Like the American Revolution which we studied last time, the French Revolution (1789 – 1799) was a transition from monarchy to constitutional republic heavily influenced by Locke and Rousseau. It was also, of course, influenced by the American Revolution. Unlike the American Revolution, the republic collapsed and France became a dictatorship under Napoleon and only became a republic again after many years and transition periods. In spite of this, historians and political theorists have recognized the French Revolution as one of the key transitions in modern political history and fought over its significance. As mentioned last time, for Burke and other conservatives the French Revolution was a classic failure of liberalism. For Marxists, who we will study in a few weeks, the French Revolution was an important antecedent to the Communist Revolution in Russia and then in China.
At the end of the 1700s, France was going through rough times. Wars with England had plunged the country into war debt, including French participation in the American Revolution. Remember, the British war debt, from the same wars with France, was also a central cause of the American revolution when the British tried to collect from the colonists. France had lost many of its land claims in the Americas to the British, bringing in less revenue to cover the mounting debt. In addition, many years of bad weather and crops had brought famine and economic hard times, especially to the peasants in the countryside. Just like in the times of Hobbes, Locke and the Royalists vs. Parliamentarians, the French King Louis the 16th started (unwittingly)the long process of the French Revolution by calling together an assembly in 1789 for the purpose of collecting taxes.
At the time, the peasants and lower class were bearing much of the burden of the taxes as there were many exemptions for the nobility and the clergy. Note that a similar situation exists in America today, at least according to the left, but it is the wealthy and corporations that now get the exemptions. Several advisors argued that the exemptions for the nobility and clergy must be reduced as the peasants could not be taxed any more, especially in the harsh times of the day. In spite of this, the nobles and clergy who dominated parliament opposed this advice and so the king called the assembly to try to forge a new consensus amongst the “three estates”, the nobility, the clergy, and the populace or commons (communes in French).
The third estate, the commons and their representation, became outraged at the stalling and blocking of motions by the nobility and clergy. After many failed negotiations, the commons met together and declared themselves to be the National Assembly with full power to decide political matters that involved the common populace. Frightened by this radical move, the king closed the building where they were assembling saying that carpenters had to make repairs and preparations for a royal function. Because of the bad weather, the commons reassembled in a nearby indoor tennis court and swore what was later called the Tennis Court Oath: they would continue to assemble until a workable constitution for France was established. Some clergy and nobility joined their assembly and cause and support poured in from all areas of France, but the majority of the nobility, the clergy, and the military did not. After the king fired advisors who supported the assembly, the situation exploded and France was consumed by rebellion, rioting and looting.
One of the first and most famous events was the storming of the Bastille, a fortress and prison that held a large weapons store. While the prison held only seven prisoners, the prisoners were liberated and the fortress and weapons were taken. It was seen as a great victory for the rebellion. This is still celebrated in France as Bastille day, though today they do not put the governor’s head on a pike and parade it through the streets. The king was afraid and did not know what to do. Many nobles began fleeing France in large numbers for safety. Commoners formed militias and began attacking nobles and their property. The assembly officially abolished feudalism, though it was effectively gone already with the fleeing of the nobility. This simultaneously removed all power and lands from the nobility as well as the clergy (the Catholic Church in France, which owned almost 10% of the country making it the single largest land owner).
The assembly proceeded to publish the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which like the Declaration of Independence was not a constitution but a statement of purpose and intent to write a constitution. Just like in the American Revolution, the assembly still held the idea that the king would play a role in the French government, particularly as a veto check on parliament, and it was only in the process that the king became eliminated and the government became a constitutional republic, not a republican monarchy. The king, afraid of the popular rebellion, moved to Paris from Versailles after it was stormed by the armed Women’s March, effectively confirming the power of the assembly.
It was at this point that factions in the assembly began to emerge, the most important being that between the liberals who sat in the left wing of the assembly and the conservatives who sat in the right wing. This is where we get the names “left wing” and “right wing” as labels for progressive and conservative. Hegel, who we will study in a few weeks, was deeply influenced by this in his thinking as a teenager watching the revolution from Germany with excitement along with his fellow German youth. The right wing wanted to follow the British and establish a constitution that preserved the monarchy, the clergy, and the nobility. The left wing wanted to maintain the complete disenfranchisement of the clergy and nobility, and a radical few wanted abolition of the monarchy. This is similar to issues between left and right today in America. Far on the left was the now infamous Robespierre, who would commit the dictatorial acts that became a symbol of the evils of progressivism for conservative thought up through the present time (though as mentioned everyone is strangely labeled ‘Hitler’ by the popular right in America today).
In 1791, the king and royal family fled Paris wearing servants’ clothes, but they were recognized, arrested, and brought back to Paris. The assembly largely still wanted the king to remain a figurehead, but fighting broke out in the streets over whether the king had acted in a way such that he should be completely deposed. In 1792 the Paris Commune, the government of the city, rose up in insurrection, took over the assembly, slaughtered the Swiss guards who protected the king, and took the king prisoner. With the assembly dominated by the radical left, they officially abolished the monarchy and declared France to be a constitutional republic. Finally in 1793, with foreign governments such as Prussia announcing they would take military action against France if the monarchy was not restored, the king was declared a political enemy of France and beheaded by guillotine.
Widespread gang warfare and chaos broke out under Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in 1793 and 1794. The Revolutionary Dictatorship was established, with brutal suppression of nobility and clergy supporters. One general famously said, “Mercy is not a revolutionary sentiment”. Peasants in the countryside revolted in support of the clergy and religion, which Robespierre and the Jacobin assembly wanted removed from society and replaced with deism and the “cult of reason”. These issues are similar to problems with communist revolutions and winning the population that we will study in coming weeks. There were mass killings on both sides. A major lesson from the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Chinese Communist Revolution: if you try to take religion away from the peasants, they will give you much trouble and die for the cause. Robespierre, as Revolutionary Dictator, declared the peasants to be enemies committing “crimes against liberty”, brutally suppressed the resistance, and was eventually beheaded himself by guillotine in 1794 because of it.
After five more years of chaos and gang warfare, Napoleon Bonaparte took over France with a military coup, establishing himself as dictator and then in 1804 Emperor of France. This was the end of the French Revolution, and it was only after several periods of change that France again became a republic as it remains today.
Wide debate remains about the meaning of the revolution and its importance. Conservative thinkers like Burke argue that it was a failed attempt by a few individuals such as Robespierre to establish a radically liberal and unsustainable state. Marxists argue it was a rebellion of the workers and farmers that prefigured the Russian Revolution and later the Chinese Communist Revolution. Other more centrist historians have pointed to the rise of the middle class as a major cause. All agree that it was one of the most important periods in modern European history and that it should be studied to understand the roots of many political struggles that remain with us today.
