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The revolution
French

Por: Gabriel Fialho Manochio “Shion”

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(...) "As the French Revolution aimed not only at changing an old
government, but at abolishing the old form of society, it had to find itself
in arms at the same time with all the established powers, ruining all the
influences recognized, erase traditions, renew customs and customs and,
in some way, empty the human spirit of all the ideas on which respect and
obedience had hitherto been founded."(...)

The feudal institutions of the Old Regime were being overcome as the
bourgeoisie, from the 18th century onwards, increasingly consolidated
its economic power. French society demanded that the country modernize, but
the obstacle of absolutism erased this expectation. Discontent was general,
everyone thought that this situation could not continue. However, a
movement started a few years ago by a group of French intellectuals
seemed to have the answer. This movement criticized and questioned the
absolutist regime. They were the Enlightenment, who thought that the only
possible way for France to get ahead of England was to pass political power
into the hands of the new class, that is, the bourgeoisie (merchants,
industrialists, bankers). It was necessary
, remained
to depose
in power.
the nobility who, represented by the King

The absolute monarchy, which had previously brought so many

benefits to the development of commerce and the French bourgeoisie, was now an obstacle.
Mercantilist laws prevented the sale of goods freely. Craft guilds prevented
the development of faster processes for manufacturing goods. Ultimately,
the absolute monarchy was an obstacle, preventing the modernization of
France. This obstacle needed to be removed. And what a revolution it was.

The French Revolution meant the end of absolute monarchy in France. The
end of the old regime mainly meant the rise of the bourgeoisie to political
power and also the preparation for the consolidation of capitalism. But
the French Revolution was not restricted to France. His ideas spread across
Europe, crossed the ocean and came to Latin America, contributing to the
creation of our political independence. Due to its enumenical
character, it was agreed that the French Revolution was the milestone
of the transition to the Contemporary Age.

The situation in France before the revolution

The economy

France's economic situation was critical. Most income came from

agriculture, where techniques lagged behind the country's consumption. Of the
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26 million inhabitants, 20 million lived in the countryside in extremely

precarious living conditions. Some of the peasants were still under serfdom.

A merchant, to transport his goods from one side of the country to another,
would have to pass through the customs barriers of feudal properties,
paying very high taxes, which prevented merchants from freely selling
their goods. To make matters worse, it seems that even nature helped the
revolution: between the years 1784 and 1785 there were floods and
droughts, causing the prices of products to sometimes rise, not providing
conditions for the poor to buy, and sometimes to fall, taking some
small owners bankrupt.

The situation of French industry was no better, as part of it was still under the
rural and domestic system, and corporations (gremios) prevented
the development of new techniques. As if that were not enough, the
French government signed the following treaty with the English government:
the French would sell wines to the English, and they would sell cloth to the
French, without paying taxes, which led to French manufactures not
being able to withstand competition from fabrics. English, entering a serious crisis.

The society

French society, at the time, was divided into three parts, known as Estates:
First Estate - was the French clergy and was divided into high and low. The
high clergy was made up of elements coming from rich nobility families,
having all sorts of privileges, including not paying taxes. The lower clergy
were the poor, being linked to the people in general and not to the
nobility, like the first.

Second Estate - was the nobility in general. The privileges were countless,
the most important of which was tax exemption. It should be noted here that
the nobility was also divided: the courtly nobility, who lived in the palace, and
other sectors of the nobility, who lived in the court, receiving pensions from
the King, encumbering their castles in the countryside, at the expense of
the work of your servants. As the crisis increased, the nobility who lived in
your servants the countryside increased the pressure on , favoring the climate of dissatisfaction.

Third Estate - was made up of all those who did not belong to either the
First or the Second Estate. After all, what was the Third Estate? It was the
sector of French society made up of the overwhelming majority of the population,
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upon whose shoulders the entire weight of supporting the French kingdom
falls. This sector was mostly made up of peasants who, with hard work,
provided food for the whole of France, in addition to having to pay very heavy
taxes. Finally, the most prominent members of the Third Estate, in terms of
leadership: the bourgeoisie. This was divided into petty bourgeoisie
(small traders, artisans), a middle layer (composed of shopkeepers,
professionals) and the upper bourgeoisie (large bankers, foreign trade).

The Third State will be the one that, due to the weight of its responsibilities,
will rise up against the oppression of the Absolutist State. The peasants will
play an important role, the urban poor too, but the leadership and fruits
of this revolution will fall to a fraction of the Third State: the bourgeoisie.
Politics in pre-revolutionary France showed signs of the accumulated
decadence of other absolute Kings, mainly a chronic deficit during the reign
of Louis XVI, who ascended the throne in 1774. Criticism of the regime
increased day by day. Intellectuals, based on the theories of the Enlightenment,
did not spare their writings to criticize the regime exasperatedly.

