The beginning.
The Old Regime.
The Fall of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.After the death of his grandfather King Louis XV, King Louis XVI took
over the throne at twenty years old. King Louis XVI had inherited a government
deeply in debt and with much social and economical separation, it didn’t help
that he was a very lazy leader himself. It also didn’t help that nobody liked
his Queen, Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette was also known as “Lady Deficit”
because she single handedly caused much debt throughout France. Marie
Antoinette was truly a “materialistic girl” with a bad habit of gambling and
partying. The people also didn’t like her because she was Austrian. Even though
King Louis XVI did not concern himself with politics or the people he did think
it was right to call a meeting of the Estates-General in 1789, the first in 200
years, to address all the problems of the society. The Estates-General was an
assembly of the three estates. Each estate had one vote so often the first two
estates agreed and overruled the vote of the third estate. When the
Estates-General met in Versailles this time, they couldn’t agree on how votes
should be counted since it was unfair voting conditions. This caused the
Estates-General to fall to shambles but out of those shamble rose the National
Assembly. The National Assembly was the Third Estate claiming their power. The
National Assembly then made the king force the other estates to join the
National Assembly. This was the beginning of the French Revolution. After the
National Assembly was formed, they took the Tennis Court Oath, they all agreed
that they wouldn’t leave the tennis court until they had a new constitution. King
Louis had agreed to most of the Revolutionaries request, hoping to keep all the
luxuries of his throne while letting other run the government. That did not
work. After the Tennis Court Oath was
made rumors started to circulate that King Louis wanted to suppress the
National Assembly. These rumors made people angry enough to mob up and attack
the Bastille Palace, which was a palace that was used to store weapons. This
was the start of the great fear. The mob killed all the guards and any other
official in the palace in the most gruesome way possible. In France, at the
time, there was political crisis, famine, crazy inflation, rumors of the
government disturbing the peasants way of life. Peasants panicked and attacked
homes of nobles, destroyed feudal records and stole grain. Later that year, in
1789 King Louis and the royal family were forced out of Versailles. Escorted by
fed up Parisian women they were led to Tuileries Palace in the middle of Paris
and were put into isolation. In 1791 they attempted an escape but failed
terribly. Then in 1792 the king was suspended from power. By a month later the
people neither the representatives agreed they did not want the king
representing them anymore so in 1792 France became a republic. In 1793 the king
and queen were executed by guillotine.
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From Revolution to Reform and Terror
In 1791
Frances government made a new Constitution that made France a limited monarchy
and created the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly split into three
groups due to debt problems and shortages in resources. The three groups were
the radicals, moderates and the conservatives. The conservatives were nobles
who wanted the old regime back and eventually fled the country. The radicals were
the lower class who wanted more change from the revolution. The moderates were
in the middle with often changing goals. In 1792 France went to war against
Prussia, Prussia feared revolutionary ideas and wanted France to become a
monarchy again. The French started losing the war early. Around the start of
the war is when the king and queen were taken prisoner. The Constitution along
with the Legislative Assembly that had just been created in 1791 was dissolved
and the National Convention was formed. By the National Convention forming the
French Republic had also been formed. With the new French Republic came the
Reign of Terror. A radical group called the Jacobins took over France. The
Jacobins found the royal family guilty of treason and executed them. The
Jacobins also implemented the military draft due to the effect of the war
against the Prussians. The leader of the Jacobins was Maximilien Robespierre.
Robespierre was trying to build a “republic of virtue” by cleansing the nation
of France’s past. Robespierre was in a sense the dictator of France at the time.
Robespierre’s official title was Committee of Public Safety. The time of
Robespierre’s rule was called the Reign of Terror because of the thousand
people killed by the guillotine because of his rules. Robespierre thought people
should be executed by guillotine if they were not as radical as him or more
radical. Robespierre killed many of his colleagues and allies who were former
revolutionaries. 85% of the people killed under Robespierre rule were middle or
lower class. If you were considered not to be radical or to be a traitor to the
revolution (the official charge) than you were trialed in the morning and put
in the guillotine by the afternoon. Anybody can be accused for any reason. The
guillotine was invented in 1792, the sharp blade raised to the top of a wooden
stand while the person lays with his/her neck under the blade and the blade
drops and decapitates the victim. Many people watched and cheered on the beheading.
In 1794 Robespierre was arrested and executed himself by fellow radicals and
sent to the guillotine. After the fall of the Jacobins, the Moderate leaders
wrote new constitution was written. This constitution came with a new two house
legislature and had a five man directory to restore order. In this new
government the middle class and professionals of the bourgeoisie were the
leading force in the government. France made peace with Prussia and Spain but
continued war with England and Austria. Some men of the directory began
stealing money from the government, this caused bread prices to rise. The
conservatives came back to France and started instilling royalist thoughts in
peasants. The peasants were also upset about the government running the church.
So in the election of 1797 the supporters of the constitutional monarchy won
the majority of the legislature. With so much trouble in sight for the nation
the men of the directory appoint Napoleon Bonaparte commander of armies. They’re
hopeful that he will control all the threats that are coming towards the
nation. Big mistake.
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