Paths of Civilization II: Paths of Industrialization

To give some more insight on the internal situation in France during the revolution.

After the constitution of 1791 the new constitutional monarchy focussed on new economical policies and land reform. It confiscated church lands in return for assignats, first regarded as bonds and later paper currency. The land was then sold to wealthy members of the middle class and wealthy farmers. Due to various reasons the poor couldn't take advantage of this (large, undiveded and expensive plots, far away auctions, ect). Peasants also had to pay compensation and were very much against some of the ideas against communal village lands. These reforms were very focussed on economical individualism. Guilds and labor union like organizations were also abolished, for various reasons. This "freedom of work" (because one didn't need to become part of a restrictive guild to join an occupation) was very unpopular and led to enormous labor issues and strikes.

Meanwhile a new national identity was constructed by creating new national symbols and getting rid of old ones belonging to the monarchy or the church. Think, liberty trees, caps, colors, festivals, songs, Marianne, ect.

The Assembly quarreled with the church of the confiscation of property and the loss of the tithe (which ruined church organized charity and eduction for the lower classes). The Assembly also tried to make the church subordinate to the state, not on purpose, but simply due to the other changes. It now needed government funding in order to maintain its churches and schools for example. Any way they attempted to set up a national church bound to the government and in line with the ideals of the revolution, the French church dragged its feet, so the government appealed to the Pope, who denounced the entire revolution instead. This led to a church schism and drove most French catholics into the hands of the pope, undoing centuries of Gallican Liberties along the way.

Despite popular believe, the European monarchies were reluctant to get involved with the affairs of France, even as the philosofical debate raged across the continent. Conflict began with the declaration of Pillnitz, which was made by Leopold II of Austria in order to be a meaningless statement in order to appease the French émigrés who fled France. It promised an intervention only if all european powers agreed on it, which was never going to happen. The French émigrés were delighted and ran with it announcingthat they would return with an army at they back to right all wrongs dealt to them. The declaration enraged the French against the monarchies of Europe and pushed the Girondins in power, who wanted to export the revolution to neighbouring countries in order to distract from problems at home. Meanwhile the remaining royalists were also in favor, because they believed a war might restore the damaged reputation of the king. Dreading the return of the old regime France declare dwar on "the King of Hungary and Bohemia."

The war intensfied the internal unrest in France, the Assembly had done little for the lower classes. The émigrés had taken most of the gold with the as they fled the country, assignats had become the sole remaining currency, prices soared, and due to political instability the assignats quickly lost their value. This combined with scarcity in food cause prices to rise. But even so, when treatened with the return of the old regime and the return of the émigrés and all it would imply, the working classes rallied to the revolution, but not the government in power because it lacked the confidence of large elements of the population. In addition, the war went badly at first, Prussia joined Austria immediately. They declared the Brunswick Manifesto in the summer of 1792, demanding the safety of the French royal family. This caused the people of France to identify the king with the invading powers and they turned against him because they could not trust him and was playing both sides. Recruits gathering in Paris and the local lower classes stormed the palace, killed the local detachment of the Swiss Guard, proclaimed the Commune of Paris and usurped the power of the Assembly. Anarchy reigned in Paris and a new national government was formed.

Meanwhile the disorganized French armies won their first victory and managed to drive the Prussians back. They continued to occupy Belgium, Savoy and the left bank of the Rhine. The new National Convention decreed assistance to all people wishing to recover their libery and ordered the generals to dissolve the old order in all occupied territories, confiscating govenment and church property, abolishing tithes, hunting rights, and dues and set up provincial administrations. This spurred the British and Dutch intervention in the war in 1793. Meanwhile, Prussia, Austria and Russia were distracted with the partition of Poland. The infant French Republic was now at war with all of Europe.

Meanwhile a faction of the Girondins, known as "the mountain" rose in popularity. This new faction owed their support to the most radical and popular elements in Paris. They focussed most of their attention on the needs of the lower classes and (correctly) denounced the desposed royal family of collusion with the Austians. They also favored a more direct democracy and began thinking of leading the masses against the Convention itself. Still they would work with the Girondins during the emergency. The king meanwhile, was sentenced to death.

In April 1793 the popular general Dumouriez, who had won the victories in Belgium, defected to Austria. The French we driven from Belgium and invasion agains seemed imminent. Counter-Revolutionaries rejoiced, from revolutionaries came the cry: "We have been betrayed!". Prices continued to climb, currency fell, food was getting harder to get, and the working classes were growing restless. They demanded price controls, currency controls, rationing, anti-hoarding laws and increased requisitioning to increase the flow of goods. They denounced the bourgeois traders as profiteers. The Mountain went along, the Girondins resisted and were ousted from power and arrested by a mob.

The Mountain ruled the Convention, but the Convention ruled little. Foreign armies were again invading France. in the west, in Vendée, the Peasants revolted against military conscription, inspired by refractory priests, British agents and royalist emissaries. The great provincial cities were also in revolt, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles and others, partially inspired by Girondin remnants, they demanded a more federal and decentralized republic. They despised the ascendancy of Paris and wanted to return to the regional independence they had experienced during the old regime. These revolts became counterrevolutionary because they were the ones that flocked to assist them. The Convention was also threatened on the Left. The Mountain had inspired even more excited militants called enragés. These enragés declared parliamentary methodes useless and formed revolutionary armies throughout the country that scoured the rural areas for food, denounced counterrevolutionaries and preached the ideals of the revolution.

