French Revolution & Napoleon (1789-1815) PDF

Overturning the Political and Social Order 16 The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789–1815...

Overturning the Political and Social Order 16 The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789–1815 F rance was beginning to stir. On October 17, 1787, Arthur Young, a British farmer and diarist traveling through France, described “a great ferment amongst all ranks of men, who are eager for some change, without knowing what to look to, or to hope for.” People whom Young talked with in Paris concluded that “they are on the eve of some great revolution in the government.” Two years later, the French Revolution brought the French monarchy to its knees. During the following ten years, revolutionaries eliminated the mon- archy, overturned the social system of France’s Old Regime, and transformed France’s institutions. Moreover, the Revolution, with its compelling ban- ner of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” proved so potent that its impact spread far beyond the borders of France. It soon spawned wars that engulfed most of Europe for more than two decades. Riding the twin forces of revolution- ary turmoil and war, one individual—Napoleon Bonaparte—would rise to a legendary pinnacle of power. He would rule over a new French empire and a nearly conquered continent. In the process, Napoleon spread the ideals of the French Revolution well beyond France. This tide of change, turmoil, and war mounted by the French Revolution and Napoleon would eventually subside, but for France—and for much of Western civilization—the course of history had shifted permanently. American The French Revolution and Napoleon 1789–1815 Revolution 1776–1783 Early Phases 1789–1793 TIMELINE E The Terror 1793–1794 —— Restoration 1815–1830 Napoleon in Power 1799–1815 The Thermidorian Reaction 1794–1795 —— Age of Ideologies d The Directory 1795–1799 T Enlightenment g Industrial Revolution in Britain 1787 1794 1801 1808 1815  most of the national debt was short term and privately PREVIEW held. Moreover, France’s taxation system offered little “A GREAT FERMENT”: TROUBLE BREWING IN FRANCE help. The French nobility, clergy, and much of the Analyze the path to and early stages of the French Revolution. bourgeoisie controlled the bulk of France’s wealth and had long been exempt from most taxes. Nearly all THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY: direct taxes fell on the struggling peasantry. There was ESTABLISHING A NEW ORDER no consistent set of rules or method for collecting Examine the new revolutionary order. taxes throughout the country, and private tax collec- TO THE RADICAL REPUBLIC AND BACK tors diverted much revenue from the treasury into Explore the most radical phases of the Revolution. their own pockets. Unless something was done, royal bankruptcy loomed ahead. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE To stave off financial ruin, Louis XVI appointed the Trace the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Physiocrat Jacques Turgot (1727–1781), a friend of Voltaire, as his minister of finance in 1774. Turgot proposed to abolish Reform efforts guilds, eliminate restriction on the commerce in grain, institute a small new tax on land- owners, and cut down on expenses at court. However, people who benefited from the old system soon engi- “A GREAT FERMENT”: TROUBLE neered his dismissal, and his modest reform measures BREWING IN FRANCE were rescinded. A succession of ministers tried all Arthur Young recognized discontent percolating kinds of temporary solutions, but to no avail. Costs among the French population, but there was good incurred to support the Americans in their war of reason for people everywhere to assume that any cri- independence against England made matters worse. ses would pass without a fundamental change in the Now interest payments on the debt ate up half of all monarchy or social order. The French monarchy had government expenditures. Bankers began refusing to remained intact for centuries. Both Louis XVI and his lend the government money. predecessor, Louis XV, ruled over the leading nation Desperate, Louis called an Assembly of Notables on the Continent—a country more populous, wealthy, in 1787 and pleaded with these selected nobles, and educated than ever. Although neither king could clergy, and officials to consent to new taxes and claim much popularity, Louis XVI could at least bask financial reforms. Still they refused, as did the judges in the glory of supporting the American revolution- (all members of the nobility) in the parlement, or law aries in their victory over the British, France’s chief court, of Paris when Louis turned to them. Instead, competitor. leading nobles and officials demanded a meeting of Then what caused the “great ferment” in France an old representative institution, the Estates General. described by our British traveler? Below the surface They fully expected to control these proceedings and bubbled growing complaints within France’s social thereby assert their own interests. With bankruptcy orders. Members of the aristocracy and middle classes, imminent and nowhere else to turn for help, the many influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, king gave in. No one knew it at the time, but Louis’ wanted more rights and power from the monarchy. decision set the stage for turning France’s financial Peasants suffered hardships that could, as in the past, crisis into a political and social movement of epic create disorder and uprisings. However, the immedi- proportions. ate, visible