creation of entirely new European states. [129], However, the Republic still faced a crisis at home. [274] Furet later argued that a clearer distinction needed to be made between analyses of political events, and of social and economic changes which usually take place over a much longer period than the Jacobin-Marxist school allowed. However, radicals led by Jacques Pierre Brissot prepared a petition demanding his deposition, and on 17 July, an immense crowd gathered in the Champ de Mars to sign. [253], The Constitution of Norway of 1814 was inspired by the French Revolution,[254] and was considered to be one of the most liberal and democratic constitutions at the time. Representatives were sent to Paris to gain the approval of the Convention for the decision. [16] National taxes could only be approved by the Estates-General, which had not sat since 1614; its revenue functions had been assumed by regional parlements, the most powerful being the Parlement de Paris (see Map). [204] This sparked a counter-revolutionary movement led by women; while supporting other political and social changes, they opposed the dissolution of the Catholic Church and revolutionary cults like the Cult of the Supreme Being. Historian Reynald Secher claims that as many as 117,000 died between 1793 and 1796. "Interpreting the French Revolution,", Censer, Jack R. "Amalgamating the Social in the French Revolution. [165], In February 1788, the Socit des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of Blacks) was formed in France with the aim of abolishing slavery in the empire. [35] After an extended stalemate, on 10 June the Third Estate proceeded to verify its own deputies, a process completed on 17 June; two days later, they were joined by over 100 members of the First Estate, and declared themselves the National Assembly. The socio-economic analysis of the revolution and focus on the experiences or ordinary people dominated French studies of the revolution after World War II. [134], Deputies were chosen by indirect election, a total franchise of around 5million voting in primaries for 30,000 electors, or 0.6% of the population. Resistance was strong in every sector, as Belgian nationalism emerged to oppose French rule. The History Of The French Language: From The Roman Empire Until Today [45] Over 25% of French farmland was subject to feudal dues, which provided most of the income for large landowners; these were now cancelled, along with tithes due to the church. Traditional views of the French Revolution often attribute the financial crisis to the costs of the 17781783 Anglo-French War, but modern economic studies show this is only a partial explanation. In rural areas, wild rumours and paranoia resulted in the formation of militia and an agrarian insurrection known as la Grande Peur. At the end of July, the Convention set price controls over a wide range of goods, with the death penalty for hoarders, and on 9 September 'revolutionary groups' were established to enforce them. His method was to require all deputies be approved by the Estates-General as a whole, instead of each Estate verifying its own members. [235], Economic historians Dan Bogart, Mauricio Drelichman, Oscar Gelderblom, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal described codified law as the French Revolution's "most significant export." When Robespierre attempted to speak, his voice failed, one deputy crying "The blood of Danton chokes him! The French legal system, however, was adopted, with its equal legal rights, and abolition of class distinctions. An effort was made to replace the Catholic Church altogether with the Cult of Reason, and with civic festivals replacing religious ones, leading to attacks by locals on state officials. The French Revolution was a watershed event in world history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Concordat was a compromise that restored some of the Church's traditional roles but not its power, lands or monasteries; the clergy became public officials controlled by Paris, not Rome, while Protestants and Jews gained equal rights. With the revolution, the king had ceased to be the "sovereign" of the empire. [126], The December 1794 Treaty of La Jaunaye ended the Chouannerie in western France by allowing freedom of worship and the return of non-juring priests. By April 1796, over 500,000 Parisians were reportedly in need of relief, resulting in the May insurrection known as the Conspiracy of the Equals. "[137], Retention of the Conventionnels ensured the Thermidorians held a majority in the legislature and three of the five Directors, but they faced an increasing challenge from the right. These factors resulted in the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in April 1792, abolition of the French monarchy and proclamation of the French First Republic in September 1792, followed by the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793. Although the power of the monarchists had been destroyed, it opened the way for direct conflict between Barras and his opponents on the left. The French Revolution As French soldiers returned home from the Seven Years' War, they came home to a nearly bankrupt monarchical regime. [169][167], In May 1791, the National Assembly granted full political rights to coloureds born of two free parents, but left the rights of freed slaves to be determined by the colonial assemblies. Another defeat at Le Mans on 23 December ended the rebellion as a major threat, although the insurgency continued until 1796. "[220][titlemissing], One of the most heated controversies during the Revolution was the status of the Catholic Church. [159] However, the expiration of the 12-month term for the 1792 recruits forced the French to relinquish their conquests. Although the coup failed, on 2 June the convention was surrounded by a crowd of up to 80,000, demanding cheap bread, unemployment pay and political reforms, including restriction of the vote to the