Mohit and Namita Agrawal (1.

13)

The Western Heritage, 8th edition, by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner

Chapter 19—The French Revolution
The Crisis of the French Monarchy
• From close of 7 Years’ War (1763) until opening of French Rev (1789), monarchies of both
western and eastern Europe found themselves lacking adequate revenues and had become
major agents of institutional/political change
• The monarchy provoked aristocratic, and sometimes popular, resistance/resentment in every
case
• George III, Frederick II, Catherine II, and Joseph II all either feuded with aristocrats or had to
give them concessions in order to continue with the reforms
• In France, royal drive for fiscal resources led to aristocratic resistance but neither monarchy
nor aristocracy could control the forces that they had unleashed.
• French monarchy after 7 Years’ War was defeated, deeply in debt, and unable to put finances
on a sound basis. It’s support of American colonies further deepened financial problems of the
gov
• Royal debt was over ½ of entire budget (similar to other European nations), but the gov
couldn’t tap the wealth of the French nation thru taxes: France was rich nation w/ an
impoverished gov
The Monarchy Seeks New Taxes
• Late 1700’s monarchy could not come to terms w/ resurgent social/political power of
aristocratic institutions and parlements
• For 25 years, royal ministers tried to devise new tax schemes to tap wealth of nobility, but were
confronted by Parlement of Paris and provincial parlements
• Moral/political corruption indecision meant monarchy couldn’t rally French public to its side
and monarchy hesitated, retreated, and lied instead of dealing with the aristocrats
• In 1770, Louis XV appointed René Maupeou as chancellor (prime minister). He abolished
parlements and exiled the members to diff parts of country; then began program to make
administration more efficient.
• But Louis XV died in 1774 and Louis XVI restored all parlements and confirmed their old
powers b/c he was retarded and he thought that this was what the people wanted.
• Parlements were completely dominated by the aristocracy, and they defended their cause in
language of liberty and reform– derived from the Enlightenment
• Nobility wanted a genuine role in gov, which they lost under Louis XIV’s reign, and they
thought that the fiscal crisis was the best time to do this
• Jacques Necker, a Swiss banker, was the new director of finances in 1781. He produced a
report saying the budget was in surplus if American war expenditures were removed. That
report also showed that tons of money went to pensions for aristocrats.
• This angered the aristocrats and Necker left office. By saying the gov should have been in
surplus, Necker made it hard to raise taxes later.
Calonne’s Reform Plan and the Assembly of Notables
• Charles Alexandre de Calonne was minister of finance afterwards and made proposals to
increase internal trade, lower some taxes, and make the peasants pay taxes in cash instead of
labor.
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• He wanted a new land tax that everyone would have to pay. Other indirect taxes would be
abolished.
• He intended to establish new local assemblies to approve these land taxes (instead of the
parlements), with voting based on land instead of title. All this would have undermined the
power and wealth of the aristocrats.
• In 1787, Calonne met w/ Assembly of Notables (certain top nobles and clergymen) to seek
support for his plan, but the assembly said no unless the aristocracy be allowed greater share in
direct gov of kingdom
• Notables wanted Necker back b/c they thought he left country in sound fiscal condition
• They claimed that only the Estates General (last called in 1614) could approve the new taxes.
The nobles and clergymen also thought that they could use the Estates General to get more
power from the king.
Deadlock and the Calling of the Estates General
• Louis XVI replaced Calonne w/ Brienne, an archbishop who was on the Assembly of Notables
• Brienne saw how bad the situation was and began to support Calonne’s plan.
• Parlement of Paris said no and said that only Estates General could do it.
