How Did The Military Confeat Lead To The Downfall Of The French Revolution
The French Revolution of 1789 and the February and October Revolutions of 1917 were not only the result of the revolutionaries but also the outcome of the blunders committed by the governments that stood before the revolutions. Military defeats in the Seven Years War, Russo-Japanese War and World War I caused a decline in public support and patriotism for the old regimes. The trust and leadership of the leaders of the soon to be overthrown French and Russian regimes were questioned by the public. Both Louis XVI and Nicholas II convened a representative body, where the French Estates General was given enough authority while the Duma remained powerless. Both, however, precipitated their respective revolutions. With military defeats undermining
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support for the regime, the negative view of the government by the public, and a representative body that either threatened the king’s authority or demanded more powers, the state authorities of France and Russia could not manage the crises that they encountered, leading to their downfall.
Military defeats caused a decrease in public support and patriotism for the regimes that existed before the French Revolution in France and the February and October Revolutions in Russia, increasing the likeliness of the people under these regimes to revolt. In the Seven Years War, which occurred from 1756 to 1763, France was allied with Russia and Austria but their armies were beaten by the Prussians. The decision to ally with the Habsburgs, was unpopular in France because people had gotten used to seeing Austria as their enemy. France and her allies thought they were going to win because, on the European continent, they had 70 million soldiers while Prussia only had 3.6 million. The French lost a battle against Prussia at Rossbach in 1757 and were later beaten by the British in North America, the Caribbean, and in India. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the Seven Years War and France gave up all its territories in North America. The war costed 2x as much as the last war and France was in deep debt. France’s loss of territories and the expensive cost of the war caused loss of public support and patriotism of the French towards their government (Neely 30).
The Russo-Japanese War which occurred from 1904 to 1905 started when the Japanese surprise attacked a tsarist fleet in Manchuria because the Japanese disliked Russia’s economic expansion in the East. The Russian government was sure they were going to win and many saw Russia as defending European civilization from “yellow danger.”(Figes 26-27). It was difficult for Russians to travel 4000 miles and keeping the armies supplied frequently with equipment. As a result, in the summer of 1905, Russia was ready to stop the war and Sergei Witte negotiated a peace treaty at Portsmouth in the United States (Shukman 14-15). During the war, many turned against the government, using the war as a rationale for political reform. Because industrialists suffered from the economic disturbance of the war, they, too, criticized the state (Figes 26-27). The war was also costly for Russia because they lost face and also many resources. They were the biggest land empire and the most populated but they were defeated by an inferior Asian race (Shukman 14-15). The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War was humiliating and decreased morale for the tsarist government that had supported the war. The February and October Revolutions of 1917 occurred during World War I. The decision to end or continue war in 1917 divided the Provisional Government into two. The Allies wanted the Russians to start an offensive but many felt that the army was unable to fight. Russia had had many casualties during the war and as the date of the summer offensive approached, many soldiers began to desert their positions, showing their dissatisfaction towards the war and loss of morale. On June 16, Russia launched its offensive, breaking German lines but the Russians stopped advancing. The Germans began a counter-offensive and the Russians fled because their troops were unwilling to fight in the first place. The failure of the offensive led to the loss of support and confidence in the Provisional Government who had wanted to continue fighting.(Figes 84-85).
Leaders of the old French and Russian regimes could not maintain a positive image that displayed trust and leadership to the people, leading to inevitable revolts by the people during the French Revolution and the February and October Revolutions. Louis XVI was the king of the regime before the French Revolution and was known for being addicted to his hobbies and having no interest for the society. Because royal princesses were expected to give birth to a future heir to the throne, his queen, Marie Antoinette was unpopular because she did not meet that expectation. Many disliked the queen because she was an Austrian princess and they assumed that she had influenced Louis XVI’s decision to ally with Austria, France’s long time enemy, during the Seven Years War. They also resented her for her luxurious spending, assuming that she was the cause of the financial problems of the country and also her arrogance. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace added to the queen’s unpopularity (Neely 35-38). From the end of June to the beginning of July, right after the king invited the clergy and the nobility to join the Third Estate to form the National Assembly, Louis XVI ordered the movement of troops towards Paris and Versailles. The surrounding of the king’s troops around Paris was viewed by Parisians as a common threat, either against the National Assembly or against Paris, in general, mobilizing defensive forces within Paris (Furet 65-66). Many Parisians did not trust Louis XVI and assumed that the troops had been ordered by the king either to dissolve the National Assembly or put down the demonstrations held by the working class and the bourgeoisie against increasing food prices and high levels of unemployment (Gershoy 34). They began to build barricades and gather weapons for themselves, preparing for the storming of the Bastille, one of the most important events during the French Revolution (Palmer 111-112).
