The French Revolution, 1789-1799

175 Pages·2002·8.077 MB·English

by  Peter McPhee

On 14 July 1789 thousands of Parisians seized the Bastille fortress in Paris. This was the
most famous episode of the Revolution of 1789, when huge numbers of French people across
the kingdom successfully rebelled against absolute monarchy and the privileges of the
nobility. But the subsequent struggle over what social and political system should replace the
‘Old Regime’ was to divide French people and finally the whole of Europe.
The French Revolution is one of the great turning-points in history. It continues to
fascinate us, to inspire us, at times to horrify us. Never before had the people of a large and
populous country sought to remake their society on the basis of the principles of liberty and
equality. The drama, success and tragedy of their project have attracted students to it for more
than two centuries. Its importance and fascination for us are undiminished as we try to
understand revolutions in our own times.
There are three key questions this book investigates. First, why was there a revolution in
1789? Second, why did the Revolution continue after 1789, culminating in civil war, foreign
invasion and terror? Third, what was the significance of the Revolution? Was the French
Revolution a major turning-point in French, even world history, or instead just a protracted
period of violent upheaval and warfare which wrecked millions of lives?
Peter McPhee was appointed to a Personal Chair in History at the University of Melbourne in 1993. He has published
widely on the history of modern France, most recently Living the French Revolution 1789–1799 (London, 2006);
Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life (London, 2012); and Liberty or Death. The French Revolution (London, 2016). He was
the University of Melbourne’s first Provost in 2007–09. He became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012.
The French Revolution
Peter McPhee
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited
11–15 Argyle Place South, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
[email protected]
www.mup.com.au
First published 2014
Revised edition 2015
Second edition 2016
Revised Second edition 2017
Text © Peter McPhee, 2016
Design and typography © Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2016
This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written
permission of the publishers.
Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation
that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
McPhee, Peter, 1948– author.
The French revolution/Peter McPhee.
9780522870664 (ebook)
Includes index.
France—History—Revolution, 1789–1799.
France—Politics and government—1789–1799.
944.04
Contents
List of maps, tables, images and videos
1 France in the 1780s
2 The Revolution of 1789
3 Reform, Conflict, and a Second Revolution, 1789–1792
4 The Crisis of 1792–1793: War and Terror
5 Ending the Terror, Ending the Revolution, 1794–1799
6 The Significance of the French Revolution
Chronology
Further Reading
Index
List of maps, tables, images and videos
Maps
1. France—physical
2. European Empires in the Atlantic c1760
3. Pays d’élection and pays d’État in France, 1789
4. Tax and customs areas of France, 1789
5. Regions of law and language boundaries, France 1789
6. France, 1789: ecclesiastical
7. North America before 1754
8. North America in 1763
9. Revolutionary Paris
10. Currents of the Great Fear
11. Départements of France, 1800
12. The Clerical Oath, 1791
13. Zones of conflict 1793–1794
14. Priestly abdications, 1793–1794
15. Emigration in 1793
16. Executions, 1793–1794
17. Sister Republics under the Director
18. Political Societies, 1793–1794
19. Colonial Possessions c1780
20. Dates of independence
Maps drawn by Gavin Leys, University of Melbourne, information sourced from Peter
McPhee, The French Revolution 1789–1799, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (maps
1, 9, 16); Georges Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789, New York: Vintage Books, 1973 (map
10); Joel Cornette (ed.), Atlas de l’histoire de France 481-2005, Paris: Belin, 2012 (maps 3–
6, 11–15, 17); Paul S. Boyer (ed.), The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People,
Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1990 (maps 7, 8); ‘Political Evolution of Central America and
the Caribbean 1700 and on’ by Esemono (own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons
(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Political_Evolution_of_Central_America_and_the_Caribbean_1700_and_on.gif
(no. 2, 18, 19).
Tables
1. The Price of Wheat in France, 1709–1790
Table drawn by Gavin Leys, University of Melbourne, information sourced from Ernest
Labrousse, Esquisse du movement des prix et des revenus en France au XVIIIe siècle,
Paris: Librairie Dalloz, 1932
2. Depreciation of assignats during the revolutionary period
Table drawn by Gavin Leys, University of Melbourne, information sourced from Pierre
Caron (ed.), Tableaux de dépréciation du papier-monnaie, Paris: Imprimerie nationale,
