History Online - French Revolution

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

French Revolution

The Legacy of the Revolution and the Empire

Click here to go to Amazon France's status as nation was reinforced by the Revolution in 1789.On 14 July 1790, a year after the fall of the Bastille, delegates from all parts of the country flocked to Paris to celebrate the Fête de la Fédération and proclaim their allegiance to a single, common nation. The ideals proclaimed were: individual freedom and mutual respect; the right of peoples to self-determination; and institutions which would protect the welfare of citizens.

These aspirations, which were codified in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 26 August 1789, grew out of the work of Enlightenment philosophers in the eighteenth century and were heavily influenced by the ideas of authors like Montesquieu, who laid down the principle of separation of the legislature, executive and judiciary in his The Spirit of the Law of 1748, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who developed theories of political equality and the sovereignty of the people in The Social Contract (1762). These texts had considerable influence on the writers of the Constitution of the United States of America in 1787. The values propounded in them are seen as universal and may be considered the cornerstone of modern democracy.They had widespread repercussions and provided a model for national liberation movements during the nineteenth century. The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 also owed much to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

But these principles did not immediately become law. Many of them were enshrined in the first French Constitution in 1791, and even more in the 1793 Constitution; however, only time and numerous political struggles and social conflicts were to see them affirmed as inalienable rights. The First Republic was proclaimed on 22 September 1792, but the democratic Constitution it produced in 1793 was never implemented. Civil war and clashes with the many other European states who banded together against France ended in the Reign of Terror - a far cry from the noble ideals of 1789. After Robespierre's execution in July 1794, the Thermidorian Convention (1794-1795) and the Directory (1795-1797) led to a coup by Napoleon Bonaparte, who took over first as Consul (1799-1804), then as Emperor of the French. The monarchy had been abolished in 1792; it was now superseded by the Empire and, however different the structures and organisation of that Empire might be, the French, who had briefly been citizens, were once more subjects.

During the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, France tried to impose its model and institutions on many other European countries; but its initial desire to free "oppressed peoples" was soon replaced by a desire to conquer and annex territories, revealing the "right of peoples to self-determination" as empty words.France ceased to be an empire in 1815, but freedom and democracy were not reinstated.The monarchy was restored with the accession of Louis XVIII. He was succeeded by Charles X in 1824 and, following the 1830 Revolution in July of that year, Louis-Philippe reigned for 18 years. The 1848 Revolution instituted the Second Republic which, like the First, ended in a coup d'état, this time by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in 1851. The Second Empire he created lasted from 1852 to 1870.Under these various regimes, citizens had scarcely any say in political matters. Until 1848, only those who paid the poll tax voted, which effectively restricted the vote to a minority of citizens, and the political feelings of the masses were chiefly expressed through isolated incidents of revolt which were swiftly quelled. Nonetheless, under the surface of political instability, fundamental changes were taking place, which laid the foundations of modern France. They concerned principally the territorial and administrative structure of the country. In 1789, France was not governed in the same way in different parts of the country. Instead, it was divided into different constituencies (baileys, governorships, generalities, provincial states and countries) which had evolved at different stages and now overlapped with each other. With such a complicated system, there were often delays and conflicts over areas of responsibility, making it difficult to govern the country efficiently. In this respect, the Revolution and the Empire were to complete the process of centralisation begun under the Ancien Regime.In 1790, the territory was divided into départements (counties), which in turn were divided into cantons made up of communes (municipalities or districts). These are still the administrative units to which power is devolved locally in France. Napoleon completed the system, rationalising it and making it more efficient through the Law of 28 Pluviôse Year VIII (17 February 1800) which created the posts of prefect and mayor, although mayors at that time were appointed, rather than elected as they are today. Administrative authorities were thus standardised on a basis of equality and staff were thenceforward recruited by competitive examination, substituting a meritocratic system for the old system of privilege.
The Revolutionary regime and Empire also saw the birth of genuine public services and the strengthening of the role of the state in national and regional development, the creation of infrastructures and town planning. The will to unite the French people also resulted in the creation of norms and standards which would be valid all over France, as exemplified not only by the institution of a Civil Code, but also by the systematic registration of property and the decision to opt for a metric system of weights and measures. The metric system is now universally used in France and widely used in the rest of the world.

The period from the Revolution to the Second Empire was also characterised by profound economic and social transformations.Whilst it is true that the political upheavals which took place in France from 1789 to 1815 had afforded England a certain economic advantage, France too had entered the industrial age of coal, steam, modern foundries, large-scale textile factories and railways. With hindsight, the Second Empire appears to have been a crucial period, particularly from 1860 onwards. The people had been deprived of democracy, racketeering was rife and the colonial adventure begun in 1830 with the conquest of Algeria was continuing; but, at the same time, the country was undergoing the rapid yet profound changes that were to turn it into a modern power - industrial development, the creation of banks and the department stores which heralded modern retailing, the transformation of towns and cities, substantial extension of the rail network, a reforestation policy and measures against soil erosion.But whilst the economic boom was undeniable, social progress lagged behind and, during this first half of the nineteenth century, living conditions were tough and the working classes endured acute poverty and overcrowding in the industrial towns.

