Monument de la révolution Française - Châtellerault, France - Political Revolutions on Waymarking.com

A. The origins and causes

To move the archive documents say the expensive bread and the revolt of the poor, the first historians as Michelet saw in poverty the main cause of the Revolution. "Men sensitive , cries Michelet, who cry about the evils of the Revolution (with reason too , no doubt) , so also pour a few tears on the evils that led . Come , I pray you , the people lying on the ground , poor Job, in his false friends , his bosses , his famous saviors , clergy, royalty. See the pained look that launches the king without speaking. "
Research undertaken by some historians of the period ( ? Albert Mathiez , Georges Lefebvre , Ernest Labrousse , Albert Soboul ) confirm , but do not give him more the same place in the outbreak of 1789. Misery grows at the end of a century, as a whole , is marked by prosperity. The bourgeois benefit. They demand a better place in the country to aristocrats who refuse them. They conquered .
"These people lying on the ground , poor Job " ( Michelet )
On the eve of 1789, the wine , the sale allows each farmer to have the pennies necessary for life , is too abundant to sell well . In this harmful abundance follows the misfortunes of sown land. The climate is deteriorating and plant roots freeze at nearly a foot underground. Fruit trees are not as thin and poor harvests . In 1785 , a great epidemic killed perhaps half the cattle kingdom, where a enchérissement wool, while cotton was devoted to the soldiers' uniforms starting in America. In addition, the beginning of the industrial revolution , including the introduction of new machinery , makes random recourse to labor in factories for the poorest peasants who seek an extra. Finally, the year 1788 was marked by a bad summer, with a poor harvest , which followed a "big hyver ", while the price of wheat rises from 50 to 100% depending on the region between October 1788 and March 1789. However, this is time that the books are written complaints.

1 . The economic crisis

The purchasing power of farmers has eroded over the past half - century before the storming of the Bastille . Farmers spend a little more than half of their purchasing power in their diet, cereal . But prices are rising faster than wages 50% for the first between 1735 and 1789 , against 20% for the latter. Grain prices even a clear tendency to grow significantly faster than other goods. A four-pound loaf is at the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI , about eight under, but double the price , and increase even more in the war of Flour ( 1775 ) . However, the wage of a worker or a farm day is between ten and twenty cents per day for 250 working days per year . It therefore appears that , for the poorest families , the question of bread was a real sharp .
The agricultural crisis is affecting the industry and trade. The peasant small purchases at the same time rich clients turn to foreign suppliers, such as English , which sell at a better price in an open position by a commercial treaty with France their goods .

2 . Urban and rural revolts

Rural and urban crowds , many more at the beginning of the century, is set in motion . The movement continues on the eve and during the meeting of the States General . Thus, Cambrai , poor assail and plunder markets , among them the royal court strikes . This is the case of Teresa Leprêtre " duly reached and persuaded to have, on 7 May, the market share of said city a sack of wheat that had been looted and have participated in the excesses of the Abbey Premy , advancing stones at men who broke the window . " It will , with others, doomed to be beaten with rods, seared with a fleur de lis and sent to a house of correction .
Hunger is driving the movement of popular revolt, but it helps and gets a bourgeois revolution .

3 . The bourgeoisie , " all the more unbearable it became better position [ ... ]" ( Tocqueville )

Richer and more industrious than the noble philistines ...
The crisis occurs in a country for more than half a century , has been enriched . This wealth is also clearly seen in the animation of the ports on the Atlantic coast , that trade with the East Indies , to the interior , where the textile industry is growing. These cases were reported in much the bourgeoisie. A contemporary, the Marquis de Bouille François Claude Amour (1739-1800) , noted that the research confirms : "All the small provincial towns become more or less traders were populated by wealthier and more industrious than the noble petty bourgeois . " The increase in long-term which boosted manufacturing and trading has certainly first hit agricultural prices and gave a profit to the owners of land rent , including the nobles. But industrial profits rose much faster than agricultural profit and rent , even more than the colonial industrial profit profit, excluding , however , said Ernest Labrousse , mining profit.
Apart ... but the best seats
Most economically , " the bourgeoisie , says a historian , Jean Sentou , more than ever, minor in political terms ." Nobility agrees to attend in salons, but she rejects the leadership of the city and intends to reserve the best seats. "The bourgeoisie , yet note the Marquis de Bouille had in provincial towns the same superiority that the nobility , but it was everywhere humiliated , she found herself excluded by military regulations, employment of the army it the was in some way the higher clergy in the choice of bishops among the nobility and vicars general among the nobles , it was several cathedral chapters .
The high bench also rejected , and most of the sovereign accepted only nobles in their company. Even to be master of requests received , the first step in the Council of State that led to prominent places of steward , who had led Colbert and Louvois and many famous men in places of ministers of state, we required in the late proofs of nobility . " While the bourgeoisie search avidly ennobling offices , the Kings have also created galore to relieve their finances , titles of nobility recently acquired are canceled twice - under Louis XIV and Louis XV - further strengthening , if possible, the nature of caste second order .
The king himself is behind a movement to delegate his power, through many offices - "For a little money, we s'ôta the right to direct, control and coerce its own agents "( Tocqueville , the Old Regime and the Revolution ) . Many citizens are thus invested or irrelevant to the functioning of the state offices of little use , they bought and on whose behalf they claim a share of their power yet escaped altogether.
The moral crisis
"A new distribution of wealth prepared as highlight the revolutionary Antoine Barnave , a new distribution of power . " The philosophers have made ??the spokesman of bourgeois ambitions , they demanded freedom with equality owners. They helped the awareness of the bourgeoisie. Writers have become the leading politicians of the kingdom. Their works , their systems, their criticisms, their rebuttals are discussed and contribute to the maintenance of the reformist ferment . Enlightenment ideas penetrate all parts of the kingdom and monarchical society .
Thus , Father de Veri noted that the idea of ??equality seeps into the army, and represents a serious threat to the monarchy : "Woe to the nation when the opposing parties will want to support the troops. [ ... ] Private reasons and no longer obeys machine. The ideas of equality and secretly Republic ferment in the heads . " The Masonic lodges , if they have not been a place of conspiracy, have promoted the spread of the new ideal . Among all actors of the Revolution dominates a wish, which is sort of the "philosophical" behind the French Revolution to the French social contract and revive the French society.
The monarchy unable to reform
A major reform of the body politic is necessary , and the monarchy are trying . She did not succeed . Its power is further weakened by the financial crisis, public expenditure increased from 200 to 630 million from 1728 to 1788 . The cash flow are weak, it is not only the result of a bad system , but also the result of a social state which exempts from taxation the aristocrats , owners sometimes large incomes .
Administration complex and inadequate became ineffective steward without support has often let him win by the nobility of the region he controlled. The military instrument of repression in the hands of the king, plays this difficult role since the same problems that haunt the concerned civil society : the gentry join in the bourgeois opposition to a system that denies them with advancement all opportunities for social improvement, while in the troop , urban , slightly more than in the past , challenge the discipline to " Prussian ".
The monarchy is aristocratic gasoline , yet necessary reforms involve the destruction of aristocratic privileges. The monarchy can not get out of this contradiction.