The antecedents of the revolution

The King, faced with this situation, tries some expedients to resolve the issue.
He invited an illuminator named Necker who started working
immediately, as he wanted to see the country's evils cured. Necker, a man
trusted by the King, who thinks of a solution to the crisis, everyone needed
to pay taxes in France. Necker makes his first act: he orders the State's
accounts to be published, where the enormous Deficit of 126 million pounds
is clear. Then, with the consent of the King and the nobility, he convenes the
States General, the only solution found to discuss a way out.

The States General, an assembly of all the States that had not been convened
since 1614, should more or less openly discuss a solution to the financial
crisis and find a way out so that everyone would pay equal taxes.
However, the Third Estate was not just thinking about this, but also about
taking advantage of the opportunity and making demands of a political nature.
The news of the convocation of the States General fell like a bomb on France.
Overnight, the entire country was invaded by thousands of newspapers,
pamphlets and posters. Bars and cafes became a center of excitement, such
as the famous Café Procope. The nobility and the King were terrified: "The
suppression of feudal rights is already proposed... Would your Majesty be
determined to sacrifice and humiliate your brave and ancient... nobility?"; This was a desperate
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Third Estate? He became even more organized and wanted the

transformations immediately. The States General began their opening
meeting on May 5, 1789, and from then on it was impossible to stop the revolution.

The revolution broke out: the journeys

The King opens the session of the States General by giving a warning
speech against political pretensions: "We are here to deal with
financial problems and not to deal with politics". The Third Estate reacted
promptly, demanding at any cost that the meetings be held jointly and not
separately by States.

Faced with denial, the Third State proclaims itself in the National
General Assembly. The King, desperate at the audacity of the popular
representatives, orders the meetings to be closed. But the Third Estate
does not give up and its deputies head to a hall that the nobility used for
games. There they held a meeting, where it was established that
they would remain together until France had a Constitution. This act
became known as The Oath of the Game of Pela. On July 9, 1789, a National
Constituent Assembly met, tasked with drafting a Constitution for France.
This meant that the King would no longer be the absolute lord of the
kingdom.

The French bourgeoisie, in turn, appealed to the people. On July 14,

1789, the entire Parisian population advanced, in a movement never seen
before, to the Bastille, the political prison of the time, where the person
responsible for the prison was arrested and hanged. The moment is
now for the peasants, who realize the weakness of the nobility and
invade the castles, executing entire families of nobles in a kind of revenge,
out of anger accumulated over centuries. They advance on feudal property
and demand reforms. The bourgeoisie, in the Assembly, fearful that
the demands would also reach their properties, proposes that feudal rights
be extinguished as the only way out to contain the revolutionary fury of the
peasants. On August 4, 1789, what had meant oppression of the
peasants for many centuries ended. The bourgeoisie, concerned with
establishing the theoretical foundations of its revolution, approved, on
August 26th of the same year, a document that became world famous: The Declaration of th
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The revolutionary process

First phase - National Constituent Assembly

One of the most important acts of the Assembly was the confiscation
of the assets of the French clergy, which would be used as a type of
collateral for the bonds issued to overcome the financial crisis. Part of
the clergy reacts and begins to organize. In response, the Assembly
decrees the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, that is, the clergy becomes
State employees, and any gesture of rebellion will lead to arrest. The
situation was very confusing. The Assembly was unable to maintain
discipline and control the economic chaos. The King comes into contact
with émigrés abroad (mainly in Prussia and Austria) and they begin to
plot to invade France, overthrow the revolutionary government and restore
absolutism. To organize the counter-revolution, the monarch flees from
France to Prussia, but on the way and recognized by peasants, he is
arrested and sent to Paris. In the capital, the more moderate sectors
of the Assembly managed to keep the King in his post. From then on, a
great agitation began, as the Constitution of 1791 would be voted on and
approved. This constitution established, in France, the Parliamentary
Monarchy, that is, the King would be limited by the actions of the legislative
power (Parliament). In this legislative power, power was chosen
through census voting and this was equivalent to saying that power
continued in the hands of a minority, a privileged part of the bourgeoisie.
In short, what we have is a Parliamentary Monarchy dominated by the
high bourgeoisie and the liberal aristocracy, led, for example, by the famous
La Fayette, and the total alienation of the French people. The popular
sectors were unhappy, because they were still under despotism, not that of
the absolute monarchy but the despotism of the money men, traditional
sectors of the nobility and clergy were conspiring, with the King's consent,
to try to restore the old regime. The political groups organized
themselves to define their positions: In the Assembly enclosure, the
party led by Robespierre sat on the left, which approached the people:
they were the Jacobins or Montagnards (so called because they sat
in the highest parts of the Assembly ); next door, a small group linked to
the Jacobins, called Cordeliers, where names such as Marat, Danton,
Hebert and others appeared; in the center sat the constitutionalists,
defenders of the high bourgeoisie and the liberal nobility, a
group that would later become known as the plain; on the right,
there was a group that would later become known as Girondins, defenders of the interests o
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As for the external situation, the atmosphere was one of total