Tsar Nicholas II was also an unpopular leader as a result of his actions during Bloody Sunday of 1905. Father Gapon was the leader of this revolt and justified his actions with the Bible, saying that the Tsar was obligated to meet the demands of the people if the people had requests. In St. Petersburg, there were women and children in the front to discourage the soldiers from shooting. The protestesters continued to advance towards the soldiers who had guns in their hands pointing directly at them. Suddenly, the guns started to fire and 40 people died, hundreds wounded. The myth of a Good Tsar was destroyed.and his authority was undermined (Figes 24-26). During World War I, Nicholas II departed for the Front and the government was left to Tsaress Alexandra. Her decisions were greatly influenced by Rasputin and she often wrote to her husband about his suggestions concerning the tsardom and even on the Tsar’s military strategy (Figes 60-61). To the public, tsaress Alexandra was known as the German woman and was accused of working for the Germans. Rasputin behaved outrageously publicly and was a hard drinking peasant monk (Wood 37). Ordinary people began to question the leadership of the Tsar and his decision to rely on Rasputin, who has “mystical powers” and his wife, who is rumored to be betraying the country, to maintain the government while he was away (Bainton 24). Many began to feel that the entire Romanov court, including the tsar himself, was betraying Russia and that he was telling Kaiser Wilhelm about the movement of Russian troops throughout the war (Figes 61). This shows how the people were beginning to lose trust and question the leadership of Tsar Nicholas II, the leader of the Old Regime, leading to the February and October Revolutions of 1917. In France in the summer of 1788, Louis XVI announced that the Estates General was to be convoked the following year, authorizing the voices of common Frenchmen to be heard. Louis XVI’s intentions were to hear and understand the grievances of his people. However, he actually granted the people of the Third Estate, or commoners, political power and allowed them to rise in authority within the government (Palmer 51). A delegate of the Estates General once wrote, “The king is carried along endlessly from one policy to another, changing them, adopting them, rejecting them with an inconceivable capriciousness; exercising force, then weakly retreating. He has entirely lost his authority.” This shows that the French people were gaining power within the government with their opinions now taken into account, while the king’s authority was weakening (qted. in Neely 53). Louis XVI granted the Estates the right to approve taxes and loans, determine the distribution of funds to different public services. He also guaranteed individual liberties and freedom of the press. The three Estates joined together to form the National Constituent Assembly whose decrees at first needed to be authorized by the king. Later, the Assembly felt that the Old Regime would return if the king rejected all their decrees unless they they compromised with the aristocracy, which they ruled out completely. The Assembly gave the king a suspensive veto over legislation, declaring that the king’s approval was not needed but he just need to enact it. This shows how the king’s authority was gradually decreasing in strength as a result of the convening of the Estates General and commoners could pass legislation without the king’s approval (Palmer 185-187). In contrast to Louis XVI, Nicholas II did not grant many rights to the Duma, maintaining a authoritarian government, resulting in the advancement of activist sentiment, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. In February 1905, Nicholas called for the Russian people to send in ideas for improvement in the government and most wanted a national parliament that would establish a constitutional monarchy. In response to the suggestions, the Tsar conceded the Bulygin Duma which was very consultative where the members were elected on a limited franchise to ensure that the aristocrats would dominate. Less than 1% of St. Petersburg’s adult residents could vote while those in provincial cities had even fewer (Figes 31). The Tsar could dissolve the Duma and rule by emergency decree if the Duma was not in session. This was a loophole used when the parliament opposed government bills. The members of the Duma were elected by an indirect system of voting that was heavily in favor of the court’s allies, the peasantry, who were believed to be monarchists, and the nobility. The Duma could not pass its own laws without the approval of the Tsar and the upper chamber which was dominated by the aristocracy. The Duma practically had no rights and no privileges while the tsar retained his authority. This encouraged activist sentiment, requesting for the Duma to have more rights and more authority within the government (Figes 40-41). State authorities in both Russia and France, before their revolutions, experienced defeats in wars and loss of their positive images because of the actions and reputations of their leaders. However, state authority in France had the issue of granting too much power to the representative assembly while in Russia, they had the issue of granting almost no power at all.
support for the regime, the negative view of the government by the public, and a representative body that either threatened the king’s authority or demanded more powers, the state authorities of France and Russia could not manage the crises that they encountered, leading to their downfall.
