The French Revolution 1799 1814 in brief. Accusations and attacks on the Girondins

Event: capture of the royal fortress Bastille by the people

King Louis the Sixteenth

Result: beginning of the French Revolution

Event:"Night of Miracles" Meeting of the first people's Constituent Assembly in the history of France.

What political forces were in power: King Louis the Sixteenth

Result: equality of all citizens before the law was declared. The privileges of the clergy and nobles were abolished. The church tithe, which all citizens had previously paid to the church, was abolished. Later, nobility was abolished in general and the first ever democratic “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” was adopted.

Event: people's march to Versailles. The king was forcibly taken from the Palace of Versailles and settled in Paris.

What political forces were in power: formally - the king, but in fact - revolutionaries

Result: The absolute monarchy was replaced by a constitutional one. Now it was not the people who did what the king wanted, but the king who carried out the will of the Constituent Assembly

Event: deposition of King Louis by the Paris Commune

What political forces were in power: Paris Commune of rebel revolutionaries. These are mainly guardsmen, soldiers and ordinary townspeople.

Result: Prussia, defending the king, started a war with France. The king is imprisoned.

Event: declaration of France as a Republic

What political forces were in power: National Convention of France (Girondin Party).

Result: The monarchy in the country was abolished altogether

Event: execution of Louis the Sixteenth in Paris

What political forces were in power: National Convention (Girondists)

Result: France is at war with several European powers defending the monarchy: Prussia, England, Spain.

Event: Jacobin uprising

What political forces were in power: Girondists and Montagnards

Result: a split among the revolutionaries, the rise to power of the Jacobins and Montagnards. The beginning of brutal revolutionary terror of the population. The Girondins were executed. All material goods were taken away from citizens in the interests of revolution and war.

Event: execution of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis the Sixteenth

What political forces were in power: Jacobin National Convention and Paris Commune

Result: another “enemy of the revolution” destroyed

Event: Thermidorian coup. A split among the leadership of the revolutionaries. The Commune took up arms on the side of Robespierre against the other Jacobins.

What political forces were in power: Paris Commune and National Convention.

Result: Robespierre was defeated and executed along with his supporters. The Paris Commune fell. The revolution weakened, and the Jacobins themselves began to be persecuted.

Event: Coup of the 18th Brumaire

What political forces were in power: Directory

Result: The end of the Great French Revolution. The victory of the military monarchy in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, who proclaimed the power of the Provisional Government in the person of three consuls, one of whom was himself. Later he would take power into his own hands.

In the interests of which the government also did a lot, taking great care of the “national wealth”, that is, the development of the manufacturing industry and trade. However, it turned out to be increasingly difficult to satisfy the desires and demands of both the nobility and the bourgeoisie, who in their mutual struggle sought support from the royal power.

On the other hand, both feudal and capitalist exploitation increasingly armed the masses against themselves, whose most legitimate interests were completely ignored by the state. In the end, the position of royal power in France became extremely difficult: every time it defended old privileges, it met with liberal opposition, which grew stronger - and every time new interests were satisfied, conservative opposition arose, which became more and more sharp.

Royal absolutism was losing credit in the eyes of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie, among whom the idea was asserted that absolute royal power was a usurpation in relation to the rights of estates and corporations (point of view) or in relation to the rights of the people (point of view).

General course of events from 1789 to 1799

Background

After a whole series unsuccessful attempts to get out of a difficult financial situation, announced in December that in five years he would convene the government officials of France. When he became a minister for the second time, he insisted that they be convened in 1789. The government, however, did not have any specific program. At court they thought least of all about this, at the same time considering it necessary to make a concession to public opinion.

Estates General

National Assembly

National Assembly was saved, and Louis XVI again gave in: he even went to Paris, where he appeared to the people, wearing a tricolor national cockade on his hat (red and blue are the colors of the Parisian coat of arms, white is the color of the royal banner).

