Mr. Dunbar
AP European History
Chapter 18—The French Revolution Outline
Section One: The
Crisis of the French Monarchy
o
Section
Overview could no longer command sufficient taxes to finance itself.
o
King Louis XVI often came into conflict with the
aristocracy and clergy who received exemptions from certain taxes as he wanted
to start taxing them to increase the royal treasury.
o
Louis XVI was forced to call the Estates
General, which had not met since 1614, in order to search for solutions to the
economic crisis.
·
The
Monarchy Seeks New Taxes
o
Financial woes of the eighteenth century
§
Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)left France deeply
in debt
·
on the eve of revolution, the interest and
payments on the royal debt amounted to just over one-half the entire budget
§
French support for the American Revolution
against Britain further deepened the financial difficulties for France.
§
Paradoxically, France was a rich nation with an
impoverished government.
o
Stand-off between the monarchy and aristocracy
§
Louis XIV firmly established absolutism in
France but following the Seven Years’ War, the aristocracy in France challenged
the monarchy’s power.
§
Financial advisors to the crown insisted that
the king tap the wealth of the nobility but these efforts were blocked by the Parlement of Paris and provincial parlements.
§
Louis XV and Louis XVI lacked the character and
political skills to resolve the dispute with the aristocracy.
o
Rene Maupeou (1714-1792)
§
Louis XV appointed him chancellor in 1770
§
His goal was to break the power of the parlements and tax the nobility.
·
Maupeou disbanded the parlements and exiled the members to remote parts of the country.
§
Louis XV unexpectedly died from smallpox in 1774
and his successor, Louis XVI, reestablished the parlements and fired Maupeou in order to gain popular support from
the people of France.
o
Unpopularity of the Monarchy
§
the merchant and professional classes saw the
economic policies of the monarchy as anathema to economic growth
§
once restored, the parlements repeatedly quoted enlightenment ideas and accused the
monarchy of tyranny
§
the sexually scandalous life of Louis XV was
known throughout France
§
the wife of Louis XVI, Marie Antionette, gained
a reputation for sexual misconduct and personal extravagance
o
Perception of the French monarchy compared to
other monarchs at the time
§
Frederick II of Prussia and Joseph II of Austria
genuinely saw themselves, and were seen by their subjects, as patriotic
servants of the state.
§
George III of Britain was known for his model
character and as seeking the economic improvement of his nation.
·
Necker’s
Report
o
Jacques Necker (1732-1804)
§
Swiss banker who was appointed as the new
director-general of finances in France in 1781
§
Necker released a report on the financial
situation in France
·
He found that a large portion of royal revenues
went to pensions for aristocrats and other royal court favorites.
·
this revelation angered the aristocracy and
Necker was soon forced out of office.
·
Calonne’s
Reform Plan and the Assembly of Notables
o
Charles Alexandre de Callone (1734-1802)
§
Served as minister of finance
o
Calonne’s plan
§
encourage internal trade by removing internal
barriers
§
lower some taxes like the gabelle on salt and to transform the corvee, peasants’labor services on public works, into money
payments
§
reduce
government regulation of grain
§
wanted to establish new local assemblies made up
of landowners to approve new taxes; in these assemblies, voting would depend on
how much land one owned rather than social status
o
Calonne meets with the Assembly of Notables
(1787)
§
This was a committee nominated by the royal
ministry from the upper ranks of the aristocracy and the church.
§
The notables distrusted Calonne and called for
the reappointment of Necker
§
The notables refused to implement taxes on the
nobles and clergy and explained that only the Estates General could give the
monarchy approval to institute new taxes.
·
Deadlock
and the Calling of the Estates General
o
Louis appointed Etienne Charles Lomenie de
Brienne (1727-1794), the archbishop of Toulouse, to the position of minister of
finance.
§
Brienne attempted to reform the land tax
·
the Parlement
of Paris took the position that it did not have the authority to legislate
new taxes
·
the government appealed to the Assembly of the
Clergy for financial support
o
The clergy, comprised mostly of aristocrats, not
only refused to loan the monarchy money, but also reduced the voluntary
contribution, or don gratuity, that
the clergy paid to the government in lieu of taxes.
o
Provincial provinces and aristocrats wanted the
monarchy to restore the privileges they possessed before Richielieu and Louis
XIV stripped them of their aristocratic rights.
o
Bankers refused in the summer of 1788 to loan
the government money.
o
Brienne resigned, Necker replaced him and called
for a meeting of the Estates General
Section Two: The Revolution of 1789
·
The
Estates General Becomes the National Assembly
o
Debate
Over Organization and Voting
§
First estate was the clergy, the Second Estate
the nobility, and the Third estate was everyone else in the kingdom.
