HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha

French Revolution
Phases:
1. Political Deadlock to Estate General.
2. Estate’s General to Fall of Bastille.
3. Fall of Bastille to National Assembly.
4. National Assembly to National Convention.
5. National Convention to Rise of Napoleon.

1. Phase I:
Political Deadlock to Estate General:
Sending Military assistance to America was a mistake done by Louis XVI
which created big trouble for him in the form of financial bankruptcy as he
tried to impose new taxes on the people. People stood up with their demand
of Political changes in France. Louis XVI aware about the fate of the king of
England refused to listen to the people creating political deadlock in France.
He took two steps to overcome the crisis:
a. Appointed Turgot as his Finance Minister to handle the issue and Turgot
made big claims i.e. no new taxes, no more loans, and no financial
bankruptcy.
Turgot paid the price of his dareness and was immediately dismissed.
b. Invitation to Lonto Bill: the organization of Aristocracy but it out rightly
refused to help the king and the state.
In this scenario, Louis XVI adopted the last resort of force among the
people which led to the beginning of riots in different parts of France
with people demanding invitation of Estates General.

2. Phase II:
Estate’s General to Fall of Bastille:
a. What was Estate’s General?
i. General Assembly of France to discuss essential matters including
taxation.
ii. Assembly had 3 sections:
Group of Clergy

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HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha
Nobles
Common people
iii. The voting pattern of this assembly was Majority of Groups.

b. People were demanding invitation of Estate General and Louis XVI with his
hidden agenda invited Estate’s General which proved disastrous for Louis
XVI and feudal setup in France because:
 The people of 3rd Estate (common man) were hyper enthusiastic to
participate in Estate’s General so large number of people from different parts
of France starting moving towards Paris.
 Common people made the demand of change in voting pattern. They wanted
representation on the basis of population ratio and also the provision of “One
Person, One Vote”. This irritated the plans of Louis XVI and he again
committed the mistake of closing the door of Assembly Hall.

In reaction to this step of Louis XVI people gathered in the tennis court in front
of Assembly Hall and declared themselves as National Representatives. So the
important outcome of invitation to Estate’s General was formation of National
Assembly in France by itself. This Assembly aspired to frame the New
Constitution for France. Louis XVI took 2 steps which changed the course of
history in France:

 Dismissal of Neeker advisor of King and sympathizer of common people

because he gave the idea of change in voting pattern i.e. One Person, One
Vote.
 He started gathering troops in Paris and both these steps were the message to
the common people that the king is in the mood to suppress the voice of the
common people. This led to the famous incident of Fall of Bastille on 14th
July 1789.

3.Phase III
Fall of Bastille to National Assembly:
Note: Bastille was a fort cum prison and people attacked it with 2 Objectives:
o To release political prisoners.
o To gather arms and ammunition to give resistance to the royal troops in case

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HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha
king takes the step of suppressing people. But Fall of Bastille was not only
the Fall of a Fort; it was the beginning of French Revolution because:
a. Direct Action: the 1st important outcome of Fall of Bastille was direct action
in France under which people got the message of Fall of Bastille, they stood

up against the existing feudal order in different parts of France and their
main target was Manors of Feudal Lords.
b. Formation of National Guards: when Louis XVI started gathering
the troops in Paris, 7000 men and women in Paris formed People’s
Militia which later turned into National Guards and its commands
was given to National Assembly. In this was army came under the
command of National Assembly and it became the power centre in
France.
c. Beginning of Modern Administration: during this period, Paris
was the centre and shelter for outsiders from different parts of
France and state was in confusion so the people in France formed
“Municipal Corporation” of Paris to manage the city. This was the
beginning of Modern Administration in France.
d. Victory for Common People: Fall of Bastille proved to be victory
for common people against aristocracy and autocracy. As National
Army came under the control of National Assembly so National
Assembly came out with the new Constitution of 1791. The
important features of this Constitution were:
i. Constitutional Monarchy: Under it following developments
takes place:
 Ring became the Nominal Head of state having right
to appoint and transfer his officials and Ministers.
 All the crucial decisions of the state were to be taken
by Legislative Assembly which had 745 members.
 The members of the Legislative Assembly were
elected by indirect elections. In this indirect election
French citizens were divided into 2 parts Active and
Passive Citizens. In this the taxpaying section or the