4 . The aristocracy : the impossible compromise

Noble still rich ...
The nobility , the higher clergy , engages in the aristocratic reaction , a noble exclusivism that reserve places in the state, is still rich sequence. She holds a significant share of land : 22% in the North, 31% in the Pas -de- Calais , 40% in Brie . It has lordships which are a set of rights to ensure a levy on the harvest of the farmer. She still has some power to command and involved in trade.
With a significant surplus of food , noble conduct during the century, on a rising market , where they sell the first , significant profits. Some, such as those based around Toulouse or in some parts of Britain, well manage their land and participate in the affairs of the bourgeoisie. Count de Tesse , who is the great lord and the largest owner in the future value of the Sarthe department , also has mines, and the income of all its assets amounted to 202,017 pounds! The subsistence of a working class family is estimated to be 500 pounds.
The evidence does not show us all contribute to a frightened nobility, in its entirety, by the loss of the tax lien . Some nobles reassure the position of a part of the bourgeoisie , which recognizes the feudal rights as a property , as such , they can not be deleted, as farmers are demanding , without there is redemption.
Though ... threatened impoverishment
But the nobility also known in its entirety, an impoverishment "relative" . Sources of wealth provide less and less quickly than those of the bourgeoisie. Many expenses, which must take its place , are higher. There has in the nobility , next to rich and poor . Any " a noble plebeian " ( Mathiez ) attached to the privileges that allow him to survive alone . The rich, meanwhile, think only use the third state to better constrain the monarchy. There can be no compromise between long-term orders. The agreement will last only the time of the revolt of the aristocracy.
After Tocqueville and Georges Lefebvre Albert Mathiez stressed the importance of this revolt . This blocks any real reform , successfully resists the king, but eventually , opening the way for the third state, which dissociates , turned against his sponsors .
The nobility ... : opposite the king but conservative
As for the nobility , it does not obey the king since the time of Louis XV , apart from an interlude of a few years , when Maupeou referred parliament. However, the nobility , who does not hesitate to strike or resign en masse to protest against the royal authority, monopolizing loads the monarchical machine had to take to enforce the king's power in the entire kingdom.
Fermentation related to Jansenism and contention over represent the people led parliaments to be a conservative opposition to royal power . Real opposition because judges claim to represent the subjects to counterbalance the power of a king as being too independent , and they use very old memories , like those of the Champs de Mars Carolingian to show that the king can not without them. Conservative opposition , however , because if parliaments often block against the king, they rise as much against the idea of the general assembly , at least until the day of their meeting, when it becomes obvious they feel be uniquely qualified to speak on behalf of the people. Their opposition is subversion by their ability to spread their own views in public, for example by publishing the form of brochures remonstrances to the king when they address records laws , they spread efficiently disrespect power monarchy .

5. 'Feudalism of the Old Regime "

There is therefore coincidence of an economic crisis in the economy and a deeper crisis of social and political structures of a kingdom ruled by a weak king .
'Feudalism of the Old Regime , " in the words of the historian Albert Soboul , who wants to make a difference and with the medieval feudal oppression energy and capacity for invention of the third estate . The bourgeoisie complains system "business" , which hampers initiatives , prohibits the creation and prevents the boss to discuss freely with the companion of remuneration for his work . Already Turgot in 1775 , noted that "in almost all the cities of our kingdom, the exercise of various arts and crafts is concentrated in the hands of a small number of teachers gathered in a community that can only , at the exclusion of all other citizens , manufacture or sale of specific business objects that they have the exclusive privilege, so that subjects who , by choice or necessity, are destined for the exercise of arts and crafts can not achieve that ' acquiring control to which they are received after such long trials and as painful as unnecessary , and after meeting rights or abuses multiplied by which a portion of the funds they needed to start their trade or shop or even to survive is consumed in vain . "
As for the work , the steward Trudaines acknowledged in 1768 that "the middle to take can be found in the free competition between masters who buy the work and workers who sell it ." Traders also denounced trade barriers that dot the kingdom and the hindrance caused by some lords to the creation of a larger market.
The bondage of the earth
But the " feudal Ancien Regime " , it is especially the bondage of land, which weigh the inalienable land rents , royalties perpetual " lods and sales" and tithes . However, France , against England, for example, or the countries of Eastern Europe , is characterized by the existence of a large class of farmers who own land and have to pay these fees . Are they heavy on the eve of the Revolution?
Impoverished , some noble undertaking a noble reaction , by the revision of " Terriers " tends to update rights obsolete . To determine the actual weight of this " feudalism" of the peasant , recourse , nowadays , to sources that are not always the same and sometimes better have the weight supported by the ground that the social dimension of the phenomenon. What matters is the assessment of the burden from the income of the farmer . The answers are not always all usable . When they are, they give the impression of a very large variability between regions and within each region , in the same soil. Charge, often heavy , is all the more unbearable in years of scarcity. This is to get rid of the peasants will penetrate the side of the urban population in a bourgeois revolution , compared to that experienced in other countries like England and America, and acquires its specificity.

B. 1789 Versailles to Paris

2 . Specificity of the French Revolution

In 1955 , an American, Robert R. Palmer, and French , Jacques Godechot studying the French Revolution, have concluded that , in order to better understand its origins and in its course , it had to be seen in the context of an "Atlantic Revolution" . The French Revolution was indeed registered in a chain of revolutions moving to varying degrees by the bourgeoisie and occurring almost exclusively in Western Europe and America: American Revolution (1770-1783) , revolutionary unrest in Ireland and England ( 1780-1783) ; revolution in the United Provinces (1783-1787) ; revolution in the Austrian Netherlands (1787-1790) ; democratic revolutions in Geneva (1766-1768 and 1782 ) revolution in France ( 1787-1815 ) ; revolution Polish (1788-1794) , recovery of the Belgian revolution with the help of France (1792-1795) ; revolution in Germany Rhine with the help of the French army (1792-1801) , recovery of the revolution in Geneva (1792-1798) ; revolution in various Italian States ( 1796-1799 ) .
But the thesis blurs the specific characteristics of the French Revolution. If this can not be isolated from the rest of European history , it is the product of a particular company . In other countries , the conditions exist for the bourgeoisie to reach a compromise with its former enemies , that is so saved some of the old mode of production and that will build a democracy favorable to haves . In France , however, if "the bourgeoisie would have settled for a compromise that would have associated with power , the aristocracy refused. Compromise stumbled to feudalism "(A. Soboul ) .
In the face of the resistance of the nobility, there is also the desire of farmers to do away with the remnants of feudalism. The necessary alliance of the bourgeoisie with the urban and rural populations led to the development of a broader and more open than in other countries where this system was established to democracy. This is particularly the popular upsurge which the French Revolution Revolution of freedom and equality .

2 . The States General

Why the States General ?

