French Revolution: Causes, Process, and Napoleon
The French Revolution
Causes:
On the one hand, there were bad harvests, which caused price hikes and popular discontent. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie was unhappy with their political marginalization, because only the privileged could hold positions of power and enjoy social recognition.
Meaning of the Revolution:
It was the first bourgeois revolution, with a liberal character. It established a new agricultural structure and provided an ideological reference point for all of Europe.
Revolutionary Process
Revolt of the Privileged:
The privileged refused to pay taxes. Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General. Part of the monarchy and the nobility did not accept national sovereignty, with one vote per person.
Estates-General:
The people stormed the Bastille and took up arms to defend the revolutionary process. They declared the rights of man and the abolition of feudal privileges.
Constituent Assembly:
The revolution had different stages:
- An attempt to convert France into a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy.
- Political liberalism – Separation of powers.
- National sovereignty.
- Legal equality.
Legislative Assembly:
New rules were drafted to ensure the equality of citizens. The National Guard was created. Church property was finally nationalized, which displeased the nobility, the clergy, and the monarchy. In 1791, the royal family’s opposition to the revolution was expressed following their flight from Paris (the Flight to Varennes).
The National Convention:
The Girondins called general elections for the new National Convention. The Convention undertook a lawsuit against the King and his wife, who were convicted and executed by guillotine. In 1793, inside the country, some counter-rebellions burst, and royalist conspiracies multiplied. In June 1793, the Jacobins arrested and seized power from the main Girondins. The executive power was in the hands of a Committee of Public Safety, with Robespierre concentrating all the power. The Republic organized an army, decreed conscription, and drove the politics of terror. The Committee of Public Safety approved a series of social laws, including price and wage controls (the Law of the Maximum). Through the coup of Thermidor, Robespierre and other Jacobins were toppled and executed.
Directory (Bourgeois Republic):
After the coup, the conservative bourgeoisie took control of the revolution. A new constitution was drawn up, restoring the census-based suffrage and legislative power in both houses (Council of Five Hundred and Council of Elders).
Napoleon
In 1799, Napoleon was appointed Consul, and his policy was geared to consolidate what had been achieved by the French Revolution while preventing the return of absolutism. He allowed the return of exiles who accepted the new order and signed a Concordat with the Church to establish religious peace. He conducted a centralist administrative reform with the creation of the figure of the prefect, who carried out the government’s orders to the provinces. A civil code was enacted, and the education system was reformed. In 1804, he was crowned emperor.
Napoleonic Wars:
Napoleon’s troops conquered much of Europe, including Spain. In all countries, revolutionary ideas were imposed: the abolition of seigneurial rights, enshrining freedom and legal equality, economic freedom, the right to property, and religious freedom.