Part-I
Introduction
The French revolution is considered by various historians, the most significant event in the human history. The revolution which took place in 1789 made some massive changes in the existing political institutions and endeavored to establish a responsible government.
French society during the late eighteenth century
The 18th century French society was divided into three Estates :
(i) Nobles
(ii) Clergymen
(iii) the third estate or commoners.
The society of Estates was part of the feudal system that dated back to the middle ages. The term Old Regime is usually used to describe the society and institutions of France before 1789.
(i) Clergymen (First Estate)
The clergymen in France were also divided into two classes : (i) The upper clergy, and (ii) the lower clergy. The cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and the Abbots formed the upper clergy while Curates, Parsons and Friers composed the lower clergy. The priests of upper class led a luxurious life and did nothing for the good of the public. The church collected direct tax called Tithe (1/10)th from the people. The members of the lower clergy were not only educated and learned but also had firm faith in the existence of God. Apart from performing their religious duties, they used to educate the people. They remained busy from morning till evening doing one work or the other but their income was very meagre and they could hardly earn to meet the bare necessities of life. They hated the clergymen of upper class. The inequality between the two classes created a gulf which could not be bridged.
(ii) Nobles (Second Estate)
After the royal family, the place of nobles was the most significant one in the French society. They had enough wealth in their possession which they used to spend for their luxuries. They lived in palatial buildings, enjoyed various privileges and did not pay any taxes. They were fond of taking wine, gambling and torturing the commoners. In trials, the nobles acted as judges, prosecutors and jury.
(iii) Commoners (Third Estate)
They constituted about 90% of the total population in France. The nobles and clergymen both tortured them alike. They had to pay about 80% of their income in taxes to the government. The artisans, craftsmen, labourers and peasantry all formed the third estate. They were exploited by the privileged class and compelled to lead a miserable life. They had to do much forced labour for the nobles and the church for which nothing was paid to them.
The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithe from the peasants, and finally, all members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco. The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone.
The rise of the middle class is an important factor in France. They were well educated and had control over industries, factories and banks. The doctors, writers, professors and big businessmen formed this bourgeoise class. Thus they had intelligence and wealth both in their possession. Sometimes they used to lend money to the nobles; even then their status in the French society was not equal to that of the nobles and priests. It generated a sense of discontentment in them. They took an active part in conducting the French Revolution.
Thus in the French society people did not have the right to equality. Religious freedom was also not granted to them. They were compelled to lead a life like speechless animals. The French philosophers criticised the then prevailing condition of France and guided the general masses towards revolt against the contemporary society and the unhappy, unfree and unprotected people raised their voice against the tyrannical system in France.
Causes of French Revolution
Political causes
1. The autocracy of the Kings : Autocratic form of government was prevalent in France at the time of French Revolution. The kings regarded themselves as representatives of God on Earth and ruled over their subjects without any check or restraint. The will of the kings was law. No judicial enquiry was essential for the imprisonment of an individual. The Bourbon rulers failed to control the state affairs properly with the result that people began to lose their faith in the king and wanted to end once and for all the absolute power of the king.
2. Defective Administration : The French administration was not being properly carried on. It was a hotbed of favouritism and nepotism. The prize posts were reserved for the aristocrats and the nobles, no matter, whether or not they possessed the required qualifications. All the important offices were given to the highest bidders. Though there was a governor in each province, these governors had no legislature, or councils. Similarly, the municipalities and the corporations also differed in their way of working from one to the other.
3. Lack of efficiency in the administration : Louis XV was spendthrift and foolish. He proved to be a drain on the finances of France. Some American and Indian colonies slipped away from the grip of France due to the stupidity of Louis XV. The Seven Years War proved fatal for the prestige and finances of France. It not only exhausted the royal treasury but also affected the honour of France adversely.
4. Extravagance : The king and the queen spent a lot on their luxuries. The courtiers also followed in the footsteps of their sovereign. Thus the expenditure of the royal court crossed all limits. The king lived in Versailles along with his family and the courtiers were completely drowned in the luxuries.
