The French Revolution led to 1799 nevertheless it nonetheless issues at this time. Understanding its key occasions and figures will provide you with perception into the way it formed fashionable France, from the autumn of the monarchy to the revolutionary streak the French nonetheless exhibit at this time.
No, you don’t HAVE to know these information in regards to the French Revolution while you go to France.
However in the event you do know them, they’ll assist you to perceive why France is the best way it’s – why we’re at all times taking to the streets, why we not have a king, how we ended up with Napoleon… together with the heroes and heroines behind practically each avenue identify.
It’s a time period we bandy about so much, the “French Revolution”, a little bit of a catchall for the whole lot that’s each proper and fallacious in my nation. However realizing slightly one thing about this cornerstone occasion means you’ll get pleasure from your go to much more.
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What precisely was the French Revolution?
Regardless of the particulars, it turned France the other way up.
Strange residents challenged the facility of the king and the the Aristocracy, and absorbed new concepts put forth in the course of the Enlightenment. It was a dramatic chapter in France’s historical past and it might reshape the nation, to not point out the world, inspiring future actions for democracy and human rights.
However let’s backtrack a bit.
The nation had gone into large debt from the Seven Years’ Conflict and the cash it spent on the American Revolution, so the favored finance minister had been dismissed, the economic system was in a large number, and other people had been hungry and resentful in direction of those that ate their fill.
It was determined to reconvene Parliament to attempt to type issues.
For hundreds of years, France had had a so-called parliament: the Estates-Normal, which represented the three “estates”, or ranges of society. The First Property (clergy) and Second Property (the Aristocracy) loved a lifetime of wealth and privilege, whereas the biggest, the Third Property (commoners), paid essentially the most tax and had little political energy.
This parliament might have existed on paper, however in actuality, the Estates-Normal hadn’t met in 175 years. It was a bit rusty, but it was supposed to repair the nation’s funds. It could after all fail, opening large the door to revolution.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: A SNAPSHOT
- Revolutionary rumblings would start to unfold round 1787
- By 1789, the monarchy could be overthrown
- For ten months in 1793-94, a violent Reign of Terror would result in hundreds of executions
- A five-member Directorate would take energy however and final from 1795-99
- A military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte would overthrow it in 1799, changing the Directorate with a Consulate. Napoleon would develop into First Consul and crown himself Emperor in 1804.
These had been the times when philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu all referred to as for a extra egalitarian society. They criticized absolute monarchy and championed the Enlightenment beliefs of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
These beliefs would supply a type of mental justification for the overthrow of the previous order and the creation of a brand new one, which might be based mostly on purpose and justice.
No less than that was the idea, and naturally it did not fairly prove that method.
Why do you have to care?
Wherever you flip in France, you’ll come nose to nose with some aspect of the Revolution. So in the event you come right here, and even in the event you’re studying about France out of curiosity, you will perceive the nation much better and extra shortly if you recognize one thing about one of many largest occasions in our historical past.
- It gave us a few of our most memorable tales: the ladies’s march on Versailles, the absurd wealth of Marie-Antoinette, the beheading of Louis XVI, the autumn of Robespierre and the rise of Napoleon. All this was extra than simply human drama: it was epoch-changing upheaval performed out on what was then a world stage.
- It overhauled human rights. France had a feudal system earlier than the Revolution, with the the Aristocracy and the clergy on the high, on the expense of the general public. With notions of equality contained within the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, our invoice of rights could be born.
- The Revolution unfold from France. It fueled the Haitian Revolution, impressed the Latin American wars of independence, and influenced European political pondering for generations.
- With the storming of the Bastille, revolutionaries weren’t simply breaking into a jail – they had been making an assault on oppression and disparity. Take Versailles: while you go to, you’ll discover it opulent, completely over-the-top. Think about how individuals should have felt watching royalty cavort within the gardens whereas they fought to seek out bread for his or her households!
- It offered us with new ideas corresponding to secularism, nationalism, and the separation of church and state.
- For higher or worse, the best way we structured our future Nationwide Meeting set the scene for parliaments worldwide.
- The Revolution created artwork, which depicted revolutionary fervor and beliefs. Jacques-Louis David’s work are typical of the Revolution.
