F964B1: France in Revolution, 1774-1795

A: What were the economic and social causes of the French Revolution?

The Ancien Regime: absolutism, the Estates and Parlements

Absolutism in France had been perfected by Louis XIV in the seventeenth century. Government was entirely in the hands of the king and was centralised at Versailles.

Most ministers and senior local officials were selected from the rising bourgeoisie. The nobility was allowed to hold military posts, but was largely excluded from government.

The nobility was kept occupied at Versailles in largely pointless, but showily prestigious, daily routine. In return, it was allowed to keep its feudal privileges and freedom from taxation.

Successful government and administration tended to depend on three conditions. The king had to be intelligent and capable of taking decisions. Ministers had to be competent and efficient. The state had to live within its means.

Louis XIV had been successful during the first half of his reign, but less so from the late 1680s.

Louis XV had continued his policies and, being served by some capable ministers, had kept France afloat until the 1750s.

French participation in the Seven Years War, however, had been disastrous. Most colonies were lost and the armed forces were heavily defeated on many occasions.

Although the French population was larger than that of most other countries in Europe and the country was potentially very wealthy, economy and society were stifled to a considerable extent by out-dated practices.

In fact, the King of France was rather less absolute than he at first appeared.

Passage of laws was difficult because the Parlements (regional assemblies), which had to approve legislation, were generally hostile and wanted to retain privileges. As royal debts rose, they became increasingly unwilling to agree to loans to the state.

Estates gave privileges to the clergy and nobility which they were very reluctant to give up. The clergy (First Estate) did not pay any taxes and only gave ‘dons gratuits’ (free gifts) to the king.

The nobility (Second Estate) was also exempt from taxes and the corvée. Nobles tended to live off the income from their landed estates, therefore, when bourgeoisie joined the nobility, they often gave up trade or industry and weakened the economy.

The Third Estate numbered about 90% of the population. It included everyone from peasants to lawyers. It paid all taxes, including the taille and gabelle and was liable to the corvée.

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Peasants also paid feudal dues and fees to the local landowner. These often accounted for fifty per cent of a peasant’s income.

Much of the income of the state came from tax-farming. Intendants bought the right to collect taxes by paying annual fees and then made a profit for themselves.

Internal tariffs prevented the free movement of goods and were merely a way of raising revenue. The forced up prices and were a disincentive to trade.

In industry, guilds enforced restrictive practices and prevented commercial expansion.

The nobility regarded ‘trade’ with disfavour and preferred to ‘live off the land’.

In agriculture, the survival of the feudal system prevented development such as that taking place in Britain during the eighteenth century.

There were exceptions, but the emphasis was much more on the maintenance of the status quo than in Britain.

On the other hand, most other European countries were even less developed than France and yet managed to avoid revolution.

What singled out France was the continual wars with Britain for imperial dominance and the character of Louis XVI.

Louis XVI was unsuited to absolute rule. He changed financial ministers regularly and was easily influenced by nobles and his wife Marie Antoinette.

Louis was a gentle, honest family man, who enjoyed hunting and devoted a great deal of time to his collection of watches.

In government, however, he displayed a serious lack of judgment at key points and a failure to carry through reforms. When the chips were down, he almost always backed down and tended to side with the first two estates

Louis inherited a financial crisis brought on by a series of wars fought in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1774, the monarchy was virtually bankrupt after fighting the Seven Years War, 1756-63, against Britain.

The ideas of the Enlightenment: the philosophes and challenges to the existing order

The Enlightenment was a movement that developed in France during the eighteenth century. Its proponents became known as the philosophes. They put forward the idea that human reason should be a guiding force in society and government.

The suggested that there should be a contract between the king and the people, along the lines suggested by the English writer Thomas Hobbes in the early seventeenth century.

They therefore opposed the ‘divine right of kings’ which French monarchs used to justify their absolute power.

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Consequently, the Enlightenment and the philosophes criticised the power of the Church. They emphasised, instead, the need to improve the lives of people on earth.

This inevitably brought them into conflict with the state, which in France was more interested in maintaining the status quo, especially under Louis XVI.

