History of France

series
Celtic Gaul
Roman Gaul
Franks
French Revolution Middle Ages
Early Modern France
Revolution to WWI
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia French Revolution
Causes
Jump to: navigation, search Estates-General
National Assembly
Storming of the Bastille
National Constituent
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of political and Assembly (1, 2, 3)
social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a Legislative Assembly
whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously and fall of the monarchy
an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and National Convention
Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on and Reign of Terror
Enlightenment principles of nationalism, citizenship, and Directory
inalienable rights. Consulate
Related: Glossary,
Timeline, Wars,
These changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, including List of people,
executions and repression during the Reign of Terror, and warfare Historiography
involving every other major European power. Subsequent events First Empire
that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, Restoration
the restoration of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as July Monarchy
modern France took shape. Second Republic
Second Empire
In the following century, France would be governed variously as a Third Republic
republic, a dictatorship, a constitutional monarchy, and two Modern France
different empires.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Causes
• 2 Estates-General of 1789
• 3 National Assembly (1789)
• 4 National Constituent Assembly (1789–1791)
o 4.1 Storming of the Bastille
o 4.2 Toward a Constitution
o 4.3 Women's March on Versailles
o 4.4 Revolution and the Church
o 4.5 Appearance of factions
o 4.6 Intrigues and radicalism
o 4.7 Flight to Varennes
o 4.8 Completing the Constitution
• 5 Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)
o 5.1 War (1792–1797)
 o 5.2 Constitutional crisis
• 6 National Convention (1792–1795)
o 6.1 Reign of Terror
• 7 The Directory (1795–1799)
• 8 Historical analysis
• 9 See also
• 10 Other revolutions in French history
• 11 References
• 12 Further reading
• 13 Historical Era

• 14 External links

Causes
Main article: Causes of the French Revolution

Historians disagree about the political and socioeconomic nature of the Revolution. Traditional
Marxist interpretations, such as that presented by Georges Lefebvre,[1] described the revolution as
the result of the clash between a feudalistic noble class and the capitalist bourgeois class. Some
historians argue that the old aristocratic order of the Ancien Régime succumbed to an alliance of
the rising bourgeoisie, aggrieved peasants, and urban wage-earners.

Yet another interpretation asserts that the Revolution resulted when various aristocratic and
bourgeois reform movements spun out of control. According to this model, these movements
coincided with popular movements of the new wage-earning classes and the provincial
peasantry, but any alliance between classes was contingent and incidental.

However, adherents of most historical models identify many of the same features of the Ancien
Régime as being among the causes of the Revolution. Among the economic factors were:

• Louis XV fought numerous wars bringing France upon the verge of bankruptcy, while the
support provided by Louis XVI to the colonists during the American Revolution further
exacerbated the precarious financial condition of the government. The national debt
amounted to almost 2 billion livres. The social burdens caused by war included the huge
war debt, made worse by the monarchy's military failures and ineptitude, and the lack of
social services for war veterans.
• An inefficient and antiquated financial system unable to manage the national debt, both
caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation.
• The Roman Catholic Church, the largest landowner in the country, which levied a tax on
crops known as the dîme. While the dîme lessened the severity of the monarchy's tax
increases, it nonetheless served to worsen the plight of the poorest who faced a daily
struggle with malnutrition.
• The continued conspicuous consumption of the noble class, especially the court of Louis
XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, despite the financial burden on the populace.
 • High unemployment and high bread prices, causing more money to be spent on food and
less in other areas of the economy;
• Widespread famine and malnutrition, which increased the likelihood of disease and death,
and intentional starvation in the most destitute segments of the population during the
months immediately before the Revolution. The famine extended even to other parts of
Europe, and was not helped by a poor transportation infrastructure for bulk foods. (Some
researchers have also attributed the widespread famine to an El Niño effect [2], or colder
climate of the little ice age combined with France's failure to adopt the potato as a staple
crop[3])

The Ideals: Declaration of Human Rights.

• No internal trade and too many customs barriers[citation needed]

In addition to economic factors, there were social and political factors, many of them involving
resentments and aspirations given focus by the rise of Enlightenment ideals:

• Resentment of royal absolutism;

• Resentment by the ambitious professional and mercantile classes towards noble
privileges and dominance in public life, many of whom were familiar with the lives of
their peers in commercial cities in The Netherlands and Great Britain;
• Resentment by peasants, wage-earners, and the bourgeoisie toward the traditional
seigneurial privileges possessed by nobles;
• Resentment of clerical privilege (anti-clericalism) and aspirations for freedom of religion,
and resentment of aristocratic bishops by the poorer rural clergy;
• Continued hatred for Catholic control and influence on institutions of all kinds, by the
large Protestant minorities;
• Aspirations for liberty and (especially as the Revolution progressed) republicanism;
 • Anger toward the King for firing Jacques Necker and A.R.J. Turgot (among other
financial advisors), who each possessed a popular image as representatives of the
people.[4]

Finally, perhaps above all, was the almost total failure of Louis XVI and his advisors to deal
effectively with any of these problems.

