FRENCH REVOLUTION GENERAL NOTES QUESTIONS - To what extent were the parliaments responsible for the French revolution? - 'Louis must die, so that the patrie may live' (Robespierre). Discuss. - 'The French revolution was destroyed by war.' Discuss. - Was the Terror a parenthesis in the history of the Revolution? - To what extent did the terror derail the French revolution? - 'Historians have conclusively proved that the French revolution did not have social causes.' Discuss. - Why did French governments find it so difficult to maintain legitimacy between 1789 and 18ffiffi? - When did the French revolution end? - 'the French revolution was a cultural, not a social, revolution.' Discuss. - (T) 'The French revolution was threatened more by its internal enemies than its external ones.' Discuss. - (T) Did the French Revolution go off course? - (T) Why was the French revolution so violent towards both its opponents and its supporters? THINGS TO CONSIDER - Traditionally, historians focused on the social ramifications of the revolution, paying interest to the economic and fiscal situation - revisionist historians have interpreted the French revolution as a symbolic event which made little difference to the social structure, but rather constituted a new political culture - Focus should be drawn away from social origins of instability, such as war and economic depravity. Instead, the elusiveness of French stability in the period should be located in the novel political climate, as unlike social instability, the proliferation of politicisation was a novel enterprise which consequently served as the fundamental source of all instability from 1789 to 18ffiffi. - operationalise 'instability'. Modern historians may be drawn to conflate current measures of instability, such as the economic situation as well as international relations in their assessment. However, war and deficit were both common not only in Europe, but in France itself. - External threat: war o war against Austria and Prussia 1792 o declaration of Pillnitz issued by Leopold II and Frederick William III, which threatened the use of force to ensure the restoration of the French crown, contributed to the explosive atmosphere in France o response to Pillnitz, the legislative assembly decreed against emigres and demanded that refractory priests should take the oath o worsened the domestic situation through vast expenditure, despite the governments lack of solvency. The fact that peace was never established throughout the period, as can be seen through the initiation of the Second Coalition (1799), deepens the longevity of its impact
VS o perversely be seen as a source of stability o provided select leaders, such as Napoleon, to emerge to power; the position of 'First Consule' can indeed be seen as a more stable constitution than the polemical alternatives that predated it o at its core it was an attempted reversal of the revolutions upheavals and a bid to re-establish the former order o weight their judgement in contemporary standards; whilst modern interpretations of war are largely destructive, in the eighteenth century they had the power to be restorative o war