In France itself, the storming of the Bastille served as a signal for a number of uprisings in the provinces. Peasants were especially worried, refusing to pay feudal duties, church tithes and state taxes. They attacked castles, destroyed them and burned them, and several nobles or their stewards were killed. When alarming news began to arrive at Versailles about what was happening in the provinces, two liberal nobles introduced a proposal to the assembly to abolish feudal rights, some free of charge, others by ransom. Then the famous night meeting took place (q.v.), in which deputies of the upper classes began vying to renounce their privileges, and the meeting adopted decrees that abolished class advantages, feudal rights, serfdom, church tithes, privileges of individual provinces, cities and corporations and declaring the equality of all before the law in the payment of state taxes and the right to occupy civil, military and ecclesiastical positions.

Noble emigration began. The emigrants’ threats to the “rebels” and their alliance with foreigners supported and intensified the anxiety among the people; The court and all the nobles remaining in France began to suspect of complicity with the emigrants. Responsibility for much of what subsequently happened in France therefore falls on the emigrants.

Meanwhile, the national assembly took up the new structure of France. A few days before the destruction of the Bastille, it adopted the name of constituent, officially recognizing for itself the right to give the state new institutions. The first task of the meeting was to draw up a declaration of human and civil rights, which was demanded by many. The court still did not want to make concessions and did not lose hope for a military coup. Although Louis XVI, after July 14, promised not to gather troops to Paris, nevertheless, new regiments began to arrive at Versailles. At one officers' banquet, in the presence of the king and his family, the military tore off their tricolor cockades and trampled them under their feet, and the ladies of the court handed them cockades made of white ribbons. This caused the second Parisian uprising and a march of a crowd of one hundred thousand, in which there were especially many women, to Versailles: they broke into the palace, demanding the king move to Paris (-). Louis XVI was forced to fulfill this demand, and after the king and the national assembly moved to Paris, they moved their meetings there, which, as it later turned out, limited his freedom: the extremely excited population more than once dictated its will to representatives of the entire nation.

Political clubs were formed in Paris, which also discussed the issue of the future structure of France. One of these clubs, called the Jacobin club, began to play a particularly influential role, because it had many very popular deputies and many of its members enjoyed authority among the population of Paris. Subsequently, he began to open his branches in all the main cities of France. Extreme opinions began to dominate in the clubs, and they also took over the political press.

In the national assembly itself, not only were there no organized parties, but it even seemed shameful to belong to any “faction.” Nevertheless, several different political directions emerged in the assembly: some (the higher clergy and nobility) still dreamed of preserving the old order; others (Mounier, Lalli-Tollendal, Clermont-Tonnerre) considered it necessary to provide the king with only executive power and, preserving the primacy of the clergy and nobility, to divide the national assembly into an upper and lower house; still others imagined the future constitution with nothing other than one chamber (, Bailly, ); further, there were figures who wanted to give greater influence to the Parisian population and clubs (Duport, Barnave, the Lamet brothers), and future figures of the republic were already emerging (Gregoire, Pétion, Buzot), who, however, remained monarchists at that time.

Legislative Assembly

Immediately after the constituent assembly ceased to function, its place was taken by a legislative assembly, to which new and inexperienced people were elected. Right side the meeting room was occupied by constitutional monarchists ( Feuillants); people without sharply defined views took middle places; left side were two parties - Girondins And Montagnards. The first of these two parties consisted of very capable people and included several brilliant speakers; its most prominent representatives were Vergniaud, and. The Girondins were challenged for influence over the assembly and the people by the Montagnards, whose main strength was in the Jacobin and other clubs. The most influential members of this party were people who were not part of the assembly: , . The rivalry between the Girondins and the Jacobins began in the very first months of the legislative assembly and became one of the main facts of the history of the revolution.

The Legislative Assembly decided to confiscate the property of emigrants, and punish disobedient priests with deprivation civil rights, deportation and even prison. Louis XVI did not want to approve the decrees of the assembly on emigrants and unsworn clergy, but this only aroused extreme discontent among the people against himself. The king was increasingly suspected of secret relations with foreign courts. The Girondins, in the assembly, in clubs, and in the press, argued for the need to respond to the defiant behavior of foreign governments with a “war of peoples against kings” and accused ministers of treason. Louis XVI resigned the ministry and appointed a new one from like-minded people of the Gironde. In the spring of the year, the new ministry insisted on declaring war on Austria, where at that time Francis II already reigned; Prussia also entered into an alliance with Austria. This was the beginning that had a great influence on the history of all of Europe.