§
During debates, the Third Estate expressed that
it would not allow the monarchy and aristocracy to determine the future of
France.
§
In 1788, the Parlement
of Paris ruled that voting in the Estates General should be conducted by
order, rather than by head.
·
This means each estate was given one vote and
thus the first and second estates could use their two votes to prevent the
passing of any reforms that represent the interest of the third estate.
o
Doubling
the Third
§
Due to intense debate, the royal council decided
that strengthening the Third Estate would best serve the monarchy.
§
Therefore, the royal council announced that the
Third Estate could elect twice as many representatives as the nobles and the
clergy.
§
This meant that is they counted by head rather
than order, the Third Estate would have tremendous influence in the Estates
General.
·
Liberal and reform-minded nobles would support
the Third Estate, thus cementing their dominance.
§
Voting procedures had not been decided when the
Estates General gathered at Versailles in May 1789.
o
The Cahiers de Doleances
§
Cahiers de doleances were list of grievances
that the representatives of each estate brought to the meeting.
§
It seems as though the second and third estates
had similar ambitions entering the meeting of the Estates General, but conflict
rather than cooperation dominated the early sessions.
§
Grievances included the following complaints:
·
government waste
·
indirect taxes
·
church taxes and corruption
·
hunting rights of the aristocracy
§
Suggested reforms
·
More equitable taxes
·
More local control of administration
·
Free press
·
Unified weights and measures to facilitate trade
o
The Third
Estate Creates the National Assembly
§
Representatives of the Third Estate—consisting
of local officials, professionals, and other persons of property—refused to sit
as a separate order as the king desired and for several weeks there was a
standoff.
§
On June 1, 1789, the Third Estate invited clergy
and nobles to join them in creating a new legislative body.
§
On June 17, that body declared itself the
National Assembly, and on June 19—by a narrow margin—the Second Estate joined
the National Assmebly.
o
The
Tennis Court Oath
§
Louis XVI decided to call a “Royal Session” of
the Estates General and ordered that the room where the National Assembly had
been gathering be closed and locked.
§
Finding themselves locked out of their usual
meeting place, the National Assembly move to a nearby indoor tennis court where
members of the National Assembly vowed to write a constitution for France.
§
Despite royal warnings, several members of the
First and Second Estates joined the National Assembly in defiance of the king.
§
The National Assembly changed its name to the
National Constituent Assembly because of its intention to write a new
constitution.
·
The Fall
of the Bastille
o
Bad decisions made by Louis XVI
§
Louis XVI gathered troops around Versailles and
Paris and considered taking military action against the National Constituent
Assembly.
§
On July 11, without consulting Assembly leaders,
Louis abruptly fired Jacques Necker, his minister of finance.
§
Rather than cooperated with the National
Constituent Assembly’s intent to establish a constitutional monarchy, Louis
decided to ally himself with the conservative members of the Second Estate.
o
Reactions from the people
§
Anxiety grew among Parisians as the king
mobilized his forces.
·
The people started organizing a citizen militia.
§
Furthermore, rising bread prices had produced
bread riots.
§
They regarded the dismissal of Necker—a popular
figure with the people of Paris—as the beginning of a royal offensive against
the National Constituent Assembly.
o
July 14, 1789
§
In Paris, many small shopkeepers, tradesmen,
artisans, and wage earners marched to the Bastille to get weapons for the
militia.
§
Due to poor leadership, the royal troops
stationed at the Bastille fired into the crowd killing ninety-eight people.
§
The crowd stormed the fortress and released
seven prisoners who were being held there and they also killed several troops
and the commander of the Bastille.
o
July 15, 1789
§
The militia of Paris, renamed the National
Guard, was led by Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution and a
young liberal aristocrat.
