Editing Political history of France (section)

==French Revolution==
{{further|French Revolution|French Republics (disambiguation){{!}}French Republics}}

=== Background===
The underlying [[causes of the French Revolution]] were the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'s'' inability to manage rising [[Social inequality|social]] and [[economic inequality]]. Population growth and interest payments on [[government debt]] led to economic depression, unemployment, and high food prices.{{sfn|Sargent|Velde|1995|pp=474–518}} Combined with a [[regressive tax]] system and resistance to reform by the ruling [[elite]], the result was a crisis [[Louis XVI]] proved unable to resolve.{{sfn|Baker|1978|pp=279–303}}{{sfn|Jordan|2004|pp=11–12}}

Between 1700 and 1789, the French population grew from an estimated 21 to 28 million, while Paris alone had over 600,000 inhabitants, of whom roughly one third had no regular work.{{sfn|Garrioch|1994|p=524}} Food production failed to keep up with these numbers, and although wages increased by 22% between 1770 and 1790, in the same period prices rose by 65%,{{sfn|Hufton|1983|p=304}} which many blamed on government inaction.{{sfn|Tilly|1983|p=333}} Combined with a series of poor harvests, by 1789 the result was a rural [[peasant]]ry with nothing to sell, and an urban [[proletariat]] whose purchasing power had collapsed.{{sfn|Tilly|1983|p=337}}

High levels of state debt, which acted as a drag on the wider economy, are often attributed to the [[Anglo-French War (1778–1783)|1778–1783 Anglo-French War]]. However, one economic historian argues "neither [its] level in 1788, or previous history, can be considered an explanation for the outbreak of revolution in 1789".{{sfn|Weir|1989|p=101}} In 1788, the ratio of debt to [[gross national income]] in France was 55.6%, compared to 181.8% in Britain, and although French borrowing costs were higher, the percentage of revenue devoted to interest payments was roughly the same in both countries.{{sfn|Weir|1989|p=98}}

The problem lay in the assessment and collection of the taxes used to fund government expenditure. Rates varied widely from one region to another, were often different from the official amounts, and collected inconsistently. Complexity, as much as the financial burden, caused resentment among all taxpayers; although the nobility paid significantly less than other classes, they complained just as much.{{Sfn|Chanel|2015|p=68}} {{efn|Contrary to what is often assumed, the nobility were subject to tax, although how much they were able to evade or pass onto their tenants is disputed.{{sfn|Behrens|1976|pp=521-527}}}} Attempts to simplify the system were blocked by the regional ''[[Parlement]]s'' which controlled financial policy. The resulting impasse in the face of widespread economic distress led to the calling of the [[Estates General of 1789|Estates-General]], which became radicalised by the struggle for control of public finances.{{sfn|Weir|1989|p=96}}

Although willing to consider reforms, Louis XVI often backed down when faced with opposition from conservative elements within the nobility.{{sfn|Doyle|1989|p=48}} The court became the target for popular anger, particularly Queen [[Marie-Antoinette]], who was viewed as a spendthrift Austrian spy, and blamed for the dismissal of 'progressive' ministers like [[Jacques Necker]]. For their opponents, [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas on equality and democracy provided

===Societal conditions===

The French Revolution was a period of radical political and societal change in [[France]] that began with the [[Estates General of 1789]] and ended with the formation of the [[French Consulate]] in [[coup of 18 Brumaire|November 1799]]. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of [[liberal democracy]],{{sfn|Livesey|2001|p=19}} while the values and institutions it created remain central to French political discourse.{{sfn|Fehér|1990|pp=117–130}}

Its [[Causes of the French Revolution|causes]] are generally agreed to be a combination of social, political and economic factors, which the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'' proved unable to manage. In May 1789, widespread social distress led to the [[convocation]] of the [[Estates General of 1789|Estates General]], which was converted into a [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] in June. Continuing unrest culminated in the [[Storming of the Bastille]] on 14 July, which led to a series of radical measures by the Assembly, including the [[Abolition of feudalism in France|abolition of feudalism]], the imposition of state control over the [[Catholic Church in France]], and extension of the right to vote.

The next three years were dominated by the struggle for political control, exacerbated by [[economic depression]] and [[civil disorder]]. [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] and other external powers sought to restore the ''Ancien Régime'' by force, while many French politicians saw war as the best way to unite the nation and preserve the revolution by exporting it to other countries. These factors resulted in the outbreak of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] in April 1792, [[Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy|abolition of the French monarchy]] and proclamation of the [[French First Republic]] in September 1792, followed by the [[execution of Louis XVI]] in January 1793.

