CHAPTER 12

THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION

In 1791, King Louis XVI decided to flee Paris and the French

Revolution. A virtual prisoner in the Tuileries Palace by the first months of

the year, he had secretly negotiated for possible intervention on his behalf by

the Austrian king and other European monarchs. The royal family furtively

left the Tuileries Palace late at night on June 20, 1791, disguised as the fam­

ily and entourage of a Russian baroness riding in a large black coach with

yellow trim. But in an eastern town, the postmaster recognized the king,

whose image he had seen on a coin. He rode rapidly to the town of Varennes,

where the National Guard prevented the king’s coach from going on. Three

representatives of the National Assembly brought the royal family back to

Paris. Near the capital, the crowds became threatening, and national

guardsmen stood by the roadside with their rifles upside down, a sign of con­

tempt or mourning.

The French Revolution mounted the first effective challenge to monar­

chical absolutism on behalf of popular sovereignty. The creation of a repub­

lican government in France and the diffusion of republican ideals in other

European countries influenced the evolution of European political life long

after the Revolution ended. Issues of the rights of the people, the role of

the state in society, the values of democratic society, notions of “left” and

“right” in political life, the concept of the “nation at arms,” the place of reli­

gion in modern society and politics, and the question of economic freedom

and the sanctity of property came to dominate the political agenda. They

occupied the attention of much of France during the revolutionary decade

of 1789-1799. The political violence of that decade would also be a legacy

for the future.

The revolutionaries sought to make the French state more centralized

and efficient, as well as more just. Napoleon Bonaparte, whom some histo­

rians consider the heir to the Revolution and others believe to be its

betrayer, continued this process after his ascent to power in 1799.

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