§
Lafayette chose the cockade—the red and blue stripes from the colors of the coat of
arms of Paris, separated by the white stripes of the royal flag—became the
insignia for the revolution and eventually the tricolor flag of France.
o
Journess
are days during the revolution—like the storming of the Bastille—when the
populace of Paris redirected the course of the revolution.
o
A few days later, Louis XVI visited Paris
adorned in the cockade and recognized
the organized electors as the legitimate government of the city.
·
The Great
Fear and the Night of August 4
o
Great Fear
§
Rumors spread across the French countryside that
royal troops would be sent into rural districts.
§
In response rural peasants burned chateaux, destroyed legal records and
documents, and refused to pay feudal dues
·
They were reclaiming rights and property they
had loss throughout the eighteenth century.
·
Their targets were aristocrats and
ecclesiastical landlords.
o
Night of August 4, 1789
§
A meeting was called by the National Constituent
Assembly in order to bring a halt to the riots in the countryside.
§
Liberal nobles and clerics rose up and renounced
their hunting and fishing rights, judicial authority, and legal exemptions.
§
The significance was that after August 4, all
French citizens were subject to the same and equal law.
·
The
Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
o
In late August 1789, the National Constituent
Assembly decided to publish a document stating the broad, or general, political
principles of their organization; this document is known as The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen.
§
The document asserted that:
·
all men were “born and remain free and equal in
rights
·
natural rights proclaimed were “liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression”
·
all sovereignty lies with the people and their
representatives
·
taxation was to be apportioned equally according
to capacity to pay
·
freedom of religion was affirmed
·
property was “an inviolable and sacred right”
§
The document used universal language applicable
across national borders.
§
The document applied specifically to men, not
women.
·
Men were suited for citizenship, women for
motherhood and domestic life.
·
Women lobbied for inclusion primarily due to
their desire to secure property rights of their inheritances.
·
The
Parisian Women’s March on Versailles
o
When Louis XVI stalled to ratify the Declaration
of Rights of Man and Citizen and the aristocratic renunciation of feudalism,
people became suspicious that he may attempt to use force.
o
Bread was scarce and expensive.
o
On October 5, 1789, 7,000Parisian women armed
with pikes, guns, swords, and knives marched to Versailles demanding more
bread.
o
Reluctantly, Louis announced his ratification of
the end of feudalism and approved the Declaration.
o
The crowd ordered Louis and his family to return
to Paris with them where he took up residence in the old palace of Tuileres in
the heart of Paris.
Section Three: The Reconstruction of France
·
Section
Overview
o
The National Constituent Assembly organized the
government as a constitutional monarchy.
o
The Assembly sought social equality and
extensive democracy.
·
Political
Reorganization
o
Section
Overview
§
The major political authority of the nation
would be a unicameral Legislative Assembly, in which all laws would originate.
§
The monarch was allowed a veto that could delay,
but not halt, legislation.
§
The Assembly also had the power to declare war and
peace.
o
Active
and Passive Citizens—Citizens of France were divided into these two
groupings
§
Active Citizens
·
Man paying annual taxes equal to three days of
local labor wages could vote.
o
They chose electors who voted for the members of
the legislature.
·
Further property qualifications were required to
serve as an elector or legislature.
·
Only about 50,000 citizens of 25million could
qualify as electors or members of the Legislative Assembly.
·
These arrangements transferred political power
from aristocratic wealth to all forms of propertied wealth in the nation.
o
Olympe de
Gouges’s Declaration of the Rights of Women
§
Olympe de Gouges was the daughter of a butcher
in northwest France who became a major revolutionary in Paris.
§
Her Declaration of the Rights of Women was
directed to Marie Antionette in which she demanded that women be regarded as
citizens, and not merely as daughters, sisters, and wives.
§
Other reforms she advocated:
·
Equality
in marriage
·
Improved education for women
§
Her document, which draws heavily from the
language of the Declaration of Rights of Man, illustrates how the universal
language of the document can apply to even those not mentioned in it.
o
Departments
Replace Provinces
§
The National Constituent Assembly abolished the
ancient French provinces of Burgundy and Brittany and established in their
place 83 administrative units called departments.
·
Departments were subdivided into districts,
cantons, and communes.
§
All ancient judicial courts and parlements were abolished and were
replaced by a unified court of elected judges and prosecutors.
·
The most degrading punishments, such as
branding, torture, and public flogging were deemed illegal.
