Reign of Terrors the Transition

Reign of Terrors

The transition from the first phase of the French Revolution, roughly from 1789 to 1792, to its second phase, from 1792 to the fall of Robespierre in 1794, marks the transformation of the Revolution from an attempt to build a constitutional monarchy to a radical attempt to build a leftist state. This radicalization marked not only the demise of the king, but also a build-up campaign of hate against the clergy and the aristocracy as the forces of the people were unleashed and dully controlled by the Jacobins and the Commune.

The aim of this paper is to compare the two phases of the revolution, identify the main revolutionaries who played a role in both phases and determine what encouraged this radicalization process. It will also attempt to analyze the causes of the ideology shift and whether it was worth the cause in the end, depending on the objectives that each political fractions had.

The French Revolution official start date is marked by history as 14th of July, the date when the Parisians stormed the Bastille and released the prisoners inside, destroyed the prison afterwards. The act had obviously a political and symbolical significance as an act of the people against a monarchic and absolute symbol (fewer than ten prisoners were found inside).

It was also an expression of the accumulated anger of the people, whose economic situation had steadily worsened throughout the 18th centuries. The causes for this can go anywhere from France's disastrous military and political approach in Europe, which had aimed to consolidate its power status on the continent, but had in fact led to the loss of several wars at huge costs, to the increase in taxes for the lower classes. The financial crisis that had become more dramatic in the previous couple of years was an additional cause and had made the King convene the Estates General as a mechanism in which a solution could be found to the growing economic problems. The Estates General had quickly transformed themselves in the National Assembly, a body gathering mainly representatives of the third estate and representing the people.

Under pressure from the citizens, the king was forced to move from Versailles to Paris and to legitimize the National Assembly. By this time, France was growing along the lines of a parliamentarian monarchy, with the National Assembly growing as any national Parliament and being divided along the political spectrum from right (generally the monarchic conservatives) through the center (the national party, represented by Mirabeau) and towards the left, where Robespierre was gathering party members along somewhat more radical lines.

By this time, the King was coming under pressure from the growing representative regime and was probably less willing to give up some of his monarchic powers. The correspondence between the King and several other European monarchs, discovered as proof of his treason later on, showed that he was tacitly encouraging the deposition of the new form of government in France and military intervention in the country.

His attempted escape to Varennes together with his family was the last part of the phase in which the evolution of things was encouraging the apparition of a form of constitutional monarchy in France. With this act, the King had lost the trust of his people and of much of the politicians with whom he was supposed to be working together to solve the problems in France.

With the passing of the Constitution in 1791, the King still remained the head of state, but with reduced powers. However, his constitutional prerogative of the veto would cause frictions in his relationship with the Legislative Assembly. He refused to accept the fact that emigres could potentially be tried and executed, as well as the fact that the clergy had to adopt secular positions.

This leads us to several causes of the radicalization that splits the evolution of the French Revolution in two different phases. With the flight to Varennes, the king had lost the support of the people and, additionally, he was now seen as someone collaborating with the foreign forces to overthrow the democratic development in France. At the same time, with Austria and Prussia declaring war on France in early 1792, the king was in a difficult position, because he was supporting these countries as direct help for his monarchy, but could not do so openly.

The fear that grew in France with the beginning of the war and the anxiety surrounding the development of the situation was probably one of the main causes that led people to embrace a more open radical leftist position. Many of the conservatives and those who supported the monarchy began to be seen as enemies of France and politicians who would compromise with the monarchic forces at any time. The revolution did not seem to have moved so much from the way things were in 1789 and had not brought the expected changes.

This type of environment made easy for the Jacobins, radical leftist, coagulated around Robespierre and Marat, to mobilize the population into overthrowing the monarchy and, later on, consolidating a terror reign that lasted up to 1794. The first step of the radicalization process is the assault on Tuileries, in August1792 and continued with the abolition of the monarchy, on September 21, 1792. The judgment and execution of the king on January 21, 1793 provoked the rest of Europe and ensured that the many of the rest of the countries on the continent would form coalitions against France.

In order to face this threat, the only potential instrument was to adopt the "levee en masse," which meant that every citizen would serve the country for the completion of the war and the final victory in every way possible. The levee en masse allowed the French government to throw into battle armies that were numerically superior to those of the enemies, although they were less prepared to fight.

With the creation of the Committee of Public Safety, under the control of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Girondins, a more moderate faction, were removed from power and the Reign of Terror was formally adopted as the way to fight both the enemies inside and those outside. The Law of Suspects creates the legal basis for the Reign of Terror and for the fight against the enemies within the boundaries of the country. If we are to have a look at the main political fractions dominating the Reign of Terror, from center to the far right, we find the Girondins, republicans in their beliefs, who rule until June 1793, when they fall from power and are tried and executed in October.

With their fall, the power remains in the hands of Robespierre, Danton and Marat, who, basing their power on the sans-culottes, to which populist figures like Danton and Marat appeal, are able to hold on to their power until their final fall in July 1794. At the very far left, we find the enragees, grouped around Hebert and Jacques Roux.