What Lasting Effects Did the French Revolution Have?
At first glance it would seem that the chaos which broke out during the revolutionary decade (1789-1799), did not have a lasting impact on French institutions, as monarchy was ultimately reinstated.
First there was a new monarchy, that of Napoleon, between 1804 and 1814, followed by the old monarchy, restored by a brother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII (1814-1830). A closer look, however, reveals that the Revolution did, in fact, introduce essential changes, not just in France, but throughout Europe, by precipitating the end of the Ancien Regime.13.5.1 The Appearance of “National Sovereignty”
The first momentous effect of the French Revolution was that it transformed the very meaning of sovereignty, as the right to legitimately exercise power was wrested from the king and given to the nation. In the case of Britain’s Parliamentary system this transformation was the result, as we know, of a progressive transfer of royal prerogatives and powers to the Parliament. In France, this shift was sudden and violent. With the Tennis Court Oath the idea was imposed in France, overnight, that sovereignty was not held by the monarch, but rather the people, whose representatives exercised power via the National Assembly.[697] While this principle had already been adopted by the United States in 1776, the latter was but a small, nascent and untried state far from Old Europe. France, in contrast was the oldest and most prestigious monarchy on the entire Continent, a country whose social organization and public law had remained virtually intact since the Middle Ages. Thus, the French Revolution had a greater impact in the Old World.
13.5.2 The Origins of “National” Patriotism
Another important consequence of the French Revolution was the reemergence of the former meaning of the “nation”, now understood to refer to all the citizens of France.
This essential shift was marked by the crucial Celebration of the Federation (Fete de la Federation), held for the first time on July 14, 1790. The event was repeated every year on the same date, with delegations from all over France meeting in Paris to celebrate their “national” brotherhood. This union of all the French in a single and indivisible nation was reflected in the thorough centralizationimposed by the Jacobins, who abolished the traditional provinces and established a set of departments which continue to constitute the basis for the territorial organization of the French state. Thus, it was the origin of French “nationalism”, an ideological movement aimed at attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population, an active movement inspired by an ideology and symbolism of the nation rather than simply a shared sentiment or consciousness (Smith 2009, 61).
13.5.3 The Symbols of the French State
Another lasting legacy of the French Revolution involves the symbols of the French state: the flag, the national day, and the national anthem, all of revolutionary origin.[698] The French flag is a compromise reflecting both the country’s revolutionary and royal heritage: its red and blue are the colors of revolutionary Paris, while its white alludes to the color of the old royal flag. Even today, July 14 is the French National Day that commemorates the first “Celebration of the Federation”, on July 14, 1790 (and not the Storming of the Bastille, contrary to common belief).[699] On a night of patriotic fervor, Rouget de l’Isle penned the lyrics to the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise”, so named because the delegation from Marseille entered revolutionary Paris singing it in July of 1792.[700]
13.5.4 The Reinforcement of the State
From the political and legal point of view, the most important aspect of the French Revolution is that, as an earthquake which shook the very foundations of the French polity, it allowed for a total reconfiguration of its traditional structure.
The Revolution paved the way for a series of bases underpinning a very powerful state as the political power arising from the Constituent Assembly was fully dissociated from historic ties to the Ancien Regime. Thus, for example, one of the first measures the French revolutionaries took was to eliminate the parlements which had so effectively impeded the monarchy from taking action. Also abolished were the “fundamental laws” which, by force of custom, had gradually laid down the foundations of the French state under the Ancien Regime.In reality, as Tocqueville lucidly observed, more than a true rupture what took place was a reinforcement of the state, extremely clear in the pivotal aspect of the “Administrative Centralization” that in his opinion France owed not to the Revolution, but to the Old Regime,[701] though the body exercising power was no longer the monarch, but an assembly representing France as a sovereign nation. In fact what really happened was that an absolute monarchy gave way to a regime of assembly-based or democratic absolutism, which culminated during the most radical phase of the Revolution: the first stage of the Convention, spanning from August 10, 1792 (the attack on the Tuileries Palace) and July 27, 1784 (the Thermidorian Reaction). Paradoxically, the new regime was far more authoritarian than the old one, as during this stage the government was not in the hands of an elected assembly, but rather in those of two revolutionary committees: that of Public Safety and that of General Security, which imposed an iron-fisted dictatorship.[702]
All of this, however, was utterly justified according to figures such as Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), one of the Revolution’s most radical leaders, whose thinking illustrates that of the revolutionaries who endorsed the idea that absolute power exercised in the name of national sovereignty constituted the incorruptible “theory of the revolutionary government:”
The theory of revolutionary government is as new as the Revolution that has spawned it.
It is not necessary to look for it in the books of political writers, who have not seen this revolution at all, nor in the laws of the tyrants who, content to abuse their power, take little care to secure its legitimacy; this word is for the aristocracy nothing more than a question of terror; for tyrants, a scandal; for many people, an enigma. The principle of constitutional government is to conserve the Republic; that of the revolutionary government is to found it. Constitutional government mainly deals with civil freedom, while revolutionary government deals with public freedom. Under a constitutional regime it is sufficient to protect individuals from the abuses of public power; under the revolutionary regime, public power is forced to defend itself against all the factions attacking it. A revolutionary government owes its good citizens all its national protection; to the enemies of the people it owes nothing but death.[703]The Thermidorian Reaction, although it began with the inevitable execution of the radical revolutionary leaders, immediately tempered the Revolution’s tone. Firstly, because it limited the power of the Assembly by establishing two chambers, rather than just one, as had been the case since June of 1789. In addition, from a sociological point of view, the bourgeoisie recovered power at the expense of the sans culottes, with the advantage that it was equipped with the constitutional instruments that would allow it to construct a powerful bourgeois state. To do this, however, Napoleon would still have to construct what de Malafosse (1975, 25) called the “masses of granite of the imperial era”, upon which the contemporary French state still rests.
13.5.5 The Social Transformation of France
Another of the factors which saw decisive change as a result of the Revolution was France’s social structure. In 1789, 80 % of the French were peasants who, practically overnight, became the owners of their lands,[704] triggering a “democratization” of the means of production and turning these new proprietors into the firmest defenders of the Revolution (Cobban 1999, 81-90).
This circumstance would push the formal adoption of the male universal suffrage in 1792 (Crook 1996, 79-101) although the principle would not be consolidated until 1848.13.5.6 The European Dimension of the French Revolution
There is still an essential aspect of the French Revolution which must be discussed: its foreign repercussions, as the war which began in 1792 would not only serve to consolidate the ideals of the Revolution, but to extend them all over Europe. Revolutionary France first defended itself from its invaders before going on to become an imperial power, seeking, in the words of Danton—January 31, 1793— its “natural borders” (Richet 1989, 754-762). Military service was implemented and revolutionary armies swelled as France morphed from an invaded nation to an invading empire (Rothenberg 1988, 771-793). The Revolution ultimately gave rise to out-and-out imperialism.[705]
Paradoxically, nevertheless, it is in this last regard in which the French Revolution was, perhaps, most effective. The declaration of war, which originally had been a desperate ploy to save the Revolution, ended up serving as the catalyst uniting all the French under the banner of national patriotism.[706] Moreover, through the war the
principles of the French Revolution would be spread all over Europe (Rude 2000, 155-172). Hence, the absolutist powers, whose monarchs initially rubbed their hands at France’s weakness, were ultimately horrified to see the revolutionary spirit leak into their kingdoms. This was only the first blow against the foundations of Europe’s Old Order, as the building would crumble to the ground over the course of the nineteenth century.[707]
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