apprehension. The neighboring absolute monarchies looked at what was
happening in France with great fear. So much so, that some emigrated
elements of the French nobility wanted countries like Austria and Prussia to
immediately start a war against France. The Legislative Assembly,
aware of this situation, reasoned as follows: either we expand the
revolutionary ideal to these countries or else Revolutionary France will
find itself isolated and condemned to failure. Hence the Assembly also thought about war.

Second phase - Legislative Assembly

The French Legislative Assembly demanded a non-invasion

commitment from Austria and Prussia and, as this was not met by
the absolute monarchies, declared war on April 20, 1792. Louis XVI was
exultant, as he hoped that the French armies would be defeated so that he
could return to power as absolute King; in this way, the King and Queen,
the famous Marie Antoinette, come into contact with their enemies, passing
on war secrets to them. The actions of the French armies were a failure
on the battlefield. In the Assembly, Robespierre denounces the betrayal of
the King and the generals linked to him, who were also interested in the
defeat of revolutionary France. In a speech to the Jacobins, Robespierre
said: "No! I don't trust the generals and, making honorable exceptions,
I say that almost everyone misses the old order, the favors available to the Court. I only trust

On the streets of Paris and the big cities, the sans culottes (the way the poor
in the cities identified themselves) were agitated calling for the arrest of
those responsible for France's defeats against the Austrian and Prussian armies.

Third phase - The National Convention

On the 2nd of September, in the morning, news reached Paris that

Verdun was under siege; Verdun, the last fortress between Paris and the
border. Immediately, a proclamation was issued to the citizens: "To
arms, citizens, to arms! The enemy is at the gates!" Several prisoners,
suspected of links to the old regime, were massacred by the population.
On September 20, 1792, news reached Paris of the crushing victory of the
French armies over the Prussian armies and, on the same day. the
proclamation of the Republic was made official, the first in France. Now, the body that will go
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Convention elected by universal vote. The situation of political "parties" became clearer
with the Convention: On the right, the group of Girondins defending the interests of the
bourgeoisie, which at that time was dominating the Convention. In the center, the plain (or
swamp) group, defending the interests of the financial bourgeoisie, but having an
opportunistic attitude, said to be on the side of those in power. To the left and at the top,
the mountain (Jacobins), defenders of the interests of the bourgeoisie and the people.
What to do with the King? The Girondists wanted to keep him alive, as they feared that his
execution would make the people want more reforms, which went against their interests.
The Jacobins wanted the King to be tried and executed as a traitor to the country. The
Jacobin proposal won and the King was executed. The Jacobins became increasingly
popular and were supported by the sans culottes. In turn, the French armies took
advantage of their victories to propagate the ideals of the revolution, and countries with
absolutist governments felt increasingly subject to liberal propaganda. The new French
revolutionary government carried out reforms at various levels, but all of them were
extremely moderate, in such a way that they did not question the power of the Girondins.
However, the Girondins in power saw war as a way to increase their fortunes and,
therefore, the higher the prices of products (food, clothing), the better for them. In fact,
they were the ones who sold them and those who bought them were the people who, in
their extreme poverty, could not buy expensive goods. It is in this contradiction that we
will understand why the Jacobin Convention government fell. The sans culottes, on the
streets of Paris, demanded reforms, price control, cheap goods, high wages, and the
Girondists demanded exactly the opposite. At that moment, the Jacobins (mountainers)
began to lead the demands and managed to form the Public Salvation Commission, with
the obligation to control prices and denounce the abuses carried out by senior
Girondin merchants. The agitation increases, the Girondins become increasingly fearful of
the demonstrations of the sans culottes. Increasing the crisis, an entire region of
France, called Vendée, instigated by the clergy and the English, rises up in a counter-
revolutionary movement. Between May and June 1793, the people rose up in Paris,
surrounded the Convention building and demanded the arrest of the traitorous Deputies,
that is, the Girondists. The Jacobins (mountainers) took advantage of the demonstrations
of support from the sans culottes and deposed the Girondins, establishing a new government.

