Unarguably, the French Revolution was one of the bloodiest revolutions in France that brought substantial political changes. This revolution turned France from a European feudalist country into the early modern version of present-day France. The national assembly, created in the name of the Monarch, yet abolished the old feudal system and promoted “human rights” such as freedom of speech, religious tolerance, and the availability of good jobs to the talented instead of the nobles. This assembly with such a high A goal ended up in an age of terror in France, leading to massive execution of people against the temporary government. This essay will focus on how the French revolution led to a period of anarchy in France.
First of all, the primary cause of the French revolution is that people don’t have individual rights. People were not seen as individuals but as members of different groups. There were three estates, the clergy, nobles, and the third estate: everyone else. The third estates account for about 99% of the total population, yet they only have twenty percent of the wealth, this means that on average, a man from the first or second estate has about 400 times the wealth that a man from the third estate has. And note that there is no social mobility, and the rich are free from land taxes; the poor have to pay more taxes. Among the miserable third-estates, there are also richer people such as merchants, many of them benefited from the economic growth in the 18th century. However, the growth is limited to commerce, there are no changes in agriculture. This means that even among the third estates, there is still, a class that is more privileged than the peasants. The peasant’s fear of famine also played an important role. The peasants are the most vulnerable in a famine, because they don’t own the land, and they are poor. So, when there are rumors of a famine, they are the group the reacts most violently. The war of flour is caused by this fear, thousands of peasants demanded food from the officials. This long-term huge economic gap between different classes of people and insecurity of food is the leading cause of the French revolution, factors like the Queen being Austrian are only a minor cause.
Since the formation of the National Convection, the King has already lost actual power. In the first part of the revolution, the King wasn’t seen as an enemy; he was “essential for the unity of the new nation” And in fact, Louis XIV actually support it to a certain extent. Later, King Louis is imprisoned, but he still lives in a castle and can maintain a group of servants. However, as rumors spread that he would run away, his condition has worsened significantly, and Louis XVI was forced to move to a smaller place. The words inspired hatred to the monarch among the ordinary people; 6000 people marched with the slogan: “Long live the Nation and death to tyrants.” At this point, it is evident that the existence of a monarch is to be seen as controversial with the upcoming nationalism. Very soon, the monarch himself was accused of treason. At the court, it is declared that “The very name of ‘Louis XVI’ now means ‘treason’ to us.” And Louis himself is sentenced to death. And after the fall of the monarch, terrorism began; people were worried about the supporters of Louis; they may be a potential threat to the new nation， it is the fear that these people will help other country to invade France. This resulted in the extreme policy that anyone accused of supporting the king could be executed. This led to great fear and chaos, turning French society more like anarchy than any other political system. Not only did political movements make France more chaotic, but the severe drought in 1789 also made people suspect that there might be a famine. Free trade was supported, so there were no restrictions on trading, the profit of grain makers was maximized, but this led to dissatisfaction among the lower class, leading to a series of riots. A few years later, at the national convention, some of the problems are fixed, like the rich people must pay for military. However, it is also decided that anyone who is found “counterrevolutionary” would be executed within 24 hours. This is not only targeted at the rich people, but also foreigners accused of being spies. Many immigrants were banished from France and some of them were killed.
The third estates did not like the unreasonable amount of representation and taxational that was imposed upon them. The third estate started to hold private sessions in their own court while the constitutional government was still in power. The clergies later joined the third estate in the National Assembly.
Unfortunately, they were locked out of the assembly building by king Louis XVI who was notified of such actions in a previously day. People of the third estate were outraged by this ‘act of despotism’. In response the people went next door into a tennis court in which they held the “Tennis court Oath”. “We swear never to separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations.” (ou Le Monituer universel)
The Tennis court oath formally established the National Assembly, a ruling government that promised to give people equal rights. However, people still feared the king and the royal army, and thus they stormed the Bastille Prison1. This event is the first radical act in the French revolution. Unfortunately for the king, the situation in France did not improve after this event; Another wave of famine had just hit France and the lack of Jacques Necker made everything worst. Bread prices were now doubling by the day and Parisians were not happy about it. With rumors on a secret food stash hidden inside the Versailles Palace, large group of semi-armed women set off for Versailles2 on the Fifth of October in 1789.