Soon, however, Louis XVI resigned from the ministry, which caused a popular uprising in Paris (); Crowds of insurgents took possession of the royal palace and, surrounding Louis XVI, demanded that he approve the decrees on emigrants and priests and the return of the Girondin ministers. When the commander-in-chief of the allied Austro-Prussian army, the Duke of Brunswick, issued a manifesto in which he threatened the French with executions, the burning of houses, and the destruction of Paris, a new uprising broke out in the capital (), accompanied by the beating of the guards who guarded the royal palace. Louis XVI and his family found a safe haven in the legislative assembly, but the latter, in his presence, decided to remove him from power and take him into custody, and to convene an emergency meeting called national convention.

National Convention

The system of intimidation, or terror, received more and more development; the Girondins wanted to put an end to it, but sought to strengthen it, relying on the Jacobin club and the lower strata of the Parisian population (the so-called sans-culottes). The Montagnards were only looking for a reason to reprisal the Girondins. In the spring of the year, he fled abroad with the son of the Duke of Orleans (“Philippe Egalité”), whom he wanted, with the help of troops, to place on the French throne (he became king of France only as a result). This was blamed on the Girondins, since Dumouriez was considered their general. The external danger was complicated by internal strife: that same spring, a large popular uprising, led by priests and nobles, broke out in I (northwestern corner of France) against the convention. To save the fatherland, the convention ordered the recruitment of three hundred thousand people and gave the system of terror an entire organization. Executive power, with the most unlimited powers, was entrusted to the Committee of Public Safety, which sent its commissioners from among the members of the convention to the provinces. The main instrument of terror became the revolutionary court, which decided cases quickly and without formalities and sentenced death penalty to the guillotine, often on the basis of mere suspicion. At the instigation of the Montagnard party, at the end of May and beginning of June, crowds of people twice broke into the convention and demanded that the Girondins be expelled as traitors and brought before a revolutionary court. The Convention yielded to this demand and expelled the most prominent Girondins.

Some of them fled from Paris, others were arrested and tried by the revolutionary court. The terror intensified even more when a fan of the Girondins, a young girl, killed with a dagger the one who was distinguished by the greatest bloodthirstiness, and in Normandy, some major cities(in,) uprisings broke out, in which the fleeing Girondins also took part. This gave rise to accusing the Girondins of federalism, that is, in an effort to fragment France into several union republics, which would be especially dangerous in view of foreign invasion. The Jacobins, therefore, vigorously advocated a tightly centralized "one and indivisible republic." After the fall of the Girondins, many of whom were executed and some committed suicide, the Jacobin terrorists, led by Robespierre, became masters of the situation. France was governed by the Committee of Public Safety, which controlled the state police (committee of general security) and the convention commissioners in the provinces, who everywhere organized revolutionary committees from the Jacobins. Shortly before their fall, the Girondins drafted a new constitution; the Jacobins reworked it into the constitution of 1793, which was adopted by popular vote. The dominant party decided, however, not to introduce it until all enemies of the republic were eliminated.

After the liquidation of the Girondins, Robespierre's contradictions with Danton and the extreme terrorist came to the fore. In the spring of the year, first Hébert and him, and then Danton, were arrested, tried by a revolutionary court and executed. After these executions, Robespierre no longer had rivals.

One of his first measures was the establishment in France, by decree of the convention, of the veneration of the Supreme Being, according to the idea of “civil religion” by Rousseau. The new cult was solemnly announced during a ceremony arranged by Robespierre, who played the role of high priest of the “civil religion.”

The terror was intensifying: the revolutionary court received the right to try members of the convention itself without the latter’s permission. However, when Robespierre demanded new executions, without naming the names of those against whom he was preparing to act as an accuser, the majority of the terrorists themselves, frightened by this, overthrew Robespierre and his closest assistants. This event is known as the 9th Thermidor (). The next day, Robespierre was executed, and with him his main followers (, etc.).