Estates-General of 1789
Main article: Estates-General of 1789

The immediate trigger for the Revolution was Louis XVI’s attempts to solve the government’s
worsening financial situation. In February 1787, his finance minister, Loménie de Brienne,
convened an Assembly of Notables, a group of nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and bureaucrats
selected in order to bypass the parlements. The Controller-General of Finances, Charles
Alexandre de Calonne, asked this group to approve a new land tax that would, for the first time,
include a tax on the property of nobles and clergy. The assembly did not approve the tax, instead
demanding that Louis XVI call the Estates-General. On 8 August 1788, the King agreed to
convene the Estates-General in May of 1789. By this time, Jacques Necker was in his second
turn as finance minister.

As part of the preparations for the Estates-General, cahiers de doléances (books of grievances)
were drawn up across France, listing the complaints of each of the orders. This process helped to
generate an expectation of reform of some kind.

There was growing concern, however, that the government would attempt to gerrymander an
assembly to its liking. In order to avoid this, the Parlement of Paris proclaimed that the Estates-
General would have to meet according to the forms observed at its last meeting. Although it
would appear that the magistrates were not specifically aware of the "forms of 1614" when they
made this decision, this provoked an uproar. The 1614 Estates had consisted of equal numbers of
representatives of each estate, and voting had been by order, with the First Estate (the clergy), the
Second Estate (the nobility), and the Third Estate (the remainder of the population) each estate
receiving one vote.

Almost immediately the "Committee of Thirty", a body of liberal Parisians, began to agitate
against voting by order, arguing for a doubling of the Third Estate and voting by headcount (as
had already been done in various provincial assemblies, such as Grenoble). Necker agreed that
the size of the Third Estate should be doubled, but the question of voting by headcount was left
for the meeting of the Estates themselves. Fueled by these disputes, resentment between the
elitists and the liberals began to grow.

Pamphlets and works by liberal nobles and clergy, including the comte d'Antraigues and the
Abbé Sieyès, argued the importance of the Third Estate. As Antraigues wrote, it was "the People,
and the People is the foundation of the State; it is in fact the State itself". Sieyès' famous
pamphlet Qu'est-ce que le tiers état? (What is the Third Estate?), published in January 1789,
took the argument a step further: "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until
now in the political order? Nothing. What does it want to be? Something."[5]

When the Estates-General convened in Versailles on 5 May 1789, lengthy speeches by Necker
and Lamoignon, the keeper of the seals, did little to give guidance to the deputies, who were sent
to separate meeting places to credential their members. The question of whether voting was
ultimately to be by head or by order was again put aside for the moment, but the Third Estate
now demanded that credentialing itself should take place as a group. Negotiations with the other
two estates to achieve this, however, were unsuccessful, as a bare majority of the clergy and a
large majority of the nobility continued to support voting by order.

National Assembly (1789)

Main article: National Assembly (French Revolution)

Sketch by Jacques-Louis David of the National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath

On 10 June 1789 Abbé Sieyès moved that the Third Estate, now meeting as the Communes
(English: "Commons"), proceed with verification of its own powers and invite the other two
estates to take part, but not to wait for them. They proceeded to do so two days later, completing
the process on 17 June.[6] Then they voted a measure far more radical, declaring themselves the
National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People." They invited the other
orders to join them, but made it clear they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without
them.

In an attempt to keep control of the process and prevent the Assembly from convening, Louis
XVI ordered the closure of the Salle des États where the Assembly met, making an excuse that
the carpenters needed to prepare the hall for a royal speech in two days. Weather did not allow an
outdoor meeting, so the Assembly moved their deliberations to a nearby indoor real tennis court,
where they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath (20 June 1789), under which they agreed
not to separate until they had given France a constitution. A majority of the representatives of the
clergy soon joined them, as did forty-seven members of the nobility. By 27 June the royal party
had overtly given in, although the military began to arrive in large numbers around Paris and
Versailles. Messages of support for the Assembly poured in from Paris and other French cities.
On 9 July the Assembly reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly.

