A Beginner's Guide to the French Revolution: Part Three

In the third part of A Beginner's Guide to the French Revolution, we will explore the first phase of Revolutionary activity, in which a revolutionary government was established in France and the Old Order was swept away. As you recall, in the first and second parts we discussed the Old Order and how discontent toward it drove many members of the Third Estate to declare the National Assembly. So, now begins the third part of A Beginner's Guide to the French Revolution.

After the storming of the Bastille by angry Parisians in an effort to seize arms for defending the National Assembly, waves of violence struck the French countryside. Peasants, fearing violent action by the nobles, acted out in their own form of violence. Noble landowners were driven from estates and the peasants burned feudal records which tied them to the land. It was in the midst of this cloud of widespread rural violence that the National Assembly took the initiative to restore order by writing a constitution and forming a new government.

In August of 1789, the National Assembly met for these purposes. Already there was marked divisiveness within the ranks of the National Assembly which had been culled from the extremely diverse Third Estate. There were three main ideological groups within this revolutionary body. The first group were the royalists. As their name implies, these members wanted to keep a monarch as the basis for French government. They shunned many of the radical ideas being thrown around in the National Assembly, though they supported limited reform in order to benefit the wealthier segments of the Third Estate. The next group was composed of moderates. The moderates wanted to keep the French king, but make him accountable to a citizen-elected legislature much like the English monarch was at the time. They advocated moderate reform and largely represented the middle class (bourgeoisie) segment of the revolution. And finally there were the radicals. The radicals called for the immediate removal of king Louis XVI from power and an abolition of the monarchy. They supported the idea of France as a democratic republic.

In this first stage of the French Revolution, the moderates took the lead in the drafting reform measures. During the 1789 meeting of the National Assembly, the moderates pressured the nobility to surrender their privileges. Those nobles who were a part of the assembly agreed and gave up their former rights to be exempt from taxation and collect feudal dues. Feudalism was also done away with formally by this meeting of the National Assembly. Finally, a vestige of the rich dating back to Medieval times that was no longer applicable in eighteenth century France was abolished. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the National Assembly drafted a document called The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. Based largely on the American Declaration of Independence which was drafted a mere thirteen years earlier, this document extended equality and freedoms to French citizens. In addition, it drew upon the ideas of political philosophers like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau and provided for a social contract of government, separation of powers, and limitations on government. Although this document was a huge step forward for a society which had been ruled by an absolute monarch, the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen was not all-inclusive. Not all men could vote and no women could vote. Therefore a majority of the French population was still excluded from politics.

Louis XVI refused to accept these reforms. By doing so he would have surrendered his ability to dictate all governmental affairs with absolute power. But by now his influence was eroding. Bread riots and fears that the king would attempt to dissolve the National Assembly drove a mob to the king's palace in Versailles. They demanded that he accompany them to Paris, which he reluctantly agreed to. With him went the National Assembly, and the revolutionary government finally had its seat of power in the heart of French politics.

The first order of business for the National Assembly was to combat the severe debt that was crippling France. To accomplish this, moderates with the help of a liberal bishop named Maurice de Talleyrand confiscated all church lands in France and sold them off. In addition, a piece of legislation called The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed, making the French Church under control of the state and turning Church leaders into elected, salaried officials. This caused a great deal of ire on behalf of the Catholic Church. The Pope was particularly outraged because the Church had long been separate from the government and allowed to conduct its own affairs, and more importantly, increase its wealth. Many French clergyman refused to support the Civil Constitution of the Clergy because of the dramatic changes that were inherent in it.

Finally and most importantly, the National Assembly drafted a constitution for the new French government. Again, it was the moderate segment of the French Revolution that took the lead with the creation of this constitution. The monarchy remained intact, but it had limited powers. The majority of governmental power rested in a unicameral (one-house) legislature that was elected by all male citizens who could pay a voting tax. This system was similar to the British system in which a monarch ruled the country but was severely limited by an elected Parliament. Although the French used the United States government as a model for forming their own, there was an important difference in the nature of the legislative bodies. The United States has a bicameral (House and Senate) legislature, while this French government only had one. Although the drafting of the constitution was itself a giant step for the French Revolution, many members of the National Assembly were dissatisfied. Royalists believed it had gone too far and radicals believed it had not gone far enough. It would be this divisiveness within the ranks of the French Revolution which would alter the course of the second phase of this important movement in French History.

In the next part of A Beginner's Guide to the French Revolution, I will discuss how internal divisions and foreign pressures threatened to tear apart the Revolution at its seams. Furthermore, we will see a radicalization of the French revolution, acts of terror, and the entrance of one of history's most recognized names.