Lecture notes: The French Revolution
1. Antecedents.
(a) Ideological,
1. Traditional Classicism (of use of Bible during English Revolution).
2. English Materialism. 1600, Bacon. 1660, Hobbes, 1670, Locke.
3. French Encyclopaedists. “Reasoned System of All Human Knowledge,” Diderot, Social- historical viewpoint. Complete scepticism.
4. Iconoclasts. Voltaire, Brilliantly narrow, Super-reformer, Deist.
5. Emotional Individualism. Rousseau, Golden-Age idea. Extremely popular.
6. Communism. Meslier, Morelly, Mably, “All evil due to private property. No need for exchange.” Atheists. Not popular. Influenced Babeuf.
(b) Factual.
1. In France. Normal development of capitalism checked after Renaissance by strong absolute monarchy. After Louis XIV decay of absolutism. No constitution. Extreme class-contrast. 1780 conditions ripe for machinofacture but outworn political system shackled production.
2. Outside France. (1) English Revolution, 1649 and 1689. (2) Contrast between English prosperity and French poverty. Commercial treaty, 1786, intensified this. (3) American Revolution : (a) “No taxation without representation”; (b) War cost France .£60,000,000.
2. Immediate Causes.
1783. Severe economic and financial crisis. Bad Harvests, etc. –
1789. May 6th: First assembly of States General for 185 years. Third Estate (lawyers, merchants, etc.) militant. Dispute as to voting. June 17th: Secession of Third Estate. Spontaneous anarchy throughout France. Bread riots, etc.
3. Course.
(a) Big Bourgeoisie, 1789-1792.
National Assembly. Aug. 4th: “St. Bartholomew of property” abolished feudal privilege but NOT property rights. Feudal Lords cap; Landowners. 1790-91: Reforms for traders and industrialists. Civil Constitution of Clergy. 1791. June 14th: Trade Unions banned (“contrary to equality”).
Constitution: Property and money qualification for franchise. “Rights of Man”; Liberty, Security, Property.
(b) Petty Bourgeoisie, 1792-1794.
Legislative Assembly. Girondin-Jacobin rule. Counter-revolution. 1792, April: War—Austria, Prussia, Russia, then England. August: Fall of monarchy. Sept. : Massacres; victories. Convention elected on much wider suffrage. REPUBLIC.
1. Girondins. Resisted further attacks on property. Fell.
2. Jaobins. Petty-bourgeois reforms, pensions, “work or maintenance,” etc., maximum price for necessities, also maximum wage.
3. Danton’s dictatorship. Committee of Public Safety. Terror.
4. Jacobin split: (1) Bourgeois intelligentsia, e.g., Danton; (2) Petty-bourgeoisie, e.g., Robespierre (3) Small shop-keepers, craftsmen, e.g., Hebert; (4) Nucleus of proletariat, e.g., Rous, Varlet. Centre destroyed others.
5. Robespierre’s dictatorship. Religious Utopianism. Then war danger over need for consolidation made his theorising unpopular. Thermidor. July 27th, 1794.
(c) Bourgeois Republic.
1795. Bonaparte quells Royalist rising. (Whiff of grape-shot.)
1796. Babeuf’s Conspiracy of the Equals. Demanded entire abolition of private property, but no real understanding. , Secret—of Blanqui. Foredoomed because proletariat still only embryonic.
The underlying function of the French Revolution was to enable the powers of industrial development to be utilised to the full. In five years it solidly established a new order of society. It was left to Napoleon merely to consolidate and clarify the results, and to carry them further afield.
Read :
Booklet in Working-class History Course. Pub. Martin Lawrence.
French Revolution, by Albert Mathiez.
“French Revolution ” section of Cambridge Modern History.
Last Episode of French Revolution, by E. B. Bax.
The Gods are Athirst, by Anatole France.
Revolution, 1789-1906, by R. W. Postgate.
Various references by Marx, particularly in Holy Family and Eighteenth Brumaire.
(Socialist Standard, March 1935)