Bibliographic index

General histories of the revolution- Thiers, Minier, Buchet and Roux (see below), Louis Blanc, Michelet, Quinet, Tocqueville, Chassin, Taine, Cheret, Sorel, Aulard, Jaurès, Laurent (much has been translated into Russian);

popular books by Carnot, Rambaud, Champion (“Esprit de la révolution fr.”, 1887), etc.;
Carlyle, "French revolution" (1837);
Stephens, "History of fr. rev.";
Wachsmuth, "Gesch. Frankreichs im Revolutionszeitalter" (1833-45);
Dahlmann, "Gesch. der fr. Rev." (1845); Arnd, idem (1851-52);
Sybel, "Gesch. der Revolutionszeit" (1853 et seq.);
Hausser, "Gesch. der fr. Rev." (1868);
L. Stein, "Geschichte der socialen Bewegung in Frankreich" (1850);
Blos, "Gesch. der fr. Rev."; in Russian - op. Lyubimov and M. Kovalevsky.
Historical sketches about the French Revolution. In memory of V.M. Dalina (on her 95th birthday) / Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. M., 1998.

Periodicals, specially dedicated to the history of the French Revolution:

"Revue de la révolution", ed. Ch. d'Héricault et G. Bord (published 1883-87);
"La Révolution franç aise" (from 1881, and edited by Aulard from 1887).

Essays on the convening of the States General and about the orders of 1789. In addition to the works of Tocqueville, Chassin, Poncins, Cherest, Guerrier, Kareev and M. Kovalevsky, indicated in respectively. article, see

A. Brette, “Recueil de documents relatifs à la convocation des états généraux de 1789”;
Edme Champion, "La France d'après les cahiers de 1789";
N. Lyubimov, “The Collapse of the Monarchy in France” (cahiers’ demands regarding public education);
A. Onou, “Orders of the Third Estate in France in 1789” (“Journal of the Ministry of Public Education”, 1898-1902);
his, “La comparution des paroisses en 1789”;
Richard, “La bibliographie des cahiers de doléances de 1789”;
V. Khoroshun, “Noble orders in France in 1789.”

Essays on individual episodes French Revolution.

E. et J. de Goncourt, “Histoire de la société française sous la révolution”;
Brette, “Le serment du Jeu de paume”;
Bord, "La prise de la Bastille";
Tournel, "Les hommes du 14 juillet";
Lecocq, "La prise de la Bastille; Flammermont, "Relations inédites sur la prise de la Bastille";
Pitra, "La journée du juillet de 1789"; N. Lyubimov, “The first days of Φ. revolutions according to unpublished sources";
Lambert, “Les fédérations et la fête du 14 juillet 1790”;
J. Pollio et A. Marcel, “Le bataillon du 10 août”;
Dubost, "Danton et les massacres de septembre";
Beaucourt, “Captivité et derniers moments de Louis XVI”;
Ch. Vatel, "Charlotte Corday et les girondins";
Robinet, "Le procès des dantonistes";
Wallon, "Le fédéralisme";
Gaulot, “Un complot sous la terreur”;
Aulard, “Le culte de la raison et le culte de l’Etre Suprème” (presentation in volume VI of the “Historical Review”);
Claretie, "Les derniers montagnards"
D'Héricault, "La révolution de thermidor";
Thurau-Dangin, “Royalistes et républicains”;
Victor Pierre, “La terreur sous le Directoire”;
his, “Le rétablissement du culte catholique en France en 1795 et 1802”;
H. Welschinger, “Le directoire et le concile national de 1797”;
Victor Advielles, "Histoire de Baboeuf et du babouvisme";
B. Lavigue, “Histoire de l’insurrection royaliste de l’an VII”;
Félix Rocquain, “L"état de la France au 18 brumaire";
Paschal Grousset, “Les origines d'une dynastie; le coup d"état de brumaire de l'an VIII".

Social significance of the French Revolution.

Lorenz Stein, “Geschichte der socialen Bewegung in Frankreich”;
Eugen Jäger, “Die francösische Revolution und die sociale Bewegung”;
Lichtenberger, “Le socialisme et la révol. fr.";
Kautsky, “Die Klassengegensätze von 1789” and others.

Essays on the history of legislation and institutions of the French Revolution.

