french revolution nationalism essay

3 State and Nation the French Revolution

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The question of the origins of the French revolutionary wars is controversial, with some seeing them as fundamentally ideological, others as power‐political. The Revolution undermined in some significant respect the central assumptions of the Westphalian conception of international society by advancing a new understanding of international legitimacy, through its cosmopolitan aspects, through its challenge to international law and diplomacy, and through its transformation of warfare. The vigour of the counter‐revolutionary response, particularly from Prussia and Austria, derived in large part from a perception that the Revolution posed a challenge to the international system as a whole. Napoleon also threatened the balance of power in Europe.

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French Revolution

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 12, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The French Revolution was a watershed event in world history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. During this period, French citizens radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system. The upheaval was caused by disgust with the French aristocracy and the economic policies of King Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine, as did his wife Marie Antoinette. Though it degenerated into a bloodbath during the Reign of Terror, the French Revolution helped to shape modern democracies by showing the power inherent in the will of the people.

Causes of the French Revolution

As the 18th century drew to a close, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution , combined with extravagant spending by King Louis XVI , had left France on the brink of bankruptcy.

Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but several years of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes—yet failed to provide any relief—by rioting, looting and striking.

In the fall of 1786, Louis XVI’s controller general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, proposed a financial reform package that included a universal land tax from which the aristocratic classes would no longer be exempt.

Estates General

To garner support for these measures and forestall a growing aristocratic revolt, the king summoned the Estates General ( les états généraux ) – an assembly representing France’s clergy, nobility and middle class – for the first time since 1614.

The meeting was scheduled for May 5, 1789; in the meantime, delegates of the three estates from each locality would compile lists of grievances ( cahiers de doléances ) to present to the king.

Rise of the Third Estate

France’s population, of course, had changed considerably since 1614. The non-aristocratic, middle-class members of the Third Estate now represented 98 percent of the people but could still be outvoted by the other two bodies.

In the lead-up to the May 5 meeting, the Third Estate began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment of the noble veto—in other words, they wanted voting by head and not by status.

While all of the orders shared a common desire for fiscal and judicial reform as well as a more representative form of government, the nobles in particular were loath to give up the privileges they had long enjoyed under the traditional system.

Tennis Court Oath

By the time the Estates General convened at Versailles , the highly public debate over its voting process had erupted into open hostility between the three orders, eclipsing the original purpose of the meeting and the authority of the man who had convened it — the king himself.

On June 17, with talks over procedure stalled, the Third Estate met alone and formally adopted the title of National Assembly; three days later, they met in a nearby indoor tennis court and took the so-called Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume), vowing not to disperse until constitutional reform had been achieved.

Within a week, most of the clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles had joined them, and on June 27 Louis XVI grudgingly absorbed all three orders into the new National Assembly.

The Bastille 

On June 12, as the National Assembly (known as the National Constituent Assembly during its work on a constitution) continued to meet at Versailles, fear and violence consumed the capital.

Though enthusiastic about the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as rumors of an impending military coup began to circulate. A popular insurgency culminated on July 14 when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to secure gunpowder and weapons; many consider this event, now commemorated in France as a national holiday, as the start of the French Revolution.

The wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept the entire country. Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes of tax collectors, landlords and the aristocratic elite.

Known as the Great Fear ( la Grande peur ), the agrarian insurrection hastened the growing exodus of nobles from France and inspired the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism on August 4, 1789, signing what historian Georges Lefebvre later called the “death certificate of the old order.”

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

IIn late August, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ( Déclaration des droits de l ’homme et du citoyen ), a statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau .

The document proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the ancien régime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government.

Drafting a formal constitution proved much more of a challenge for the National Constituent Assembly, which had the added burden of functioning as a legislature during harsh economic times.

For months, its members wrestled with fundamental questions about the shape and expanse of France’s new political landscape. For instance, who would be responsible for electing delegates? Would the clergy owe allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church or the French government? Perhaps most importantly, how much authority would the king, his public image further weakened after a failed attempt to flee the country in June 1791, retain?

Adopted on September 3, 1791, France’s first written constitution echoed the more moderate voices in the Assembly, establishing a constitutional monarchy in which the king enjoyed royal veto power and the ability to appoint ministers. This compromise did not sit well with influential radicals like Maximilien de Robespierre , Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton, who began drumming up popular support for a more republican form of government and for the trial of Louis XVI.

French Revolution Turns Radical

In April 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French émigrés were building counterrevolutionary alliances; it also hoped to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare.