The phase of terror - the dictatorship of the Jacobins

Now that the Jacobins were in power, it was necessary to control popular movements. The
Jacobin government's main characteristic will be its moderate position on the left. The Jacobins
are part of a popular government, but they do not take measures that meet the interests
of all segments of the population and
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Yes, measures more linked to the French petty bourgeoisie. On July 13,
1793, the popular idol Marat was murdered by a woman who was a
member of the Girondist party. From then on, the population demanded the
radicalization of the revolution. Terror begins: all elements suspected
of links with the Girondists and the counter-revolutionary
aristocracy are massacred or executed by guillotine, after popular trials.
Immediate reforms were made: the main one was the redistribution
of property, creating conditions for the emergence of three million small
properties in France. The reforms even affect the official calendar, which
acquires marked and anti-clerical characteristics and starts to be based
on natural phenomena. For example, the month of heat (July, in Europe)
becomes the month of Thermidor; December, the month of snow
(winter), becomes Snowy. Robespierre tries, with some initial skill, to
remain in the center to govern. Little by little he began to attack his
allies on the left: elements such as Hebert and Jacques Roux were
arrested and executed. With the liquidation of the extreme left elements,
Robespierre cannot count on secure support from the sans culottes. He
wants, at all costs, to remain in the middle of the left, incorruptibly. He then
attacks his companions who had a position closer to the moderate
right; as an example, we have the execution of Danton. Robespierre, during
the Jacobin dictatorship, achieved a series of successes: he
liquidated the counter-revolution in the Vendée and obtained several
victories against the external enemies of the revolution (among these
enemies were not only Prussia and Austria, but also powerful England);
accelerates the processes of the second terror, which executes
several counter-revolutionaries by guillotine. But the problem persisted.
Robespierre took some measures that seemed anti-popular to the
people, and others that displeased the bourgeoisie (such as, for
example, the fact that there was no freedom of trade). There was a
conspiracy. The financial upper bourgeoisie, which, in its opportunist
position within the plains party, managed to survive the period of
terror, conspired against the Jacobin government. Robespierre
appeals to the sans culottes in order to save his government. But where
were the leaders who could mobilize them? All executed. The Jacobin
government was alone. The Thermidorian reaction: the coup of the 9th
of Thermidor On July 27, 1794 (9 of Thermidor, according to the
new revolutionary calendar), when another meeting of the Convention
began, Robespierre and his supporters were prevented from speaking,
and against them arrest was immediately ordered. Their supporters still
made a desperate attempt to save them, calling on the sans culottes to
demonstrate publicly and take up arms against the coup d'état that was
being carried out. But few heeded their pleas. The plains party led the
coup. The upper bourgeoisie, which had supported the rule of the popular Jacobin governm
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it worked without stopping: all elements that could exercise some leadership among
the people were summarily executed. Young people from rich families
organized themselves into gangs to persecute all those considered suspected of
revolutionary activities. What was this anti-popular movement doing? "Financiers,
bankers, ammunition dealers, moneylenders previously contained by the Terror
returned to pre-eminence, while the nobles, the big bourgeoisie and also the
émigrés resumed the worldly tradition of the Old Regime. And thus the new
bourgeoisie began to be formed by the fusion of old ruling classes and men
enriched in speculation (...) and supplies of "The new government hurries to take a
in the series of measures for war. safeguard their interests: restore slavery
colonies (it had previously been abolished), end the Law of the Maximum, which
regulated the prices of goods (now, goods could be sold at the highest prices
possible), and prohibits singing Marseille, the anthem of the revolution, in the
streets.

Fourth phase - The Directory

In September 1795, the new Constitution was prepared. The Revolutionary

Convention disappeared and gave way to a type of government exercised by a
Directory, composed of five members representing the executive power, and two
Chambers; one of them was the Council of Elders, and the other, the Council of
Five Hundred, both representing the legislative branch. The Directory government
suppressed the universal vote, implemented by the Convention, and reestablished
the census vote. This means that all the efforts made by the majority of the French
people were taken advantage of by the new rich classes.