• Brienne appealed to Assembly of the Clergy to approve a subsidy to allow funding of debt, but
clergy not only refused the subsidy, it also reduced its existing contribution (don gratuit) to the
gov (they saw that if they could weaken the gov, this was their opportunity to get more power)
• Local aristocratic parlements wanted a restoration of privileges they had enjoyed during early
1600, before Richelieu/Louis XIV
• July 1788, the king agreed to convoke Estates General the next year
• Brienne resigned and Necker replaced him
• Institutions of aristocracy, and the church to lesser degree, brought the French monarchy to its
knees
• In the country of its origin, royal absolutism had been defeated and political reform was at
hand
Other Causes of the Revolution
• Marie Antionette. While her spending itself could not have caused such financial misfortune,
the queen certainly didn’t help. Firstly she was Austrian and could barely speak French. She
had terrible rapport with the French people. Her dresses and hairdos were expected of the
French queen, but it made starving people pretty angry. Her advice at the beginning of the
revolution—crush them!—might have worked, but by 1791 it was pretty worthless. She had
this peasant town built near Versailles with rundown looking cottages (though the insides were
glittering with gold) so that she and her lover could pretend to be shepherds. Huh.
• Weather. Deep economic downturn struck France in 1787- 88. Harvests had been poor, food
prices in 89 higher than any time since 1703. Wages didn’t keep up w/ rise in prices. Thru
winter of 88-89, many people suffered from hunger; several cities experienced wage/food riots.
Economic problems helped revolution reach vast proportions.
• Success of the American Revolution. This is related to the next point. The French thought that
if they could do it overseas, they could do it at home.
• Propaganda and the print culture. Different social group leaders, using Enlightenment theories,
challenged each other for dominance. These debates over language, values, of political life
was possible by emergence of new print culture w/ its reading public and numerous ways to
circulate books, pamphlets, newspapers. Unemployed authors were resentful of their situation
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and ready to use their skills to radicalize discussion. The revolution coincided with a political
debate wider than any before in Europe and marked the beginning of a new political culture
with a more involved public.
The Revolution of 1789
• The triumph of the aristocracy over the monarchy was brief; the summoning of the Estates
General changed the political situation drastically as many social/political forces were
unleashed.
• Many historians believe calling/gathering of Estates General unleashed clash between
bourgeoisie and aristocracy that had been building in the decades before 1789
• Distrust arose between aristocracy/increasingly radical middle-class leaders; the latter then
turned to tradespeople of Paris and built alliances w/ them
• When the revolution went too far in the mid 1790s, the middle class and the aristocrats joined
together to protect the security of private property
• Some historians think that the revolution was just one part of a long process to modernize
France and the monarchy, which was completed in 1870.
• Recent development shows that rev didn’t come entirely from conflict between aristocracy and
bourgeoisie
The Estates General Becomes the National Assembly
• First Estate: clergy. 1% population. 10% wealth. <1% taxes (they got a large gov subsidy).
• Second Estate: nobility. 2% population. 25% wealth. 1% taxes.
• Third Estate: everyone else (includes peasants, tradespeople, urban poor, and the bourgeoisie
like merchants, doctors, and lawyers). 97% population. 65% wealth. >98% taxes.
• Third Estate was drawn primarily from wealthy members of the commercial/professional
middle classes.
Debate over Organization and Voting
• Aristocracy made 2 moves to limit influence of Third Estate in Estates General: they demanded
an equal number of reps from each estate, and in Sept 1788, the Parlement of Paris ruled that
each estate, rather than each member, should have one vote
• That way the aristocratically dominated First and Second Estates could outvote the Third and
keep all their privileges.
• Although aristocracy/Third Estate shared many economic interests and goals, a fundamental
social distance separated the members
• Third Estate were overwhelmingly lawyers of substantial economic means who were
determined to have some voice in the gov
Doubling the Third
• The monarchy doubled the size of the third estate because they thought that it would best serve
the interests of reform. This was a preliminary step in allying with the third estate against the
nobles. If Louis XVI had any guts, he would have taken this alliance farther, instead of trying
to play the middle.
• Even without doubling the third, voting by head would have worked because liberal
nobles/clergy would have supported reforms.
