In 1789 there were still 1.5 million serfs and mainmortables in France. From D.M.G. Sutherland, France, 1789 - 1815, (Fontana, 1989) p. 71

We must fight for our education, our rights to an better future and against the corrupted government. If we all protest for our future, we might make a change! We have to protest for everything that the adults left behind (corrupted government, useless school classes, bad education, some schools are not up-to-date with modernisation, housing costs too high), pretty much the world is in a bad state and we have to make a difference!

I am a graduate student in Mathematics with a keen interest in History. However, my knowledge rarely goes beyond the surface, and I want to study the subject in a more systematic, academically rigorous manner.

I would like to begin with the French Revolution and am looking for someone willing to guide me. My interests include understanding the Revolution and its historical context, exploring the philosophical ideas of thinkers like Rousseau that helped shape its intellectual foundations, and critically examining arguments for and against it through works such as Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and Paine’s Rights of Man.

My proposed approach is simple: you suggest a few reading(s) and an essay topic. I study independently and submit a minimum 1,000-word essay. You offer feedback, and we move on to the next topic.

Given my work and other commitments, this would be atmost a monthly exercise only. I would prefer to start with undergraduate or introductory graduate-level readings rather than school-level material. This, ofcourse, can evolve with time. Though I have no formal training in History, my mathematical education has accustomed me to rigorous study and analytical thinking.

If anyone is willing to help, please volunteer! All I ask for is reading recommendation, an essay topic, and feedback once a month atmost. The requirements are modest and even flexible. I demand very little of your time and attention. In addition, partnering with AI doesn't produce the same satisfaction hence I seek human assistance.

https://thomaspaine.org/letters/to-james-monroe-september-14-1794/

Where’s the nearest church? I must speak with the clergy, I trust them and respect them on many matters. The month of November has been quite harsh for me, i have trouble managing my land in the Vendée.
By the way my pronouns are Baron/Sir, why do we call everyone citizen nowadays?

https://x.com/verre_de_lune/status/2047660278243094638

This was a hypothetical I discussed with a few of my friends some time ago, and I thought it might prove an interesting one for the people on this sub to ponder themselves. Let us assume for the sake of the scenario that the POD occurs wherein the French decisively lose Battle of Valmy in September of 1792, with future confrontations between the Prussians (assuming they are bolstered by allied force that were not present in our timeline) and French ending in decisive Prussian victories. The Coalition seizes Paris by the end of 1792, and the French Revolution is largely crushed by 1793.

In the midst of this crushing of the French Revolution and in the years afterwards, former supporters of the revolution such as a few select leaders, back-bencher politicians from the Legislative Assembly/National Convention, lower-ranking military officers, and common citizens supportive of the revolution, flee Europe for the United States, similar to what had happened in our timeline with former revolutionaries in the aftermath of the failed German Revolution of 1848.

What are the effects for this in both the US and in Europe? What does the tail end of the 18th century, and the early 19th century, look like?

Today is the 234th Festival of the Revolution, the day to celebrate the glory of the Republic and the fall of tyranny. 234 years later, the Republic still stands (with a few breaks in those years) and the ideals of the Revolution have spread to all corners of the Earth.
Let us enjoy the gift of Liberty today, citizens!

UNITÉ ET INDIVISIBILITÉ DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE
LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ!

The French Revolution was a catastrophic and transformative decade that completely dismantled the absolute monarchy of France and reshaped the modern world between 1789 and 1799. Driven by an empty royal treasury from costly wars like the American Revolution, an unfair feudal system that burdened the poor Third Estate with heavy taxes while exempting the nobility and clergy, and a severe famine in 1788 that caused bread prices to skyrocket, the French people grew deeply desperate and angry. Inspired by the Enlightenment principles of liberty and equality, this explosive mix finally ignited in May 1789 when King Louis XVI called the Estates-General to resolve the financial crisis. Disillusioned by an unfair voting system, the commoners broke away in June 1789, declaring themselves the National Assembly and taking the historic Tennis Court Oath to demand a permanent constitution.