The leading philosophes were:

Voltaire, who was particularly critical of the influence of the Catholic Church and maintained a lengthy correspondence with Catherine the Great of Russia;

Montesquieu, who argued in L’ Esprit des Lois that there should be a division of powers in the government between the king, a legislature and the system of justice;

Diderot, who compiled the ‘Encyclopaedia’, a summary of enlightened ideas;

Rousseau was the most outspoken of the philosophes, opposing the monarchy and supporting democracy.

The philosophes attracted some support in France towards the end of the eighteenth century. This was mostly in the Third Estate, which had most to gain. However, there were also some nobles who objected to the king’s reliance on personal favourites.

Overall, however, influence was limited and would not have been effective without the financial crisis that engulfed France in the 1780s.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Enlightenment took a much firmer hold. In addition to Russia, there were also ‘enlightened despots’ (monarchs) in Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire (Austria).

The influence of the American Revolution

In 1778, French forces were sent to fight against the tyranny of King George in the American Colonies. This inevitably established a precedent for a struggle against Louis XVI.

Lafayette fought in America and brought back ideas which influenced his actions in France.

The Ile de France (around Paris) sent a large number of troops to America. This may have influence support for the Revolution in the Paris area.

There were obvious links between the ‘Declaration of Independence’ and the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’.

Representatives of the USA (notably Jefferson) came to Paris after the War and were well received. Copies of the Constitution and other documents were studied in Paris.

But, almost certainly the most important effect of the War was the financial cost, which pushed the monarchy further towards bankruptcy.

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B: What were the political causes of the French Revolution?

By far the most important political cause of the Revolution was the bankruptcy of the monarchy.

This had reached serious proportions before the accession of Louis XVI because of the costs and consequences of the Seven Years War.

The situation became even more critical after the War of the American Revolution, 1778-83, which was of no benefit to France. This had been financed by borrowing at increasingly high rates of interest.

To solve this crisis, Louis and his ministers tried to extract more money from existing taxes and introduce new ones. The vingtième (a tax on income) had been introduced as a temporary measure in 1749 and was still being collected in the 1780s, to great disapproval

But the major problems were the inability to tax the first two Estates and the chaotic system of collection. These would require major reform, which Louis showed no inclination to countenance.

The first attempts to tackle the financial crisis were made by Jacques Turgot in the mid-1770s. He proposed:

1. Reducing the number of tax officials and introducing better accounting procedures

2. Limiting the influence of guilds to stimulate the economy

3. Allowing free trade in grain to increase production and reduce prices

4. Replacing all existing taxes with a single tax on land which would be levied by assemblies of landowners

Turgot’s proposals failed as a result of opposition from landowners, guilds and rival politicians. The final nail in the coffin was the refusal of the Paris Parlement to approve the reforms.

Turgot was succeeded by Jacques Necker, who followed a similar path. He reduced the number of office holders and improved accounting procedures. But he was unable to effect any major reform.

In fact, the situation was complicated by the Compte Rendu, which was published by Necker in 1781.

He managed to make it appear that the royal accounts had a surplus of 10 million livres. He did this by omitting the cost of the War. This was to have significant consequences later in the 1780s.

By the mid-1780s, half of government expenditure went on financing debt repayments. Attempts to increase taxation (e.g. the vingtième) further alienated the Third Estate, which had to bear the brunt.

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There was a run of poor harvests in the mid-1780s, which raised the price of bread and added to popular discontent. This was to be a major factor in the events of the summer of 1789.

The failure of the Finance Ministers: the Assembly of Notables and the Revolt of the Nobles

In 1785, the Paris Parlement refused to agree to any further loans to the government.

In 1786, Calonne, the Controller-General of Finance (Finance Minister) made it clear that the government was virtually bankrupt, with a deficit of 110 million livres.

The Eden Treaty (a free trade agreement with Britain in 1786) worked to France’s disadvantage because Britain was far more economically developed.

Calonne proposed a land tax to be paid by all Estates, which would be largely borne by landowners

Internal customs barriers would be removed to encourage free trade, particularly of wheat. This would help to reduce the price of bread.

