Introduction

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The people of France overthrew their ancient government in 1789. They took as their slogan the famous phrase "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité"—Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Equality, or doing away with privilege, was the most of import part of the slogan to the French revolutionists. For equality they were willing to sacrifice their political liberty. They did this when they accepted the rule of Napoleon I. Fraternity, or brotherhood with all men, was also sacrificed. However, they did win equality before the law.

Why the French Wanted Equality

The French had good reasons for wanting equality. Before 1789 inequality was typical of the old government. The nobles and clergy were the privileged orders. They were exempt from such direct taxes every bit the taille, or country tax. Most taxes were paid by the 3rd Estate—a class that included peasants, artisans, merchants, and professional men. Even among these groups taxes were not equal. Some provinces were exempt from sure assessments, such every bit the gabelle, or salt tax. In addition, the drove of some taxes was fabricated by contractors or tax farmers, and the taxation gatherers collected whatever they could.

Other Inequalities

There were social and economic inequalities likewise equally political ones. The peasant suffered under the burden of out-of-date feudal ante. These were collected with renewed vigor by the nobles in the latter part of the 18th century. Rabbits might destroy the peasant's garden and pigeons consume his grain, but he must not impale them. They were protected for the lord'due south hunting. The peasant's fences were broken downwardly and his crops trampled in the chase, merely he could claim no damages. In add-on to the ante to the king and the nobles, the peasants had to pay dues to the church. These and other obligations seemed senseless and unreasonable in an age when people were coming to believe in the rule of reason.

The weather were no worse in the latter part of the 18th century than they had been earlier. Neither were they as bad in French republic as in some other parts of Europe. Now, yet, the people were beginning to recall. The writers of the fourth dimension helped stir up thought and discontent.

Final Steps Before the Revolution

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At last the day of reckoning came. The national treasury had been exhausted by the wars of Louis XIV and by his extravagance and that of his successors. The 250 million dollars that information technology cost French republic to aid the Americans in their fight for independence was the last harbinger. Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker, ministers of finance, had tried to ward off bankruptcy by cut courtroom expenses. The reckless court, led by the sprightly, frivolous, extravagant queen, Marie-Antoinette, would not listen to the word "economy." Turgot and Necker were dismissed and other ministers took their place. Finally foreign bankers refused to lend more money. Public opinion was deeply stirred past the Parlement of Paris, a judicial body which defied the male monarch and refused to enforce new taxes.

In 1788 Louis XVI, equally a terminal resort, called a meeting of the Estates-General. The iii estates were the nobles, the clergy, and the common people. Their representatives met at Versailles, a suburb of Paris, early on in May 1789. Reforms and a constitution were demanded at this coming together.

The Revolution

With the meeting of the Estates-General on May 5, 1789, the Revolution began. The representatives of the Third Estate led the fashion. Some of the nobles and many of the clergy joined with them. They changed the proper noun of the gathering from Estates-General, which represented classes, to National Assembly, which represented the people of France. When the king close them out from their usual place of meeting, they took the famous Oath of the Tennis Court (June 20, 1789), pledging themselves not to separate until they had given France a constitution. When the king sent a messenger to remove them from their hall, the peppery Mirabeau cried out: "Go tell your master that we are here by the volition of the people, and that we shall be removed only at the point of the bayonet."

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Paris, 11 miles abroad, was alarmed by rumors of the troops gathering about Versailles. A Paris mob stormed and captured the old royal prison in Paris, chosen the Guardhouse, on July xiv. Hither for generations kings and ministers had imprisoned men and women at will. Soon after, its thick walls were torn down. The engagement of its capture became a French national vacation. When the male monarch was told what had taken place he exclaimed: "Why, this is a revolt!" "No, sire," was the reply, "it is a revolution."

Later on the autumn of the Guardhouse a revolutionary commission of middle-course citizens governed Paris. A national guard composed mainly of citizens was organized. Information technology was commanded by Full general Lafayette. Then the provinces followed the lead of Paris and formed revolutionary governments. The peasants in many places burned the castles of the lords in society to destroy the papers that contained the records of the lords' manorial rights. There was chaos in many country districts.

Nobles Surrender Their "Privileges"

A report of the peasant outbreaks made a strong impression on the Assembly. Some liberal nobles in that body ready the example of giving up their feudal rights. Amongst the wildest enthusiasm, men weeping and embracing each other, one noble subsequently another gave upwardly some exclusive privilege. Finally a decree was passed that aimed at abolishing the unabridged feudal system. That wild nighttime of August four, 1789, marked the get-go of equality. Remnants of feudal dues, still, kept the peasants uneasy until 1793.

Meanwhile work continued on the constitution which the Assembly had promised to gear up for France. Information technology was finally finished in 1791. Dignity was abolished. French republic was made a limited monarchy, with a 1-business firm legislature. The immortal role of the document was the Announcement of the Rights of Man. It included the following points:

1. All men were built-in complimentary with equal rights.

ii. All citizens have the correct to take part in electing representatives to make the laws.

three. Every person shall be free to speak, write, or print his opinions provided he does non corruption this privilege.

4. The amount of taxes which a person is called upon to pay shall exist based on the amount of wealth that he possesses.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man came to be regarded as the charter of republic. The equality of all men in the eyes of the law is its essence. Holding was inviolable, for the primary supporters of the new social club owned property or desired to own it.

The Male monarch Wavers

Louis XVI was a weak and indecisive male monarch. At offset he did promise to obey the constitution, which had been instituted in 1791, though it placed a narrow limit on his ability. Later on, however, he listened to evil counselors and changed his heed.