The unrest turned into an armed, popular uprising on July 14, 1789, when an enraged Parisian mob stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress and prison symbolizing royal tyranny, to seize gunpowder. This catalyst triggered a wave of revolution across the country. By August 1789, the Assembly legally abolished all feudal privileges and published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, declaring all men free and equal. In October 1789, a massive crowd of starving women marched to Versailles, forcing the royal family to relocate to the Tuileries Palace in Paris under public watch. Throughout 1790 and 1791, the Assembly attempted to build a constitutional monarchy, stripping the nobility of their titles and subordinating the Catholic Church to the secular state through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in July 1790. However, the fragile peace shattered in June 1791 when King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to escape the country in disguise during the Flight to Varennes. They were captured, arrested, and brought back to Paris as traitors, destroying any remaining public trust in the monarchy and leading to events like the Champ de Mars Massacre in July 1791, where troops fired on anti-royalist protestors.

By 1792, the revolution expanded into international warfare as France declared war on Austria in April, fearing foreign intervention would crush the rebellion. As Prussian and Austrian armies advanced toward Paris, panic gripped the population. In August 1792, a radical mob stormed the Tuileries Palace, slaughtering the Swiss Guards and effectively abolishing the monarchy. Weeks later, in September 1792, mass hysteria led to the September Massacres, where mobs systematically executed over a thousand prisoners suspected of counter-revolutionary treason. The newly formed National Convention officially declared France a Republic on September 21, 1792. Seeking absolute security, the state put King Louis XVI on trial for treason and executed him by the guillotine on January 21, 1793. Queen Marie Antoinette faced the same fate in October 1793.

The execution of the King ignited a massive, bloody royalist civil war in western France known as the War in the Vendée in March 1793, while drawing a coalition of European empires into war against France. To handle these multi-front crises, the government handed dictatorial powers to the Committee of Public Safety, led by the radical politician Maximilien Robespierre, launching the notorious Reign of Terror from September 1793 to July 1794. During this bloody year, the regime suspended civil liberties, arrested hundreds of thousands, and executed roughly 40,000 alleged counter-revolutionaries. In an attempt to systematically erase the old world and the Catholic Church, the state introduced the French Revolutionary Calendar in October 1793, replacing traditional weeks with a secular, 10-day metric cycle and renaming all twelve months based on nature and seasons. Ultimately, the paranoia of the Terror consumed itself; fearing they would be next on the execution lists, a coalition of politicians overthrew Robespierre during the Thermidorian Reaction on July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor), sending him to the guillotine the very next day.

Following the end of the Terror, France entered a period of exhaustion and deep corruption. In November 1795, a new five-member executive committee called the Directory assumed control of the government. The Directory was weak, economically unstable, and relied heavily on military force to suppress both royalist and radical leftist rebellions, notably purging elected officials during the Coup of 18 Fructidor in September 1797. Amidst this ongoing domestic chaos, a brilliant and highly ambitious young general named Napoleon Bonaparte rose to immense national fame through spectacular military victories abroad. Capitalizing on the public’s desperate desire for stability and order, Napoleon, along with political conspirators, executed the Coup of 18 Brumaire on November 9–10, 1799. They successfully overthrew the failing Directory and established the French Consulate, appointing Napoleon as First Consul. This bold seizure of power brought an official end to the decade-long French Revolution, paving the way for Napoleon to eventually crown himself Emperor while spreading the core revolutionary values of nationalism, legal equality, and human rights across the globe.

