The French Revolution - Essay Example

The French Revolution Introduction Revolutions have been a dominant feature of human societies since time immemorial, with the legacies of the rise and fall of great monarchs and empires standing out in the history of most cultures all over the world. A huge number of historians and historical studies have paid great attention to the vastness of revolutions in the history of the world, revealing great insights on not only the origins, but also the causes of great revolutions (Adkins, 2004). This essay will explore the history of the French Revolution, citing major events that defined the era and shaped the history of the French society as well as the overall trajectory of modern history of global nations. Background of the revolution Lasting from 1789 to 1799, the French Revolution was an era of profound social and political turbulence that not only shaped the French, but also the entire trajectory of modern history. That is, the French Revolution was marked by great and revolutionary events that left a permanent mark on the history of the French and modern history; the most outstanding events of the French Revolution are the fall of powerful monarchies and churches as well as the rise of both democracy as well as nationalism. Successive years of poor harvest coupled by a serious economic crisis following a two years long war lead to the rise of deep resentment for the advantaged position of the clergy and the Aristocracy, thereby fuelling the demands for change (Eye witness to history, 2007). Enlightenment ideals were held in high esteem in this period, leading to the meeting of the Estates-General in 1989 and the announcement of the Tennis Court Oath by members of the Third Estate in the same year. These events were later followed by the assault on Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, as well as the march on Versailles, eventualities which many contemporaries consider to have set the revolution in motion. In the following years, after the rise of the revolution, different liberal assemblies were in constant struggles with right-wing supporters of the Monarch whose intent was to frustrate the reform movement; following the declaration of a republic in 1892, King Louis XVI was put to death a year later. Legacy of the Revolution The trajectory of the revolution was greatly influenced by a series of external threats as marked by the numerous conquests featured in the revolutionary wars including the conquest of the Italian Peninsula as well as other low lying countries and territories on the west of Rhine. Popular agitations in France eventually climaxed with the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and Jacobins while the iron rule of the Committee of Public Safety in the period of the reign of terror between 1793 and 1794 caused nearly 40,000 deaths in France alone while bringing an end to slavery in colonies and reinforcing the boarders of the new republic (Greer, 1935). The defeat and execution of Roberspierre and other significant Jacobins in the Thermidorian Reaction ended the reign of terror and the Directory took over control of the French state from 1795; however, during the 1799’s coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and formed the Consulate. Napoleon’s first empire that emerged in 1804 spread the revolutionary ideals throughout Europe in the Napoleonic wars until it was militarily brought down by an anti-Napoleonic coalition that restored the Bourbons in 1815 under a constitutional monarchy while reversing France’s conventional borders. The French revolution evidently left an enduring legacy on the history of the French but the modern era saw the French society undergo numerous transformations, which led to the inevitable disappearance of the feudal, aristocratic, as well as religious privileges; similarly, the French society suddenly discarded its old concepts regarding tradition and hierarchy under the influence of fraternization. The French revolution also left an indelible legacy on the rest of the continents, especially because it prompted and accentuated the rise of republics as well as democracies while promoting the spread of liberalism, nationalism, socialism, in addition to the mainstreaming of secularism accordingly. Similarly, the French revolution led to the establishment of the significant political ideologies in the contemporary world as well as the formulation and practice of the concept of total war (Bell, 2007), which was popularized through the Napoleonic wars (Gallaher, 2007); additionally, some of the crucial revolutionist documents such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man widened the focus of human rights to include rights for women and children. Causes of the Revolution The contextual situations of the ancient French regime have been quoted by most historians as the triggers of the French Revolution; the Marxists explanation of class conflicts, between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisies supported by the sans-culottes, as the cause of the revolution persisted until the 20th century (Comninel, 1987). Nonetheless, historians maintain that the economic and fiscal woes of the ancient French regime was the leading motivation for the revolution; the failing economy coupled by poor harvests, high food costs, as well as inadequate transportation infuriated the masses to demand change. Prior to the revolution, the national government had maintained an inefficient tax system as well as large wars on various fronts, which left France in