sans-culottes, and the right to remove deputies at will. [22] In a last attempt to resolve the crisis, Necker returned as Finance Minister in August 1788 but was unable to reach an agreement on how to increase revenue. For their opponents, Enlightenment ideas on equality and democracy provided an intellectual framework for dealing with these issues, while the American Revolution was seen as confirmation of their practical application. As the royalists and their British and Spanish supporters were also offering freedom for slaves willing to fight for their cause, the commissioners outbid them by abolishing slavery in the north in August, and throughout the colony in October. How long did the French Revolution last? Tackett, Timothy, "The French Revolution and religion to 1794," and Suzanne Desan, "The French Revolution and religion, 17951815," in Stewart J. The Brunswick Manifesto made it easy to portray Louis as a threat to the Revolution, apparently confirmed when extracts from his personal correspondence were published showed him conspiring with Royalist exiles serving in the Prussian and Austrian armies. The third stream is those liberal writers, such as Germaine de Stal and Guizot, who accepted the necessity of reforms establishing a constitution and the rights of man, but rejected state interference with private property and individual rights even if supported by a democratic majority. French Revolution | Timeline | Britannica The Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, a militant group on the far left, demanded a law in 1793 that would compel all women to wear the tricolour cockade to demonstrate their loyalty to the Republic. In the Soviet Union, "Gracchus" Babeuf was regarded as a hero. In 1789, faced with a grave financial crisis, the king summoned a meeting of the Estates General at the palace. The French Revolution, Its Outcome, and Legacy - ThoughtCo [246], German reaction to the Revolution swung from favourable to antagonistic. While certainly true, many provincial areas experienced conflict over the source of legitimate authority, where officers of the Ancien Rgime had been swept away, but new structures were not yet in place. The Charleston move is part of a broader British strategy to hang on to the southern colonies, at least, now that the war is stalemated in Pennsylvania and New York. The assignats were withdrawn in 1796 but inflation continued until the introduction of the gold-based Franc germinal in 1803. "[196] Women also assumed a special role in the funeral of Marat, following his murder on 13 July 1793 by Corday; as part of the funeral procession, they carried the bathtub in which he died, as well as a shirt stained with his blood. Above all the antagonism helped stimulate and shape German nationalism. As was customary, each Estate assembled in separate rooms, whose furnishings and opening ceremonies deliberately emphasised the superiority of the First and Second Estates. On arrival in September, the commissioners announced that slavery would remain in force. [31] The lifting of press censorship allowed widespread distribution of political writings, mostly written by liberal members of the aristocracy and upper middle-class. Her publications emphasised that women and men are different, but this shouldn't prevent equality under the law. They expressed these demands using pamphlets and clubs such as the Cercle Social, whose largely male members viewed themselves as contemporary feminists. Du Pont tried becoming a printer, but it was hard to make money, so he left for America with his family. [161], By February 1795, France had annexed the Austrian Netherlands, established their frontier on the left bank of the Rhine and replaced the Dutch Republic with the Batavian Republic, a satellite state. Blue and red are the traditional colours of Paris, and they are used on the city's coat of arms. [73], Held in the Tuileries Palace under virtual house arrest, Louis XVI was urged by his brother and wife to re-assert his independence by taking refuge with Bouill, who was based at Montmdy with 10,000 soldiers considered loyal to the Crown. It was a different kind of war, fought by nations rather than kings, intended to destroy their opponents' ability to resist, but also to implement deep-ranging social change. [26] More than two-thirds of the clergy lived on less than 500 livres per year, and were often closer to the urban and rural poor than those elected for the Third Estate, where voting was restricted to male French taxpayers, aged 25 or over. The same percentage were broadly centrist or unaffiliated, along with two Directors, tienne-Franois Letourneur and Lazare Carnot. [82] The remaining 345 belonged to La Plaine, a central faction who switched votes depending on the issue; many of whom shared Brissotins suspicions as to Louis' commitment to the Revolution. On 17 August, the Convention voted a second leve en masse; despite initial problems in equipping and supplying such large numbers, by mid-October Republican forces had re-taken Lyon, Marseilles and Bordeaux, while defeating Coalition armies at Hondschoote and Wattignies. At one end of the political spectrum, reactionaries like Cazals and Maury denounced the Revolution in all its forms, with extremists like Maximilien Robespierre at the other. [177], In republican controlled areas from 1793-99, freed slaves were required to work on their former plantations or for their former masters if they were in domestic service. However, it was clear power had shifted from his court; he was welcomed as 'Louis XVI, father of the French and king of a free people. [222], Over the centuries, charitable foundations had been set up to fund hospitals, poor relief, and schools; when these were confiscated and sold off, the funding was not replaced, causing massive disruption to these support systems. In May 1789, Louis summoned the Estates-General for the first time in over a hundred and fifty years. However, the two entered