National Constituent Assembly (1789–1791)

Storming of the Bastille

Main article: Storming of the Bastille

The storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789

By this time, Necker had earned the enmity of many members of the French court for his support
and guidance to the Third Estate. Marie Antoinette, Louis' younger brother the Comte d'Artois,
and other conservative members of the king's privy council urged Louis to dismiss Necker. On
11 July, after Necker suggested that the royal family live according to a budget to conserve
funds, Louis fired him, and completely reconstructed the finance ministry at the same time.

Many Parisians presumed Louis's actions to be the start of a royal coup by the conservatives and
began open rebellion when they heard the news the next day. They were also afraid that arriving
Royal soldiers had been summoned to shut down the National Constituent Assembly, which was
meeting at Versailles, and the Assembly went into nonstop session to prevent eviction from their
meeting place once again. Paris was soon consumed with riots, anarchy, and widespread looting.
The mobs soon had the support of the French Guard, including arms and trained soldiers,
because the royal leadership essentially abandoned the city.

On 14 July, the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the
Bastille fortress, which also served as a symbol of tyranny by the monarchy. After several hours
of combat, the prison fell that afternoon. Despite ordering a cease fire, which prevented a mutual
massacre, Governor Marquis Bernard de Launay was beaten, stabbed and decapitated; his head
was placed on a pike and paraded about the city. Although the Parisians released only seven
prisoners (four forgers, two noblemen kept for immoral behavior, and a murder suspect), the
Bastille served as a potent symbol of everything hated under the Ancien Régime. Returning to the
Hôtel de Ville (city hall), the mob accused the prévôt des marchands (roughly, mayor) Jacques
de Flesselles of treachery; his assassination took place en route to an ostensible trial at the Palais
Royal.

Early depiction of the tricolour in the hands of a sans-culotte during the French Revolution

The King and his military supporters backed down, at least for the time being. La Fayette took
up command of the National Guard at Paris. Jean-Sylvain Bailly, president of the Assembly at
the time of the Tennis Court Oath, became the city's mayor under a new governmental structure
known as the commune. The King visited Paris, where, on 27 July he accepted a tricolore
cockade, as cries of Vive la Nation "Long live the Nation" changed to Vive le Roi "Long live the
King".

Necker was recalled to power, but his triumph was short-lived. An astute financier but a less
astute politician, Necker overplayed his hand by demanding and obtaining a general amnesty,
losing much of the people's favour. He also felt he could save France all by himself, despite
having few ideas.

Nobles were not assured by this apparent reconciliation of King and people. They began to flee
the country as émigrés, some of whom began plotting civil war within the kingdom and agitating
for a European coalition against France.

By late July, insurrection and the spirit of popular sovereignty spread throughout France. In rural
areas, many went beyond this: some burned title-deeds and no small number of châteaux, as part
of a general agrarian insurrection known as "la Grande Peur" (the Great Fear). In addition,
plotting at Versailles and the large numbers of men on the roads of France as a result of
unemployment led to wild rumours and paranoia (particularly in the rural areas) that caused
widespread unrest and civil disturbances and contributed to the Great Fear (Hibbert, 93).

Toward a Constitution
 Main article: French Revolution from the abolition of feudalism to the Civil Constitution
of the Clergy

On 4 August 1789 the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism, in what is known as
the August Decrees, sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the
tithes gathered by the First Estate. In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces,
companies, and cities lost their special privileges.

Looking to the Declaration of Independence of the United States for a model, on 26 August
1789, the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Like the
U.S. Declaration, it comprised a statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal
effect. The National Constituent Assembly functioned not only as a legislature, but also as a body
to draft a new constitution.

Necker, Mounier, Lally-Tollendal and others argued unsuccessfully for a senate, with members
appointed by the crown on the nomination of the people. The bulk of the nobles argued for an
aristocratic upper house elected by the nobles. The popular party carried the day: France would
have a single, unicameral assembly. The King retained only a "suspensive veto"; he could delay
the implementation of a law, but not block it absolutely. The Assembly eventually replaced the
historic provinces with eighty-three départements, uniformly administered and approximately
equal to one another in extent and population.

Originally summoned to deal with a financial crisis, by late 1789, the Assembly had focused on
other matters and only worsened the deficit. Honoré Mirabeau now led the move to address this
matter, with the Assembly giving Necker complete financial dictatorship.

