Causes of the French Revolution

The causes of the French revolution include the political, social and economic aspects that were prevalent in France before the outbreak of the revolution.

Political Causes

France was ruled by the Bourbon dynasty. They firmly believed in the Divine Right theory. Louis XIV was a strong and powerful ruler of the Bourbon dynasty. His wars ruined the economy of France. His successors Louis XV and Louis XVI were weak administrators. Louis XVI was the most incompetent ruler. His wife and queen, Marie Antoinette interfered too much into the administration. She was thoroughly ignorant of the sufferings of the French people. But she always favoured and protected the interests of the French nobles. She did not allow the financial reforms[1] to take place because it affected the interests of the nobles and the clergy.

Social Causes

The French society was based on inequality. The society consisted of three major classes, the nobles, clergy and the common people respectively called as the first, second and third estate. The nobles had no political power but remained loyal to the king. They enjoyed many privileges and led a life of luxury. They were exempted from taxation.

The higher clergy owned one fifth of the lands in France and enjoyed several privileges. Their number in France was around only five thousand. They lived in palatial houses and they were exempted from taxes. But the lower clergy were denied all these privileges. Both the noble and the higher clergy led a life of ease and pleasure without bothering about the wretched condition of the masses.

The majority of the population in France belonged to the third estate. Traders, lawyers, owners of industries, government servants, peasants and workers were in this category. While the nobles and the clergy were exempted from paying taxes, the masses paid all the taxes. Hence it was said : “the nobles fight, the clergy pray and the people pay”. Besides paying these taxes to the king, they have to pay tithe (tax) to the Church.

These middle classes despite owning wealth had no political rights or social status.

The burden on the peasants was higher than the others because he had certain other obligations to the nobles. They were also compelled to render feudal services to the lords.

Economic Causes

The financial condition of France was very critical during the reign of Louis XVI. Participation in the American Revolutionary War had ruined the treasury. The national debt had increased beyond the limit. The national income was less than national expenditure. Hence, the king tried to mobilize national income by selling important offices of the government.

At last, the king appointed financial experts Turgot and Jacques Necker as Director-General of Finances. They tried to curtail royal expenditure and improve the income to the government. But their measures did not receive the support of the nobles. On their advice the queen Marie Antoinette removed them.

Later, Calonne was appointed to look into the financial crisis. But he was not able to do anything but to levy fresh taxes. Therefore, Louis XVI was forced to convene the Estates General after a gap of 175 years, on May 5th, 1789.

The French Philosophers

The writings and the preaching of the French philosophers prepared the common people for the revolution. The most prominent among them were Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. Montesquieu in his book, The Spirit of Laws advocated the constitutional form government. He introduced the idea of separation of powers. Voltaire launched a crusade against superstition and attacked traditional beliefs. He advocated the supremacy of reason. He stood for religious toleration. He strongly condemned the corruptions in the church. Rousseau was the author of the famous book, Social Contract, which was considered the Bible of the French Revolution. He said that the real sovereignty rests with the people. His famous statement, “Man is born free and is everywhere in chains” kindled the revolutionary spirit of the masses. Diderot and D’ Alembert published the Encyclopedia. It contained several essays and articles written by revolutionary thinkers. The revolutionary ideas of these philosophers spread throughout France and created awareness among the masses. The French intellectuals gave the motto “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” which became the watchwords of the revolution of 1789.

Impact of the American War of Independence

The independence of the thirteen American colonies from England provided a boost to the French people. The French captain Lafayette with his soldiers returned from America after helping the colonies to secure their independence. His experience in America along with the fighting spirit for the cause of democracy reached the ears of the French and inspired them. Therefore, they decided to put an end to the despotic rule of the Bourbons.

Convening of the Estates-General

The bankruptcy of French treasury was the starting point of the French Revolution. Louis XVI was faced with a serious financial situation. There was also no alternative but to propose new taxes.

So, Louis XVI summoned the Estates General on 5^th May 1789. The main purpose for summoning the Estates General was to get its consent for the fresh taxes to be levied upon the people.

National Assembly

The Estates General consisted of three Estates or Chambers. The first Estate was represented by the nobles, the second the clergy and the third by the common people. When the king called for its meeting, each Estate sat separately. However, the members of the third estate demanded a joint sitting and one vote for each member[2]. As the first and second Estates did not concede to this demand, there was a deadlock.

On 17^th June 1789, the third Estate declared itself as the National Assembly. The king got alarmed and prevented them from entering the hall. But, the members of the National Assembly went to a nearby Tennis Court and took an oath to frame a new constitution. This is known as Tennis Court Oath.

