⚡ Direct Cause Of The French Revolution

In late Direct Cause Of The French Revolution, factions within the Assembly came to see war as a way to unite the country and secure the Revolution Direct Cause Of The French Revolution How Is Macbeth A Tragic Hero hostile forces on Essay On Laryngectomy borders and establishing its "natural frontiers". The Directory has a poor reputation amongst historians; for Jacobin sympathisers, it represented the betrayal of the Revolution, while Bonapartists emphasised its corruption to portray Napoleon in a better light. By the time the Estates-General convened at Versaillesthe highly public debate over its voting process had erupted into hostility between the three orders, eclipsing the original Direct Cause Of The French Revolution of the meeting and the authority of the man who had convened it. The role of the people and violence :. Without a majority in the legislature, the Directors relied on the army to enforcing decrees and extract revenue from conquered territories. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful Musculoskeletal Disorder Research Paper named Napoleon Bonaparte.

The French Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 1)

Austria was at war with the Ottomans , as were the Russians , while both were negotiating with Prussia over partitioning Poland. Most importantly, Britain preferred peace, and as Emperor Leopold stated after the Declaration of Pillnitz, "without England, there is no case". In late , factions within the Assembly came to see war as a way to unite the country and secure the Revolution by eliminating hostile forces on its borders and establishing its "natural frontiers". By the time peace finally came in , the conflict had involved every major European power as well as the United States, redrawn the map of Europe and expanded into the Americas , the Middle East and Indian Ocean.

From to , the population of Europe grew from to million; combined with new mass production techniques, this allowed belligerents to support large armies, requiring the mobilisation of national resources. It was a different kind of war, fought by nations rather than kings, intended to destroy their opponents' ability to resist, but also to implement deep-ranging social change. While all wars are political to some degree, this period was remarkable for the emphasis placed on reshaping boundaries and the creation of entirely new European states. In April , French armies invaded the Austrian Netherlands but suffered a series of setbacks before victory over an Austrian-Prussian army at Valmy in September.

After defeating a second Austrian army at Jemappes on 6 November, they occupied the Netherlands, areas of the Rhineland , Nice and Savoy. In August, new conscription measures were passed and by May the French army had between , and , men. By February , France had annexed the Austrian Netherlands, established their frontier on the left bank of the Rhine and replaced the Dutch Republic with the Batavian Republic , a satellite state. These victories led to the collapse of the anti-French coalition; Prussia made peace in April , followed soon after by Spain, leaving Britain and Austria as the only major powers still in the war.

Fighting continued for two reasons; first, French state finances had come to rely on indemnities levied on their defeated opponents. Second, armies were primarily loyal to their generals, for whom the wealth achieved by victory and the status it conferred became objectives in themselves. Leading soldiers like Hoche, Pichegru and Carnot wielded significant political influence and often set policy; Campo Formio was approved by Bonaparte, not the Directory, which strongly objected to terms it considered too lenient.

Despite these concerns, the Directory never developed a realistic peace programme, fearing the destabilising effects of peace and the consequent demobilisation of hundreds of thousands of young men. As long as the generals and their armies stayed away from Paris, they were happy to allow them to continue fighting, a key factor behind sanctioning Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt. This resulted in aggressive and opportunistic policies, leading to the War of the Second Coalition in November Although the French Revolution had a dramatic impact in numerous areas of Europe, [] the French colonies felt a particular influence. The Revolution in Saint-Domingue was the most notable example of slave uprisings in French colonies. In the s, Saint-Domingue was France's wealthiest possession, producing more sugar than all the British West Indies islands combined.

In February , the National Convention voted to abolish slavery, several months after rebels in Saint-Domingue had already seized control. Newspapers and pamphlets played a central role in stimulating and defining the Revolution. Prior to , there have been a small number of heavily censored newspapers that needed a royal licence to operate, but the Estates-General created an enormous demand for news, and over newspapers appeared by the end of the year. Most lasted only a matter of weeks but they became the main communication medium, combined with the very large pamphlet literature.