These proposals were little more than a repeat of the reforms suggested by Turgot in the 1770s, and he had only been copying earlier moves in the 1750s.

To gain agreement, Calonne planned to call an Assembly of Notables to approve the changes. This met in February 1787.

When the Assembly (144 members of the First and Second Estates) met, Calonne’s proposals were attacked and the king was eventually forced to dismiss him.

Calonne was replaced by Loménie de Brienne who offered an amended version of Calonne’s reforms. These were also rejected and the Assembly was dismissed in May 1787.

Louis XVI was now back where he had started and faced further criticism from the Parlements.

To try to prevent it, he ordered the Paris Parlement to move to Troyes (150 km to the south east) in August 1787. This had little effect except to increase opposition. It was allowed to return in September.

Attempts to raise loans failed, despite threatening the Paris Parlement with troops. Louis was forced to agree to summon the Estates-General.

However, he still tried to avoid the consequences by arresting opponents and attempting to prevent the Parlements opposing royal decrees.

These actions had the effects of increasing opposition, which became widespread, and led to the Revolt of the Nobles.

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Members of the Second Estate met all over France to plan support for the Parlements. The First Estate voted to provide only 25% of its usual ‘don gratuit’.

Opposition came to a head when the Treasury stopped all payments on 16th August 1788 and Brienne resigned and was replaced by Jacques Necker.

He announced that the Estates-General would meet in May 1789.

The failure of ministers to bring about any substantial change in the finances of the monarchy was compounded by the reaction of Louis XVI to each failed attempt.

Louis either dismissed the failed minster, or accepted his resignation, and appointed somebody new, who then tried much the same approach.

Louis consistently failed to support his ministers, all of whom had a reasonable grasp of what was wrong and could have made a reasonable attempt to put matters right.

The proposals of Turgot, Necker and Calonne were broadly similar, but all lacked the backing of Louis XVI.

Here was the fundamental weakness of France. The King was absolute, but was faced with barriers to change that he was unable to tackle.

The First and Second Estates and the Parlements had privileges that stood in the way of reform and which only the King could remove. Louis XVI was unwilling to take that course of action.

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C: What was the nature of the Revolution during 1789-92?

The calling of the Estates General and the creation of the National Assembly

Why did the calling of the Estates General not go as planned?

The Estates-General had not met since 1614. It had voted by estate, which handed an in-built majority to the First and Second Estates.

The Paris Parlement supported voting by Estate which enraged the Third Estate. There were demands for voting by head.

Necker persuaded Louis to double the numbers of Third Estate deputies, but refused to consider voting by head.

The king did ask for grievances to be listed and ‘cahiers de doléances’ were drawn up all over France by members of the Third Estate.

Economic factors

The 1788 harvest was disastrous and by the summer of 1789 bread prices were at record levels.

A fall in sales led to unemployment, which was already high as a result of the Eden Treaty.

The Reveillon Riots in April 1789 were the first sign of real unrest.

It was clear that speedy action was needed to defuse the situation.

The Cahiers

Although the First and Second Estates enjoyed privileges, these were worth much more to some than to others.

Many of the clergy were poor and tended to side with the Third Estate.

Many nobles had invested in coal and textiles and were more likely to side with the bourgeoisie.

The meeting of the Estates-General

Cahiers from all Estates demanded reforms, including some form of representative government and an end to privileges.

Members of all three Estates supported reform, but the strongest support came from the Third.

But the first seven weeks of the meeting were discussions about voting procedure, which was still to be by Estate.

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Louis appeared to be uninterested and took no part.

17 June: The Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly and announced that it would take control of taxation.

19 June: The Clergy voted to join it.

Necker persuaded Louis to attend a full session on 23 June and offer reforms.

20 June: The Third Estate found its chamber was locked (in fact it was being decorated for the full session). Members were prevented from entering by soldiers.

The Third Estate met in a real tennis court and swore the Tennis Court Oath.

23 June: Louis attended the session and promised some reforms but refused to accept voting by head. He declared that the National Assembly was at an end.

The Third Estates refused to budge and was joined by about half of the clergy on 24 June and some nobles on 25 June.

The importance of the Parisian crowd and peasant risings

Why was Paris so important?