The Directory’s internal policy

Internally, the Directory's policy was entirely aimed at the new rich classes.
Trade was completely free and unrestricted, meaning that the poor sectors of the
population bore the brunt of rising prices and inflation. Corruption had
become almost official. The upper bourgeoisie played unrestrainedly
on the stock market to earn ever greater profits. Some former Jacobin militants, led
by Gracus Babeuf, expressed their dissatisfaction in the newspaper A Tribuna do
Povo, owned by the leader. This newspaper called for the return of the 1793
Constitution and the end of privileges. He also asked that what was proposed in the
Declaration of Men's Rights not remain just on paper, as until then. Babeuf begins
to conspire and organize a major popular rebellion to take power and establish a
more just and free society.
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privileges. However, one of its military agents denounced the Conjuration of

Equals (the movement known as this). On May 1, 1796, immediately, Babeuf and his
companion Buonarotti were arrested. After a year, Babeuf was sentenced to death by
guillotine. This attempt to establish a popular government in France was violently
repressed by the enriched upper classes.

The Directory's foreign policy

This policy was guided by the attempt to defeat France's enemies and, if possible,
increase French dominions in Europe, in an attempt to annex the conquered territories,
mainly to the east (parts of current Germany up to the River Rhine) and to the south
( the annexation of a region called Lombardy, in northern Italy). The soldier in
charge of these annexations was the young and skilled General Napoleon Bonaparte,
who perfectly fulfilled the expansionist mission, already outlined in this new phase of
capitalism. Napoleon guaranteed all these territories to the Directory government
by signing a treaty with Austria, in the city of Campo Fórmio, in which the latter
recognized France's right to take over these regions in exchange for other
concessions.

18th Brumaire - the coup in the name of the bourgeoisie

The situation was extremely serious. The bourgeoisie, in general, terrified of

instability, forgot its ideals of freedom, preached a few years earlier, and thought of
a strong government, a dictatorship, if necessary, to restore law and order, to reestablish
the conditions for winning money in a safe way. Everyone knew that the only
person who could exercise a government of this type had to be an element of popular
prestige and at the same time strong enough to maintain the stability demanded
by the bourgeoisie with an iron fist.
At that moment, the person who met these conditions was the young general who
had already brought so many glories to France (and even more were yet to be
achieved): Napoleon Bonaparte. On November 10, 1799 (18 Brumaire, according
to the revolutionary calendar), Napoleon returns from Egypt, and, with the support of
two other politicians, they dissolve the Directory and establish a government known
as The Consulate.

The government of Napoleon Bonaparte (1799-1814)

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It was after the coup of the 18th Brumaire, November 9, 1799, that
Napoleon Bonaparte took over the French government. His arrival to power
meant the solution to the disturbances of a previous government that
oscillated between the terrorist threat and the monarchist threat. The
administrative reforms implemented in the Napoleonic period were one of
the most durable aspects of the government. Measures that were
implemented at that time remain in French administration to this day. The
administrative reshuffle centralized the government under the aegis of
Paris. In the political aspect, everything led us to believe that French
society was actually faced with a poorly disguised autocracy. The
Civil Code established in 1804 was responsible for establishing the
characteristics of modern French society and also served as an
example for several European States that were inspired by it, adopting its
principles and reproducing its provisions. As a statesman, Napoleon
ratified the redistribution of land carried out by the Revolution, allowing
the average peasant to continue to be an independent farmer, reforming
the tax system, founding the French Bank with the aim of exercising
greater control over tax affairs. Public works, draining swamps,
building bridges and networks of roads and canals, were carried out mainly
with military objectives as well as to win the support of the bourgeoisie.
Education deserved special attention from the emperor, who installed public elementary sch

Napoleon Bonaparte's foreign policy was marked by the end of traditional

diplomacy based mainly on dynastic alliances, marriage
agreements or the convenience of sovereigns. During the period in which
he was at the head of the French government, he faced numerous wars,
which resulted in important changes in the direction of history.
contemporary, provoking the anger and opposition of conservative and
reactionary forces represented by the Holy Alliance. Using the example of
the war of conquest and imperial exploitation, we highlight a fundamental
conflict that altered European relations, during the period in question,
between France and Great Britain, reflecting on European commercial
policy. On November 21, 1806, the French government decreed a
continental blockade, denying neutrals access to French ports and
prohibiting the introduction of all British products on the continent.
This measure was justified by Napoleon's desire to eliminate his main
competitor to achieve total commercial dominance in European
markets as well as control of colonial and overseas markets. This entire
situation, internally and externally, gave rise to the Napoleonic myth, the
"little corporal" as it was called by its aficionados, and Bonapartism, a
doctrine preached by those who were in favor of the imperial model
established by Napoleon in France. However, it cannot be denied that
Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed the legacy of the Jacobin Revolution, inspired by the dream
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abortive of France." (...)"Bonaparte practiced a parricidal betrayal,

perverting the powers entrusted to him as a republican magistrate, to
achieve the subversion of the republic and the institution of a military despotism
for his benefit and that of your family. If he had honestly exercised his
powers to establish and strengthen a free government in his country, France
would now enjoy liberty and repose, and, his example having acted directly,
every nation of Europe would benefit from a regime under which the will of the
people would exercise a certain amount of control. Their atrocious selfishness
blocked the healthy progress of the princes and flooded them with rivers of
blood that have not yet been exhausted. And there is still much to add to the
considerable amount of devastation and misery for which it was responsible..."(...)