On the domestic front, meanwhile, the political crisis took a radical turn when a group of insurgents led by the extremist Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the king on August 10, 1792.

The following month, amid a wave of violence in which Parisian insurrectionists massacred hundreds of accused counterrevolutionaries, the Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the French republic.

On January 21, 1793, it sent King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against the state, to the guillotine ; his wife Marie-Antoinette suffered the same fate nine months later.

Reign of Terror

Following the king’s execution, war with various European powers and intense divisions within the National Convention brought the French Revolution to its most violent and turbulent phase.

In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity .

They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror (la Terreur), a 10-month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, 1794.

Did you know? Over 17,000 people were officially tried and executed during the Reign of Terror, and an unknown number of others died in prison or without trial.

Thermidorian Reaction

The death of Robespierre marked the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted against the Reign of Terror’s excesses.

On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature.

Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory ( Directoire ) appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte .

French Revolution Ends: Napoleon’s Rise

The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field.

On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “ first consul .” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, during which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe.

Photo Gallery 

French Revolution. The National Archives (U.K.) The United States and the French Revolution, 1789–1799. Office of the Historian. U.S. Department of State . Versailles, from the French Revolution to the Interwar Period. Chateau de Versailles . French Revolution. Monticello.org . Individuals, institutions, and innovation in the debates of the French Revolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 

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The French Revolution and Nationalism - Essay Example

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French Revolution Essay - History

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• Getting Started: Baseline Assessments
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Getting Started: Instructional Routines

• Unit 9.1: Global 1 Introduction
• Unit 9.2: The First Civilizations

Unit 9.3: Classical Civilizations

• Unit 9.4: Political Powers and Achievements
• Unit 9.5: Social and Cultural Growth and Conflict
• Unit 9.6: Ottoman and Ming Pre-1600
• Unit 9.7: Transformation of Western Europe and Russia
• Unit 9.8: Africa and the Americas Pre-1600
• Unit 9.9: Interactions and Disruptions
• Unit 10.0: Global 2 Introduction

Unit 10.1: The World in 1750 C.E.

Unit 10.2: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Nationalism

• Unit 10.3: Industrial Revolution
• Unit 10.4: Imperialism
• Unit 10.5: World Wars
• Unit 10.6: Cold War Era
• Unit 10.7: Decolonization and Nationalism
• Unit 10.8: Cultural Traditions and Modernization
• Unit 10.9: Globalization and the Changing Environment
• Unit 10.10: Human Rights Violations
• Unit 11.0: US History Introduction
• Unit 11.1: Colonial Foundations
• Unit 11.2: American Revolution
• Unit 11.3A: Building a Nation
• Unit 11.03B: Sectionalism & the Civil War
• Unit 11.4: Reconstruction
• Unit 11.5: Gilded Age and Progressive Era
• Unit 11.6: Rise of American Power
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Enlightenment, Revolution, and Nationalism

KEY IDEA:  ENLIGHTENMENT, REVOLUTION, AND NATIONALISM: The Enlightenment called into question traditional beliefs and inspired widespread political, economic, and social change. This intellectual movement was used to challenge political authorities in Europe and colonial rule in the Americas. These ideals inspired political and social movements.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:  Enlightenment thinkers developed political philosophies based on natural laws, which included the concepts of social contract, consent of the governed, and the rights of citizens.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION:  Students will examine at least three Enlightenment thinkers, including John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and key ideas from their written works

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:  Individuals used Enlightenment ideals to challenge traditional beliefs and secure people’s rights in reform movements, such as women’s rights and abolition; some leaders may be considered enlightened despots.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION:  Students will explore the influence of Enlightenment ideals on issues of gender and abolition by examining the ideas of individuals such as Mary Wollstonecraft and William Wilberforce.

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION:  Students will examine enlightened despots including Catherine the Great.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:  Individuals and groups drew upon principles of the Enlightenment to spread rebellions and call for revolutions in France and the Americas.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION:  Students will examine evidence related to the preconditions of the French Revolution and the course of the revolution, noting the roles of Olympe de Gouges, Maximilien Robespierre, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION:  Students will examine the evidence related to the impacts of the French Revolution on resistance and revolutionary movements, noting the roles of Toussaint L’Ouverture and Simon Bolivar.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:  Cultural identity and nationalism inspired political movements that attempted to unify people into new nation-states and posed challenges to multinational states.

