The French Revolution I

I. Tuesday evening, August 4, 1789. The French National Assembly meets in Paris and eliminates remnants of feudal system. Commissions a committee that will write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

II. The origins of the French Revolution.

A. Fiscal crisis of the crown.
B. The system of three estates.

1. Of a population of 24 million, about 100,000 clergy and 400,000 nobles.
2. Nobility of sword and nobility of robe.

C. The provincial order--maze of "privileges" and "liberties."
D. Hence, political and economic stalemate.

III. 1788/1789.

A. As a way out of the fiscal crisis, King Louis XVI issues call (5 July 1788) for convening of Estates-General the following May. Estates invited to elect representatives and to draw up lists of their grievances.
B. Mobilization and politicization through 1788/89.

1. Cahiers.
2. Pamphlet literature.
3. Formation of political clubs.

C. The great intervention--Sieyes and "What Is the Third Estate?" First published January 1789, quickly goes through two more editions.
D. Elections, most of which take place in the spring of 1789.

IV. The Revolution.

A. Estates-General convenes in Versailles May 1789. Conflict over voting system.
B. Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789. Wherever they meet, they declare, they are the National Assembly, and will not disband until a constitution drafted.
C. Conditions among urban and rural popular classes.

1. Economic crisis--bad harvests 1787-89.
2. Bread shortages and price rises.
3. Accumulated grievances from increased noble exactions.

D. The entrance of the crowd in history.
E. Storming of Bastille, 14 July 1789.
F. Meanwhile, Jacqueries in countryside. The Great Fear--that brigands coming.
G. Popular uprising as context for August 4.

V. Note:

A. The absence of intentionality (in contrast to the American Revolution).
B. The role of the popular classes, who are given avenues of expression through the cahiers, through the general political ferment of the period, but then are not so easily restrained.

VI. What happens next? Essentially, the National Assembly sits down to the task of creating a bourgeois republic. It meets for two years, and proclaims a constitution in September 1791.

VII. Revolutionary culture.

A. A new political language emerges.
B. The invention of new forms of political organization, notably the Jacobin clubs in Paris and some of the other major cities.
C. Other aspects: dress, tricolor, festivals, the feminine symbol Marianne, revolutionary calendar.

VIII. Revolution II: From Constitution to Terror, from France to Europe. From this point on, the close intertwining of events in France and the rest of Europe.

A. Deteriorating economic situation in France.
B. Then, in July 1792, three years into the French Revolution, an invading army crossed into France, was formed of German and Austrian troops.
C. Danton, Robespierre, Marat take prominent roles, direct hostilities against the king.
D. The invading force met with more than they had bargained.
E. Aug. 10, 1792, Paris crowd again acts, storms the Tuileries against the Swiss Guard, seize and imprison the royal family.
F. National Convention meets on Sept. 29, 1792, and will sit for three years.
G. Spiraling radicalism and reaction, all in the context of war, economic and social dislocation, fervent belief in the new world.

1. New republican constitution June 1793, but suspended.
2. 1794 abolition of slavery.

H. Convention grants power to 12-member Committee of Public Safety, led by Robespierre, also St. Just and Carnot, among others.
I. The spiral of Terror.
J. After removing so many opponents, real and imagined, Terror turns against Robespierre. A group in the Convention outlaws Robespierre on 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794), he is guillotined the next day.

IX. The French Revolution:

A. Put forth a new political ideology--democratic republicanism.
B. Reshaped the concept of the nation as the embodiment of the popular will, and thereby created modern nationalism.
C. Created the legal framework for the development of a capitalist economy.
D. Numerous particular changes--the establishment of religious toleration, the legal emancipation of Jews, the abolition of torture--marked a great humanitarian advance.
E. Most fundamental: the very invention of politics in the modern sense of the term, politics as a form of mass activity with a defined ideology directed towards changing the world, and thereby changing individuals.