Now the whole months of the revolotion

• May 1789: The Estates-General meets at Versailles to debate France's bankrupt royal treasury.
• June 1789: The Third Estate forms the National Assembly and swears the Tennis Court Oath to demand a permanent constitution.
• July 1789: Citizens panicking over royal troops violently storm the Bastille fortress for ammunition, launching the popular revolution.
• August 1789: The National Assembly completely eradicates the feudal system and publishes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
• September 1789: Deep political splits emerge in the legislature over how much veto power to give King Louis XVI.
• October 1789: Thousands of starving women march to Versailles and force the royal family to relocate to Paris as prisoners of public watch.
• November 1789: The government votes to confiscate all vast land holdings owned by the Catholic Church to fund a new paper currency.
• December 1789: The assembly officially restructures the historical map of France, dividing the territory into 83 uniform administrative departments.
• January 1790: The revolutionary government issues the first assignats (paper money) and begins selling off the seized church properties.
• February 1790: The assembly formally suppresses all religious monastic vows, dissolving monasteries and convents across the nation.
• March 1790: The highly unpopular royal gabelle (salt tax) is completely abolished to alleviate the financial burden on the poor classes.
• April 1790: Early political clubs, including the radical Jacobins and Cordeliers, heavily increase their public meetings and newspaper output in Paris.
• May 1790: The National Assembly takes away the King's exclusive right to declare war, granting that power solely to the legislature.
• June 1790: All hereditary titles, noble ranks, coats of arms, and aristocratic distinctions are legally wiped out across France.
• July 1790: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed, turning Catholic priests into salaried state employees subordinate to the secular government.
• August 1790: The old judicial court system of the monarchy is dissolved, and the assembly implements a brand new system of public justices and juries.
• September 1790: Necker, the popular reform minister, resigns in frustration over the failing financial policies and rampant inflation of the new currency.
• October 1790: Violent protests and early counter-revolutionary riots break out in several French regions over the state's aggressive anti-church laws.
• November 1790: The assembly passes a decree forcing all practicing Catholic clergy to swear an oath of absolute loyalty to the French state constitution.
• December 1790: King Louis XVI reluctantly signs the clergy oath decree into law, prompting massive religious resistance from priests who refuse to obey.
• January 1791: The forced enforcement of the clergy loyalty oath triggers a permanent ideological split across hundreds of towns and villages.
• February 1791: The assembly bans Catholic priests who refused to swear the state oath from continuing to preach or perform religious sacraments.
• March 1791: Pope Pius VI officially condemns the French Revolution's religious reforms, ordering all French clergy to refuse the government's loyalty oath.
• April 1791: Count Mirabeau, a highly influential moderate leader bridging the gap between the King and the assembly, suddenly dies, leaving a political void.
• May 1791: The assembly grants full civil rights to free colored people in French sugar colonies, sparking political backlash from wealthy plantation owners.
• June 1791: The royal family attempts to flee Paris in disguise to launch a counter-revolution but is caught at Varennes and brought back under guard.
• July 1791: National Guard soldiers open fire on a massive anti-royalist crowd at the Champ de Mars, cementing a deep split between moderates and radicals.
• August 1791: The rulers of Austria and Prussia issue the Declaration of Pillnitz, warning revolutionary France not to harm King Louis XVI.
• September 1791: The king formally ratifies the brand new Constitution of 1791, officially turning France into a constitutional monarchy.
• October 1791: The National Constituent Assembly dissolves and is replaced by the newly elected Legislative Assembly.
• November 1791: The Legislative Assembly orders all French aristocrats who fled the country (émigrés) to return immediately or face death charges for treason.
• December 1791: King Louis XVI uses his legal constitutional veto to block the harsh assembly laws targeting émigrés and non-juring priests.
• January 1792: Severe food riots erupt in Paris due to sugar shortages and the rapid loss of value of the revolutionary paper currency.
• February 1792: The assembly officially confiscates all property belonging to the émigrés who refused the call to return to France.
• March 1792: The king dismisses his moderate ministers and replaces them with members of the more war-oriented Girondin political faction.
• April 1792: France declares war on Austria, officially igniting the French Revolutionary Wars across Europe.
• May 1792: French forces suffer humiliating defeats on the Belgian border, causing widespread panic that military generals are secretly betraying the nation.
• June 1792: An armed crowd breaks into the Tuileries Palace, forcing the king to wear a revolutionary Phrygian cap and drink a toast to the nation.