Chalamel, “Histoire de la liberté de la presse en France depuis 1789”;
Doniol, “La féodalité et la révolution française”;
Ferneuil, “Les principes de 1789 et la science sociale”;
Gomel, “Histoire financière de la constituante”;
A. Desjardins, “Les cahiers de 1789 et la législation criminelle”;
Gazier, “Etudes sur l’histoire religieuse de la révolution française”;
Laferrière, “Histoire des principles, des institutions et des lois pendant la révolution française”; Lavergne, "Economie rurale en France depuis 1789";
Lavasseur, “Histoire de classes ouvrières en France depuis 1789”;
B. Minzes, “Die Nationalgüterveräusserung der franz. Revolution";
Rambaud, "Histoire de la civilization contemporaine";
Richter, “Staats- und Gesellschaftsrecht der francösischen Revolution”;
Sciout, “Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé”;
Valette, “De la durée persistante de l’ensemble du droit civil française pendant et après la révolution”;
Vuitry, “Etudes sur le régime financier de la France sous la révolution”;
Sagnac, “Législation civile de la révol. franc."

Links

The French Revolution. Articles from encyclopedias, chronicles of the revolution, articles and publications. Biographies of political figures. Cards.

When writing this article, material from (1890-1907) was used.

It was the result of a long crisis of the feudal system, which led to conflict between the third estate and the privileged upper class. Despite the difference in class interests of those in the third estate of the bourgeoisie, peasantry and urban plebeians (manufacturing workers, urban poor), they were united by an interest in the destruction of the feudal-absolutist system. The leader in this struggle was the bourgeoisie.

The main contradictions that predetermined the inevitability of the revolution were aggravated by state bankruptcy, the commercial and industrial crisis that began in the year, and lean years that led to famine. In - years, a revolutionary situation developed in the country. Peasant uprisings that engulfed a number of French provinces were intertwined with plebeian uprisings in the cities (in Rennes, Grenoble, Besançon, in the Saint-Antoine suburb of Paris, etc.). The monarchy, unable to maintain its position using old methods, was forced to make concessions: notables were convened in the year, and then the Estates General, which had not met since the year.

The sharp deterioration in the economic and especially food situation as a result of the war contributed to the aggravation of the class struggle in the country. The peasant movement intensified again in the year. In a number of departments (Er, Gar, Nor, etc.), peasants arbitrarily divided communal lands. The protests of the starving poor in the cities took very sharp forms. The representatives of the interests of the plebeians - the “mad” (leaders - J. Roux, J. Varlet, etc.) demanded the establishment of a maximum (fixed prices for consumer goods) and curbing speculators. Taking into account the demands of the masses and taking into account the current political situation, the Jacobins entered into an alliance with the “mad”. On May 4, the Convention, despite the resistance of the Girondins, decreed the establishment of fixed prices for grain. A new popular uprising on May 31 - June 2 of the year ended with the expulsion of the Girondins from the Convention and the transfer of power to the Jacobins.

Third stage (2 June 1793 - 27/28 July 1794)

This period of the revolution is characterized by the Jacobin dictatorship. Interventionist troops invaded from the north, east and south. Counter-revolutionary revolts (see Vendée Wars) swept the entire north-west of the country, as well as the south. By agrarian legislation (June - July), the Jacobin Convention transferred communal and emigrant lands to the peasants for division and completely destroyed all feudal rights and privileges. Thus, main question revolution - agrarian - was resolved on a democratic basis, the former feudal-dependent peasants turned into free owners. On June 24, the Convention approved, instead of the qualification constitution of 1791, a new constitution - much more democratic. However, the critical situation of the republic forced the Jacobins to delay the implementation of the constitutional regime and replace it with a regime of revolutionary democratic dictatorship. The convention on August 23 adopted a historic decree on the mobilization of the entire French nation to fight for the expulsion of enemies from the borders of the republic. The Convention, in response to the terrorist acts of the counter-revolution (the murder of J. P. Marat, the leader of the Lyon Jacobins J. Chalier, and others) introduced revolutionary terror.

