Picture this: Paris, France- July 1789. Louis VXI rules over the country with Marie Antoinette as his queen. They are part of the Ancien Regime which had 3 parts: The First estate represented the Roman Catholic clergy, the Second estate which represented the nobility (and of course Louis XVI and his "court"), and finally, the Third estate which represented the rest of the population, the poorest and largest group of people. The wealthy and growing bourgeoisie (the middle-class, merchants and businessmen) were allowed no political input or power. The poor were in a bad situation and it was getting worse. The country was nearing bankruptcy. France had the largest population in Europe and not nearly enough food to feed it. As the cost of flour began to rise people were left to starve, unable to afford bread anymore. This ultimately became an important source of revolt as bread was and still remains the main item of every French grocery list. Some of you may be familiar with Marie Antoinette's words, "Let them eat cake." When I was little my mother got me a pajama set with this saying and a beautiful french pâtisserie looking cake on the shirt and shorts. This phrase tends to be over-glamourized sometimes in American culture because, well, it's talking about people eating cake. But in reality, this was Marie Antoinette's apathetic response to the cries of poor peasants of her country. They complained that there was no bread for them to eat, and Marie answered with "So let them eat cake," knowing full well that there was not enough nor would they be able to afford cake. Basically, the queen stated that she didn't care if the people of her country starved to death. There were also very few opportunities for the general population to ascend the social ladder as all privileges were determined by birth and not by talent. The right for social mobility could be bought but it was impossible for the poorest to afford them.
France was also inspired because they helped the United States with our revolution during the Revolutionary War and were a big reason why we were able to conquer the British. The sentiments of revolution lingered heavily over the air in France for the next 6 years (because our war ended in 1783, not 1776 like many Americans believe). Their involvement in the war was quite expensive, though, and on top of the cost of the war, Louis XIV raised taxes extremely high and spent most of the country's money on his extravagances for the court at Versailles. The third estate, aka the poorest people in the country, were the only ones who had to pay taxes, so the rich people who lived in Versailles basically lived and profited off of their work and they workers got to starve. This and other various continuing poor treatments from the monarchy pushed French citizens closer and closer to a monarch free life.
On May 5th, 1789, Louis XVI called for the "Estates General Meeting". This meeting hadn't been called for over 300 years and represented the last hope for the King to find a solution to the country's financial turmoil. The Estates General stemmed from a meeting that reunited an equal number of representatives from each Estate to solve this serious political crisis. Everyone met at the Palace of Versailles to debate some major problems. The Estates General meeting was a huge opportunity for the poorest people of the Third estate to finally be heard by the King. Everyone's basic complaints were that Parliament wanted the king to share his absolute powers with an oligarchic parliament, the priests and other low-level religious figures wanted more money, the nobles also wanted to share some of the king's power, the middle class wanted the right to own land and to vote, and the lower class were hostile toward everyone and farmers were angry about tithes and feodal rights. But, basically, nobody was happy and Louis XVI was never a very assertive or effective ruler (actually he was pretty wishy-washy and spineless), so he ended up canceling the meeting. A group of men from the third estate, including Maxmillien Robespierre (a very important figure in french history), created the National Assembly. It was aimed at representing the three Estates but without the supervision of the King. On June 20th, 1789 they created a constitution for France. The King was naturally opposed to this, and on July 13th, 1789 a rumor spread in the streets of Paris of a coming attack by the King's army to 'destabilize' the men of the National Assembly.
On the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to Les Invalides (a hospital and retirement home for veterans) to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it. At the time, the Bastille was only guarded by a few soldiers. Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay was at the time governor of Les Invalides, and he was not too intimidated by the crowd. However, fearing a growing anger among the revolutionaries, the Marquis agreed to meet some of their representatives inside the prison. He hoped to buy time, as he was expecting a rescue team to arrive shortly and to help him secure his castle. The negotiations ended when a group of revolutionaries entered the Bastille. The guards were ordered to fire, killing hundreds of people. When the rescue team finally did show up, they decided not to fight against but with the mob. With their canons and their professional soldier skills, they brought victory to the people of France against Louis XVI's guards in a few hours. At 4pm, the Marquis de Launay surrendered and let the people enter the Bastille. The guards were violently killed and the Marquis de Launay was beheaded, with his head then put on a stake and carried all over the city as a sign of victory. That very night, 800 men began to destroy the Bastille.
This was hardly the end though. Rather, it was only the beginning, of many years of political instability, terrorism, corruption, and bloodshed. LOTS AND LOTS OF BLOODSHED. If you've never seen the film, "Danton", you should... it's like The Patriot except the French version. You will understand what I mean by BLOODSHED.