- In every single place you flip, you’ll see names – on streets, retailers, metro stations – linked to the Revolution. As you navigate throughout France, take a look at these avenue names and ask your self: “Who had been these individuals?” A lot of them would have been revolutionaries.
Versailles depicted unimaginable wealth. Rumors of gold and crystal rooms had made their method by society, even to the poorest, who might not settle for the disparities.10 Intriguing information in regards to the French Revolution
The Revolution was central to what France is at this time, however past the historical past books, there are tales. Many tales., and listed here are just some of them.
1. The French hated Marie-Antoinette (usually due to faux information)
King Louis XVI merely couldn’t get the economic system beneath management. Having sacked his finance minister, he dug in his heels, and the extra stubbornly he clung to energy, the extra his authority weakened.
His eventual (and unsuccessful) try and flee France together with his household and search overseas assist made him much more of a pariah determine.
If something, Queen Marie-Antoinette embodied the hated elitist regime greater than her husband, and when individuals sought a scapegoat for his or her troubles, they turned to the foreigner.
To them, she represented royal extra and insensitivity, main a lifetime of luxurious and extravagance whereas they starved. The well-known however in all probability unfaithful phrase “Allow them to eat cake” confirmed how disconnected the monarchy was from the individuals’s struggling.
Additionally, the truth that she was Austrian made individuals suspicious. She was accused of meddling in state affairs and blamed for most of the monarchy’s unpopular selections.
However she was additionally blamed for issues she didn’t do.
Portrait of Marie-Antoinette by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis. It now hangs at Versailles Palace. Photograph APK CC BY-SA 4.0Probably the most well-known instance is undoubtedly the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
A grasping girl at court docket had solid her eye upon an costly diamond necklace. It had initially been crafted for Marie-Antoinette, however the Queen turned it down due to its price. The courtier in query, Jeanne de la Motte, solid the Queen’s signature and satisfied a gullible cardinal to assist her purchase the jewellery. As soon as the fraud turned public, Marie-Antoinette was by some means blamed, although she knew nothing about it.
Nonetheless, honest or not, her extreme way of life didn’t assist her recognition. Revolutionary propaganda exaggerated issues and branded her as manipulative and morally corrupt, in order that by the point of her execution, she was certainly despised.
Louis XVI was decapitated on 21 January 1793, and his spouse, Marie Antoinette, on 16 October the identical yr.
2. How an obscure provincial lawyer turned accountable for hundreds of deaths in the course of the Reign of Terror
Maximilien de Robespierre was a small-town lawyer who turned influential by his robust beliefs in equality and justice for unusual individuals.
But it surely all went terribly fallacious.
In 1793, he joined the highly effective Committee of Public Security, a bunch accountable for the nation’s defence and inner safety. Below his management, the committee would root out and punish anybody thought of an enemy of the Revolution. This may spiral right into a ten-month interval referred to as the Reign of Terror, throughout which hundreds would die by the guillotine, together with former allies and harmless residents.
Regardless of the Reign of Terror he ushered in and the numerous deaths for which he was accountable, Robespierre’s identify graces avenue plaques throughout France, principally due to his beliefs of equality and justice (irrespective of how wrongly they had been ultimately utilized)Robespierre believed that excessive measures had been justified to realize a simply and equal society, and that extremism would make sure the survival of the brand new authorities. For him, terror was a device for good – it might shield the Revolution and preserve it pure.
Ultimately, the widespread worry and the fixed executions (17,000 “enemies” had been guillotined) started to show individuals towards Robespierre. Many noticed his excessive actions as a betrayal of the revolution’s authentic beliefs of liberty and justice.
In July 1794, in a basic case of what goes round comes round, he too was led to the guillotine and executed by his former colleagues, marking the top of the Reign of Terror.
It’s 28 July 1794 and Robespierre, sitting on the cart, is awaiting his execution. He’s wearing brown, is carrying a hat and holding a handkerchief to his mouth. Augustin, his youthful brother, is climbing the scaffold steps.3. The Revolution upended the highly effective Catholic church
Earlier than the Revolution, the Catholic Church had been essentially the most highly effective establishment within the land (after the French monarchy, after all).
The revolutionary authorities was eager on casting off the clergy and separating church and state.
A brand new legislation, the Civil Structure of the Clergy, tried to reorganize the church based mostly on France’s administrative divisions (the then 83 departments – at this time we have now 101). The individuals would elect one bishop per division, and the French authorities would pay their wage.
