French Revolution Key Facts

The French Revolution was a time of turmoil that lasted from 1787 to 1799. Its first climax was in 1789, so the event is often called the “Revolution of 1789,” distinguishing it from later French revolutions in 1830 and 1848.

At the end of the 18th century feudal regimes had weakened or completely disappeared across Europe. Wealthy commoners—merchants, manufacturers, and professionals—aspired to political power. This new class was often called the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie increasingly resented being excluded from the highest levels of power in France. At the same time peasants were less and less willing to support the remnants of the feudal system.

Higher standards of living in Europe had reduced the adult mortality rate, contributing to a population explosion. This rapid growth was especially felt in France, which was the most populated country of Europe in 1789.

France’s participation in the American Revolution came at a heavy price, as the country was on the edge of bankruptcy. This and other economic difficulties, compounded by crop failures in 1788, hit the peasant class especially hard.

Enlightenment ideas of the 17th and 18th centuries included arguments for social reform. Philosophes—intellectuals whose writings inspired these arguments—included Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Their ideas circulated among the educated classes of France.

One Enlightenment idea was the rejection of the divine right of kings. No longer considering the French monarchs ordained by God, people were more likely to criticize them. King Louis XVI, a weak and ineffective ruler, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, lived in supreme luxury, a sharp contrast to the lives of most in France.

In 1787 the controller general of finances, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, arranged for an assembly of notable citizens to propose financial reforms. He hoped to eliminate France’s budget deficit by increasing taxation on the privileged classes. The assembly did not want to take responsibility for the reforms and instead suggested the calling of the Estates-General. This representative assembly included the three “estates” of society: the clergy (First Estate), nobility (Second Estate), and the Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people. The Estates-General had not met since 1614.

There was unrest among the people in 1788, and Louis XVI had to yield and promise to convene the Estates-General. He also relaxed restrictions on the press, and pamphlets arguing for the reconstruction of the state circulated.

The Estates-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789, and immediately ran into an impasse, disagreeing on whether it should vote by head (thereby giving the advantage to the Third Estate) or by estate (in which case the two privileged orders might outvote the third). On June 17 the struggle over the issue drove representatives of the Third Estate to declare themselves the National Assembly and threaten to proceed, if necessary, without the other two orders. Some clergy members joined them. Royal officials locked them out of the regular meeting hall on June 20, so they instead occupied the king’s indoor tennis court and swore not to disperse until they had given France a new constitution—an agreement known as the Tennis Court Oath. The king gave in and encouraged the nobles and the remaining clergy to join the assembly, which took the official title of National Constituent Assembly. At the same time, however, he began gathering troops to dissolve it.

All the political maneuverings at a time of scarce food supplies infuriated the people. Rumors spread about the aristocracy and the king planning to overthrow the Third Estate. The gathering of troops around Paris provoked insurrection in the capital. On July 14 a crowd of Parisians seized the Bastille, a prison that symbolized royal tyranny to them.

On August 26 the National Constituent Assembly introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This document shared characteristics with the U.S. Declaration of Independence and included Enlightenment ideas about liberty, equality, the inviolability of property, and the right to resist oppression. The king refused to sanction it, and another Parisian crowd marched to Versailles, where it seized the royal family and brought them back to Paris.

The National Constituent Assembly established civil equality among French men and made more than half the adult male population eligible to vote. The assembly also made sweeping administrative reforms and nationalized the lands of the Roman Catholic Church to pay off public debt and attempted to reorganize the church, enacting the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which was rejected by the pope.

The National Constituent Assembly attempted to create a regime in which legislative and executive powers were shared between the monarch and the assembly. Louis XVI was unwilling to work with the assembly and tried to flee the country, only to be caught and brought back to Paris.

Many European leaders grew concerned about the events in France. They did not want the revolutionary principles to spread to their countries. In France, both radicals, eager to spread the principles of the Revolution, and the king, hopeful that war would either strengthen his authority or allow foreign armies to rescue him, supported an aggressive policy. France declared war against Austria on April 20, 1792. Prussia and Great Britain soon joined forces with Austria against France. Meanwhile, the revolutionaries occupied the Tuileries Palace, where the royal family was living, and imprisoned them.

On September 20, 1792, a new assembly, the National Convention, met. The next day it abolished the monarchy and established the republic of France. Louis XVI was executed for treason on January 21, 1793. Marie-Antoinette was also executed by guillotine nine months later.

The National Convention was divided between the Girondins, who wanted to organize a bourgeois republic in France, and the Montagnards, who wanted to give the lower classes a greater share in political and economic power. The Montagnards were strengthened by reverses in France’s war with Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain, and the Girondins (who were blamed for the military losses) were driven from the National Convention.

The Montagnards taxed the rich, brought national assistance to the poor and to the disabled, and confiscated and sold the property of anyone who had emigrated from France. They were also aligned with a radical political organization called the Jacobin Club. The Jacobins made enemies of anyone who had opposed the execution of the king and who disagreed with their redistribution of wealth. In response to opposition to their economic reorganizations, the Jacobins instituted a Reign of Terror from September 1793 to July 1794. The Committee of Public Safety, which included Maximilien Robespierre as one of its leaders, had dictatorial control over the government. Over the course of just a few months, 17,000 supposed enemies of the revolution were executed, often without trial, and perhaps 10,000 more died in prison.

The revolution had awakened French nationalism, and ultimately the revolutionary government was able to raise an army of more than one million men, allowing it to achieve a decisive victory against Austrian-led forces at the Battle of Fleurus in June 1794. By that time the French people had begun to tire of the Reign of Terror. When Robespierre showed no signs of stopping the bloodshed, the rest of the National Convention took matters into their own hands. Robespierre was arrested and sent to the guillotine on July 28. More moderate leaders began to govern France. The National Convention wrote another constitution and then dissolved.

The constitution that the National Convention had approved established a bourgeois republic, with executive power belonging to a Directory of five members and legislative power resting in two chambers of an assembly. However, unrest still surged through the country, and the Directory was unable to maintain control of the government. On November 9, 1799, military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who was commander of France’s armies, organized a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and naming himself first consul, or leader of France.