·
Economic
Policy
o
Workers’
Organizations Prohibited
§
Chapelier Law
·
Forbade workers’ organizations because they reflected
the guilds of the Old Regime.
o
In addition, these labor organizations oppose
the new values of the revolution like political and social individualism.
o
Confiscation
of Church Lands
§
Financial problems in France
·
Poor economic conditions persisted in France as
the National Constituent Assembly worked to sort out the debt compiled by the
Old Regime.
o
They couldn’t simply erase the debt as the
government owed bankers, merchants, and commercial traders.
·
The Assembly decided to pay the debt by
confiscating and selling Roman Catholic church property and land holdings.
o
The results were further inflation, religious
schism, and civil war.
o
The Assignats
§
Assignats
were government bonds and their value was guaranteed by the revenue expected to
be generated from the sale of church property.
§
The assignats
began to be used as currency.
§
The Assembly decided to produce more in order to
liquidate the national debt and to create a large body of new property owners
with a direct stake in the revolution.
§
The plan backfired as the value of assignats
dropped and inflation increased, putting new stress on the urban poor.
·
The Civil
Constitution of the Clergy
o
In July 1790, the National Constituent Assembly
issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in order to reconstruct the Church
in France after its lands had been confiscated.
§
Number of bishoprics was reduced from 135 to 83
§
Elections were to be held for pastors and
bishops and they would be salaried employees of the state.
§
Dissolved all religious orders in France except
those that cared for the sick or ran schools
o
Civil Constitution of the Clergy is regarded as
a major mistake by the National Assembly
§
it embittered relations between church and state
in France
§
the Assembly required that all members of the
clergy take an oath to support the Constitution
·
members of the clergy who refused to take the
oath were labeled as “refractory” and they were removed from their clerical
roles.
§
the conflict between the revolutionary
government in France and the Catholic Church created a moral crisis for many
people in France.
·
Counterrevolutionary
Activity in France
o
Emigres—collective name for the 16,000
aristocrats who left France during the revolution in order to plan to stifle
revolution
o
Flight to Varennes
§
the queen and the king’s brother, the count of
Artois, persuaded Louis XVI to attempt to flee the country
§
on June 20, 1791, disguised as servants, the
royal family fled Paris but were recognized and escorted back to the city by
soldiers
§
many believed this signified that he was a
traitor
o
Declaration of Pillnitz
§
Under pressure from French émigrés, Emperor
Leopold II of Austria, who was the brother of Marie Antionette, and King
Frederick William II of Prussia issued this ultimatum.
§
The two monarchs vowed to intervene in France to
protect the royal family and to preserve the monarchy.
Section Five: The End of the Monarchy—A Second Revolution
·
Section
Overview
o
Major challenges for the Assembly
§
Resistance to the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy
§
How to deal with the king’s flight
§
What to do about the Declaration of Pillnitz
·
Emergence
of the Jacobins
o
Who were the Jacobins?
§
a club of like-minded men that emerged out of
the National Assembly
§
they established networks throughout the
provinces
o
What were the political views of the Jacobins?
§
they wanted a republic rather than a
constitutional monarchy
§
held the ideologies of the most radical thinkers
of the Enlightenment, and, particularly the views of Rousseau who emphasized
equality, popular sovereignty, and civic virtue
o
Girondists
were a subgroup of the Jacobins and assumed leadership in the Assembly
§
they led the Assembly to declare war on Austria
§
they believed the war was necessary for the
revolution to survive
o
War with Austria
§
War radicalized politics in France and led to
the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy and established a republic—this is
commonly known as the Second Revolution
§
A group of women led by Pauline Leon petitioned
the National Assembly for the right to bear arms and the right to fight to
protect the revolution
·
Some women enlisted and served in the army
during the war with Austria.
§
Brunswick Manifesto
·
The duke of Brunswick, commander of the Prussian
military, issued a declaration threatening to burn Paris to the ground if the
royal family was harmed.
·
This ignited further suspicions against the
king.
§
The “commune” formed in Paris in order to
protect the gains of the revolution from both internal and external threats.
§
August 10, 1792
·
Crowds swarmed the Tuileries Palace and forced
Louis XVI and Marie Antionete to take refuge in the Legislative Assembly.
·
The crowd fought with the royal Swiss guard.
