French Revolution Presentation (Low Res)

“ Omelettes Are Not Made Without Breaking Eggs…” The Tumultuous Course of the French Revolution in Pictures

Overview: Stages of the Revolution

First Revolution (1789 – 1792)

Formation of the National Assembly

Reactions in the countryside (“Great Fear”)

France as a constitutional monarchy

Harassment of the royal family

War with Austria

Second Revolution (1792 – 1794)

Election of the National Convention

Declaration of the Republic

Jacobin-Girondist disputes

Execution of the king

Reign of Terror

War with the rest of Europe

Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory (1794 – 1799)

Napoleon seizes control (1799 onward)

Pre-Revolution France A Dismal Economy and Rigid Social Division

Social Class Structure

French society and government had sharply-defined class structure

First Estate—the clergy

Second Estate—the nobility

Third Estate—all other groups

Urban middle class and bureaucratic “nobility of the robe”

Urban artisans

Rural peasantry

Not all members of classes shared interests

Attitudes of the Lower Classes The representation of the peasant as a pack-animal was a common motif for portraying the oppressed status of the Third Estate. This cartoon is critical of the monarchy, nobility, and clergy for their unjust treatment of the peasantry.

Fears of the Upper Classes While obviously created after the start of the Revolution (as indicated by the presence of the Bastille in the background) and somewhat anti-elitist in its point of view, this image represents the legitimate fear the upper classes held of revolt among the lower classes, and the violence that would ensue. (Note the weapons in the foreground and the anger on the face of the figure in red.)

The First Revolution The National Assembly and the Limited Monarchy

Calling of the Estates General This cartoon reflects the optimism and hope for unity preceding the meeting of the Estates General in May 1789. All three estates are represented in the image.

Oath of the Tennis Court The Third Estate and its supporters declare themselves the National Assembly and swear their commitment to the revolutionary cause. Note the presence of figures from each of the three estates in the foreground.

The Revolution Crystallizes: Storming of the Bastille On July 14, 1789, a group of disgruntled urban artisans attacked and seized the Bastille, a symbolic military stronghold and prison, from its garrison. The event greatly heartened the revolutionaries in Paris and represented a major moral blow to the royal order.

Revolt in the Countryside: The Great Fear Inspired by the example of the Bastille, peasants in rural France seized, ransacked, and pillaged the property of the nobility. Here flames spew from the windows of a manor house, noble families are seen on the road to a safer area, and peasants in the foreground batter their way through a lord’s door.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen The National Assembly issued its statement of belief on August 27, 1789. This document embodied liberal Enlightenment ideals. Here it is represented on two tablets, obviously to invoke a connection to the authority of the Ten Commandments, although the God looking down is not Jehovah but the deist Masonic eye.

Enthusiasm of the Third Estate This cartoon is a triumphant, if exaggerated, response to the developments of 1789. The back-riding motif, the game from a hunt (a privilege the nobility had restricted), and the scales of justice in the hands of the clergyman indicate an almost smugly optimistic attitude.

A Bread Revolt and the Capture of the Royal Family On the fifth of October 1789, a group of Parisian women formed a mob and marched on Versailles to take their complaints to the queen. At left is a somewhat idealized image of the marchers; at right, the captured royal family enters Paris amidst a large procession.

A New Constitution and the Limiting of the Monarchy In this image, dated September 17, 1791, shows the king accepting the new constitution drafted by the National Assembly. This represented the culmination of the legislative body’s seizure of power, as the king was left largely without real political power.

France Under the New Constitution Here, in a portrayal of the distribution of political power in early-revolutionary France, a commoner is “weighed” for entrance to the circles of power. This cartoon takes a skeptical stance on the reality of political equality in France. A commoner slices the fingers off of a clergyman, representing the takeover of church property by the state. This particular cartoon is also skeptical, as it shows an opportunistic nobleman taking the clergyman’s gloves (symbolic of authority) behind the back of the commoner.

Attitudes Toward the Monarchy Though the monarchy was certainly no friend to most revolutionaries, it remained intact, if threatened, during the first phase of the revolution. This pro-monarchy portrait places Louis XVI beside the marquis de Lafayette, attempting to connect the royalist and revolutionary causes. Another pro-monarchy cartoon extols Louis XVI as an ally in the fight against aristocratic dominance. Note the imagery of the Bastille.

The Second Revolution The Declaration of the Republic, the Execution of the King, and the Radical Tide

Radical Revolutionary Ideals At left, the dignified feminine forms portray the four pillars of the Revolution: “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”, and “Reason.” These were the values than, in theory, guided the second phase of the Revolution, although reality sometimes proved different.