problem came from a conflict over France’s finances. The Underlying Causes of the Revolution Louis’ financial woes were just the most visible part of The Financial Crisis Weakens the Monarchy France’s problems. When these tensions combined When Louis XVI ascended the throne in 1774, he with the conflicts tugging at the fab- inherited a large—and constantly growing—national ric of French society, a dangerous Revolt of the debt. Much of that debt had been incurred financing blend resulted. One of the most nobility wars and maintaining the military troubling conflicts stemmed from The taxation system (see Chapter 15). Yet this debt should the relationship between the monarchy and the nobil- not have broken a nation as rich as ity. For centuries, the French nobility, less than 2 per- France. Great Britain and the Netherlands had higher cent of the population, had been the foundation on per-capita debts than France, but these countries also which the monarchy established its rule. However, boasted taxation systems and banks to support their the nobility was also the monarchy’s chief rival for debts. France lacked an adequate banking system, and power, and it had grown increasingly assertive during 488 CHAPTER 16 O ve r t u r n i n g t h e Po l i t i c a l a n d S o c i a l O rd e r  the eighteenth century (see Chapter 15). Through Enlightenment to an increasingly literate public, par- institutions such as the parlements that they controlled, ticularly the aristocratic and middle-class elite in nobles resisted ministerial efforts to tax them. More Paris and other French cities (see Chapter 14). These and more, nobles claimed to be protecting their rights ideas emphasized the validity of reason and natural as well as France itself from “ministerial despotism.” rights and questioned long-established institutions. So, when the monarchy turned to this group for finan- They also undermined notions of the divine rights of cial help, the nobles refused for two reasons. First, kings and traditional ways of life—all while intensi- they wanted to protect their own financial interests. fying expectations of rapid reforms. In addition, Second, they used the crisis to assert their indepen- terms such as nation, citizen, and general will had increas- dence. Indeed, they argued that they represented the ingly cropped up in the political discourse and nation. They established a price for their cooperation: reflected a growing sense that politics should include a greater share of power. Understandably, France’s more than the concerns of the monarch and a tiny kings refused to pay that price. Thus, when the Assem- elite. So, when nobles asserted their own interests bly of Notables turned a deaf ear to Louis’ pleas in against the king, they often used language and ideas 1787 and instead demanded a meeting of the Estates that attacked monarchical absolutists as unjustified General, the king faced a financial crisis that was tyrants and that accused the king’s minister of “des- linked to a virtual revolt of his own nobility. potism.” Middle-class men and women shared these Louis might have thought he could find allies sentiments and later extended them to demands for within the middle class in his standoff with the nobil- legal equality. ity. After all, French and other European kings had Thus, given all the resentments brewing among occasionally turned to wealthy mem- the nobility and the middle class, Louis and his often Middle-class bers of this class for support in the unpopular ministers risked much after they exposed demands past. Nevertheless, as events would themselves to discussions of reform within the Estates prove in the tumultuous months of General. Three other developments—all beyond the 1789, the middle class had changed—it now nursed powers of the king, nobility, and middle class—added its own set of grievances. This growing social sector— an underlying sense of disappointment, despera- having almost tripled during the century to some tion, and disorder among the French people in these 9 percent of the population—had benefited greatly decades. from France’s general prosperity and population boom First, a gap opened between rosy expectations and after 1715. Many talented, wealthy, and ambitious frightening realities. Before 1770, France had enjoyed members of the middle class managed to gain the high a long period of prosperity. This growing wealth offices, titles, and privileges enjoyed by the nobility. engendered a sense of rising expectations—that eco- Others rubbed shoulders and shared ideas with the nomically, things would keep getting nobility in salons and did their best to copy the nobles’ better and better. After 1770, a series Disappointed style of life. Moreover, most had found ways to avoid of economic depressions struck, turn- expectations paying heavy taxes. ing these high expectations into bit- However, numerous members of the bourgeoisie— ter disappointment and frustration. Worse, in 1788 the particularly younger administrators, lawyers, journal- countryside suffered unusually bad harvests. In May ists, and intellectuals—had encountered frustrating and July of that year, hailstorms wiped out crops barriers to the offices and prestige enjoyed by the throughout France. Drought and then the most severe nobility. They also had grown impatient with the winter in decades followed. The price of bread soared, monarchy’s failure to enact reforms that would ben- and with it came hunger, desperation, and even starva- efit them specifically. By 1789, many applauded broad tion. Droves of peasants crowded into