• Method of voting wasn’t completely decided when Estates General gathered at Versailles in
May 1789
The Cahiers de Doléances
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• When reps came to royal palace, they brought cahiers de doleances which were lists of
grievances registered by local electors to be presented to the king
• Documents recorded criticisms of gov waste, indirect taxes, church taxes and corruption, and
the hunting rights of aristocracy
• They included calls for periodic meetings of Estates General, more equitable taxes, more local
control of administration, and free press
• Overall major demand was equality of rights among all citizens
The Third Estate Creates the National Assembly
• These complaints and demands couldn’t be brought up until the voting issue was solved
• From the start, Third Estate refused to sit as a separate order as the king and aristocrats desired
• There was a standoff for several weeks.
• On June 1, the Third Estate invited clergy/nobles to join them in organizing a new legislative
body (a few lower clergy did come); on June 17, that body declared itself the National
Assembly.
The Tennis Court Oath
• June 20, National Assembly was somehow (accidentally or not) locked out of its usual meeting
place and moved to a nearby tennis court
• Members took the Tennis Court Oath to continue to sit until they had given France a
constitution
• Louis XVI tried to stop them but soon after, a large group of clergy and nobles joined the
assembly
• On June 27th, Louis basically dissolved the Estates General and told everyone to meet with the
National Assembly, where voting would be by head. The assembly was renamed to the
National Constituent Assembly. A majority of its members shared liberal goals for
administrative, constitutional, and economic reform of country.
• France was supposed to become like England, with a king and parliament (the National
Constituent Assembly). This was foiled by events taking place outside of Versailles.
Fall of the Bastille
• Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and many conservative nobles didn’t like this new direction of
France. They felt their powers were being limited. Louis then started to disrupt the assembly
(though in a poorly executed way).
• He placed royal troops near Versailles/Paris, and on July 11, w/o consulting assembly leaders,
Louis dismissed Necker.
• Most of NCA wanted a constitutional monarchy, but Louis just wouldn’t cooperate.
• The population of Paris was also an important factor. They saw the troops as a threat to the
NCA, and when Necker was fired they felt like they had no voice left in the gov.
• After the election of the officials to the Estates General, people in Paris kept meeting to discuss
the situation. This eventually led to the organizing of a militia and the gathering of arms.
• July 14: more than 800 people, mostly the lower middle class (the upper middle class were
now in the NCA at Versailles but the lower middle class didn’t really have a voice. They were
the ones who were at the center of the revolution in Paris), marched to Bastille in search of
weapons and gunpowder
• Troops in Bastille fired into the crowd, killing 98 people. The crowd stormed the fortress,
released 7 non-political prisoners, and decapitated the governor. The Bastille was torn apart
brick by brick.
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• July 15: the militia of Paris, the National Guard, offered command to Marquis de Lafayette
(American Rev hero) who gave the guard a new insignia: the red and blue stripes of Paris
separated by king’s white stripe which became revolutionary cockade and eventually France’s
tri-color flag
• Attack marked first of many journées, events by which populace of Paris redirected course of
rev.
• The success in Paris led to similar actions in other French cities.
• Louis XVI visited Paris, wearing the cockade, and recognized the organized electors as the
legitimate gov of the city and the National Guard as its legitimate defense.
• Citizens of Paris had established themselves as independent political force which other
political groups might ally for their own purposes
The “Great Fear” and the Night of August 4
• “Great Fear” swept across much of countryside during the summer as rumors spread that royal
troops would be sent into rural districts
• Great Fear saw burning of chateaux (aristocratic mansions), destruction of records/documents,
and refusal to pay feudal dues
• Peasants determined to take possession of food supplies/land they thought was theirs;
reclaiming rights and property they lost thru aristocratic resurgence of last quarter cent., and
venting anger against rural life injustice
• The upper-middle class had its voice in Versailles, and the lower-middle class succeeded in
Paris. This was the peasants taking action—France was heading to war by social class.
• Aug 4 1789: aristocrats in NCA attempted to halt spreading disorder in countryside. By
prearrangement, several nobles and clerics rose in the assembly and renounced their feudal
rights, dues, and tithes
• These nobles gave up what they had already lost and what they couldn’t have regained.
