Aidana Sultan

History of Diplomacy 1648 – 1815

20161526

The French Revolution 1789-1793 and its effect the principles of nation-building

In 1787, an economic downturn began in France, which gradually turned into a crisis:

production fell as the French market was flooded with cheaper English goods. In addition to

that, natural disasters led to the destruction of crops and vineyards. Income was not enough,

and the Treasury took loans, the interest on which was unaffordable for it. The only way to

increase revenues to the Treasury was to deprive the tax privileges of the first and second

estates.

Attempts by the government to abolish the tax privileges of the first two estates failed,

met with resistance from the noble parliaments. Then the government announced the

convocation of the Estates General, which included representatives of all three estates. On

may 5, 1789, a meeting of the Estates-General opened at Versailles.Deputies from the third

estate, who were twice as many as deputies from the first and second, demanded an

individual vote, but the government did not go for it. On June 17, third estate deputies

declared themselves “The national Assembly”, that is, representatives of the entire French

nation. On June 20, they vowed not to separate until a Constitution was drawn up. Some time

later, the National Assembly declared itself a Constituent Assembly, thus declaring its

intention to establish a new state system in France. Estate (the clergy), the 2nd Estate (the

nobility) and the 3rd Estate (which, in theory, represented all of the commoners and, in

practice, represented the bourgeoisie). The Third Estate had been granted "double

representation"—that is, twice as many delegates as each of the other communistic estates—
but at the opening session on the 5th of May 1789 was informed that all voting would be "by

power" not "by head", so the double representation would be meaningless in terms of power.

Shortly, a rumor spread across Paris that the government was drawing troops to

Versailles and planning to disperse the Constituent Assembly. Uprisings began in Paris; on

July 14, hoping to seize arms, the people stormed the Bastille. This symbolic event is

considered the beginning of the revolution with the slogan of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”.

Soon, the Constituent Assembly gradually became the highest authority in the

country: Louis XVI, who was anxious to avoid bloodshed at any cost, sooner or later

approved any of his decrees. Thus, from August 5 to August 11, all peasants became

personally free, and the privileges of the two estates and individual regions were abolished.

On August 26, 1789, the Constituent Assembly approved the Declaration of human

and civil rights. On October 5, the crowd went to Versailles, where Louis XVI was staying,

and demanded that the king and his family move to Paris and approve the Declaration. Louis

was forced to agree — and absolute monarchy ceased to exist in France. This was enshrined

in the Constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 3 September 1791. Executive

power remained with the king, who became an official and obeyed the will of the people.

Officials and priests were to be elected, not appointed as previously. The Church's property

was nationalized and sold off.

Having initiated a revolution in social and political relations, the bourgeois

revolutions of the 17th and 19th centuries led to significant changes in the field of law, to the

formation of a new legal order that contributed to the creation and rapid development of

capitalism. Therefore, the revolution made it possible to build a new legal order on the

principles of legality and legal equality at that time by bringing fundamental changes in the
field of socio-economic and political relations, to the formation of a new type of

constitutionalism and law, which contributed to the development of capitalism.

In contrast to feudalism, which was characterized by open arbitrariness and cruelty,

the bourgeoisie sought to create a society based on the rule of law and the rule of law in the

economic turnover. The new bourgeois law was based on the positions of individualism,

liberating from feudal laws of the previous times, such us: feudal property, class division of

people. It was the individual, not the collective, who was placed at the center of bourgeois

legal systems, because otherwise capitalism would be constrained: freedom of business,

market, trade and competition have grown to be necessary. Human rights were proclaimed as

inalienable and sacred, given to the people by birth, no matter your social class.

The French revolution was also a precedent for correlation between the phenomena of

nationalism and revolution. The revolution declared that sovereignty in the country belongs

to the nation – its citizens. Even cardinal Richelieu in the middle of the XVIII century,

seeking to strengthen the French state in the face of hostile Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs,

tried to introduce the national idea into the consciousness of the ruling elite of France. During

Richelieu's lifetime, some French politicians had already argued for the need for French

territorial expansion, natural borders along the Rhine and Pyrenees. References to the former

greatness of France were accompanied by calls to defend the gains of the revolution and

spread Republican ideals throughout Europe. The belief that the French are the most

progressive and most cultured European nation was actively promoted.