When the King meets the States General at Versailles, from 5 May 1789 , he returned with a less fallen into disuse since 1614 institution that opens up new to the French political tract , as the habits of organizing a such meeting and are forgotten as this meeting causes an unusual debate in the country .
The representatives of the three bodies, or "states" were elected in the spring (March- April) - in extremis, the Third Estate ( commoners ) obtained a number of double that of the nobility or clergy members - but nothing has been scheduled to hold votes later , and no specific question was included in the agenda. In addition, each parish and each profession were asked to prepare lists of grievances , including summaries must be made to Versailles by deputies elected after elections cascade ( vote two or three levels) . However , the whole French society is then traversed by the hope of significant changes in the work of the kingdom.
The convocation of the Estates General was decided on August 8, 1788 , she actually spends government failure , which could not cope with the growing deficit of the Royal Treasury , or find the political support needed to launch a new tax collection. The failure is all the more serious the economic crisis is increasingly the French , and that the police failed to maintain calm in the streets of Paris . In April 1789 , a sudden riot against a manufacturer 's Eve caused the death of hundreds of people before the order is hard reset ( ? Reveillon ) .
Opening of the Estates General : divergent aspirations
The approximately 1,150 members arrive at Versailles , not without some anxiety - many are ignorant of the provincial court and Paris , and have trouble finding a place to stay . They generally expect many of these general conditions for which they were elected after many meetings , and sometimes sharp struggle, which gave them a sense of their responsibilities. Everyone feels invested with a new mission , but not everyone agrees , of course, the same objectives. In Britain, members of the third clashed with nobles, who would neither change the autonomy of the province or lose their political prominence , and after a brawl that resulted in loss of life ( January 1789 ) , eventually boycott the elections to the states.
In the Dauphiné , protests were raised in 1788 when the claims of a written constitution and an equal taxation , the urban population had supported these claims , demonstrating violently against the king's troops ( Day ? tiles in Grenoble , June 7, 1788).
Part of the nobility came to the States General to reaffirm the prominent political role which it considers to have been dispossessed by the king's entourage . She is willing to accept political reforms if privileges are not questioned. In the elections , it has already rejected the third condition number of recent ennobled . Some nobles fought as they were against the doubling of deputies of the third , finally decided by the king and his minister Necker . Pamphlets hostile to aristocrats so flowery as that published by the Abbe Sieyes , What is the Third Estate ? claiming that the commoners are recognized as the only representatives of the nation .
Quarrels soon begin between representatives of various levels , which are differentiated by their clothes and their place in the Salle des Menus -Plaisirs : aristocrats are close to the king , while the commoners can not hear . Discontent grows when Louis XVI and his ministers , ignoring the claims of many reformist deputies assigned as main objective to increase a general state taxes. The days of the opening session, while the king mourns the death of his son , the Dauphin Louis (1781-1789) , and has no directive oversee its members , antagonisms are set on the verification of mandates - the third joint wanting verification that allows to validate the vote by head (not whole order ) .

3 . The National Assembly

                The third condition only representative of the nation
Blocking is settled on June 17 , when the Third Estate proclaims itself sole representative of the nation and took the name of " National Assembly" , he declares open to members of the other body. The Assembly immediately assumes the authority to consent to all taxes , denying the king the right to exercise a veto over the decisions it had taken and would take thereafter. Before the coup , which rallied a majority of the clergy and a few liberal nobles , nobles intransigent conspire with the king.
               The Oath of the Tennis Court
On June 20 , members of the third are the closed door of their room , they are meeting in the hall of the Jeu de Paume , where they take an oath not to separate before giving a constitution to the kingdom. The showdown has begun. A few days later , at the meeting of 23 June , the king sum MPs deliberate order , separately, in order to disperse given by the master of ceremonies , Count Mirabeau replied , according to legend, by the formula famous : "We are here by the will of the people and we do not go out except by force of bayonets ! "
               The dismissal of Necker
June 27 , Louis XVI pretends to give inviting privileged orders to join the National Assembly. But on June 26 he brought troops ( 20,000 men of foreign regiments ) on capital and returns his ministers considered too liberal , including Necker , Controller of Finance, fired on July 11. The fear of a military crackdown wins MPs and Parisians, who collide in the Tuileries gardens to the soldiers of the Royal German regiment commanded by the Prince of Lambesc, accused of killing protesters .
              The storming of the Bastille
The excitement grows , Parisians will look for weapons, found at Châtelet and go, July 14 , massed at the gates of the royal prison of the Bastille. After a long exchange of gunfire and confused negotiations, the crowd seized the dreaded fortress and kill the governor. King endorses this violence by going to the Assembly the next day on July 15 to announce the withdrawal of foreign regiments of the capital on the 17th, he went to Paris and accept the tricolor hands of Bailly MP , President of the National Assembly, which has just been elected mayor of the Paris Commune. Meanwhile, the reputation of the " conquerors of the Bastille ' win over France. The strength prevailed , coming to the aid of the reformers.

4 . The Great Fear and its consequences

Across the country , the shock disrupts authorities. The reformers ( who call themselves the "patriots" ) took power in urban municipalities , and sometimes hunt troops stationed in the royal castles . In rural areas, uncontrolled rumors grow rural arming themselves against mysterious "brigands" , accused of burning crops . They are mobs who attack owners , destroy property titles , devastate stately home, molest people to sometimes kill them.
Parisian events, as disturbing as promising , clearly resonate reflecting the expectations and fears of French rural areas, which often expect the end of taxes , the police of grain , and land to buy! This manifestation of collective psychosis , which is called the " Great Fear " spread from 20 July to early August in most of France - are hardly beyond the UK , western Aquitaine , Lorraine and Alsace.
For more information , see the article Great Fear .
On the night of August 4, 1789
It causes back at Versailles , in the privileged orders , the feeling that we should abandon the principles of emergency lapsed . On August 4 , driven by a handful of liberal nobles (including the Vicomte de Noailles and the Duc d' Aiguillon ), and the general outpouring , the Assembly decreed the end of privileges and complete destruction of the feudal system .
All of a sudden , without any preparation , all social habits are thrown down in confusion. The clergy loses its resources (in its tax , the tithe case) , and the Lords release their honorary rights , however, that getting their property rights are redeemable. Obviously, the abolition of privileges upset a large part of the nobility , including some prominent representatives (such as the King's brothers ) migrate , but it also disappoints farmers , who understand that their charges are qu'allégées .
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The liquidation of the past logically lead the search for new social bases . A complex discussion ensued on a Bill of Rights and the Citizen ( in the wake of declarations by U.S. States a few years earlier ) and is passed on 26 August. Under the auspices of the " Supreme Being " ( higher principle of reason and virtue ), France now recognizes that all people are " free and equal in rights" and they hold the country's sovereignty . Louis XVI becomes "King of the French ," the Catholic religion loses its status of state religion : the National Assembly has made ??a real political revolution.
Louis XVI prisoner of the people of Paris
However, nothing is set . The court resists, Queen Marie- Antoinette playing a clear role in this refusal. Troops are recalled around Paris , some officers are accused of trampled tricolor - mixing the blue and red colors of the capital to the white color of royalty - which has become the emblem of the Patriots after July 14 . In the opposite camp , members of the National Assembly were able , with difficulty, to accept the idea that the legislative power is exercised by a single chamber and gave the king a veto " suspension " by to the decisions of the House ( September 1789 ) . King pushes signing decrees enacting these changes , while the economic crisis still hitting the little people who do not have enough to eat .
A crowd of Parisians and Parisiennes went to Versailles and invaded , October 5 , killing several soldiers . On 6 after endorsed the political changes , the king was forced to return to Paris with the procession of the rioters . Now , Louis XVI can be considered - this is the view that adopt - as a prisoner of the people of Paris .
Thus, in a few months , violence has tipped France in a political adventure where the stakes are enormous and unknown rules. From October 1789, the French are aware of being entered into a new era , which exceeds the debate on the constitutional monarchy: the Revolution.