Women's March on Versailles

Main article: The March on Versailles

Engraving of the Women's March on Versailles, October 5, 1789

Fueled by rumors of a reception by the King's bodyguards 1 October 1789 in which the national
cockade had been trampled upon, on 5 October 1789 crowds of women began to assemble at
Parisian markets. The women first marched to the Hôtel de Ville, demanding that city officials
address their concerns.[7] The women were responding the harsh economic situations they faced,
especially bread shortages. They also demanded an end to Royalist efforts to block the National
Assembly, and for the King and his administration to move to Paris as a sign of good faith in
addressing the widespread poverty.
Getting unsatisfactory responses from city officials, as many as 7,000 women joined the march
to Versailles, bringing with them pieces of cannon and a variety of smaller weapons. 20,000
National Guardsmen under the command of La Fayette responded to keep order, and members of
the mob stormed the palace, killing two guards.[8] La Fayette ultimately convinced the king to
accede to the demand of the crowd that the monarchy relocate to Paris.

On 6 October 1789, the King and the royal family moved from Versailles to Paris under the
protection of the National Guards, thus legitimizing the National Assembly.

Revolution and the Church

Main articles: Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution and Civil
Constitution of the Clergy

In this caricature, monks and nuns enjoy their new freedom after the decree of 16 February 1790.

The Revolution brought about a massive shifting of powers from the Roman Catholic Church to
the state. Under the Ancien Régime, the Church had been the largest landowner in the country.
Legislation enacted in 1790 abolished the Church's authority to levy a tax on crops known as the
dîme, cancelled special privileges for the clergy, and confiscated Church property. To no small
extent, the Assembly addressed the financial crisis by having the nation take over the property of
the Church (while taking on the Church's expenses), through the law of 2 December 1789. In
order to rapidly monetize such an enormous amount of property, the government introduced a
new paper currency, assignats, backed by the confiscated church lands. Further legislation on 13
February 1790 abolished monastic vows. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed on 12 July
1790 (although not signed by the King until 26 December 1790), turned the remaining clergy
into employees of the State and required that they take an oath of loyalty to the constitution. The
Civil Constitution of the Clergy also made the Catholic church an arm of the secular state.

In response to this legislation, the archbishop of Aix and the bishop of Clermont led a walkout of
clergy from the National Constituent Assembly. The pope never accepted the new arrangement,
and it led to a schism between those clergy who swore the required oath and accepted the new
arrangement ("jurors" or "constitutional clergy") and the "non-jurors" or "refractory priests" who
refused to do so. The ensuing years saw violent repression of the clergy, including the
imprisonment and massacre of priests throughout France. The Concordat of 1801 between
Napoleon and the Church ended the dechristianisation period and established the rules for a
relationship between the Catholic Church and the French State that lasted until it was abrogated
by the Third Republic via the separation of church and state on 11 December 1905.

Appearance of factions
Satirical cartoon lampooning the excesses of the Revolution as seen from abroad.

Factions within the Assembly began to clarify. The aristocrat Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès
and the abbé Jean-Sifrein Maury led what would become known as the right wing, the opposition
to revolution (this party sat on the right-hand side of the Assembly). The "Royalist democrats" or
monarchiens, allied with Necker, inclined toward organising France along lines similar to the
British constitutional model; they included Jean Joseph Mounier, the Comte de Lally-Tollendal,
the comte de Clermont-Tonnerre, and Pierre Victor Malouet, comte de Virieu.

The "National Party", representing the centre or centre-left of the assembly, included Honoré
Mirabeau, La Fayette, and Bailly; while Adrien Duport, Barnave and Alexandre Lameth
represented somewhat more extreme views. Almost alone in his radicalism on the left was the
Arras lawyer Maximilien Robespierre. Abbé Sieyès led in proposing legislation in this period
and successfully forged consensus for some time between the political centre and the left. In
Paris, various committees, the mayor, the assembly of representatives, and the individual districts
each claimed authority independent of the others. The increasingly middle-class National Guard
under La Fayette also slowly emerged as a power in its own right, as did other self-generated
assemblies.

Intrigues and radicalism

The Assembly abolished the symbolic paraphernalia of the Ancien Régime - armorial bearings,
liveries, etc., which further alienated the more conservative nobles, and added to the ranks of the
émigrés. On 14 July 1790, and for several days following, crowds in the Champ de Mars
celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille; Talleyrand performed a mass; participants
swore an oath of "fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king"; and the King and the royal family
actively participated.

The electors had originally chosen the members of the Estates-General to serve for a single year.
However, by the terms of the Tennis Court Oath, the communes had bound themselves to meet
continuously until France had a constitution. Right-wing elements now argued for a new
election, but Mirabeau carried the day, asserting that the status of the assembly had
fundamentally changed, and that no new election should take place before completing the
constitution.
In late 1790, several small counter-revolutionary uprisings broke out and efforts took place to
turn all or part of the army against the Revolution. These uniformly failed. The royal court
"encouraged every anti-revolutionary enterprise and avowed none." [9]

The army faced considerable internal turmoil: General Bouillé successfully put down a small
rebellion, which added to his (accurate) reputation for counter-revolutionary sympathies. The
new military code, under which promotion depended on seniority and proven competence (rather
than on nobility) alienated some of the existing officer corps, who joined the ranks of the émigrés
or became counter-revolutionaries from within.