Following the [[Paris]]-based [[Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793]] the constitution was suspended and effective political power passed from the [[National Convention]] to the more radical [[Committee of Public Safety]]. An estimated 16,000 "counter-revolutionaries" were executed during the subsequent [[Reign of Terror]], which ended with the so-called [[Thermidorian Reaction]] in July 1794. Weakened by a combination of external threats and internal opposition, in November 1795 the Republic was replaced by the [[French Directory|Directory]]. Four years later in November 1799, the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] seized power in a [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|military coup]] led by [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte. This is generally seen as marking the end of the Revolutionary period.

===National Convention===
{{further||French Revolution|French First Republic|National Convention}}

The [[National Convention]] ({{langx|fr|link=no|Convention nationale}}) was the [[constituent assembly]] of the [[Kingdom of France]] for one day and the [[French First Republic]] for its first three years during the [[French Revolution]], following the two-year [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]] and the one-year [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]]. Created after the great [[insurrection of 10 August 1792]], it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. The Convention sat as a single-chamber assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (4 [[Brumaire]] IV under the [[French Republican Calendar|Convention's adopted calendar]]).

The Convention came about when the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King [[Louis XVI]] and the convocation of a National Convention to draw up a new constitution with no monarchy. The other major innovation was to decree that deputies to that Convention should be elected by all Frenchmen twenty-one years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was, therefore, the first French assembly elected by a [[Universal manhood suffrage|suffrage without distinctions of class]].{{sfn|Anchel|1911}}

Although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively delegated by the convention and concentrated in the small [[Committee of Public Safety]] from April 1793. The eight months from the fall of 1793 to the spring of 1794, when [[Maximilien Robespierre]] and his allies dominated the Committee of Public Safety, represent the most radical and bloodiest phase of the French Revolution, known as the [[Reign of Terror]]. After the [[Fall of Maximilien Robespierre|fall of Robespierre]], the Convention lasted for another year until a new constitution was written, ushering in the [[French Directory]].

===The Directory===
{{main|French Directory}}

The Directory (also called Directorate) was the governing five-member [[committee]] in the [[French First Republic]] from 26 October 1795 (4 [[Brumaire]] an IV) until 10 November 1799, when it was overthrown by [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte in the [[Coup of 18 Brumaire]] and replaced by the [[French Consulate|Consulate]]. ''Directoire'' is the name of the final four years of the [[French Revolution]]. Mainstream historiography<ref>For example F. Furet and D. Richet in "French Revolution" (Macmillan, 1970)</ref> also uses the term in reference to the period from the dissolution of the [[National Convention]] on 26 October 1795 to Napoleon's coup d’état.

The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions, including [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]], [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], the [[Kingdom of Naples]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. It annexed [[Austrian Netherlands|Belgium]] and the [[left bank of the Rhine]], while Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. The Directory established 29 short-lived [[sister republic]]s in Italy, [[Helvetic Republic|Switzerland]] and the [[Batavian Republic|Netherlands]]. The conquered cities and states were required to send France huge amounts of money, as well as art treasures, which were used to fill the new [[Louvre]] museum in Paris. An army led by Bonaparte [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|tried to conquer]] [[Eyalet of Egypt|Egypt]] and marched as far as [[Saint-Jean-d'Acre]] in [[Ottoman Syria|Syria]]. The Directory defeated a resurgence of the [[War in the Vendée]], the royalist-led civil war in the [[Vendée]] region, but failed in its venture to support the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]] and create an Irish Republic.

The French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty; the paper money, the [[Assignat]], had fallen to a fraction of its value, and prices soared. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis; prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill.

In its first two years, the Directory concentrated on ending the excesses of the [[Jacobin]] [[Reign of Terror]]; mass executions stopped, and measures taken against exiled priests and royalists were relaxed. The Jacobin political club was closed on 12 November 1794 and the government crushed an armed uprising planned by the Jacobins and an early socialist revolutionary, [[François-Noël Babeuf]], known as "''[[Gracchi|Gracchus]]'' Babeuf". But after the discovery of a royalist conspiracy including a prominent general, [[Jean-Charles Pichegru]], the Jacobins took charge of the new Councils and hardened the measures against the Church and émigrés. They took two additional seats in the Directory, hopelessly dividing it.

In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, but the Directory had lost all the political factions' support, including some of its Directors. Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès|Abbé Sieyès]] and others to carry out a parliamentary coup d'état on 9–10 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory and replaced it with the [[French Consulate]] led by Bonaparte.