• Thereafter, all French citizens were subject to same/equal laws; this paved the way for legal
and social reconstruction of nation
• NCA could look to popular forces as source of strength against king and conservative
aristocrats
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
• The NCA decided that before writing a new constitution, it would set forth a statement of
broad political principles, so on Aug 27, the assembly issued the Dec. of the Rights of Man and
Citizen
• It drew on political language of Enlightenment and influenced by Dec of Rights of Virginia in
June 1776
• Proclaimed all men “born and remain free and equal in rights” and rights were “liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression” which gov existed to protect
• All political sovereignty resided in nation and its reps; all citizens were equal before the law
and government hiring and promotion was by merit instead of rank. There was due process of
law, presumption of innocence until proof of guilt, freedom of religion, and taxation
apportioned equally by capacity to pay.
• Property was “an inviolable and sacred right.”
• Almost all statements were directed against specific abuses of old aristocratic/absolutist regime
• The declaration is often considered the death certificate of the Old Regime
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• The declaration applied only to men; much of the language of Enlightenment associated w/
Rousseau separated men and women into distinct gender spheres. This view said that men
were suited for citizenship, women for motherhood and domestic life.
• Still, many politically active/informed women hoped the guarantees of declaration would
eventually extend to them. They specifically wanted inheritance and divorce laws changed.
• Olympe de Gouges’s composed the Declaration of the Rights of Women that just added
“women” to every line of the original declaration in 1791. This shows how far the
Enlightenment and civic equality had gone in French society.
The Parisian Women’s March on Versailles
• Louis XVI stalled before ratifying declaration and aristocratic renunciation of feudalism.
People thought that he might resort to troops to reinforce the Old Regime.
• There was also a story going around that Louis had removed the tri-color cockade and stamped
it under his foot at a dance party.
• On Oct 5, crowd of 7000 Parisian working-women (and men) armed w/ pikes, guns, swords,
and knives marched to Versailles demanding more bread.
• The women are memorable because they were in front of the march—no soldier would have
shot at them.
• They forced the king to sing-off on the declaration and renunciation of feudalism.
• The Parisians were suspicious and thought that the king had to be watched, so they made him
and his family move to Paris the next day.
• March of women of Paris first example of popular insurrection employing language of popular
sovereignty directed against monarch
• NCA also moved to Paris.
• Henceforth, the French government would function under the constant threat of mob violence.
• Both Paris and France remained relatively stable and peaceful until summer of 1792
The Constitution of 1791 and the Legislative Assembly
• In Paris over the next several years, the NCA sought to limit the impact of the poor on national
life. Although championing civic equality before the law, the assembly spurned social
equality. This was a general course that Europe’s liberals would follow over the next century.
• The constitution of 1791 set up a constitutional monarchy. The monarch could delay but not
veto any legislation which the parliament, or the Legislative Assembly, passed.
• Only people with a certain amount of property could vote, and only people with even more
property could become legislators.
• This destroyed the aristocracy and transferred power to the basis of wealth alone.
• The assembly reorganized France from various medieval provinces to 83 equal-sized
departments which are still in use today.
• The metric system became official throughout France.
• The upper-classes which dominated the LA disbanded the workers’ guilds with the Chapelier
Law. The upper-middle class and the nobility had now ganged up against the lower-middle
class and the peasants.
• The LA would not cancel the country’s debts because they were owned to people who were
now in the assembly. The land tax was insufficient to pay the debt, so land was taken from the
church.
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• In 1790, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy transformed the Roman Catholic Church in
France into a branch of the secular state. It is considered the biggest blunder of the group. Not
only were the lower-classes being targeted, the church that they loved was being targeted too.
• Refactory clergy were those who refused to follow the civil constitution.
• The king tried to flee to Austria on June 20, 1791 but was recognized and stopped. The leaders
of the assembly tried to make this look like an abduction, but it was obvious that the
constitutional monarchy wouldn’t last.
• The Declaration of Pillnitz in August, 1791 by Austria and Prussia said that if the European
nations all agreed, they would intervene in France and reestablish the monarchy. GB would
never have said yes, but France still saw this as a threat.
• France had now been reorganized, but class warfare was imminent and the money/economic
problems hadn’t yet been solved.
