French Revolution: History, Causes, Course, Effects & More| UPSC Notes

The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended with the ascension of Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 1790s. It was a watershed moment in the history of modern Europe. This period saw French citizens demolishing and rebuilding their country’s political landscape. This undermines centuries-old institutions like absolute monarchy and the feudal system. The upheaval was caused by widespread dissatisfaction with the French monarchy and King Louis XVI’s poor economic policies, both of which were executed by guillotine, as was his wife Marie Antoinette. The French Revolution did not achieve its goals and occasionally became a bloodbath.

Source: neh.gov

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What was the French Revolution?

The French Revolution, from 1789 to the late 1790s with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, marked a pivotal moment in world history. French citizens radically transformed their political landscape during this era, dismantling long-standing institutions like the monarchy and the feudal system. This upheaval was fueled by discontent with the French aristocracy and the economic policies of King Louis XVI, who, along with his wife Marie Antoinette, faced execution by guillotine. Despite descending into a tumultuous Reign of Terror, the French Revolution was key in shaping modern democracies by highlighting the inherent power within the people's collective will.

Background of the French Revolution

The French Revolution lasted from 1789 to 1794. King Louis XVI needed more money, but when he called a meeting of the Estates General, he failed to raise more taxes. Instead, this became a protest against the conditions in France. On July 14, 1789, the Paris mob stormed the Bastille fortress, hungry due to a lack of food due to poor harvests, dissatisfied with their living conditions, and irritated with their King and Government (a prison). Because only four or five prisoners were discovered, this proved more symbolic than anything else.

King Louis and his family were relocated from Versailles (the Royal Palace) to Paris in October 1789. In 1791, he attempted to flee but was apprehended and forced to agree to a new form of government. A ‘legislative assembly’ governed in place of the King from October 1791 to September 1792 and was then replaced by the ‘National Convention.’ The French Republic was declared, and the King was soon imprisoned.

With time, it became more radical and violent. On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI was assassinated, and 1,400 people suspected of being enemies of the Republic were executed in Paris.

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Causes of the French Revolution

The French Revolution was triggered by various factors. This includes economic hardships due to state debt, inequitable tax burdens on the Third Estate, social inequalities, and the influence of Enlightenment ideas advocating for liberty and equality.

• By the end of the 18th century, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution and the excessive spending of King Louis XVI and his predecessors had brought the country to bankruptcy.
• Not only has the royal treasury run out, but two decades of poor harvests, drought, livestock disease, and skyrocketing bread prices have created fear among the peasants and the urban poor.
• Many people have used riots, looting and strikes to express their despair and hatred of the high-tax regime without providing any assistance.
• In the fall of 1786, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, general controller of Louis XVI, proposed a package of financial reforms. This included instituting a uniform land tax from which the privileged classes would no longer be exempt.
• To garner support for these measures and prevent a growing aristocratic uprising, the King summoned the General of State, a gathering of the French Clergy, Nobles, and Bourgeoisie, for the first time since 1614.
• The conference was set for May 5, 1789; in the interim, delegates from each of the three estates would collect lists of grievances to bring to King George III.

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Course of the French Revolution

The revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. It led to the establishment of the National Assembly, the Reign of Terror under Robespierre, and many upheavals and conflicts as the French sought to redefine their political and social systems.

Ascension of the Third Estate

• Since 1614, France’s population has changed dramatically. Even though 98 per cent of the people now represented The Third Estate’s non-aristocratic members; they could still be outvoted by the other two bodies.
• In the run-up to the May 5 conference, the Third Estate had begun to mobilize support for equal representation and the lifting of a noble veto, in other words, voting per person over status.
• While all orders shared a desire for fiscal and judicial reform and a more representative form of government, the nobles, in particular, were unwilling to give up their privileges under the traditional system.

Tennis Court Oath

• The intense discussion over its voting method had deteriorated into animosity between the three orders when the Estates-General gathered at Versailles, overshadowing the meeting’s initial goal and the authority of the man who had called it.
• On June 17, the Third Estate convened alone and formally accepted the title of National Assembly; three days later, they met in a nearby indoor tennis court and took the Tennis Court Oath, promising to disperse only after the constitutional change was accomplished.
• The bulk of the clergy delegates and 47 liberal nobles joined them within a week, and on June 27, Louis XVI grudgingly integrated all three orders into the new parliament.

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Great Fear and the Bastille

• On June 12, fear and violence dominated the capital as the National Assembly continued to convene at Versailles.
• Though pleased with the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians became concerned when rumours of an impending military coup began circulating.
• On July 14, rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to secure gunpowder and weapons; many consider this event, now commemorated as a national holiday in France, to be the beginning of the Revolution.
• The Great Fear agrarian insurgency expedited the flight of nobility from the land, inspiring the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism on August 4, 1789, signing the “death certificate of the old system” as characterised by historian Georges Lefebvre.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• The Assembly adopted the Declaration of Man’s and Citizen’s Rights in late August.
• It’s a proclamation of democratic ideals based on Enlightenment philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophical and political views.
• The Assembly’s intention to replace the ancient régime with a system based on equality, free expression, popular sovereignty, and representative governance was stated in the text.