The city had about 600,000 inhabitants; far more than the next largest city.

The city was near to Versailles and therefore the king was at arm’s length. He could easily try to overawe Parisians; they usually knew what he was up to at court and were within reach of royal forces.

The city was largely cut off from other parts of France. Customs posts controlled supplies of food and restricted the movement of workers.

Inflation and unemployment were usually much more serious in Paris than anywhere else.

Alone, the city had a sizeable middle class and a large working class. These were to be the main factors in the revolution from 1789 to 1795.

Paris was therefore a microcosm; the only part of France with a reasonably developed social make-up.

It felt economic changes more severely and had the popular forces to take instant and effective action.

Why did Louis XVI’s actions lead to unrest?

The moves sparked widespread unrest in Paris, partly because the city was cut off from the surrounding area by customs posts. Consequently, fears of food shortages tended to be more extreme.

Soldiers had been ordered into position around Paris through out the month of June.

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26 June: Nearly 5,000 extra soldiers were brought up

27 June: Louis gave way and ordered the estates to meet together and vote by head.

1 July: Another 12,000 soldiers were ordered to Paris. It appeared that Louis was about to crush the Estates General by military might.

11 July: Louis dismissed Necker, who had been popular with the Third Estate. Unrest grew worse and Parisians began to arm themselves in case they were attacked by the army.

12 July: Some troops deserted and joined the demonstrators. It appeared that the king was losing control of Paris.

13 July: The Paris Commune and the National Guard were formed by bourgeois members of the Third Estate in Paris to protect their property.

14 July: Crowds ransacked the Invalides and seized muskets and cannon. They then marched to the Bastille for ammunition.

The Governor agreed to surrender the fortress but was murdered. The crowd stormed the fortress with royal army units standing by.

15 July: Royal troops were pulled out of Paris, which was now in the hands of Parisians and the National Guard

17 July: Louis put in an appearance in Paris wearing the revolutionary colours. Necker was reappointed. The Commune and National Guard gained royal approval along with the National (Constituent) Assembly.

Events in Paris were copied all over France. Intendants were removed; Communes set up and royal authority collapsed.

Why did royal authority collapse so quickly in 1789?

The Economy

France was underdeveloped economically. There was little industry and economic life was often controlled by guilds.

Internal tariffs forced prices up. Movement of workers was controlled by a pass.

In times of inflation, prices rose quicker than elsewhere and work was much harder to find.

This situation was exacerbated by the Eden Treaty in 1786.

In 1789, bread prices reached their highest point in the eighteenth century. The peak was on 14 July 1789.

Inflation was a major problem for the working class in towns and for peasants. By 1789 more than 75% of a worker’s income went on bread.

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Economic problems, especially in Paris, had created mass unemployment. The unemployed were ready to follow anyone who appeared to oppose the government.

Louis XVI

The king was indecisive and failed to adopt a consistent policy. Instead of following Necker’s advice, he listened to that of his wife and other advisors.

His failure to embrace reform and constant changes of mind made it appear that he could not be trusted.

The movement of troops to Paris suggested that he was going to use force.

Royal finances

The bankruptcy of the monarchy was a key factor. The suspension of payments again suggested that the king could not be trusted.

The Compte Rendu had made it appear that the situation was under control. The Parlements now realised that they had been deceived.

The refusal of the Parlements to approve new loans in 1788 was crucial.

The Ancien Régime

Although Louis appeared to be an absolute monarch, he was hemmed in many ways.

Important changes to the law had to be approved by the Parlements and in the 1780s they were increasingly opposed to any royal suggestions.

The king could use a ‘lit de justice’ but rarely did so.

The Estates created problems because they imposed artificial barriers on French society

The Third resented the privileges of the First and Second, but when bourgeoisie gained entry to the Second Estate they often gave up economic activity.

The exemption of the First and Second Estates from taxation limited royal income in a country that was in theory very wealthy.

The Impact of Peasant risings

July to August 1789: The ‘Great Fear’ – peasants uprisings across France; ransacking the property of nobles and destroying tithe barns

4 August: The National Assembly abolished all feudal dues and rights and announced that all Frenchmen had the same legal rights. Taxation would in future be fair.

