Fernando Alcoforado*
On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution represented a turning point in human history with the end of the Modern Age and the beginning of the Contemporary Age. It was such an important event that its ideals influenced various movements around the world. The French Revolution had great participation of the marginalized population (bankers, big businesspersons, merchants, liberal professionals, artisans, merchants, apprentices of crafts, wage earners, unemployed and peasants) in the fight against the tyranny exercised by the monarchical regime of France. Influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that emerged during the 18th century in Europe, which defended the use of reason against the old regime and preached greater economic and political freedom, the French people began to revolt and fight for the equality of all before the law. They fought, among other things, against monarchical absolutism and the privileges of the nobility and the Church. Meanwhile, the French economy was going through an unprecedented crisis. One of the main causes of the French Revolution was the financial crisis that hit the country as a result of the expenses that France assumed with its participation (and defeat) in the Seven Years’ War and the War of Independence of the United States of America, in addition to the high costs of the Court of Louis XVI that left France’s finances in a state of bankruptcy.
The French Revolution was mainly motivated by growing social inequality, the devastating economic crisis and the endemic hunger suffered by the vast majority of the population. The French Revolution was a social and political movement whose main objective was to overthrow the Ancien Régime and establish a democratic State that represented and guaranteed the rights of all citizens. The Parisian population took to the streets of the city to fight against this situation on July 12, 1789. King Louis XVI tried to react, but the people remained united, taking over the streets. The revolutionaries’ slogan was “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. The popular unrest did not subside and, on July 14, the people continued with their uprising, first attacking the Arsenal of the Invalides and then promoting the fall of the Bastille, which was an old fortress that had been transformed into a prison for the political opponents of the French kings.
With the news of the fall of the Bastille, the revolution spread throughout France, precipitating transformations in the country and leading thousands of people, in the cities and in the countryside, to rebel against the French aristocracy and against the Ancien Régime. On August 26, 1789, the National Constituent Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, whose main points were: 1) respect for the dignity of people; 2) freedom and equality of citizens before the law; 3) right to individual property; 4) right to resist political oppression; and, 5) freedom of thought and opinion. In 1790, the Constituent Assembly reduced the power of the clergy by confiscating several Church lands and put the clergy under the authority of the state.
In 1791, the Constitution made by the members of the Constituent Assembly was completed. The main topics of this Constitution were the following: 1) Legal equality between individuals; 2) End of clergy and nobility privileges; 3) Freedom of production and trade (without state interference); 4) Prohibition of strikes; 5) Freedom of belief; 6) Separation of State from Church; 7) Nationalization of clergy goods; and, 8) Three powers created (Legislative, Executive and Judiciary). King Louis XVI did not accept the loss of power and began to plot against the revolution. For this he contacted the support of émigré nobles and monarchs from Austria and Prussia (who also felt threatened). The goal of the counterrevolutionaries was to organize an army that would invade France and restore absolute monarchy. In 1791, Louis XVI wanted to join the counterrevolutionaries and tried to flee France, but he was recognized and arrested in Varennes.
In 1792, the Austro-Prussian army invaded France, but was defeated by French troops at the Battle of Valmy. This victory gave new strength to the French revolutionaries and this fact led the leaders of the revolution to decide to proclaim the Republic on September 22, 1792. With the proclamation of the Republic, the Constituent Assembly was replaced by the National Convention whose mission was to elaborate a new Constitution for France. At that time, the main revolutionary political forces that stood out the most were the following: 1) Girondins composed of the upper bourgeoisie were moderates and led by Danton; and, 2) Jacobins constituted by the bourgeoisie (small and middle) and proletariat of Paris were radicals and defended the interests of the people and were led by Robespierre and Saint-Just who preached the condemnation of the king to death. Even against the will of the Girondins, Louis XVI was tried and guillotined in January 1793.