Within this madness, one of the least understood figures in history rose to power in the Convention.

Robespierre.

Robespierre launched a program to repress the anarchy, civil strife in the country, as well as the counterrevolution. He also prepared a constitution for a govenment not reliant on the Commune of Paris. With this in mind, the Comittee of Public Safety was founded. The Comittee itself set up a reign of terror under its revolutionary courts, this was an alternative to the earlier lynch laws and anarchy that produced the September massacres. It's victims were royalists, early revolutionaries, innocents and even members of the Mountain in the end. Most deaths were in places that had openly revolted against the Convention, such as Vendée. 40.000 people reportedly died during the terror, which in the end devolved into a kind of selfperpetuating mess of revolutionary violence.

The Committee operated as a joint dictatorship and war cabinet. It prepared and guided legislation, sent attaché to the armies, spread bulletins of laws to people knew which laws they were supposed to follow. It centralized the administration and decreed the Levée en Masse, calling on all able bodied men to join the army and all others to serve the nation in any way they could. Most scientist worked or were protected by the Committee. The Committee also introduced economic controls which had been demanded by the enragés. The value of the assignats ceased to fall. This way, the Committee protected the purchasing power of itself and the masses. By introducing anti-hoarding laws, controling the export of gold, confiscating specie and currency and repaying people with assignats, it had stabilized the economy. Food and supplies for army and towns were raised by a system of requisitions, it worked , but not very well and the Committee angered many by keeping down wages. The Committee also produced a constitution, which was to be adopted when the emergency was over.

Meanwhile the revolutionaries escalated even more. The party of the extreme revolution, the Hébertines, gathered traction. Denouncing all merchants and boureoisie, they believed all religion to be counterrevolutionary and wanted to dechristianise France. Presured by the Hébertines, in an attempt to please both Catholics and the Hébertines, Robespierre concieved the cult of the Supreme being. An act the alienated both sides and played an important part in his fall from grace.

Afterwards the Committee cracked down on the Hébertines, the revolutionary armies were supressed, the Commune of Paris destroyed. The Mountain underwent another purge, this time the right wing Dantonists were destroyed. The working class leaders became disillusioned with the revolution, and felt that it no longer served their interests.

In spite of this, by spring 1794 the French Republic possessed an army of 800.000 men, the largest army ever raised by a European power. It was a national army representing a people at arms, commanded by officers promoted by merrit and composed of troops whol felt themselves citizens fighting for their own cause. Its intense political-mindedness made it more formidable and contrasted strongly with the indifference of the opposing troops, some of whom were serfs and none of whom had any sense of of membership to their own political systems.

The allied forced could not combine their might against France, each pursuing their own interests. Within six months French had reconquered Belguim and their cavalry rode into Amsterdam on the ice. The old Dutch provinces ended and were reformed into the Batavian Republic. In the east, Kosciusko's revolution in Poland was crushed by Russian and Prussian troops. These successes made the French less willing to put up with Robespierre, who had alienated all significant parties, and was guillotined on July 28 1794.

The fall of Robespierre stunned the nation, the Committee lost part of its power, Price controls and regulations were removed. Inflation resumed its course, prices agains rose, and the disoriented and leaderless working classes suffered more than ever. Again revolts broke out, one of which dispersed the Convention by force, troops were recalled to Paris, the uprising was crushed and thousands were deported. In the end, it were the bourgeois and nouveaux riches who stood triumphant. These Thermidorians purged many ex-Jacobins, but had not lost faith in the revolution, even if they believed democracy tainted by red terror and mob rule. They still believed in individuel rights and a written constitution. The new Convention made a seperate peace with Spain and Prussia and a new constitution was established.

The new constitution led to the creation of the Directory in 1795, which was the first formally constituted French Republic. It was politically weak and vulnerable because it rested on a narrow social base. It was also bound by certain military conquests, such as Belgium, which were now considered constitutionally incorporated into France even though they had yet to be ceded by the Habsburgs, nor had the British accepted these occupations. It gave people the right to vote, but only for electors, it had and upper and lower chamber, and five directors. It was dominated by a small amount of property owners, rural and urban. In order to defend the revolution form counterrevolutionaries, two thirds of both the initial upper and lower house had to have served in the Convention. This interverence with the freedom of election led to several royalist uprisings in Paris, which were supressed by a young general named Bonapart on the orders of the Convention. The new Republic was dependent on military protection form the start.

Like its predecessors, the new Republic was beset by enemies left and right. On the right, royalists agitated against the government. Their greatest handicap being the would be king Louis XVIII, who continued to announce his intent to completely restore the Old Regime. So it was said that the Bourbons "learned nothing and forgot nothing". Many in France did not adhere to the Republic, but merely to any system that could shut out the Bourbons and the privileged nobility. On the left, many favored the democratic ideals of the revolution. A tiny group under "Gracchus" Badeuf wished to overthrow the Directory and abolish all property. Dadeuf was Guillotined by the Directory, meanwhile the lower classes were ignored and continued to suffer from the ravages of inflation and scarcity.