5. The power of the court : At the time of the French Revolution there were about seventeen courts of law in France. No book of law was available for the guidance of the judges, but in each court there was a register of law. The laws were made by the will of the king. About 400 different types of laws were in force in France. What was applicable at one place might not be in force at another place. Thus the law in France did not have a universality and their applicability differed from place to place.
6. Disability and underworthiness of the rulers : The French monarchy had become completely immoral and corrupt during the reign of Louis XVI. There was a countrywide discontentment in France due to the evil deeds of the king. He was greatly influenced by his queen who herself was a spendthrift lady with no love for the country. The king was merely a rubber stamp in the hands of his queen. He failed to bring about any reform due to her evil influence.
7. Character of Queen : Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI was the sister of Leopold II, the emperor of Austria. She was a very beautiful and luxury loving lady and exercised great influence upon her husband. She was an extravagant lady and squandered a lot of money even when she knew the deteriorating economic condition of France.
Economic causes
1. The tottering economic structure of France was also one of the main reasons for the outbreak of the revolution. Louis XVI was fond of waging wars and took active part in many wars. Consequently, the national debt increased beyond limit.
2. When France was groaning under heavy debt and deficit, Louis XVI summoned the council of nobles but the people opposed and suggested that the financial problems could only be tackled by the estates general, hence in 1789 the estates general was summoned to decide the financial issue of equal taxation for all the classes.
3. The taxation system in France was also disorganised and mismanaged. The wealthiest people belonging to the privileged class were free from all taxes while the peasantry had to pay 80% of their income in taxes to the government. Inequality in taxes had created the problem of realising the revenue which was also faulty. The revenue was realised by the contractors who used to realise more than what was due from the farmers but deposited in royal treasury only a part of it and thus appropriated a good amount for their own use.
Intellectual causes
1. In fact, when the political, social and economic conditions in France began to deteriorate, the writers and philosophers invoked a new life in the general masses by their speeches and writings. The French revolution sprang from a combination of intellectual ferment and material grievances.
2. Montesquieu in “The spirit of the laws” outright rejected the theory of the Divine right of the kings and he suggested that the king should be selected by the will of the people. Voltaire awakened the people from their slumber and acquainted the people, by his ironical and satirical writings, with the high handedness of the nobles and the clergy.
3. Rousseau gave the people of France the concept of democracy through his book “Social Contract”. He criticised the tyrannical rule of the kings of France and also held them responsible for bringing the country to the brink of revolution by their despotic and arbitrary acts.
Part-II
Beginning of Revolution
1. In May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass a proposal for new taxes. A splendid hall in Versailles was prepared to host the delegates. The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each, who were seated in rows facing each other on two sides, while the 600 members of the third estate had to stand at the back. The third estate was represented by its more prosperous and educated members. Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the assembly. However, their grievances and demands were listed in some 40,000 letters which the representatives had brought with them.
2. Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote. This time too Louis XVI was determined to continue the same practice. But members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote. This was one of the democratic principles put forward by philosophers like Rousseau in his book The Social Contract. When the king rejected this proposal, members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.
3. Compelled by the feudal lords, Louis ordered on 20 June to shut the doors of the council hall to intervene in the affairs of National Council. The representatives of the National Council became furious and decided to hold the session of the Council in the tennis court situated in a nearby building. They were led by Mirabeau and Abbe Sieyes. Mirabeau was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege. He brought out a journal and delivered powerful speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles. Abbe Sieyes, originally a priest, wrote an influential pamphlet called “What is the Third Estate”. This pious pledge executed by the representatives on the court is famous as the ‘Tennis Court Oath”. This unprecedented event shook the foundation of the French absolute monarchy.
4. The Tennis Court Oath was a declaration of the end of absolute monarchy based on the divine rights and the beginning of a limited monarchy based on the public will.