The king’s death brought a series of problems such as internal revolts and a reorganization of foreign absolutist forces. To deal with these problems, the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal (responsible for the guillotine death of many people who were considered traitors to the revolutionary cause) were created. This period became known as “Terror”. A Jacobin dictatorship begins, led by Robespierre. During his government, he sought to balance himself between various political tendencies, some more identified with the upper bourgeoisie and others closer to the aspirations of the popular strata. Robespierre achieved some significant achievements, mainly in the military sector: the French army managed to repel the attack of foreign forces. During Robespierre’s government, the new Constitution of the Republic (1793) was in force, which guaranteed the people: 1) the right to vote; 2) right of rebellion; 3) right to work and subsistence; and, 4) it contained a statement that the aim of government was the common good and happiness of all.
After the period designated by historians as the Reign of Terror in which citizens’ guarantees were suspended and the Mountain faction of the Jacobin party murdered and persecuted their opponents, some Girondins survived and organized themselves in articulating a coup. On July 27, 1794, the date known as 9 Thermidor by the calendar of the French Revolution, Robespierre and his party were overthrown in an agile maneuver by the National Convention. The leaders of the Jacobin party and Robespierre were guillotined. In this way, representatives of the upper bourgeoisie took power, initiating a reflux of the revolutionary movement. This episode is called the Thermidorian reaction representing one of the final stages of the French Revolution.
After Robespierre’s death, the National Convention decided to draft another Constitution for France when, in the elections, universal suffrage was annulled and the majority of the population was once again politically marginalized. With this, several uprisings arise in France that were severely fought. With the succession of popular conflicts, the way was opened for the generals to assume power. In 1793, the French army was considered the largest in all of Europe in which General Napoleon Bonaparte stood out. During this period, France again received threats from neighboring absolutist nations, aggravating the situation. After a respectable victory against Austria, Napoleon gained considerable prestige in French society. Then, when he returned to France, Napoleon staged a coup d’état that lasted between 1799 and 1802. With that, a period of dictatorial political order began in France. On 11/10/1799, Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Directory and established a new government called the Consulate. With that, he consolidated the conquests of the bourgeoisie putting an end to the initial purposes of the revolution.
It appears from the above that the French Revolution marked the rise of the bourgeoisie as the dominant social class, overcoming the land-owning aristocracy, as well as the creation of new institutions and new ways of organizing economic, political and social life that would expand to the entire planet. With the French Revolution, capitalism broke through the feudal political obstacles that still prevailed in Western Europe, joining the economic transformations triggered by the Industrial Revolution. The French Revolution represented the end of the privileges of the aristocracy and the liberation of peasants from the bonds of servitude that bound them to the nobility and clergy. In the cities, the feudal corporations that limited the business of the bourgeoisie ended. The concept of nationalism and the recruitment of citizens of all classes into the army were one of the influences of the French Revolution. The model of technical and scientific organization, in addition to the metric system of measurements (meter, centimeter, decimeter, etc.), was another contribution developed during this period by the French Revolution.
The ideals of the French Revolution came to an end with the overthrow by the bourgeoisie of the Jacobin government under the leadership of Robespierre, who radicalized in the fight against the enemies of the revolution and in the defense of the country’s interests against external aggression and culminated in the implantation of the Bonapartist dictatorship. Despite this political setback with the Bonapartist dictatorship, the ideals of the French Revolution contributed to the fall of absolutism in Europe and proliferated around the world, constituting the flag of countless revolutionary movements that took place in several countries that culminated, including, with the Independence of several countries from South America. In 1794, for example, enslaved Africans working on Haiti’s sugar cane fields achieved the end of slavery after a bloody war of independence against French colonialism. It was the first country on the American continent to put an end to slavery. In Brazil, the Conjuração Baiana (or Revolta dos Alfaiates) of 1798 and the 2nd of July of 1823 with the Independence of Brazil in Bahia were also strongly influenced by the events of the French Revolution. The ideals of the French Revolution of freedom, equality and fraternity among human beings still mobilize many peoples around the world, especially in the contemporary era, with the resurgence of fascism, including in Brazil. Long vie à la France. Vive la Révolution française.
REFERENCES
ALCOFORADO, FERNANDO. As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo. Curitiba: Editora CRV, 2016.
GAXOTTE, Pierre. La Révolution Française. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1957.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 82, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and IPB – Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021).
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