The Republic

The National Convention

GUIDING QUESTION

Why did the French Revolution become radical?

Members of the Paris Commune arrested the king and forced the Legislative Assembly to suspend the monarchy and call for a national convention to decide France’s future. This time they wanted all deputies to be elected by way of universal male suffrage, in which all adult males had the right to vote.

Many members of the Paris Commune proudly called themselves sans-culottes, meaning “without breeches.” Wearing long trousers, not the knee-length breeches of the nobles, they identified themselves as ordinary patriots. Often, sans-culottes are depicted as poor workers, but many were merchants or artisans—the elite of their neighborhoods.

In September 1792, the newly elected National Convention met to draft a new constitution and serve as the ruling body of France. It was dominated by lawyers, professionals, and property owners. Two-thirds of its deputies were younger than age 45, but most had some political experience as a result of the revolution. Almost all distrusted the king. It was therefore no surprise that the National Convention’s first major step on September 21 was to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic.

After 1789, citizens had formed political clubs of varying social and political views. Many deputies belonged to these clubs. The Girondins (juh • RAHN • duhns) tended to represent areas outside Paris. They feared the radical mobs of Paris. The Mountain represented the interests of radicals in Paris, and many belonged to the Jacobin (JA • kuh • buhn) club. Increasingly they felt the king needed to be executed to ensure he was not a rallying point for opponents of the republic.

In early 1793, the Mountain convinced the Convention to pass a decree condemning Louis XVI to death. On January 21, the king was beheaded on the guillotine. Revolutionaries had adopted this machine because it killed quickly and, they thought, humanely. The king’s execution created new enemies for the revolution, both at home and abroad.

The local government in Paris—the Commune— had a number of working-class leaders who wanted radical change. Led by Georges Danton, the Commune pressured the National Convention to adopt more radical measures. Moreover, the National Convention itself still did not rule all of France. Peasants in western France, as well as many people in France’s major cities, refused to accept the authority of the Convention.

A foreign crisis also loomed large. After Louis XVI was executed, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Dutch Republic took up arms against France. The French armies began to fall back. By late spring 1793, the coalition was poised to invade. It seemed possible that the revolution would end and the old regime be reestablished.

Reign of Terror

GUIDING QUESTION

How did the National Convention respond to domestic threats and foreign invasion?

To meet the domestic and foreign crises, the National Convention gave broad powers to a special committee of 12 known as the Committee of Public Safety. The committee came to be dominated by the radical Jacobin, Maximilien Robespierre. For about one year, during 1793 and 1794, the Committee of Public Safety took control of the government. To defend France from domestic threats, the committee adopted policies that became known as the Reign of Terror.

As a temporary measure, revolutionary courts were set up to prosecute counterrevolutionaries and traitors. Almost 40,000 people were killed during the French Reign of Terror. Of those, 16,000 people, including Marie Antoinette and Olympe de Gouges, died by the guillotine. Most executions occurred in cities and towns that had openly rebelled against the National Convention. In the city of Lyon, 1,880 citizens were murdered. When the guillotine proved too slow, the condemned were killed with grapeshot (a cluster of small iron balls) and left in open graves.

People from all classes were executed during the Reign of Terror. Clergy and nobles made up about 15 percent of the victims, while the rest were from the Third Estate. The Committee of Public Safety held that all this bloodletting was only temporary. When the war and domestic crisis were over, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen would be realized.

In addition to the Reign of Terror, the Committee of Public Safety took other steps to control and shape French society. Robespierre called this new order the Republic of Virtue—a democratic republic composed of good citizens. As outward signs of support for the republic, the titles “citizen” and “citizeness” were to replace “mister” and “madame.” Women wore long dresses inspired by the clothing worn in the ancient Roman Republic. The Committee also tried to control inflation by setting the prices of essential goods such as food and clothing. This largely failed as the Committee had no way to enforce pricing.

Good citizens would be formed by good education. A law aimed at primary education for all was passed but not widely implemented. Another law abolished slavery in French colonies.

From the beginning, women had been active participants in the revolution, although they had no official power. During the radical stage of the revolution, women observed sessions of the National Convention and were not shy about making their demands. In 1793, two women founded the Society for Revolutionary Republican Women in Paris. Most members were working-class women who asserted that they were ready to defend the republic. Most men, however, believed that women should not participate in either politics or the military.

The National Convention also pursued a policy of de-Christianization. Its members believed that Christianity encouraged superstition rather than the use of reason. The word saint was removed from street names, churches were looted and closed by revolutionary armies, and priests were encouraged to marry. In Paris, the cathedral of Notre Dame, the center of the Catholic religion in France, was designated a “temple of Reason.”