Biographies of the Main Revolutionaries

DANTON, Georges-Jacques
(1759-1794) - Modest lawyer before the Revolution, he adhered to it from
the first moments. He founded the Cordeliers Club. He was one of the main
architects of the August 10 insurrection and was appointed Minister of Justice.
Some hold him responsible for the September massacres. Elected at the
Convention, he was sent on a mission to Belgium. Back in Paris, he voted for the
king's death, despite initially appearing to try to spare him. In April 1793 he
joined the Public Health Committee, from which he was removed in July.
Seeking to resist the Terror, he became, together with Desmoulins, the
head of the Indulgents, against Robespierre and his followers. Arrested on
March 30, 1794, he was sentenced to death and guillotined on April 5.
CONCEPT: Justice

WITH:18
FR:17
DEX:16
AGI:16
INT:17
WILL:18
PER:14
CAR:12

ROBESPIERRE, Maximilien- Marie Isidoro

(1758-1794) - He began early to transform himself into a mask or puppet.
First, the monster. The White Terror, with its massacres, fixed its appearance.
Then, the specter also came for the late heirs of the Jacobins.
"Robespierre is wandering" - der Robespierre geht um - was the refrain of the
Strasbourg proletarians at the end of the last century. The caricature
of the Incorruptible, the icy rationalist, the fanatical ideologue, was already created in the years
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of the Empire.
The ability to reduce history to melodrama is not limited to a century of films, through all
the nuances of the sordid, up to Wajda's Danton. It also happened through the poetic reading
(traitor of the revolutionary passion of its ferocious scenes) of The Death of Danton, by
Georg Bucbner, 1830. At least, the German neo-Nazi students who, around 1950,
prevented a staging of The Death of Danton, they had understood what it was about. Since
then, Danton's mask, with its "sanguine humanity", as it is still written today, has
functioned as a symbolic antithesis, for many uses, to that of Robespierre - the repressed,
the sadistic, the glacial lover of virtue, dominated and seduced by the "atrocious and
theatrical" Saint-Just, as Chateaubriand called him (who, it must be said, did not lack
the meaning of adjectives).

CONCEPT: Tough

WITH:14
FR:14
DEX:12
AGI:12
INT:16
WILL:14
PER:17
CAR:07

LOUIS XVI
(1754-1793) - Louis XVI was an amateur locksmith, shy, myopic, too influenceable
and irresolute. I could begin the portrait of the king with this sentence, but I would be
deceiving the reader, even though it is true that his favorite pastime was dismantling locks,
By privileging this description it would be misleading and caricature. Louis XVI was actually
a well-intentioned and ill-advised king.

He married Marie Antoinette at the age of 16 and received the crown at the age of 20 in 1774.
It immediately meets the wishes of the reformers and almost contradicts the phrase
attributed to his recently deceased grandfather Louis XV: After me, the flood! “The young
king calls a minister who wants to abolish privileges and servitudes: Turgot, an upright
and competent man and, a little known fact, a precursor of Ricardo and modern liberal
economic science, But Turgot is messing with some court perks, the conservative
nobles and the clerical party.
They intrigue him to lose the king's trust. And they succeed; Luís dismisses Turgot
with less than two years in the ministry. The court does not know that if they refuse the ring
they will lose their finger or their head.
The King of France appoints another minister of progress, the Protestant banker Necker,
a very popular man among what we would call civil society today.
Necker also wants reforms, although more timid than Turgot's and comes up against
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in the reactionary faction of the Versailles court. By dismissing Necker (1781), the
king lost the support of those who held out hope for changes from above.
The next ministers, Calonne and finally Brienne, do not have the stature of
the first ones nor do they bother the court with their pharaonic expenses and
perks. However, before 1789, Louis XVI took humanist measures such as the
abolition of torture and full civil rights for Protestants. He also enhanced
France's external prestige with military aid to North American revolutionaries.
England was defeated on land and at sea and some nobles even joked about giving
French names to the streets of London, which would easily be taken. But in
Brienne's government the harsh reality appears: there is no more money in the
royal coffers, only debts.
It has been said that the French Revolution was the victory of the toga-wearing
nobility over the sword-wearing nobility and this is a fact, at least in the beginning.
Lawyers, magistrates, members of municipal parliaments are in open conflict with the power of the
monarch.