1909
Images
1. Bas-relief, Port-Vendres, c1783
2. Maximilien Robespierre’s house, Arras, 1787–1789
3. The storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789
4. Marie-Anne Charpentier’s diary, Orléans, 1789
5. Stone image of the Bastille, 1790, Camps-sur-l’Agly
6. Plane tree, 1790, Tamniès
7. and 8. Bastille stone, 1790, St-Julien-du-Sault in Burgundy
9. The siege of the Tuileries palace and overthrow of the monarchy, 10 August 1792
10. Revolutionary plate, 1792
11. Statue honouring General Kellermann, battle of Valmy, 20 September 1792
12. Liberty tree, Villardebelle, 1792
13. Home of Charlotte Corday, Les Champeaux, near Écorches in Normandy
14. Physical destruction of religious statuary, Moulins
15. Note calling to clandestine celebration of the ‘holy sacraments’, western France, 1793–
1794
16. Inscription from the 1794 Cult of the Supreme Being, Houdan
17. Chapel of St-Cornélis, Spain
18. ‘Temple de la Nature’, near Sallanches, 1796
19. ‘Altar of the homeland’, Thionville, 1796
20. History and memory: Varennes
21. History and memory: Savenay
22. History and memory: Le Louroux
23. History and memory: Auray
24. History and memory: Vannes
25. Measuring distance, 1799
Videos
1. Peter McPhee interviews Professor Ian Germani, University of Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada, on the role of military discipline in the French Revolutionary Wars.
2. Peter McPhee interviews Dr Marisa Linton, Kingston University in London, about her
book, Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution, a
major study of the politics of Jacobinism.
3. Peter McPhee interviews Professor Timothy Tackett, University of California, Irvine, on
the origins of terror in the French Revolution.
Chapter 1
France in the 1780s
[1.1] Introduction
On 14 July 1789 thousands of Parisians seized the Bastille fortress in Paris, a towering
symbol of royal power in the heart of the popular neighbourhoods of eastern Paris. This was
the most famous episode of the French Revolution, when huge numbers of French people
across the kingdom successfully rebelled against absolute monarchy and the privileges of the
nobility. But the subsequent struggle over which social and political system should replace
the Ancien Régime (Old Regime) was to divide French people and eventually the whole of
Europe.
The French Revolution is one of the great turning-points in history. It continues to
fascinate us, to inspire us, at times to horrify us. Never before had the people of a large and
populous country sought to fundamentally remake their society on the basis of the principles
of liberty and equality. The drama, success and tragedy of their project has attracted students
to it for more than two centuries. Its importance and fascination are undiminished as we try
to understand revolutions in our own times.
There are three key questions that have exercised the minds of people ever since 1789.
First, why was there a Revolution at all? Ever since Parisians seized the Bastille people have
debated the origins and meaning of what had happened. Was the Revolution the result of the
monarchy’s bankruptcy and political ineptitude, or the eruption of long-term social change
and frustration, revolutionary ideas, or something else?
Second, why did the Revolution continue after 1789? The Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen, proclaimed in August of that year, was a revolutionary statement about
a radically different society that was now to be created. It was greeted enthusiastically.
However, in the years after 1789, people could not agree on the practical application of the
Declaration’s principles, driving the Revolution in new directions. Opponents of change
inside and outside France forced governments to take measures to preserve the Revolution
itself, culminating in the most controversial period of all, the ‘Terror’ of 1793–94.
Third, what was the significance of the Revolution? What were its outcomes? By the time
Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, how revolutionary had the changes been in
France? Did the protracted political instability of these years disguise a more fundamental
social and economic stability? Was the French Revolution a major turning-point in French,
even world, history, as its proponents claim, or instead just a protracted period of violent
upheaval and warfare that caused the premature deaths of many thousands of people and
wrecked millions of lives?
[1.2] Some Essentials of Eighteenth-century France
France is the largest country in Europe outside Russia, a land of great geographic contrasts:
from mountains—Mont Blanc in the Alps, at 4800 metres of altitude; the Pyrenees at 3000
metres—to the plains of the Paris Basin, and the rugged landscape of the Massif Central.
Tourists today relish the diversity of the French landscape, but the contrasting topography of
this sprawling country was to pose great challenges for the leaders of the Revolution in
communicating with distant towns and villages.1
Map 1 France—physical