The National Assembly was the legislative body, the king and royal ministers made up the executive branch, and the judiciary was independent of the other two branches. As framers of the constitution, the Assembly was concerned that if only representatives governed France, they were likely to be motivated by their own self-interests. Therefore, the king was allowed a suspensive veto to balance out the interests of the people. It distinguished between the active citizens male property owners of certain age and the passive citizens.
All women were deprived of rights and liberties, including the right to education, freedom to speak, write, print, and worship. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty. With the onset of French Revolutionary Wars and the involvement of foreign powers in the conflict, radical Jacobin and ultimately republican conceptions grew enormously in popularity, increasing the influence of Robespierre, Danton, Marat and the Paris Commune.
When the King used his veto powers to protect non-juring priests and refused to raise militias in defense of the revolutionary government, the constitutional monarchy proved unacceptable to radical revolutionaries and was effectively ended by the August 10 Insurrection. A National Convention was called, electing Robespierre as its first deputy. It was the first assembly in France elected by universal male suffrage. The convention declared France a republic on September 22, , which meant that France needed a new constitution.
Over the course of the Revolution, the original revolutionary movement known as the Jacobins split into more and less radical factions, the most important of which were the Feuillants moderate; pro-royal , the Montagnards radical and the Girondins moderate; pro-republic.
The National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on September 30, Its successor body, the Legislative Assembly operating under the Constitution of , lasted until September 20, The Legislative Assembly first met on October 1, , and consisted of members, mostly from the middle class. The members were generally young, and since none had sat in the previous Assembly, they largely lacked national political experience.
They tended to be people with successful careers in local politics. The rightists within the assembly consisted of about Feuillants, whose chief leaders, Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette and Antoine Barnave, remained outside the House because of their ineligibility for re-election.
They were staunch constitutional monarchists, firm in their defense of the King against the popular agitation. The leftists were of Jacobins still including the party later known as the Girondins or Girondists and Cordeliers a populist group, whose many members would later become the radical Montagnards.
The remainder of the House, deputies, belonged to no definite party. They were committed to the ideals of the Revolution, generally inclined to side with the left but would also occasionally back proposals from the right. Some historians dispute these numbers and estimate that the Legislative Assembly consisted of about Feuillants the right , about Jacobins including Girondins; the left , and about deputies, who did not belong to any definite party but voted most often with the left.
The differences emerge from how historians approach data in primary sources, where numbers reported by the clubs do not overlap with analyses of club membership conducted independently by name. The Jacobins in , author unknown: The Jacobins were known for creating a strong government that could deal with the needs of war, economic chaos, and internal rebellion. They supported the rights of property and favored free trade and a liberal economy much like the Girondins, but their relationship to the people made them more willing to adapt interventionist economic policies.
The Feuillants came into existence when the Jacobins split between moderates Feuillants , who sought to preserve the position of the king and supported the proposed plan of the National Assembly for a constitutional monarchy, and radicals Jacobins , who wished to press for a continuation of direct democratic action to overthrow Louis XVI.
Labelled by their opponents as royalists, they were targeted after the fall of the monarchy. In August , a list of members was published and all were arrested and tried for treason. The name survived for a few months as an insulting label for moderates, royalists, and aristocrats.
The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France from September 20, , to October 26, , succeeding the Legislative Assembly. It was fractured into factions even more extreme than those of the Legislative Assembly. The Jacobin Club, gathering members with republican beliefs and aspiring to establish a French democratic republic, experienced political tensions beginning in There were conflicting viewpoints in response to several revolutionary events and how to best achieve a democratic republic.
A result of the increasing divide within the Jacobins was the split between the more radical Montagnards and the Girondins. The Jacobin Club was one of several organizations that grew out of the French Revolution, distinguished by its left-wing, revolutionary politics. Because of this, the Jacobins, unlike other sects like the Girondins, were closely allied to the sans-culottes , a popular force of working-class Parisians that played a pivotal role in the development of the revolution.