This period saw the rise of the political "clubs" in French politics, foremost among these the
Jacobin Club: according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, one hundred and fifty-two clubs
had affiliated with the Jacobins by 10 August 1790. As the Jacobins became more of a broad
popular organisation, some of its founders abandoned it to form the Club of '89. Royalists
established first the short-lived Club des Impartiaux and later the Club Monarchique. The latter
attempted unsuccessfully to curry public favour by distributing bread. Nonetheless, they became
the frequent target of protests and even riots, and the Paris municipal authorities finally closed
down the Club Monarchique in January 1791.

Amidst these intrigues, the Assembly continued to work on developing a constitution. A new
judicial organisation made all magistracies temporary and independent of the throne. The
legislators abolished hereditary offices, except for the monarchy itself. Jury trials started for
criminal cases. The King would have the unique power to propose war, with the legislature then
deciding whether to declare war. The Assembly abolished all internal trade barriers and
suppressed guilds, masterships, and workers' organisations: any individual gained the right to
practice a trade through the purchase of a license; strikes became illegal.

In the winter of 1791, the Assembly considered, for the first time, legislation against the émigrés.
The debate pitted the safety of the State against the liberty of individuals to leave. Mirabeau
carried the day against the measure, which he referred to as "worthy of being placed in the code
of Draco". [10] However, Mirabeau died on 2 April 1791. In Mignet's words, "No one succeeded
him in power and popularity" and, before the end of the year, the new Legislative Assembly
would adopt this "draconian" measure.

Flight to Varennes

Main article: Flight to Varennes

The return of the royal family to Paris on June 25th, 1791, colored copperplate after a drawing of
Jean-Louis Prieur

Louis XVI, opposed to the course of the Revolution, but rejecting the potentially treacherous aid
of the other monarchs of Europe, cast his lot with General Bouillé, who condemned both the
emigration and the assembly, and promised him refuge and support in his camp at Montmédy.
On the night of 20 June 1791 the royal family fled the Tuileries wearing the clothes of servants,
while their servants dressed as nobles.

However, the next day the King was recognised and arrested at Varennes (in the Meuse
département) late on 21 June. He and his family were paraded back to Paris under guard, in the
same disguisement they wore in their escape. Pétion, Latour-Maubourg, and Antoine Pierre
Joseph Marie Barnave, representing the Assembly, met the royal family at Épernay and returned
with them. From this time, Barnave became a counselor and supporter of the royal family. When
they reached Paris, the crowd remained silent. The Assembly provisionally suspended the King.
He and Queen Marie Antoinette remained held under guard.

Completing the Constitution

Main article: The Last Days of the National Constituent Assembly

With most of the Assembly still favouring a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, the
various groupings reached a compromise which left Louis XVI as little more than a figurehead:
he had perforce to swear an oath to the constitution, and a decree declared that retracting the
oath, heading an army for the purpose of making war upon the nation, or permitting anyone to do
so in his name would amount to de facto abdication.

Jacques Pierre Brissot drafted a petition, insisting that in the eyes of the nation Louis XVI was
deposed since his flight. An immense crowd gathered in the Champ de Mars to sign the petition.
Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins gave fiery speeches. The Assembly called for the
municipal authorities to "preserve public order". The National Guard under La Fayette's
command confronted the crowd. The soldiers first responded to a barrage of stones by firing in
the air; the crowd did not back down, and La Fayette ordered his men to fire into the crowd,
resulting in the killing of as many as fifty people.

In the wake of this massacre the authorities closed many of the patriotic clubs, as well as radical
newspapers such as Jean-Paul Marat's L'Ami du Peuple. Danton fled to England; Desmoulins and
Marat went into hiding.

Meanwhile, a renewed threat from abroad arose: Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick
William II of Prussia, and the King's brother Charles-Philippe, comte d'Artois issued the
Declaration of Pillnitz which considered the cause of Louis XVI as their own, demanded his total
liberty and the dissolution of the Assembly, and promised an invasion of France on his behalf if
the revolutionary authorities refused its conditions.
If anything, the declaration further imperiled Louis. The French people expressed no respect for
the dictates of foreign monarchs, and the threat of force merely resulted in the militarisation of
the frontiers.

