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The Fight for Liberty
During the late 1700s, French society was centered around an absolute monarchy, the king and queen held all power and control. The rulers of France at this time were King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Along with an absolute monarchy, the people of France lived in a societal structure based on feudalism, the structure is referred to as the Estates System. The First Estate consisted of the Church members or the Clergy. The Second Estate was the Nobility. The First and Second Estates were excessively privileged minorities. The people of the Third Estate were common citizens, making up 96% of the population. When referring to voting rights, each Estate was allowed one vote. As one might imagine, the voting system was unfair to the citizens who were a vast majority of the French population, one vote representing all of the people within the Third Estate. This was French society before the French Revolution.
In the year of 1789, France was in terrible financial condition. The country was facing the aftermath of its involvement in the American Revolution as well as drought, livestock disease, poor harvest, and the Kings absurd spending. King Louis did not prioritize his citizens and put excessive amounts of money toward personal pleasures. The citizens then started growing more upset as their conditions worsened. The Third Estate was forced to work with little to nothing in return, pay all taxes, and watch the Clergy and Nobility live great lives in the Palace of Versailles. These points sparked the idea of starting a revolution.
A meeting was held to address the financial problems France was suffering from. The meeting was held in the Palace of Versailles. Each estate was granted three hundred representatives, yet the Third Estate argued for six hundred for the reason that they make up 96% of French citizens. Though King Louis had allowed the Third Estate twice the number of representative members, voting was still done by the estate. The Third Estate was once again outnumbered by the Clergy and the Nobility. Four percent of the population of France outweighed the rest. No change was made to the voting.
Following the meeting in Versailles, the Third Estate was furious. On June 20, 1789, their representatives chose to hold a meeting amongst their own and declared themselves the National Assembly of France. However, to suppress defiance, the king had locked the meeting room of the National Assembly and made the false statement that repairs needed to be made there. Being outside of the meeting room did not slow the National Assemblys work, though. They held their meeting in an indoor tennis court that day. During their meeting, the group proclaimed the Tennis Court Oath. The English translation of the oath reads: We swear never to separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations . The National Assembly refused to stop working until a constitution was established.
After the meeting of the National Assembly on June 20th, rumors were spread that King Louis had continued trying to suppress the National Assembly. He had also dismissed Necker, his financial advisor after he suggested that the king help his citizens. These events provoked the Storming of the Bastille, a political prison. The event occurred on July 14th, in which revolutionaries stole weapons to protect themselves from threats received from the troops who tried to suppress them. The revolutionaries used their obtained weapons to shoot the mayor of Paris and put the Bastille governors head on a pike. This was the beginning of the real chaos of the French Revolution.
Months later, the National Assembly established the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was described as the draft of the new constitution. Along with that, rumors spread of the kings wife hoarding grain at the Palace of Versailles, while most of the country was starving. These rumors provoked the Womens March on Versailles on October 5th and 6th, 1789, where a great number of peasant women came chanting to the beat of a drum. The women demanded that the royal family move to Paris where they were unable to hoard goods. King Louis and Marie-Antoinette were then confined in the Tuileries Palace in Paris. After the events, the king had become emotionally paralyzed and left most decisions to the queen.
In 1791, the king and queen made a disastrous attempt to flee France disguised as servants, only making it as far as the town of Varennes where they were recognized. From there, they were arrested and brought back to Paris. Revolutionaries saw the escape attempt as the king abdicating himself from the throne, this resulted in the kings power being compromised to a constitutional monarch, leaving him only the powers of royal veto and the appointment of ministers. A radical political group, however, wanted to get rid of the king entirely and convert France to a republic. With this desire in mind, this political group, referred to as Jacobins, organized in Champ de Mars on July 17, 1791. They began collecting signatures in the Paris location to signify the fact that they believed France did not need a king. This event did not remain peaceful. Violence grew before the National Assembly sent troops in an attempt to control the crowd, yet the troops were provoked and eventually fired into the crowd, killing 50 people. This became known as the Champ de Mars Massacre.