Newspapers were read aloud in taverns and clubs, and circulated hand to hand. There was a widespread assumption that writing was a vocation, not a business, and the role of the press was the advancement of civic republicanism. To illustrate the differences between the new Republic and the old regime, the leaders needed to implement a new set of symbols to be celebrated instead of the old religious and monarchical symbols. To this end, symbols were borrowed from historic cultures and redefined, while those of the old regime were either destroyed or reattributed acceptable characteristics. These revised symbols were used to instil in the public a new sense of tradition and reverence for the Enlightenment and the Republic.

It acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching on the capital. The song is the first example of the "European march" anthemic style, while the evocative melody and lyrics led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music. De Lisle was instructed to 'produce a hymn which conveys to the soul of the people the enthusiasm which it the music suggests. The guillotine remains "the principal symbol of the Terror in the French Revolution. It was celebrated on the left as the people's avenger, for example in the revolutionary song La guillotine permanente , [] and cursed as the symbol of the Terror by the right.

Its operation became a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. Vendors sold programmes listing the names of those scheduled to die. Many people came day after day and vied for the best locations from which to observe the proceedings; knitting women tricoteuses formed a cadre of hardcore regulars, inciting the crowd. Parents often brought their children. By the end of the Terror, the crowds had thinned drastically. Repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored. Cockades were widely worn by revolutionaries beginning in Camille Desmoulins asked his followers to wear green cockades on 12 July The Paris militia, formed on 13 July, adopted a blue and red cockade.

Blue and red are the traditional colours of Paris, and they are used on the city's coat of arms. Cockades with various colour schemes were used during the storming of the Bastille on 14 July. The Liberty cap, also known as the Phrygian cap , or pileus , is a brimless, felt cap that is conical in shape with the tip pulled forward. It reflects Roman republicanism and liberty, alluding to the Roman ritual of manumission , in which a freed slave receives the bonnet as a symbol of his newfound liberty.

The role of women in the Revolution has long been a topic of debate. Deprived of political rights under the Ancien Regime , the Constitution classed them as "passive" citizens, leading to demands for social and political equality for women and an end to male domination. They expressed these demands using pamphlets and clubs such as the Cercle Social , whose largely male members viewed themselves as contemporary feminists. At the beginning of the Revolution, women took advantage of events to force their way into the political sphere, swore oaths of loyalty, "solemn declarations of patriotic allegiance, [and] affirmations of the political responsibilities of citizenship. Despite this, the constitutions of and denied them political rights and democratic citizenship.

On 20 June a number of armed women took part in a procession that "passed through the halls of the Legislative Assembly, into the Tuileries Garden , and then through the King's residence. The Society of Revolutionary Republican Women , a militant group on the far left, demanded a law in that would compel all women to wear the tricolour cockade to demonstrate their loyalty to the Republic. They also demanded vigorous price controls to keep bread — the major food of the poor people — from becoming too expensive. After the Convention passed the law in September , the Revolutionary Republican Women demanded vigorous enforcement, but were countered by market women, former servants, and religious women who adamantly opposed price controls which would drive them out of business and resented attacks on the aristocracy and on religion.

Fist fights broke out in the streets between the two factions of women. Meanwhile, the men who controlled the Jacobins rejected the Revolutionary Republican Women as dangerous rabble-rousers. At this point the Jacobins controlled the government; they dissolved the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, and decreed that all women's clubs and associations were illegal. They sternly reminded women to stay home and tend to their families by leaving public affairs to the men.

Organised women were permanently shut out of the French Revolution after 30 October Olympe de Gouges wrote a number of plays, short stories, and novels. Her publications emphasised that women and men are different, but this shouldn't prevent equality under the law. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen she insisted that women deserved rights, especially in areas concerning them directly, such as divorce and recognition of illegitimate children. Madame Roland a. Manon or Marie Roland was another important female activist.