·
Royal family was from here out imprisoned—in
comfortable quarters—but the king was not permitted to perform any political
functions
·
The
Convention and the Role of the Sans-Culottes
o
The September Massacres
§
In September 1792, the Parisian crowd again rose
to action by summarily executing about 1,200 people who were in the city jails.
·
The prisoners included some clergymen and
aristocrats, but most were common criminals who the crown assumed were
counterrevolutionaries.
§
The Paris Commune legitimized these killings.
§
The Paris Commune compelled the Legislative
Assembly to assemble a new committee to write a constitution for France that
advocates universal male suffrage.
·
The committee was to be chosen by election.
·
It was named the Convention after the American
Constitutional Convention of 1787.
·
The Convention met on September 21, 1792 and
declared France a republic—that is, a nation governed by an elected assembly
without a monarch.
·
On the same day, the French army—filled with
patriotic recruits—halted the Prussian advance at the battle of Valmy in
eastern France.
o
Goals of the Sans-culottes
§
The second revolution was the work of the
radical Jacobins and the people of Paris known as the sans-culottes.
§
Sans-culottes
means “without breeches” which was derived from the long trousers that, as
working people, they wore instead of aristocratic knee breeches.
§
They included shopkeepers, artisans, wage
earners, and even some factory workers.
§
Role of the sans-culottes
in the revolution
·
Sans-culottes
were severely impacted by persistent food shortages, inflation, and the fall of
the value of assignats.
·
The revolutionary leaders realized they needed
the support of the san-culottes if
they wanted the revolution to succeed and, therefore, their ideals attitudes,
ideals, and desires were the primary factors in the internal development of the
revolution.
§
Political views of the sans-culottes
·
they advocated a community of small property
owners who would participate in the politics of the nation
·
believed the original revolutionary leaders from
the Third Estate simply wanted to share political power, social prestige, and
economic security with the aristocracy; sans-culottes,
however, wanted to ensure equality among all citizens
·
they were anit-monarchical, strongly republican,
and suspicious even of representative government
·
the Paris Commune was their chief political vehicle
and crowd action their chief instruments
o
The Policies of the Jacobins
§
Although the Jacobins hated the aristocracy and
hereditary privilege, they, unlike the sans-culottes,
were not suspicious of all wealth and also sought representative government
§
The Jacobins favored an unregulated economy.
§
Once the Convention began to deliberate in order
to draw up a constitution, the Jacobin members, known as the Mountain because
their seats were high up in the assembly hall, worked with the sans-culottes to carry revolution
further.
§
Other members of the Jacobins, known as the
Girondists, did not support or agree to work with the sans-culottes.
Section Six: Europe at War with the Revolution
·
Section
Overview
o
Most of Europe had been ambivalent toward the revolutionary
events in France but some who favored political reform regarded the revolution
as a wisely and rationally reorganizing a corrupt and inefficient government.
·
Edmund
Burke Attacks the Revolution
o
Irish-born writer and British statesmen, Edmund
Burke, condemned the revolution in his book Reflections
on the Revolution in France.
o
Burke was concerned that turmoil would persist
as people not used to governing attempt to reconstruct a war ravaged nation.
o
Thomas Paine composed The Rights of Man in response to Burke in which he defends the
revolutionary principles.
o
Burke’s book became a handbook for conservatives
throughout Europe.
·
The
Suppression of Reform in Britain
o
William Pitt the Younger
§
Turned against reform and popular movements and
suppressed the London Corresponding Society which was founded in 1792 as a
working-class reform group.
§
Pitt secured Parliamentary approval for acts
suspending habeas corpus, and making the writing of certain ideas treasonable.
o
In Birmingham, a mob forced the radical
political thinker and chemist, Joseph Priestly, out of the country.
·
The
Second and Third Partitions of Poland
o
Reasons for the partitions
§
Eastern powers feared the principles of the
French Revolution were establishing themselves in Poland.
o
Polish Patriots
§
group of nobles who issued a new constitution
that substituted a hereditary for an elective monarch , provided for real
executive authority in the monarch and his council, established a new bicameral
diet, and eliminated the liberum veto.
§
they also adopted the ideas of equality before
the law and religious toleration
o
In April 1792, conservative Polish nobles
invited Russia to restore the old order.
§
Russian army quickly defeated the reformist
Polish forces led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
§
Prussia moved troops from its western border,
where they were fighting against France, to the east to protect Poland from
Russia.