During the first free elections in 1797, the royalists were the clear victors. This was something the republicans and the regicides could not endure. Nor was it endurable to General Napoleon Bonapart. Napoleon had gained command of an army in 1796 and in two brilliant campaigns had crushed the Austrians in Italy. Soon, like all generals, he had become independent of the government in Paris, which was in no financial state to pay its troops or supply them. Napoleon became self-supporting, made the government in Paris dependent on him and developed a foreign policy of his own. He rallied the Italians to his cause and established a republic modelled on the French system in the Po Valley. The Directory intended to return Milan to Austria as compensation for the conquest of Belgium, but Bonapart instisted that the Republic needed to hold its position in both Belgium and Italy. He needed the Republicans in power, because the Royalists and the restored king could easily return the conquered lands and leave both the sister republics in the Netherlands and Italy to their fates. Was peace dear enough to be purchased by a return of the old regime as proclaimed by Louis XVIII?

England, meanwhile was poised to make peace with France. The war had gone badly, it suffered from severe political instability and had revoked habeas corpus in order to contain revolts. Crops were bad and bread was scarce and costly, inflation was rising due to loans to support the war effort, most of the gold had been sent to the continent in order to finance its allies, famine threatened, the population was restless, and there were mutinies in the fleet. Ireland was in open rebellion and the Austrians were routed.

In France, the Royalists were the party of peace. The Republicans were bound by the constitution to protect it's conquests and they were losing control of their generals.

All this led to the coup d'etat of Fructidor in september 1797, the turning point for the Republic. The Directory asked Bonaparte for help, who sent one of his generals, Augereau, to Paris. Augereau and his men stood guard as the Directory annulled the results of the election of the previous spring. The old Republicans secured themselfs into power, under the justification that they were defending the constitution and preventing the return of Louis XVIII and the Old Regime. But in doing so violated their own constitution and quashed the first free election ever held in the French Republic. The "new" government broke off negotiations with England, but signed peace with Austria.

The following months the revolution spread through Italy, creating many new republics based on the French model. In Germany the disposed nobility from the left bank of the Rhine was compensated by church territories on the east of the Rhine, signaling the start of the reconstruction of Germany. The Empire sank to the level of a land rush or real estate speculation.

After Fructidor the idea of maintaining the republic as a constitutional goverment was given up. There were more uprisings, more quashed elections, more purges of the left and right. The Directory turned into a ineffective dictatorship. It failed to restore financial confidene or stability, guerrila activity flared up again in Vendée and western France, and the religious schism became more extreme. Meanwhile, Napoleon returned from Italy a hero. He received command of an army training to invade England, but concluded it was too early to invade and decided to strike at England indirectly by invading Egypt. This alarmed the Russians, who had their own ambitions in the region. At the same time the Austrians became increasingly opposed to the French rearrangement of Germany. This led to the creation of the Second Coalition. Realizing the threat, Napoleon left his army in Egypt and returned to France. There he discovered that members of the Directory were planning a coup in order to restore order, however they still needed support from the army.

On November 9 1799, armed soldiers under the leaderschip of Bonapart drove the legislators from the chambers in what was later called the coup d'etat of Brumaire. They proclaimed a new Republic, which Bonaparte entitled the Consulate.

It happened that the French Republic, falling into the hands of a general, fell also to a man whom many of his contemporaries and some later historians viewed as a "genius" or a "great man". Under the Consulate France reverted to a form a enlightened despotism and Bonaparte may be thought of as the last and most eminent of the enlightened despots. Self-government through elected bodies was ruthlessly pushed aside. Bonaparte delighted in affiming the sovereignty of the people, but in his mind the people were a sovereign, like Voltair's God, who created the world but never thereafter interfered in it. He clearly saw that a government's authority when it was held to represent the entire nation. In the weeks after Brumaire he held a referendum on a new constitution. The people could take it or leave it. They overwhelmingly chose to take it.

The constitution set up a make-believe series of parliamentary institutions which quickly fell into disuse. The regime did not represented anyone, and that was its strength, because it provoked less opposition. Abroad, the Russians withdrew from the war and the Austrians were again defeated. At home Napoleon reformed the government and restored order where all others had failed, the rebels at Vendée were put down, laws and taxes were enforced, a general amnesty was granted to exiles of all stripes, from émigrés to republicans, on the condition that they would stop quarreling with each other. Napoleon staffed his administration with both royalists and republicans, made peace with the pope, thereby end the schism. For the first time in ten years the government was collecting taxes and stability was restored.

With the Consulate, the revolution was over. If the highest hopes of the revolution had not been accomplished, many of the worst inequities and inefficiencies of the Old Regime had atleast been cured. The middle class felt secure with its victory and former aristocrats were beginning to accept the new system. The working class movement, which had been repeatedly frustrated during the revolution would reappear thirty years later.

Source:

R.R Palmer, A History of Europe in the Modern World.