Her political focus was not specifically on women or their liberation. She focused on other aspects of the government, but was a feminist by virtue of the fact that she was a woman working to influence the world. Her personal letters to leaders of the Revolution influenced policy; in addition, she often hosted political gatherings of the Brissotins, a political group which allowed women to join.

As she was led to the scaffold, Madame Roland shouted "O liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name! Counter-revolutionary women resisted what they saw as the increasing intrusion of the state into their lives. Economically, many peasant women refused to sell their goods for assignats because this form of currency was unstable and was backed by the sale of confiscated Church property.

By far the most important issue to counter-revolutionary women was the passage and the enforcement of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in In response to this measure, women in many areas began circulating anti-oath pamphlets and refused to attend masses held by priests who had sworn oaths of loyalty to the Republic. These women continued to adhere to traditional practices such as Christian burials and naming their children after saints in spite of revolutionary decrees to the contrary.

The government seized the foundations that had been set up starting in the 13th century to provide an annual stream of revenue for hospitals, poor relief, and education. The state sold the lands but typically local authorities did not replace the funding and so most of the nation's charitable and school systems were massively disrupted []. Between and , industrial and agricultural output dropped, foreign trade plunged, and prices soared, forcing the government to finance expenditure by issuing ever increasing quantities assignats.

When this resulted in escalating inflation, the response was to impose price controls and persecute private speculators and traders, creating a Black market. The assignats were withdrawn in but inflation continued until the introduction of the gold-based Franc germinal in The French Revolution had a major impact on European and Western history, by ending feudalism and creating the path for future advances in broadly defined individual freedoms. The impact of the Revolution on French society was enormous and led to numerous changes, some of which were widely accepted, while others continue to be debated. Clergy, judges and magistrates were controlled by the state, and the army sidelined, with military power placed held by the revolutionary National Guard.

The central elements of were the slogan "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" and " The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen ", which Lefebvre calls "the incarnation of the Revolution as a whole. The long-term impact on France was profound, shaping politics, society, religion and ideas, and polarising politics for more than a century. The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. One of the most heated controversies during the Revolution was the status of the Catholic Church. By , much of its property and institutions had been confiscated and its senior leaders dead or in exile. Its cultural influence was also under attack, with efforts made to remove such as Sundays, holy days, saints, prayers, rituals and ceremonies.

Over the centuries, charitable foundations had been set up to fund hospitals, poor relief, and schools; when these were confiscated and sold off, the funding was not replaced, causing massive disruption to these support systems. They were tolerated by officials because they had widespread support and were a link between elite male physicians and distrustful peasants who needed help. The church was a primary target during the Terror, due to its association with "counter-revolutionary" elements, resulting in the persecution of priests and destruction of churches and religious images throughout France.

An effort was made to replace the Catholic Church altogether with the Cult of Reason , and with civic festivals replacing religious ones, leading to attacks by locals on state officials. The Concordat of established the rules for a relationship between the Catholic Church and French State that lasted until it was abrogated by the French Third Republic on 11 December The Concordat was a compromise that restored some of the Church's traditional roles but not its power, lands or monasteries; the clergy became public officials controlled by Paris, not Rome, while Protestants and Jews gained equal rights. Recent arguments over the use of Muslim religious symbols in schools, such as wearing headscarves, have been explicitly linked to the conflict over Catholic rituals and symbols during the Revolution.

Two thirds of France was employed in agriculture, which was transformed by the Revolution. With the breakup of large estates controlled by the Church and the nobility and worked by hired hands, rural France became more a land of small independent farms. Harvest taxes were ended, such as the tithe and seigneurial dues, much to the relief of the peasants. Primogeniture was ended both for nobles and peasants, thereby weakening the family patriarch, and led to a fall in the born rate since all children had a share in the family property. In the cities, entrepreneurship on a small scale flourished, as restrictive monopolies, privileges, barriers, rules, taxes and guilds gave way. However, the British blockade virtually ended overseas and colonial trade, hurting the cities and their supply chains.