The so-called Ventoise decrees, adopted in February and March of the year, were not implemented due to the resistance of the large property-owning elements in the apparatus of the Jacobin dictatorship. Plebeian elements and the rural poor began to partially move away from the Jacobin dictatorship, a number of whose social demands were not satisfied. At the same time, most of the bourgeoisie, which did not want to continue to put up with the restrictive regime and plebeian methods of the Jacobin dictatorship, switched to positions of counter-revolution, dragging with them the wealthy peasantry, dissatisfied with the policy of requisitions, and after them the middle peasantry. In the summer of the year, a conspiracy arose against the revolutionary government headed by Robespierre, which led to a counter-revolutionary coup that overthrew the Jacobin dictatorship and thereby put an end to the revolution (Thermidorian coup).

July 14, Bastille Day - National holiday France; La Marseillaise, written at that time, is still the national anthem of France.

Used materials

Dictionary of modern geographical names, France
TSB, Great French revolution

France before the revolution was a rich and prosperous power: constituting approximately 1/5 of the population of Europe, it concentrated over a quarter of its wealth. Revolution 1789-1794 was essentially inevitable, since French society, which continued to bear the burden of feudal ideas and institutions, reached a dead end. The absolute monarchy could not prevent the steadily growing economic, social and political crisis. The main obstacle to the further development of France was the absolute monarchy. It had long ceased to express national interests and more and more openly defended medieval class privileges, including exclusive land ownership of the nobility, the guild system, trade monopolies and other attributes of feudalism.

Prerequisites for the Great French Revolution:

growing dissatisfaction with the existing order among broad sections of the population, incl. the bourgeoisie, part of the nobility and clergy;
crop failure, financial crisis caused by immense spending on the maintenance of the army, apparatus and royal court;
oppression of the bureaucracy, arbitrariness in the courts;
extortionate exactions from peasants, guild regulations that hindered the development of manufactures, customs barriers, depravity of the ruling elite.

French enlighteners (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Morreli, J.-J. Rousseau, Diderot, Holbach) played a particularly significant role in preparing the revolution. Religion, understanding of nature, society, public order- everything was subjected to merciless criticism.
The ideas of Montesquieu formed the basis of the Constitution of 1791, the creators of the Constitution of 1793 were guided by the teachings of Rousseau, and the ideas of Adam Smith were the basis of the Civil Code of 1804.

Stages of the Great French Revolution

There are three stages in the history of the French Revolution:

July 14, 1789 - August 10, 1792;
August 10, 1792 - June 2, 1793;
the highest stage of the revolution - June 2, 1793 - July 27/28, 1794.

The first stage of the Great French Revolution

In May 1789, the Estates General was convened (a body of class representation, convened 3 times a year, in which the nobility, clergy and third estate were represented). The king demanded the introduction of new taxes, insisting on voting by estate (each estate - one vote). The Estates General refused to obey. It was determined that decisions should be made by a majority vote at joint meetings of the estates. This majority turned out to be on the side of the opposition forces. The king tried to dissolve the Estates General, which objectively reflected the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility and sought to preserve the monarchy, to lay a solid foundation of constitutionalism under the shaky edifice of the old statehood (in this regard, the leaders of the third estate in the Constituent Assembly were called constitutionalists).

Constitutionalists had as their main and immediate political goal achieving a compromise with the royal power, but at the same time they constantly experienced the “influence of the street” - the revolutionary-minded masses. Thus, The main content of the first period of the revolution was the intense and protracted struggle of the Constituent Assembly with the royal power for a constitution, for the reduction of traditional royal prerogatives, for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

The Estates General proclaimed themselves the National and then the Constituent Assembly, declaring that they were engaged in the reorganization of the state. Troops were brought to Paris. On July 14, 1789, the rebels of Paris with the soldiers who went over to their side took possession of the Bastille. Moderate forces of the revolution came to power - the Feuillants, who advocated a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of feudal remnants.

August 11, 1789 constituent Assembly adopts the decree “On the abolition of feudal rights and privileges”, according to which:

feudal orders were abolished;
personal duties were abolished;
the lands of emigrants were transferred into perpetual possession or were subject to sale;
the sale of positions was prohibited;
seigneurial justice was abolished;
the lands of the clergy were transferred to the disposal of the nation;
internal restrictions on goods and the guild system were abolished;
the territory was divided into 83 departments.

