Reform & Terror

1. Reform & Terror A New Republic Is Born In Blood

2. The Assembly Reforms France • August 1789: National Assembly adopts Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen • Revolutionary leaders use the slogan, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”

3. The document did not apply to women! The writer Olympe de Gouges was executed in 1793 as an “enemy of the Revolution” Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents. Olympe de Gouges, la première féministe

4. A Citizen Ready to Fight and a Citizen Carrying the Declaration of the Rights of Man

5. The Assembly Reforms France • 1790: National Assembly resolves the immediate financial crisis by seizing church lands. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy places the church under the control of the State  • Actions alarm many peasants, who are devout Catholics • 1791: Royal family decides to flee to Austrian territory, where queen’s brother is emperor • Revolutionaries catch the royal family in Varennes, a town east of Paris cartoon representation of theconfiscation of church lands

6. The Assembly Reforms France • September 1791: Assembly finishes new constitution • Monarchy kept but limited • Power transferred to the Legislative Assembly (a new, unicameral legislature) • The Legislative Assembly entrenched the left-right political spectrum that is still used today. FYI: The first country to adopt the metric system was France (in 1791). Today, only Liberia, Myanmar and the United States are not on it.

7. The Modern Political Spectrum Radical Liberal Moderate Conservative Reactionary

8. Factions Split France • Major problems, including debt, food shortages • Assembly splits into Radicals, Moderates, Conservatives • Émigrés—nobles who flee country, want Old Regime back in power • Sans-culottes (“without knee breeches”)—lower class who want more change from the Revolution Parisian sans-culotte. Drawing, 18th century.

9. Problems with Other Countries • Austrians and Prussians want Louis in charge of France. European monarchs fear revolution will spread. • April 1792: France declares war against Austria. Prussia joins war. France at War • Prussian forces soon threaten to attack Paris • Parisian mob jails royal family, kills guards • September 1792: Mob breaks into prisons, killing over 1,000 prisoners, including many who support king • Pressured by mob, Legislative Assembly gives up idea of limited monarchy, deposes the king and calls for new legislature to replace itself • National Convention takes office in September, forming French republic

10. Jacobins Take Control • Jacobins—radical political organization behind 1792 governmental changes. (Jacobins were a revolutionary club that met in a monastery used by the Jacobin order.) • January 1793: After a close vote, Louis XVI is found guilty of treason and beheaded (regicide). I forgive my enemies; I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord.

11. France had inherited barbarous execution methods from Old Europe. Only aristocrats (like citizens of ancient Rome) could be beheaded (“a clean and honorable death”) Revolutionaries wanted punishments to be humane (à la the enlightenment) and equal. Hence, Dr. Joseph Guillotin’s invention.

13. The War Continues • French army wins great victory against Prussians and Austrians • In 1793 Britain, Spain, Holland join forces against France • National Convention orders draft of 300,000 men to reinforce army and calls upon skills and resources of all men and women (a true “people’s war”)

14. The Reign of TerrorJuly 1793 – July 1794 • Maximilien Robespierre—Jacobin leader gains power and rules France as a dictator. Nicknamed “The Incorruptible.” • Realized the mob needed direction. • Tried to build a “republic of virtue.” • Desired to erase every trace of France’s past monarchy and nobility: - playing cards changed to remove kings and queens - calendar changed to be more scientific; no Sundays - churches closed all over France

15. The first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror. If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue. Maximilien Robespierre (1758 – 1794)

16. • During the Terror, thousands were killed for being “enemies of the republic” and committing “crimes against liberty” • Over 3,000 executions took place in Paris; over 14,000 in the provinces • Marie Antoinette beheaded on October 16, 1793 • Jean Baptiste Henry executed for sawing down a tree of liberty • Francois Bertrand executed for having served sour wine • Henriette Francoise de Marboeuf executed for having hoped for the arrival of the Austrians and Prussians

17. • When the guillotine proved too slow (one head at a time), the Jacobins turned to mass killings by cannon fire and drowning • 85% of those who died during the Terror were members of what had once been called the Third Estate. 1819 English caricature titled The Radical's Arms. It depicts the infamous guillotine. "No God! No Religion! No King! No Constitution!" is written in the republican banner.

18. END OF THE TERROR Another Change in Government • National Convention fears power of Robespierre. • July 1794: Robespierre arrested, executed. Reign of Terror ends. • Public opinion shifts away from radicals • Moderate leaders write new constitution; end universal male suffrage (must own property) • Two-house legislature and five-man Directory restore order (empower wealthy middle class) • New government makes Napoleon Bonaparte commander of armies (stay tuned . . .)

19. The French Revolution was a gate through which the Western world passed into modernity. It was not the only passageway; neither did it represent a clean break with the past and a jump-start on modernity. But the Revolution took pre-existing conditions and ideas which had been developing, particularly since the mid-1700s, passed them through a cataclysm, and changed forever the way humanity saw society, religion, the state, and the nation. Kendall W. Brown, “The French Revolution and Modernity”