The French Revolution: 1789 - 1799

The Fall of the Bastille

Major transformation of the society and political system of France, lasting from 1789 to 1799. During the course of the Revolution, France was temporarily transformed from an absolute monarchy, where the king monopolized power, to a republic of theoretically free and equal citizens. The effects of the French Revolution were widespread, both inside and outside of France, and the Revolution ranks as one of the most important events in the history of Europe. One of the most important events in European History.

Louis XVI

Louis XVI might have been an o.k. constitutional monarch. He was kind and stupid at the same time. Louis limitations helped bring about the French Revolution. In addition to his "qualities", his unpopular wife, Marie Antoinette, whom the French nicknamed "The Austrian Whore", was unhappy with her marriage to the sexually impotent Louis. Their marriage - like others throughout royal Europe - was meant to further the relationship between France and Austria. We don't really know if she really said, "Let them Eat Cake", but she was insensitive to the people of France. She used to dress up, and made her ladies-in-waiting do the same, dress up in peasant clothing and they would pretend that they were peasants, peasants in Versailles. The major problem facing the monarchy was financial. The French Monarchy was bankrupt in 1789 - France was not. Throughout the 18th century France was at war with Britain in a series of Wars that spanned from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the 1750s. In addition to that, France was indebted because they were helping the Americans in their war for independence.

By 1789 many French people had become critical of the monarchy, even though it had been largely successful in militarily defending France and in quelling domestic religious and political violence. They resented the rising and unequal taxes, the persecution of religious minorities, and government interference in their private lives. These resentments, coupled with an inefficient government and an antiquated legal system, made the government seem increasingly illegitimate to the French people. The royal court at Versailles, which had been developed to impress the French people and Europe generally, came to symbolize the waste and corruption of the entire Old Regime.

During the 18th century, criticism of the French monarchy also came from people who worked for the Old Regime. Some of the king’s own ministers criticized past practices and proposed reforms, but a more influential source of dissent was the parlements, 13 regional royal courts led by the Parlement of Paris. The parlements were empowered to register royal decrees, and all decrees had to be registered by the parlements before becoming law. In this capacity, the parlements frequently protested royal initiatives that they believed to threaten the traditional rights and liberties of the people. In widely distributed publications, they held up the image of a historically free France and denounced the absolute rule of the crown that in their view threatened traditional liberties by imposing religious orthodoxy and new taxes.

These protests blended with those of others, most notably an influential group of professional intellectuals called the philosophes. 

The discontent of the French people might not have brought about a political revolution if there had not been a fiscal crisis in the late 1780s. Like so much else in the Old Regime, the monarchy’s financial system was inefficient and antiquated. France had neither a national bank nor a centralized national treasury. The nobility and clergy—many of them very wealthy—paid substantially less in taxes than other groups, notably the much poorer peasantry. Similarly, the amount of tax charged varied widely from one region to another.

In 1787, Louis XVI called an Assembly of Notables, made up of members of the first and second estate. The purpose of this is to see if they would accept to be taxed. They refused. This marked the beginning of the end of Louis XVI. Ironically, when the nobles called upon the Estates - General an institution that consisted of all three estates, and had not been called in 1614, they made their own downfall. This because since each estate got 1 vote the first (clergy) along with the second (nobility), would gang up on the third (commons) and the haves would dominate the agenda. But as soon as Louis called upon the Estates-General in 1788 they immediately set upon to restructure the voting system in order to give the third estate more benefits. As the Abbé Siéyés wrote:

                                                What is the Third Estate? Everything.

                                                What has it been? Nothing.

                                                What does it want? To become something.

By the end of 1788, the King agreed to double the number of the representatives of the Third Estate, which didn't mean anything since the estates cast votes by estate as unit, not by individual votes. The Estates-General came up with the Cahiers de doléances, or list of grievances: wanted equal taxes for everyone, called for regular meetings of the Estates-General, and lessening in absolutism.

On May 5, 1789 the first day that the Estates met, Louis pissed off the third estate by making them wait for hours because he was reviewing the credentials of the first two estates. On June 17, the Third Estate declared that it would meet as the National Assembly representing the political will of the entire French nation. The poor members of the First estate, like parish priests left and went to join the Third in the National Assembly. Then they gathered at the Tennis Court of Versailles, and did the Tennis Court Oath: meet "until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon solid foundations." On June 27, a desperate Louis agreed to the idea of the new national assembly.

In Paris people were starving there was an out-of-hand food shortage. Rumors were that the King was not interested in meeting with the national assembly and was instead scrambling troops that would be used to destroy the assembly and once again put in royal absolutism. This panicked the people. A crowd of around 80,000 people went to Bastille - a symbol of royal despotism - demanded the surrender of the fortress so that they could get weapons. When Louis asked, "Is this a revolt?", in response they told him, "No sire, It is a revolution."

Then he recognized the Commune of Paris, a municipal gov't. He also agreed to the creation of the National Guard headed by the Marquis de Lafayette.

In the countryside, a general panic, known as the Great Fear took shape, which included rumors that the nobility were getting thugs to steal from the peasants. In response peasants began to attack the great noble estates. On August 4, the aristocrats in the National Assembly renounced their feudal rights.

The Revolution had begun...