In addition to siding with sans-culottes , the Montagnards aimed for a more repressive form of government that would institute a price maximum on essential consumer goods and punish all traitors and enemies of the Republic. The Montagnards also believed war and other political differences required emergency solutions. They had members in and , including committee members and deputies who voted with the faction.
Most members of the club came from the middle class and tended to represent the Parisian population. This faction eventually gained overwhelming power in the Convention and governed France during the Reign of Terror. Possibly the two most significant factors in the consequential split between the Montagnards and the Girondins were the September Massacres and the trial of Louis XVI, both in The Montagnards argued for immediate execution of the king by military court-martial, insisting that he was undermining the Revolution.
The Girondins, in contrast, agreed that the king was guilty of treason but argued for his clemency and favored the option of exile or popular referendum as his sentence. The second key factor in the split between the Montagnards and the Girondins was the September Massacres of Radical Parisians and members of the National Guard were angry with the poor progress in the war against Austria and Prussia and the forced enlistment of 30, volunteers.
On August 10, radicals went on a killing spree, slaughtering roughly 1, inmates in various Paris prisons, many of whom were simply common criminals, not the treasonous counter-revolutionaries condemned by the Montagnards. The Girondins did not tolerate the massacres, but neither the Montagnards of the Legislative Assembly nor the Paris Commune took any action to stop or condemn the killings.
Members of the Girondins later accused Marat, Robespierre, and Danton of inciting the massacres to further their dictatorial power. The conflict between the Montagnards and the Girondins eventually led to the fall of the Girondins and their mass execution. The Girondins in the La Force Prison after their arrest.
Woodcut from The Girondins campaigned for the end of the monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. The Girondins comprised a group of loosely affiliated individuals rather than an organized political party. When the National Assembly was replaced in by the Legislative Assembly comprising entirely new members, the divisions continued. When the succeeding National Convention met in , the seating arrangement continued, but following the arrest of the Girondins, the right side of the assembly was deserted, and any remaining members who had sat there moved to the center.
Several Europeans monarchies, notably Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain, engaged in military conflicts with revolutionary France to take advantage of the political chaos and stop the spread of the revolutionary, anti-royal spirit across the globe. During the French Revolution, European monarchs watched the developments in France and considered whether they should intervene in support of Louis XVI or to take advantage of the chaos in France.
He became disturbed as the Revolution became more radical, although he still hoped to avoid war. In August , Leopold and King Frederick William II of Prussia, in consultation with emigrant French nobles, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe in the well-being of Louis and his family and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them.
Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as a way of taking action that would enable him to avoid actually doing anything about France for the moment, Paris saw the Declaration as a serious threat and the revolutionary leaders denounced it. The National Assembly of France interpreted the declaration to mean that Leopold was going to declare war.
Radical Frenchmen who called for war used it as a pretext to gain influence and declare war on April 20, , leading to the campaigns of in the French Revolutionary Wars. The King, many of the Feuillants, and the Girondins wanted to wage war. Louis XVI and many Feuillants expected war would increase his personal popularity. He also foresaw an opportunity to exploit any defeat; either result would make him stronger.
The Girondins, on the other hand, wanted to export the Revolution throughout Europe and, by extension defend the Revolution within France. The forces opposing war were much weaker.
Some Feuillants believed France had little chance to win and feared a loss might lead to greater radicalization of the revolution. On the other end of the political spectrum, Robespierre opposed a war on two grounds: he was concerned it would strengthen the monarchy and military at the expense of the revolution and that it would incur the anger of ordinary people in Austria and elsewhere.
France preemptively declared war on Austria April 20, and Prussia joined on the Austrian side a few weeks later. What followed was a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from until that would become known as the French Revolutionary Wars. They pitted the French First Republic against several monarchies, most notably Britain and Austria, and are divided in two periods: the War of the First Coalition — and the War of the Second Coalition — Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension as the political ambitions of the Revolution expanded.
While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, a mostly Prussian Allied army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at Koblenz on the Rhine. This, however, strengthened the resolve of the revolutionary army and government to oppose them by any means necessary.
