French Revolution

The French Revolution: The Europe of the XVIII century was living an age of great changes with the industrial revolution in its first steps. While England made the most of those advances, France was having hard times not only economically but also politically and in the society. New ideas were emerging with the Enlightenment which proclaimed the equality of the people and that they have inalienable rights. Besides it was necessary the separation of the church and the State as well as a constitution that ruled the country. That is to say, the overthrow of the Ancient Regime was a strong need. During the period 1787-1789 France was living on the edge of revolution. Several problems coincided at the same time whereupon France found herself hopelessly, lost and stuck. The first of the problems was that the French government was bankrupt due to the costly wars. This, together with the over spending of the king and the queen, left the country without any money for the people. The bad harvest was another important problem. The severe weather like heavy rains and hard winters as well as the too hot summers caused very poor harvest in France leaving the people starved. On the other hand,King Louis XVI called the States General in Versailles where the nobles and the clergy denied to pay taxes in spite of the bad situation of the country. As the peasants problems were not considered at the Estates General, they decided to gather in a National Assembly to draw up a constitution. The problem was that they would not leave the Royal tennis Court until King Louis agreed to meet their demands. During that period France was divided principally into three states which had huge differences among them. The most numerous as well as unfavorable ones were the peasants who were forced to do military service, had to pay taxes and even lived in awful conditions with low incomes. As regards the nobility, they had huge privileges and almost complete authority over peasants. They were exempt from taxes and from doing military service, as well. Nobility had a luxurious way of living thanks to tax collection.Similarly, the clergy, the minority of the population, lived comfortably in great palaces and in chateaux. That is to say, not only the first state ( the clergy) but also the second one (the nobility), both lived at expense of the third state (the peasants). It was evident that the situation got out of control and the King Louis had no clear idea how to deal with it. The annoying people captured the King and his family after the National Assembly on 5-6th October, 1789. Then he pretended the role of a constitutional monarch so he signed decrees from the Assembly. In an attempt for a solution, Marie-Antoinette wrote to the king of Prussia, Spain and Sweden as well as the emperors of Austria and Russia to suggest an alliance to bring to an end the revolution. Not finding a solution, Louis tried to escape to Montmedy but he and his family found some problems in the way. Louis was recognised on the route and a crowd prevented his coach from proceeding. On June 22th they were brought back to Paris and a National Assembly decided to keep Louis as a constitutional monarch. Finally, on 30th September, 1791, the Assembly declared his work done after having proclaiming a Constitution and Louis having sworn an oath of loyalty. The revolution was certainly end. However, one day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. After King Louis being sent to the guillotine, France became a huge chaos. Thousand of people were killed for considered them traitors or anti-revolutionaries. Many peasants revolted against the radical Jacobin government and the period called “The Terror” began. Because of the inestability of France, several emergency measures were taken so a Committee of Public Safety was established by the Convention. This Committee allowed the revolution to be developed. To defend the revolution against enemies, suspects were convicted for any kind of evidence and, what is more, the penalty was death. It is unthinkable to estimate how many people were executed because more than 12.000 were officially guillotined and many more were shot, drowned or shot by a cannon fire. Those who faced tribunal were severely treated. Weary for so many murders, people blamed the leader of the Committee, Robespierre, for all the awful incidents during the Reign of terror. He was arrested and imprisoned being guillotined later on july 28th. To conclude, the revolution ended with the absolutism tough a constitutional monarchism started to rule France similarly driven but under a constitution. Concerning to peasants, they revealed against the regime violently killing people which, in a way, was similar with what the higher states did with them, that is, starving the people. Finally, Robespierre encouraged the use of the guillotine which was what ironically ended with his life in 1794.