French Revolution

The French Revolution is not an isolated movement. It is set in a framework of revolutions that began in North America in 1770, spreading then. Reached England and Ireland (1781-1782), the Netherlands (1783-1787), Belgium (1787-1790) and Genoa (1782).Once started in France (1789), reached the Rhine region of Germany, the Netherlands (1795), Northern Italy (1796) and Switzerland (1798).

The scene above is a classic Prieur and is one of the most important moments of the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, the people take the Bastille, the prison-symbol of the oppression of absolutism of the Bourbons. It was the French Revolution one of the high points of the Atlantic Revolutions, meaning the hardest blow to the Ancien Regime. Ten years later, she would end up in the hands of one man: Napoleon Bonaparte.

Factors

The reasons that led the French Revolution are identical to factors of all revolutionary movements in the late eighteenth century.

The European population had grown extraordinarily during the seventeenth century.There was an increase in the consumption of goods and also the number of producers. In the field, 155 new land cultivation methods, and especially new products allow more fattening of animals. We see an improvement in the food at the population level.

The Industrial Revolution increased the production of manufactured goods, lowering prices and stimulating consumption.

This economic development gave power to the bourgeoisie, now want political power, monopolized by the nobility. On the other hand, the peasants who owned land wanted to free themselves from feudal obligations that were the masters.

From 1770, there successive crises. Lack agricultural products and the prices are exorbitant, leading to riots.

Philosophers enjoy these social problems in their criticism. Present and radical solutions, especially Rousseau, when he preaches the political sovereignty of the people.

The ideas of the philosophers are disseminated by cultural societies formed at the time: reading rooms, lodges, agrarian societies.

It is doubtful the possibility of a revolutionary outbreak without a political crisis. Thus, one must consider that wars lead to financial chaos. Sovereign increase taxes, taxing nobles and clergy, hitherto exempt. This measure provoked general revolt privilegiados- bodies

In France, all these factors are particularly serious, which explains the violent character of the Revolution acquired in that country. Its population was the largest in Europe and could not be sustained properly. The rich and progressive bourgeoisie was excluded from a more systematic political power than in other countries of Europe. The peasants were increasingly aware of the situation and less willing to bear the feudal fees. Nowhere in Europe philosophers were so read as in France. The participation of France in the wars of the American Revolution completed the financial ruin of the state.

Several other problems combine to make even more acute crisis. The agreement made in 1786, opening the French market to the English, bankrupted many industries because of competition. The bad harvest of 1788 year generated hunger.

Winter 1789 was very strict. All this resulted a mass of beggars who roamed the fields, famished. The revolts succeeded in cities.

of competition. The bad harvest of 1788 year generated hunger.

Winter 1789 was very strict. All this resulted a mass of beggars who roamed the fields, famished. The revolts succeeded in cities.

the French Revolution phases

Prerevolutionary:

One way to try to ease the tense situation that existed between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy was to convene the meeting of the Estates General, which not met since 1614, in order to re-evaluate the financial situation and decide on whom the increase in taxes would be higher . This was composed of three states: the first and most important (even if minority), high and low clergy; the second also important, the nobility of blood and the toga, and finally the people, including the bourgeoisie. Of course there were more representatives of the people and it would be normal that their opinion prevailed, leading thus the clergy and nobility to pay higher taxes. What they did not expect is that the vote be by states (three votes), which led them to defeat, and once again the increase in taxes.

The storming of the Bastille:

After invading the pelota game room and require a constitution to France, a National Constituent Assembly formed state, the people and the bourgeoisie gained increasing support.They had the army as his ally, which provided them with weapons, and a new army of the people. And on 14 July, the rebellion is consummated. The fortress of the Bastille was taken. There, they managed more weapons and freed many prisoners. After that, the disorder took over the entire French territory.Looting took place in the great feudal castles and markets, and along with it, people felt more fear.

revolutionary:

National Constituent Assembly:

Workers' rights were restored by abolishing the privileges granted to the feudal lords. Forced by the revolutionaries, Louis XVI signed the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights.Within the principles of liberalism espoused by the bourgeoisie, the Constituent eliminated the absolute monarchy, the Estates General, orders, privileges, feudalism. In its place established the constitutional monarchy, the sovereignty of the nation embodied by the Assembly, equality of all before the law, citizenship and the division of powers.

Now, with the three powers with their proper functions and unjust laws being repealed, the fight became the power in the National Assembly, Legislative now, with the census vote. They were mainly two political groups: the Girondins and the Jacobins. The last owners of the proposals was very radical, as no wars while not solve the internal problems, however, were a minority in the Assembly.