The National Assembly adopted the “Declaration of Human Rights”, which proclaimed:

sacredness and inviolability of natural rights and freedoms;
the principle of national;
principle of legality;
principles of criminal procedure and law.

Legislature was granted to a unicameral legislative assembly. A small part of the population - active citizens (4 out of 26 million people) took part in his election; women were not allowed to participate in the elections. Deputies were elected for two years, enjoyed the right of immunity and were representatives of the entire nation.
Powers of the meeting:

publication of laws;
adoption of the budget (establishment of taxes, determination of government expenditures);
determining the size of the army and navy;
holding ministers accountable;
ratification of treaties with foreign states. The king retained the right of suspensive veto on laws adopted by the Assembly, and the decision to go to war was subject to approval by the king.

One of the main causes of the French Revolution of 1789 was the financial crisis. In the middle of the 18th century, France was involved in a series of devastating wars, so that there was almost no money left in the state treasury.

The only effective way to replenish the treasury could be by taxing the aristocracy, clergy and nobility, who were traditionally exempt from taxes.

But they, naturally, resisted with all their might a change in their financial situation. Although King Louis XVI had absolute power, he did not dare to use this power in relation to the upper classes, as he was afraid of being accused of despotism. In an effort to find a way out of this extremely difficult situation and gain the approval of the people, the monarch decided to convene the States General of France for the first time since 1614.

The Estates General was the highest body of class representation in the country. They consisted of three "states" or estates: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate) and the rest of the population, which included the majority of the French, namely the middle classes and peasantry (Third Estate). A meeting of the Estates General took place in May 1789, with each estate presenting its own grievances.

What the government did not expect at all was a huge number of complaints from the (Third Estate), which mainly consisted of representatives of the already formed bourgeois class; the new bourgeoisie were dissatisfied with the fact that they did not have the political rights that they could count on in the strength of their financial and social situation.

The tension increased further due to the fact that there were many disagreements over the voting procedure: whether to grant the right to vote to each estate, as tradition prescribed (in this case, there would be more privileged estates, and the Third Estate would remain in the minority), or to vote each representative can separately (in this case, the majority would receive the Third Estate).

Under pressure from the people, Louis XVI was inclined to allow individual representatives to vote, but at the same time he began to gather troops to Versailles and Paris, as if he had already repented of having yielded to the Third Estate and was preparing to repel a possible blow.

The threat of an attack by the royal army on Paris led to the fact that the townspeople found themselves in the thick of things. A group of electors, who constituted the final deputies from Paris for the Estates General, occupied the Town Hall and proclaimed themselves the city government, or Commune.

The Commune organized a people's militia, which later became known as the National Guard. The National Guard was supposed to maintain order in the city, which had by this time become restless, and prepare the capital for defense against attacks by royal troops. However, the Guard had to intervene much earlier, since on July 14 a crowd of angry Parisians headed to the arsenal of the Bastille prison in order to obtain weapons for the city detachments, and this campaign was crowned with success.

The storming of the Bastille played a role big role in the development of the revolutionary process and became a symbol of victory over the oppressive forces of the monarchy. Although the consequences of the revolution had implications for the whole of France and even for Europe, the most significant events took place mainly in Paris.

Finding themselves at the epicenter of the revolution, ordinary residents of the capital, the so-called sans-culottes (literally “people without short pants,” that is, men who, unlike aristocrats and other rich people, wore long pants) became the main actors revolution. They formed revolutionary units, which became the main driving force at critical moments of the Revolution.

While the bourgeois deputies were mainly concerned with political reforms, the sans-culottes put forward clear economic demands: control over pricing, providing the city with food, and so on. With these demands they took to the streets and thereby founded a tradition of street revolutionary protests that has survived to this day.

Creation of the National Assembly

While the king was gathering troops to Versailles, representatives of the Third Estate proclaimed themselves the National Assembly and invited the clergy and nobility to join them (which some nobles and part of the lower clergy did).

