Sunday, Nov 30, 2014
- The Legislative Assembly: 1791-1792
- Factions in the Legislative Assembly
- Members of the Legislative Assembly sat together in separate sections of the meeting hall. The political terms right, center, and left are derived from this seating arrangement.
- Conservatives who supported the king made up the Right.
- Moderates comprised a large group in the Center.
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Radicals who distrusted the king and wanted the Revolution to continue sat to the left. The Left was divided into two groups:
- The Jacobins wanted to overthrow the monarchy and create a republic. Key Jacobin leaders included Jean-Paul Marat, Georges-Jacques Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre. It is important to note that Marquis de Lafayette was not a Jacobin.
- The Girondists wanted to wanted to involve France in a war that would discredit the monarchy and extend France’s revolutionary ideals across Europe.
- France Versus Austria and Prussia
- Leopold II of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz (August 1791) declaring that the restoration of absolutism in France was of “common interest to all sovereigns of Europe.”
- The Legislative Assembly declared war against Austria and Prussia in April 1792, thus beginning the War of the First Coalition.
- The war began badly for the poorly equipped French armies. By the summer of 1792, Austrian and Prussian armies were advancing towards Paris.
- The Second French Revolution
- Faced with defeat, recruits rushed to Paris signing the Marseillaise, a stirring appeal to save France from tyranny. The rejuvenated French forces stopped the Austro-Prussian army, thus saving the Revolution.
- During the summer of 1792, radicals called sans-culottes (literally “without breeches”) took control of the Paris Commune (city government). The revolutionary Paris Commune intimidated the Legislative Assembly into deposing Louis XVI and issuing a call for the election of a national convention. This new body would then form a more democratic government.
- Violence once again exploded in Paris. Convinced that royalists would betray the Revolution, mobs of sans-culottes executed over a thousand priests, bourgeoisie, and aristocrats. These ‘September massacres” marked the beginning of a second French Revolution dominated by radicals.
- The National Convention: 1792-1795
- The Execution of Louis XVI
- The newly elected National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared that France was now a republic.
- The National Convention then had to decide Louis XVI’s fate. The Girondists favored imprisonment while the Jacobins demanded that he be executed as a tyrant and a traitor.
- After a contentious debate, the National Convention passed a resolution condemning Louis XVI to death. The resolution passed by one vote.
- Supported by the sans-culottes, the Jacobins branded the Girondins as counterrevolutionaries and ousted them from the National Convention.
- European Reaction
- At first, European liberals supported the French Revolution and applauded the fall of the Old Regime.
- The English statesman Edmund Burke offered a conservative critique of the French Revolution. Burke warned that mob rule would lead to anarchy and ultimately military dictatorship. To many moderate Europeans, the September massacres and the execution of Louis XVI vindicated Burke’s dire predictions.
- Foreign and Domestic Threats
- England, Spain, Holland, and Sardinia joined Prussia and Austria to form the First Coalition. In spring of 1793, First Coalition armies converged on France.
- Internal strife also threatened the National Convention. Girondists and royalist Catholics rebelled against the tyranny of radical Jacobins.