§
Catherine
of Russia and Frederick William II of Prussia, however, came to an
agreement in early 1793 to carry out the second partition of Poland.
o
Impact of the second partition of Poland
§
In 1794, Polish officers mutinied against
efforts to unite their forces with the Russian army.
§
As the mutiny expanded, the language and symbols
of the French Revolution appeared in Polish cities.
§
On November 4, 1794, a coalition of Prussian,
Austrian, and Russian troops were sent into Poland to quell the mutiny.
·
Russian troops carried out the killings of over
10,000 Poles outside Warsaw.
o
Third Partition of Poland
§
In 1795, the three eastern powers portioned
Poland among themselves.
Section Seven: The Reign of Terror
·
War with
Europe
o
The French invasion of the Austrian Netherlands
(Belgium) roused the rest of Europe to active hostility against the France.
o
The Convention announced that the Scheldt River
was open to free trade which violated an agreement the British had established
with Austria and Holland.
§
The British were on the verge of declaring war
on France; however, the Convention made the declaration of war on Britain
first.
o
By April 1793, the Jacobins had control of the
government and France was at war with Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain,
Sardinia, and Holland.
§
Known as the First Coalition, this alliance
sought to protect their social structures, political systems, and economic
interests against the revolution.
o
There was a perception in France that a “new”
kind of war had developed.
§
The goal of this war was to protect the
revolution.
§
The government took extraordinary actions in
order to ensure the survival of the ideals of the revolution.
·
Thousands of people, from all walks of life,
were arrested, and in many cases, executed.
·
These actions, designed to silence dissent, are
known as the Reign of Terror.
o
The terror lasted from the autmn of 1793 to the
midsummer of 1794.
·
The
Republic Defended
o
The Committee of Public Safety
§
This group was established to carry out the
executive duties of the government.
§
Many of the members were radical republicans and
they worked in cooperation with the sans-culottes
of Paris.
o
The Levee en MasseIn
§
In early June 1793, the sans-culottes invaded the Convention and successfully demanded the
expulsion of the Girondist members.
§
As a result, the Mountain and those with radical
ideas dominated the Convention.
§
Lazare Carnot, a member of the Convention in
charge of the military, announced a levee
en masse, a military conscription for all males.
§
On September 29, 1793, the Convention
established a ceiling on prices much to the liking of the sans-culottes.
·
The
Republic of Virtue and Robespierre’s Justification of Terror
o
The Convention and Committee of Public Safety
transform France into “a republic of virtue.”
§
Civic virtue—derived from the Rousseau’s ideas
expressed in the Social Contract—the
sacrifice of one’s self and one’s interest for the goof of the republic.
§
Streets were renamed with egalitarian vocabulary
of the enlightenment.
§
Republican dress—modeled after the sans-culottes—became the fashion of the
period.
o
The Committee of Public Safety carried out
terror by claiming it was for the public good.
§
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was the
dominant figure in the Committee.
·
he is a very controversial character in history
·
read his address to the Convention in early 1794
on page 617 in textbook
·
Repression
of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women
o
Women’s society
§
founded by Pauline Leon and Claire Lacombe
§
illustrates the political consciousness of women
during the revolution.
§
they frequented the bleachers of the Convention
to hear the debates
§
became increasingly radical and demanded
stricter control of bread prices and other commodities, and even brawled with
working market women whom they thought to be insufficiently revolutionary
§
demanded to wear the cockade that male citizens usually wore in their hats
o
Jacobins in the Convention react to the women’s
society
§
Feared the turmoil caused by women’s clubs and
banned them
§
Jacobins believed the women’s society opposed
many of their economic policies.
§
They used Rousseau’s language of “separate
spheres” to justify the ban.
