French Revolution: history, causes and characteristics

We explain what the French Revolution was, its causes and consequences. Its social organization and revolutionary groups.

The French Revolution was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism.

What was the French Revolution?

The French Revolution was a process of social and political transformations that began in 1789 and ended around 1799. It began as an uprising led by bourgeois, noble and popular sectors against the absolutist monarchy and against the privileges of the nobility in France. Over the years, it developed into a period of violent conflicts not only against the supporters of absolutism, but also between different factions within the revolutionary camp.

The French Revolution was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalismas well as due to economic and social circumstances, and had such a political and ideological impact that it influenced revolutionary episodes in other countries (such as in Latin America) and is usually considered the beginning of the Contemporary Age.

Among the notable events of the French Revolution are the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the drafting of a Constitution and the establishment of a republic. Also important were the formation of political clubs, the implementation of measures contrary to noble and clerical privileges, and the wave of violence that led to the decapitation of the king (Louis XVI) and the queen (Marie Antoinette).

French society before the revolution

The First and Second Estates made up only 3% of the French population.

Before the revolution broke out, French society was composed of three estates called states:

• First state. It was made up of the clergy, both high (of noble origin) and low (of commoner origin). He did not pay taxes and received a tithe or contribution from the peasants, which consisted of 10% of their crops. Teaching was taught and controlled by the Church, which could also censor publications.
• Second state. It was made up of the nobility, who owned land and whose privileges were hereditary. He also did not pay taxes and received, instead, lordly taxes from the peasants. He also held courtly and administrative positions.
• Third state. Also called the “plain state,” it was made up of the bourgeoisie (merchants, bankers, professionals, intellectuals), the peasantry (small landowners, tenants or day laborers) and the urban artisans (sometimes grouped into guilds). They paid taxes and lacked power and political rights.

The first and second estates made up a privileged caste that represented approximately 3% of the population. The third estate represented around 97% of the population, but he had to support the other two states with his taxes. However, the third estate lacked representation to decide on tax policy, since the Estates General (assemblies convened by the king so that the three estates could give their opinion separately on tax matters) had not been convened since 1614.

The political organization before the revolution

The social and political order of France before the revolution was called the Ancien Régime.In addition to being divided into three estates or states, the Ancien Régime was organized into an absolute monarchy whose king, Louis XVI, concentrated political power and governed “by divine right,” legitimized by the high clergy.

Court and administrative positions were generally held by sectors of the high nobility. Louis XVI, together with the queen consort, Marie Antoinette, and the courtiers, made samples of opulence from his palace in Versailleswhile the common people had to support the nobility, the clergy and the monarchy with their taxes.

The bourgeoisie (which made up the third estate) generally had intellectual education, was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism, and held economic power. For this reason, he aspired to gain political influence to decide on fiscal matters and, finally, undermine the privileges of the nobility, replace absolutism with democratic forms of government and promote their economic activities to the detriment of the feudal structures of the Old Regime. The peasants and the urban plebs, on whom the greatest tax burden fell, also aspired to social change.

Causes of the French Revolution

The causes that triggered the French Revolution were multiple. Among them, the following stand out:

• Changes in the social structure. The society of the Ancien Régime was still largely tied to feudalism, a system implemented since the Middle Ages in which the nobles owned land worked by day laborers or usufructuaries. There were also manorial rights by which the nobles could collect taxes and tolls from peasants and small landowners, and the Church collected a tithe.
  But urban life and the expansion of trade accelerated the growth of a new economic elite, made up of merchants, bankers and professionals (the bourgeoisie), who began to aspire to political rights. The presence of artisans and humble sectors in the city also increased, and they were sometimes able to receive education and participate politically by reading newspapers or attending clubs. In the countryside, the traditional techniques and technologies of feudalism prevented adaptation to the growing demand for food.
• Population growth. French society had achieved a better quality of life, even among the lower classes, who in some cases had access to education. The reduction in the mortality rate and the increase in life expectancy led to a significant increase in the population, which in 1789 reached 26 million inhabitants, making France the most populated country in Europe. The growing demand for food became difficult to satisfy, especially when a poor harvest affected the countryside in 1789.
• The spread of enlightened thought. In those years, a cultural and intellectual movement called Enlightenment gained strength, which considered that the only way to explain the world was the use of reason, which allowed the truth to be “illuminated” where the darkness of religious orthodoxy had previously prevailed.
  The ideas of the Enlightenment (such as the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire or Rousseau) influenced bourgeois sectors, and even nobles, who questioned the “divine right” to govern that absolute monarchs (such as Louis XVI) arrogated to themselves. In exchange, they proposed balanced mechanisms of government, based on the division of powers, the legal formulation of rights and obligations, and the principle of national sovereignty.
• The economic crisis. Between 1788 and 1789, an economic crisis worsened as a result of two events: the debt incurred by the French crown as a result of its participation in the American War of Independence (1775-1783), which deepened the financial problems that the kingdom was already experiencing; and a succession of frosts and poor harvests, especially in 1788 and 1789. This generated food shortages, increased prices for flour and bread, a decrease in commercial activity, impoverishment, unemployment and social unrest. The king attempted to increase the tax burden but was forced to call the Estates General, with representation from the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate.

The beginning of the French Revolution

On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris took the Bastille fortress by force.

When the Estates General met at Versailles in May 1789, representatives of the third estate and the nobility demanded changes to the voting system, but these were rejected. On June 17, The representatives of the Third Estate proclaimed themselves the National Assembly.which represented an institutional challenge to the monarchy.

The king ordered the room where the National Assembly met to be closed, so it moved to a ball field and its members swore to remain united until a Constitution was proclaimed. They were joined by some nobles and members of the lower clergy. Shortly after, they formed a National Constituent Assembly.

The king mobilized troops in Paris and Versailles, and decided to dismiss his finance minister, Jacques Necker, considering him too tolerant of the third estate. On July 14, 1789, The people of Paris reacted to these events by taking to the streets to support the National Constituent Assembly.. In a confrontation that lasted a few hours, he managed to take the Bastille, a Parisian fortress that functioned as a prison and armory, and which was also a symbol of the monarchy.

This episode was replicated with uprisings loyal to the National Constituent Assembly in different parts of France, burning of titles that enshrined seigneurial rights in rural areas, the abolition of feudal privileges (August 4) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26)For this reason, July 14 became the symbolic date of the beginning of the French Revolution, and since 1880 it has been commemorated as the National Holiday of France.

The stages of the French Revolution

Among the main revolutionary groups were the Jacobins and the Girondists.

The revolutionary process lasted approximately ten years and went through different stages:

• The National Constituent Assembly (1789-1791). During this period, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was promulgated, the civil constitution of the clergy was established (along with other measures contrary to the privileges of the Church), and the discussion began to draft a Constitution. Two tendencies were distinguished in the assembly, which were…