French_Revolution_Outcomes

The French Revolution, occurring during the years 1789 -1799 in France, was a time of much change in the country and was a rather decisive period in the shaping of the modern Western world. Needless to say, times of great change and brand new ideas will never be accepted by everyone involved. Whether it is ideological changes in politics, religion, or general theories and ideas, much change at that period of time is bound to bring about serious turmoil and uncertainty, and The French Revolution was no different. The Reign of Terror was a tumultuous time during France that took place during September 5, 1793 - July 28, 1794 – a literally deadly span of 15 months for tens of thousands of French men and women. A serious question arises when such terror occurs: Did the Reign of Terror occur primarily due to ideological views, or was it simply because of the strain of immediate historical circumstances' In order to answer this question, more information must be known about all the factors in and around France that took place during, and leading up to the period in question. The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France. A new era was forming, and it was one that promised to realize the ideals of the enlightenment. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century in Europe was a time where the ideas of reason and freedom, along with the ideals of rationality and order, were at the forefront. A new secular and public culture was formed. As Norman Hampson explains in his book titled The Enlightenment: An Evaluation of its assumptions, attitudes and values, “As the French Revolution was to demonstrate, the self-confidence of the educated, their readiness to engage in radical political and philosophical speculation and the willingness of a socially privileged aristocracy to mock religion and embrace principles implying the natural equality of man, all rested on the almost universal conviction that the social order was static. No one seems to have considered the possibility of an economic or social upheaval that might transform the shape of society.”[1] This statement is one that foreshadows the tremendous upheavals of The French Revolution, and specifically, the Reign of Terror. This statement also shows the naiveté caused by all the brand new theories and ideals taken from the Enlightenment. Women also became much more visible, and had more say than they ever had before, even though this did have its pros and cons. As Dena Goodman writes in the chapter of her book, titled Women and the Enlightenment, “A new, modern woman surely emerged in the eighteenth century who would soon find herself in a new world in which the complex legacy of the Enlightenment would both help and hinder her.”[2]It is quite clear that the theories and ideals of the Enlightenment had a tremendous impact on the outbreak of the Reign of Terror in France. While the Reign of Terror was an absolutely horrific period in French history, “The Radical Stage”[3] of the French Revolution began one year earlier, in 1792. A group of small shopkeepers, artisans and wage earners, known as the sans-culottes, shifted the Revolution to a much more radical stage than its first few years. The sans-culottes really hated the upper class, and insisted that it was the government’s duty to guarantee them the “right of existence”. By doing so, they demanded that the government increase wages, set price controls on food supplies, end food shortages, punish food speculators and profiteers, and deal with the existence of counterrevolutionaries.[4] The bourgeoisie were those French citizens in the middle-upper class: merchants, master craftsmen, doctors, lawyers, intellectuals, and government officials.[5] In 1789, the bourgeois were demanding equality with the Aristocrats, and by the end of 1792, the sans-culottes were demanding equality with the bourgeois and wanted political reforms that would give the poor a say in the government. However, while this heavy political pressure was a substantial development in the Revolution, the Reign of Terror probably would not have occurred had it not been for the war that was about to break out in the country. A war broke out with Austria and Prussia in April 1792, and acted as a definite aid towards radicalism and violence in the country. The war, along with worsening the economic conditions in the county, also threatened to undo the reforms of the Revolution and thus truly began the radical stage of the Revolution. French forces, short of arms to begin with, were quite poorly led in the war, and could not stop the enemy. There were also food shortages and counterrevolutions going on in the West at the time, and needless to say, there was plenty of tension in the country. On August 10, 1792, infuriated Parisian men and women attacked the Tuileries Palace and several hundred Swiss guards. The royal family was placed under house arrest, and the monarch at the time, King Louis XVI could no longer perform any of his political duties, and the country no longer had a monarch. On September 21 and 22, 1792, the National Convention got rid of the monarchy, and established a republic. After 1792, a growing split was occurring between the stated ideals of the revolutionary republic and their practical implementation. The leaders had failed to satisfy the Parisian populace. As James Billington writes in his novel, Fire in the Minds of Men, “(this led to a very significant split) between the political consciousness of the articulate lawyers and leaders of revolutionary France and the mundane, apolitical demands of the urban masses for food, security, and something to believe in.”