Privileged classes in neighboring countries worried about revolutionary ideologies spreading to their own countries, and with fear that foreign nations would attack, the National Assembly declared war on Austria and attacked first. Soon after, Prussia joined the war on Austrias side, aiming to put King Louis back in full power and threatening revolutionaries. After hearing this, the French revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries, causing Louis to flee to the National Assemblys chamber, where the Jacobins continued to gain power. The king met with Robespierre, who presided over the Jacobins. The group then decided to hold a vote which resulted in the suspension of the monarchy, abolishing Louis’s title and power as king. Louis and Marie-Antoinette were then imprisoned in an ancient temple in Paris out of suspicion that Louis would seek assistance from foreign powers to put him back on the throne.
On September 22, 1792, about a month later, the newly established National Convention declared France as a republic. The new republic began to quickly remove any symbolism that was related to France’s old monarchy. Fear was implemented into the citizens that extreme punishment was to come for those who were suspected of opposing the revolution, mainly targeted towards the clergy and aristocrats. People were sent to prison by the thousands. The conspiracy then began to rise suspecting that those who were imprisoned would start a counter-revolution when freed by foreign enemy troops if they were to ever reach Paris. Out of fear, mobs stormed the prisons of Paris. They broke in and started what is known as the September Massacres, a period in which thousands of citizens, including women and children, were tried and executed immediately.
As stated before, Louiss allies had sworn to put him back on the throne once they won the war with France, and Robespierre chose to make that impossible by executing Louis. A vote was held once again on January 21, 1793. By a singular vote, Louis was sentenced to death by guillotine. He was executed later that day.
Though Louis was finally dead, the French government continued to struggle. War, counter-revolution, and worsening economy caused radicals to become fearful of the continuation of the revolution. This led to Robespierres call to arrest the moderates, completely putting a stop to their role as a political force. Robespierre and his radicals were then in almost total control. They quickly began to believe there were many anti-revolutionists within the country and grew weary, their solution to this was to execute citizens based on suspicion. This initiated the Reign of Terror. At the time, death sentences were being handed out at a special court established for trying suspected enemies in hopes of protecting the revolution. Robespierre had announced that Terror is the Order of the Day, intending to instill fear into any enemies. Spies were everywhere in France, watching the public closely, while the citizens had to be aware of what they said and how they behaved to avoid being executed. Minor offenses or even suspicions could cause anyone to be sent to the guillotine. About 40 thousand people were killed by so-called crimes against liberty that year. The most known victim of the Reign of Terror was Marie Antoinette, who was found guilty of treason and beheaded on October 16th, 1793.
While the Reign of Terror was still taking place, Frances food situation had improved and the French military had been mostly succeeding. Yet there was still more to be fixed. A fellow Jacobin working with Robespierre had suggested that he cease the Reign of Terror and end the costly war. In response to this, Robespierre executed him and continued to execute more innocent people. He had become mental and power-hungry. His greatest mistake, though, was on July 26, 1794, when he announced to that National Convention that he planned to execute many of its members. As one could imagine, the convention grew upset at this idea and voted to execute Robespierre, he was executed two days later after a suicide attempt. Maximilien Robespierre was the last victim of the Reign of Terror.
After Robespierres death, Thermadorians, a more moderate political group, then took control of the National Convention. In the year 1795, the Thermadorians drafted a new constitution and formed The Directory, which prevented power from being held by a single person. Royalists in Paris grew angry and staged an insurrection in Paris on October 5th, where citizens fought with the National Guard. Fortunately, Napoleon Bonaparte, a young captain, was present in Paris when the event took place. He was able to take control and put an end to the insurrection. For his actions, Bonaparte was given the role of a general. He took control of the French army in Italy. With his great skill in leading the military, Bonaparte almost single-handedly removed Austria from the war after marching to Vienna and signing a peace treaty with the country. Napoleon then became a well-known hero to the French public.
The new government of France, though, continued to struggle, and much of France was unorderly. However, when Napoleon returned to France, he noticed the condition of the government and established several power-hungry ideas. A politician had then approached him after hearing of his popularity and helped him stage a coup with intentions to dissolve The Directory and create a new constitution that turned Napoleon into a dictator. Following this event in 1799, Napoleon created a stable government as well as restored stability and equality within French society.
Works Cited
- French Revolution (Part 1) (Video). Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 25 Mar. 2010, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/1600s-1800s/french-revolution-tutorial/v/french-revolution-part-1.
- French Revolution (Part 2) (Video). Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 25 Mar. 2010, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/1600s-1800s/french-revolution-tutorial/v/french-revolution-part-2.
- History.com Editors. French Revolution. History.com, A
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