Another example of de-Christianization was the adoption of a new calendar. Years would no longer be numbered from the birth of Jesus but from September 22, 1792—the first day of the French Republic. The calendar contained 12 months. Each month consisted of three 10-day weeks, with the tenth day of each week a day of rest.

These changes in the calendar had a significant effect on religion, eliminating Sundays, Sunday worship services, and church holidays. Robespierre came to realize, however, that most French people would not accept these efforts at de-Christianization. France was still overwhelmingly Catholic.

A Nation at Arms

As foreign troops gathered on France’s borders, the revolution seemed to be in danger. To save the republic, the Committee of Public Safety issued a decree to raise an army. By September 1794, France had more than a million soldiers. It was the largest army ever seen in Europe, and it pushed the invaders back across the Rhine. It even conquered the Austrian Netherlands. In earlier times, wars were the business of rulers who fought rivals with professional soldiers. The new French army was created by a people’s government. Its wars were now people’s wars.

By the summer of 1794, the French had largely defeated their foreign foes. There was less need for the Reign of Terror, but nonetheless it continued. Robespierre was obsessed with ridding France of all corrupt elements. Many in the National Convention who were disturbed by Robespierre and feared for their own lives, decided the time had come to act, lest they be the next victims. When the Convention had gathered enough votes to condemn him, Robespierre was arrested and guillotined on July 28, 1794.

The Directory

GUIDING QUESTION

What led to the end of the Directory?

After the death of Robespierre, a reaction set in as moderate middle-class leaders took control. The Reign of Terror ended. The National Convention reduced the power of the Committee of Public Safety. Churches were allowed to reopen. Finally, a new constitution was created to replace the Constitution of 1791.

A New Constitution

The Constitution of 1795 set up two legislative houses, similar to the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress. A lower house, the Council of 500, drafted laws. An upper house of 250, the Council of Elders, accepted or rejected proposed laws. Members of both houses were chosen by electors, or qualified voters. Only those who owned or rented property worth a certain amount could be electors—just 30,000 people in the whole nation qualified. This was a significant change from the universal male suffrage the Paris Commune had demanded. The new constitution was conservative and was built to slow down decision, making by the government.

Under the new constitution, the executive was a committee of five called the Directory, chosen by the Council of Elders. The Directory, which lasted from 1795 to 1799, became known mainly for corruption. People reacted against the sufferings and sacrifices that had been demanded in the Reign of Terror. Some people made fortunes from government contracts or by loaning the government money at very high interest rates. They took advantage of chaos and the government’s severe money problems during these difficult times.

Meanwhile, the government of the Directory faced internal political enemies from both conservatives and radicals. Most conservatives wanted to return to old forms and bring back the monarchy. Some radicals, however, plotted to create a regime like Robespierre’s. Economic problems also remained with no solution in sight as France continued to wage expensive wars against foreign enemies.

To stay in power, the Directory began to rely on the military, but one military leader turned on the government. In 1799 the successful and popular general Napoleon Bonaparte toppled the Directory in a coup d’état (koo day • TAH), a sudden overthrow of the government. Napoleon then seized power and was firmly in control of France. The turmoil of the French Revolution was brought to an end ten years after it had begun.

Comparing the American and French Revolutions

The American and French revolutions had many inspirations in common. The impulses for both revolutions grew out of Enlightenment ideas about personal freedom and the power of the state. In the American colonies, these ideas appeared in the writings of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and others. In France, they appeared in the works of de Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Both groups of writers inspired revolutionaries in both America and France.

Although both revolutions had similar inspirations, their outcomes were different. American colonists gained independence and formed a republic, but the monarchy remained intact in Great Britain. In France, revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy and executed the king. Though they formed a republic, it did not last beyond more than years.

American and French revolutionaries both quickly organized new governments based on Enlightenment ideas. The Americans formed a constitution through debate and compromise with little violence. The French created a democratic government, but it soon gave way to the leadership of despotic figures such as Robespierre and Napoleon. The horrific violence of the Reign of Terror also darkened the outcome of the French Revolution. Despite these bleak periods, the French people remained committed to Enlightenment ideas, and the revolutionary spirit of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” continues to inspire French government and social life.

The American Revolution and the French Revolution demonstrated that people could overthrow a monarchy and reshape a government to be more representative of its people. These two events would influence revolutions in Latin America and impact the colonial holdings of Spain, Portugal, and France.