Overall, the Revolution did not greatly change the French business system, and probably helped freeze in place the horizons of the small business owner. The typical businessman owned a small store, mill or shop, with family help and a few paid employees; large-scale industry was less common than in other industrialising nations. Economic historians dispute the impact on income per capita caused by the emigration of more than , individuals during the Revolution, the vast majority of whom were supporters of the old regime. One suggestion is the resulting fragmentation of agricultural holdings had a significant negative impact in the early years of 19th century, then became positive in the second half of the century because it facilitated the rise in human capital investments.

The Revolution meant an end to arbitrary royal rule and held out the promise of rule by law under a constitutional order, but it did not rule out a monarch. Napoleon as emperor set up a constitutional system although he remained in full control , and the restored Bourbons were forced to go along with one. After the abdication of Napoleon III in , the monarchists probably had a voting majority, but they were so factionalised they could not agree on who should be king, and instead the French Third Republic was launched with a deep commitment to upholding the ideals of the Revolution.

Vichy denied the principle of equality and tried to replace the Revolutionary watchwords " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity " with "Work, Family, and Fatherland. France permanently became a society of equals under the law. The Jacobin cause was picked up by Marxists in the midth century and became an element of communist thought around the world. In the Soviet Union , " Gracchus " Babeuf was regarded as a hero. Robinson the French Revolution had long-term effects in Europe. They suggest that "areas that were occupied by the French and that underwent radical institutional reform experienced more rapid urbanization and economic growth, especially after There is no evidence of a negative effect of French invasion.

A study in the European Economic Review found that the areas of Germany that were occupied by France in the 19th century and in which the Code Napoleon was applied have higher levels of trust and cooperation today. On 16 July , two days after the Storming of the Bastille , John Frederick Sackville , serving as ambassador to France, reported to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds , "Thus, my Lord, the greatest revolution that we know anything of has been effected with, comparatively speaking — if the magnitude of the event is considered — the loss of very few lives.

From this moment we may consider France as a free country, the King a very limited monarch, and the nobility as reduced to a level with the rest of the nation. Britain led and funded the series of coalitions that fought France from to , and then restored the Bourbons. Philosophically and politically, Britain was in debate over the rights and wrongs of revolution, in the abstract and in practicalities. The Revolution Controversy was a " pamphlet war " set off by the publication of A Discourse on the Love of Our Country , a speech given by Richard Price to the Revolution Society on 4 November , supporting the French Revolution as he had the American Revolution , and saying that patriotism actually centers around loving the people and principles of a nation, not its ruling class.

Edmund Burke responded in November with his own pamphlet, Reflections on the Revolution in France , attacking the French Revolution as a threat to the aristocracy of all countries. Conversely, two seminal political pieces of political history were written in Price's favour, supporting the general right of the French people to replace their State. One of the first of these " pamphlets " into print was A Vindication of the Rights of Men by Mary Wollstonecraft better known for her later treatise, sometimes described as the first feminist text, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ; Wollstonecraft's title was echoed by Thomas Paine 's Rights of Man , published a few months later.

In Christopher Wyvill published Defence of Dr. Price and the Reformers of England , a plea for reform and moderation. This exchange of ideas has been described as "one of the great political debates in British history". In Ireland, the effect was to transform what had been an attempt by Protestant settlers to gain some autonomy into a mass movement led by the Society of United Irishmen involving Catholics and Protestants. It stimulated the demand for further reform throughout Ireland, especially in Ulster.

The upshot was a revolt in , led by Wolfe Tone , that was crushed by Britain. German reaction to the Revolution swung from favourable to antagonistic. At first it brought liberal and democratic ideas, the end of guilds, serfdom and the Jewish ghetto. It brought economic freedoms and agrarian and legal reform. Above all the antagonism helped stimulate and shape German nationalism. The French invaded Switzerland and turned it into the " Helvetic Republic " — , a French puppet state. French interference with localism and traditions was deeply resented in Switzerland, although some reforms took hold and survived in the later period of restoration. Both territories experienced revolutions in Both failed to attract international support. During the Revolutionary Wars, the French invaded and occupied the region between and , a time known as the French period.