5. The king called a joint session of three chambers on 23rd June and expressed his desire to introduce some reforms. But the king invalidated the declaration made by the third chamber regarding the formation of National Council and declared that the nobility would enjoy their property rights and privileges as before.
6. After the end of the king’s speech, his supporters came out of the council hall but the representatives of the public did not leave the hall.
7. After two days, several priests and nobles also joined the National Council. Ultimately, the King had to yield to the adverse circumstances and on 27 June permitted the three chambers to sit together. In this way, the National Council won a constitutional sanction. It was the first remarkable victory for the Proletariat. At that time, the sovereign power slipped from the King’s hand and fell into the hands of the National Council.
8. The importance of National Council increased with the joint sitting of three chambers. It assumed the task of drafting a constitution. On 9th July, the National Council declared itself to be the Constituent Assembly. The King had to accept this decision.
9. While the National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution, the rest of France seethed with turmoil. A severe winter had meant a bad harvest, the price of bread rose, often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies. After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops. At the same time, the king ordered troops to move into Paris. On 14 July, 1789 the agitated crowd stormed and the destroyed the Bastille.
10. In the countryside rumours spread from village to village that the lords of the manor had hired bands of brigands who were on their way to destroy the ripe crops.
11. Caught in a frenzy of fear, peasants in several districts seized hoes and pitchforks and attacked chateaux. They looted hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.
12. Faced with the power of his revolting subjects, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers would from now be checked by a constitution.
France becomes a constitutional monarchy
1. The national assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791. Its main object was to limit the powers of the monarch. These powers instead of being concentrated in the hand of one person, were now separated and assigned to different institutions – the legislature, executive and judiciary. This made France a constitutional monarchy.
2. The Constitution of 1791 vested the power to make laws in the national assembly, which was indirectly elected.
3.) The constitution began with a declaration of the rights of man and citizen. Rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law, were established as ‘ natural and inalienable’ rights, that is, they belonged to each human being by birth and could not be taken away. It was the duty of the state to protect each citizen’s natural rights.
France abolishes constitutional monarchy & becomes a Republic
1. Although Louis XVI had signed the constitution, he entered into secret negotiations with the king of Prussia and Austria. Rulers of other neighbouring countries too were worried by the developments in France and made plans to send troops to put down the events that had been taking place there since the summer of 1789.
2. Before this could happen, the national assembly voted in April 1792 to declare war against Prussia and Austria. A war began in 1792. At first the poorly prepared French were routed, but soon thousands of volunteers thronged from the provinces to join the army. They saw this as a war of the people against kings and aristocracies all over Europe. Among the patriotic songs they sang was the Marseillaise, composed by the poet Roget de L’Isle. It was sung for the first time by volunteers from Marseilles as they marched into Paris and got its name. The Marseillaise is now the national anthem of France.
3. While the men were away fighting at the front, women were left to cope with the tasks of earning a living and looking after their families. Large sections of the population were convinced that the revolution had to be carried further, as the constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer sections of society.
4. Political clubs became an important rallying point for people. The most successful political club was that of the Jacobins, which got its name from the former convent of St Jacob in Paris. Women too, who had been active throughout this period, formed their own clubs.
5. The members of the Jacobin club belonged mainly to the less prosperous sections of society. Their leader was Maximilian Robespierre.
6. On the morning of August 10, 1992 Jacobians stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, massacred the King’s guards and held the king himself hostage for several hours. Later the assembly voted to imprison the royal family. Elections were held. From now on all men of 21 years and above, regardless of wealth, got the right to vote.
7. The newly elected assembly was called the Convention. On 21 September 1792 it abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic.
8. Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of treason. On 21 January 1793 he was executed publicly at the Place de la Concorde. The queen Marie Antoinette met with the same fate shortly after.
The reign of Terror
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 being ‘enemies’ of the republic -ex nobles and clergy, members of other political parties, even members of his own party who did not agree with his methods were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal.