the cities in attacks on the privileged orders and the status quo. An search of jobs and help, but the agricultural depression example of such an attack was Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph had already spread there and had thrown thousands of Sieyès’ widely circulated pamphlet What Is the Third artisans and laborers out of work. In the spring of 1789, Estate? According to Sieyès, “If the privileged order peasants and urban poor looking for food turned to should be abolished, the nation would be nothing less, violence in France’s cities and villages. Women led but something more.” The sorts of reforms that these groups demanding grain and lower prices for flour. middle-class critics had in mind were no more palat- Desperate people attacked bakeries and stores of grain able to the monarchy than those of the nobility. wherever they could find them. Arthur Young wrote, People from both the middle class and the “the want of bread is terrible: accounts arrive every nobility had begun expressing ideas and using highly moment from the provinces of riots and disturbances, charged political terms that profoundly threatened and calling in the military, to preserve the peace of the the monarchy. In the decades before markets.” The populace angrily blamed governmental Enlightenment 1789, salon meetings and new publi- figures and “parasitical agents” of the Old Regime for ideas and language cations had spread key ideas of the their plight. “A G rea t Fer m en t ” : Tro ub l e B rew in g in France 489  By 1789, many pamphlets and cartoons portraying in Britain’s North American colonies turned into the the connection between suffering and France’s privi- American Revolution and war for independence that leged orders circulated throughout France. Figure 16.1 directly involved French aristocrats and common sol- is an apt example of these publications. This illustra- diers alike and led to government without a king (see tion shows the thin “common man,” who represents Chapter 15). In the Dutch Republic, demands for the vast majority of the people, carrying three heavy reform in the 1780s erupted into open revolt in 1787. figures from the privileged classes on his back. In front, In the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium and Luxem- wielding a whip and claiming feudal rights, is the king, bourg), elites rose against the reforms initiated by representing oppressive royal power. Just above him is Emperor Joseph II in 1787. Well-informed French a clergyman in robes, brandishing papers representing elites, keeping abreast of these disturbances, began to the threat of an inquisition and clerical privileges. In surmise that they, too, might successfully challenge back rides a judge with a list of the jealously guarded the political status quo. rights of the noble-controlled parlements. The illustra- The economic hardship and political uprisings tion depicts the common man as a naked beast kept across Europe were damaging enough. A third under control by reins, chains, and a blindfold. He problem—the French people’s disre- crawls pitifully across barren fields, bleeding from spect for their own king—made Unpopular kings the hands, knees, and loins, while his tormentors spur matters worse. For much of the him on. eighteenth century, France had been ruled by the The second unsettling development came with the unremarkable, unpopular, and long-lived King Louis increasing demands for political participation and XV. Unlike some of his European counterparts, nei- governmental reform throughout the ther he nor his successor, Louis XVI, managed to forge Demands West in the years before 1789. These an effective alliance with the nobility or consistently for political movements, arising in various coun- assert their authority over it. Nor did they succeed in participation tries, were led by ambitious elites. In enacting reforms or even give the impression of being Poland, agitation for independence “enlightened” monarchs. Louis XVI had little particu- from Russian influence surfaced between 1772 and lar taste or talent for rule, and his unpopular Austrian 1792. Across the Atlantic, what started as a tax revolt wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, increasingly drew fire for her supposed extravagance and indifference to those below her. According to a widely circulated story, she dismissed reports that the poor could not buy bread with the phrase “Let them eat cake!” Though the story was untrue, it reflected the growing anger against the king and queen. Desperate to stave off the immediate threat of bankruptcy, the relatively weak Louis XVI looked for support. Instead of able allies, he found a jealous nobility, a disgruntled middle class, a bitter and frus- trated peasantry, and an urban poor made desperate by hunger. The Tennis Court Oath In this ominous atmosphere, Louis XVI summoned the Estates General in 1788. This representative body, which had not met since 1614, was divided into France’s three traditional orders, or estates: the first estate, the clergy, The Estates General owned over 10 percent of France’s best land; the second estate, the nobility, owned more than 20 percent of the land; and the third estate, the so-called commoners, included the bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and the urban populace. During the early FIGURE 16.1 France’s Privileged Orders, ca. 1789 months of 1789, elections of representatives to the This French cartoon shows an enslaved “common man” as a beast Estates General were held. All men who had reached of burden carrying the