26 August: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen reinforced the ‘August Decrees’.

Freedom of speech, religion, opinion was guaranteed, along with fair trials, careers open to the talents and the right to have an elected Assembly.

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The Constituent Assembly proposed that the Assembly would have the right to pass laws and approve taxes, but that the King would appoint ministers and be responsible for enforcing the law.

Louis did not approve any of these changes and stayed at Versailles out of the reach of the people of Paris.

In October, high bread prices led to unrest in Paris and about 6,000 women attacked the Commune and then marched to Versailles along with a large detachment of the National Guard.

The king was forced to accept the August changes and returned to Paris.

This was not only a defeat for the king, but also revealed the threat posed to the Commune and the assembly. Once again the Parisian crowd had taken matters into its own hands.

A division was beginning to appear between the militant working class (later to be called the Sans Culottes) and the more conservative bourgeoisie.

The work of the Constituent Assembly

The constitution granted the vote to about 60% of Frenchmen, who were considered to be ‘active citizens’, i.e. they were over 25, had lived in one place for 12 months and paid taxes worth three days’ work.

But elections were in two stages and to be a deputy it was necessary to pay taxes worth 50 days’ work

The National Assembly was given the right to pass laws and approve taxes.

The king was given a four-year veto.

France was divided into 83 departments and districts and communes. Each had elected councils.

Each department had law courts and judges were also elected. All French people were declared equal before the law. Juries were to be used in criminal cases.

The economy was freed from many of the restrictions of the Ancien Régime. All guilds, internal customs were abolished.

Some taxes were retained, but were replaced with a Land Tax in 1791.

Church lands and those of any nobles who had fled France were seized and sold.

Paper money (Assignats) was printed to increase the money supply, which had been based on silver.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy provided for state salaries to Catholic priests and bishops. Every department was given one bishop.

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Clergy were forbidden from holding more than one office and had to live in their department.

Toleration was given to Protestants and Jews.

How successful was the work of the Constituent Assembly?

It created the most modern, simple and effective legal system in Europe at the time.

It cleared up many of the contradictions and anomalies in the economy.

But it was obvious that Louis was unwilling to accept some of its changes. He only accepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy under protest.

It debarred ‘passive citizens’ from taking any part in public affairs: this was felt strongly in Paris.

It handed power to the wealthier, middle class bourgeoisie, which provoked opposition in Paris.

Most significantly, the Assembly required the clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution. Only 7 bishops and just over half of the clergy agreed.

This divided France and weakened support for the work of the Assembly.

Why did the attempts to create a constitutional monarchy in 1792 fail?

The behaviour of Louis XVI

Louis had always accepted the changes of the Constituent Assembly unwillingly. In June 1791, he and has family attempted to flee France but were stopped at Valenciennes.

16 July: The king’s position in the constitution was temporarily abolished by the Assembly.

There were demands for him to be put on trial.

17 July. A mass meeting was held at the Champ de Mars. It was planning a mass petition to demand the trial of the king.

The Paris Commune ordered the National Guard to break up the meeting. Fifty people were killed.

The Assembly had re-established its authority and its intention to reach agreement with the king, but a rift was opening up between moderates and radicals in Paris.

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The radicalisation of the revolution: the impact of religious change, the war against Austria and Prussia, the growing dominance of the sans-culottes

Radical Clubs had been formed in Paris since 1789 to discuss events and try to influence the Assembly. The most prominent was the Jacobins.

The Jacobins were mostly moderate, but there was a radical element led by Robespierre. In 1791, the moderates broke away to form the Feuillant Club leaving Robespierre in command.

The Cordeliers Club was the most radical, with leaders such as Marat, Demoulins and Danton.

These clubs demanded the trial of the king and showered the Assembly with petitions.

Robespierre, who was a member of the Constituent Assembly, engineered a vote that prohibited any member standing for the new Legislative Assembly.

This in turn made the new Assembly more radical by eliminating many moderates. The Legislative Assembly met on 1 October 1791.