Even before his "Flight to Varennes", the Assembly members had determined to debar
themselves from the legislature that would succeed them, the Legislative Assembly. They now
gathered the various constitutional laws they had passed into a single constitution, showed
remarkable fortitude in choosing not to use this as an occasion for major revisions, and submitted
it to the recently restored Louis XVI, who accepted it, writing "I engage to maintain it at home,
to defend it from all attacks from abroad, and to cause its execution by all the means it places at
my disposal". The King addressed the Assembly and received enthusiastic applause from
members and spectators. The Assembly set the end of its term for 29 September 1791.

Mignet argued that the "constitution of 1791... was the work of the middle class, then the
strongest; for, as is well known, the predominant force ever takes possession of institutions... In
this constitution the people was the source of all powers, but it exercised none." [11]

Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)

Main article: The Legislative Assembly and the fall of the French monarchy

Under the Constitution of 1791, France would function as a constitutional monarchy. The King
had to share power with the elected Legislative Assembly, but he still retained his royal veto and
the ability to select ministers. The Legislative Assembly first met on 1 October 1791, and
degenerated into chaos less than a year later. In the words of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
"In the attempt to govern, the Assembly failed altogether. It left behind an empty treasury, an
undisciplined army and navy, and a people debauched by safe and successful riot." The
Legislative Assembly consisted of about 165 Feuillants (constitutional monarchists) on the right,
about 330 Girondists (liberal republicans) and Jacobins (radical revolutionaries) on the left, and
about 250 deputies unaffiliated with either faction. Early on, the King vetoed legislation that
threatened the émigrés with death and that decreed that every non-juring clergyman must take
within eight days the civic oath mandated by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Over the
course of a year, disagreements like this would lead to a constitutional crisis, leading the
Revolution to higher levels.

War (1792–1797)

Main article: French Revolutionary Wars

The politics of the period inevitably drove France towards war with Austria and its allies. The
King, the Feuillants and the Girondins specifically wanted to wage war. The King (and many
Feuillants with him) expected war would increase his personal popularity; he also foresaw an
opportunity to exploit any defeat: either result would make him stronger. The Girondins wanted
to export the Revolution throughout Europe and, by extension, to defend the Revolution within
France. Only some of the radical Jacobins opposed war, preferring to consolidate and expand the
Revolution at home. The Austrian emperor Leopold II, brother of Marie Antoinette, may have
wished to avoid war, but he died on 1 March 1792. France declared war on Austria (20 April
1792) and Prussia joined on the Austrian side a few weeks later. The invading Prussian army
faced little resistance until checked at the Battle of Valmy (20 September 1792), and forced to
withdraw. However, by this time, France stood in turmoil and the monarchy had effectively
become a thing of the past.

Constitutional crisis

Main articles: 10th of August (French Revolution), September Massacres

10 August 1792 Paris Commune - The Storming of the Tuileries Palace

On the night of 10 August 1792, insurgents, supported by a new revolutionary Paris Commune,
assailed the Tuileries. The King and queen ended up prisoners and a rump session of the
Legislative Assembly suspended the monarchy: little more than a third of the deputies were
present, almost all of them Jacobins.

What remained of a national government depended on the support of the insurrectionary

Commune. When the Commune sent gangs into the prisons to try arbitrarily and butcher 1400
victims, and addressed a circular letter to the other cities of France inviting them to follow this
example, the Assembly could offer only feeble resistance. This situation persisted until the
Convention, charged with writing a new constitution, met on 20 September 1792 and became the
new de facto government of France. The next day it abolished the monarchy and declared a
republic. This date was later retroactively adopted as the beginning of Year One of the French
Republican Calendar.

National Convention (1792–1795)

Main article: National Convention
Execution of Louis XVI in what is now the Place de la Concorde, facing the empty pedestal
where the statue of his grandfather, Louis XV, had stood.

In the Brunswick Manifesto, the Imperial and Prussian armies threatened retaliation on the
French population should it resist their advance or the reinstatement of the monarchy. As a
consequence, King Louis was seen as conspiring with the enemies of France. 17 January 1793
saw King Louis condemned to death for "conspiracy against the public liberty and the general
safety" by a close majority in Convention (361 votes for the execution of the king against 288,
with a further 72 voting for Louis' execution but subject to a variety of delaying conditions[12]).
The 21 January execution led to more wars with other European countries. Louis' Austrian-born
queen, Marie Antoinette, would follow him to the guillotine on 16 October.

When war went badly, prices rose and the sans-culottes (poor labourers and radical Jacobins)
rioted; counter-revolutionary activities began in some regions. This encouraged the Jacobins to
seize power through a parliamentary coup, backed up by force effected by mobilising public
support against the Girondist faction, and by utilising the mob power of the Parisian sans-
culottes. An alliance of Jacobin and sans-culottes elements thus became the effective centre of
the new government. Policy became considerably more radical.