The new government enforced new reforms, incorporating the region into France itself. New rulers were sent in by Paris. Belgian men were drafted into the French wars and heavily taxed. Nearly everyone was Catholic, but the Church was repressed. Resistance was strong in every sector, as Belgian nationalism emerged to oppose French rule. The French legal system, however, was adopted, with its equal legal rights, and abolition of class distinctions. Belgium now had a government bureaucracy selected by merit.

Antwerp regained access to the sea and grew quickly as a major port and business centre. France promoted commerce and capitalism, paving the way for the ascent of the bourgeoisie and the rapid growth of manufacturing and mining. In economics, therefore, the nobility declined while middle-class Belgian entrepreneurs flourished because of their inclusion in a large market, paving the way for Belgium's leadership role after in the Industrial Revolution on the Continent. The Kingdom of Denmark adopted liberalising reforms in line with those of the French Revolution, with no direct contact.

Reform was gradual and the regime itself carried out agrarian reforms that had the effect of weakening absolutism by creating a class of independent peasant freeholders. Much of the initiative came from well-organised liberals who directed political change in the first half of the 19th century. The Constitution of Norway of was inspired by the French Revolution, [] and was considered to be one of the most liberal and democratic constitutions at the time. The press in the colony of Quebec initially viewed the events of the Revolution positively. French migration to the Canadas was decelerated significantly during, and after the French Revolution; with only a small number of artisans, professionals, and religious emigres from France permitted to settle in the Canadas during that period.

The French Revolution deeply polarised American politics, and this polarisation led to the creation of the First Party System. In , as war broke out in Europe, the Democratic-Republican Party led by former American minister to France Thomas Jefferson favored revolutionary France and pointed to the treaty that was still in effect. George Washington and his unanimous cabinet, including Jefferson, decided that the treaty did not bind the United States to enter the war.

Washington proclaimed neutrality instead. Jefferson became president in , but was hostile to Napoleon as a dictator and emperor. However, the two entered negotiations over the Louisiana Territory and agreed to the Louisiana Purchase in , an acquisition that substantially increased the size of the United States. The French Revolution has received enormous amounts of historical attention, both from the general public as well as scholars and academics, while perspectives on its significance and major developments have often been characterised as falling along ideological lines. Contemporary conservatives like Edmund Burke and Friedrich von Gentz argued it was the product of a few conspiratorial individuals who brainwashed the masses into subverting the old order, a claim rooted in the belief that the revolutionaries had no legitimate complaints.

He argued the egalitarian values it introduced gave rise to a classless and co-operative model for society called " socialism ", which found direct expression in the to Paris Commune. For much of the 20th century, historians influenced by Marx, notably Albert Soboul , emphasised the role of the peasants and urban workers in the Revolution and presented it as class struggle. Within France itself, the Revolution permanently crippled the power of the aristocracy and drained the wealth of the Church, although the two institutions survived despite the damage they sustained. After the collapse of the First French Empire in , the French public lost many of the rights and privileges earned since the Revolution, but remembered the participatory politics that characterised the period.

According to one historian: "Thousands of men and even many women gained firsthand experience in the political arena: they talked, read, and listened in new ways; they voted; they joined new organisations; and they marched for their political goals. Revolution became a tradition, and republicanism an enduring option. It is also suggested the French underwent a fundamental transformation in self-identity, evidenced by the elimination of privileges and their replacement by intrinsic Human rights , as well as a decline in social deference that highlighted the principle of equality throughout the Revolution. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Revolution in France from to The Storming of the Bastille , 14 July Part of a series on the. Middle Ages.

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By country. Communitarianism Criticism of monarchy Democracy Liberalism Monarchism. Main article: Estates General of in France. Main article: Storming of the Bastille. Main article: Flight to Varennes. Main article: National Convention. Main article: Reign of Terror. Main article: French Directory. Main article: Symbolism in the French Revolution. Main article: La Marseillaise. La Marseillaise. The French national anthem La Marseillaise ; text in French.