The National Guard was quickly formed, led by General Lafayette, who had commanded the French Armies during the American Revolutionary War. They adopted the colors Blue Red and White to represent their country, because blue and red are the colors of Paris and white is the color of royalty. When put on the French flag in 1794, the blue was the color for the Parisian bourgeoisie, the white was the color of the chiefs of army, and the red symbolized the blood poured during the wars. On August 26th, 1789 the National Assembly voted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, defining a set of individual and collective rights for all the people, regardless of their estate. The King had to sign this declaration which led to many further political and economic changes that heavily diminished his own powers. On October 5th, 1789 Louis XVI was forced by a group of 4,000 rioters, mostly hungry women, to move out of Versailles and to take residence under the revolutionaries watch at La Concierge (actually my favorite tourist place to go in all of Paris... you must go if you ever have the chance it's so cool!), in the heart of Paris. I think this is hilarious. Imagine, a riot of 4,000 angry, hungry women running at you. It's worse than Black Friday- you should have known better, Marie Antoinette. Never try and come between a woman and her cake. Blood will be shed. I'd be scared if I were you, Louie. I'd be scared.
Unwilling to stay prisoner of his own people in Paris, Louis XVI tried to flee to his wife's native country, Austria in June 1791. They and their children dressed as bakers and hit the road. But the rumors of the King's escape spread quickly across France and the royal refugees were recognized and captured few miles from the German border, in Varennes. When they were returned to Paris, the population was hardly sympathetic towards the traitors. Another important historical figure, Georges Jacques Danton launched a campaign to end the King's political power. They wanted to abolish the Constitutional Monarchy and start a new political era where all the power would be given to the Assembly. The people generally supported Danton, but the Assembly, especially Robespierre, considered that such a decision would put the revolution into peril and asked the National Guard to end this uprising. Lafayette and his men opened fire on the crowd and hundreds of people were killed. This event marked the first major discordance amongst the revolutionaries. Robespierre was accused by Lafayette of organizing this riot, so Robespierre resigned from his position as president of the Jacobins but gained a huge recognition from the French population.
In 1792, France entered into a war with Austria. It was then that Joseph Rouget de Lisle sang the Marseillaise (France's National Anthem) for the first time to encourage the French troops during the war. Lots of tensions from military losses pushed the parliament to propose some reforms but the King used the rest of his powers to veto some of them. People accused the King of willing to help his brother-in-law, the King of Germany, to defeat the French.
The tension was rising between the protectors of the king and the revolutionaries. In August 1792, Robespierre joined the "Commune de Paris", a strong revolutionary government formed after the storming of the Bastille. He presented a petition where he demanded that Lafayette should be dismissed and declared a traitor. The accusation started an exile in Eastern Europe. Then the "Sans-Culotte" (literally translated "without underpants, although I'm not sure why they would name themselves this), a group formed of Parisian rioters who wanted to protest against the aristocracy, helped by the newly formed "Commune insurrectionnelle de Paris", stormed La Concierge. After 800 years of reign, and in a bath of blood, the Capetian Monarchy ended. Three days later, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were officially arrested and sent to prison. The King and Queen had a trial in front of the Convention which decided to send them to the guillotine in January 1793, on the charges High Treason and Crimes against the State.
France, still at war against Austria, needed to find men to fight the enemy. The Convention, led by Danton, asked 300,000 men to join the French army. The first revolts bloomed in the country, especially in Vendee where the peasants denounced the authority of the Convention and the idea of the Revolution. They asked for the reestablishment of the Monarchy. A real civil war took place in the French countryside, between the people of Vendee and the republican guards. In April 1793 the Convention created the "Comite de Salut Public" (Committee of Public Safety) . This new government, led by Robespierre, took urgent measures to stop the Vendeen insurrection and the French military defeats in Belgium. A few weeks later, the Girondins (a group of people with a loose affiliation and clear ideology rather than a political party), were held responsible for the military crisis. 22 representatives of the Girondins were guillotined. As you can see, the original revolutionary system was breaking apart, and chaos and anarchy was invading the country.
The First Republic was established in September 1792. This period is known as the Reign of Terror. The leaders (like Robespierre) rejected the idea of federalism and enforced their own ideas upon the people. They held mass executions by guillotine, closed churches, and repressed religious freedoms among other things. They claimed their acts were justified because of the European monarchy allegiances just outside of France and the growing number of uprisings within the borders. But in reality, people were arrested and executed without trial if they were suspected of being enemies of the revolution. It is estimated that about 40,000 people died during this 15 month period. In the end, in an ironic twist of fate the leaders of The First Republic found themselves under the blade of the guillotine. Unfortunately, Georges Jacques Danton himself became the victim of the Terror. He was considered too moderate and then, arrested and executed on April 5th, 1794.
One of the darkest periods in French history soon ensued. The Great Terror began in June 1794. Robespierre tyrannised the Committee of Public Safety and the Convention. He was strongly supported by the Sans-Culottes. Robespierre was on a mission against the counter revolutionaries and against the Church. Thousands of people who were suspected to be anti-revolutionists were executed savagely and a campaign of dechristianization took place all over the country. In its place, the Assembly introduced the "Culte de l'Être Supreme" (The worship of The Supreme Being), as form of deism.