merciless, privileged monarchy, clergy, and aristocracy on his back. Cartoons such as this example not only the age of 25 and who paid taxes could vote. In thou- captured popular opinion but also served as propaganda that sands of meetings to draw up lists of grievances to helped to fuel the revolution. present to the king, people found their political voices 490 CHAPTER 16 O ve r t u r n i n g t h e Po l i t i c a l a n d S o c i a l O rd e r  and connected their dissatisfactions with inflating contemporary painter and active supporter of the expectations of reform. Hundreds of pamphlets app- Revolution. In the center of the picture, the presid- eared and public debate spread widely. Each of the ing officer, Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736–1793) (soon to three estates elected its own representatives. Because become mayor of Paris), raises his arm in a pledge and the third estate made up more than nine-tenths of the reads the oath aloud. Below him, from left to right, a total population, Louis XVI agreed to grant it as many white-robed Carthusian monk represents the second seats as the other two estates combined. However, by estate, a black-robed Catholic curate the first estate, tradition, the three estates sat separately, and each and the brown-clad Protestant minister the third group had one vote. estate. These same three figures also stand for France’s In April 1789, delegates began streaming into main religious groups: the secular clergy, the regular Versailles armed only with cahiers, or the lists of griev- clergy, and Protestantism. All three figures join, sym- ances from all classes of people, that had been called bolizing the transformation of the meeting into the for by the king. Of the 600 representatives of the newly formed National Assembly. Around these fig- third estate, not one came from the peasantry. Except ures, representatives also take the oath. From above, for a handful of liberal clergy and nobles elected to light streams through billowing curtains as if blessing the third estate, these delegates—mostly ambitious the heroic activities below, and members of the popu- lawyers, petty officials, administrators, and other lace approvingly watch the scene. professionals—were all members of the bourgeoi- On June 23, the king met with the three estates sie. They fully expected to solve the financial crisis in a royal session. He offered many reforms but also quickly and then move on to addressing the long commanded the estates to meet separately and vote lists of complaints that they had been accumulating by order. Then the king, his ministers, and members for years. Most bourgeois representatives, like many of the first two estates regally filed out. The third- liberal nobles, wanted to create a constitutional gov- estate representatives, however, defiantly remained ernment with a national assembly that would meet seated. When the royal master of ceremonies returned regularly to pass taxes and laws. to remind them of the king’s orders, Count Mirabeau After religious services and a solemn procession in (1749–1791), a liberal nobleman elected by the third Paris, the delegates met in Versailles on May 5. Imme- estate, jumped to his feet. “Go and tell those who sent diately they debated the voting system. The two privi- you,” he shouted, “that we are here by the will of the leged estates demanded that, according to custom, the people and will not leave this place except at the point three estates meet separately and vote by order—that of the bayonet!” When the startled courtier dutifully is, each estate cast one vote. This procedure would repeated these words to his master, Louis XVI, with place power squarely in the hands of the nobility, characteristic weakness, replied, “They mean to stay. which controlled most of the first estate as well as Well, damn it, let them stay.” A few days later, the king its own order. The third estate demanded that all the reversed himself and ordered the three estates to meet orders meet jointly and that delegates vote by head. jointly and vote by head. The third estate had won the This method would favor the third estate, for not only first round. did this order boast as many members as the other two combined, but a number of liberal clergy and nobles Storming the Bastille in the first and second estates sympathized with the reforms called for by the third estate. All sides real- The monarchy might have been able to reassert con- ized that the outcome of this voting issue would be trol had not the new National Assembly received decisive. unexpected support from two sources: the Parisian The delegates haggled for six weeks. Louis waffled populace and the French peasantry. Both groups had from one side to the other. Finally, the third estate, been suffering from the unusually poor economic con- backed by some clergy from the first estate, took ditions initiated by bad harvests. Revolutionary events action and declared itself the National raised expectations in hard times, making these people The National Assembly of France on June 17 and in the city and countryside particularly volatile. The Assembly invited the other two estates to join it first important disturbances broke out in Paris, whose in enacting legislation. Three days population of 600,000 made it one of the largest cities later, when the third-estate deputies arrived at their in Europe. In early July, rumors that the king was call- meeting hall, they found it locked. Adjourning to a ing the professional troops of the frontier garrison to nearby building that served as an indoor tennis court, Versailles