French Revolution Part I

İçindekiler:

• French Revolution Part I
• Causes of the Revolution
• Estates General
• Forming the National Assembly
• The National Assembly
• The Church
• Working on the Constitution
• Royal family tries to leave Paris
• Completing the Constitution
• French Revolution Part II

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The French Revolution was a revolution in France from 1789 to 1799. It led to the end of the monarchy, and to many wars. King Louis XVI was executed in 1793. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799. He became Emperor in 1804.

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Before 1789, France was ruled by the nobles and the Catholic Church. The ideas of the Enlightenment were beginning to make the ordinary people want more power. They could see that the American Revolution had created a country in which the people had power, instead of a king.

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Causes of the French Revolution

Many problems in France led up to the Revolution:

1- Under the Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, France had fought against Prussia and the British Empire in the Seven Years’ War. They also fought against Britain again in the American Revolution. They borrowed much money to pay for the wars, and the country became poor. The king and queen considered themselves representatives of God on earth and thus, did not pay attention to people’s sufferings.

2- The high price of bread and low wages given to workers caused the ordinary people to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. This made them dislike the rich nobles, who had the money to eat well and build huge houses.

3- The Roman Catholic Church, which owned the most land in France, put a tax on crops which hurt the poorest and hungriest people as they were not able to afford the tax.

4- Ideals of Enlightenment. Many people disliked absolute rule by the king and the nobility. They could see that in other countries, such as in the United States, which, in this time period, had just been formed, people like them had more power over the government. They also wanted freedom of religion.

5- The Clergy and the Nobility enjoyed all the privileges and rights but workers and peasants had to pay taxes.

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Estates General

There were three groups of people in France before the revolution. The first group was the Clergy. It made up 1 % of the population. The second group was the Nobility. They also made up 1 % of the population. The other nearly 98 % of the population was in the Third Group. Representatives of the people from all three groups together made up the Estates-General. It was a kind of parliament.

In May 1789, the Estates-General was called by the King in order to deal with the financial problems of the country. They met at the royal Palace of Versailles. However, the members of the Third Group were angry. They had made lists of their problems.

The members of the Third Group were angry that they were being taxed the most when they were the poorest group of people. They, and the Director-General of Finances, Jacques Necker, thought the Church and the Nobility ought to be taxed more.

They also wanted votes in the Estates-General to be more fair. Even though the Third Group had many more members than the other two Groups, each Group only had one vote in the Estates-General. The Third Group thought this could be improved by giving members of the Estates-General a vote each. However, when they talked to the other Groups, they could not reach an agreement.

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Forming the National Assembly

Since the First and Second Groups would not listen, the Third Group decided to break away and start their own assembly where every member would get a vote. On 10 June 1789, they started the National Assembly. The king tried to stop them by closing the meeting room, but they met in an indoor tennis court instead. On June 20, they took the Tennis Court Oath, where they promised to work until they had created a new constitution for France.

The storming of the Bastille
In July 1789, after the National Assembly was formed, the nobility and the king were angry with Jacques Necker, the Director-General of Finances, and they fired him. Many Parisians thought that the King was going to shut down the National Assembly. Soon, Paris was filled with riots and looting.

On 14 July 1789, the people decided to attack the Bastille prison. The Bastille contained weapons. It was also a symbol of the power of the nobility and the rule of the king. By the afternoon, the people had broken into the Bastille and released the seven prisoners (who were) being held there.

The Members of the Third Group took over Paris. The president of the National Assembly, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, became the mayor of the city. Jacques Necker was given back his job as Director-General of Finances. Soon, the King visited Paris and wore the red cap of liberty that the revolutionaries were wearing. By the end of July, the revolution had spread all over France.

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The National Assembly

The National Assembly began to make lots of changes. On 4 August, the National Assembly ended the special taxes (which) the Church was collecting, and the rights of the Nobility over their people, ending feudalism. On 26 August, the National Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was written by the nobleman Marquis de Lafayette.

The National Assembly began to decide how it would be under the new constitution. Many members, especially the nobles, wanted a senate or a second upper house. However, more people voted to keep having just one assembly. The King was given a suspensive veto over laws, which meant he would only have the power to delay laws being made, not stop them. In October 1789, after being attacked at the Palace of Versailles by a mob of 7,000 women, the King was convinced by Lafayette to move from Paris to the palace in Tuileries.

The Assembly began to divide into different political parties. One was made up of those against the revolution, led by the nobleman Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazales and the churchman Jean-Sifrien Maury.  A second party was the Royalist democrats (monarchists) who wanted to create a system like the constitutional monarchy of Britain, where the king would still be a part of the government. Jacques Necker was in this party. The third party was the National Party. This included Honoré Mirabeau and Lafayette.

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The Church

Under the new government, the Roman Catholic Church would have much less power than they had before. In 1790, all special taxes and powers of the Church were cancelled. All the Church’s property was taken over by the state. On 12 July 1790, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made all clergy employees of the state and made them take an oath to the new constitution. Many clergy, as well as the Pope, Pius VI, did not like these changes. Revolutionaries killed hundreds for refusing the oath.

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Working on the Constitution

On 14 July 1790, a year after the storming of the Bastille, thousands of people gathered in the Champs de Mars to celebrate. The crowd, including the King and the royal family, took an oath of loyalty to “the nation, the law, and the king.” However, many nobles were unhappy with the revolution and were leaving the country. They were called émigrés (emigrants).

Although the members of the Estates-General had been elected only for a year, the members of the Assembly had all taken the Tennis Court Oath. They had promised to keep working until they had a constitution. But no constitution had been made yet. It was decided that the members would keep working until they had a constitution.

The Assembly continued to work on a constitution and make changes. Nobles could no longer pass their titles to their children. Only the king was allowed to do this. For the first time, trials with juries were held. All trade barriers inside France were ended along with unions, guilds, and workers’ groups. Strikes were banned. In 1791, a law to prevent noble émigrés from leaving the country was passed.

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Royal family tries to leave Paris

Louis XVI did not like the revolution, but he did not want to get help from other countries or run away from France like the émigrés. General Bouille held the same views and wanted to help the king leave Paris. He said that he would give the King and his family help and support in his camp at Montmédy. The escape was planned for June 20, 1791. Dressed as servants, the royal family left Paris. However, their escape was not well-planned, and they were arrested at Varennes on the evening of June 21. The royal family was brought back to Paris. The Assembly imprisoned Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette, and suspended the king from his duty.

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Completing the Constitution

Although the king had tried to escape, most members of the Assembly still wanted to include the king in their government rather than to have a Republic with no king at all. They agreed to make the king a figurehead, with very little power. The king would have to take an oath to the state. If he did not, or if he created an army to attack France, he would no longer be king.

Some people, including Jacques Pierre Brissot, did not like this. They thought the king should be completely removed from the throne and the constitution. Brissot made a petition and a huge crowd came to the Champs de Mars to sign it. Republican leaders Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins came and gave speeches.

The National Guard, led by Lafayette, was called in to control the crowd. The mob threw stones at the soldiers who first fired their guns over the heads of the crowd. When the crowd kept throwing stones, Lafayette ordered them to fire at the people. Up to 50 people were killed. After this, the government closed many of the political clubs and newspapers. Many radical left-wing leaders, including Danton and Desmoulins, ran away to England or hid in France.

Finally the constitution was completed. Louis XVI was put back on the throne and came to take his oath to it.  The National Assembly decided that it would stop governing France on 29 September 1791. After that date, the Legislative Assembly would take over.

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⇒ French Revolution Part II