The End of the Monarchy: A Second Revolution
Emergence of the Jacobins
• Factionalism plagued the LA throughout its short life (1791-1792).
• The Jacobins, one “club” of the Third Estate, drew their political language from the most
radical thought of the Enlightenment. They had wanted a republic instead of a constitutional
monarchy.
• Girondists were a group of Jacobins (from Gironde) who took leadership positions in the LA.
They passed radical laws to suppress the counterrevolution, but Louis effectively vetoed both.
• The Girondists declared war on Austria in April, 1792. They thought that a common enemy
would undermine support of the counterrevolution at home.
• The king also supported the war, because he thought that in a resurgence of patriotism, the
people would support him and not the LA. He kind of also wanted Austria to win.
• Women also supported the war, because they wanted to prove that they were just as
patriotic/worthy of citizenry as men. They thought that if the war went badly, they could fight
and prove themselves in battle.
• The war radicalized the revolution and led to what is usually called the second revolution,
which overthrew the constitutional monarchy and established a republic.
• The war started out pretty badly.
• In July, 1792, Prussia issued a manifesto promising to destroy Paris if the king was hurt. This
validated the war for many people and actually weakened the position of the king. It looked
like he was working with France’s enemies (and he probably was).
• Paris abandoned its government set up by the lower middle-class and instead had one set up by
the working class. This was the committee, or commune, system.
• On August 10, 1792 a Parisian crowd invaded the king’s Paris palace and forced him to flee to
the chambers of the LA. His Swiss Guards and the crowd fought, and hundreds on both sides
died. The royal family was then put under house arrest on charges of treason. The
constitutional monarchy had no monarch.
The Convention and the Role of the Sans-Culottes
The September Massacres
• The Paris Commune capitulated to the whims of the mob and had the 1200 people currently in
jail executed as counterrevolutionaries (though the vast majority were not). This was the
September Massacres.
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• The Paris Commune also forced the LA to set up a new assembly, called the Convention, to
write a new constitution with France as a republic instead of a constitutional monarchy. The
Convention would be chosen by universal male suffrage. It first met in September, 1792.
• Also in Sept., the French army halted the Prussians; the event was proclaimed as a victory for
democracy.
Goals of the Sans-culottes
• The sans-culottes were a group of very-radical Jacobins and were mostly the lower-middle
class/working poor of Paris.
• Sans-culottes means without breeches, which many of the aristocrats wore.
• The LA was good and all, but these people couldn’t vote. And who cares about voting when
you’re starving and your money is worthless because of inflation.
• From the summer of 1792 until the summer of 1794, the attitudes, desires, and ideals of the
sans-culottes were the primary factors in the internal development of the revolution.
• The SC wanted relief from food shortages and price controls.
• The SC hated the upper-middle class because they thought that they only participated in the
revolution because they wanted the power and prestige of the nobles. They didn’t think the
upper-middle class really believed in democracy.
• The SC were basically commies—they wanted the countryside organized into collective farms.
• The SC wanted direct democracy—universal male suffrage where the people, not the
legislature, votes on most laws. (see—a communist economy is not mutually incompatible
with democracy)
The Policies of the Jacobins
• The Jacobins wanted an unregulated economy, while the SC wanted a heavily regulated
economy.
• The Mountain was a small group of the Jacobins who cooperated with the SC, who were
powerful in the Paris Commune.
• The Girondists, another Jacobin group, refused to work with the SC. Thus, the Mountain had
public support and the Girondists did not.
Execution of Louis XVI
• In Dec 1792, “Citizen Capet” (Louis XVI) was put on trial for treason. The Girondists wanted
to spare his life, but the Mountains won and he was later executed in January.
• If he was executed for conspiring with Austria, why wasn’t Marie killed first? This shows that
the point he was killed was for the political benefit of the Mountains (he was a threat because if
people got disillusioned with the war, they could have dumped the Mountain and gone back to
the king). By convicting him of treason, the Mountain now has a good excuse to ditch the
constitutionally monarchy and make a republic instead.
• By January 1793, the Convention had become the official government of France.
