French Revolution Review

French Revolution: Who revolted against who?

• The peasants revolted against the privileged
• The "oppressed vs oppressors" dynamic shifted over time as the "oppressed" killed most of their "oppressors"
• The Third Estate revolted against the other two estates and the monarchy
• They then declared themselves the National Assembly, which the king tried to stop
• This led to the Great Fear
• The king began caving to the people's will, which led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man

What is the difference between the Revolution and the Second Revolution?

• The First Revolution was pretty tame
• There were minimal to no murders and no storming of prisons
• Why did it become so radical?
• Transition from words to actions
• The power went to the peasants' heads and they began pushing the limits and they weren't sure what to do with it

"The Laboring men and women of Paris always constituted the elemental force that drove the revolution forward."

• The National Assembly wasn't full of poor people
• It was the upper-end of the lower class
• However, the National Assembly wouldn't have been successful without the support of the common person
• The true common people didn't know what was going on - they just cared about bread 

• The poor people weren't the "elemental force that drove the revolution forward," but they benefitted from it

Were the actions of the people in charge proactive or reactive?

• Reactive
• The people were dissatisfied with events, so they revolted as a reaction

Does the international war play a big role in this?

• France was fighting with basically everyone at this point
• War was started with the Declaration of Pillnitz, as France saw it as a declaration of war
• War made it possible for Robespierre to rise to power 

• To Robespierre, basically everyone was an enemy of the state 

Why didn't anything like the Reign of Terror happen in America?

• France was in a mad scramble for power because of the divide between Girondists and the Mountain
• The American Revolution was more of an "us vs them" situation with clear distinctions
• French Revolution was an internal problem while America was trying to separate from another country

How did Robespierre gain power?

• He banded people together against the common enemy
• The people were used to having a strong leader, which made it easy for him to take all of the power that he did 
• His love of the guillotine made it easy for him to scare people into line

Over the 10 year revolutionary period, have the French improved?

• They were going fine for a while, but then everything spiraled out of control
• The French didn't want someone in charge of them but they then allowed Robespierre to become a dictator
• The younger people took charge and didn't care as much about repurcussions
• The ball was rolling, so they kept running with it
• The French made important social changes but not many legislative changes
• In the end, the price of bread went up again, so there was no improvement