Reign of Terror

Main article: Reign of Terror

The Committee of Public Safety came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer,
and the Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror (1793-1794). According to archival records, at
least 16,594 people met their deaths under the guillotine or otherwise after accusations of
counter-revolutionary activities.[13] However, a number of historians note that as many as 40,000
accused prisoners may have been summarily executed without trial or died while awaiting
trial.[14][15] The slightest hint of counter-revolutionary thoughts or activities (or, as in the case of
Jacques Hébert, revolutionary zeal exceeding that of those in power) could place one under
suspicion, and trials did not necessarily proceed according to contemporary standards of due
process.

On 2 June, Paris sections — encouraged by the enragés ("enraged ones") Jacques Roux and
Jacques Hébert — took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a
low fixed price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to "sans-culottes" alone. With
the backing of the National Guard, they managed to convince the Convention to arrest 31
Girondin leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained
control of the Committee of Public Safety on 10 June, installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
On 13 July, the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat—a Jacobin leader and journalist known for his
bloodthirsty rhetoric—by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin, resulted in further increase of Jacobin
political influence. Georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the King,
having the image of a man who enjoyed luxuries, was removed from the Committee and on 27
July, Robespierre, "the Incorruptible", made his entrance, quickly becoming the most influential
member of the Committee as it moved to take radical measures against the Revolution's domestic
and foreign enemies.

Meanwhile, on 24 June, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France,
variously referred to as the French Constitution of 1793 or Constitution of the Year I. It was
ratified by public referendum, but never applied, because normal legal processes were suspended
before it could take effect.

Vendée is remembered as the place where the peasants revolted against the French Revolutionary
government in 1793. They resented the changes imposed on the Roman Catholic Church by the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and broke into open revolt in defiance of the
Revolutionary government's military conscription.[16] A guerrilla war, known as the Revolt in the
Vendée, led at the outset by an underground faction called the Chouans.[17]

Facing local revolts and foreign invasions in both the East and West of the country, the most
urgent government business was the war. On 17 August, the Convention voted for general
conscription, the levée en masse, which mobilized all citizens to serve as soldiers or suppliers in
the war effort. On 5 September, the Convention, pressured by the people of Paris,
institutionalized The Terror: systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies within the
country.
Guillotine: between 18,000 and 40,000 people were executed during the Reign of Terror

The result was a policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the
government. Under control of the effectively dictatorial Committee, the Convention quickly
enacted more legislation. On 9 September, the Convention established sans-culottes paramilitary
forces, the revolutionary armies, to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the
government. On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the charging
of counter-revolutionaries with vaguely defined crimes against liberty. On 29 September, the
Convention extended price-fixing from grain and bread to other essential goods, and also fixed
wages.

The guillotine became the symbol of a string of executions: Louis XVI had already been
guillotined before the start of the terror; Queen Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité
(despite his vote for the death of the King), Madame Roland and many others lost their lives
under its blade. The Revolutionary Tribunal summarily condemned thousands of people to death
by the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their
political opinions or actions, but many for little reason beyond mere suspicion, or because some
others had a stake in getting rid of them. Most of the victims received an unceremonious trip to
the guillotine in an open wooden cart (the tumbrel). Loaded onto these carts, the victims would
proceed through throngs of jeering men and women.

Another anti-clerical uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary
Calendar on 24 October. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism and Virtue, Hébert's (and
Chaumette's) atheist movement initiated a religious campaign in order to dechristianize society.
The climax was reached with the celebration of the Goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame Cathedral
on 10 November.
The Reign of Terror enabled the revolutionary government to avoid military defeat. The Jacobins
expanded the size of the army, and Carnot replaced many aristocratic officers with younger
soldiers who had demonstrated their ability and patriotism. The Republican army was able to
throw back the Austrians, Prussians, British, and Spanish. At the end of 1793, the army began to
prevail and revolts were defeated with ease. The Ventôse Decrees (February–March 1794)
proposed the confiscation of the goods of exiles and opponents of the Revolution, and their
redistribution to the needy.

Because dissent was now regarded as counterrevolutionary, extremist enragés such as Hébert
and moderate Montagnard indulgents such as Danton were guillotined in the spring of 1794. On
7 June Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, advocated a new state
religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of God. On the next
day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the
Revolution. Compared with Hébert's popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was
received with signs of hostility by an amazed Parisian public.