French Revolution Devolves into Radicalism

• On August 10, 1792, a gang of revolutionaries led by extreme Jacobins assaulted the royal house in Paris and imprisoned the monarch, bringing the political situation to a head.
• The Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention, which abolished the monarchy. This led to the creation of the French Republic.
• On January 21, 1793, it executed King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette, who had been sentenced to death for high treason and crimes against the state.

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Reign of Terror

• The French Revolution entered its most violent and chaotic era after the king’s execution, marked by wars with numerous European countries and significant disagreements within the National Convention.
• The Jacobins took over the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins in June 1793, adopting a series of radical measures such as adopting a new calendar and abolishing Christianity.
• They also started the horrific Reign of Terror, a 10-month period in which thousands of suspected revolutionaries were executed by guillotine.
• Robespierre, who ruled over the harsh Committee of Public Safety until his death on July 28, 1794, ordered many of the killings. His death heralded the Thermidorian Reaction, a more moderate period in which the French people rose against the excesses of the Reign of Terror.

Jacobins

Jacobins were the revolutionaries who belonged to the most famous political club during the French Revolution from 1789 to 1799. They planned the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the French Republic. They are commonly connected to the violent “Terror” period of the French Revolution.  They advocated centralization, equal formal rights, and moderate authoritarianism in France.

Maximilien Robespierre served as the head of the French Jacobin club. Within the Jacobins, there were primarily two groups:

• Mountain – They were the most extreme group of Jacobins, and their leader was Robespierre. They battled the Girondists and eventually took over the club.
• Girondists – They were less radical than the Mountain group. At the outset of the Terror, many Girondists were put to death for defying Robespierre.

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Role of Women in the French Revolution

Women were involved in almost every element of the French Revolution, although their involvement was almost always contentious. Politicians have long debated the place of women in the household, society, and the political sphere.

Source: LOC, USA

• In the Third Estate, women had to work for a living and were not given access to training or education. Only daughters of noblewomen and members of the wealthier classes of society had access to schooling.
• Compared to men, women earned less money. Most homemakers were women responsible for all household duties and child care. Women established their publications and societies.
• The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was one of the most well-known political organisations, and they were unhappy with the Constitution of 1791’s designation of them as passive citizens.
  • This society advocated equal political rights for men and women. They desired the right to cast ballots and run for office.
  • Divorce was made lawful, and the practice of marriage without consent was outlawed. Women were also permitted to own modest companies and practise crafts.
• Sophie de Condorcet was a powerful Revolutionary War woman. She collaborated with her husband, the Marquis de Condorcet, to argue for full women’s suffrage in a July 1790 document.
• Salonnière Germaine de Stal wielded equal power in the higher tiers. As the daughter of Jacques Necker, the famous and adored finance minister, de Stal had a particularly privileged position in society, and she utilized her position to advocate for the rights of others.
• Madame Roland, an outsider who moved from Lyon with her husband, was another figure in Revolutionary politics. She frequently visited Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre, but her measured demeanor led to her imprisonment and execution as an enemy of the Revolution.

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End of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s Rise

The revolution culminated in the fall of the Directory in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte seized power through a coup d'état. He established the Consulate and eventually declared himself Emperor, ending the revolutionary period and transitioning to Napoleonic rule.

Source: neh.gov

• On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, primarily composed of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, passed a new constitution, creating France’s first bicameral legislature.
• Parliament would establish a five-member Directory to exercise executive power. Royalists and Jacobins resisted the new rule, but the army, now headed by Napoleon Bonaparte, a young and brilliant commander, swiftly hushed them.
• Financial difficulties, social dissatisfaction, inefficiency, and, most all, political corruption plagued the Directory’s four years in power.
• By the late 1790s, the directors had outsourced most of their power to field commanders and relied nearly completely on the military to preserve control.
• As discontent with their leadership grew, Bonaparte mounted a coup, dissolving the Directory and proclaiming himself France’s “first consul” on November 9, 1799.
• The conclusion of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, during which France came to control most of continental Europe, were marked by this event.

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Downfall of Napoleon

The Continental System was one of the first attempts to conquer or gain an edge over much of Europe. Napoleon intended to weaken England with the passage of this proclamation. However, the Continental System was partly unsuccessful because England needed more natural resources to support itself. Ironically, France was the nation that suffered.

France fought Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War that lasted from 1808 to 1814. Great Britain supported Spain and Portugal. When Napoleon overthrew Spain in 1808, he accomplished his goal of conquering the Iberian Peninsula, which he had set out to do. As King of Spain, he proclaimed his elder brother Joseph. Between 1808 and 1813, he had a brief reign.

The Peninsular War ended up being exceedingly expensive. Although France defeated Spain, it marked a turning point in Napoleon’s rule because it was then that his former friends learned how land-hungry he had become. Meanwhile, Napoleon’s French launched an invasion of Russia in 1812. With this invasion, he intended to defeat Russian forces and gain political advantage with Poland and Russia. But it was a terrible failure.

