Enlightenment, Revolution and Modernity

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Enlightenment, Revolution and Modernity

• A French Revolution

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Introduction

• In 1789, revolutionaries coined the term of Old
  Regime
• Two main interpretations of the French Revolution
  since the events
• The positive definition left by the
  revolutionaries, and among them the Jacobins
  Revolution is a moment of liberation, a force of
  progress. This interpretation was used by the
  Republican political movements during the
  Nineteenth-century, especially by the socialist
  tradition.
• The Revolution saw the emergence of a new
  political force the bourgeoisie

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Introduction

• The negative definition appeared at the very
  beginning of the Revolution. It emanated from
  Royalist writers, Foreigners (Edmond Burke in
  Britain), Emigres and counter-revolutionaries.
• After the second world war, during the cold war,
  as Western democracy appeared threatened by
  Marxists, Numerous scholars (Cobban in Britain,
  Furet in France) started to discuss the
  bourgeoisie revolution and the marxist
  interpretation.

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Introduction

• The reassessment of the Revolution focused on the
  mechanist overview of the Revolution.
• A growing dissatisfaction with the prevailing
  interpretations of the FR has profoundly
  transformed our attitude toward the Old Regime as
  well.
• a consensus has emerged that insists on the need
  to view the period from 1750-1815 as a continuum

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Introduction

• The first session will try to understand what is
  a revolution compare with protests and previous
  revolutions in Old Regime.
• The crisis of an Old Regime
• The French Revolution at work
• A multi-faceted Revolution

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1-The crisis of Old Regime the case of France

• No Revolution without financial crisis
• The impossibility of bankruptcy
• The mobilisation of opinion
• Hope and Fear as Revolutionary triggers

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No Revolution without financial crisis

• 1756-63 terrible defeat against British
• highlighted need for stronger navy as well as
  army hugely expensive and increase the tax
  pressure

• France didnt take any benefits from their
  military success (American wars)

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The impossible of bankruptcy

• Cost bad financial policies in early 1780s
  bankruptcy, evident 1786
• How to get fresh money new tax? Borrowing?
• no chance of getting new taxes, blocked by the
  Parliaments
• Borrowing? Added to long term financial problems

• Who would borrow from?
• Government had to borrow from the public, but it
  didnt work
• national debt approx 50 of state revenue
• Strategy of the government (Calonne, then Loménie
  de Brienne) to bypass political opposition in the
  Parliaments

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The impossible bankruptcy

• In 1787-8, they called archaic national
  representative body (the Assembly of Notables) to
  allow new taxes, but it failed

• In 1789, to face the political crisis, the King,
  Louis XVI decide the convocation of Estates
  General
• Estates General never met since 1614

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The mobilisation of opinion

• The impossibility of getting out of fin crisis by
  declaring a bankruptcy had thus led to new era of
  political experimentation

• Estate General are prepared by the redaction of
  Cahiers des doléances written by each orders
  (clergy, nobility, and third estate) which
  structured the Old regime society
• Cahiers des doléances mobilise opinion in
  dramatic new way

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The mobilisation of opinion

• the commoner deputies seize the initiative
• - declare themselves a National Assembly
• - take the oath that they will not go away until
  a new constitution established
• - in August start to lay down the principles on
  which that constitution to be based the
  Declaration of the Rights of Man

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Hope and Fear as Revolutionary triggers

• Revolution of 1789 would not have been as radical
  as it was without massive popular inputs from the
  popular classes, and especially the peasantry.
• Some peasants were affected by new ideologies of
  the public sphere

• Most peasants revolted in 1789 because they were
  hungry downturn in economy 1770s terrible
  harvests 1787, 1788 high price of grain/bread
• During the summer, when rumours began circulating
  that nobles were hiring brigand bands to tour the
  countryside burning crops, the peasantry decided
  to attack the castles, the landlords.

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2-The French Revolution at work

• The Constitutional Monarchy
• War and Terror
• Ending the Revolution

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The Constitutional Monarchy

• 1789 July 9 Estate General became National
  Assembly
• 1789 July 14 the fall of the Bastille
• 1789 August 4th suppresion of ancient privilege
• 1789 August 26 DHR
• 1789 November 2 spoliation of the clergys
  properties

• 1790 July first celebration of the FR in Paris
• 1791 New Constitution
• 1791 october, new elections for the National
  Assembly

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War and Terror

• INTERNAL THREAT
• 1791 Civil Constitution for the Clergy
• Many priest refused to sign the constitution
• In provinces, they stimulated the
  counter-revolution movement
• refractory clergy organised military upraising in
  the South-East

• EXTERNAL THREAT
• the emigration of aristocracy claimed to return
  in France with the support of European monarchies
• 9 February 1791 the National Assembly decided to
  spoliate the properties of emigres.
• On 20 April 1792, the National Assembly declared
  war on Austria.

