The age of the French Revolution
Historiography
Hannah Arendt: ‘freedom versus equality’ was a goal of revolution, because freedom would
lead to a new political system, where equality would lead to terror and dictatorship.
Edmund Burke: the comparison between the French and the American Revolution. The
contrast of constructive versus destructive.
The phrase ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ did not apply for French colonies. A freed slave who
was the new powerful, military leader of Haïti Toussaint l’Ouverture rose against France in
1791.
In 1794, slavery was abolished in France.
Even though the textbook focuses on Europe, many other narratives are possible as an
approach to the French Revolution.
Enlightenment consisted of European thought. During this time, there was discrimination and
othering. So, much progress?
Europe is not dominating the world anymore:
- Asia is on the rise because of modernization
- America is decolonizing and the progress of americanisation starts.
- Japan as a new power
- More to African history than just the colonial part
Point of debate: Did the French Revolution lead to democracy?
Three themes:
● Power
Politics (domestic and international), leadership, ideology, war, imperialism,
totalitarianism
● Participation
The will of the people, national identity, democratization, civil society, mass society,
social and political emancipation, life during wartime
● Progress
Enlightenment, human rights, industrialization, positivism, natural sciences,
darwinism, social sciences, psychology, modern warfare, mass culture, genocide
The American Revolution
The American Revolution functioned as a blueprint for the French one. The political changes
were that there now was a constitution and a separation of powers, and there were human
rights. The French supported this revolution by sending Marquis de Lafayette for military
support. Also, the French rebalanced the power after the British won the Seven Years War.
And Benjamin Franklin traveled to France to advertise constitutionalism.
, Crisis of the French Old Regime
- Huge government debt
- Privileged interests (resistance of new taxes)
- The growing sense that the government should be responsive to the public
- Louis XVI was weak
- The marriage with Marie Antoinette
There was tension between the monarchy and the parlement, and the parlement appealed
more to the public opinion for support. As a result, Louis had to call the estates générales in
1789.
The National Assembly was created in June of that year, and this assembly represented the
whole country, and not just the nobles or the bourgeoisie. They aimed for a constitution, and
they got the abolition of feudalism and the declaration of human rights.
1791-1793: increasing radicalization.
- There is the rise of political clubs, like the Jacobins and the sans-culottes (common
people).
- Further reforms: Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the seizure of church lands,
administrative and juridical reform.
In 1971 Louis attempted to flee, and was executed in 1793. Hereby, the monarchy had
collapsed.
By 1793, France was at war with various European countries: Austria, Prussia and Great
Britain.
1793-1794: the Terror
- The thought that France was being threatened from both outside and inside the
country
- Political opinion became a matter of life and death caused by Robespierre’s
executions
- Regime was being introduced as a resolution for the foreign wars and
counter-revolutionary upheavals.
- Robespierre: popular army, new calendar, non-Christian cult of the Supreme Being,
oppression of feminism, Law of the Maximum (grain)
- Levée en Masse
1795-1799: the Directoire
- Threatened by jacobins and royalists
- Increasingly reliant on military force
- The Netherlands under French regime
- Napoleon as a military hero
1799: Napoleon's coup.
1804-1815: Napoleon as emperor. He did many reforms and raised taxes, suppressing
democratic movements. He was in absolute power. After his defeat, Louis XVIII was restored
as monarch, but with a constitution.