In July 1794, Robespierre was finally accused of dictatorship and tyranny and was evicted from the Convention. The members voted for his simultaneous eviction and execution, without allowing him to defend himself. The following day, Robespierre was beheaded to an ovation by the people of Paris. His death was the symbol of the Reign of Terror's end and the end of the democratic movement at the same time.
The Revolution came to an end in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and was crowned First Consul. In 1804 he took the title of emperor Napoleon I. He took the crown from the Pope and placed it on his head himself, thereby directly challenging the authority of the church. Napoleon created a powerful central administration, and engaged in many military campaigns that allowed him to expand his empire. Napoleon was, however, defeated in Russia in 1812 and then in Waterloo in 1815. Napoleon's reign was replaced by monarchy again, King Louis XVIII, who was then overthrown by Charles X. Charles' reign reminded people too much of the old regime, and this led to the July Revolution of 1830. The July Monarchy elected a king, Louis Philippe. His reign lasted 18 years (until 1848). In 1848, Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon I, was elected the first president of the Second Republic. He was then proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. But following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III was exiled. The Third Republic (the longest lasting regime in France's history) emerged in France in 1871, indicating the end of monarchy in France. Parliments and Assemblies (Including the Vichy Regime, which ruled during ruled over France during WWII and the Fourth Republic) until Charles De Gaulle (yes, who the airport was named after) became the first French President in 1959 and installed the French Fifth Republic, which we are currently living in now.
See, Madame Wixon, I did learn something in your French Civilization class =P.
I found on a website that:
"Bastille Day was proclaimed a national holiday in 1880 and in 1848 the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was reinstated. In France, most folks take Bastille Eve off and celebrate with festive balls and brilliant displays of fireworks. The day that follows is filled with parades, bands, dancing and general good times."
Unfortunately right now as I write this, it's raining cats and dogs outside. The streets are slightly flooded, so there is not too much outside celebration today. However, Yadira and I did wake up to Les Mirages, F16 planes flying all over the country with blue, white, and red smoke coming out of their tails and streaming the colors of the french flag across the sky of the nation. We also watched the parade down the Champs-Élysées. Basically every French military person in the entire nation marches down in front of the President Sarkozy, his wife La Premiére Dame Carla, and other various French officials. JC was surprised because we don't do that in the US. I mean, within towns and such there are parades and some of them involve soldiers or veterans, but there's not one huge national thing that gets done. I guess it's because France's "Independence Day" involves more fighting and bloodshed whereas ours (although yes there was the Revolutionary War) commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was really cool to see the pride on everyone's faces, I mean, real French pride which characterizes this nation so well, not just on July 14th, but everyday of the year. We were going to go a concert in the Parc Floral but decided to stay dry inside and watch "America's Sweethearts" with Julia Roberts instead. How patriotic.
Dinner was nice though. This time it was Gilles who did the cooking since JC is out of commission for the next week or so, but JC sat on a stool in the kitchen and supervised. It was funny to watch. Anyway, they made a menu like I had done for the 4th of July with traditional French Style writing. The appetizer was carrots, mushrooms, and what else but a flaky pastry, all seasoned with thyme. Then we had a nice glass of wine with our entrée, turkey breast with cibroulette and a cream sauce and rosemary potatoes. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. Usually I don't like white meat, but this was still moist so it still had flavor to it. I forgot to take a picture of it though; I could have kicked myself when I realized so. But anyway, in true French tradition, next came the cheese and bread. JC explained to me that in France, you're supposed to take a piece of bread and wipe up all the extra cream from your meal, and that shows whoever prepared the meal that you really really liked it and it's a huge compliment to them. When I did it, they all cheered for me being so French. I laughed because I thought they were being silly. Then I agreed to try the cheese, Le Petit Caprice. I'm not a fan of cheese normally, I mean, on pasta or pizza it's good but I don't just eat cheese by itself or on bread or anything, but I agreed to try it since they ate my American things for the 4th of July. They said I would like it because even the Chinese people who detest cheese would eat it. It wasn't terrible, but like I said, I'm not a big cheese person, so I wasn't crazy about it. At least I ate it. I did my patriotic duty towards France. Voila.
For dessert Gilles tried to make this thing that was like a cross between cherry pie and flan. That too wasn't terrible but........ well Gilles is a better cook than he is a baker haha. There was too much lemon in the filling part and personally I dont think lemon and cherry goes well together, and the crust had a weird consistency too. But it's okay. We all ate it anyway. After dinner, we watched a movie called, "Faubourg 36". It's a musical that takes place in WWII era France about a man who tries to get a music hall to be a success so he can get his son back. I really liked it a lot. It's not a musical like American musicals but it was still cool. American musicals tend to pause reality and break out into song and dance, then go back into reality, whereas the French musical makes the song and dance fit into reality, like having two boys play the accordion and sing on a street corner for money and showing the musical numbers that were put in the music hall. Definitely not hairspray, but still quite good.
And so my friends, I leave you with the sincerest of French patriotism, the national anthem, translated into english as well =)
Ah, you make history come alive! I kept thinking, "It gets worse??" <3 !!!
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