Main article: Influence of the French Revolution. Main article: Helvetic Republic. Main article: French period. Main article: Historiography of the French Revolution. May 8, The National Archives. Retrieved 25 January Department of History. Alexander, ed. ISBN Cambridge Core. June American Economic Review. S2CID European Economic Review. At the Embassy". Englishmen in the French Revolution. London: Ballantyne Press — via Wikisource. In Cottret, Bernard; Henneton, Lauric eds. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. Hamerow Princeton UP. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 3 January Abray, Jane The American Historical Review.

JSTOR Andress, David Farrar Straus Giroux. Baker, Michael Journal of Modern History. Baker, Keith Van Kley, Dale ed. Stanford University Press. Barton, HA French Historical Studies. Beckstrand, Lisa Deviant women of the French Revolution and the rise of feminism. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Bell, David Avrom Mariner Books. Bell, David A. Critical Review. Betros, Gemma History Today Blanning, Timothy C. W Palgrave Macmillan. The French Revolutionary Wars: — Hodder Arnold. Bredin, Jean-Denis Journal of European Economic History. Brown, Howard G University of Virginia Press. Brown, Howard G. For the American Revolutions, the Americans opposed the political issues and the weak government.

There were wars between Britain and France, and whenever wars happened, the cost of wars increased leading to a high demand of money from the government. The social structure of France, left over 27 million people living a grim life. They started to question why they were living so drastically different from the Nobles and the Clergy. The Revolution of France shows the strength of oppressed citizens banding together to overthrow incompetent leaders, using ideas and numbers. The idea to question those in power created a large scale political movement in France. Since the dawn of civilization, there have been many empires and nations in which power was held by a small set of individuals.

Monarchs and emperors often claimed to rule by divine right or, in some cases, they simply claimed to be divine. These regimes would oppress the people and create extreme gaps in social status. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment movement ran directly counter to ideas of absolutism that many rulers practiced. Revolutions become very common in the late 18th century as people were very unhappy with their government. When we study the French Revolution, we understand the meaning or in this case difference between a revolution and a war.

Both have similar meanings and causes, such as anger towards a loss of land, or people. And this can be seen in the start of the National Assembly. These taxes affected the rich and poor alike and when tensions escalated and after Jefferson wrote the Declaration Of Independence, the colonists rebelled. In France, the situation was a little different. While the nobility looked. Document G illustrated some of these problems. Document G was written by Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson informing him about the political turmoil in her home state. Revolution became a tradition, and republicanism an enduring option. Afterward, kings could not rule without assemblies, and noble domination of public affairs only provoked more revolution.

As a result, France in the nineteenth century had the most bourgeois polity in Europe, even though France was never the leading industrial power. Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class , A Marxist Interpretation: "After ten years of revolutionary changes and vicissitudes, the structure of French society had undergone a momentous transformation. The aristocracy of the Old Regime had been stripped of its privileges and social preponderance; feudal society had been destroyed. By wiping out every vestige of feudalism, by freeing the peasants from seigneurial dues and ecclesiastical tithes--and also to some degree from the constraints imposed by their communities--by abolishing privileged corporations and their monopolies, and by unifying the national market, the French Revolution marked a decisive stage in the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

Albert Soboul, The French Revolution , Further issues : Was the Revolution a failure? For whom? Not worth the cost in lives and treasure? Was it only a political revolution: change in government and governing principles but the elites remain largely in control? Had the revolution gone far enough? Schwartz Causes of the French Revolution 1. International: struggle for hegemony and Empire outstrips the fiscal resources of the state 2.

Social antagonisms between two rising groups: the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie 5. Ineffective ruler: Louis XVI 6. Outcomes of the French Revolution, 1. Creation and extension of new civil rights: a. Socio-economic changes a. Changes in ideas and political culture: a. Nationalism - c. The role of the people and violence : a. Hobsbawm, Echoes of the Marseillaise , 3.