The French Revolution was the collapse of the absolute monarchy in France and the establishment of the Republic in its place, and the Catholic Church was forced to reform.
The French Revolution, which started as a social trend, has been adopted in Europe and the Western world and has been a turning point in history. The French people became conscious and opposed the King's orders and wanted to have a say in the administration. The country, which has gained the habit of reading books, started to work to establish a good future for their children by sending them to university, and with this, the French community has made a great cultural breakthrough. With the awareness of the society, the public became more and more critical, fed by independent media organs, and the demands of the society gradually matured. This attitude of the King, who tried to preserve his own status against the French Revolution's specific and egalitarian way of thinking, led the bourgeoisie who could not rise to the aristocratic class, even though they were economically strong, to support this trend. On the other hand, the demands of the King and the increasing tax burden of the people, who were oppressed with each passing day, increased the interest of the people in the Republic and this situation created an idea of revolution among the people. Especially the layer believing in revolutionary thought, the bourgeois wanted to adopt the parliamentary absolute monarchy style of England, after the central government suppressed the problems with a repressive method. But these demands of the people were rejected by the King and society was dragged into a bloody revolution. But how did the French Revolution begin?
The Entry of the French Revolution to the Stage of History
The enlightenment and intellectual progress in the French society led to the idea that the society under absolute domination could have a say in the administration by making radical changes. Along with Enlightenment thoughts, Descartes referred to the existence of reason and free thought, while Montesquieu thought that the people should be represented in the administration through proxies. At the same time, he tried to instill the idea of transition to a government where the idea of the separation of powers was adopted. J.J Rousseau argued that all people are equal and a form of government in which the people have a say should be implemented. French thinkers first adopted the ideas of "John Locke", the founding father of the thought in the British Declaration of Human Rights, and then the Bourgeois internalized the ideas of democratic rights and liberal economy contained in the American Declaration of Independence and rebelled against the King, who established absolute domination in France.
In the years before the revolution, the French economy was not considered bright. In fact, France, which has an advanced economy compared to many modern states, has entered a period of decline, especially due to the peasant's inability to get crops and the war expenses. First of all, major social problems arose with the migration of the peasant population to cities due to famine. Large cities have become unable to accommodate dense populations. Despite these economic difficulties, the people regularly paid their taxes. On the other hand, with the increase in palace expenses and the prolongation of wars, the expenses could not be covered. The kingdom tried to correct these spending by a tax increase to be levied on the land for the general public; but so to speak, he squeezed it into his own heel. The central government has come to the point of exhaustion, as France, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, also financially supported the rebellion in the North American colonies it lost.
The Parliament convened in 1789; It consisted of three cabins established by the nobility, clergy and the public. The bourgeois class, which took an active role in foreign trade in France, wanted to crown their economic power with a political success and wanted to serve more actively in the Parliament. The middle class and the wealthy, who think that their authority to rule, which is the absolute monarchy, should be limited with the convening of the parliament; They advocated the idea that domestic trade should be liberalized by abolishing the domestic customs practice and the people should have more say in the administration. The middle-class and popular group, whose demands were not accepted by King Louis, attacked the Bastille Prison, which they regarded as the center of Kingdom repression, seized the prison and released the prisoners. Many different sections were found in the French Revolution. Of these, the group representing the poor people called themselves Enragee (The Furious). The privileged sections, who see the revolution as a social progress rather than a popular movement, are divided into two classes: the Jacobins (radical progressives) and the Girondins (liberal and moderate progressives).
After the Bastillle raid, in 1791, the revolutionary groups gathered and appointed a constituent assembly and published a declaration of Human and Citizen Rights. To this constituent assembly, to which the king also had to submit; It is empowered to draft laws, to verify the credibility of the budget and to control the work of the government. After the declaration of Human and Citizen Rights has been put into force,He destroyed the feudal institutions in France using the constituent parliamentary executive power. The nobles, who had reacted to the public due to their previous pressures, could not stand against the masses of the people with the revolution and had to flee to different countries of Europe by leaving their lands. European states predicted that France, which got rid of feudal restrictions, would realize a great economic breakthrough and that these economic opportunities could easily feed the French military power. On the other hand, this libertarian and egalitarian mentality that occurred in France caused the collapse of all monarchies in time and the French Revolution took the whole world under its influence over time.
The king of France, who was arrested and thrown into prison in the incident known as the "September Massacre" in the French Revolution, was deprived of all his rights. Immediately afterwards, radicals who believed that the King could later revolt argued that the King and his family should be destroyed. On September 2, 1792, during the transfer of the King's supporters to another prison, a Parisian armed group attacked the convoy and massacred the King's followers. Later, various groups of people, who were upset by this incident, raided prisons in cities such as Paris, Lyon, Versailles, and Orleans, and destroyed the prisoners. Thousands of people were executed by guillotine between 1793 and 1794 and those who played a role in this revolution were called "jacques". On the other hand, Louis, the King of France, was hanged on January 21, 1793, and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, on October 16, 1793, on the grounds that he had made an agreement with external enemies.
Results of the French Revolution
With the French Revolution, it has been seen that the kingdoms that were thought to be indestructible and even believed to have taken the right of sovereignty from God can be destroyed. The libertarian and equality mindset of the French Revolution started to spread to Continental Europe and other states. It has been accepted that sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation, and the ideas of equality, freedom and justice have started to be adopted. The Principle of Nationalism, which started with the French Revolution, gained a political character and became the end of multinational states. After the French Revolution, the scattered nations tried to establish unions and the mentality brought by the revolution reached universal points and the New Age was closed and the Modern Age started. The Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights published by the French has been adopted worldwide.