Most of the Assembly would probably agree to constitutional reform limiting the power of the monarchy in the English manner. But the real power of the deputies was determined mainly by their ability to prevent the threat of a popular uprising in Paris. The king was forced to recognize the National Assembly, which in August 1789 adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, abolishing the feudal privileges of the old regime.

There were rumors in the city about counter-revolutionary sentiments at the court at Versailles, so in October a special detachment of Parisians went to Versailles and obliged the king to return to Paris, after which the monarch was placed in the Tuileries Palace, where he actually lived as a prisoner. In 1791, the monarch secretly left the city in the hope of fleeing abroad, but he was caught in Varennes and brought back to Paris in disgrace.

Unlike the king, many nobles managed to leave the country, and they began to persuade foreign countries to oppose the revolutionary government. Some members of the National Assembly believed that in order to unite the nation and for the cause of the revolution, a war should be started, which would help spread the ideals of the revolution outside the country.

Following the initiative of the Girondin faction (a group of deputies from the Gironde region around Bordeaux), the Assembly decided to declare war on certain states in order to protect the Revolution. In 1792, France declared war on Austria, and a series of French Revolutionary Wars began. Since things were going pretty badly at the front, moderate sentiments gradually gave way to more radical ones.

Calls began to be heard to overthrow the king and establish a republic. The National Assembly split, and the Parisians had to take power into their own hands. In August 1792, the sans-culottes marched to the Town Hall, established their rebel Commune and imprisoned the king. Under pressure from the new Commune, the National Assembly agreed to dissolve, and to adopt a new, already republican constitution, announced elections for a new Convention.

There is no doubt that the people's militia played an important role in the establishment of the republic, but at the same time they were responsible for one of the most brutal atrocities of the Revolution - the September massacres of 1792, during which about 1,200 people were brutally killed, prisoners of Parisian prisons ( Conciergerie, La Force and others).

Among those killed were rebellious priests and political prisoners, as well as Marie Antoinette's closest friend, Princess Lamballe. Later that month, the first meeting of the Convention was held, at which the monarchy was abolished, a republic was established, and the king was put on trial for treason.

Louis XVI was sentenced to death and in January 1793 he was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution (now Place de la Concorde). The execution of the king forced the royalists to unite both within France and beyond, and a vast military coalition was formed against revolutionary France. The Convention at this time was torn apart by internal contradictions; two main factions emerged in it: the Girondins and the more radical Jacobins.

The moderate Girondins gradually gave way, and as a result, in June 1793, this faction ceased to exist. The convention established military dictatorship and carried out his policies with the help of various bodies, including the National Security Committee, headed by Maximilien Robespierre.

Justifying its actions on grounds of public necessity, the National Security Committee began the physical destruction of “enemies of the people”; This period went down in the history of the Revolution under the name “Great Terror”. Among the first victims of the Terror was Queen Marie Antoinette, who calmly and with dignity ascended the guillotine in October 1793.

Over the next few months, about 2,600 more people were executed, including many moderate revolutionaries, such as Danton, who, going to his death, remained true to himself and uttered these proud words: “First of all, do not forget to show the people my head , because she deserves to be looked at.” Together with him, the romantic-idealist Camille Desmoulins ascended the scaffold, who on July 12, 1789, having climbed onto a table in a cafe in the Palais Royal, called on people to take up arms.

The Age of Terror ended in July 1794, when Robespierre, who had already proved himself a tyrant, was arrested by members of the Convention, who feared, not without reason, that the weapons of Terror might be directed against themselves, and then shared the fate of those people whom he condemned to death .?

After the end of the Terror, the country returned to a more moderate policy, and power was placed in the hands of a five-member Directory, which, unfortunately, showed weakness and a tendency to corruption. A period of instability ensued, during which there was constant fighting between royalists and revolutionaries. The ruling class needed a strong leader who would pass a constitution that would give more power to the executive branch.

And such a leader was found, he became General Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already proven himself to be an outstanding commander on the battlefields of Italy and Austria and easily suppressed the royalist rebellion in Paris in October 1795. In November 1799 Napoleon overthrew the Directory and thereby carried out a coup d'état. In 1802, Napoleon appointed himself First Consul for life, and in 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor of France.

More photos of the French Revolution here: Photo gallery