The French Revolution

Roxana Visan Student Number: Course Assignment for Introduction to Modern Europe
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French Revolution
The French Revolution

The French revolution, which occurred between 1789 and 1799, was an important event in the history of the world. As France was one of the major world powers at the time, succeeding in overthrowing the government gave an example for other oppressed nations to follow. Although the revolution was sparked by disagreement over state finances, there were deeper political, economic, and social factors that were building on for a long time. At the time of the revolution, the society in France was still divided into three separate classes, called estates (1). The First estate, the clergy, beside its spiritual power, had major privileges including ownership of 10% of all the land, had the right to run their own institutions such as parishes and schools, collected special taxes called tithe, and was exempt from paying state taxes. Nobility, the second estate, made only 1.5% of the total population however enjoyed expansive privileges and held the highest positions in Court, army, and government. Nobles owned more than of the land in France which they collected taxes on and rented to the third estate. From the taxes they collected, the Nobles kept a large part for themselves passing on a small part to the government. The rest of the society formed the third estate was called the commoners a mix of peasants and city workers and made up 95% of the population. City workers, in turn, was made of the bourgeois the doctors, the lawyers, and other professionals, who managed to get some wealth and education but not the status or the high ranking positions of the government which made them resentful of the system. Other city workers lived in poor condition. The peasantry, on the other hand, lived in rural areas and had limited means as they carried the heavy burden of the taxes as more than 65% of France economy at the time was made of agriculture(2). In the wake of the revolution, France was nearly bankrupt. Half of the state budget went for debt payment resulting from the Seven Year War with England and contribution to the American Revolution. A string of poor harvests caused by bad weather made severe shortage of grains and led to doubling of the price of bread which deprived the government of a major source of taxes and led to almost famine in the big cities(3). Painfully aware of the graveness of the situation, King Louis XVI called the Estates-General to convene to discuss the issue. The Estates General was an outdated governess tool that wasnt used in France since 1614 which was perceived as weakness of the King who was supposed to be the absolute ruler.
The meeting, however, didnt go according to the Royal expectation. Peasants heavily burdened by taxes and the bourgeois influenced by the Enlightment ideals of freedom and right of citizens and the example of the American revolution, The Third Estate were soon to separate and announce the formation the National Assembly. The Kings efforts to persuade the Third Estate to annul the decision were defied and instead the Third Estate insisted on establishing of constitution. The news of defiance in Versailles was cheered in Paris and the mob rioted in protest of rising prices. On July 14th, 1789 the Parisians stormed the Bastilles prison, freed prisoners and confiscated weapons, and beheaded the governor and chief magistrate(4). Between the years 1789 and 1791, the National Assembly, declared itself the supreme representative and legislative institution of the state. With these powers at hand, the Assembly demolished the Old Regime decreeing abolition of the feudal system, removal of church and nobility privileges, abolition of taxes and rents paid to church and landowner, and removed the exemption of taxes by church and Nobility. The Declaration of Rights of Man has stated that all French people were equal socially and have the same right in front of the law and eligibility for all offices. The Constitution of 1791 called for a Constitutional Monarchy with the King having the role of overseeing the right of all French not only the representatives. However, this solution proved to be unworkable and ended after the so-called August 10th insurrection which led to arrest of the King and jailing him to be finally executed in 1793. Monarchy was totally abolished and France was declared Republic in 1792(5). In Oct 1791, a new Legislative Assembly was elected and was made up of two conflicting groups; the Girodins who were mainstream politicians mainly made from the bourgeois and the Jacobins a radical populist party. The Jacobins, with the aid of Parisian mob, took over the power of the government in 1793 initiating the infamous Reign of Terror. During the Reign of Terror, the Jacobins under the leadership of Robespierre, started a wave of violence prosecuting and executing people who they suspected of being anti-revolutionary. Between the years 1793 & 1794, around 50,000 people were killed by guillotine or the firing squad after summary executions. The Reign of Terror was ended by army intervention and Robespierre execution by the guillotine (6). In 1795, the parliament elected an executive committee of five members called the Directory which managed to stabilize the country with the help of the army. The Directory rule lasted four years and was marked by political corruption, financial problems and social discontent. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup dtat that ended the Directory rule, and effectively ended the era of the French revolution.
Despite its violent and bloody eruption, the French Revolution is credited for making freedom, equality, and right of citizen ideals for modern governments. It also demonstrated the power of the people to throw oppressing regimes to establish democracy, social fairness, and the right of the citizens to manage their own affairs. As these ideals represented the people aspirations everywhere, the French revolution echoed in Europe and indeed the whole world.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. French Revolution, Sparks Notes, sparknotes/history/Europe French Revolution, Learning Spaces, The Open University French Revolution, International World Peoject, history-world.org Storming of the Bastille, Wikipedia Constitution of 1791, Source Book, sourcebook.fsc.edu Maxmilien Robespierre, Encyclopedia Britannica Online

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Roxana Visan Student Number: Course Assignment for Introduction to Modern Europe

The French Revolution

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