• The Convention went mad and declared war against everyone else in Europe (Austria, Prussia,
and now GB, Spain, and Holland).
• In March, 1793, a rebellion erupted in western France in support of the monarchy and against
the Convention. Now the Convention was fighting Europe and France.
• The Girondists declared war, but the Mountains would have to finish it.
Europe at War with the Revolution
• At first, the rest of Europe didn’t care about the revolution.
• Some Enlightenment thinkers thought (at first) that the changes were good.
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• However, as the revolution went further and further, many countries became hostile to it. The
declaration especially scared them, because it was applicable anywhere.
• Edmund Burke wrote the highly critical Reflections on the Revolution in France. It was the
conservative bible of Europe for the next century.
• William Pitt the Younger became a George W. Bush in Europe. He suppressed workers’
unions, tried to curb the press, and suspended the write of habeas corpus.
• The French had successfully invaded the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) in 1792 and
proceeded to break previous treaty agreements. This scared/angered GB a lot.
• In response to the Declaration of Pillnitz, France made a declaration to help all the
underprivileged people of Europe rebel. Hmmm…no wonder the rest of Europe hated them.
• Austria, Prussia, GB, Spain, and Holland formed the First Coalition to fight France. They
wanted to save the Old Regime.
The Reign of Terror
• France was mobilized for total war starting in 1793.
• Because the other European nations were fighting a democracy, the vast majority of France felt
a personal stake in the war.
• Thousands of people from all walks of life including both peasants and the king and queen
were arbitrarily arrested and executed in the Reign of Terror.
The Republic Defended
• To replace the monarchy, the “executive” was a bunch of powerful committees of the
Convention (kind of like different departments in the cabinet today).
• The most powerful of these by far was the Committee of Public Safety, which was to put
France on a wartime footing.
• Jacques Danton and Maximilien Robespierre were important people on this committee.
• Robespierre was basically the dictator of France in 1793-94.
• The committee members were from the Mountain. They were allied with the SC, but this was
an alliance of expediency, not of ideals.
• In June, 1793, the SC invaded the Convention and forced the Girdondist members to be
expelled. This radicalized the Convention.
• A new constitution was written up by the Convention (but never implemented). This allowed
the Convention to focus on the war.
• The levee en masse was issued in August, which forced universal male conscription and the
economic mobilization for war, including price controls to make the SC happy. The hoarding
of food was punishable by death.
• The levee was successful and demonstrated the power of the modern, secular idea of
nationhood, as opposed to Louis XIV absolutist, Catholic government.
• Counterrevolutionary rebellions were put down with force in France.
• The citizen army of France was successful in several important battles.
People of the Terror
• Robespierre. The American Revolution counterpart to Robespierre would be James Madison,
the quiet behind-the-scenes intellectual and administrator. His supporters knew him as "the
Incorruptible" because of his austere moral devotion to revolutionary political change. He was
an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of
the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror that ended with his arrest and
execution in 1794. Politically, Robespierre was a disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among
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other Enlightenment philosophers, and a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing
bourgeoisie. He was described as physically unimposing and immaculate in dress and personal
manners. Robespierre often spoke in Paris and was acute in using the Parisian people (often
through the Commune) and the Jacobins to counter the Girondists and other conservatives.
Robespierre had Danton killed, because Danton wanted to reign in the Reign of Terror. While
some argue that Robespierre used the guillotine to ensure his own political power, most note
that he used it to shore up his feeling Republic of Virtue. The Republic died along with him.