====War with European powers====
{{main|French Revolutionary Wars}}
{{see also|War of the First Coalition}}

The [[French Revolutionary Wars]] were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the [[French Revolution]]. They pitted [[French First Republic|France]] against [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]], [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], and several other [[monarchies]]. They are divided in two periods: the [[War of the First Coalition]] (1792–1797) and the [[War of the Second Coalition]] (1798–1802). Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France had conquered territories in the [[Italian Peninsula]], the [[Low Countries]] and the [[Rhineland]]. French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=French Revolutionary wars – Campaign of 1792 {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/French-revolutionary-wars/Campaign-of-1792 |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

Initially, the rulers of Europe viewed the [[French Revolution]] as a dispute between the French king and his subjects, and not something in which they should interfere. As revolutionary rhetoric grew more strident, they declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe as one with the interests of [[Louis XVI]] and his family; this [[Declaration of Pillnitz]] (27 August 1791) threatened ambiguous, but quite serious, consequences if anything should happen to the royal family. The position of the revolutionaries became increasingly difficult. Compounding their problems in international relations, French émigrés continued to agitate for support of a counter-revolution. Finally, on 20 April 1792, the [[French National Convention]] declared war on Austria. In this [[War of the First Coalition]] (1792–98), France ranged itself against most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her, plus [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="Blanning4159">[[T. C. W. Blanning|Timothy Blanning]]. ''The French Revolutionary Wars'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 41–59.</ref>

Despite some victories in 1792, by early 1793, France was in terrible crisis: French forces had been pushed out of Belgium; also there was [[revolt in the Vendée]] over conscription; widespread resentment of the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]]; and the French king had just been executed. The armies of the French Republic were in a state of disruption; the problems became even more acute following the introduction of mass conscription, the ''[[levée en masse]]'', which saturated an already distressed army with thousands of illiterate, untrained men.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} R. Dupuy, ''Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine. La République jacobine'', 2005, p.156.</ref>

The [[Committee of Public Safety]] was formed (6 April 1793) and the ''[[levée en masse]]'' drafted all potential soldiers aged 18 to 25 (August 1793). The new French armies had better results. In [[Campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars|several campaigns during 1794]], the French won the battles of [[Battle of Kortrijk (1794)|Kortrijk]], [[Battle of Tourcoing|Tourcoing]] and [[Battle of Fleurus (1794)|Fleurus]] in June. The French armies drove the Austrians, British, and Dutch beyond the [[Rhine river|Rhine]], occupying Belgium, the [[Rhineland]], and the south of the [[Netherlands]].
.

In the [[Campaigns of 1795 in the French Revolutionary Wars|1795 military campaigns]], although the [[Rhine Campaign of 1795]] proved to be disastrous, the French achieved success in other theaters of war such as the [[War of the Pyrenees]] (1793–95).<ref name=Blanning4159/> The French established the [[Batavian Republic]] as a [[sister republic]] (May 1795) and gained Prussian recognition of French control of the [[Left Bank of the Rhine]] by the first [[Peace of Basel]]. With the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]], Austria ceded the Austrian Netherlands to France and Northern Italy was turned into several French sister republics. Spain made a separate peace accord with France, the [[Second Treaty of Basel]], and the [[French Directory]] annexed more of the [[Holy Roman Empire]].

In the [[Campaigns of 1796 in the French Revolutionary Wars|1796 military campaigns]], [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte, at the time serving as a commander in the French Army, was successful in a daring invasion of Italy. In the [[Montenotte Campaign]], he separated the armies of [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Sardinia]] and [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], defeating each one in turn, and then forced a [[Treaty of Paris (1796)|peace on Sardinia]]. Following this, his army captured [[Milan]] and started the [[Siege of Mantua (1796–97)|Siege of Mantua]]. Bonaparte defeated successive Austrian armies sent against him under [[Johann Peter Beaulieu]], [[Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser]] and [[József Alvinczi]] while continuing the siege.{{sfn|Holland|1911|loc=Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte}}{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=182}}

In the [[Campaigns of 1797 in the French Revolutionary Wars|1797 military campaigns]], Bonaparte carried all before him against [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Sardinia]] and Austria in northern Italy (1796–1797) near the [[Po Valley]], culminating in the [[Peace of Leoben]] and the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]] (October 1797). The First Coalition collapsed, leaving only Britain in the field fighting against France.

===The Consulate===
{{main|French Consulate}}

The consulate was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the [[French Directory|Directory]] in the [[coup of 18 Brumaire]] on 10 November 1799 until the start of the [[First French Empire|Napoleonic Empire]] on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The Consulate'' also refers to this period of [[French history]].

During this period, [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte, as First Consul ({{lang|fr|Premier consul}}), established himself as the head of a more [[authoritarian]], [[autocratic]], and [[centralized government|centralized]] [[republicanism|republican]] government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, historian Robert B. Holtman has called the Consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holtman |first=Robert B. |title=The Napoleonic Revolution |date=1981 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |location=Baton Rouge |page=31}}</ref> By the end of this period, Napoleon had engineered authoritarian personal rule which has been viewed as [[military dictatorship]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Colin |ol=1094827M |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of France |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-5214-3294-8 |edition=1st |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00jone_0/page/193 193]–94}}</ref>