Military defeats caused a decrease in public support and patriotism for the regimes that existed before the French Revolution in France and the February and October Revolutions in Russia, increasing the likeliness of the people under these regimes to revolt. In the Seven Years War, which occurred from 1756 to 1763, France was allied with Russia and Austria but their armies were beaten by the Prussians. The decision to ally with the Habsburgs, was unpopular in France because people had gotten used to seeing Austria as their enemy. France and her allies thought they were going to win because, on the European continent, they had 70 million soldiers while Prussia only had 3.6 million. The French lost a battle against Prussia at Rossbach in 1757 and were later beaten by the British in North America, the Caribbean, and in India. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the Seven Years War and France gave up all its territories in North America. The war costed 2x as much as the last war and France was in deep debt. France’s loss of territories and the expensive cost of the war caused loss of public support and patriotism of the French towards their government (Neely 30).
The Russo-Japanese War which occurred from 1904 to 1905 started when the Japanese surprise attacked a tsarist fleet in Manchuria because the Japanese disliked Russia’s economic expansion in the East. The Russian government was sure they were going to win and many saw Russia as defending European civilization from “yellow danger.”(Figes 26-27). It was difficult for Russians to travel 4000 miles and keeping the armies supplied frequently with equipment. As a result, in the summer of 1905, Russia was ready to stop the war and Sergei Witte negotiated a peace treaty at Portsmouth in the United States (Shukman 14-15). During the war, many turned against the government, using the war as a rationale for political reform. Because industrialists suffered from the economic disturbance of the war, they, too, criticized the state (Figes 26-27). The war was also costly for Russia because they lost face and also many resources. They were the biggest land empire and the most populated but they were defeated by an inferior Asian race (Shukman 14-15). The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War was humiliating and decreased morale for the tsarist government that had supported the war. The February and October Revolutions of 1917 occurred during World War I. The decision to end or continue war in 1917 divided the Provisional Government into two. The Allies wanted the Russians to start an offensive but many felt that the army was unable to fight. Russia had had many casualties during the war and as the date of the summer offensive approached, many soldiers began to desert their positions, showing their dissatisfaction towards the war and loss of morale. On June 16, Russia launched its offensive, breaking German lines but the Russians stopped advancing. The Germans began a counter-offensive and the Russians fled because their troops were unwilling to fight in the first place. The failure of the offensive led to the loss of support and confidence in the Provisional Government who had wanted to continue fighting.(Figes 84-85).
Leaders of the old French and Russian regimes could not maintain a positive image that displayed trust and leadership to the people, leading to inevitable revolts by the people during the French Revolution and the February and October Revolutions. Louis XVI was the king of the regime before the French Revolution and was known for being addicted to his hobbies and having no interest for the society. Because royal princesses were expected to give birth to a future heir to the throne, his queen, Marie Antoinette was unpopular because she did not meet that expectation. Many disliked the queen because she was an Austrian princess and they assumed that she had influenced Louis XVI’s decision to ally with Austria, France’s long time enemy, during the Seven Years War. They also resented her for her luxurious spending, assuming that she was the cause of the financial problems of the country and also her arrogance. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace added to the queen’s unpopularity (Neely 35-38). From the end of June to the beginning of July, right after the king invited the clergy and the nobility to join the Third Estate to form the National Assembly, Louis XVI ordered the movement of troops towards Paris and Versailles. The surrounding of the king’s troops around Paris was viewed by Parisians as a common threat, either against the National Assembly or against Paris, in general, mobilizing defensive forces within Paris (Furet 65-66). Many Parisians did not trust Louis XVI and assumed that the troops had been ordered by the king either to dissolve the National Assembly or put down the demonstrations held by the working class and the bourgeoisie against increasing food prices and high levels of unemployment (Gershoy 34). They began to build barricades and gather weapons for themselves, preparing for the storming of the Bastille, one of the most important events during the French Revolution (Palmer 111-112).