External conflicts of the time were against the absolutist monarchies neighboring France, which threatened in the invasion to prevent the liberalizing measures. They feared that the Enlightenment and the French Revolution ideas radiate for their countries and, in the Declaration of Pillnitz, decided to put their ideas into practice.

Within the country, the situation escaped the control of the Girondins. The financial crisis has increased, as well as inflation. At the same time, there was an army formed also by emigrant noble marching through France. All this encouraged the Jacobins to bring weapons into the hands of the people and declare the "fatherland in danger."

was fought a war between the army of the emigres and the people's army. The first was won when he was at the gates of Paris, and then the king was accused of treason to act against their own country and was declared a republic. The king and the royal family were taken prisoner.

The National Convention: Jacobin Terror

The "sans-culottes" took the Paris Commune (ie the city) and there installed a "Insurrectionary Commune", expelling legal authorities and facing the Legislature.Hundreds of "suspects" were arrested. From September 2, revolutionary groups "sans-culottes" stormed the cells and summarily killed prisoners. In four days, 1,300 people were killed in massacres that became known as the first "terror".

The Jacobins were still minority in the meetings, but from now constituted the "mountain" for sit on the highest part of the building. They now demanded the beheading of the king as a symbol of the end of the Girondist supremacy in the French Revolution.

On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI "lost his head" in the literal sense of the word. This led to the formation of the First Coalition, in several European countries, worried about their future with the rise of bourgeois France, and their respective competition. With the support of the popular classes, the Committee of Public Safety has mobilized all the nation's resources to fight the tough coalition that fought against France (England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Holland, Spain, Portugal, German states and Italian states), establishing food shortages and mass population call for war.

With the support of the popular classes, the Committee of Public Safety has mobilized all the nation's resources to fight the tough coalition that fought against France (England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Holland, Spain, Portugal, German states and Italian states), establishing food shortages and mass population call for war.

Pressured by the agitation of the sans-culottes, that a new popular journey surrounded the Convention demanding bread and guillotine for traitors, the Committee of Public Safety created a revolutionary army inside to stop the speculators goods, reorganized the Revolutionary Court to increase its effectiveness and set the "maximum" general law which regulated the general taxation of prices and wages. In the field, the vestiges of feudalism were abolished without compensation and properties of noble emigres divided into plots and sold to farmers. Such measures contradicted the ideas of the leaders of the French Revolution that in economic matters were liberal, even mountaineers.

In early 1794, quelled the revolt of the Vendee and away the danger of invasion of France by the coalition of European monarchies, the Terror turned against the factions among the mountaineers themselves. So, they were taken to the guillotine moderate Danton and his followers, the radicals led by Hébert, the remaining group attached to Robespierre.Backed by Saint Just and Couthon, Robespierre sought to redistribute property and create a new religion, the cult of the "Supreme Being." Ahead of the Convention, Robespierre did not hesitate to be used of Terror and the Dictatorship to win the foreign war and overcome the internal enemies of the French Revolution.

Hillside government adopted measures that favored the population, as the law of the maximum price, which defined prices various products, and the abolition of slavery in the colonies. Also concerned to end the supremacy of the Catholic religion.

The problem of fighting between the revolutionaries was settled by Robespierre in a practical way: he ordered the execution of both leaders, both the radical, Hébert, as indulgent, Danton. The execution of Danton, of Hébert and thousands of others have made Robespierre lost the support of the sans-culottes and much of the Convention members, unhappy with the radicalization of its policy. a quick maneuver, the deputies of the plain, overthrew Robespierre and his followers, running them the next day.

The directory:

It was characterized by the supremacy Girondist, who suffered threats from European countries, the opposition of the Jacobins, left, and realistic. In 1796, journalist Gracchus Babeuf organized the "Conspiracy of Equals" intending to create an egalitarian Republic, extinguishing the individual property, but was arrested and shot. From an economic point of view, France was in a calamitous state: high inflation, ports and roads destroyed, disorganized public service and ruined industries.

Externally, it formed the second. Coalition against France (England, Austria, Russia, Sardinia, Kingdom of Naples and Turkey). 0 Directory came to depend increasingly on its army, where this cava an ambitious young general - Napoleon Bonaparte - already tested in the wars of the "revolutionary government".

Later, the Girondins desfecharam a blow to the directory with Bonaparte ahead, the so-called coup do18 Brumaire. This was followed by the formation of a new form of government, the Consulate, consisting of three representatives, but with power concentrated in the hands of Napoleon.

Conclusion:    

At the end of the French Revolution, there is a change in the point of view of the nobles and representatives of the clergy. Poorer French passed sad and frightening situations, but sought their rights and were able to be seen as who they really were, people like any other, they deserved due respect and rights granted by national laws.

Category: General history