raced through the streets of Paris. Alarmed, they took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to dis- residents concluded that the king meant to use force band until France had a constitution. against them. Then Louis dismissed his popular Figure 16.2 dramatizes and glorifies this act of finance minister, Jacques Necker (1732–1804). This defiance. The painting is based on a pen and ink draw- move seemed to confirm the fears of the third estate, ing by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), a talented who saw Necker as an ally. “A G rea t Fer m en t ” : Tro ub l e B rew in g in France 491  FIGURE 16.2 School of Jacques-Louis David, The Tennis Court Oath, ca. 1792 On June 17, 1789, the third estate, dramatically declaring itself the National Assembly, took an oath to create a constitution for France. At this critical juncture, the common people of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” In fact, this show of Paris acted on their own. On July 14, riotous crowds force by the artisans, shop owners, and laborers of of men and women searching for arms marched on the Paris stayed the king’s hand and sparked uprisings Bastille, a gloomy old fortress-prison in a working- in other cities across France. Under pressure, royal class quarter. Few people were actually in the weakly authority began to crumble. guarded Bastille, but it symbolized the old order. Uprisings in the countryside echoed events in Paris. Many died in the confused battle. With the help of That July and August, peasants throughout France mutinous troops, however, the crowd eventually took revolted against their lords. Burning the Bastille, hacked its governor to death, and paraded tax rolls, the peasantry attacked man- Peasant revolts around Paris with his head on a pike. “This glorious ors, reoccupied enclosed lands, and day must amaze our enemies, and finally usher in for rejected the traditional rights of noble landowners— us the triumph of justice and liberty,” proclaimed a dues on land, flour mills, wine presses, and law courts, Paris newspaper. and the tithes (taxes) landlords charged their tenants. The scene on page 494, one of many paintings and These revolts intensified with the spreading of drawings made to celebrate this event, reveals the unfounded rumors that bands of brigands, perhaps importance of this famous battle. The Bastille is por- assembled by nobles, were on the trayed as a massive castle that, against all odds, has loose in the countryside. Panicked The “Great Fear” come under attack by commoners and troops who have by this “Great Fear,” many nobles— rallied to the side of the people. Only a few cannons including one of the king’s brothers—fled France and seem necessary, for the people supposedly have heroic became known as the émigrés (exiles). revolutionary spirit and numbers enough to surge for- ward and somehow storm across the bridge toward The End of the Old Order the Bastille entrance. The picture poignantly captures the symbolism of the act—the Bastille, representing Now the nobility as well as the monarchy was in the old feudal regime of the past, falls because of cor- retreat. The National Assembly—dominated by ruption within and the heroic power of an outraged the middle-class deputies from the third estate but people fighting under the revolutionary banner of now including many deputies from the clergy and 492 CHAPTER 16 O ve r t u r n i n g t h e Po l i t i c a l a n d S o c i a l O rd e r  thinking about sources DOCUMENT 16.1 DOCUMENTS New Laws End the Feudal System in France During the summer of 1789, revolutionary for them... are abolished, on condi- once for all abolished and are activities swept France. On July 14, a mob tion, however, that some other method absorbed into the law common to all stormed the Bastille, symbolizing a violent be devised to provide for the expenses Frenchmen. tearing down of the ancien régime. In the of divine worship, the support of the XI. All citizens, without distinction countryside, the peasantry rose against the officiating clergy, for the assistance of of birth, are eligible to any office or nobility. Cracking under these pressures, the poor, for repairs and rebuilding of dignity, whether ecclesiastical, civil nobles in the National Assembly moved on churches and parsonages, and for the or military; and no profession shall August 4 and 5 to abolish their own feudal maintenance of all institutions, seminar- imply any derogation. rights and privileges. The following excerpts ies, schools, academies, asylums, and FROM: James Harvey Robinson, ed., Translations describe some of the laws passed to end the organizations to which the present and Reprints from the Original Sources feudal system. funds are devoted. of European History, vol. I, no. 5 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898), VII. The sale of judicial and municipal pp. 2–5. ARTICLE I. The National Assembly offices shall be suppressed forthwith. hereby completely abolishes the feu- Justice shall be dispensed gratis. dal system. It decrees that, among IX. Pecuniary privileges, personal Analyze the Source the existing rights and dues,... all or real, in the payment of taxes are those originating in or representing 1. What conclusions about the abolished forever. Taxes shall be col- real or personal serfdom or personal grievances underlying the French lected from all the citizens, and from all servitude, shall be abolished without Revolution might this document property, in the same manner and in the indemnification. support? same form.... IV. All manorial courts are