§
Women were excluded from the army and the
galleries of the Convention.
o
Olympe de Gouges
§
author of the Declaration of Rights of Women and opposed the terror
§
guillotined in November 1793
·
De-Christianization
o
New calendar to replace the Christian calendar
§
the calendar was dated from the first day of the
birth of the French Republic
§
twelve months with thirty days named for the
seasons and climate
§
in November 1793, the Convention decreed that
the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was to be called a “temple of reason”
o
Systematic destruction of churches, the
persecution of Christians, and the slaughter of many clergymen and nuns
followed
o
Robespierre believed de-Christianization to be
necessary as it would erode loyalty to the republic
·
Revolutionary
Tribunals
o
Convention established revolutionary tribunals
in the summer of 1793 with the task of putting “enemies of the republic” on
trial
§
“enemies” included the following kinds of
people:
·
those who might aid other European powers
·
those who endanger republican virtue
·
good republicans who opposed the dominant
faction of the government
§
significance of the guillotine
·
considered a human form of execution
·
equality in life and death
§
victims of the terror
·
Marie Antionette, other members of the royal
family, and many aristocrats who were executed in October 1793
·
Girondist who had been popular in the
Legislative Assembly were next
·
In early 1794, terror moved to the provinces
o
peasants who were considered
counterrevolutionary were executed
o
several hundred people, including many priests,
were tied to rafts and drowned in the river Loire
·
The End
of the Terror
o
Revolutionaries turn against themselves
§
Robespierre executes many political leaders
·
On March 24, 1794 he secured the execution of
certain extreme sans-culottes leaders
known as enrages.
·
He turned against members of the Convention,
like Jacques Danton, who was a popular figure in revolutionary France.
o
Danton and others were accused of being
insufficiently militant on the war, profiting from the revolution, and
rejecting the link between politics and moral virtue.
o
Danton was executed in April 1794.
·
On June 10, Robespierre secured the passage of
the Law of 22 Prairial
o
this permitted the revolutionary tribunal to
convict suspects without hearing substantial evidence against them
o
Fall of Robespierre
§
“Cult of the Supreme Being”
·
a deistic cult established by Robespierre which
reflected Rousseau’s vision of a civic religion.
·
a bit abstract for the masses
§
Robespierre’s arrest and execution
·
After making a hostile speech in which he
insisted that members of the government were plotting against him, members of
the Convention had him arrested on July 27.
·
The next day, he and 80 of his supporters were
executed.
§
The Convention convinced the people of Paris
that Robespierre had sought dictatorial powers and he was viewed as an internal
enemy to the revolution.
Section Eight: The Thermidorian Reaction
·
Section
Overview
o
The Convention used the execution of Robespierre
as an opportunity to wrestle power back from the Committee of Public Safety.
§
terror ended soon thereafter but over 25,000
people had already been executed
o
Thermidorian Reaction
§
Robespierre was executed on 9 Thermidor so the
subsequent events are collectively known as the “Thermidorian Reaction.”
·
machinery of terror was destroyed
·
establishment of a new constitutional regime as
it was believed that the revolution had grown too radical
·
sans-culottes
leadership was replaced by generally wealthy middle-class and professional
people
·
Girondist who were imprisoned or in hiding were
invited to return to their seats
·
the notorious Law of 22 Prairial was abolished
·
Paris Jacobin Club was closed
·
In Lyons, Toulon, and Marseilles, so called
“bands of Jesus” dragged suspected terrorists from prison and murdered them
·
Establishment
of the Directory
o
A new Constitution was written which created a
legislature with two houses: Council of Elders and the lower Council of 500
§
Council of Elders
·
men over
40 who were either husbands or widowers
§
Lower Council of 500
·
men of at least 30 years who were either single
or marries
§
the executive body was to be a five-person
Directory who the Elders would select from a list submitted by the lower
council of 500
o
Property qualifications limited who could vote
but an enormous group of small landholders were now granted access to civic
life
·
Removal
of the Sans-Culottes from Political
Life
o
With the war effort succeeding, the Convention
severed its ties with the sans-culottes
o
The Convention lifted price regulations and the
price of food rose sharply causing the worse bread shortage in the period
during the winter of 1794-1795.
o
A royalist uprising turned against the
Convention on October 5, 1795, but the government turned its artillery—led by
Napoleon Bonaparte—against the royalists and dispersed the crowd.
o
Treaties of Basel in March and June 1795
§
Peace was made with Prussia and Spain
o
Conspiracies against the Directory
§
Spring 1796, Gracchus Babeuf led the Conspiracy
of Equals
·
He and his followers called for more radical
democracy and more equality of property.
o
Challenges for the Directory
§
narrow
franchise of the constitution
§
the Two-Thirds Law
·
which enabled members to maintain their seats
for prolonged periods of time
§
Catholic royalist revival
§
Suppression of the sans-culottes