negotiations over the Louisiana Territory and agreed to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, an acquisition that substantially increased the size of the United States. It brought economic freedoms and agrarian and legal reform. As long as the generals and their armies stayed away from Paris, they were happy to allow them to continue fighting, a key factor behind sanctioning Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt. Jefferson became president in 1801, but was hostile to Napoleon as a dictator and emperor. Egalit! By 1785, the government was struggling to cover these payments; since defaulting on the debt would negatively impact much of French society, the only other option was to increase taxes. [155], In late 1791, factions within the Assembly came to see war as a way to unite the country and secure the Revolution by eliminating hostile forces on its borders and establishing its "natural frontiers". It acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching on the capital. [84] The second was non-juring priests, whose opposition to the Civil Constitution led to a state of near civil war in southern France, which Bernave tried to defuse by relaxing the more punitive provisions. The Lige Revolution expelled the tyrannical Prince-Bishop and installed a republic. [247], The French invaded Switzerland and turned it into the "Helvetic Republic" (17981803), a French puppet state. Repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored. Under the pressure of events, splits appeared within the Montagnard faction, with violent disagreements between radical Hbertists and moderates led by Danton. [38] On 12 July, the Assembly went into a non-stop session after rumours circulated he was planning to use the Swiss Guards to force it to close. How many French revolutions were there? | Live Science When he refused to give names, the session broke up in confusion. Although the victors of Thermidor asserted control over the Commune by executing their leaders, some of those closely involved in the "Terror" retained their positions. [258] The influx of religious migrants also reinvigorated the local Catholic Church, with exiled priests establishing a number of parishes throughout the Canadas.[258]. Louis XVI | Palace of Versailles In its early stages, this seemed unlikely; the 1791 Constitution specifically disavowed "war for the purpose of conquest", and although traditional tensions between France and Austria re-emerged in the 1780s, Emperor Joseph II cautiously welcomed the reforms. [109], On 10 October, the Convention recognised the Committee of Public Safety as the supreme Revolutionary Government, and suspended the Constitution until peace was achieved. They included Paul Barras, later chief executive of the French Directory, and Joseph Fouch, director of the killings in Lyon who served as Minister of Police under the Directory, the Consulate and Empire. It was celebrated on the left as the people's avenger, for example in the revolutionary song La guillotine permanente,[187] and cursed as the symbol of the Terror by the right. [215] As such, the revolution is often seen as the dividing point between the early modern and late modern periods of western history. Andress, David. Led by Bertrand Barre, Pierre Joseph Cambon and Lazare Carnot, as before this central faction acted as a swing vote. The French Revolution literally redefined the word "revolution." After 1789, it meant the overthrow of a social and political order, and its replacement by something new. Louis XVI's reign will forever be associated with the outbreak of the French Revolution and the end of Versailles' royal era. Growing disorder meant many professional officers either left or became migrs, further destabilising the institution. [157], From 1701 to 1801, the population of Europe grew from 118 to 187million; combined with new mass production techniques, this allowed belligerents to support large armies, requiring the mobilisation of national resources. [173][174], The Convention voted for the abolition of slavery in the colonies on 4 February 1794 and decreed that all residents of the colonies had the full rights of French citizens irrespective of colour. [40] In French culture, some see its fall as the start of the Revolution. Over 72,00 slaves were still in revolt, mostly in the north. Wikisource has original works on the topic: Significant civil and political events by year, Constitutional monarchy (July 1789 September 1792), Political crisis and fall of the Girondins. After the abdication of Napoleon III in 1871, the monarchists probably had a voting majority, but they were so factionalised they could not agree on who should be king, and instead the French Third Republic was launched with a deep commitment to upholding the ideals of the Revolution. In 1781, Louis allegedly refused to appoint him Archbishop of Paris on the grounds 'an Archbishop should at least believe in God'. The French Revolution didn't just take place in 1789. Led by the revolutionary Franois-Nol Babeuf, their demands included the implementation of the 1793 Constitution and a more equitable distribution of wealth. In January 1790, the National Guard tried to arrest Marat for denouncing Lafayette and Bailly as 'enemies of the people'. [127] This was accompanied by military success; in January 1795, French forces helped the Dutch Patriots set up the Batavian Republic, securing their northern border. These characteristics of Jacobin ideology, which contrast with the revolutionary discourse on freedom and equality, have been highlighted by critical historians in the tradition of Tocqueville, notably by Hoel, in Jacobin Ideology. In 1788, the ratio of debt to gross national income in France was 55.6%, compared to 181.8% in Britain, and although French borrowing costs were higher, the percentage of revenue devoted to interest payments was roughly the same in both countries.

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