If the court found them ‘guilty’ they were guillotined. The guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person is beheaded. It was named after Dr. Guillotin who invented it.
Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices. Meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government.
Instead of the traditional Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men and women were henceforth Citoyen and Citoyenne (citizen). Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.
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.
A Directory rules France
1. The fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle classes to seize power.
2. A new constitution was introduced which denied the vote to non-propertied sections of society. It provided for two elected legislative councils. These then appointed a directory, an executive made up of five members. This was meant as a safeguard against the concentration of power in a one man executive as under the Jacobins.
3. 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.
Role of women in the revolution
1. From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about so many important changes in French society.
2. Most women did not have access to education or job training. Working women had also to care for their families, that is cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children. Their wages were lower than those of men.
3. Women started their own political clubs and newspapers. About sixty women’s clubs came up in different French cities. The society of revolutionary and republican women was the most famous of them. One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men.
4. They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the assembly and to hold political office. Only then, they felt, would their interests be represented in the new government.
5. In the early years, the revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women. Together with the creation of state school, schooling was made compulsory for all girls. Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law. Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men. Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.
6. Women’s struggle for equal political rights, however, continued. During the reign of terror, the new government issued laws ordering closure of women’s clubs and banning their political activities. Many prominent women were arrested and a number of them executed.
7. Women’s movements for voting rights and equal wages continued through the next two hundred years in many countries of the world. The fight for the vote was carried out through an international suffrage movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
8. It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.
The abolition of slavery
1. One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime was the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.
2. Throughout the eighteenth century there was little criticism of slavery in France. The national assembly held long debates about whether the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects including those in the colonies But it did not pass any laws, fearing opposition from businessmen whose incomes depended on the slave trade.
3. It was finally the convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. This, however, turned out to be a short-term measure. Ten years later, Napoleon reintroduced slavery. Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.
The revolution & every day life
1. One important law that came into effect soon after the storming of the Bastille in the summer of 1789 was the abolition of censorship.
2. In the old regime all written material and cultural activities – books, newspapers, plays could be published or performed only after they had been approved by the censors of the king.
3. Now the declaration of the rights of man and citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural right.
4. Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France from where they travelled rapidly in the countryside.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France. He set out to conquer neighboring European countries, dispossessing dynasties and creating kingdoms where he placed members of his family. Napoleon saw his role as a moderniser of Europe. He introduced many laws such as the protection of private property and a uniform system of weight and measures provided by the decimal system. Initially, many saw Napoleon as a liberator who would bring freedom for the people. But soon the Napoleonic armies came to be viewed everywhere as an invading force. He was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815. Many of his measures that carried the revolutionary ideas of liberty and modern laws to other parts of Europe had an impact on people long after Napoleon had left.
The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution. These spread from France to the rest of Europe during the nineteenth century, where feudal systems were abolished. Colonised peoples reworked the idea of freedom from bondage into their movements to create a sovereign nation state.
Add to your Knowledge
1. Montesquieu (1689-1755) propagated the theory of separating powers into three branches of government: the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary.
2. Rousseau (1712-1778) in his famous book “Social Contract” said “Man is born free but every where he is in chains”.
3. On July 14, 1789, the Prison of Bastille, a medieval fortress was stormed by Paris mob. They considered it as a symbol of oppression and despotism. To this day France celebrates its National Day on 14 July, just as the Americans celebrate Independence Day on 4th July.
4. Jacobians set themselves apart by dressing differently. They started wearing long striped trousers similar to those worn by dock workers. They came to be known as “Sans Cullotes” meaning those without “knee breeches”.
5. Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) was the most famous of all the active women of Revolutionary France. She challenged and protested against the constitution and declaration of Rights of men and women in 1791 in France. Constitution excluded women from basic rights given to men. In 1793 she criticized the Jacobian government for closing down women’s clubs. She was later tried by the National convention, charged with treason and finally executed.