hereby sup- X.... All the peculiar privileges, 2. How did these laws change the pressed without indemnification.... pecuniary or otherwise, of the relationship between commoners V. Tithes of every description, as well provinces, principalities, districts, and nobility, as well as between as the dues which have been substituted cantons, cities and communes, are citizens and the king? nobility—tried to pacify the aroused peasantry. On and idea made popular by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (see August 4, during a night session of the National Chapter 14). The document proclaimed freedom of Assembly, one nobleman after another stood up and opinion “even in religion,” freedom of the press, and renounced his traditional rights and privileges in an freedom from arbitrary arrest. In 1791, this spirit would effort to make the best of a bad situation. A leader of lead to the liberation of France’s Jews from old legal the Assembly hailed the “end of feudalism.” As Docu- disabilities. ment 16.1 shows, the National Assembly quickly Some of these rights, such as freedom of the press, decreed the end of serfdom, traditional dues owed applied to women as well as men, but only men to landlords, special taxation rights, and privileged gained the full measure of new social and political access to official posts. The peasantry seemed pacified rights. In the months and years that followed, many for the time being. women objected to this limitation. Organizing groups Success spurred the National Assembly to take fur- and writing petitions and pamphlets, these women ther steps. The most important of these actions demanded to be included. In 1791, Olympe de Gouges occurred on August 26, when the Assembly proclaimed (1748–1793), a writer and strong supporter of the the Declaration of Rights of Man Revolution, wrote one of the best-known and more Declaration of and Citizen. Enlightenment ideas and challenging pamphlets, the Declaration of the Rights of Rights of Man phrases similar to those in the American Women. She argued that women should have the same and Citizen Declaration of Independence filled political and social rights as men: “The only limits on this document. “Men are born and the exercise of the natural rights of woman are per- remain free and equal in rights,” it stated. The natural petual male tyranny; these limits are to be reformed rights included “liberty, property, security, and resis- by the laws of nature and reason.” Some members of tance to oppression.” Sovereignty—supreme authority— the government, such as the Marquis de Condorcet rested with the nation as a whole, not the monarchy. (1743–1794), voiced similar demands. However, their Enacted laws should express the “general will”—a term arguments fell on deaf ears. “A G rea t Fer m en t ” : Tro ub l e B rew in g in France 493  Despite this rising tide of defiance, Louis refused to anger and hunger of the peasantry and the urban poor, sign the August decrees. Instead, he once more assem- had triumphed. The old order had disintegrated. bled troops around Versailles and March to Versailles Paris. In answer to this new threat of force, on October 5 and 6, a huge THE CONSTITUTIONAL crowd of Parisian women, already infuriated by high MONARCHY: ESTABLISHING bread prices and food shortages, marched 11 miles A NEW ORDER through the rain to Versailles. The contemporary print shown in Figure 16.3 depicts the marchers, armed Flushed with success, the National Assembly now with pikes, axes, swords, and cannon. With the excep- turned to the task of transforming French institutions. tion of the well-dressed, reluctant figure at the left, Guiding principles were represented by the revolu- their faces express a striking determination and tionary banner “Liberty, Equality, authority. (Notice the woman riding in the cart with and Fraternity.” At that time, the Liberty, Equality, the cannon and the woman at the front to the far idea of liberty meant freedom from Fraternity right.) arbitrary authority and freedom of At Versailles, the marchers surrounded the palace. speech, press, conscience, assembly, and profession. With the help of members of the recently formed Equality meant equal treatment under the law and National Guard—units of armed civilians under equality of economic opportunity—at least for men. Lafayette—they forced the king and his family to Fraternity meant comradeship as citizens of the nation. accompany them back to Paris, bringing him closer During the next two years, the Assembly passed a to the people and away from the protected isola- series of sweeping reforms that altered almost all tion of Versailles and the king’s aristocratic advi- aspects of life in France. sors. As the carriage bearing the royal family rolled The central government, now based on national toward the capital, where the royal family would be sovereignty, was transformed into what amounted to virtually imprisoned in the Tuileries Palace, the sur- a constitutional monarchy. The National Assembly rounding crowd of women and men shouted jubi- served as its legislature, and the lantly, “We have the baker [the king], the baker’s king (still an important symbol of Constitutional wife, and the little cook boy! Now we shall have authority for many) remained its monarchy bread!” Although this image of women taking politi- chief executive officer. Because only cal action into their own hands made them heroines tax-paying males could vote and win election to of the Revolution in some eyes, others would ner- office, the bourgeoisie firmly held the reins of power. vously look back on the