French Revolution When historians and others engage in discussion on the French Revolution, they begin with discussions about why the people of France became unhappy and began rioting, bringing about a violent end to France's royal family and many members of nobility on August10, 1789 (Gough 2007 373)
A revolution is not just about deposing a ruler or a despot to replace with another whether that other is Church or State. The events that occurred following August 4, 1789, and the events that precipitated the night of August 4, 1789, are matters of religion and politics, and how the French Revolution went terribly wrong (Schwab 1995 221)
"The republic, once it was Montagnard, became a religion; it had its martyrs and its saints (Aulard 125). The Constitution of the Clergy was intended to deal with what the revolutionaries perceived to be a dangerous situation that they were faced with (Thompson 1952 22)
¶ … origins of the French revolution According to historian Steven Kreis, "the causes of the French Revolution are complicated, so complicated that a debate still rages among historians regarding origins, causes and results. In general, the real causes of the Revolution must be located in the rigid social structure of French society during the ancien regime" (Kreis 2000)
37). This politicization of all aspects of function and life created ambiguities in administering new laws, as was the case in Dijon, France, when Frederic-Henri Richard de Ruffey was executed on a technicality, and, as it turned out, the rights fought for in the Revolution did not apply to holding off sending de Ruffey to the gallows until the discrepancy could be resolved (Baker, 2005)
" At the forefront of regeneration was the economic disparity that existed between the elite and the working poor, who had been taxed in support of King Louis XVI's military campaigns and his extensive court holdings. The French Revolution brought about the liberation of the peasantry, enabling the peasant to take ownership of the lands that they had worked to sustain the monarchy (Soboul, 988)
¶ … French Revolution: Giving and Taking Freedom The French Revolution occurred during a time when Europe was experiencing a number of social, economic, political and philosophical changes (Troyansky, Cismaru, Andrews, Jr
Of 1792 the radicals, led by Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and the Duke of Orleans, seized control of the government and created the "Committee of Public Safety," an organization which gave themselves dictatorial powers. (Kennedy 1989, 299) These radicals felt that the old revolutionary government had not gone far enough to transform French society; and this was the cause of all the problems
¶ … Enlightenment and the French Revolution: What Went Wrong (Chicago Style: Author-Date) The "Age of Reason" also known as the "Enlightenment," was the 18th century's attempt to break out of the self imposed restrictions of society and create something better. (Rosner 2000, 251-253) Beginning with the writings of John Locke in the mid-1600's, a new idea had begun to take root: that man could, through his reason, create better social structures
Anyone who disagreed was considered to be an enemy of the people, an enemy of the Enlightenment, an enemy of the Revolution, and a danger to France. (Viault 1990, 190) The result was the deaths of more than 16,000 French citizens in a wave of senseless violence that still disturbs people
In 1762, Rouseau wrote The Social Contract, which laid the philosophical groundwork for the Revolution by attempting to formulate a new social structure which would reconcile the freedom of the people with the government's need for order. (Wilson 2004, 559-560) And these ideas were spread across France, and the rest of Europe, with the publication of The Encyclopedia, beginning in 1751
In its more radical, Jacobin phase, the Revolution also abolished slavery in the French Empire and granted equal citizenship rights to blacks, which had never before occurred in Western history. One of the most important accomplishments of the French Revolution and its ideas was to undermine the idea of caste systems, slavery, serfdom and traditional hierarchies of every kind all over the world (Balibar and Wallerstein 1991)
This established another pattern that was widely imitated in Europe in the decades ahead of separating the state from the church, emancipating the Jews and guaranteeing equal rights to all individuals, although conservatives strongly opposed this (Hunt: 16). Edmund Burke and other conservatives dismissed the idea of universal human rights and "metaphysical abstractions" and a threat to order and stability, which indeed they were (Freeman 32)
Liberals and radicals in Europe, and increasingly the rest of the world, always recognized that the French Revolution was somehow uniquely theirs, especially in its attempt to end feudalism, state-supported churches, and the entrenched privileges of monarchs and aristocracies. It led to an expansion of commerce, industry, science and public education, and also created a new class of small farmers who owned land (Furet 35)
Conservatives who opposed the French Revolution, especially supporters of the monarchy and the Catholic Church, continued to oppose it throughout the 19th Century and up to the time that they helped establish Vichy France after the defeat of 1940. They were always hostile to the republic and its liberal-democratic ideas and preferred a corporatist or authoritarian state, and for this reason opposed the revolutions of 1830, 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871 (Hobsbawm 131)
Even in the early phases of the French Revolution, equal citizenship rights were granted to the Protestant and Jewish minorities in France for the first time in history. This established another pattern that was widely imitated in Europe in the decades ahead of separating the state from the church, emancipating the Jews and guaranteeing equal rights to all individuals, although conservatives strongly opposed this (Hunt: 16)
It seemed to establish the dynamic of the revolutionary wave that affects many countries at once with a common cause and shared ideas, which is still playing out during the Arab Spring of the present day. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the traditional monarchs and aristocracies of Europe attempted to prevent any such wave in the future and turn back the clock to 1788, but they failed in the long run (Ishay 330)
German philosophers like Hegel admired the French Revolution for creating a modern nation state, although Germany was not united by liberal or democratic methods but the 'blood and iron' policies of Otto von Bismarck. For Hegel, though, no isolated individuals existed in the abstract sense, since they were always part of a family, community and nation, sharing in a common culture (Smith 224)
This land reform aspect of the French Revolution is often overlooked, but it has been a standard feature in most revolutions since that time, including Russia, China, Cuba and Vietnam. It influenced all future revolutions by also abolishing feudal titles, hereditary offices, exemptions and privileges, and by declaring that all citizens had equal rights under the law, and created a new type of citizen who actually had a duty to rebel against the state in the name of human rights (Souillac 169)
Bands of mob peasants took to streets and attacked the upper French class destroying their properties. In summer of 1789, some months before women's long march to Versailles, members of National Assembly and nobles worked out a plan for the uprisings in a late night meeting (Hazen, 2013, p