The Russians were not interested in battles with the French, and it was bitterly cold. They went further away from the French before retreating, but not before implementing a “scorched earth” policy in which they burnt all the crops. Napoleon’s men had little to eat as a result. The French army would lose hundreds of thousands of men throughout the six-month invasion.

Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were added to Napoleon’s list of adversaries by his actions by June 1815. When Napoleon learned of this, he believed he might surprise and attempt to overpower them. The four nations prepared for what they believed would be a war with Napoleon’s forces. His subsequent invasion of Belgium then set off the Battle of Waterloo. This battle would end Napoleon’s reign in defeat when he and his troops were routed.

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Effects of the French Revolution

The revolution fundamentally reshaped French society and governance by abolishing feudal privileges, establishing republican principles. It spreaded revolutionary ideas across Europe, inspiring future movements for democracy and human rights.

• End of Monarchy: It established democracy in France and ended the monarchy. Additionally, it prompted other nations to declare war on France. It also contributed to Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power.
• Political Parties: France is now a multiparty system due to the revolution. Political organizations that fought for control, such as the Jacobins, Cordeliers, etc., grew due to the freedom to associate. By denouncing poor policies, these parties kept the government in check and touch with the people.
• Modern Nationalism’s Growth: A nation’s commitments are prioritized over the interests of any one person or group of people according to the nationalism concept. The French Revolution, a major factor in the emergence of nationalism throughout Europe, started the development of the modern nation-state.
• French Land Ownership Changed: Feudalism included a practice known as manorialism, which made peasants reliant on their land and their lord. To finance the church, tithes were one-tenth of annual output or earnings collected as a levy. During the French Revolution, both of these tariffs were eliminated.
• Bourbon Rule In France Comes To An End: A French Dynasty known as the House of Bourbon governed France for more than 400 years. The French Revolution ended its dominion. In France, the monarchy was abolished in 1792, and the Republican system of government took its place. Although the Bourbon monarchy was reinstated following Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat in 1815, it lasted until 1830 before it was eventually abolished in the July Revolution.
• Declaration of Human Rights: The constitutional assembly published the Declaration of Human Rights, which guaranteed political freedoms such as the right to own property and freedom of expression, press, association, and religion.
• Rule of Law and Constitution: The French Revolution established the rule of law. Before 1789, France lacked a written constitution to protect individual freedoms and rights. The executive, judicial, and legislative branches were separated under the Constitution.
• Liberalism’s Expansion: Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy centered on equality and liberty. With the motto “liberty, equality, fraternity,” the hereditary aristocracy was toppled during the French Revolution, and France became the first state in history to provide universal male suffrage. Two significant occurrences symbolized the Revolution’s triumph of liberalism. On the evening of August 4, 1789, feudalism was abolished in France.

Global Impact

Many nations drew inspiration from the ideals the French Revolution gave rise to, which altered modern history irrevocably. People all around the world were opposing the repressive monarchs. Over the years, the French military helped the concepts of equality and liberty grow throughout the globe.

As the French radicalized the 18th century’s political and social structure, they emerged as the main force to be considered. By ending feudalism, the French Revolution paved the way for future advancements in personal freedom, democratic values, and equality of life.

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Conclusion

The main legacies of the French Revolution were the concepts of liberty and democratic rights. Over the nineteenth century, when feudal systems were abolished, these expanded from France to the rest of Europe. Colonized peoples modified the concept of freedom from servitude to fit their migrations and establish independent nation-states. Rammohan Roy and Tipu Sultan are two examples of those who reacted to the ideologies propagated by revolutionary France.

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Key Takeaways for UPSC Aspirants Trigger of Transformation: The French Revolution marked a profound shift from an absolute monarchy to a republic. It dismantled centuries-old feudal structures and privileges in France. Economic Strain: Severe financial crises due to state debt, inequitable tax burdens, and food scarcity were major catalysts for the revolution. It highlighted the economic disparities within French society. Enlightenment Influence: Enlightenment ideas advocating for liberty, equality, and fraternity played a crucial role in shaping revolutionary thought. It inspired the populace to demand fundamental rights and governmental reforms. Social Inequity: The three Estates system, where the Third Estate (commoners) bore the brunt of taxation and had minimal political power. This fueled widespread dissatisfaction and support for revolutionary change. Key Events and Phases: The revolution witnessed pivotal moments such as the storming of the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, and internal power struggles. Each phase marked significant ideological and structural shifts. Fall of the Monarchy: The revolution led to the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793. It symbolized the end of absolute monarchy and the rise of republicanism in France. Rise of Napoleon: The instability and power vacuum created by the revolution paved the way for Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to power. This led to the establishment of the Consulate and later the Napoleonic Empire. Global Impact: The French Revolution had far-reaching effects, influencing revolutionary movements worldwide, and spreading democratic ideals. It restructured political and social orders in many countries. Reforms and Codes: Significant legislative changes, including the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and later Napoleonic Codes, redefined civil rights, legal equality, and property rights. Legacy and Controversies: The revolution is celebrated for promoting human rights and democratic values. It was also marked by extreme violence and internal conflict, raising debates over its methods and outcomes.

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