The federal government then abolished the tithes (which earned the Church its earnings) and took over its lands, injecting a sizeable chunk of wealth into revolutionary coffers alongside the best way.
Clergy had been required to take an oath of allegiance to the state or lose their parishes: solely half did so, tearing the Church aside. Then, the Pope condemned the state’s demand, and a holy mess ensued, with non-oath-taking clergymen punished as enemies of the state.
The disarray would solely finish beneath Napoleon, whose Concordat of 1801 dedicated each side to compromises, ending the schism.
In an intriguing apart, the chief of the Revolution, Robespierre, tried to switch Catholicism with one thing referred to as the Cult of the Supreme Being. This concerned a pageant, led by Robespierre prancing round in a toga. What a sight that should have been.
As soon as Robespierre died, the cult died with him.
The Pageant of the Supreme Being. Portray by Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1794), by way of Wikimedia Commons4. Napoleon would by no means have gained energy with out the Revolution
Napoleon Bonaparte was a product of the Revolution, which modified society and changed start with expertise because the prerequisite for getting forward (more often than not, anyway). This allowed an unknown Corsican officer – gifted with a superb strategic thoughts – to achieve prominence by army victories, even with out the suitable household connections.
Napoleon was so good at successful wars that he ultimately staged a coup d’état, overthrowing the federal government and establishing himself initially as First Consul, and ultimately as Emperor.
By promising to not reverse the positive aspects of the Revolution, issues like secularism and the abolishment of the feudal regime, he gained the assist of all those that had benefited from these reforms.
With out the Revolution, it’s secure to say there would in all probability have been no Napoleon. There would have been no want for a powerful chief to wean France from the violence and finish the chaos.
Napoleon in Lyon, overseeing his troops earlier than the Egyptian marketing campaign which might assist cement his fame. Photograph Archives municipales de Lyon by way of Wikimedia Commons5. The Revolution gave ladies equality (after which took it away)
In October 1789, within the early days of the Revolution, hundreds of ladies marched to Versailles to demand bread and drive the royal household to maneuver again to Paris the place the individuals might regulate them.
Two years later, the author Olympe de Gouges revealed the Declaration on the Rights of the Girl and Citizen, declaring the complete equality of ladies, a radical thought on the time.
Earlier than the Revolution, ladies had been thought of minors, much like youngsters. They could not inherit property, take part absolutely in public life, or make essential selections with out the permission of their fathers or husbands.
The Revolution modified all that: new legal guidelines restricted the facility of males over their households, legalized divorce, and at last gave ladies the suitable to conduct all kinds of enterprise with out male permission. The brand new legal guidelines additionally decriminalized homosexuality and eliminated the requirement for single or widowed ladies to declare their pregnancies beneath menace of dying.
However these positive aspects wouldn’t final.
By 1793, there was a backlash and ladies had been once more excluded from political life, their golf equipment shut down, and plenty of of their new rights taken away. Issues turned even worse beneath Napoleon, who made ladies authorized minors once more.
Nonetheless, the Revolution did lay the groundwork for future feminist actions, although main advances in ladies’s rights must wait practically a century.
6. The guillotine was not invented in the course of the Revolution
There’s a widespread perception that the guillotine was invented in the course of the French Revolution however… no.
This instrument of execution had an extended historical past: decapitation machines already existed within the sixteenth century in Italy (the mannaia) and in Scotland (“The Maiden”). A sure Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin used them for inspiration for his personal machine, designed as a humane methodology of execution to offer a fast and “painless” dying. (Earlier than the guillotine, executions had been brutal and infrequently botched, extra a type of torture than of dying.)
The final execution by guillotine would happen in 1977, and the contraption, together with the dying penalty, could be outlawed in 1981.
The guillotine is taken into account as a merciless type of execution, but it was initially designed to be humane in a brutal period7. One revolutionary chief carried out enterprise from his bathtub
Jean-Paul Marat was a outstanding revolutionary chief and journalist in the course of the Revolution.
He had a extreme pores and skin situation that compelled him to spend so much of his time within the bathtub, so he used it as his workplace. However that didn’t cease him from being a fervent advocate for the Revolution, penning inflammatory articles and rallying the individuals from the underside of his tub.