women’s behavior as some- For the time being, the governance of France was thing inappropriate and even frightening. Most men decentralized. To undermine old loyalties and the were not ready to accept such a change in women’s power of the provincial nobility, the National Assem- traditional roles. bly created eighty-three newly named departments, A few days later, the National Assembly moved each almost equal in size and administered by locally its sessions to Paris. The third estate, building on the elected assemblies and officials (Maps 16.1 and 16.2). Similarly, the National Assem- bly took France’s judicial system out of the hands of the nobility and clergy. It created new civil and criminal courts, with elected judges. France’s complex, unequal system of taxation was also swept away, replaced by uniform taxes on land and the profits of trade and industry. The new government linked reform of the Catholic Church with the finan- cial problems it faced. Repudiating France’s debt was out of the question because part of it was owed to mem- bers of the bourgeoisie. To pay for its expenditures, the National Assembly issued what amounted to paper money FIGURE 16.3 The March to Versailles In this spirited scene from the times, determined Parisian women, carrying weapons and called assignats. To back up the assignats, hauling a cannon, march to Versailles to confront the king with their demands and to pay off the debt, and at the same time force the royal family back to Paris. bring the church under governmental 494 CHAPTER 16 O ve r t u r n i n g t h e Po l i t i c a l a n d S o c i a l O rd e r  thinking about GEOGRAPHY ENGLAND ENGLAND THE HOLY BOULONNAIS FLANDERS THE HOLY PAS-DE-CALAIS ARTOIS AND el ROMAN EMPIRE ROMAN EMPIRE ann NORD an nel HAINAUT English Ch English Ch METZ ET SEINE- SOMME PICARDY ARDENNES VERDUN INFÉRIEURE AISNE OISE MOSELLE ME ÎLE-DE-FRANCE CALVADOS EURE BAS- USE MANCHE Paris MARNE NORMANDY TOUL SEINE- RHIN Paris CHAMPAGNE MEURTHE SEINE- ET- AND ORNE MARNE EURE- ET- ALSACE FINISTÈRE CÔTES- Versailles BRIE ET- OISE AUBE VOSGES DU-NORD LORRAINE ILLE-ET- MAYENNE LOIRE HAUTE- HAUT- MAINE VILAINE MARNE ORLÉANAIS SARTHE LOIRET RHIN BRITTANY MORBIHAN YONNE HAUTE- Orléans SAÔNE LOIRE- CÔTE- ANJOU MAINE- INDRE- ET-CHER D’OR DOUBS LOIRE- ET- ET-LOT NIÈVRE INFÉRIEURE LOIRE TOURAINE NIVERNAIS CHER SWISS FRANCHE- SWISS SAÔNE- JURA C O N F. BERRY COMTÉ CONF. AT L A N T I C INDRE VENDÉE ET- SAUMUROIS BURGUNDY VIENNE ALLIER LOIRE AT L A N T I C OCEAN DEUX- POITOU BOURBONNAIS DOMBES SÈVRES CREUSE AIN KGD. OF OCEAN RHÔNE CHARENTE- SARDINIA AUNIS MARCHE Lyons SAVOY INFÉRIEURE HAUTE- PUY-DE- Lyons CHARENTE VIENNE DÔME KGD. OF LOIRE SAINTONGE AND LYONNAIS CORRÈZE ISÈRE ANGOUMOIS SARDINIA HAUTE- LIMOUSIN Bastia CANTAL LOIRE AUVERGNE Bordeaux DORDOGNE HAUTES- DAUPHINE ARDÈCHE DRÔME ALPES CORSICA GIRONDE LOZÈRE LOT Bordeaux LIAMONE LOT-ET- AVEYRON BASSES- GARONNE AU V GARD CL ALPES GUYENNE AND GASCONY PAPAL CORSICA TARN-ET- US LANDES GARONNE TARN E LANDS BOUCHES- GERS VAR HAUTE- HÉRAULT DU-RHÔNE PROVENCE GARONNE LANGUEDOC BASSES- Marseilles BEARN Marseilles PYRÉNÉES HAUTES- AUDE PYRÉNÉES ARIÈGE PYRÉNÉES- 0 100 mi ORIENTALES Mediterranean FOIX 0 100 mi Sea ROUSSILLON Mediterranean 0 200 km S PA I N Sea 0 200 km S PA I N Explore the Maps MAP 16.1 AND MAP 16.2 1. Why do you think France’s Assembly reorganized the Reorganizing France in 1789 nation so that the old provinces were different sizes, while the newly created departments were almost equal These maps show France’s historic provinces, each with its in size? own political identity (Map 16.1, left), and the nation’s revo- 2. Would this sort of political and administrative reorganiza- lutionary departments after 1789 (Map 16.2, right). tion inspire local resistance or undermine it? Why? control, government officials confiscated and sold long-lasting division among France’s Catholic popula- church property. tion. Many, especially rural women, fought against This seizure of property constituted a major step this disturbance of their religious life, vowing to toward the nationalization of the church. Next the defend their faith “with the last drop” of blood. The Assembly dissolved all convents and Revolution would lose the support of many French Civil Constitution monasteries and prohibited the tak- citizens who felt loyal to the old church and their of the Clergy ing of religious vows. People would local priests. elect the clergy, including non– Roman Catholics, and the state would pay their sala- The King Discredited ries. These measures were incorporated in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, to which all members of Louis XVI must have bitterly resented these changes, the clergy were required to take an oath of allegiance for they diluted his power and put Paris under the in order to perform their functions and draw their sal- control of his former subjects. aries. This last step proved too much for many reli- Nonetheless, he managed to make Flight of the gious officials, for it threatened the very independence things even worse for himself. On royal family of the clergy. Pope Pius VI called the oath of alle- June 20, 1791, the royal family, in giance “the poisoned fountainhead and source of all disguise, escaped from Paris and headed by coach to errors.” Approximately half the clergy of France, France’s northeastern frontier, where Louis hoped to including nearly all the bishops, refused to take the find supporters and perhaps reverse the tide of events. oath. This defection of the nonjuring clergy created a Unfortunately for him and his family, a