and The French Revolution
Indian War corruption authoritarianism
of the ancient regime
For more than a century before the accession of King Louis XVI
in 1774, the French government had undergone economic crisis,
resulting from wars during the reign of Louis XIV, the losses
brought from the the French and Indian War in1756-63, and
debts from loans to the American colonies during the
American Revolution 1775-83.
The event at the end of the eighteenth century that ended the
thousand-year rule of kings in France and established the nation
as a Republic. The revolution began in 1789, after King Louis XVI
had the French Parlament deal with an enormous national debt.
Things such as corruption and authoritarianism of of the
ancient regime, extortion through taxation of the poor peasants
led to the revolution. They were tired of being starved and
abused by their arrogant kind, and the rising middle class was
tired of being excluded from power by the aristocracy.
The French Revolution led to the development of a a much more
powerful state than had ever existed before. More organization,
more efficient, more centralized, and brought the masses into
the political process and touched every aspect of society.
A new religion: "Supreme Being" and a new calendar, with 12
renamed months, were invented. For the first time, all the
French people became partners in nationhood. The French Revolution
put an end to the old style of gentlemanly warfare, and became
a popular army fueled by patriotism. By the 18th century roads
and maps were better. Military theorist were teaching new
principles involving massive troop concentrations a a new kind
of mobile warfare.
The common people's division of the parliament declared itself the
true legislature of France, and when the king seemed to resist
the move, a crowd destroyed the royal prison (the Bastille">
A constitutional monarchy was set up, but after King Louis and
his queen , Marie Antoninette, tried to flee the country, they
were arrested, tried for treason an were beheaded.
The Kings followers and monarchies of Europe were horrified
when the king was beheaded in 1793. (Constitutional Monarchy:
A form of national government in which the power of the monarch
(king or queen) is restrained by a parliament, by law, or by
custom. Several nations, especially in modern times, have passed
from Absolute Monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, including
Britian, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium
and Spain.) Britain, Holland, Spain,
Austria and Prussia formed a coalition to attack France while
it was disorganized and weakened by internal conflict.
In Toulon, royalist supporters of the guillotined king had called
in the British to help them fight the revolutionary government,
which had sent troops to lay siege to Toulon and recapture it.
The soldiers were untrained and short on supplies.
Control of the government passed to Robespierre and other radicals,
the extreme Jacobins and the Reign of Terror followed in 1793,
when thousands of French nobles and others considered enemies of
the revolution were executed. After a new ruling body, the
Directory, came into power. Its incompetence and corruption
allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to emerge in 1799 as dictator and,
eventually, to become emperor. Napoleans's ascent to power
is considered the official end of the revolution.
Captain Napoleon Bonaparte who was 24 years old, was on his way
to a minor post on the Italian front, decided to make a stop at
Toulon. The officer in charge of the French artillery had been
badly wounded, and Napoleon Bonaparte was offered the command.
This was the begining of one of the most meteoric rises to
fame and power the world has ever known.
Napoleon Bonaparte had appeared at a point in history when
all his talents could only send him to the top of this new kind
of state that was so well geared to a new kind of warfare.
After studying the situation, he saw that the entire siege was
poorly organized and moved cannons to better positions, brought
in food, horses, ammunition and guns, trained his men and then
proceeded to direct all his firepower on the one weak spot in
the enemy defenses. The British were pushed out of their
strongest position and a few days later Napoleon Bonaparte was
promoted to the rank of major and after beating back a British
attack, he was promoted to adjutant general. By December, he
was a brigadier general, after storming the gates of Toulon.
On August 10, 1792, Napoleon was in Paris when the rabble
invaded the Tuileries palace and took the king prisoner.
Two months later Napoleon returned to Corsica. Some of the
Corsican revolutionaries had turned against France and were
trying to break away from the revolutionary government in
Paris. Napoleon opposed them and fought on the side of the
Corsicans who remained loyal to France. In April 1793 Corsica
plunged into civil war, and Napoleon left for France, taking
the Bonaparte family with him.
During his seven and a half years in the French service, he had
actually been on duty for only 30 months. He was still more
attached to Corsica than to France. But by the time of his
dramatic victory at Toulon, Napoleon had decided to tie his
destiny to France.
"We have finished the romance of the Revolution,
we must now begin its history, only seeking for
what is real and practicable in the application
of its principles, and not what is speculative
and hypothetical."
Cultural Literacy and
Essay on Leadership
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
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