Louis XVI reluctantly submitted to the will of the third Estate, which represented the common people. He ordered the three Estates to sit together. Thus the formation of National Assembly was completed.

Fall of the Bastille & the Revolution

Although the king recognised the National Assembly, he decided to suppress it. A large number of soldiers were brought to Versailles and Paris. On hearing this, the mob of Paris became violent. They attacked the State prison called the Bastille, murdered the guards and freed the prisoners. The fall of the Bastille was regarded in France as a triumph of liberty.

After the fall of the Bastille the peasants rose against the nobles. Riots began against the aristocrats all over France. Nobles were attacked and their castles stormed. They also destroyed the records of their feudal services. The nobles voluntarily surrendered their feudal rights and the privileges on 4^th August 1789. Feudalism and serfdom were abolished. The principle of equality was established. Class distinctions were abolished.

Work of the National Assembly (1789 - 1791)

The National Assembly styled itself the Constituent Assembly. It drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The new constitution drafted by the Constituent Assembly provided for a limited monarchy to France with just separation of powers. The titles of the nobles were abolished. Judiciary was remodeled. The method of torture was abolished. New central and local courts were established. Judges were to be elected. Drastic action was also taken against the church. The monasteries were suppressed. Absolute religious toleration was proclaimed. The collection of tithes by the church was abolished. Then, measures were taken for the nationalization of church properties. The declaration of rights of man and citizen gave right to life, opinion and equality before law to every citizen.

But the National Assembly gave voting rights only to men belonging to the highest taxpayers. All other men and women were regarded as passive citizens. Also, it failed to curb slavery as it was deemed profitable by the Bourgeoisie in the National Assembly.

After drafting the new constitution, the National Assembly dissolved itself in 1791.

Political Clubs

The political clubs sprang up in different quarters. Of these, the most conspicuous were the Jacobian Club and Cordelier Club. The Jacobian Club was led by Robespierre, a radical democrat. The Cordelier Club was led by Danton. The Girondists were a group of eloquent young men and stood for establishing a republican form of government. Madame Roland was a prominent member of the Girondists.

The Legislative Assembly

According to the new constitution, the new Legislative Assembly met in 1791. When the revolution broke out many of the nobles managed to escape from France. They carried out propaganda against the revolution in France and tried to mobilize support from other countries. Austria and Prussia came forward to help them. To curtail their activities the Legislative Assembly passed laws. The king did not approve of these laws and used his veto against them.

King Leopold of Austria declared war against the revolutionary government in 1792. The revolutionary army was defeated. The wrath of the revolutionaries turned against the French king. The king was suspended and elections were ordered for a National Convention to prepare another new constitution for the country. This was followed by the “September Massacres”. The Revolutionary government at Paris led by Danton massacred 1500 suspected supporters of the French king. Then the French army defeated the Austrian army at Valmy.

The National Convention (1792 - 1795)

After the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, the National Convention met in 1792. It abolished monarchy and declared France as a republic. The king Louis XVI after a summary trail was found guilty of treason was guillotined (head cut off) on Sunday, 21^st January 1793.

The convention gave voting rights to all men above the age of 21 regardless of wealth. The Jacobins led convention also abolished slavery in all French Territories and colonies[3].

Reign of Terror

By 1793 the Jacobins led by Robespierre came to have majority in the National Convention and set up a Revolutionary Tribunal to deal with the moderates. The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror. Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment. All those whom he saw as being ‘enemies’ of the republic – ex-nobles and clergy, members of other political parties, even members of his own party who did not agree with his methods – were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal. If the court found them ‘guilty’ they were guillotined.

Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices. Meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government. The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden; all citizens were required to eat the pain d’égalité (equality bread), a loaf made of wholewheat. Equality was also sought to be practised through forms of speech and address. Instead of the traditional Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men and women were henceforth Citoyen and Citoyenne (Citizen). Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.

 Robespierre pursued his policies so relentlessly that even his supporters began to demand moderation. Finally, he was convicted by a court in July 1794, arrested and on the next day sent to the guillotine.

End of Revolution

With the fall of Robespeirre the Reign of Terror gradually came to an end. Moreover the public opinion was strongly against it. The Revolutionary Tribunal was suspended. The National Convention at last took up its long neglected task of framing of a constitution for the French Republic.

The executive was entrusted to a Directory, consisting of five executive members. The legislative power was entrusted to two houses. On October 26, 1795 the convention declared itself dissolved and the Directory took charge of the French government.

On November 9, 1799, as frustration with the leadership of the Directory reached a fever pitch, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe.