[6] The King was later executed like an ordinary criminal in late January of 1793, and increased tension between the revolutionaries and monarchs all over Europe. By the spring of 1793, monarchs all across Europe formed an anti-French alliance and pressed against French borders, endangering the republic. In France, the value of money had fallen by 50%, there was a high level of price inflation, continued food shortages, and various peasant rebellions all over the countryside. Needless to say, the country was very close to civil war. There were two major rival political groups in the country at the time: the Girondins and the Jacobins. In June 1793, the Jacobins replaced the Girondins as the dominant group in the National Convention, which was basically acting as the government at the time. Some of the beliefs of the Jacobins included wanting a strong central government with Paris as the center of power, and also supporting temporary governmental controls to deal with the needs of war and economic crisis.[7] With this last point, the Jacobins won the support of the sans-culottes. In June, about eighty-thousand sans-culottes surrounded the Convention and demanded the arrest of the Girondins, handing control of the government to the Jacobins. The Jacobins continued the work of reform, and a new constitution they wrote expressed their enthusiasm for political democracy. However, with all the current problems and impending threats on the country, both inside and outside its borders, the country needed strong leadership to save the Revolution, and in April 1793, a group known as the Committee of Public Safety assumed leadership. As a branch of the National Convention, the Committee of Public Safety (CPS) had much power, which included organizing the nation’s defenses, planning foreign policy, supervising ministers, ordering arrests and trials of counterrevolutionaries, and imposing government authority across France. Only twelve men led the CPS, and was ultimately led by Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre, an active Jacobin, was ever faithful to his strong beliefs, completely committed to republican democracy, and was widely known as “The Incorruptible”. Robespierre’s main goal was to create a better society founded on reason, good citizenship, patriotism, and maintained his idea that general will was an absolute necessity. He knew that a Republic of Virtue could not be realized until the threats of foreign and civil wars were eliminated. In order to preserve the Republic, the Reign of Terror was instituted. All those that were considered enemies to the republic were executed – this included all Girondists that challenged Jacobin authority, federalists who opposed a strong central government in Paris, counterrevolutionary priests and nobles and their peasant supporters, and profiteers who hoarded food.[8] Even a Revolutionary hero, Jacques Danton, who wanted to negotiate peace with the enemy, was executed by the same means most other opposition was – the guillotine. Even many of the sans-culottes who helped the Jacobins come into power were killed. In the Jacobins desperate attempt to save the revolution by creating a temporary dictatorship, some 16,000 people were killed by the guillotined, while another 20,000 died in prison before they could be tried. By the summer of 1794, there was less of a need for the Terror; the Jacobins regime had banished foreign armies, crushed federalist uprisings, contained the counterrevolutionaries, and prevented anarchy. Most importantly, Robespierre and the Jacobins had saved the republic. As the need for Terror decreased, as too did Robespierre’s political position, and his opponents ordered his arrest, along with some of his supporters. All in all, the Reign of Terror lasted from September 5, 1793 until July 28, 1794 – the day Robespierre was guillotined.[9] The Reign of Terror was definitely the most chaotic time from the entire French Revolution. Between 20,000 and 40,000 French men and women died via their own government in this period that only lasted just over ten months. While the revolutionaries involved had very strong ideological views, mainly stemming from the liberal ideals and theories of the Enlightenment, the outbreak of the Reign of Terror was due to the strain of immediate historical circumstances, more specifically, to save the Republic. While it was the country’s opposing ideological views that brought about some of the riots that preceded the Terror itself, Maximilien Robespierre knew that if a Republic of Virtue was to come to fruition, the threats of foreign and civil war simply had to be eradicated, and in order to preserve the Republic, the Reign of Terror had to be instituted. ----------------------- [1] Norman Hampson, The Enlightenment: An Evaluation of its assumption, attitudes and values. (Markham: Penguin Books, 1982) 159. [2] Dena Goodman “Women and the Enlightenment” in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Houghton Mifflin, 1998) 260. [3] Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue, Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics & Society, 8th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007) 454. [4] Ibid. 454. [5] Ibid. 443. [6] James H. Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of Revolutionary Faith. (New York: Basic Books, 1980) 22. [7] Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue. 456. [8] Ibid. 458-459. [9] Ibid. 461.