The first actions of the Assembly were to outlaw priests who had not sworn the oath to the Civil Constitution and any nobles who had left France and did not return by 1 January 1792. Income and property would be forfeit.

Louis vetoed both laws and became even more suspect in the eyes of the radicals.

Why did France go to war in 1792?

The troubles in France attracted different responses in the countries of Europe. In Britain there was general support for the changes.

In Austria and Prussia there was growing concern at the treatment of Louis. In August 1791, the two countries issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, offering to help restore the powers of the monarchy in France.

Marie Antoinette maintained relations with her brother, the Holy Roman Emperor. She hoped for military intervention.

Monarchists believed that the Revolution had gone too far and hoped that war would re-establish the monarchy.

Radicals believed that the Revolution had not gone far enough and war would reveal opponents of revolution.

Louis appointed the Girondins as ministers in early 1792, knowing that they supported war. He hoped that the Revolution would be defeated by invading armies from Austria and Prussia.

War was declared on Austria in April and on Prussia in May.

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What effects did war have on France?

French forces were defeated easily and France was invaded. In Paris, in particular, defeat was blamed on counter-revolutionaries

The Legislative Assembly ordered the deportation of refractory priests and the creation of a camp of National Guards from the provinces to protect Paris. Louis’s guards were disbanded.

Louis vetoed the laws and dismissed the Girondins.

20 June: The Tuileries were occupied by a crowd of Sans Culottes. Louis refused to withdraw his veto or reappoint the Girondins.

The Assembly ignored Louis and created the camp. On 11 July, it issued ‘La patrie en danger’ urging all men to back the war. To encourage support, ‘passive citizenship was abolished.

1 August: The Austrians and Prussian issued the ‘Brunswick Manifesto’ warning all Frenchmen that they risked death if they opposed the advance of their armies or if the king was harmed.

By now, tension in Paris was very high. Distrust of Louis was also higher than ever.

9 August: A crowd of Sans Culottes and National Guard attacked the Tuileries and then the Assembly and seized the King and his family. He was imprisoned and stripped of all his powers.

The Assembly collapsed and was replaced in the short term by the Commune of Paris, which came under radical control.

In August, France was invaded and the French commander, Lafayette, joined the Austrians. Thousands of Parisian volunteers marched off to face the invaders.

In Paris, Sans Culottes began to raid prisons and murder suspected royalists: the September Massacres.

20 September: The invading forces were defeated at Valmy

Who were the Sans Culottes?

The term was first used in 1792 to describe Parisian workers who played a prominent part in the Revolution.

They were mostly craftsmen and tradesmen, who were hit by rising inflation and shortages of food.

They included some employers and businessmen. They were not, in the main, unskilled workers.

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Why were the Sans Culottes so influential?

The creation of the Paris Commune and the National Guard in 1789 provided focal points.

They became a united force, particularly after the founding of the Cordeliers Club in 1791.

They were easily provoked because Paris was cut off from the rest of France by a customs barrier. Inflation and shortages hit Paris worse than anywhere else in France.

They could react quickly to events because most lived in faubourgs near the centre of Paris.

How important were the Sans Culottes in the Revolution?

The presence of an increasingly united body in Paris from 1789 to 1794 inevitably put pressure on the government.

Independent influence was strongest during the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, when government struggled to take control.

The March to Versailles, the Champ de Mars and the attack on the Tuileries were all examples of successful Sans Culottes actions, which culminated in the September Massacres.

In theory, their greatest impact was in 1793 during the first year of the Convention and the start of the Terror.

But, it is uncertain to what extent they were being manipulated by Robespierre at that time.

The fall of Robespierre, in Thermidor, marked the end of Sans Culottes influence.

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D: What were the reasons for the rise and fall of the Terror from October 1792 to 1795?

The execution of the King and the establishment of the Terror

The Convention was solidly republican. Most royalists were prevented from standing. On 21 September, it abolished the monarchy.

The Jacobins, led by Robespierre, won all the seats in Paris. The Girondins dominated most of the provinces.

The Jacobins occupied the seats at the back of the Convention on the left. The Girondins sat on the right. Both sides tried to win the support of the deputies in the middle, ‘the plain’.