Tsar Nicholas II was also an unpopular leader as a result of his actions during Bloody Sunday of 1905. Father Gapon was the leader of this revolt and justified his actions with the Bible, saying that the Tsar was obligated to meet the demands of the people if the people had requests. In St. Petersburg, there were women and children in the front to discourage the soldiers from shooting. The protestesters continued to advance towards the soldiers who had guns in their hands pointing directly at them. Suddenly, the guns started to fire and 40 people died, hundreds wounded. The myth of a Good Tsar was destroyed.and his authority was undermined (Figes 24-26). During World War I, Nicholas II departed for the Front and the government was left to Tsaress Alexandra. Her decisions were greatly influenced by Rasputin and she often wrote to her husband about his suggestions concerning the tsardom and even on the Tsar’s military strategy (Figes 60-61). To the public, tsaress Alexandra was known as the German woman and was accused of working for the Germans. Rasputin behaved outrageously publicly and was a hard drinking peasant monk (Wood 37). Ordinary people began to question the leadership of the Tsar and his decision to rely on Rasputin, who has “mystical powers” and his wife, who is rumored to be betraying the country, to maintain the government while he was away (Bainton 24). Many began to feel that the entire Romanov court, including the tsar himself, was betraying Russia and that he was telling Kaiser Wilhelm about the movement of Russian troops throughout the war (Figes 61). This shows how the people were beginning to lose trust and question the leadership of Tsar Nicholas II, the leader of the Old Regime, leading to the February and October Revolutions of 1917. In France in the summer of 1788, Louis XVI announced that the Estates General was to be convoked the following year, authorizing the voices of common Frenchmen to be heard. Louis XVI’s intentions were to hear and understand the grievances of his people. However, he actually granted the people of the Third Estate, or commoners, political power and allowed them to rise in authority within the government (Palmer 51). A delegate of the Estates General once wrote, “The king is carried along endlessly from one policy to another, changing them, adopting them, rejecting them with an inconceivable capriciousness; exercising force, then weakly retreating. He has entirely lost his authority.” This shows that the French people were gaining power within the government with their opinions now taken into account, while the king’s authority was weakening (qted. in Neely 53). Louis XVI granted the Estates the right to approve taxes and loans, determine the distribution of funds to different public services. He also guaranteed individual liberties and freedom of the press. The three Estates joined together to form the National Constituent Assembly whose decrees at first needed to be authorized by the king. Later, the Assembly felt that the Old Regime would return if the king rejected all their decrees unless they they compromised with the aristocracy, which they ruled out completely. The Assembly gave the king a suspensive veto over legislation, declaring that the king’s approval was not needed but he just need to enact it. This shows how the king’s authority was gradually decreasing in strength as a result of the convening of the Estates General and commoners could pass legislation without the king’s approval (Palmer 185-187). In contrast to Louis XVI, Nicholas II did not grant many rights to the Duma, maintaining a authoritarian government, resulting in the advancement of activist sentiment, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. In February 1905, Nicholas called for the Russian people to send in ideas for improvement in the government and most wanted a national parliament that would establish a constitutional monarchy. In response to the suggestions, the Tsar conceded the Bulygin Duma which was very consultative where the members were elected on a limited franchise to ensure that the aristocrats would dominate. Less than 1% of St. Petersburg’s adult residents could vote while those in provincial cities had even fewer (Figes 31). The Tsar could dissolve the Duma and rule by emergency decree if the Duma was not in session. This was a loophole used when the parliament opposed government bills. The members of the Duma were elected by an indirect system of voting that was heavily in favor of the court’s allies, the peasantry, who were believed to be monarchists, and the nobility. The Duma could not pass its own laws without the approval of the Tsar and the upper chamber which was dominated by the aristocracy. The Duma practically had no rights and no privileges while the tsar retained his authority. This encouraged activist sentiment, requesting for the Duma to have more rights and more authority within the government (Figes 40-41). State authorities in both Russia and France, before their revolutions, experienced defeats in wars and loss of their positive images because of the actions and reputations of their leaders. However, state authority in France had the issue of granting too much power to the representative assembly while in Russia, they had the issue of granting almost no power at all.