huge debts that could not be repaid by its obsolete financial system. This crisis situation prompted King Louis XVI to call the Assembly of Notables in 1897 even though the royal court at Versailles remained totally isolated from and indifferent to the worsening situation in France. Despite a reduction in the vast proportions of government expenditures, profound pressure against King Louis’s absolute monarch mounted thwarting further reforms; the increasing pressure on the monarch was underscored by extreme popular resentment. Resentment of royal absolutism and the conventional privileges enjoyed by the nobility and the Catholic Church’s influence on public policy and institutions by the peasants, workers, and the bourgeoisies also mounted with the rise of enlightenment ideals (Nygaard, 2007); similarly, the aspirations for socio-economic and political progress as well as the aspirations for religious freedom were also some of the motivating factors for the French revolution. The 1787-1789 Aristocratic revolt The revolution kicked off with the 1787’s summoning of the assembly of notables by Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, the controller general of finances to propose ways of eliminating the heavy budget deficit as well as the rising taxation of the privileged classes (Eye witness to history, 2007). The assembly of notables declined responsibility for the reforms and instead called for the assembly of the Estates-General, which comprised of the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate; attempts to reinforce reforms in spite resistance from the privileged classes led to the revolt of the aristocracy. There was great unrest in France following this incidence prompting the King to yield to the mounting pressure from the populace through the persisting revolts by reinstating the reformist Jacques Necker as finance minister. Rise of the Commons Despite that the third estate in France comprised nearly 98% of the entire French population, they were still outvoted by other classes; this led to a standoff at the meeting of the Estates-General, with the Third Estate demanding for equal representation and voting by head rather than by status. The convention of the Estates-General at Versailles coincided with the eruption of hostility between the three orders due to disagreements over voting procedure; following the standoff on procedure, the Third Estate went ahead and adopted the title of the National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath vowing to promote constitutional reforms. Following these developments, a vast proportion of clerical deputies as well as numerous liberal nobles joined the Third Estate prompting the king to half-heartedly include all the three orders into the new assembly. The Bastille and Great Fear The national assembly gatherings continued at Versailles despite great fear as well as violence at the capital; fears of an impending military coup further accentuated the panic of the populations culminating into a popular insurgency that saw rioters storm the Bastille fortress (Eye witness to history, 2007). The rioters secured gunpowder and weapons from the Bastille fortress thereby further spreading the wave of revolutionary fervor and hysteria throughout France; commoners were quick to avenge their years of exploitation by storming, looting, and burning down the homes of tax collectors, landlords, as well as the nobles. The Agrarian insurrection, which later came to be known as the Great Fear, prompted the nobles exit form the country and the subsequent abolishment of feudalism; the storming of the Bastille fortress and the events that followed are largely regarded as the onset of the revolution. Overall, the French Revolution which began in 1789 and lasted up to 1799 with the ascent of Napoleon onto power remains a watershed event in the European history; in this period, the French society underwent radical transformations that saw the French citizens raze and redesign France’s socio-political as well as economic landscape. France’s old traditional systems and institutions including the absolute monarchy and the feudal system were consequently demolished and just like in the American Revolution, enlightenment ideals were high in the French Revolution. On average, the French Revolution did not achieve all the goals it set out to achieve from the beginning since it merely culminated into a chaotic bloodbath; nonetheless, the French Revolution did play a significant role in shaping the modern nations through the concepts of democracy as well as nationalism. References Greer, D. (1935). The Incidence of the Terror during the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Bell, D. (2007). The First Total War: Napoleons Europe and the birth of warfare as we know it. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Comninel, G.C. (1987). Rethinking the French Revolution: Marxism and the Revisionist Challenge. London: Verso. Nygaard, B. (2007). The meanings of "bourgeois revolution": Conceptualizing the french revolution. Science & Society,71(2), 146-172.  Gallaher, J. G. (2007). The wars of the French revolution and Napoleon, 1792-1815. The Journal of Military History, 71(2), 525-526.  Adkins, G. M. (2004). Reconsidering political experience: New trends in interpretations of the French revolution. Canadian Journal of History, 39(2), 325-329.  Eye witness to history. (2007). "The Beginning of the French Revolution, 1789." Retrieved from: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/frenchrevolution.htm Read More