Results of the Revolution

The French Revolution of 1789 inaugurated a new era in the history of the mankind. The ideas of “liberty, equality and fraternity” spread to other parts of the world. The Bourbon monarchy was abolished. The Revolution rejected tyranny, divine right, conservatism, and feudal vestiges associated with bourbon rule in France. At the same time it failed to establish a permanent Republic in France. The French Revolution, after a violent turn led to the emergence of a great dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Rise & Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte

The execution of Jacobin leader Robespierre saw governmental restructuring leading to the new Constitution of 1795 and a significantly more conservative National Convention. To control executive responsibilities and appointments, a group known as the Directory was formed.

On the military front Committee of Public Safety’s war effort was realizing great success. French armies, especially those led by young general Napoleon Bonaparte, were making progress in nearly every direction. Between 1793 and 1796 French armies conquered almost all of Western Europe. When Napoleon pressed on to Malta, Egypt and Syria (1797-99), the French were ousted from Italy.

He arrived in time to lead a coup against the Directory in 1799, eventually stepping up and naming himself “first consul”—effectively, the leader of France. With Napoleon at the helm, the Revolution ended, and France entered a fifteen-year period of military rule.

After Napoleon seized power, France recovered the territories she had lost and defeated Austria in 1805, Prussia in 1806, and Russia in 1807. On the sea the French could not score against the stronger British navy.

Finally, an alliance of almost all Europe defeated France at Leipzig in 1813. These allied forces later occupied Paris, and Napoleon was defeated. His attempt at recovery was foiled at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The peace settlement, which involved all Europe, took place at the Congress of Vienna. After the defeat of Napoleon, the old ruling dynasty of France was restored to power. However, within a few years, in 1830, there was another outbreak of revolution. In 1848[4], the monarchy was again overthrown though it soon reappeared. Finally, in 1871, the Republic was again proclaimed.

Napoleon’s rise to power was a step backward. Even though he destroyed the Republic and established an empire, the idea of the republic could not be destroyed.

Downfall of Napoleon

Napoleon established his style of rule in the countries he overran. Napoleon's imperial rule inadvertently spread these ideas of Nationalism and Liberalism in the territories he conquered. This had three effects, all of which combined to overthrow Napoleon.

First of all, the empire's non-French subjects picked up the ideas of Nationalism and Liberalism and used them to overthrow, not support, French rule.

Second, subject rulers adopted many of the very military and administrative reforms that had made France so strong. Once again, this was not to support French rule, but rather to overthrow it.

Finally, Napoleon's power and success uptill 1808 apparently blinded him to his own limitations. Therefore, he got involved in a long drawn out war in Spain (1808-14) and launched a disastrous invasion of Russia (1812). Napoleon's defeat in Russia was a signal to the rest of Europe to rise up against French rule, and Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain formed a new coalition to liberate the continent. The rest of Napoleon's empire in Holland, Italy, and Spain threw off the yoke of French rule.  In fifteen months of disastrous campaigning, Napoleon had lost one million men. France was worn out by nearly a quarter century of warfare and support at home also dried up.

The coalition finally defeated and overthrew him in 1815.

Continental System

Along with the factors discussed above, the continental system was instrumental in the downfall of Napoleon and hence must be studied separately.

 The Continental System was a kind of Economic war waged by Napoleon against Britain. In the Berlin Declaration of 1806 he announced this system thereby banning entry of British ships at any port of France or the territories controlled by it. The system had two objectives-

1. To destroy the economic might of Britain which was mainly exports led.
2. To create a market for French goods in Europe.

However the Continental system failed to fulfill the desired objectives because of certain reasons-

• France did not have a Navy strong enough to implement the system effectively across Europe.
• England also resorted to this system of blockade for French products and had a strong Navy to ensure its effective implementation thereby harming French exports.
• England after an initial setback resorted to export of goods to other parts of world and was not much affected by the European blockade.
• The French Industries were not able to cater to the demands of whole Europe and this led to shortage of goods and rampant smuggling of English goods.

The continental system created several problems for Napoleon.

• The shortage of essential goods led to popular unrest and decline in Napoleon’s popularity among people of Europe.
• In order to impose the continental system he had to wage several wars against frontier countries like Spain and Portugal thereby getting engaged in protracted wars. Also his war against Russia was partly fuelled by Russian decision to opt out of the continental system.

Therefore the continental system played a decisive role in downfall of Napoleon.

However, despite his intentions, Napoleon had effectively planted the seeds of Nationalism and Liberalism across Europe, and these ideas would spread in new waves of revolution by mid-century. Europeans would take these ideas, along with the powerful new technologies unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, to establish colonies across the globe by 1900. Ironically, these European powers, like Napoleon, would fall victim to the force of these ideas when their subjects would use them in their own wars of liberation after World War II.