Why study the French Revolution?

By:  Dr Stewart McCain

On the 14th July 1789, an angry Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille, an immense medieval fortress used as a royal prison. The fall of the Bastille led to a decade of social and political upheaval- Robespierre and the Terror, the guillotine, an international war and Napoleon’s rise to power in 1799.

On the 14th July 1789, an angry Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille, an immense medieval fortress used as a royal prison.  The fall of the Bastille led to a decade of social and political upheaval- Robespierre and the Terror, the guillotine, an international war and Napoleon’s rise to power in 1799

The French Revolution was one of the most startling, exciting, and terrifying periods in European History. People and governments throughout Europe trembled at the thought that “it could happen here”, just like they did over a century later when the Soviet Union arose from the ashes of the First World War. But is, ‘because it’s interesting’, a good reason to study it? Are there other reasons why we should still care about the French Revolution?

The answer is definitely “Yes!” Many of our ideas about politics and democracy were developed during the Revolution. These include distinctions between left wing and right wing, ideologies such as liberalism and socialism, and the idea of universal human rights, clearly visible reflected in the 1789 declaration of the rights of man and citizen.

But studying the French Revolution also helps us think about how we talk about different groups in society, and about how these discussions shape politics.

France in 1789 was a deeply unequal country. Politics and society were dominated by the two privileged orders, the clergy, or the “first estate”, and the nobility, or the “second estate”. Almost all the important posts in the church were dominated by men from noble families, so most members of these two orders came from the same backgrounds.

The vast majority of French society was part of the “third estate”, or the commons. It included millions of peasants, living in small country villages and farming for a living, and artisans and craftsmen who worked in workshops in towns and cities. However, the third estate also included rich and educated lawyers and merchants, who had more in common with the nobility than poorer members of the third estate.

The nobility and the clergy were exempt from taxation and exercised great  influence over French politics. This was clear in 1789 when the King called a meeting of the Estates General (an assembly that included all three estates) to agree a programme of reforms and tax rises. Because each of the three estates was represented separately, representatives of the third estate feared that the first two orders would unite to out-vote them, so they set up their own assembly, the National Assembly, triggering the start of the French Revolution. Social tensions and inequality played a central role in this. However, the way inequality was presented was as important as the tensions themselves. The Revolutionaries justified their actions by highlighting inequalities in French Society and government. They attacked the privileged orders, for example in prints like the one below,, showing the third estate as an impoverished peasant supporting the privileged orders -  the clergy and the nobility.

This way of talking about inequality meant that some very diverse groups- from the poorest peasants to wealthy merchants- were grouped together as victims of oppression. Nobles and aristocrats became the enemies of the people. This masked tensions between the wealthy leaders of the third estate and the rest of the French population, tensions that led to more trouble further down the road.

So why study the French Revolution? Because it shows us that how we describe ourselves and our societies can motivate us to act and think in particular ways- a lesson as important today as in 1789.