All this led to July 1793 when Charlotte Corday, a younger girl who opposed his radicalism, talked her method into his residence (she pretended she was delivering essential info) and stabbed him whereas he was bathing.
The assassination turned one of many Revolution’s most symbolic occasions: Marat was attacked whereas defenceless, and portrayed as a martyr who died for his beliefs. The truth that his murderer was a lady got here at a time when gender roles had been being revisited: to some, she was a hero, however to others, she was undermining the Revolution.
The occasion was immortalized in Jacques-Louis David’s iconic portray, “The Demise of Marat”.
8. One of the crucial essential revolutionary selections passed off on a tennis court docket
Within the Revolution’s early days, in June 1789, the “individuals” and their allies, the Third Property, had been planning to satisfy however once they confirmed up on the assembly corridor, the doorways had been locked and guarded by royal troops who wouldn’t allow them to in.
As an alternative, they gathered in one in every of Versailles’ indoor tennis courts and vowed they wouldn’t go away till that they had drafted a brand new French structure.
This act of defiance turned referred to as the Tennis Courtroom Oath, or the “Serment du Jeu de Paume” once more commemorated by artist Jacques-Louis David. It could develop into, just like the taking of the Bastille two weeks later, a serious image of the Revolution.
Le Serment du Jeu de Paume. Bailly, standing on a desk, going through the spectator, Robespierre on his proper, Maupetit invalid, on the left, led on a chair, three males of the Clergy (common, secular and pastor) within the heart in entrance of Bailly. Portray by Jean-Louis David9. The Revolution overhauled France’s measuring techniques
A significant objective of the Revolution was change, usually for its personal sake, discarding the previous and embracing the brand new, whether or not it made sense or not. Typically, although, it was merely a case of casting off something hinting at faith or royalty.
Among the adjustments could be enduring and sensible, just like the metric system, whereas others, just like the revolutionary calendar, could be short-lived.
France earlier than the Revolution was a patchwork of provinces with many techniques, together with measurements. Give it some thought: earlier than the Revolution, not less than 250,000 completely different weights and measures had been in use. No marvel the Revolution wished to standardize issues!
In 1795, it did simply that.
A brand new measuring system was developed by the most effective of the Enlightenment thinkers. The metric system could be based mostly on nature, and the meter could be one ten-millionth of the gap from the North Pole to the equator. Each measure could be based mostly on the decimal system, at all times being a a number of of 10 – 10 millimeters in a centimeter, 1000 grams in a kilogram, and so forth.
Individuals usually dislike change and there was loads of pushback. Napoleon even deserted the system in 1812, however like many good concepts, it resurfaced till lastly, in 1840, it was reinstated and is now a cornerstone of commerce and science worldwide.
Much less lucky was the destiny of the brand new revolutionary calendar.
The French Republican Calendar was additionally based mostly on the decimal system, however this went too far.
Each month had precisely 30 days, made up of three “many years” of ten days every (somewhat than the normal seven-day week). Every day had ten hours, an hour had 100 minutes, and a minute had 100 seconds.
The brand new system additionally gave every month a brand new identify reflecting the climate round Paris, then, as now, thought of the middle of the universe. So February, or components of it, could be referred to as Ventôse, from the phrase for windy. And July-ish could be referred to as Thermidor, from the Greek for summer season warmth.
It may need made sense on paper however… surprise, shock: it was impractical, unpopular, and was deserted in 1805.
It could resurface for a couple of days in 1871 in the course of the Paris Commune, however quickly disappear, by no means to be heard from once more.
10. The 2024 Paris Olympic mascot is definitely a revolutionary image
Often known as the “Liberty Cap,” the purple Phrygian Cap symbolized freedom and resistance to oppression. In 2024, it was adopted because the “mascot” of the Olympics and Paralympics, a well-recognized French image. France determined it might have a logo for its video games somewhat than the normal animal mascot.
The cap has its roots in Antiquity and have become synonymous with freedom in Roman instances. Through the French Revolution, it turned a image of freedom for revolutionaries.
1793
2024Earlier than you go…
Now that you recognize the whole lot (virtually) in regards to the French Revolution, put your information to the take a look at subsequent time you go to Paris by hopping on one of many a number of glorious French Revolution excursions being provided within the capital.
A whole lot of the websites could also be extra significant when you perceive the historical past behind them.
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