CONCEPT SPECIFICATION:  Students will investigate the role of cultural identity and nationalism in the unification of Italy and Germany and in the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires.

The Enlightenment called into question traditional beliefs and inspired widespread political, economic, and social change. This intellectual movement was used to challenge political authorities in Europe and colonial rule in the Americas. These ideals inspired political and social movements.

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Review: European Culture and Politics ca. 1750 See 1 item Hide 1 item

Through these resources, students will review content from the 9th grade curriculum related to European culture and politics ca. 1750. 

Review: European Culture and Politics ca. 1750: SQ 1. What was the political and cultural situation in Europe ca. 1750?

Students will examine events from the Middle Ages to the mid-1700s from multiple perspectives.

The Enlightenment See 4 items Hide 4 items

Through these resources, students will examine Enlightenment thinkers, including John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as key ideas from their written works and the effects of those works on issues of gender and abolition by examining the ideas of individuals, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wilberforce, and enlightened despots, including Catherine the Great.

The Enlightenment: SQ 2. What historical circumstances led to the Enlightenment?

Students will describe what the Enlightenment was and the historical context in which it took place.

The Enlightenment: SQ 3. What points of view did Enlightenment Thinkers have about government?

The Enlightenment: SQ 4. What effect did the Enlightenment have on social reform movements and monarchs in the 18th century?

Students will explain how Enlightenment ideas influenced the women's rights and abolition movements in England.

Students will explore the influence of Enlightenment ideals on issues of gender and abolition by examining the ideas of individuals such as Mary Wollstonecraft and William Wilberforce.

French Revolution See 9 items Hide 9 items

Through these resources, students will examine evidence related to the preconditions of the French Revolution and the course of the revolution, noting the roles of Olympe de Gouges, Maximilien Robespierre, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

French Revolution: SQ 6. What was the French Revolution?

French Revolution: SQ 7. What were the social, economic, and political issues that led to the French Revolution?

Students will describe the social, economic, and political problems in pre-revolutionary France. 

French Revolution: SQ 8. During the National Assembly stage of the French Revolution what actions were taken to address issues in France? To what extent did those actions fix those problems?

French Revolution: SQ 9. During the Radical Revolution stage of the French Revolution what actions were taken to address issues in France? To what extent did those actions fix those problems?

French Revolution: SQ 10. During the Age of Napoleon stage of the French Revolution what actions were taken to address issues in France? To what extent did those actions fix those problems?

French Revolution: Was the French Revolution Successful? Unpacking the Question

Students will examine the reactions of the Third Estate to Louis XVI's actions in the early stages of the French Revolution.

French Revolution: Performance Task Research Packet

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French Revolution: Pre, During, and Post Discussion Guide

Students will evaluate whether the French Revolution was successful.

French Revolution: Performance Task Discussion Overview and Procedures

Here you will find two options for facilitating a discussion-based performance task in you classroom. Please choose the option that you think will create a meaningful discussion experience for your students.

Latin American Revolutions and Nationalism See 5 items Hide 5 items

Through these resources, students will examine the evidence related to the impacts of the French Revolution on resistance and revolutionary movements, noting the roles of Toussaint L’Ouverture and Simon Bolivar, and investigate the role of cultural identity and nationalism in the unification of Italy, Germany, and in the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires.

Latin American Revolutions and Nationalism: SQ 12. What is nationalism? What impact can it have?

Latin American Revolutions and Nationalism: SQ 13. What historical circumstances led to the unification of Germany and Italy?

Latin American Revolutions and Nationalism: SQ 14. What led to independence movements in the Western Hemisphere in the 18th and 19th centuries?

Latin American Revolutions and Nationalism: Haitian Revolution

This lesson provides a brief overview of various documents representing major moments and events concerning the Haitian Revolution with a focus on building contextualization skills through the "Big C, little c" instructional routine. For students to have a grasp on the context around the Haitian Revolution they should have been introduced already to "Big C" concepts such as the transatlantic slave trade, colonization of the Caribbean and Americas, Enlightenment, and French Revolution. 

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David French

America’s Most Overlooked Political Divide Is Also Its Most Revealing

By David French

Opinion Columnist

It’s not often that a poll result causes me to do a double take. This month, however, a Pew Research Center survey grabbed my attention. As part of a comprehensive poll on the importance of religion in public life, Pew compared Americans’ knowledge of and support for Christian nationalism between September 2022 and February 2024 and found no meaningful change at all. The exact same percentage of Americans said they’d heard or read about Christian nationalism — 45 percent in 2022 and 45 percent in 2024. The exact same percentage of Americans said they’d never heard or read about Christian nationalism — 54 percent in both years.

