Revolutions: The French Revolution

People argue that the French Revolution was not as revolutionary as the American Revolution. There may have been many reasons for this; the serial authoritarian regimes, the guillotine or the Reign of Terror. This essay will argue how revolutions always fail to change the underlying structures of authority. During the French Revolution the structure of the French society had undergone a momentous transformation but in the end exchanged an authoritarian regime for an authoritarian regime. This idea is reflected in most revolutions in Europe.
France in the eighteenth century was a rich and populous country but it had a systematic problem collecting taxes because of the way its society was structured. It was ruled by a structure which we now
Feudal rights, tides, privileges for nobles and unequal taxation were abolished. Figures such as Sieyes and the marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) argued that; ‘For the nation to express its will with a unified voice, the legislative assembly must consist of a single chamber possessing the exclusive right to initiate and enact legislation, fix tax assessments, and control public expenditures as well as the power to declare war, ratify treaties, and supervise diplomacy’.
On August 26th the National Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, influenced by Thomas Jefferson which laid out a system of rights that applied to every person. Not surprisingly, the French people embraced the declaration, while the king and many nobles did not. This declaration effectively got rid of the Ancien Régime (Old Regime) and ensured equality for the bourgeoisie. This declaration did not cover women or slaves so this lead to the Women’s March in which they demanded King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to move to Paris, in which they did. Over the following two years the National Assembly took progressive actions to address the failing economy and tighten up the country. To jump start the country again, the state confiscated all the church’s land and then used it to back a new French currency. In 1790, the government began to organise themselves into different groups, the
The most notable were The Jacobins led by Maximilien de Robespierre. Robespierre was of the opinion that ‘in a Republic a deposed king is good for only one of two things: He either disrupts the peace of the state or weakens its freedom, or he strengthens both simultaneously’. They were members of the overwhelming middle class, consisting primarily of professional men and educated business men. Mastery of the organisation proved a considerable asset to radical leaders in the undermining of the monarchy, and remained a valuable instrument of control after the establishment of the republic. King Louis XVI began to fear for his safety and his wife, Marie Antoinette advised him to get foreign reinforcement against the revolution. So he fled to Austria disguised as slaves but was noticed. He was then seen as to be for the Revolution, but Frederick William II and Leopold II threatened to invade France if he was threatened