Due to this event, everyone in France was demoted to being a regular citizen, this included people such as clergymen and the king. This effectively removed all socioeconomic benefits that were given to the other classes. In addition to this, the king and queen were escorted out of their royal palace in Versailles. A few months later, the monarchy has been officially abolished by the people. The First French Republic was formed in September 22, 1792 under the leadership of the National Convention, formed form the members of the National Assembly.
This was all great news for the moderate leaders of France up until that point, however things are about to take a turn for chaos. Learn more in the next page.
Maximilien Francois Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the most important figures in the first French Revolution. Robespierre was born in Arras on May 6, 1758. His grandfather and father are both lawyers. In 1769, he was transferred to the famous Louis School in Paris, France. In 1778 he entered the University of Paris to study law, where he read tirelessly the works of enlightenment thinkers, especially Rousseau. After graduating from college in 1781, he returned to his hometown and became a lawyer. In Paris, he joined the Jacobin club, which is the political party that support the revolution. and embarked on the path of the revolution. In 1791, Robespierre became a leading Jacobin. In the Constitutional Assembly, he fought against the king, the nobles, and the big bourgeoisie (including the bishops). He became the main pusher of the execution of the King. He also fought Austria and Prussia’s military intervention. After the uprising of the Jacobins in 1793, he became the leader of the Jacobins. During his reign, he published Constitutions of France of 1793. He completely destroyed the feudal land ownership, quelled the Federalist rebellion, smashed the interference of the European monarchies, and played a great role in defending and promoting the development of the French bourgeois revolution. However, because he ruled with terror, power, and might, too many people wanted him to die. In 1879, the large bourgeois started The Thermidor Reaction, a political turmoil started by the bourgeois and dedicated to overthrow him. Robespierre’s head was chopped off and he was only 36 years old.
Robespierre was born in Arras in northern France. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all local lawyers. As the eldest of four children, he was born four months after his parents' wedding. Robespierre's mother died in childbirth when he was six years old. His father left home and traveled extensively. His father died in Mannheim, Germany, in 1777. In 1770, given a scholarship by a local priest in Arras, Robespierre went to Paris to study at the College of King Louis. Among his school friends was Camille De Moulins, one of the great figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre was a diligent student and excelled in Latin and Greek, earning him the nickname "The Roman". He graduated from law school in 1780 and received his degree in 1781. In the summer of the same year, Robespierre returned to his homeland, and by the end of the year was admitted to the court of Arras and became a lawyer. In early 1782, he was appointed one of the five judges of the Episcopal Court of Arras. He was heavily influenced by Rousseau, and often defended people who were obviously being treated unfairly, with a high success rate. He was admitted as a fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Arras, and was later elected the president of The College of Arras. He met Joseph Fouche, who would play an important role in the French Revolution, and Lazare Carnot, his future colleague on the Public Security Commission. In 1788, France was facing an economic and political crisis, and there were constant calls for the convocation of the Estates-general. Robespierre published "Addresse à la nation artésienne". After the proclamation of the Estates General, he campaigned vigorously and was elected representative of the Third Estate. He left Arras in May 1789. At Versailles he made a speech proposing that the church should unite with the third estate, and when a bishop persuaded the third estate to cooperate with the first and second estates in the name of famine relief, he denounced the extravagance of the church. He made 276 speeches during the Estates-general and the Constitutional Assembly, ranking 20th among delegates. In his speeches, he supported universal male suffrage, opposed the king's veto, supported the empowerment of the Jewish people, called for the abolition of slavery and the death penalty, and opposed censorship of the press. His proposals were rarely adopted, but they quickly won him national fame, earning him the title of "incorruptible". His influence was more pronounced in the Jacobin club, and on 31 March 1791 he was elected president of the club, leading to Lafayette's angry departure. In June 1791, when Louis XVI and the royal family fled and were discovered, Robespierre asked the Constitutional Convention to depose the king, but he said