French Revolution Research Paper

The French Revolution started in 1789 and ended with the rise of Napoleon. The third estate, which made up 98% of the population, demanded a reform of the Estates-General where they were always outvoted and refused to leave a tennis court until it happened. While this was happening, chaos erupted in the capital. On July 14, rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to secure weaponry. This is noted as the beginning of the revolution. Peasants began to burn and loot houses belonging to tax collectors, landlords, and the elite which lead to the abolishment of feudalism on August 4, 1789. On August 4, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which claimed that the Assembly was committed to replacing

the ancien régime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government. They had a hard time settling on an official constitution, but eventually on September 3, 1791, France’s first written constitution was adopted. It established a constitutional monarchy in which the king enjoyed royal veto power and the ability to appoint ministers.

This did not please influential radicals like Maximilien de Robespierre, who began to try to attain popular support for a more republican form of government and the trial of Louis XVI. In April 1792, war was declared on Austria and Prussia, because the believed that counter revolutionaries were conspiring against them there and also, hoped to spread the ideals through warfare. A group led by extremist Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the King on August 10, 1792. The following month the monarchy was abolished and the French Republic was established. On January 21, 1793, it sent King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against the state, to the guillotine; Marie-Antoinette suffered the same fate nine months later. In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the Girondins and put in place a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity. This began the Reign of Terror, a 10-month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the

thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, 1794.

His death marked the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction in which the French people revolted against the Reign of Terror’s excess. On August 22, 1795, the National Convention approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature. Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte. The Directory only lasted four years. During these, they were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, political corruption. By the late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had gave most of their power to the generals. On November 9, 1799, Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s first consul. The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental

Europe.
Napoleon was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica. His family was part of the Corsican nobility, but the family was not wealthy. He went on to graduate from a French military academy in 1785. He then became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army. During the early years of the revolution, Napoleon was on leave from the military. He became affiliated with the Jacobins while at home in Corsica during this time. After a clash with Pasquale Paoli, his family fled to France. It's time for super speed. Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks and eventually staged coup d’état after which he crowned himself emperor. He waged war against the other European nations and built an empire before he was exiled.