C. The National Constituent Assembly

1 . new principles

The National Constituent Assembly was proclaimed July 9, 1789 ( it will sit until 30 September 1791). Its members, who no longer see themselves as members of the " old regime " - the formula begins to be used at the end of 1789 - will apply to change their political and social organization of the kingdom immediately : it is in this perspective they begin drafting the Constitution.
The principle of " sovereignty " is accepted , the question of the division of powers is central to the debate . The most radical elements prevail : the draft is adopted the single Chamber , against the opinion of the moderates, who wanted an upper house , the image of the British House of Lords , to temper changes - proposal rejected because it might reintroduce a social hierarchy unacceptable . Thereafter , members affirm the superiority of the House of the King . Louis XVI , now "King of the French " reign "by the grace of God and the constitutional law of the State ." The legislative body , consisting of 745 members elected for two years, prepare and vote on the budget and laws, and decide with the king of peace and war, the monarch will have only a suspensive veto , renewable twice on the same law.
The electoral system
The elections will be governed by a census system , open to men over 25 years paying in tax equivalent to three days' wages ; excluded women 's suffrage and a whole floating population of urban workers and casual laborers poor - citizens who become "passive" , as opposed to voters, citizens 'active' . Above all, may be eligible only those who pay a minimum tax of 50 F , or who have a mark to 150 working days. These awards , which involve the same direction of the Revolution, raised a national debate immediately.
New territorial organization
From 1790 , the administrative, judicial and military organization of the nation 's fitness site. Eighty- three departments of substantially equal and free of all liens area , replace the old provincial divisions.
This change affects all aspects of community life , and upsets all existing organizations . Administrative responsibilities are assigned by election among qualified candidates selected by the eligible citizens constituted " primary assemblies ."
A new judicial hierarchy is implemented in the departments , which deconstructs the complex and disparate network of former royal and seigneurial courts in favor of a uniform organization of the territory . Judicial reform is accompanied by a major revision of the course of justice . The sentences are put in relation to the seriousness of the offenses and the use of torture and corporal punishment is abolished.
The religious organization is also deeply affected : the church property were confiscated ( 2 November 1789 ) to be placed at the disposal of the nation . This decision reflects the desire to make contribution to the country's richest order and weaken the monastic orders decried .

2 . The religious question

While this attack against the monastic orders causes no real reaction , the reorganization of the Church - implemented by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy , passed July 12, 1790 - set fire to the powder. Deprived of its own resources , the clergy is supported by the nation, which allocates salaries to its members, but in return requires the taking of an oath of fidelity. The Constituent shall redistricting parishes and dioceses (some disappear ) to bring them into harmony with the municipalities and departments . It is the citizens of the primary assemblies which now elect clerics and bishops receive spiritual investiture either the Pope - which is only informed of their election - but their archbishop .
This organization challenges unilaterally Concordat of 1516 , when the properties of the Holy See to Avignon , are shaken by a violent popular campaign for their attachment to France . It installs the system in serious international problems , even if the Pope did not react immediately. Members of the French clergy can not find medium term they must accept any or reject all. After much debate and hesitation , a little more than half of the clergy agree to swear allegiance to the Civil Constitution ( many of them will return to this acceptance thereafter) , the others are refusing . Almost all bishops in the latter case, as the majority of the priests of the western regions , the North West , East and southern edge of the Massif Central.
The break does not occur only at the discretion of individual opinions , but also , in many cases , depending on collective currents. In the West in particular , rural areas are violently hostile to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy , whom they accuse of causing a schism away from them their " good priests ." In the south , where Protestants and Catholics coexist easily , quarrels soon turn to tragedy. Adding political and social issues with religious rancor , Catholics and Protestants clash in " fights " which , in the spring of 1790, a hundred victims in Montauban and four hundred dead in Nimes . In this debate, the king does not take sides openly disavow but , in fact, the Civil Constitution . When the pope finally sentenced on March 11, 1791 - eight months after its adoption - the religious schism is consumed. It foreshadows the political schism . France, who had believed in the fraternity, is now divided into opposing camps.

3 . first disorders

Louis The Heart , the feast of FédérationLouis The Heart , the Festival of the Federation
The unifying momentum reflects paradoxically this tear. Patriots of the National Guard , civic militia responsible since 1789 for the maintenance of order in almost all the towns and cities of the kingdom , have felt the need to express their cohesion in provincial meetings , called "federations" . The highlight of this movement is the Festival of the Federation , held July 14, 1790 in Paris on the Champ de Mars , in the presence of the king. The unit proclaimed evil mask tension and resistance. We see evidence in August , when troops resulted , Swiss stationed in Nancy, revolted , claiming the rights of citizens to demand higher and a better fate , and are violently suppressed by troops of the Marquis de Bouille .
                The financial issue
In this troubled financial climate adds question. The property of the clergy are being progressively sale as "national property" , on which are backed notes issued by the State , the assignats , which become a real currency in April 1790 , this measure creates a rise in prices and a shortage of money that aggravate backlash by the living conditions of the poor, strengthening the party opponents of the Revolution.
                A multitude of discontent
As of 1791 , they will compose a movement whose unity is achieved in particular in the south : in August 1790 already , thousands of National Guard gathered at the camp Jalès in Vivarais , where a committee noble urged them to reject the Constituent Assembly. They promised to fight "to restore the king in his glory." Dispersed once the camp Jalès will recover . In the West, the quarrels crystallize on replacing priests who refused the oath . Real fighting , sometimes fatal , occur sporadically here and there. Moreover, in Normandy, in the Quercy , in the Limousin or Burgundy , farmers oppose owners undermine castles and refuse to pay royalties and taxes.
Despite these tensions , the foundations of the new French government seems firmly established . The administrative staff will not be questioned later , or the principles governing the organization of the courts - even religious . But the upheavals caused by these changes , which may face deliberately habits from the old regime , in addition to creating multiple growing discontent in an open political struggle.

4 . Dishonor King

In this troubled context , the announcement of the flight of the king burst like a thunderclap . June 20 , 1791, the royal family fled to the eastern border in a heavy sedan, the king leaving behind an important manuscript disclaims any work of the Assembly. The kitchen , however, stopped not far from his goal , in the small town of Varennes, the postmaster Drouet , promoted national heroes fugitives were immediately escorted back to Paris , where they are back June 25
The country is traumatized by the event, which symbolizes the impossibility of compromise. General mobilization was on all borders , where the troops expect to be attacked by immigrants and foreigners hostile to the Revolution. The return to capital is in silence, while the Assembly is trying to maintain the fiction of the removal of the king decreed the inviolability of his person and deprived of all power.
The desire to preserve the prevailing institutions , while some already imagine the establishment of a republic. A press campaign of an intensity and a considerable ferocity grows throughout the country . The king and his family are presented in the infamous and obscene forms. The person of the king has nothing sacred about after this episode , which is definitely consider power as the result of a balance of power.
The Republican movement Jacobins and Feuillant
This fermentation is compounded by social unrest fueled by the revolutionary club of the Cordeliers, which accepts its citizens within the "passive" eager to play a political role. Tensions culminated July 17, 1791 , when a demonstration against the person of the king stands , despite the prohibition of the Assembly, on the Champ de Mars . The troops overwhelmed , fired and killed fifty demonstrators. The policy response is immediate. The Patriots are divided between those who want to pursue the course of the Revolution, and now gather in the Jacobin Club , and those who want to end the revolutionary innovations , and are found in the Feuillant .