Jacobins wanted a centralised government controlled by Paris to fight the war. Girondins wanted decentralisation in the departments.

This accentuated the division between Paris and the provinces and set the Jacobins and Girondins on a collision course.

The most important clash was over what was to be done with the king. The Jacobins wanted to put him on trial and execute him. The Girondins did not want execution.

The Girondins were forced to give way and hold a trial when secret papers were discovered that proved the king had been in contact with the Austrians.

The trial of the king was held in December and he was found guilty by a large majority of deputies. A narrower majority voted for execution.

An attempt by the Girondins to save him was defeated. He was guillotined on 21 January 1793.

The Jacobins were now convinced that the Girondins wanted some sort of compromise.

Why did the Convention face difficulties in 1793?

At the end of 1792, the war had appeared to be going well for France, but by early 1793, the tide had turned and invasion threatened once more.

Assignats had fallen in value and the price of bread rose as farmers hoarded their supplies.

The Vendée Rising forced the Convention to divert forces from the war.

How did the Convention respond?

Control of France was centralised in Paris by the creation of several committees: Public Safety and General Security.

A Revolutionary Tribunal was set up in Paris. Local committees were set up to search for rebels

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The army was brought under the control of the Convention.

Wages and prices were controlled by the Law of Maximum. Rationing was introduced.

What were the effects of these changes?

The Girondins tried to limit the control exercised by Paris.

2 June: Sans Culottes and National Guards demanded the expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention and some were arrested.

Attacks on and arrests of suspected royalists took place all over France

13 July: Marat was murdered by the Charlotte Corday, a Girondin.

Under pressure from the Sans Culottes, the Convention passed a law guaranteeing the right to work, benefits and education.

There were risings against the Jacobins in many parts of France, including Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux and Toulon.

August: the levee en masse was an attempt to unite France for total war.

4-5 September: Sans Culottes surrounded the Convention and forced it to agree to ‘terror’.

17 September: The Law of Suspects stated that anyone suspected of being a threat to the Revolution could be arrested and held without trial.

October: Marie Antoinette, some nobles and Girondins were executed. Mass executions followed in Nantes, Lyon and Toulon. The total eventually reached bout 50,000.

Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras and qualified as a lawyer. He was a deputy in the Estates-General and a regular speaker in the Constituent Assembly.

He became an outspoken critic of the monarchy although he claimed to be ‘neither monarchist nor republican’.

The secession of the Feuillants in 1791 left him in virtual control of the Jacobins and he used their network of branches to good effect.

In November 1791, he was appointed Public Prosecutor of Paris.

In February 1792, he opposed the Girondins over the issue of the declaration of war. He suspected that this would benefit counter-revolutionaries.

He became increasingly suspicious of Brissot, partly over the issue of war, but also because he wanted a strong, centralised administration to defeat counter-revolution.

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Brissot and the Girondins wanted stronger provinces, a federal France and less dictation from Paris.

Robespierre was a powerful speaker and he became a virtual spokesman for the Paris Commune. This increased his standing in the city and in the Convention elections he was elected First Deputy for Paris.

In the Convention, he attacked Brissot and demanded the execution of the king.

The ascendancy of Paris placed power increasingly in the hands of Robespierre.

He became known as the ‘incorruptible’. He appeared to place the interests of the Revolution before everything else.

In April 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was set up and Robespierre was elected one of the nine members.

In December the Committees of Public Safety and General Security took control of foreign policy and local government.

Robespierre’s beliefs

Robespierre believed in a ‘Republic of Virtue’. He argued that the Republic could only be saved by the virtue of its citizens.

Terror was virtuous because it attempted to maintain the Revolution and the Republic.

His Report on the Principles of Political Morality, of 5 February 5 1794, stated that ‘that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror’.

He believed that the Terror was a time of discovering and revealing the enemy within Paris, within France, the enemy that hid in the safety of apparent patriotism.

In his Report and other documents, he insinuated that there were traitors, monarchists, and saboteurs throughout the Republic and also in the Convention itself.