Radical Revolutionary Attitudes Toward Social Class These somewhat-propagandist images indicate the social mores of the revolutionaries: veneration of the workingman, the sans-cuotte (at left); and resent for the aristocracy (at right), who now might have to condescend to the displeasure of walking rather than riding a carriage.

The September Massacres After the election of a new National Assembly, a growing radical sentiment led to mob raids on prisons and the massacre of thousands of counter-revolutionary prisoners in September 1792.

Redefinitions of Culture An increasingly radical revolutionary movement sought to destroy all the remnants of traditional French culture with ties to the Ancien Regime . This image illustrates the Festival of the Supreme Being, part of the new deistic civic religion being promoted by radicals.

Growing Animosity Towards the Monarchy These images reflect the growing popular hatred for the monarchy. Here Louis XVI is caricatured as a pig, and Mary Antoinette as a lascivious serpent. The implications are clear.

“ Old Regime”-er or Revolutionary? The growing urban unrest and radicalism in Paris put increasing pressure on Louis XVI to comply with the revolutionaries. Here he is shown after being seized in 1792—obviously powerless at the hands of the mob, who is attempting to put on him a symbolic revolutionary cap.

The Beheading of the King Popular distaste for the king, and accusations of treason for his attempted flight in 1791, reached their climax in his execution in January 1793. The event marked the defeat (for a time) of a last symbol of real conservatism.

Robespierre and the Reign of Terror The new assembly called in 1792 became embroiled in dispute between the radical Jacobins and the more moderate Girondists. The extreme wing, the Mountain, of the Jacobin faction eventually took control under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre (at left). In the face of urban unrest over bread prices, the need to maintain a costly war effort, and general disorder, he implemented the strict policies known as “the Reign of Terror.” At right is a tribunal from the time.

Document: Beginning of the Terror

“… Legislators, the immense gathering of citizens who assembled yesterday and today in the Commune building, and in the square outside it, passed only one resolution, which is brought to you by a delegation. It is: Food, and to get it, strength for the law . As a result, we are charged with demanding the creation of the revolutionary army which you have already decreed but which the guilty, through plotting and fear, have aborted. [Unanimous applause breaks out several times.] Let this army form its core in Paris immediately, and from every department through which it passes, let all men join who want a republic united and indivisible. Let an incorruptible and formidable tribunal follow this army, as well as that deadly tool which, with a single stroke, ends both the conspiracies and the days of their authors. Let this tribunal be tasked with making avarice and cupidity cough up the wealth of the land, that inexhaustible wet nurse of all children. Let it bear the following words on its standards, which shall be its constant order: Peace to men of good will; war on those who would starve people; protection for the weak; war on tyrants; justice; and no oppression…. the immense number of true patriots, of sans-culottes who have crushed their enemies a hundred times, still exists [and] is ready to take action. We only need to know how to lead them, and once again they will confound and foil all conspiracies…”

Minutes of the Meeting of the National Convention

5 September 1793

War against…Everyone Else Crusader-esque nationalist and revolutionary zeal led the French to engage the whole of the European continent, plus Britain, in warfare. This piece of propaganda produced by the Committee of Public Safety caricatures the English forces as jugbound oafs being defecated upon by French soldiers.

European Reactions These cartoons, both English, lampoon the French radicals as uncivilized, coarse, bloodthirsty, immoral, and backwards, a contrast to the relatively peaceful constitutionalism of the British Isles. The events of the Terror could have supported such a conclusion.

The Thermidorian Reaction and Napoleon The End of Robespierre, the Establishment of the Directory, and the Rise of Napoleon

Execution of Robespierre Victim of his own policies and a conspiracy in the Convention, Robespierre was executed on July 28, 1794, marking the end of the Reign of Terror.

Establishment of the Directory

“ EXECUTIVE POWER

The Executive Power shall be delegated to a Directory of five members appointed by the Legislative Body, which for such purpose performs the functions of an electoral body, in the name of the nation.

The Council of Five-Hundred shall prepare, by secret ballot, a list of ten times the number of members of the Directory to be appointed, and shall present it to the Council of Elders, which shall choose, also by secret ballot, from said list.”

Constitution of 1795

Backlash Against the Terror The period of the Thermidorian Reaction and Directory witnessed a backlash against the revolutionary extremism of the previous three years. In some cases, as in the illustration above, this meant a return to social pleasures.

Napoleon’s March to Power Napoleon began his career as a member of the revolutionary militia, earning notoriety for putting down riots in Paris. By 1797 he had become a successful general and in 1799 staged a coup that overthrew the Directory and made him sole ruler of France.