5. The increasing dangers and war

Supporters and opponents of the Revolution are entered in open struggle for power, and the whole country is affected by the political divisions . As clerics, military officers are facing an obligation to take an oath, that some of them refuse to do : they are likely to migrate to the border towns of German principalities . The growing international threats against the Revolution. After the French encroachments in Avignon and restrictions on properties of the German princes in Alsace, the European courts were shocked by the arrest of the king and queen , Austrian princess . His brother, the Austrian Emperor Leopold II , the king of Prussia, Frederick William , shall consult in August 1791 in the city of Pillnitz and signed a joint statement in which they declare their readiness to intervene to restore the rights of king in France . This proclamation awkward because neither sovereigns plans to go to war , however, sounds like an intolerable threat , radicalizing positions and with the royal couple as a traitor to France.
The beginnings of the Legislative Assembly
While September 14, 1791 , the king approved the Constitution of the country - for a new Assembly , the Legislative Assembly, is elected for two years - the country is deeply divided .
The Legislature meets in inaugural meeting on 1 October 1791 , with new men - members of the Constituent Assembly were indeed found not reelected. Although the majority is moderate , all these men belong to the revolutionary camp. They are wary of the king, with which the friction multiply immediately . The Assembly began by strengthening measures against refractory priests and emigrants , asking the princes of the Empire - the Electors of Trier and Mainz in particular - to disperse their bands gathered at the border (29 November 1791). Count of Provence, brother of the king (future Louis XVIII ? ) is ordered to return to France , under pain of being deprived of his rights to the throne.
For more information , see the article political assemblies in France.
The recourse to war
A bellicose foreign policy will soon meet, for reasons obviously opposed the expectations of different political groups. In case of war , the "right" and expect the king of disunity in the country and the departure of officers a quick defeat of the French troops , who would be the prelude to a restoration of the monarchy , the "left" hope that the traitors and démasqueront discount a crusade for freedom the support of other European nations . Some, like La Fayette , want to take advantage of circumstances to gain political advantage . Few are those who, like Robespierre , preach caution , fearing takeover intriguing .
In the midst of these uncertain political struggles , April 2, 1792 , the king and the Assembly declared war on the leader of the Holy Roman Empire , Emperor Francis II of Austria, allied to the King of Prussia, they immediately take the offensive . The French army must retreat from the April 28 and 29 , while in Paris the atmosphere is stormy : the cons - revolutionaries openly rejoice, their newspapers applaud defeats , while the revolutionaries denounce the betrayals involving the queen, their officers and part of the Assembly.
        The alliance of armed people and the Revolution
But upsetting the political calculations , an unexpected surge of patriotism manifests . Many young people join the armed : a side of little value in the short term, but that sealed the alliance of armed people and the Revolution . The Battle Hymn of the Rhine army , composed in Strasbourg by a young officer , Rouget de Lisle, will , after July 1792 , the symbol of this popular movement known as the Marseillaise.
Political struggles have therefore led to a failure of the moderates to extremists on both sides. Proponents of a limited revolution could not find an ally in the person of the king , who preferred policy worse. The cons - revolutionaries are continually reinforced , recruiting allies abroad and supports inside, in hostile to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy environments. The revolutionaries , for their part, found in the events prove that their fears were based betrayal .

D. Towards the Republic

1 . The night of August 10, 1792 : the overthrow of the monarchy

In this environment where internal threats seem to echo the external threats against the revolutionary - becoming every day more , the government tightens . May 27 , 1792, a decree requires the deportation of refractory priests , while another order on June 4 , the creation of a federated voluntary camp under the walls of Paris to stop the advance of foreign armies.
King 's opposition to these measures causes a reaction of sans-culottes (led by the club of the Cordeliers ), which invaded the Tuileries , June 20 , to force the king to reconsider his refusal. Cornered in the sign of a window, wearing a red cap and forced to drink to the health of the French Revolution, Louis XVI , however, maintains its decisions. It is supported soon after by numerous letters of loyalty from all over the country .
The summer of 1792 saw both sides prepare for an inevitable clash , while compromise becomes impossible : the Feuillant fail to convince the king to flee from Rouen, which disqualifies ; General Lafayette misses his attempted coup and to leave France to become trapped in an Austrian fortress for several years.
Tuileries , the king is surrounded by a dedicated care that meet the royalists decided. Meanwhile , revolutionary , reinforced by an influx of volunteers, harden their positions. A secret committee , said " the Bishop ," preparing the uprising , which began on the night of August 9 to 10, 1792 . Clashes between patriots and Federated volunteers and supporters of the king, including the Swiss Guards , last all day , before Louis XVI - who went with his family in the grounds of the Legislature - not abandon part .
The coup was successful after a bloodbath . While the crowd invades and plunders the Tuileries , the suspension of the king is decided by the Legislative Assembly, which imprisons the Temple with his family and decided that a new Constituent Assembly , the Convention will decide on the future political system France.

2 . The Paris Commune

In fact , the Assembly has lost all control over events , and ministers are doubled by insurgent bodies set up by the Paris Commune , where the extremists, who have armed power, carve the beautiful part. In Paris, the wards sit continuously, in all cities born oversight committees and popular companies that claim the right to control the administration , monitoring and tracking people traitors , starting with members other elected bodies.
Rivalries can make France ungovernable , when riots broke out against Revolutionaries in July in the valley of the Rhone, Jalès , and August in western Brittany and Poitou , where clashes several hundred victims. Everywhere, hunting refractory priests , considered the leaders of the agitation is open . Sixty administrators and clerks are lynched in the country during the summer of 1792 .
The September Massacres
In this context compounded by the victories of the enemy , who walk slowly but Paris , it seems inexorably breaking down the strongholds one after the other , Federated and the sans-culottes visiting officials, between the two and September 6, 1792 , massacres of refractory priests and suspects detained in prisons Orleans , and especially in Paris. "Trials " are expeditious appear over a thousand clerics imprisoned before delivering the knives uncontrolled crowd. Princess de Lamballe, friend of the Queen , was murdered in atrocious conditions. The killings last several days without the administrative authorities dare to intervene , and the deputies did not condemn him for several months.
These " September massacres " hitting opinion, marks a turning point in the Revolution. Usually spontaneous , they are rooted in a tradition of popular violence, riots related to habits , and are caused by the fear of the vengeance of the royalists expected when taking the city by foreign armies . They also note the extremist insurgency strategy that enable elected fait accompli .
The abolition of the monarchy
This is the heart of the September massacres that elections are held in the Convention, which is set up a system of universal male suffrage in two stages , and which concern a minority of participants (10% of the electorate ) . The most legalistic revolutionaries, Brissotins , take control of the Convention, aided by the unexpected victory of the French army on the Prussians , Sept. 20 , at the mill of Valmy . Prussians and Austrians leave France now launched a revolutionary new way : September 21, 1792 , the monarchy was abolished. The Year One of the Republic is dated tomorrow.

3 . The execution of the king

             Political rivalries and Counterrevolution
The new Assembly is facing major political rivalries . The sans-culottes , which play a leading role in the Paris Commune and the sections are aware of their social demands through popular orators like Marat , publicist People's Friend . In the Conventional , the Montagnards - so called because they sit on the highest tiers - are sensitive to these arguments , while the Girondins , who are liberals show themselves resolutely hostile to economic regulations on prices and wages, and denounce violence.
Beyond and below the border , the Counter-Revolution is always present. An important plot then stirred while the West around the Chevalier de la Rouërie , which includes arms and powder in Breton castles. Popular discontent crystallize on issues related to religious policy, which many local difficulties, while refractory priests hiding in the countryside with the complicity of the population.
In this climate, and while the war lasts, the Convention opened the trial of the King , December 11, 1792 . The secret correspondence of Louis XVI , hidden in an iron chest , has been discovered : it attests to its dual political game. The Montagnards , led by Robespierre and Saint -Just , impose the idea that the king must be condemned while Girondins wanting to delay , discredit themselves by clumsy maneuvers.
After a month of discussions, which have revealed extreme tensions between the revolutionary groups - Girondins printing newspapers are sacked - and in which developed the idea of ??the king's death as a necessary symbol execution is passed January 19, 1793 , and applied the next day , January 21. The king immediately became a martyr of the Counter- Revolution.