On August 10, a crowd stormed the Tuileries Palace, seizing the king and his family. Anonymous caricature depicting the treatment given to the Brunswick Manifesto by the French population. The Brunswick Manifesto, rather than intimidate the populace into submission, sent it into furious action and created fear and anger towards the Allies. It also spurred revolutionaries to take further action, organizing an uprising.
On August 10, the Tuileries Palace was stormed in a bloody battle with Swiss Guards protecting it, the survivors of which were massacred by the mob. The War of the First Coalition began with French victories, which rejuvenated the nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. In , the new French armies experienced numerous defeats, which allowed the Jacobins to rise to power and impose the Reign of Terror as a method of attempting to unify the nation.
In , the situation improved dramatically for the French. By , they had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel.
A hitherto unknown general Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April In less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing , prisoners.
Their goal was to contain the spread of chaos from France but they failed to overthrow the revolutionary regime, and French territorial gains since were confirmed. The Coalition did very well in , but Russia pulled out. Napoleon took charge in France in late and he and his generals defeated the Coalition. Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens in March , bringing an interval of peace in Europe that lasted for 14 months. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France seized and conquered a wide array of territories, from the Italian Peninsula and the Low Countries in Europe to the Louisiana Territory in North America.
French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. Louis XVI attempted to work within the framework of his limited powers but won little support. He and the royal family remained virtual prisoners in the Tuileries, a royal and imperial palace in Paris that served as the residence of most French monarchs.
For the next two years, the palace remained the official residence of the king. Louis XVI became emotionally paralyzed, leaving most important decisions to the queen.
Prodded by the queen, Louis committed the family to a disastrous escape attempt from the capital to the eastern frontier on June 21, However this would have involved splitting up the royal family and Louis and Marie-Antoinette decided on the use of a heavy, conspicuous coach drawn by six horses. Due to the cumulative effect of a host of errors, which in and of themselves would not have condemned the mission to failure, the royal family was thwarted in its escape after Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the postmaster of Sainte-Menehould, recognized the king from his portrait.
They felt betrayed. Republicanism burst out of the coffeehouses and became the dominant ideal of revolutionary leaders. The intended goal of the unsuccessful flight was to provide the king with greater freedom of action and personal security than was possible in Paris. The long-term political objectives of the royal couple and their closest advisers remain unclear.
A detailed document entitled Declaration to the French People prepared by Louis for presentation to the National Assembly and left behind in the Tuileries indicates that his personal goal was a return to the concessions and compromises contained in the declaration of the Third Estate in June , immediately prior to the outbreak of violence in Paris and the storming of the Bastille. Private correspondence from Marie Antoinette takes a more reactionary line of restoration of the old monarchy without concessions, although referring to pardons for all but the revolutionary leadership and the city of Paris.
When the royal family finally returned under guard to Paris, the revolutionary crowd met the royal carriage with uncharacteristic silence and the royal family was again confined to the Tuileries Palace. From this point forward, the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an ever-increasing possibility. The credibility of the king as a constitutional monarch had been seriously undermined. However, on July 15, , the National Constituent Assembly agreed that the king could be restored to power if he agreed to the constitution, although some factions opposed the proposal.
A crowd of 50, people gathered at the Champ de Mars on July 17 to sign the petition, and about 6, had already signed. But earlier that day, two suspicious people hidigg at the Champ de Mars were hanged by those who found them. Jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor of Paris, used this incident to declare martial law. The Marquis de Lafayette and the National Guard, which was under his command, were temporarily able to disperse the crowd but even more people returned later that afternoon.
Lafayette again tried to disperse the crowd, who in response threw stones at the National Guard. They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror la Terreur , a month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory Directoire appointed by parliament.
Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte. By the late s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
Fact: The key meeting to plan the French Revolution took place on a tennis court. Tired of being The Louisiana city of New Orleans still retains much of its French-infused heritage, and The young couple soon came to symbolize all of the excesses of the reviled French monarchy, and Marie Antoinette herself became the target of a great deal When American colonists won independence from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, the French, who participated in the war themselves, were both close allies and key participants.
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