To obtain more taxes and defuse discontent, Louis XVI recalls Necker (1788)
and promises to convene the famous States General, a measure that the French
monarchy had not taken for two centuries. The Estates General are the meeting
of the three orders or Estates (today we would say classes) of society since the
Middle Ages: the noble who fights, the clergy who prays and the peasant (Third
Estate) who works. Louis XVI regains popularity by decreeing that the Third
Estate will have as many representatives (400) as the clergy and nobility
combined. But he does not know how to take advantage of the situation to
guide the elections or propose any reform program to the deputies.
In 1789, with the meeting of the States General, the French Revolution began and
Louis XVI was soon overcome by the importance of the events. He wants to
empty the States General due to the lack of topics and measures to be taken,
but it is too late, the deputies have already become aware of their strength and
proclaim themselves the National Assembly and then the Constituent Assembly.
Necker is fired in a useless provocation to the Parisians who take the Bastille
and discover 50 thousand rifles in the Invalides building. Despite the “revolutionary”
days, the king is still popular in Paris, but he almost constantly harms or
embarrasses his supporters and favors their most radical enemies. A handful of
nobles linked to the queen will make him want to adopt the worst policy.
The king refuses to sign the Declaration of Human Rights and other measures of
the Assembly. A crowd of angry Parisians brings him semi-prisoner from
Versailles to Paris in October 1789. However, Louis still has many trump cards: the
vast majority of revolutionaries want to maintain the monarchy as a
moderating power. Mirabeau and La Fayette are your allies. On the first
anniversary of July 14, the king swears allegiance to the new Constitution
and is acclaimed by Parisians and national guards sent to the ceremony from
all corners of France. Luís made the mistake of not conforming to the
constitutional monarchy and his conscience seems to have been disturbed by the question of
Machine Translated by Google

civil oath that the Revolution demands from priests. His hope now is the
repression of his own people by foreign kings. He will try to escape to the
French and Austrian royalist armies to return to power with them: it is the
clumsy escape from Varennes (June 1791), when a tavern keeper and a
postal employee recognize and arrest the king of France. Louis XVI definitively
lost his popularity. But he's still king. Many members of the Assembly
want to maintain the monarch as a symbol and against the most radical
egalitarian tendencies. And once again the king will conspire against his own
interests.
He proposes to the Assembly the declaration of war on Austria (April 1792)
with the hope of seeing the revolutionaries defeated. Prussia joins Austria and
the war begins as expected, with defeats for the French. But history changes
in Valmy, the great victory of
freedom about which Goethe prophesies:
"Today a new epoch begins for the
world”. And the king of the French
is now considered a traitor, the
accomplice of the enemies of
the Fatherland, deposed and a prisoner in Paris.
The Legislative Assembly gives way
to the more radical Convention that
tries the citizen Luís Capeto and
sentences him to death by a
narrow majority. Luís impressed with
his dignity and courage, but
was not convincing when he
systematically denied the accusations.
Even the last peasant in the confines
of Russia will know: the French guillotined
their king. The monarchy based
on divine will has its days numbered, the popular will will prevail.
CONCEPT: Command

WITH:15
FR:13
DEX:12
AGI:13
INT:12
WILL:12
PER:08
CAR:10
Machine Translated by Google

MARAT, Jean Paul

(1743-1793) – Doctor of the Count d'Artois's guards, founded in September
1789 L'ami du Peuple, a newspaper with violently revolutionary tones
that inaugurated the language of Terror and was widely disseminated
among the popular classes. Member of the Cordeliers Club, elected deputy
at the Convention, he embodied the bloodthirsty spirit of the Revolution.
Chateaubriand defined him as the “Caligula of the crossroads”. Victor Hugo as
“Ruin Official”, Louis Blanc as “King of the Huns”. Ferocious enemies of the
Girodinos, he promoted their downfall. He was murdered by Charlotte Corday
on July 13, 1793, while he was immersed in his bathtub. An inflammatory
dermatosis forced him to take frequent and long baths. After his death, he
was the object of popular worship and celebration as one of the martyrs of the Revolution.
CONCEPT: Justice

