WHEN DID VIOLENCE START IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION?

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The "French Revolution" can be regarded as one of the bloodiest revolutions in history. It was responsible for many deaths and massacres, which have since been chanted endlessly throughout historys revelations. This essay will analyse the origins of violence in the French Revolution. Although the cause of French revolutionary violence can be lost in a complex web of opinions among Historians, cause and timing of revolutionary violence do not necessarily compliment each other.

In order to understand the cause of the violence, an explanation of the historical circumstances leading to the revolution are necessary. These are elaborated under three subheadings;

• Longstanding Causes

Order essays on WHEN DID VIOLENCE START IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION? and other topics • Midway to Initial Causes

• Initial Causes

Each of these played a role to the lead up to the French Revolution. However, this essay williefly outline the first two, and attempt to explain the start of violence by associating it with the initial causes of the French Revolution. Ayas study on Theories of Revolution suggests that "[o]ften enough… such violent outeaks can be understood only if attention is paid to long-term shifts of power balances in the society concerned which, to be sure, take place in small steps over a long time".

Longstanding Causes.

These can be associated with problematic features of the ancien regime. "It is clear that ever since the death of Louis XIV the idea of absolute monarchy had blocked all efforts at revamping the political system" , especially if the monarch were to be weak (as Louis XVI was). Other major problematic features can be seen within the division of population between three estates. The first and second estates were made up of the aristocracy and considered privileged and the third estate, holding the majority, were under privileged. Longstanding problems also consisted of economic difficulties that led to financial problems, and discontentment from peasants.

Midway to Initial Causes.

These consist of the failure to initiate tax reform, in which the aristocrats were exempt from paying, and military expenses associated with a revenge war against theitish in America at a time when the national economy was in a strong decline. As Guerin stated, "they shifted the heavy burden of military expenditure on to the shoulders of the people".

Initial Causes.

The initial lead up to the causes of violence in the French Revolution can be seen in the year 1788. France suffered serious financial problems and a conflict within its division of classes. De Tocqueville noted that:

[T]he cleavages between the various classes… weakened the whole faic of society, and particularly on the hostility of the nobles towards the royal administration.

All estates seemed unsatisfied with the ancien regime, and Louis XVI neither had the initiative, nor the will to win the support of his people, especially within the third estate which incorporated a majority of the population. Eventually the introduction of reform took place. However, "Its biggest attempt at reform, the establishment of provincial assemblies… had the effect of throwing the administration into disorder" . It was "truly observed that the moment when a bad government tries to reform itself is always the most dangerous." We have come to realise that many of the greatest revolutions were not started by people who were slummed in adversary without hope or vision but rather they seem to begin when people start to prosper and understand how much they still have left to achieve. As De Tocqueville stated:

It is not always by going from bad to worse that a society falls into a revolution. It happens most often that a people, which has supported without complaint, as if they were not felt, the most oppressive laws, violently throws them off as soon as their weight is lightened.

These occurrences placed Louis under considerable pressure. On the 8th of August 1788, Louis summoned the States General. Louis knew:

[I]f the estates were organised, as in 1614, with an equal number of representatives, and if each order voted separately, the clergy and the nobility would be able to enforce their will on the third estate.

However, as a result of the States General further hate developed against the ancien regime, and on the 17th of June 1789, the Third Estate, made up of the majority of the population and consisting of the bourgeoisie, wage earners and peasantry, declared themselves (against King Louis Beliefs) The Representative Body of France (The National Assembly). This was to go against King Louis opinions.

Orders were given to the Grand Master of Ceremonies to make the necessary preparations and to close the main assembly hall used by the deputies of the third estate.

However, they were not to be intimidated and instead this led them to the infamous, Tennis Court Oath.

Here it was resolved by acclamation that the members of the National Assembly should take a solemn oath, to be confirmed by their signatures, not to separate until the constitution had been established on firm foundations.

It is further important to note that; "[t]his celeated oath was historically significant as the first act of formal disobedience to the king".

The National Assembly gained a rise in support and soon Louis was forced to recognise it. Absolute Monarchy had ended and Constitutional Monarchy had begun. The National Assembly was regarded as the parliament of France and the Bourgeoisie were soon recognised as having the most powerful stake.

On 13th July, the act of violence was conceived when rioters burglarised from the monastery of St Lazare.

This convent was unpopular because it was used as a prison and was also suspected of being a centre for the storage of grains and an arms depot.

On July 14th, 1789 the peasants stormed the Bastille. This signified the first use of violence to achieve Revolutionary aims. "The assault was not primarily to liberate the prisoners… but to get arms… [T]he Bastille was a symbol of despotism."

In 1789, the French Revolution was a Revolution against feudalism. It turned peasants to being free landowners and essentially laid down the foundation towards Capitalism.

[T]his essential achievement of the years 1789 to 1792… [saw] the middle class [become] a privileged oligarchy in place of the hitherto privileged, the feudal aristocracy.

The Revolution arguably achieved its purpose in history. De Tocqueville would suggest that his "aim was to show [violence in] the Revolution as the natural conclusion to the long-term evolution of the ancien regime. While Marx suggests that:

The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.

The Revolution was complex in its guise, but demonstrated the French peoples desire/need for certain change. Be it through violence or oligarchy, change was inevitable and the will of the people and their efforts, beneath certain oppression and positive identifiable distractions achieved vast accomplishments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arasse, Daniel, The Guillotine and the Terror, Penguin Books, England, 1991.

Aya, Roderick, Theories of Revolution Reconsidered: Contrasting Models of Collective Violence, Theory and Society, 8, 1, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, (1979), pp. 39-79.

Cobban, Alfred, Historians and the Causes of the French Revolution, (3rd ed), The Historical Association, (1965).

De Tocqueville, Alex, (Quote) in Lockwood, David, Lecture given, 5th August 2002, Historys Killing Fields, Hist 1704.

Elton, Lord, The Revolutionary Idea in France 1789-1871, AMS Press Inc, New York, (1971).

Furet, Francois, Interpreting the French Revolution, translated by Elborg Forster, Camidge University Press, (1981).

Gershoy, Leo, The Era of the French Revolution, 1789-1799: Ten Years That Shook the World, D. Van Nostrand Company, Canada, (1857).

Goodwin, A, The French Revolution, (5th Ed.), Hutchinson and Co, London, (1970).

Guerin, Daniel, Class Struggle in the First French Republic, Pluto Press, (1977).

Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich, Bourgeois and Proletarians, in Davies, C, James (ed), When Men Revolt and Why, The Free Press, New York, (1971), pp. 100-107.

The Standard English Desk Dictionary, Bay Books, Sydney, (1976), (Vol. A-L), p. 26.

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