Radicals and the French Revolution

¶ … French Revolution radicalize as it progressed?

In contrast to the American Revolution, the French Revolution was fundamentally a class-based revolution. While the English had an established parliamentary system which the American colonists could be inspired by as they created a new form of government, France did not. The Ancien Regime was based upon inequalities between the three estates. Thus when it began to dissolve, moderate reform seemed impossible and a complete and radical break with the past seemed like the only feasible solution.

"In terms of social ideals the sans-culottes [impoverished French] wanted laws to prevent extremes of both wealth and property. Their vision was of a nation of small shopkeepers and small farmers. They favored a democratic republic in which the voice of the common man could be heard." [footnoteRef:1] When they felt that the Revolution was not moving fast enough, they had little confidence in the ability of a parliamentary system headed by a king to alleviate their grievances and reacted by attacking the palace and placing the royal family under house arrest. Louis XVI was placed on trial, accused of "violating the liberty of his subjects" and was executed, leaving the nation with a constitution but no monarch.[footnoteRef:2] [1: Stephen Kreis, "Lecture 13 the French Revolution: The Radical Stage, 1792-1794," Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture13a.html (accessed December 28, 2015)] [2: Ibid.]

However, the execution of Louis did not bring an end to France's mounting problems, which included inflation, food shortages, and a looming war with the rest of Europe. Support for the moderate Girondins, "men who favored a decentralized government in which the various provinces or departments would determine their own affairs" began to wane and the sans-culottes demanded a change of leadership.[footnoteRef:3] The result was the ascent of the more radical Jacobins who advocated more interference in the economy by a centralized authority and greater revolutionary purity. The Jacobins would define the ideological trajectory of the rest of the French Revolution. [3: Ibid.]

It is possible that the Revolution might not have taken quite as violent a turn as it did if France had not been plagued with civil wars and the threat of foreign invasions. However, due to these exterior threats, an emergency government was put into place headed by the Committee of Public Safety which was given "broad powers which included the organization of the nation's defenses, all foreign policy, and the supervision of ministers" and was headed by Maximilien Robespierre, who vowed to stamp out revolutionary sentiment. Robespierre stated he was determined "to detest bad faith and despotism, to punish tyrants and traitors, to assist the unfortunate and respect the weak, to defend the oppressed, to do all the good one can to one's neighbor, and to behave with justice towards all men."[footnoteRef:4] However, in his efforts to create a regime of revolutionary purity, he instituted a Reign of Terror which killed over 17,000 people suspected of being aristocrats, counter-revolutionaries, or in the case of Danton, simply wanting peace with Europe.[footnoteRef:5] [4: Ibid.] [5: Ibid.]