WITH:14
FR:12
DEX:12
AGI:13
INT:18
WILL:18
PER:16
CAR:17

BONAPARTE, Napoleon
(1769-1821) - One of the most famous generals of contemporary times and an
extraordinary statesman born in Ajaccio, Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean
under the administration of France, since the year of his birth, who left lasting
marks on the institutions of France. France and much of western Europe.
Son of a poor family, but owner of a title of nobility from the Republic of
Genoa, he studied at the military academy in Brienne and Paris, leaving as
an artillery officer (1785). He joined the French Revolution (1789), joined the
Jacobins, served as a lieutenant in the newly created national guard and became
one of the main strategists of the new system of mass warfare. He had a
meteoric career and stood out for his originality in military campaigns.
Artillery captain in the recapture of Toulon from the English and was
promoted brigadier general (1793), the youngest general in the French Army.
After the fall of Robespierre he was arrested on charges of being a Jacobin,
but was later tasked with directing the repression of the royalist uprising in Paris (1795).
He married Josefina (1796), widow of the guillotined general (1794)
Beauharnais, and became commander-in-chief of the Army in the campaigns in
Italy, against the Austrians (1795-1797), and in Egypt, against the English (1796-
1799). During the occupation of Egypt (1798), the scientific expedition that
Machine Translated by Google

accompanied included the astronomer Laplace, the chemist Bertholet, the

physicist Monge and the archaeologist Denon. In archaeological research,
the Rosetta stone was discovered, a fragment of a stele, a type of black basalt
monolith, which presents a decree from Ptolemy V, in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek characters
C.), which Champollion would use to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics (1822)
and is on display at the British Museum, in London. He led a coup d'état
(1799), established the Consulate and had himself elected consul general,
supported by a popular plebiscite. He promulgated a Constitution with a
democratic appearance. He organized the government, administration, police,
judiciary and finance. He took despotic and anti-liberal measures, such as the
reestablishment of slavery in the colonies, and others of great economic
importance, such as the creation of the Bank of France (1800). He concluded
the concordat with Pope Pius VII (1801), which reestablished the church in France,
although subject to the state. He created the Legion of Honor and the new
civil code, later called Code Napoléon, drawn up by a commission of
jurists with the active participation of the first consul. This far-reaching measure
became the greatest legal achievement of modern times, embodied the
principles defended by the French revolution and profoundly influenced the
legislation of all countries in the 19th century. The reestablishment of order
and peace, as well as frustrated attacks by monarchists, increased his
popularity, which he skillfully used to have himself proclaimed consul for life
by plebiscite (1802). He crowned himself king of Italy (1805), divorced Empress
Josephine (1809) and married Maria Luísa, daughter of the Austrian emperor. In
a permanent war against neighboring powers, he faced a coalition of all European
powers and was defeated at Leipzig (1813). After a disastrous campaign
in Russia, he was defeated by the allied armies opposing the French and forced
to abdicate (1814). He went into exile on the island of Elba, on the west coast of
Italy. The following year he organized an army and tried to restore the monarchy,
but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, in Belgium (1815). This period
became known as the Government of the Hundred Days. Arrested by the English, he was deported
CONCEPT: Warrior

WITH:15
FR:16
DEX:15
AGI:16
INT:17
WILL:17
PER:15
CAR:16

ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques
Machine Translated by Google

(1712-1778) - French-speaking Swiss philosopher and novelist. Considered the

most radical representative of the Enlightenment and one of the ideologues of
the French Revolution. Born in Geneva. Orphaned by his mother, he was abandoned by
his father at the age of 10 and placed in the care of a shepherd. In 1728 he went to Annecy, France.
He moved to Paris 13 years later, where he became friends with the philosopher
Denis Diderot and wrote for the Encyclopedia. In Discourse on the Origin of
Inequality among Men (1755), he states that man is born good and without vices –
the noble savage –, but is perverted by civilized society. In his best-known work,
The Social Contract (1762), he defends a State based on democracy and focused on
the common good and the general will. He is the first to attribute sovereignty to the
people. It preaches freedom, equality and fraternity, a motto adopted by the
French Revolution. He also writes novels, such as Júlia or Nova Heloísa, which are
very successful, treatises on music and an opera, O Adivinho da Aldeia. His ideas
cause controversy with other thinkers and French authorities. Forced to leave the
country, he went into exile in England, but returned to Paris in 1770. He later moved
to the castle of the Marquis de Girardin, in Ermenonville, where he died.

CONCEPT: Citizen

WITH:15
FR:14
DEX:16
AGI:13
INT:17
WILL:17
PER:13
CAR:16

On this Net
Book there are no skills because at that time the type of weaponry is not defined, and so that
some have skills and others we don't leave it up to you to create them yourself.