Many nobles had fled earlier the Revolution broke. These émigrés, as they were chosen, afterward headed past the king's own brothers, were in Frg, Austria, and Switzerland. They were highly-seasoned to the princes of Europe to terminate the Revolution in France and threatening a reign of bloodshed when they returned. The people of France mistrusted the king and yet more mistrusted Marie-Antoinette, "the Austrian adult female." In Oct 1789 a mob had brought them—and the Assembly with them—from Versailles to Paris so that they might be more closely watched.

Overthrow of the Monarchy

In June 1791 the suspicions against Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette became certainties for well-nigh of the people when the rex and queen, with their children, tried to escape. They were captured at Varennes, on the edge of the Argonne, before they reached the French border. They were brought back to Paris. From that day the monarchy was doomed.

These events helped divide the revolutionists into two parties, the Constitutional Royalists and the Republicans. The new Legislative Assembly, which met equally soon equally the king had accepted the constitution (September 1791), still wanted to go on the monarchy. The Republican sentiment, withal, increased rapidly equally the king's weakness became more than credible.

On August 10, 1792, a mob invaded the Tuileries and killed the guards. The majestic family sought refuge in the hall of the Legislative Assembly. On September 21, 1792, a decree was passed that "royalty is abolished in France," and a republic was proclaimed. Four months later Louis 16 was sent to the guillotine. This was a beheading machine named for the physician whose recommendation brought it into employ.

The Clergy Oppose the Revolution

The overthrow of the monarchy was not entirely due to the weakness of the king. Affairs generally in France seemed to be going from bad to worse. The clergy and many devout Roman Catholics had withdrawn their support from the Revolution because of the laws against the church building.

Kickoff of all, the church property had been taken by the country. This was a financial measure and generally canonical. And then the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy" was fatigued upwards, according to which all clergy from bishops to parish priests were to be elected and all were required to take an oath to support the government. The lower clergy drew back, and merely iv bishops took the adjuration. By a blunder the Associates had divided the patriots, who had supported all changes upward to this point.

Others, especially merchants and tradesmen, were irritated by the newspaper coin (assignats) with which the land was flooded and which presently became worthless. Royalist uprisings were occurring in some provinces, equally in the Vendée. At the same time that these dangers were threatening the Revolution within the country, Republic of austria and Prussia, having finished the partitioning of Poland, were allied against the new order in French republic, which threatened the old order everywhere in Europe. England was drawn into the war when the French revolutionary armies occupied the Austrian Netherlands (Kingdom of belgium).

To guide the Revolution through this crisis, a strong authorities was needed. For this the people sacrificed liberty. A convention was called to draw upwards a new constitution, and for iii years (1792–95) a commission of this assembly, the Commission of Public Safety, ruled France while the constitution was set aside. The power of this commission did not come up from the Convention, merely from the radical Jacobin Club. Its members in the Convention were known as the Mountain, from the loftier seats they occupied in the Legislative Assembly hall.

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The men in power were Georges Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre until Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. Through agents and spies and "deputies on mission" the Commission spread its cyberspace over the whole country. It maintained its position by terror. Hence the period is known equally the Reign of Terror. Royalist uprisings were sternly put downward, and thousands were sent to the guillotine. Marie-Antoinette, Madame Roland, aristocrats and tradesmen, atheists such as Jacques René Hébert, and even Danton (because he urged moderation) were executed, commonly with a mock trial or none at all.

Sometime institutions were changed. The agenda was made over, 1792 becoming the Year I, the first twelvemonth of the French Republic. Even the names of the months were changed.

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The Terror accomplished what it set out to practise. The Prussian-Austrian invaders had been turned back at Valmy on September 20, 1792. Then the French armies carried the war across the borders. "All governments are our enemies," cried an orator of the Convention, "all peoples are our friends." Kingdom of belgium, Prissy, and Savoy were added to France. Under Lazare Carnot, called the "organizer of victory," 14 armies were put in the field. The cry went upward for the natural frontiers of France; and the revolutionary government was going back to the policies of Louis XIV.

The Downfall of Robespierre

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Finally the enemies of the Revolution at home and abroad seemed to exist suppressed. Only Great Great britain and Austria connected the war. The people were tired of the Terror. When Robespierre showed no signs of stopping the bloodshed, the remainder of the Convention took matters into their own hands. Danton had predicted: "Robespierre volition follow me; I elevate down Robespierre." Robespierre was arrested and sent to the guillotine on July 28, 1794. People then and afterward blamed him for all the horrors of the Reign of Terror, but much of the blame likewise as the credit for information technology belonged to others.

More than moderate men now governed France. The Convention wrote another constitution—the tertiary since 1789 and the second to be put into operation—then prepared to dissolve. A mob protested against two-thirds of the new assemblies being drawn from the hated Convention. A young artillery officeholder, Napoleon Bonaparte, protected the new regime. He was then practically unknown.

The new government, the Directory, proved unable to run across the problems within disorganized France. The glory of foreign victories won nether the Directory was due to Bonaparte. On Nov 9, 1799, he helped overthrow the Directory and replaced it with a Consulate of three members. He was the first consul and bodily ruler of France. In 1804 he discarded pretense and called himself "Napoleon I, Emperor of the French." Liberty was gone. Napoleon himself declared: "Freedom is a necessity felt only by a not very numerous course. It tin therefore be restricted with impunity. Equality on the other manus pleases the multitude." Few events accept so powerfully influenced the political and economic development of the modern world as the French Revolution.