E. "The country is in danger "

1 . The shock of the " levee en masse "

The death of King revived the war the British government joined the continental powers , this is the first coalition against France ( 1 February 1793 ) . The Convention decided on February 24 to raise 300,000 men to send the border. This is accompanied by sending emissaries of the Assembly, the representatives on mission in all departments to monitor the application.
This is the straw that broke the camel : uprisings sometimes considerable place in many regions. The military control of the situation in Brittany, Alsace and in the Massif Central , but fails south of the Loire, allowing insurgent bands are organized into "armed Catholics and royal ."
The Vendée uprising
The most important loss that occurred in the department of Vendée , the Conventional into the habit of talking about " War of the Vendee " after March 1793 . The scale of the fighting and the contradictory news from the region fueling political rivalries between the different tendencies - Girondins , the Montagnards , sans-culottes - that lead them fight without a thank you . General and representatives of the people to monitor and denounce , which can lead to the guillotine.

2 . At the brink of civil war

Against the Girondins , they continue to denounce the moderation , the Mountaineers get the creation of the Revolutionary Court ( March 10, 1793 ) which would render the final political crimes , the establishment of a special legal procedure (March 19) to send to death in twenty-four hours the insurgents took up arms in hand, finally, the institution of the Committee of Public hello (6 April) , pending coordination with government authorities will go growing .
In departments, representatives on mission , who are most often the Montagnards , purify local government , replacing the prefects , mayors and other clerks considered too moderate by members of the popular societies , more radical .
The Girondins , Brissot always animated , will try to counter their opponents and mountain sans-culottes led by Enraged - such as former vicar Jacques Roux and Varlet committed positions - who want to tax the rich and regulate prices grains. In April , they put Marat charge, but the Revolutionary Court acquits , then they create a commission of twelve members to control the Parisian sections and to indict other leaders sans-culottes , as Hébert.
Some even threaten to bring Girondins alternate members of the Convention in the city of Bourges (assumed to be at the center of France ) to ease the pressure of the sans-culottes of the Assembly , they utter threats against Paris , considered the city of revolutionary anarchy. Rising tensions leading to the riots of May 31 and June 2, 1793 : the sans-culottes obtained by the weapons of the Girondins core is stopped and the Convention passed to the Montagnards . But at the same time , the sans-culottes who were at the head of the City of Lyon lose power in favor of more moderate revolutionaries, while many departments and cities take up the cause of the Girondins squeezed against the whole power - sections and Parisian extremism.
The protest affects especially the Rhone Valley from Lons -le- Saunier to Marseille , it extends Toulon , Bordeaux , which involves , as well as large cities of the West and Normandy key. No unit is established between these different movements be called " federalists " verbally violent but unable to organize forces chase the sans-culottes without giving the country against the Revolutionaries. This failure allows Parisians equate federalism Counter-Revolution and fight fiercely . Lyon, Marseille and Toulon are well supplied , under the authority of the representatives on mission in a brutal military crackdown in autumn 1793.

3 . Terror

While foreign armies again assail all borders , the British landed at Toulon, the Vendee control an entire region and a young woman , Charlotte Corday , has murdered Marat ( July 13) , the Terror " is setting the agenda "by the Convention in early September 1793.
Sus suspects to crimes against Revolutionaries
Federalists , migrants , refractory priests are declared "suspicious" of cons - revolutionary crimes and are now facing the death penalty. The Vendee rebels must be destroyed , and their " dens ", the Lyon and Marseille insurgents must also disappear , and with them the same name of their cities. Denunciations sufficient to describe the suspects.
The revolutionary unit is however tested . The Montagnards , led by Robespierre , accept a number of social measures demanded by the sans-culottes : the law of the maximum ( 29 September 1793 ) sets commodity prices and wages are the property of emigrants on sale in small batches , for redemption by the peasantry , all rights still weighing on earth are simply abolished, the grains are requisitioned.
The break with the past is complete when the revolutionary calendar , decreed by Romme and imagined by Fabre d' Eglantine, replaced the Roman calendar October 5, 1793 - or 14 year vendémiaire II. These advances deprive Enragés of popular support and are imprisoned or forced into silence , while the revolutionary women clubs are closed and some of their spokesmen executed or imprisoned .
However, the Montagnards have to deal with the mass of sans-culottes . The latter, remained powerful in the War Department , are developing a "revolutionary army" and direct operations in the Vendee. Hébert, their new leader, has one of the most read , Father Duchesne newspapers , a large verbal abuse. At his trial in October , Marie- Antoinette is accused of the worst evils of the betrayal incest. This process reveals the fatal methods used later against the Hébertists or Dantonist ( perjury , police buildings , amalgams ) . The former queen is executed on October 16 , Ms. Roland was guillotined on 8 November.
In the departments , some of the representatives on mission implement a "terror" that takes the moderate revolutionaries as priests (refractory or constitutional ) statues of churches were destroyed , and irreligious masquerades organized on the occasion festivals of the goddess Reason , food owned by the richest are requisitioned , violently if necessary , and power is given to extremist groups with dubious intentions but covered with political slogans .
Stand and Javogues in Saint -Etienne, Lyon Fouche , and Carrier in Nantes , which shoot and drown thousands of people after the Vendée rebels had launched a successful offensive to Granville in November , and were crushed at Le Mans in December. In rural south of the Loire , where they are now content ( "Little Vendee ") , General Turreau sent in January 1794 its " infernal columns ".

4 . The Committee of Public hello

Against the fragmentation of initiatives that benefit the sans-culottes , the Montagnards centralize more power in the hands of the Committee of Public hello . The political struggle lasts all 1793 autumn and winter of 1794. Robespierre stood against the Christianization and atheism spread , freedom of religion is reaffirmed (theoretically) on December 8 , and the revolutionary "vandalism" was sentenced January 10, 1794 by Father Gregory , that stigmatizes destruction free. At the same time , slavery was abolished in the colonies.
Eliminating Hébertists by Robespierre ( March 1794 )
With the addition of a new group of revolutionaries gathered around Danton and Desmoulins - the " Moderates " - who want to stop the Terror, the Montagnards can open the trial Hébertists . Fouquier , zealous public prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court and supported by the intervention of Saint -Just , likely against the indicted with conspiracy abroad and are executed March 24, 1794 . Their audience is broken at once.
Eliminating Indulgent ( April 1794 )
Regulations affecting account immediately after the Moderates , indicted for corruption. Danton - felled by a famous speech of Saint -Just - Desmoulins and their friends were sent to the guillotine on April 5. Personalities who have played a prominent role since the beginning of the Revolution are eliminated by the Committee of Public hello . The Convention violently shaken by these two sets of crises, Robespierrists Montagnards now hold all the power.
The revolutionary momentum is now firmly controlled by the Committee of Public hello , reminiscent of the representatives too independent mission oversees sections sans-culottes , removes the extraordinary revolutionary courts armed with the Tribunal de Paris . The sans-culottes are associated with power , but their demands control wages and prices are dropped.
Moral Revolution and the cult of the Supreme Being
The political vision of a moral revolution , demanding, utopian attempts to impose . The decree of May 7, 1794 , which states the existence of a Supreme Being , for which a party is established , and the immortality of the soul, is the most striking example . Atheism and anti-religious wave must give way to a civic education. The school offers children examples based on the facts of the latest weapons and heroic patriots like Joseph Agricola Viala - celebrated in the Song of Chénier start - replace the "martyrs of the revolution " - Marat Chalier The Peletier - glorified by the sans-culottes . The ideal of a collective organization governed by equality and virtue is at the heart of countless speeches , affecting all areas of national life . Robespierre , surrounded by Saint -Just and Couthon truly has national magisterium , even if other persons competent in some areas (such as Carnot War ) play an important role in the Committee of Public hello .
The Great Terror
In this revolution in the revolution, the dictatorship of the temptation is great to establish the necessity of violence collective future happiness. The Great Terror was introduced by the Law of 22 Prairial (June 10 1794). Those guilty of hoarding, defeatism and dilapidation , which are called " enemies of the people " are now amenable to the Revolutionary Tribunal. While this law is enacted in the wake of assassination attempts on members of the public salvation , including Robespierre , but it shows above all a willingness radical moralist. The Great Terror strikes especially Paris and brand spirits by the speed of execution when the victories of the French armies on the outside - like the Austrians at Fleurus June 26 - strengthen the government's position .
But internal rivalries leaders groups are growing . The members of the Committee of General Security , seeking to trim the powers of their colleagues - and rivals - the Committee of Public hello , find new reasons to oppose Robespierre , especially when it chairs the feast of the Supreme Being ( June 8, 1794 ) , grandiose ceremony in which many revolutionaries see a return to a state religion . The current hostile grows diffusely in the Convention and the government committees .