The conquests of the French revolution aroused the desire to build own nation- state,

aspired by the French model in a number of countries. An example of this is the emergence

and development was Italian nationalism. In Italy, the ideologists of the Italian Risorgimento

considered the unification of the country as part of a pan-European movement towards

freedom and self-government.

 Let's define nationalism of the time first. As Otto Dann writes, a nation is

constituted by people of the same origins, and this definition has not changed since antiquity.

Very often under “same origin” would mean to share language and history. Having these two

elements, people have similar backgrounds. In this context of France at that time, language

was not included in this mutual background as the majority of people were not French,

therefore often did not speak French. That was 20% of the population. However, the citizens

overcame that obstacle and, nevertheless, created a united political system and a shared

culture. Later this led to the desire to create a united nation.

Prior to that, the idea of a nation-state was not popular. There were obstacles like

social-class divisions, different qualities of lives, privileges. According to B. A. Avner, the

nationalism ideas were shared “ mainly by limited circles within the elite and were

subordinated to the higher value system of the Church and the monarchy. It was the

Revolution that transformed them into a powerful, popular force which cut itself loose from

the tenets of the Old Regime and based itself upon a new set of principles.” In

prerevolutionary France, nationalism was more popular among a particular social class rather

than the whole nation. Nevertheless, the desire for unity brought people of different classes

together. We have to take into consideration the works of philosophers and Enlightenment

writers that played a major role in creation of that desire: Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquie and

Locke, all of them advocated the idea of a nation, the government of which would take into

consideration interests of all people, to construct a state with an ideal balance of different

powers: government, economy, religion, society. Mirabeau, Vergniaud, Barère, Danton, and

Robespierre – the leaders of the Revolution would later on manifest these ideas in their

speeches, the main goal of which was to transfer from monarchy to republic. They would

talk about duty to the nation, the importance of representation.

 “I propose to reform the vices dedicating the following truths: I. The property is the

right of every citizen to enjoy and dispose of the portion of property that is guaranteed to him

by law. II. The right to property is limited, like all others, by the obligation to respect the

rights of others. III. It does not prejudice nor liberty, nor the existence, or ownership of our

fellowmen. IV. Any possession, any traffic that violates this principle is illegal and immoral”,

– Robespierre (“ Je vous propose de reformer ces vices en consacrant les vérités suivantes: I.

La propriété est le droit qu’a chaque citoyen de jouir et de disposer de la portion de biens qui

lui est garantie par la loi. II. Le droit de propriété est borné, comme tous les autres, par

l’obligation de respecter les droits d’autrui. III. Il ne peut préjudicier ni à la liberté, ni à

l’existence, ni à la propriété de nos semblables. IV. Toute possession, tout trafic qui viole ce

principe est illicite et immoral.”).

The mixture of feudalism with an absolute monarchy corrupted governmental

system. While the Church could control the souls, it also excused taxation. Stripped of

poverty, people could not find questions to why this is happening. During the Enlightenment

times, the Church was undermined, or better, separated from its powers, as people came to

the idea of a motherland, “la patrie”, where they could be protected and heard.

Overall, the symbols of the Republic: “Marsellaise”, the flag, the definition of the

nation are still present in modern day France. To be called French is to be born in France,

your social status, ethnicity, religion, language do not stand in the way of getting the

Bordeaux-red passport, this demonstrated the national ideals that went throughout centuries

and developed into what France is now. However, with today's police brutality, racism and

islamophobia in France, the value and idea of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” are under question.
References

Albert Goodwin, The French Revolution (New York, Harper & Brothers,

1962), 10.

David A.Bell, The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-

1800, 7.

Owen Connelly and Fred Hembree, The French Revolution, 10.

Bickford, Kiley, "Nationalism in the French Revolution of 1789" (2014). Honors

College. 147.

The First Revolution Archived 2007-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, Revolution and

After: Tragedies and Forces, World Civilizations: An Internet Classroom and Anthology,

Washington State University

Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, Part 1 (Stanford: Stanford University Press,

, 1976), 67.

David A. Bell, The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800.

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 7.

Avner Ben-Amos, “Monuments and Memory in French Nationalism,” History and

Memory. (Indiana University Press, 1993), 55.

H. Morse Stephens, The Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the

French Revolution 1789-1795, Vol. 2, 367.