The French Revolution

1. France in the Late 18th Century — the Outbreak

On the morning of 14 July 1789, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm. The king had ordered troops to move into the city, and rumours spread that he would soon fire on the citizens. People formed a militia, broke into government buildings in search of arms and finally marched to the Bastille, a fortress-prison that was hated as a symbol of the despotic power of the king. The crowd stormed it, killed the commander and released the prisoners. The fall of the Bastille was a small military event but a huge symbolic one — it marked the beginning of the French Revolution. At the time France was ruled by Louis XVI of the Bourbon family, who had become king in 1774. The royal treasury was empty: long years of war, the cost of maintaining the lavish court at Versailles, and France’s help to the American colonies against Britain had all drained the finances. To meet rising expenses the state was forced to increase taxes, and the burden fell on the common people.

2. The Society of Estates

French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates, and only members of the third estate paid taxes. The First Estate was the clergy (priests and the Church) and the Second Estate was the nobility. Together these two estates enjoyed special privileges by birth — the most important being exemption from taxes. The nobles also enjoyed feudal privileges: they could extract feudal dues from the peasants who worked on their lands, and peasants were obliged to render services such as working in the lord’s house and fields. The Third Estate was made up of everyone else — big businessmen, merchants, lawyers, officials, peasants, artisans, and servants. They bore the entire weight of the state’s taxes, including a direct tax called the taille and a number of indirect taxes on items of daily use such as salt and tobacco. The Church too extracted its own share, the tithe, a tax taken from the peasants. This unequal system left the people of the third estate burdened and resentful.

3. A Growing Middle Class Envisages a New Order

Within the third estate, some had grown wealthy through overseas trade and the manufacture of goods such as woollen and silk textiles. This educated and prosperous middle class, or bourgeoisie, believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth. Instead, a person’s position should depend on merit. These ideas of a society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all were put forward by philosophers. John Locke refuted the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch. Jean Jacques Rousseau proposed a form of government based on a social contract between the people and their representatives. Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. These ideas were discussed in salons and coffee-houses and spread through books and newspapers, reaching even people who could not read.

4. The Outbreak of the Revolution and the National Assembly

Louis XVI, desperate for money, called a meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 to pass proposals for new taxes. Voting in the past had been conducted with each estate having one vote, which the first two estates always used to outvote the third. The members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote. When the king rejected this proposal, they walked out in protest. On 20 June they assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in Versailles and declared themselves a National Assembly, taking the famous Tennis Court Oath — a vow not to disperse until they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the monarch. They were led by figures such as Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyès. Meanwhile the country was in turmoil; a severe winter, a bad harvest and the rising price of bread had pushed the common people to the edge.

5. France Becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791. Its main object was to limit the powers of the monarch; these powers were now separated and assigned to different institutions — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. This made France a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution of 1791 vested the power to make laws in the National Assembly, which was indirectly elected. Citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the Assembly. However, not all citizens had the right to vote. Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least three days of a labourer’s wage were given the status of active citizens, that is, they were entitled to vote. The remaining men and all women were classed as passive citizens. The Constitution began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which guaranteed rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and equality before law as natural and inalienable rights — rights belonging to each human being by birth that could not be taken away.

6. France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

The situation in France continued to be tense. Louis XVI secretly negotiated with the king of Prussia, and the rulers of neighbouring countries grew worried by the events in France. In April 1792 the National Assembly voted to declare war against Prussia and Austria. Large numbers of men volunteered to join the army, and as they marched they sang patriotic songs, including the Marseillaise, composed by the poet Roget de L’Isle, which is today the national anthem of France. Political clubs became important; the most successful was the Jacobin club, led by Maximilian Robespierre. Its members included small shopkeepers, artisans and watch-makers, and many wore long striped trousers and so were called the sans-culottes (literally “those without knee breeches”). In the summer of 1792 the Jacobins planned an insurrection. On the morning of 10 August they stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, held the king hostage, and the Assembly imprisoned the royal family. Elections were held in which all men of 21 years and above, regardless of wealth, got the right to vote. The newly elected assembly was called the Convention. On 21 September 1792 it abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Louis XVI was tried, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to death by a court; he was executed on 21 January 1793, and his queen Marie Antoinette met the same fate soon after.

7. The Reign of Terror (1793–1794)

The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror. Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment. All those whom he saw as enemies of the republic — ex-nobles and clergy, members of other political parties, and even members of his own party who did not agree with his methods — were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal. If found “guilty” they were guillotined, the guillotine being a device named after Dr Guillotin that beheaded a person. Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices, rationed meat and bread, and forced peasants to sell grain at fixed prices. The use of expensive white flour was forbidden, and citizens were even required to address one another as Citoyen and Citoyenne (Citizen). Robespierre pursued his policies so relentlessly that even his supporters began to demand moderation. Finally he was convicted by a court in July 1794, arrested and on the next day sent to the guillotine.

8. A Directory Rules France

The fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle classes to seize power. A new constitution was introduced which denied the vote to non-propertied sections of society. It provided for two elected legislative councils, which then appointed a five-member executive called the Directory. This was an attempt to safeguard against the concentration of power in a one-man executive as under the Jacobins. However, the Directors often clashed with the legislative councils, who then sought to dismiss them. The political instability of the Directory paved the way for the rise of a military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte. Through all these changes of government, the ideals of freedom, of equality before the law and of fraternity remained the powerful legacy of the French Revolution and spread from France to the rest of Europe during the nineteenth century.

9. Did Women Have a Revolution?

From the very beginning women were active participants in the events that brought about so many important changes in French society. Most women of the third estate had to work for a living — they were seamstresses, laundresses, sold flowers and vegetables, or worked as domestic servants. They did not have access to education or job training, and were paid lower wages than men. To voice their interests and discuss policies, women started their own political clubs and newspapers; the most famous was The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women. One of their main demands was that women should enjoy the same political rights as men. They were deeply disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive citizens. Olympe de Gouges was an important political figure who protested against this and wrote a Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen. During the Reign of Terror women’s clubs were closed and their political activities banned. Yet over the years the French government did pass laws to improve their lives: schooling was made compulsory for all girls, women could no longer be forced to marry against their will, and divorce was made legal. It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.

10. The Abolition of Slavery

One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime was the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. Throughout the eighteenth century there had been little criticism of slavery in France. The triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas supplied labour to the French colonies in the Caribbean — Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo — which produced sugar, coffee and indigo in great demand in Europe. The slaves were branded and shackled and packed tightly into ships for the three-month-long voyage across the Atlantic. The National Assembly long held debates but never passed laws abolishing slavery, fearing opposition from businessmen. It was finally the Convention which in 1794 abolished slavery in the French overseas possessions — the first time any modern nation had done so. Unfortunately this was a short-lived measure: ten years later Napoleon reintroduced slavery. Plantation owners saw their freedom to enslave Africans as part of their own right to property. Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.

11. The Revolution and Everyday Life

The years following 1789 in France brought many changes in the lives of men, women and children. One important law that came into effect soon after the storming of the Bastille was the abolition of censorship. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural right. Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France, describing and discussing the events and changes taking place. Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of people and helped them understand and identify with ideas such as liberty or justice. In this way the ideals of the Revolution reached even those who could not read or write, and became part of the everyday consciousness of the French people.