French Revolution - Episode 5

 

• Overview of entire revolution:
• 1789 : Estate general (सम्पूर्ण समाजिक तहका मानिसहरुको प्रतिनिधित्व भएको एउटा सभा)
• 1789 - 1791 : National Assembly
• 1791 - 1792 : Legislative Assembly
• 1792 - 1795 : National Convention (Reign of Terror - आतंकको शासन) 
• 1795 - 1798 : Directory Rule 
• 1799 - Coup by Nepoleon Bonapart

• National Convention (Reign of Terror)  (1792 - 1795):
• King Louis XVI was cased and sentenced to death by Guillotine in January 1793.
• Spain, Britain and Dutch joined Austria and Prussia in the coalition against France after Louis's execution, and this war is called "The War of First Coalition".
• Claude de Lisle wrote the national anthem of France "La Marseillaise" to bring people in the rally to fight against Austria and other invaders

• September 1792: 
• The election for National Convention held from September 2 to September 19
• The rule of the National Convention began and lasted till October 1795
• Citizens above 21 were given rights to vote in this election.
• Monarchy was completely abolished and France became truly republic country.
• National Convention created a small group "Committee of Public Safety" which had the right to take all major decisions.
• Jacobins were in majority in Committee of Public Safety and the committee was led by Maximilien Robespierre.

• June 1793 - July 1794: The Reign of Terror
• Maximilien Robespierre guillotined everyone whomever he thought was against the revolution.
• During his period, more than sixteen thousand "enemies of the revolution" were executed.
• Queen Marie Antionette was executed on 16th October 1793.
• He was unhappy with the interference of the Church in administrative works. Thus, he destroyed and closed many churches.
• During this period, he also did some positive works, which are listed below:
• Abolished slavery
• Introduced new calendar having 10 hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour, and 10 days in a week.
• Robespierre declared to trade crops from villages to urban places and most of food was sent to armies in war.
• Meanwhile, France was going through severe famine due to ongoing war and a majority of people were going under the poverty line. 
• The decision of Robespierre added unhappiness in people and this made Jacobins bad among people. Girondins came into power and they collected huge trust collected people by explaining to people about the activities of Jacobins.
• 28th July 1794: Robespierre was finally sentenced to death by guillotine as per the decision of the National Convention.
• A new document was prepared to rule the country after the execution of Robespierre and it became the constitution of France in 1795.
• Following provisions were made in the new constitution of France:
• No property - No vote
• Bicameral Legislature
• Council of 500 (Lower house) with 500 members
• Council of Ancients (Upper house) with 250 members
• Executive power in the hand of 5 directors
• selected by the Council of Ancients from a list provided by the lower house
• 5 years of the ruling period for the single executive body
• An election was held in France as per the new constitution which gave voting rights to those who had a property with them. 
• Voters were filtered to a huge extent and only 0.5% of the total population were made eligible for voting.
• This gave formation to a new ruling body, which was called "Directory".

To be continued...

References:

1. Study IQ education. (2017c, May 11). French Revolution - फ्रांस की क्रांति - World History - विश्व इतिहास - UPSC/IAS [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHF0vuj1Dz8

2. En.wikipedia.org. 2021. French Directory - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory> [Accessed 31 May 2021].