5. The Thermidorian Reaction

Political maneuvers against Robespierre
During the summer of 1794 , rumors lend monarchical intentions Robespierre they emphasize his desire to restore the religion and its complicity with an illuminated , Catherine Theos , which bills itself as " the mother of God." Temporary absence of the Convention in July - fatigue, nausea ? - If it reinforces the fears of MPs, who fear being victims of the Terror , allows the political maneuvers of opponents, who agree to drop the " Incorruptible ."
The fall of the " Incorruptible "
8 Thermidor Year II (26 July) in a large programmatic speech , Robespierre , returning to the Convention , announces new crackdown against " conspirators" , he does not name . The next day , 9 Thermidor , Robespierre put MPs in the minority, prevent talking and finally decreed under arrest , and his family. Leaders sans-culottes made ??unable to mobilize their troops, still manage to deliver the prisoners and lead them to the Town Hall . But the forces of the Convention , led by Barras , seized Robespierre and his friends, who are running the next day, 10 Thermidor (28 July 1794).
In the following days, the Jacobin clubs across the country send expressions of satisfaction at the announcement of the fall of the " tyrant." A black legend is born, described as a revolutionary Robespierre guillotined dreaming of the whole of France and monopolize all powers. The different currents of the Convention conspire in this operation : former Girondins who found their freedom and parliamentary seat , former terrorists became blower performances in previous years - by forgetting their own role.
This dramatic episode illustrates , pushing the climax, the mechanisms that are at work since the beginning of the Revolution. In fact, the revolutionary factions have never ceased to be in competition against each other , the political slogans were often diverted from their meaning to hide games politicians , opinions were manipulated . It is important to understand these games not to be , even today, the prisoner handed down by Thermi , which blackened the "dictatorship" of Robespierre to whiten their own images. During the following years , 9 Thermidor is a national holiday.

F. The Revolution in search of a second wind

1 . Settling of accounts : the " White Terror "

The " Thermidor " Convention purged of Montagnards Robespierrists , will settle accounts and try to get out of the Terror. Hunting " bloodsuckers " is open, while the Abbe Gregoire publishes the list of destruction by terrorists or " vandals ". It mixes well in a general and vague conviction extremists sans-culottes and Montagnards . Some revolutionaries will pay for Thermidor gives the image of a break . Carrier and Turreau particular, are being publicly charged.
Across the country , the reaction against the sans-culottes is intense. In Paris, the Convention refused all their social demands , and brutally repress their protests in April and May 1795, when the economic conditions are particularly difficult. The Rhone valley is the scene of numerous settlements of accounts suggest that the political authorities commit the " gilded youth " of dandies against the sans-culottes . These are compiled and executed in an against - Terror and White Terror , affecting dozens of men in Aix , Marseille and Toulon later , and more than a hundred in Lyon in May 1795. Page extreme Revolution is turned.

2 . renewal royalist

To cope with the internal and external war , the Republic agrees to sign a peace with ambiguity and chouans Vendee Charette and Stoffiet . But the respite is not enough for French armies to conquer other countries. And the Republicans are facing oppositions forgotten . Faced with the many requests for reopening of churches, they must agree to recognize in practice the freedom of religion and tolerate the presence of refractory priests , in competition with the constitutional clergy discredited . Royalism diffuse spread throughout the country, affecting in particular dandies and permits are tied two attempts to seize power .
After the bloody failure of the landing of immigrants in the Bay of Quiberon, the royalists engage in a new way : the turnout of both Assemblies ( ? Council of Five Hundred and Council of Elders ), which form the legislative body in the new regime established by the Constitution of the year III ( 22 August 1795 ) . To avoid the predictable success of the royalists, the Thermidorian Convention decided to reserve two-thirds of its members to meetings . The royalists while attempting a coup on October 5, 1795 in Paris. But the army , with the young General Bonaparte , crushes the gun this attempt uncoordinated . The elections to the Legislative Corps therefore be in accordance , October 21, 1795 , two thirds of the seats allocated to former members of the Convention . The Thermidorians MPs who claim ideas of 1789, and appear to have triumphed over the left - the sans-culottes - as of right - the royalists - and be able to complete the revolution.

3 . the Management

Given previous failures , the new leaders of France seek to create the conditions for a delicate political balance. The Executive is held by a Board of five members , one appointed by lot, must be renewed annually. Managers - Barras Rewbell Carnot , Letourneur, The Revelliere - Lepeaux ... - share all the responsibilities of power during negotiations learned . The principle of the single room is abandoned : both Houses ( Five Hundred and Veterans ) must jointly adopt laws. Armed with new powers , ministers and commissioners are appointed in the departments enforce decisions . Thus is confirmed the administrative centralization began in 1793 - which revives monarchical centralization - even if the county government elected again become powerful with the demise of the revolutionary committees . Administrative and legal frameworks lose their extraordinary revolutionary .
The royalists reappear in public life : in 1795 , they formed the Assemblies moderate current . The electoral process indeed appears to be the only possible after 1795. War of the Vendee , stopped a few months , returned along with the landing of Quiberon ( June 1795 ) . In spring 1796 , the Vendee General Charette and Stoffiet are captured and shot , leaving the region in a troubled peace Cadoudal , another royalist rebels , goes June 19 A similar situation prevails at the border. The exhaustion of the combatants is general, it leads to peace treaties with European countries ( Basel treaty with Prussia in April 1795 in The Hague with Holland in May , Basel again, with Spain in July ) . Britain and the Austrian empire continue the war, but the borders are now insured .

4 . A country exhausted

financial crisis
The major challenges facing the system are inherited from the beginning of the Revolution . The state has a lot to deal with dilapidated finances and money . The scrip has lost virtually all its value is replaced by the "territorial mandate" in February 1796. But after a sharp devaluation , this paper is demonetized a year later.
Taxes no longer fit into the boxes , so that the Board should take the Bey of Algiers and traders in Hamburg in 1796 , he has increasingly gains made ??by his armies in the conquered countries . In Belgium, the national assets are sold , the remittances are from Italy invested by General Bonaparte. These specific measures are not sufficient to prevent the accelerated by financial scandals , which is proclaimed to the detriment of creditors of the bankrupt state , while the army suppliers getting real monopolies. The State and lives from day to day, in the dependence of the generals and bankers.
Economic and social crisis
This failure is accompanied by social problems. After years of famine in 1794-1795 , harvests are abundant in 1796 , but the economy has entered a phase of depression since the abolition of paper money . As agricultural prices fall they , which relieves the urban working class but ends weaken demand for manufactured by rural producers products. Only certain industries ( cotton, coal, metallurgy ) beyond the doldrums , and all progressing very disparate , leaving entire regions margin recovery. The ports do not recover their pre-war activity . This hardly resurgent economy allows speculators to get rich, while the social gaps increased. The French company , exhausted after so much drama , just to regain growth momentum .