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HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha
active citizens were to form Electoral College and
Electoral College elected the members of Legislative
Assembly.
ii. France moved towards the path of Secularism as under the
Law of Clergy religion was subordinated to the state. Priest
were appointed and paid by the state and Pope became the
Nominal Religious Head of Sate.

iii. The most important part of this Constitution was Human

and Civil Rights declaration and Welfare activities of the
state. Human and Civil rights provided Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity to the people which included Freedom of
Speech, Judicial Rights etc. and under welfare activities the
important step was National Educational Council. This
established state run school and women education was
made compulsory.
iv. Under Economic Policy, National Assembly opted for
Mixed Economy. They also introduced new currency in
France called Assignats and also the Nationalization of
lands which was snatched away from feudal lords and
church. In this way National Assembly by this Constitution
laid the formation of Modern France but thin constitution
instead of creating peace and stability increased crisis in
France.

The Constitution of 1791 was ideal but it was not suitable to the France of
1790’s because France was still weak, backward, traditional and feudal. This
Constitution instead of giving smoothness to revolution increased conflict
and confusion in different sections of France. Example:

 The king and Nobility were shocked by the immediate loss of Power.
 Subordination of Religion and Pope was disliked by orthodox
catholic section of France.

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HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha
 Human Rights declaration was a good step but it remained simply as
a declaration and promotion to welfare activities including women
education was the tension for feudal mentality of France. Therefore,
tension increased in France and in this scenario the two
developments gave a new turn to French revolution.

Louis XVI tried to escape from France and in this monarchy lost moral
status in France and constitution of 1791 became invalid.

Pillnitz Declaration in which important European countries under the

leadership of Austria declared war against France. The objective was to
save Royal Family but the hidden agenda was to crush National
Assembly which had become the threat for existing Monarchial
structure system in Europe. This lead to National Convention to decide
the future of France.

4. Phase IV:
National Assembly to National Convention:

Constitutional Republic: National Convention came out with a new

Constitution whose important features were:

 Constitutional Republic in France: Under it Directory came into

existence. It had 5 members each member having tenure of 1 year in
office and every member got the time period of 3 months to be in the
first council. Along with this 2 houses were formed Upper House and
Lower House. Proposal was to be made in upper house but it can be
only passed by lower house. Adult franchise was introduced in
France as people above 21 years of age got the right to vote.
 The new Constitution under National Convention turned France into
a secular state as it declared that religion is the personal affair of the
individual. In this case religion lost complete support of the state.
 Human and civil rights plus welfare activities were maintained. The
new development was interference of state in the personal life of the
people. Example: dress code for citizens.

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HISTORY By Awadh P Ojha
 In Economic Policy emphasis on Communism which was evident
because of the following steps:
 Fixed the wages of labor and prices of goods in France.
 Rationing of meat and bread.
 Capitalist were declared as criminals.

The Second Constitution increased the atmosphere of tension in France.

Constitutional republic was a good option but directory was not given the
ample time to deal with the crisis of France. Secularism was a noble idea but
again irritating for the large catholic population of France. Interference in
personal life also became the cause for frustration and overall condition
became very critical in France. In this situation National Convention got
divided into number of groups like Girondists who were liberal in nature,
Jacobins or the hardliners and in this critical situation power came in the
hand of cold blooded Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre who
established Reign of Terror in France (1793-94). The important steps of this
leader were:

o Emphasis on Communism
o Abolition of slavery
o Suppression of women rights
o Guillotine i.e. elimination of rivals by sending them to the killing
machine called Guillotine.

The important victims of Robespierre were Jean Paul, Marat, Danton,

Oylmpe de Goughas – women right activist. Within a week he killed
5000 people in France. In this way he not only increased confusion and
conflict in France, he also created intellectual void in France. The
outcome of this situation was Napoleon Bonaparte who took the
advantage of the situation and became the Emperor of France in 1804
when entire nation was fighting against Monarchy.

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