• Danton. The American Revolution counterpart to Danton would be Patrick Henry, the fiery
republican idealist. Danton was a great public speaker/orator. Danton voted for the death of
the King Louis XVI (January 1793). He had a conspicuous share in the creation of the
Revolutionary Tribunal, which on the one hand took the weapons away from the disorderly
popular vengeance of the September Massacres, but which would become the instrument of the
institutionalized Terror. When all executive power was conferred upon a Committee of Public
Safety (6 April 1793), Danton had been one of the nine original members of that body. He was
dispatched on frequent missions from the Convention to the republican armies in Belgium, and
wherever he went he infused new energy into the army. He pressed forward the new national
system of education, and he was one of the legislative committee charged with the construction
of a new system of government. Danton, unlike the Girondists, "accepted the fury of popular
passion as an inevitable incident in the work of deliverance." (1911 Britannica) He was not an
enthusiast of the Reign of Terror; he saw it as a two-edged weapon to be used as little as
necessary. The authors of the 1911 Britannica see him at this time as wishing "to reconcile
France with herself; to restore a society that, while emancipated and renewed in every part,
should yet be stable; and above all to secure the independence of his country, both by a
resolute defense against the invader, and by such a mixture of vigor with humanity as should
reconcile the offended opinion of the rest of Europe." In March of 1794, Danton is arrested by
Robespierre on charges of high treason. He is then swiftly guillotined to avoid a reprisal from
the people of Paris.
• Marat. The American Revolution counterpart to Marat would be Thomas Paine, a brilliant
writer who captured the heart of the French people. Jean-Paul Marat was a Swiss-born French
scientist and physician who made much of his career in the United Kingdom, but is best known
as an activist in the French Revolution. A fiery journalist, an advocate of such violent measures
as the September 1792 massacres of jailed "enemies of the Revolution," and a member of the
radical Jacobin faction during the French Revolution, he helped launch the Reign of Terror and
compiled "death lists." In September 1789, Marat began his own paper, named L'Ami du
peuple ("The Friend of the People"). From this position, he expressed suspicion of all those in
power, and dubbed them "enemies of the people". Marat fought bitterly with the Girondins,
whom he believed to be covert enemies of republicanism, and led his public in a violent
confrontation with them. The Girondins won the first round: the Convention ordered that Marat
should be tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal; the plan was overturned when Marat was
acquitted and returned to the Convention with enhanced popular support. He was stabbed to
death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday (“I kill one man to save 100,000.”).
The “Republic of Virtue” and Robespierre’s Justification of Terror
• The people on the committee (CPS) believed that they had created something new in world
history, a republic of virtue.
• In this republic, the sacrifice of one’s self and one’s interest for the good of the republic would
replace selfish aristocratic and monarchical corruption.
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• Streets were renamed to “Liberty” and “Justice,” the fashion became that of the lower-middle
class, and anything that wasn’t republican enough was censored. A new calendar was
imposed, one that got rid of all Christian influences (months were according to the weather,
and weeks were 10 days long).
• The Reign of Terror was to save this new republic. According to Robespierre: “Terror is
nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.”
• As part of the Republic of virtue, women were almost forcibly removed from public life. They
were supposed to be domestic wives, while men were supposed to be active citizens.
• The Convention pursued a policy of de-Christianization and instead supported the Cult of
Reason. Notre Dame became the Temple of Reason. The Mountains liked this, but
Robespierre was against it because he knew that this would alienate the French people (and he
was right).
• The Reign of Terror manifested itself through a series of revolutionary tribunals established by
the Convention in 1793. The tribunals were to try “enemies” (however you want to define the
word).
• In a very real sense, the Terror of the revolutionary tribunals systematized and channeled the
popular resentment that had manifested itself in the Sept. Massacres of 1792.
• The Terror first started in Paris (actually, in the Convention itself) and eventually moved into
the provinces of France.
• One of the most infamous incidents occurred in Nantes, where several hundred people were
simply tied to rafts and drowned in the river.
• The victims of the Terror were from every social group.
The End of the Terror
• Robespierre then used the Terror in 1794 to get rid of his own personal enemies. He wanted to
secure his position as dictator.
• He had the leaders of the SC, known as the enrages (enraged) executed.
• He then had Danton executed on flimsy charges of not being militant enough
• Robespierre had the Law of 22 Prairial (22 Prairial is a date=June 10) passed meaning that
tribunals could convict without proof (basically, rubberstamping in the most extreme).
• This coincides with a brutal uptick in deaths due to the Terror. The period from May through
July is called the High Terror.