that he did not support the establishment of a republic. After the training ground massacre on July 17, the constitutional monarchy headed by Lafayette and the Jacobin club headed by Robespierre broke up completely. On August 10, 1792, the people of Paris stormed the palace and overthrew the royal government, and Robespierre was not directly involved in the uprising. On September 2, when news of the siege of Verdun spread to Paris, Parisians, fearing reprisals from royalists and priests who refused to take the oath, broke into the prison and lynched more than a thousand prisoners in what became known as the September Massacre. Robespierre does not appear to have instigated or tried to prevent the massacre, but in the interim, he accused Jacques Pierre Brissot of conspiring with the royal family. Brissot survived under the protection of Georges-Jacques Danton and Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve. On September 21, France established a new National Convention and declared a republic the next day. Robespierre entered the Convention as the candidate with the most votes among the delegates from Paris. In December, at the king's trial, he spoke 11 times, urging the execution of King Louis X
On 26 May 1793, he called on the people to revolt and rid the Girondist in National Assembly. On June 4, he was elected president of the New National Assembly and presided over the adoption of a new constitution that guarantee citizens’ freedom of religion, petition, making association, the right to get education and social relief, and the right to insurrection if the government infringed on their rights. On July 13, Jean-Paul Marat was been assassin by a Gironde supporters called Charlotte Corday. Robespierre attend public security committee, restructuring the revolutionary court, simplifying the trial procedure, implements the Jacobin dictatorship, with revolutionary terrorist policy to punish the criminals and traitors. This period of time was been called as "reign of terror", It is estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 people were executed during the Jacobin dictatorship. In early July 1794, he began to cease his participation in the Commission of Public Security. On July 26, he went to the Convention and gave a four-hour speech hinting at the liquidation of the conspirators and swindlers in the Convention and the Committee of Public Security. On July 27, Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just prepared to deliver a speech to the National Assembly. He criticized the National Assembly but did not demand his arrest, showing a spirit of compromise. But he had barely begun his speech when he was rudely interrupted, and the Convention passed a decree for the arrest of Robespierre and his supporters, but Robespierre and others were immediately freed by the commune. The revolutionary commune mobilized arms, but did not receive a clear order, late at night it began to disband. That night, the Convention announced that he was being stripped of his citizenship, and the Guild guards went to arrest him. He was shot in the jaw, and the next afternoon he was guillotined with his followers.
During the French revolution, the government of France encountered dramatic shifts withal civil wars and death of citizen due to the instability of the society. The Directory Phase was the third phase of french revolution. It rose after the death of Robespierre and targeted to solve the uprising and leftover economic, political and social issues. The Directory Phase symbolized the end of the Radical Phase and was fundamental to the fourth phase when the Napoleon took power. The directories’ extreme corruption during their regime and their authority maintained by military authority ensured Napoleon’s rise.
Even though the purpose of governing by directories was to reduce the autocracy and corruption of the society, the directories ruled with extreme corruption as no one can regulate them. The rules assigned to the directories was the evidence of their corruption, as shown by the following laws, ”The Directory shall be renewed in part by the election of one new member annually. Ancestors and descendants in direct line, brothers...and those related by marriage in said several degrees may not be members of the Directory at one and the same time, or succeed one another therein until after an interval of five years.”(John Hall Stewart) The laws followed by the directories were proposed to reduce the corruption and to reduce the authority of individual directory. However, the system of how the directories functioning didn’t resolve the corruption of government as well as the economic disturbance and the uprising social conflicts because the directories were voted by the house of legislative and executive withal the fact that they only had the ability to pass law. As a result, the directories were the representatives of the different political parties at the time. Thus, the directories themselves were representatives of political conflicts. They will be replaced because the french citizen encountered their corruption and wanted to change the government.