Engraving: "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27-28 July 1794, or 9-10
Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"

In 1794, Robespierre had ultra-radicals and moderate Jacobins executed; in consequence,

however, his own popular support eroded markedly. On 27 July 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction
led to the arrest and execution of Robespierre and Saint-Just. The new government was
predominantly made up of Girondists who had survived the Terror, and after taking power, they
took revenge as well by persecuting even those Jacobins who had helped to overthrow
Robespierre, banning the Jacobin Club, and executing many of its former members in what was
known as the White Terror.

In the wake of excesses of the Terror, the Convention approved the new "Constitution of the Year
III" on 22 August 1795. A French plebiscite ratified the document, with approximately 1,057,000
voters approving the constitution and 49,000 citizens voting against it.[18] The results of the
voting were announced on 23 September 1795, and the new constitution took effect on 27
September 1795. [19]

The Directory (1795–1799)

Main article: French Directory
The new constitution created the Directoire (English: Directory) and created the first bicameral
legislature in French history. The parliament consisted of 500 representatives — le Conseil des
Cinq-Cents (the Council of the Five Hundred) — and 250 senators — le Conseil des Anciens (the
Council of Elders). Executive power went to five "directors," named annually by the Conseil des
Anciens from a list submitted by the le Conseil des Cinq-Cents.

With the establishment of the Directory, contemporary observers might have assumed that the
Revolution was finished. Citizens of the war-weary nation desired stability, peace, and an end to
conditions that at times bordered on chaos. Those who wished to restore Louis XVIII and the
Ancien Régime and those who would have renewed the Reign of Terror were insignificant in
number. The possibility of foreign interference had vanished with the failure of the First
Coalition. Nevertheless, the four years of the Directory were a time of arbitrary government and
chronic disquiet. The late atrocities had made confidence or goodwill between parties
impossible. The same instinct of self-preservation which had led the members of the Convention
to claim so large a part in the new legislature and the whole of the Directory impelled them to
keep their predominance.

As many French citizens distrusted the Directory,[20] the directors could achieve their purposes
only by extraordinary means. They habitually disregarded the terms of the constitution, and, even
when the elections that they rigged went against them,[21] the directors routinely used draconian
police measures to quell dissent. Moreover, the Directory used war as the best expedient for
prolonging their power, and the directors were thus driven to rely upon the armies, which also
desired war and were becoming less and less civic-minded in temperament.

Other reasons influenced them in this direction. State finances during the earlier phases of the
Revolution had been so thoroughly ruined that the government could not have met its expenses
without the plunder and the tribute of foreign countries. If peace were made, the armies would
return home and the directors would have to face the exasperation of the rank-and-file who had
lost their livelihood, as well as the ambition of generals who could, in a moment, brush them
aside. Barras and Rewbell were notoriously corrupt themselves and screened corruption in
others. The patronage of the directors was ill-bestowed, and the general maladministration
heightened their unpopularity.

Napoléon Bonaparte in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (detail of an oleo by François Bouchot)

The constitutional party in the legislature desired a toleration of the nonjuring clergy, the repeal
of the laws against the relatives of the émigrés, and some merciful discrimination toward the
émigrés themselves. The directors baffled all such endeavours. On the other hand, the socialist
conspiracy of Babeuf was easily quelled. Little was done to improve the finances, and the
assignats continued to fall in value.

The new régime met with opposition from remaining Jacobins and the royalists. The army
suppressed riots and counter-revolutionary activities. In this way the army and its successful
general, Napoleon Bonaparte eventually gained much power. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire
of the Year VIII) Bonaparte staged the coup of 18 Brumaire which installed the Consulate; this
effectively led to his dictatorship and eventually (in 1804) to his proclamation as Empereur
(emperor), which brought to a close the specifically republican phase of the French Revolution.

Historical analysis
The constitutional assembly failed for many reasons: there were too many monarchists to have a
republic and too many republicans to have a monarch; too many people opposed the King
(especially after the flight to Varennes), which meant that the people who supported the King had
their reputation slashed; the CCC (Civil Constitution of the Clergy); and many more.

Historian François Furet in his work, Le Passé d'une illusion (1995) (The Passing of An Illusion
(1999) in English translation) explores in detail the similarities between the French Revolution
and the Russian Revolution of 1917 more than a century later, arguing that the former was taken
as a model by Russian revolutionaries. This is in partial contrast with the Marxist tradition,
which has usually claimed that the 1871 Paris Commune was the Bolsheviks' primary inspiration
source.

A contributing factor to the Revolution was the considerable increases in poverty in the
preceding years. Some scholars trace this to several years of recurrent weather aberrations,
caused by the Laki eruption 1783[22] and the severe El Niño effects that were to follow[23].