He included moderates and ‘false revolutionaries’ in his list of enemies of the revolution

Anyone not in step with the decrees of Robespierres' committees was to be purged from the Convention, and thoroughly hunted in the general population.

Why did Robespierre become so powerful?

He was popular with the Sans Culottes because he often encouraged their actions.

The members of the Paris Commune saw him as a defender against rising prices and shortages.

He was a powerful speaker and won over many undecided deputies.

He appeared to be a loyal and devoted servant of the Revolution and the Republic.

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His private life was blameless, unlike other leading figures.

Above all, his support came from Paris which was the centre of the Revolution. It was easy for one man to dominate the capital.

Why did Robespierre eliminate so many rivals?

He believed that anyone who opposed him was an enemy of the Revolution.

He accused the Girondins of encouraging a monarchist revival through the declaration of war.

He also opposed their federal policies, which would have weakened the influence of Paris and hence of the Revolution.

He regarded Hébert and the enragés as too extreme. Violence for its own sake, he would not allow. Violence had to be allied to virtue.

He also disliked their atheism. Robespierre was a follower of Rousseau and therefore believed in a Supreme Being.

From February to March 1794, he absented himself from the Convention and came to the conclusion that all forms of moderation were anathema.

Consequently, Danton and Desmoulins were executed because they were too moderate. They believed that the revolution had achieved its purpose.

Robespierre believed that it was only the beginning of a new social order.

After he had engineered the executions of Hébert in March and Danton in April1794, he took almost personal control of the Terror from May.

All trials now took place in Paris, which increased his influence and led to the Great Terror from May to July 1794.

In June, under the Law of 22 Prairial, the tribunal became a court where enemies of the state were simply condemned without any witnesses or semblance of a trial.

This was justified, in Robespierre’s eyes because ‘slowness of judgments is equal to impunity’.

Why did Robespierre fall in July 1794?

While he was prepared to make use of the Sans Culottes, he was a bourgeois intellectual who rarely appeared in public.

He had lost much support of the Sans Culottes by the executions of Hébert and Danton. They were both very popular in Paris.

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He appeared to be trying to set up a personal dictatorship when he created a police force that reported to him personally.

His attempt to create the Cult of the Supreme Being in May 1794 was unpopular.

He was always aloof and had few close friends. His ascetic life-style was untypical of the other Parisian leaders.

By mid-July he appeared to be ill and disappeared for more than a week. This gave his enemies an opportunity to prepare to attack him.

On 26 July he made a long speech in the Convention, in which he implied that there were enemies of the revolution everywhere.

This was taken to mean that a purge of the Convention was about to take place.

The following day he was shouted down in the Convention; arrested and executed on 28 July.

Events leading to the establishment of the Directory

The Thermidorian Reaction

From July 1794 to May 1795, the laws and controls of the Convention were dismantled or abolished.

In particular, the Paris Commune was abolished; the Law of Maximum was repealed; the Jacobin Club and the Revolutionary Tribunal were closed.

These changes had important consequences.

The influence of the Sans Culottes was significantly weakened and the authority of Paris was undermined.

The authority of local government was reinforced and moderates assumed power in many areas; the number of executions fell dramatically.

All did not go completely peacefully: there was a bad harvest in 1794 and Assignats lost almost all of their value.

High prices in Paris in the spring of 1795 led to protests in April (Germinal) and May (Prairial).

The Convention survived because the Sans Culottes no longer had the focal point of the Paris Commune.

In addition, the French were getting tired of the revolution being run by Parisian workers.

The White Terror began in 1795 and lasted sporadically until 1797. This was more an opportunity to settle old scores than an attempted restoration of the monarchy.

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5 October 1795: Vendémiaire was crushed by Napoleon with a ‘whiff of grapeshot’.

The Directory

The Directory was intended to prevent the excesses of the Convention.

There was universal manhood suffrage in the first stage of elections, but only taxpayers of 200 days work could vote in the second stage and elect deputies.

There were two Chambers in the assembly: the 500 proposed laws and the Ancients debated them.

One third of the members of the two Chambers were re-elected every year in annual elections.

Five Directors would run the government and appoint ministers, but could not pass laws and did not control finance One Director was replaced every year.

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