Napoleon: Revolution to Empire

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

After the fall of the Bastille in July 1789, the National Assembly (changed to the National Constituent Assembly) sought to regain order and instituted a number of reforms. Feudal rights were abolished, a new tax system was drawn up, free trade measures were put into place and a uniform system of weights and measures was instituted. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was drafted as a precursor to the writing of a new constitution for France. The nobility as a class was abolished, clergy were made to swear allegiance to the nation rather than the Pope, and all church property was nationalised. The King formally lost his provisional power of veto, transferring sovereignty from the King to the nation.

Despite the remodelling of France, tensions and conflicts remained within and outside of France. Louis XVI submitted to these new changes but privately orchestrated resistance and was confined to the Tuileries Palace. After an attempt to flee in June 1791, he was formally arrested. Resentment towards the King mounted with this final act of betrayal, and debate over what to do about him and the system of monarchy ravaged the country.

Death of the Monarchy

Patriots of the Revolution were divided between the moderates and radicals, the latter represented forcefully by the sans-culottes (breeches, a fashion worn mostly by the aristocrats, literally: without knee-breeches), the militant lower classes. Political figures previously on the fringe of the Revolution took centre stage, led by idealistic political leaders such as Jean-Paul Marat and Maximilien Robespierre. Violence became the weapon of the Revolution, purging old values and ideas and clearing the path to the formation of a new Republic in September 1792.  In the light of repeated attempts at Royalist subversion and counter-revolution (such as Louis XVI's attempted flight to Varennes), Robespierre and the radicals within the Legislative Assembly came to believe that the success of a new France demanded the death of the King and the monarchy. Louis XVI was placed on trial in December 1792 and executed in January 1793.

The National Convention

The National Convention was the assembly that held executive power during the years of the First French Republic (20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795). Prominent members of the original Convention included Maximilien Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat and Georges Danton.

The Convention was divided by the factions of the Jacobins (radical left-wing Revolutionaries led by Maximilien Robespierre) and the Girondins (more conservative theorists who favoured discussion over radical action). France declared war with neighbouring countries that wanted to crush the Revolution to prevent its spread.

The Terror

The new government established the Committee of Public Safety, which used its powers to violently suppress any anti-revolutionary activity with mass executions and political purges. Under the Law of Suspects promulgated in September 1793 somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people were arrested and 17,000 were executed during the period that became known as the Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 to 28 July 1794). A further law was passed in June 1794 that suspended a suspect's right to public trial or legal defense, allowing for wholesale liquidation of citizens (suspects) deemed politically undesirable. This led to a backlash dubbed the Thermidorian Reaction in which major instigators of the Reign of Terror, including Robespierre, were executed.