postmaster T h e Co n s ti tuti o n a l M o n a rc hy : E s ta b l i s hin g a N ew O rder 495  recognized them just before they could reach safety. TO THE RADICAL Officials arrested the royal family in Varennes and returned them to Paris. To save face, the government REPUBLIC AND BACK concocted a thin story about the royal family being The new government, launched with such optimism kidnapped, but in many eyes the king and queen had in October 1791, lasted less than a year. Up to that now become traitors. point, the bourgeoisie and the peasants had been the In October 1791, the National Assembly gave way primary beneficiaries of the Revolution. The bour- to the Legislative Assembly, with all new representa- geoisie had gained political control over the country tives elected under the new rules. In only two years, and social mobility. The peasantry had won freedom and with relatively little bloodshed, France had been from feudal obligations. To the many peasant land- made over. A written constitution ruled supreme over owners who owned their land before the Revolution the diminished monarchy. The church lost its inde- were now added others who had seized the lands of pendence from the state. The nobility forfeited its spe- émigré nobles or had purchased confiscated church cial rights and privileges. Men gained individual rights lands (though many of these lands went to middle- and liberties and legal equality. Though excluded by class buyers). the reformers, women would nevertheless continue However, other groups remained quite dissatisfied. to voice demands for political and social rights and The royal family and much of the aristocracy and high play important roles as the Revolution evolved. France clergy yearned for the restoration of their traditional now boasted a more democratic electoral system than positions. On the other hand, many Parisians urged England or the United States. Events had already a more radical approach to the Revolution. These gone well beyond anything our British traveler, Arthur shopkeepers, artisans, bakers, innkeepers, and work- Young, might have imagined two years earlier. ers had won little beyond theoretical rights and legal equality. Those who owned no property still could not vote, yet they had supplied much of the physical Reactions Outside France force and anger that had saved the third estate and Outside France, writers and reformers in Europe and made the reforms possible. Increasingly, these men the United States hailed the French Revolution or the and women formed organizations, held meetings, and principles underlying it. In elegant salons, elites spir- intently discussed the numerous pamphlets, petitions, itedly discussed these dramatic events, and in news- and newspapers printed daily in Paris. Some of these papers and pamphlets, writers dissected and debated clubs became egalitarian meeting places for women their meaning. Supporters established societies in Brit- and men; others, such as the Society of Revolution- ain and in states along France’s eastern borders. Some ary Republican Women, insisted that women should activists, such as the American writer Tom Paine, trav- participate more fully in the Revolution. Many of the eled to Paris to participate directly. In Britain, Charles most politically active came to be Fox, a leader of the Whigs, called the Revolution “much known as the sans-culottes because Sans-culottes the greatest event that ever happened, and much the they wore long pants instead of the best.” Others argued against the French Revolution. fashionable knee breeches of the elites. A pamphlet The most famous attack was launched by Edmund described a sans-culotte as “a man who has no mansions, Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). no lackeys to wait on him, and who lives quite simply. This British statesman argued that France moved too... He is useful, because he knows how to plough a quickly in the name of abstract notions of natural field, handle a forge, a saw, or a file, how to cover a rights and justice. As a result, revolutionaries replaced roof or how to make shoes and to shed his blood to a despotic monarchy with anarchy. In his view, soci- the last drop to save the Republic.” Typically the sans- eties should evolve slowly, drawing reforms from the culottes carried pikes and addressed people as “Citi- long historical experience of a national culture. Good zen” or “Citizeness.” Eventually they and their sup- government came from good habits. Reforms worked porters gained control over the municipal government well when based on a nation’s best traditions. of Paris—the Commune. Most governments opposed the Revolution when Leadership for this urban populace fell into the they realized the threat it posed to their own security. hands of radical members of the bourgeoisie, who If a revolution could rise in France, end aristocratic allied themselves with the sans- privileges, and undermine the monarchy, the same culottes and favored overthrow of the The Jacobin Club might happen elsewhere. Officials welcomed and monarchy and extension of the Rev- listened to the aristocratic émigrés who fled France. olution. Well organized and ably led, these radicals They suppressed pro-revolutionary groups within came together in numerous clubs that formed to their borders. Within a few years, most states joined debate and plan political matters. The Jacobin Club, coalitions to fight against the revolutionary armies. which had hundreds of affiliated clubs outside of Paris, 496 CHAPTER 16 O ve r t u r n i n g t h e Po l i t i c a l a n d S o c i a l O rd e r