French Revolution

The French Revolution of 1789 was the violent social upheaval which put an end to the reign of Louis XVI and the absolute monarchy in France, completely changing the fabric of the French society. As a result, the First French Republic was created during this process. It broke out on July 14, 1789, with the storming of the Bastille prison, and ended in 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte took power, establishing the Consulate.

Causes

The first cause of the French Revolution can be found in the new political, social, and philosophical ideas that arose during the Enlightenment. These ideas were written by renown philosophers, such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, who abrogated for individual rights and called for the establishment of new forms of governments that put a check to the absolute monarchy. These new political ideas were the intellectual catalysts that triggered the violent chain of events.

The second cause of French Revolution was the foreign debt, which had been acquired during the Seven Years War and the American Independence War. The third cause was the social inequality. The fourth cause was a bad wheat harvest due to the extremely cold winter conditions of 1788-1789, which provoked famine. Thus, the last two causes were the immediate ferments that sparked the French Revolution.

Summary (chronology of events)

Because of the big debt, the monarchy needed to raise taxes to increase revenues and reduce the budget deficit. But to do that, the king needed the support of the Estates General, which was an advisory assembly that represented the three different French social classes or estates; 1) the clergy (Church), with 300 representatives; 2) the nobility, also with 300 deputies; 3) the peasants and bourgeoisie (the Third Estate), with 610 representatives from all over France. The last time they had met was in 1614, during the reign of Louis XIII. Since it was only the Third Estate members (farmers, craftsmen, and lawyers) who paid taxes, the king needed their support.

-In late August, 1788, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General to solve the debt crisis as he had been advised by Jacques Necker, his main minister (controller-general of finance).

-On May 5, 1789,  the Estates-General’s members meet in session in Versailles for the first time since 1614.

-On June 17, 1789, after long hours of talks, discussions and arguments, the members of the Third Estate broke away from the Estates General and organized themselves as a National Assembly, which was a new political entity in the history of France. At the beginning the French king opposed the creation of this assembly of the people, but he had to give in and accept it due the big social and political pressure that was increasing day after day.

-On July 9, 1789, after long discussions and deliberations, the members of the National Assembly formed the Constituent Assembly, with the reluctant support of Louis XVI. The main objective of the Constituent Assembly was to draft and approve a Constitution that established a parliamentary monarchy, similar to that of the English parliamentary system. Since the creation of this assembly was a humiliation for the absolute monarch, Louis XVI took revenge and fired minister Necker, who favored a limited monarchy with a parliament.

-On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris got angry over Necker’s dismissal and gathered in front of the Royal Palace and headed for the fortress of the Bastille, which was stormed, with the prisoners being liberated and the governor of the prison beheaded. Bewildered by such violent act, the king was forced to take back Necker as minister.

-On July 17, 1789, the French king went to the city mayor building (Hotel de Ville), where he was forced take and wear the red, white and blue cockade of the Revolution that was offered to him by the Paris commune revolutionaries, putting it on the lapel of his royal suit coat, swallowing a bitter lump of frustration.

-On August 4, 1789, the Constituent Assembly abolished the old feudal system, doing away with the special rights and privileges of the First Estate (Church) and the Second Estate (nobility).

-On August 28, 1789, the Constituent Assembly proclaimed and published the Declaration of the Rights of Men and of the Citizens, which had been written by Lafayette, establishing social equality, in which everybody had the same rights and social opportunities and had to abide by the same laws.

-On October 5, 1789, a huge crowd of Parisian women marched on foot to Versailles, demanding bread and food, due to shortages, and forcing the king and queen (Marie Antoinette) to move to Paris.

-In June, 1791, after more than a year of apparent social calm, Louis XVI and his family tried to escape the Revolution, heading for the French east border, dressed as a servant, to contact foreign powers and ask for their help. Nevertheless, he was caught and brought back to Paris. This favored the speeches and argument of the extreme left wing of the Revolution, the Jacobins and their leader Maximilian Robespierre.

-On September 3, 1791, the Constituent Assembly passed the French Constitution of 1791, which established a parliamentary monarchy, which meant that the king would no longer have absolute powers as it was the parliament that would govern France and not the king. Once the Constitution was passed, the Constituent Assembly got dissolved, giving way to the Legislative Assembly.

-On August 10, 1792, radical elements (Jacobins and Hebertists), who wanted a republic and not a parliamentary monarchy, stirred up a revolt, organizing popular armed units, which were supported by the Paris commune, attacking and looting the Tuileries palace as they killed the Swiss guards that protected the king. Thus, Louis XVI and the queen were taken prisoners.

-On September 3-6, 1792, there was a mass execution of royalist prisoners carried out by the revolutionary crowd. This event is known in history as the September Massacres, which were instigated by Marat.

-On September 20, 1792, influenced by Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, the revolutionary commune of Paris, having dissolved the Legislative Assembly, created the National Convention, whose members were elected by universal suffrage.

-On September 21, 1792, the National Convention members convened and abolished the monarchy, paving the way to the French First Republic.

-On January 21, 1793, Louis Capet (former king Louis XVI) was executed on the guillotine after a trial on which he was found guilty of treason.

-On April 6, 1793, the National Convention created the Committee of Public Safety, whose function was to crack down on internal counter revolutionary activities as it would be the only political entity that would hold full power and effectively rule France.

-On June 24, 1793, the National Convention approved the French Constitution of 1793, which officially established the First French Republic.

-On September 5, 1793, led by Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, the Committee of Public Safety established what is known as the Reign of Terror.

-On July 27, 1794, the Reign of Terror was put to an end by the Thermidorian Reaction against Robespierre, who was overthrown and taken prisoner. He and Saint-Just would be beheaded on the guillotine the following day.

-On November 2, 1795, the French Directory was formed. It was a five-member committee that replaced the National Convention.

-On November 10, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte orchestrated a coup d’Etat and abolished the Directory, creating the Consulate, which was composed of three members, with Napoleon being one of them.

A famous painting depicting the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, a symbol of the French Revolution.