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War and Terror

• In June 1791, the Royal family tried to escape
• On 10 August 1792, the Parisian People decided to
  save the revolution by arresting the Royal Family
  and by proclaming the Republic

• The Royal Familly was placed in detention and
  executed after a trial in 1793.
• But the twofold threat was still there  the
  Vendee province triggered a civil war  on the
  military front, Great Britain, the Dutch
  Republic, Spain, the Italian states joined the
  enemies.

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War and Terror

• There is a progressive radicalization which leads
  to the suppression of the moderate party (the
  Girondins), and the rise of the Jacobins which is
  the left-wing of the National Convention
• All the contenders for power were members of the
  Jacobin Club  Robespierre, Danton

• The Jacobin decided to arrest the Girondins on 2
  June 1793. But the reaction in province was
  immediate. It intensified the crisis, everywhere
  in Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon, the allies of
  the Girondins were beyond the Conventions
  control.

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War and terror

• To control the rebellion, the Conventions forces
  were re-established, and the Terror measures are
  decided
• The negotiation of a crisis of domestic and
  foreign war led to an increasingly authoritatian
  and centralized government.

• The guillotine, only introduced in April 1792,
  became the technics of mass-massacre.
• The aim of the terror was as much to terrorize as
  to punish.

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War and Terror

• After the great military mobilization decreted in
  August 1793, some deputies were arguing for an
  end to the Terror. But the rhythm of terror began
  to accelerate again (Danton is executed in April
  1794).

• After the Great Terror in 1794, a group of
  deputies began to plot against Robespierre.
• On 26 July, he was arrested and executed on 28
  July.

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Ending the Revolution

• THERMIDORIAN REGIME
• new regime called Thermidore tried to eradicate
  all that had made jacobinism possible
• The People of Paris were finished as a political
  force.
• In 1795, the Convention spent the summer
  elaborating a new republican constitution.

• THE DIRECTORY
• After the elections in 1795, the new regime
  called the Directory had to face the war in
  Holland and in Italy, and had to face many plots
  from Counter-Revolution and from Jacobinists.
• on 9-10 November 1799 (Eighteenth Brumaire)
  General Bonapartes coup

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3-A multi-faceted Revolution

• Inventing democracy
• Inventing a new France
• Inventing a new man

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Inventing democracy

• The birth of modern parliamentary life in France
• -the French Revolution didnt invent the
  election. In numerous old regime institutions,
  the choice of a magistrate, and officer was
  already made by means of an election
  (corporations, municipality...).
• -What is new is the trilogy revolution (I mean
  violent actions)-election-representation. The
  idea is to break the violent circle.

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Inventing democracy

• people have the right of free association and
  expression.
• Creation of the election
• From 1789, the representation became individual.
• From 1795, the vote became a secret ballot.
• A citizen is a man who is able to have a
  judgment, to make a choice without any economical
  or political pressures.
• A new political actor the deputee

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Inventing democracy

• Political sociability clubs and popular
  societies
• Behind the National Assembly, a political network
  of popular societies.
• The Society of the Friends of the Constitution
  created in April 1789 and settled at the Jacobin
  Covent
• In August 1790 90 societies, in May 1793 600.

• Popular movement Sans-culottes
• Along side the clubs, emerged other places which
  involved popular actor the section
• In June 1790, Paris territory is divided in
  sections

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Inventing democracy

• Members of these sections are called
  Sans-culottes
• They wore a red trouser and red wooly hat their
  weapons (a pick and a saber).
• They wanted to be visible in the public space
• They were active to protect the democratic regime
  (August 1792, the king is arrested)

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Inventing a new France

• Administrative structures
• In November 1789, the Constitution Committee
  proposed that the kindgom be divided into about
  eighty equal divisions to be known as
  departments.
• The Old provinces were broken up Britanny was
  split into five departments, Languedoc into 7
• In February and March 1790, took place the first
  local elections to nominate the members of
  municipality
• This new administrative architecture was largely
  founded on the idea of centralisation.

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Inventing a new France

• Revolutionary justice
• They were conducted around 3 principles
• 1-the notion that justice was a public rather
  than a private expression of authority with the
  nation as its source.
• 2-The notion that judicial redress should be
  cost-free to users.

• 3-the notion of accountability embodied in the
  decision to subject judges to a process of
  election.
• At the basis of the new system  The Justice of
  Peace

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Inventing a new man

• 1793 Regenerating the Nation
• This regeneration passed by the set up of new
  cultural practices (festivals, cult of great
  menPantheon)
• A new religion the cult of the Supreme being
• A new education new schools, new universities
  and learned institutions

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Conclusion

• Twofold side of the French Revolution
• 1-the invention of a democracy
• 2-the origins of totalitarian dictature
  (1793-1794)