• The Cult of Reason was abolished and the Cult of the Supreme Being was established. This
was a deist/Christian mix. Robespierre hoped to use it to woo back the French people.
• However, Robespierre had destroyed rivals for leadership without creating supporters for
himself.
• In July, he made accusations against some people in the Convention. The Convention finally
grew too fearful/tired of him, and they had him executed the next day. No one stepped up to
defend him.
• The Reign of Terror came to a close soon after Robespierre’s death. It claimed around 25,000
people.
• France was now succeeding in the war, internal rebellions had been put down, and the
economy was much better. The French people wanted some of their rights back, and the
Terror came to an end.
The Thermidorian Reaction
 Mohit and Namita Agrawal (12.13)

• The tempering of the revolution coincided with the end of the Terror. It is called the
Thermidorian Reaction (Thermidor=July=hot) and began in July (no, really?), 1794.
• It was a reaction against the radical politics of the previous years. People were tired of the
Convention and the power of the SC.
• A new constitutional government was set up (but the constitution of the Convention was
scrapped)
• Many of the remaining leaders of the Terror were executed as part of the “white terror,” or the
execution of people across France who had cooperated too much with the Reign of Terror (like
police, etc.)
• The Girondists came back to power, and along with them the power of the upper-middle class
and the wealthy.
• The Jacobin party was disbanded.
• “Bands of Jesus” (mostly gangs of aristocratic youths) killed known Jacobins in major French
cities.
• The republic of virtue gave way, if not to one of vice, then at least to one of frivolous
pleasures. New opulent clothing came to style, and parties were back in vogue.
• One of the unanticipated results of the Thermidorian Reaction was a genuine revival of
Catholic worship.
• As a result of the enforcement of Enlightenment thought, Frenchwomen may have had
somewhat less freedom after 1795 than before 1789.
Establishment of the Directory
• The Convention (it still existed after Robespierre’s death, just with many of the conservatives
out of jail and many of the Jacobin’s dead) wrote the Constitution of the Year III (note that the
new year system had not yet been abandoned).
• The constitution tried to get a middle way between constitutional monarchy and direct
democracy. Only soldiers, and men with property could vote. (the book makes a note that the
French Revolution sets a tempo for democracy in Europe. The question wasn’t if but when.
Also, who would be allowed to vote?)
• After the Great Fear, many peasants now owned property. So the number of people who could
vote was actually quite large.
• There was a two house legislature (the Council of Elders and the Council of Five Hundred).
The Council of Elders then chose 5 people to be part of the directory, or the executive branch.
• In the modern world, “thermidor” means political reaction or revolution (ex: The thermidor in
Lebanon could lead to the destabilization of the current government.).
Removal of the Sans-culottes from Political Life
• The Thermidorians repealed the ceiling on prices. This was because they were believers in the
Enlightenment and Adam Smith, who pushed for lasseiz-faire economics.
• This led to massive food shortages and huge bread riots. The government wanted to put an end
to mob rule and crushed these riots.
• Many royalists now saw their opportunity. On Oct. 5, 1795, in the parts of Paris where they
had power, the royalists rose up in organized rebellion. Napoleon Bonaparte quickly put down
the rebellion.
• The Treaty of Basel made peace with Spain and Prussia in 1795.
 Mohit and Namita Agrawal (13.13)

• The new government of the Directory, however, was like the LA in that it was quite
conservative. They were afraid of who all the people might elect in 1795 so they limited the
choices of candidates.
• In the spring of 1796, the Conspiracy of Equals broke out in Paris. It was an attempt to take
the revolution one step further, to equalize the economic positions of the people of France.
(while the social power of the aristocrats had been taken away, their wealth had not been. The
poor were still desperately poor, and now the price of bread was going back up.)
• The Directory fully intended to resists any further social changes in France, and the leader of
the conspiracy was executed.
• France remained at war with Austria and GB, but the Directory was losing the support of the
people.
• Consequently, the Directory came to depend on the power of the army, rather than on the
constitutional processes, to control the country.
• The results of the instability of the Directory and the growing role of the army held profound
consequences for France and the entire Western world.