5. Conspiracies and coups

Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals ( March 1796 - May 1797 )
Wanted by the police for his articles published in the Tribune of the people, Babeuf went underground in December 1795. He founded a " plebeian " party, for which he wrote the Manifesto of Equals , which requires "equal enjoyment ", the abolition of private property , and recommends the establishment of a "community of goods and works " . He tied and the alliance between the last Jacobins and sans-culottes , and has the support of many Parisian workers affected by the economic crisis and soldiers of the Foreign Legion .
The " Insurrectional Committee" of Equals , or secret Management of public salvation , which he founded in March 1796 with Buonarroti and Le Peletier particular conspire against the regime. Exposed by an undercover agent , the conspirators were arrested May 10, 1796 . Their trial will open in February 1797 after a failed attempt at a military uprising inspired by the ideology of Equals , in September 1796 the camp of Grenelle . Sentenced to death , Babeuf be executed May 27, 1797 .
The royalists did not disarm . Their powerful spy networks crisscross Europe , the chouans Brittany , framed by noble young migrants in search of adventure , always a latent threat , deserters are supported by " charitable institutions " created in seventy departments working opinion; applications to reopen churches multiply and finally the Clichy Club , led by moderates who want to compromise with the institutions , rallied around him disillusioned personalities as Carnot or general Pichegru ( ? Clichyans ) . The elections of March 1797 are favorable , despite intimidation and propaganda orchestrated by the directors . Pichegru was elected president of the Five Hundred and the Marquis de Barthelemy, diplomat and former employee of the Duke de Choiseul, between the Executive Board to replace Letourneur .
But the " triumvirate " Barras Rewbell and Revelliere - Lepeaux , with evidence of treason of Pichegru , require the support of the army of Italy , led by General Bonaparte . He sends his lieutenant Augereau to provide the triumvirate . 18 Fructidor ( September 4, 1797 ), men Augereau invest the two assemblies : Pichegru , Carnot and Barthelemy were arrested. Elections are broken into forty seven departments , sixty members were deported to Guyana with Pichegru and Bartholomew, the royalist journalists are hunted . This is the "dry Terror." By the coup , the Management seems reconnect with the Jacobin policy.

6 . antireligious bigotry

The Constitutional Church is in crisis and has lost the account of people like managers . Some of them wish to lead a radically anti-religious policy : the exception of September 1797 laws require an oath of priests "hatred to royalty and anarchy " , refractory is punishable by death . It follows many arrests, deportations and executions - the Belgian priests pay the heaviest price . Churches are devastated again, while Pope Pius VI was arrested in February 1798 after his dominions invaded by the troops of General Bonaparte was proclaimed Roman Republic , led by France , Valencia , Pius VI died there in August 1799.
The Director - Revelliere Lepeaux trying to launch a formal natural religion, " Theophilanthropy " which claims to reconcile the religious rites and social ambitions of the Revolution. Failure is fast . The Board is particularly concerned , in 1798 , to impose a ten-day worship , civil offices made ??every " tenth day " ( tenth and last day of the decade in the Republican calendar, emerged as busy day instead of Sunday), and must radically extirpate Catholicism. But decadis are poorly monitored by the population, while on Sundays and religious holidays are always respected and protect the faithful Catholic priests illegal . The failure of the religious policy is evident in many French regions.

7 . military expansionism

In fact, the Board will base much of its power over the military conquests , another part of the Jacobin legacy , it also diverted from its original meaning. The war continued with Great Britain and Austria, but the prowess of General Bonaparte , commander of the Army of Italy since March 2, 1796 , are tipping the balance . The Austrian armies fought one after the other ( ? Arcola, in November 1796 , Rivoli, January 1797 ) , and the emperor was forced to sue for peace with the preliminary Leoben ( 18 April 1797 ) , after Bonaparte threatened to invade the Tyrol.
These military successes allow the general manager to act counter to his own way in the north of Italy, and make him the savior of the regime since the Board saw cash flow ensures that this conquest . October 18 , 1797, Bonaparte obliges Austria peace treaty of Campo Formio in his own political views , without reference to the French government : independence is complete. Northern Italy is shared : Austria retains control of Veneto - yet conquered by Bonaparte - while France takes possession of the Ionian coast and led to the creation of " sister republics " of Cisalpine (Lombardy) and Liguria ( ? republic). It also annex Belgium and controls the left bank of the Rhine .
For more information , see the article Italian campaign .
Expansionist policy continues, even if the French armies trample on the Rhine and if the British retain control of the colonies (except Santo Domingo ) . Political pretexts , Switzerland was invaded and transformed into Helvetic Republic in 1798 , while the Papal States became Roman Republic. In the north, the Netherlands also enter the French orbit ( ? Batavian Republic). After an unsuccessful attack to restore the power of the Pope , the kingdom of Naples was conquered in turn, in January 1799 and turned into Neapolitan Republic , with liberals and patriots Abrial ( Fasulo , Russo ) . The whole of Italy is thus subjected directly or indirectly to France.
These successes , however, prove to be fragile . Bonaparte launched in May 1798 in an expedition , even bolder , to Egypt. The beginnings are promising : the French armies easily push the Mamluk and seized the Nile Delta . But the British destroyed the fleet at Aboukir (1st August 1798 ) , blocking the French in the country that arrive while new Turkish troops, who win victories. Conscious of its glory , and especially not to alter, Bonaparte left the command to Kléber and returned to France .

8 . The 18th Brumaire

In this confusing situation , which is compounded further by the economic crisis and the widening deficit - which requires new taxes - a palace revolution is brewing in the entourage of Sieyes , which has replaced the Management Rewbell ( 16 May 1799 ) .
In June , Sieyes and Barras needed, with the help of the army, a redesign of the college of Directors in favor of the Jacobins. Military demand drastic measures ( mass uprising , forced loan , law of hostages to guarantee the life of the directors ) in order to suppress the multiple uprisings . General Bernadotte is tipped to take the lead of a plot in vain . Bonaparte's return to France , October 9 , gives a top chef to the conspirators .
Aided by the Directors and the brother of the general, Lucien Bonaparte , at that time president of the Five Hundred , the conspirators set up a coup takes place on 9 and 10 November 1799 ( 18 and 19 Brumaire Year VIII ) . Rooms are transferred to Saint -Cloud , the military commander of Paris is given to Bonaparte 's soldiers dispersed members who do not comply with the new strong man. On the evening of November 10, the Board was abolished by the vote of the Ancients and the rest of the members of the Five Hundred , in favor of a new regime , the Consulate , which is a continuation of revolutionary principles , but giving full powers a triumvirate , is directed by the First Consul Bonaparte. The Revolution is stabilized in an authoritarian regime , which guarantees the earlier social changes based on the latest creation of the ten years of turmoil , the national army.

Name of the revolution that the waymark is related to: La Révolution Française 1789 Adress of the monument: Square Gambetta Avenue Schumann Châtellerault, France 86100 What was the role of this site in revolution?: neither When was this memorial placed?: 07/14/1890 Who placed this monument?: inconnu Link that comprove that role: Not listed

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