The beliefs and attitudes of those who had heard about Christian nationalism were remarkably static. After months of debates in the media, the percentage of Americans who have a favorable view of Christian nationalism was unchanged. The percentage of those who have an unfavorable view increased a single percentage point — from 24 percent to 25 percent. In fact, the largest change in the poll was the whopping 2 percent decrease in the number of people who said they had no opinion, from 8 percent to 6 percent.

My first response was surprise. How could this be? The Christian nationalism debate has flooded online spaces since Jan. 6, 2021, if not earlier. There’s a fight over its definition, a fight over its reach and a furious fight (especially within Christian spaces) over its desirability. Is it actually possible that all of those articles, podcasts and speeches have made no difference at all?

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized my surprise was misplaced. I had another take that trumped my first. When you take a step back and think through some of the larger issues in American politics, the poll result makes perfect sense. Note that I said that Americans have been having a furious online conversation about Christian nationalism. Yet an online conversation isn’t the same thing as a national conversation.

I’m reminded of one of the most illuminating studies I’ve ever read. It came from the Hidden Tribes of America project , which was put together by a group called More in Common . It surveyed 8,000 Americans to try to explore their attitudes and conflicts beyond the red-blue divide, and one of its central conclusions is critical to understanding the modern moment: Only a minority of Americans are truly active in political debates, and they’re exhausting and alienating the rest of the country.

In 2019 my Times colleagues Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy used this data to expose the vast difference between online and off-line Democrats . One-third of Democrats post political content on social media; two-thirds do not. And the differences between the two groups were significant. Online Democrats were far more liberal, disproportionately white and far more likely to engage in activism, such as attending a protest or donating to a candidate.

Don’t think for a moment that this dichotomy exists only on the left. More in Common found that both wings of American life — the highly polarized left and the highly polarized right — shared characteristics. For example, the most polarized conservatives are also disproportionately white and are almost twice as likely to list politics as a hobby.

Together, these polarized wings are the most united, most tribal and least persuadable Americans. Or, as More in Common put it, members of the wings are “the most certain of their positions.” The rest of Americans — the other two-thirds — constitute an “exhausted majority.” They’re deeply discontented with American politics, and many are also largely disengaged.

So, then, the Pew poll on Christian nationalism makes sense. Yes, there’s been a furious argument, but it’s been conducted both within and between the polarized wings. Few people in those groups ever change their minds. Everyone else doesn’t even know the debate is happening.

This kind of exhaustion magnifies our political inertia. If the wings aren’t changing their minds and the majority is checked out, then stasis can set in. The engaged members of the wings are negatively polarized. There is no way they’re switching teams. The exhausted majority is discontent with the status quo, but it’s largely passive. It doesn’t exert nearly enough energy to repair our political culture, even though it wants change.

To better understand the dynamic, imagine our political controversies as a court case where the lawyers argue with each other but most of the jury doesn’t even arrive until the end of the case. Yes, they cast votes, but their decisions are rooted in their existing biases, not the evidence. The lawyers are livid at the absent jurors. The jurors are repulsed by the lawyers’ hostility, and nothing changes.

This large-scale disengagement can cause us to misdiagnose ignorance as indifference. For example, a YouGov survey conducted this year found that most Republicans don’t know or aren’t sure whether Donald Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. They don’t know or aren’t sure whether Trump has been sued for fraud or charged with mishandling classified information or attempting to unlawfully overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Experience teaches us that most disengaged Republicans would quite likely stay Republican even if they knew the truth about Trump. It’s also true, however, that absent new information, they have no good reason to change their votes. Yet when they disengage, they remove themselves from the information that could change their minds.

The decision to unplug from the news is often quite rational and perhaps even prudent — compounding the problem. Disengagement is a reasonable response to the unreasonable vitriol that dominates our political conversations. Weighing in on politics online or even watching it passively is like voluntarily choosing to receive an electric shock.

One friend told me, “I got sick of the constant rage.” So he deleted his social media accounts, turned his cable television from Fox News to ESPN and never looked back. “My blood pressure is down,” he said, “and I’m a better husband and father.” Good for him, I thought, but bad for us. Another decent man has disengaged. Another member of the jury has left the courtroom.

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David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation .” You can follow him on Threads ( @davidfrenchjag ).