The French Revolution began in 1789 with the meeting of the States General in May. On July 14 of that same year, the Bastille was stormed: in October, Louis XVI and the Royal Family were removed from Versailles to Paris. The King attempted, unsuccessfully, to flee Paris for Varennes in June 1791. A Legislative Assembly sat from October 1791 until September 1792, when, in the face of the advance of the allied armies of Austria, Holland, Prussia, and Sardinia, it was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the Republic. The King was brought to trial in December of 1792, and executed on January 21, 1793. In January of 1793 the revolutionary government declared war on Britain, a war for world dominion which had been carried on, with short intermissions, since the beginning of the reign of William and Mary, and which would continue for another twenty-two years.

Click here to go to Amazon The Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal were instituted immediately after the execution of the King. The Reign of Terror, during which the ruling faction ruthlessly exterminated all potential enemies, of whatever sex, age, or condition, began in September of 1793 and lasted until the fall of Robespierre on July 27, 1794: during the last six weeks of the Terror alone (the period known as the "Red Terror") nearly fourteen hundred people were guillotined in Paris alone. The Convention was replaced in October of 1795 with the Directory, which was replaced in turn, in 1799, by the Consulate. Napoleon Buonaparte became Emperor in May of 1804.

Click here to go to Amazon The French Revolution was not only a crucial event considered in the context of Western history, but was also, perhaps the single most crucial influence on British intellectual, philosophical, and political life in the nineteenth century. In its early stages it portrayed itself as a triumph of the forces of reason over those of superstition and privilege, and as such it was welcomed not only by English radicals like Thomas Paine and William Godwin and William Blake, who, characteristically, saw it as a symbolic act which presaged the return of humanity to the state of perfection from which it had fallen away--but by many liberals as well, and by some who saw it, with its declared emphasis on "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," as being analgous to the Glorious Revolution of 1688: as it descended into the madness of the Reign of Terror, however, many who had initially greeted it with enthusiasm--Wordsworth and Coleridge, for example, who came to regard their early support as, in Coleridge's words, a "sqeaking baby trumpet of sedition"--had second thoughts.

Click here to go to Amazon The old regime in England, on the other hand, had from the first allied itself closely with Locke and Newton, those great advocates of reason and order, and Edmund Burke could denounce the Revolution in 1790 in his great Reflections on the Revolution in France, elegantly bound copies of which George III, who was not renowned for his intellect, gave to all his frinds, saying that it was a book "which every gentleman ought to read." Burke maintained that the radicals who had begun the Revolution by releasing the enormous pent-up quasi-religious energies of the common people of France were interested first in the conquest of their own country and then in the conquest of Europe and of the the rest of the world, which would be "liberated" whether it wished to be or not. Tom Paine's great response to Burke's work, The Rights of Man, appeared in 1791, and the debate between conservatives and radicals raged on for many years, and certainly influenced, directly or indirectly, the thought and the work of every major English author for the remainder of the century and beyond.

Learn how and why Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance.

624 pages
446 illustrations









[an error occurred while processing this directive]














Service information - no need to read beyond this point

Medieval greek and byzantine history was written in constantinople while consulting the dictionary about books, hotels and health maps, where the empires of italy with its emperors of rome - romulus and remus invented printable birthday cards. Rap lyrics and online radio stations are found on pictures of dogs in rc cars. Mongols sweep through teenage chat rooms together with ancient egyptians, as recipes to cook jesus christ as found in gospels are great. Crusades in old testament happened in russia, europe, because of wars between medieval greeks and emperors of rome. Medieval greek and byzantine history was written in constantinople while consulting the dictionary about books, hotels and health maps, where the empires of italy with its emperors of rome - romulus and remus invented printable birthday cards. Rap lyrics and online radio stations are found on pictures of dogs in rc cars. Mongols sweep through teenage chat rooms together with ancient egyptians, as recipes to cook jesus christ as found in gospels are great. Crusades in old testament happened in russia, europe, because of wars between medieval greeks and emperors of rome. Medieval greek and byzantine history was written in constantinople while consulting the dictionary about books, hotels and health maps, where the empires of italy with its emperors of rome - romulus and remus invented printable birthday cards. Rap lyrics and online radio stations are found on pictures of dogs in rc cars. Mongols sweep through teenage chat rooms together with ancient egyptians, as recipes to cook jesus christ as found in gospels are great. Crusades in old testament happened in russia, europe, because of wars between medieval greeks and emperors of rome. Medieval greek and byzantine history was written in constantinople while consulting the dictionary about books, hotels and health maps, where the empires of italy with its emperors of rome - romulus and remus invented printable birthday cards. Rap lyrics and online radio stations are found on pictures of dogs in rc cars. Mongols sweep through teenage chat rooms together with ancient egyptians, as recipes to cook jesus christ as found in gospels are great. Crusades in old testament happened in russia, europe, because of wars between medieval greeks and emperors of rome.