Political scientists have had a
hard time defining different forms of political violence. The current
definitions of these terms, however, are becoming clearer, specifically the one
of revolution. In Comparative Politics
by David J. Samuels, a revolution is defined as, “armed conflict within a
sovereign state between insurgents and the state, in which both the insurgents
and the state claim the allegiance of a significant proportion of the
population; authority over the state is forcibly transferred from the state to
the insurgents, and the insurgents subsequently bring about wholesale political
change.”¹
The French Revolution perfectly fits into this definition.
In France during July of 1789 the
Estates General declared itself the National Assembly with the goal of
representing the people. They decided to take matters into their own hands
after years of government repression. Several days later, around 1000 citizens
stormed the Bastille (a fortress used by the king as a prison, which became to
be a representation of the monarchy), an event seen to have started the French
Revolution. That October nearly 7000
women stormed Versailles in response to the terrible economic conditions,
specifically the current bread shortages.² Around this same time a group called
the Jacobins came into power. They headed much of the revolution, including the
infamous Reign of Terror. This group eventually had over 400,000 members.³ In
all of these cases royal guardsmen tried to keep order, remaining loyal to the
king. There were also many others that retained support for the Bourbon
monarchy, known as Monarchists. Using the given definition, the extent of these
numbers shows that both the insurgents and the monarchy had the allegiance of a
large population.
At the beginning of the revolution the
National Assembly created their own constitution, titled the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In 1791 after the royal family‘s failed
attempt to flee the country, the family was brought back to Paris and guarded
and the king was suspended by the National Assembly. This action legitimized
the Assembly. In 1793, during the Reign of Terror, King Louis XVII and Marie
Antoinette were executed by the guillotine in Paris. (French Revolution) The
revolutionaries, who had already taken power, had effectively ended the
monarchy. The Directory then came to power in 1795 near the end of the
revolution. This government consisted of five men, including several radical
Jacobins.⁴ This shows that there was, indeed, power “forcibly transferred from
the states to the insurgents.”
At the end of the French Revolution
the Directory was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte, who replaced it with the
Consulate. He declared himself the First Consul of the French First Republic in
May of 1804.⁵ The revolution thus brought about drastic change in French
government, dissolving the centuries old French monarch. Although not necessarily
a real republic, Napoleon tried to make the government look representative,
something the revolution had been fighting for, as seen in their motto,
“Liberty, equality, fraternity.” This became a major turning point in French
government.
In going back to the first part of
the definition, the revolution certainly had “armed conflict within a state
between insurgents and the state.” The violence started in the very beginning
with the storming of the Bastille, where nearly 100 people were killed. The
Reign of Terror between 1793 and 1794 was one of the bloodiest times of the
revolution, where all those suspected of opposing the government were
slaughtered. About 25,000 people were executed throughout France, with an
additional 16,000 killed by the guillotine, including the king and queen.⁶ There
were still many other points of combat during the ten years of the French Revolution.
This violent upheaval between Monarchists and revolutionaries easily meets the
“armed combat” qualification of a revolution.
In perfectly following the
definition given by Samuels, the French Revolution had armed conflict within
France between the monarchy and the revolutionaries. Both of these groups
claimed control over the country, but the insurgents ultimately won, bringing
about dramatic change. Although there may be some flaws with this definition,
when looking at it with the French Revolution, the two are a perfect fit.
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