As the directories ruled with political conflicts and instability, military authority was encouraged by the directories. The directories unsuccessfully deal with the left wing and right wing of the french society as well as the famine that made a half-million of Parisians starving. However, the directories maintained their power by their military success in the war against Spain, Italy and several German states. Even though the directories made negligible contributions to those wars, they were benefited by gaining reputation and wealth among them. As military authority was also a solution to the anger and hatred of french citizen, the directories highly encouraged the maintenance of its military authority. Reasonably, all of the wars and military authority promoted the status of the military generals because they gave the millitary generals a heroic figure who were apart from the directories. This positive figure of military general was predominant to Napoleon’s raise.
The unstable society during the Directory Phase of French society caused by the corruption of directories and military authority was a perfect platform for the rise for Napoleon. The corruption of the directories and a country united by the victories among wars needed a military general. Napoleon rise as a successful general not only because himself overthrown the directories, but also due to the fact that the french society wanted a successful military general. Undoubtedly, Napoleon was treated as a triumphant leader of French. However, without the directories, his rise will be much harder.
Napoleon, everyone’s favorite allegedly short commander/emperor, he ruled the french as both consul and as emperor, dominating most of Europe for more than a decade, and was probably average height for the time. This 5 foot 6 man-let first made his debut on the small island of Corsica, born in 1769 august 15 into minor nobility, his parents sent him to France to receive an education. Which at the time just purchased Corsica from Genoa. Napoleon was different from the students there in France, his accent made him stand out among the crowd and was often bullied, this could have fueled his hatred for the french nobility, which in turn would allow him to maybe one day take over France and instill a more equal society. If only a major revolution would happen and wipe out the monarch.
And this is where the french revolution came in. the french revolution sought to remove the ancient regime and instill equality among the people. Napoleon cared not for the revolting mob that sought to devour the rich, but if that meant he could become a higher standing officer, he was all for it. And with Napoleons help, they were able to establish a government, and Napoleon was promoted to a higher rank. Afterwards he was sent to Egypt to attempt to undermine British access to India. He was, shall we say, not successful. And whilst he was away, France had a few more revolutions and had instilled the Directory, and not to mention, they were also in another war. When Napoleon got back, he knew he had to do something. So he and a few others trapped the officials in a palace and forced the to “give” Napoleon and 2 others power, but in the end with Napoleon rewriting the rules, he became the first consul and had become the dictator of France.
With absolute power, he could reform the way the french lived. Firstly he unified all the laws and codes in France into one book called the Napoleonic code which will go on to become one of the pillars of modern law. The Napoleonic Code, formally known as the Civil code of the French, is the French civil code established under the French Consulate in 1804 and still is in force, the code replaced many of the feudal laws that were used back then, as they were often unclear, conflicted with each other, and just a huge incoherent mess. The Napoleonic code completely reformed the french justice system, allowing the clear definition of different crimes, and sorting laws into 4 different categories, persons, property, acquisition of property, and civil procedure.
Second thing he did was he rolled back restrictions on religion, specifically he allowed the catholic church to go back into France, as he believed that it was a way of stopping the poor form eating the rich. Much of the peasant population were still catholic, when the old government kicked the catholic church out of France, it made many of the poorer population angry and were near the state of another revolution. Bringing the church back meant better stability within the country and the lesser likelihood of a revolt. Napoleon also set many power restrictions on the church, so that it wouldn't be too powerful, as the church had the peasants on their side and Napoleon wouldn't want trouble from them either.
Finally he removed women's rights and gave them all to men, yes, he did do that. Although he was an excellent general, but he still had his flaws. Apparently Napoleon believed gender equality was negligible in the process of reforming France.
In the end Napoleon went on to become one of the greatest generals in french history, the changes he brought will have affected the world in many ways, for better or for worse. Modern day we look back at history to learn the mistakes of the past and to prevent them from happening again.
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