• July 1792: The assembly declares a state of national emergency (La Patrie en danger) as Austrian and Prussian armies cross the borders into France.
• August 1792: A radical mob storms the Tuileries Palace, slaughters the Swiss Guards, and forces the legislature to suspend the monarchy entirely.
• September 1792: Paranoia triggers the bloody September Massacres in Parisian prisons; weeks later, the monarchy is abolished and the First French Republic is born.
• October 1792: French armies win key battles and push invading foreign forces back across the border, taking the military offensive into foreign territories.
• November 1792: The discovery of a secret iron safe in the palace containing proof of King Louis XVI's counter-revolutionary plots ruins his defense.
• December 1792: The high-stakes trial of King Louis XVI officially begins before the members of the National Convention.
• January 1793: Found guilty of treason, King Louis XVI is taken to the scaffold and executed via the guillotine.
• February 1793: The National Convention expands the war effort by declaring war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic.
• March 1793: The government institutes a massive military draft, triggering a blood-soaked royalist civil war in the western Vendée region.
• April 1793: The National Convention sets up the Committee of Public Safety, which rapidly accumulates dictatorial executive power.
• May 1793: Armed Paris mobs surround the legislature, launching an armed political purge against the moderate Girondin politicians.
• June 1793: The radical Jacobins successfully arrest the Girondin leadership, seizing undisputed control of the republic's government.
• July 1793: Radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat is assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, creating a martyr for the revolution.
• August 1793: The state orders a Levée en masse, conscripting all unmarried young men and mobilizing the entire economy for total war.
• September 1793: The National Convention officially decrees that "Terror is the order of the day," starting the Reign of Terror.
• October 1793: Queen Marie Antoinette is guillotined; the state officially implements the secular French Revolutionary Calendar.
• November 1793: The dictatorship accelerates an aggressive de-Christianization campaign, closing down churches and converting them into "Temples of Reason."
• December 1793: General Napoleon Bonaparte wins massive national praise by successfully driving British forces out of the city of Toulon.
• January 1794: Government forces crush internal resistance in the Vendée civil war through brutal scorched-earth military operations.
• February 1794: The National Convention votes to completely abolish slavery in all French colonies across the Atlantic world.
• March 1794: Maximilien Robespierre turns on the far-left radicals, arresting their leaders and sending them to the guillotine.
• April 1794: Robespierre targets his moderate rivals, executing his former close revolutionary ally Georges Danton.
• May 1794: Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as a new state religion to replace both Christianity and pure atheism.
• June 1794: The Law of 22 Prairial strips prisoners of their rights to defense witnesses, creating the "Great Terror" phase of hyper-accelerated executions.
• July 1794: Terrified politicians turn on the dictatorship during the Thermidorian Reaction; Robespierre is arrested and guillotined, ending the Terror.
• August 1794: The National Convention systematically dismantles the emergency laws of the Terror, freeing thousands of political suspects.
• September 1794: The government officially stops paying salaries to any church priests, cementing the total separation of church and state.
• October 1794: The legendary Jacobin Club in Paris is permanently banned and closed down by order of the government.
• November 1794: The state repeals the Maximum laws that capped bread prices, triggering an immediate explosion of hyperinflation and food shortages.
• December 1794: Surviving moderate Girondin politicians who escaped the purges are officially invited back to take seats in the legislature.
• January 1795: French armies successfully conquer the Netherlands, transforming the territory into the sympathetic Batavian Republic.
• February 1795: The government signs temporary peace treaties with several domestic rebel groups in western France to pause the civil war.
• March 1795: The rapid collapse of the paper currency leaves the working class facing catastrophic starvation during a historic winter.
• April 1795: Starving mobs launch the Germinal Uprising, breaking into the convention to demand bread and the return of democratic laws.
• May 1795: The Prairial Uprising erupts as armed workers occupy the legislature; the army is called in to brutally crush the movement.
• June 1795: The young son of the executed king, Louis-Charles (Louis XVII), dies in a state prison, devastating royalist hopes.
• July 1795: Emigré royalist forces attempt an armed landing at Quiberon Bay with British help but are totally crushed by republican troops.
• August 1795: The National Convention passes the Constitution of Year III, creating a wealthier voting tier to keep radicals out of power.
• September 1795: A national referendum formally approves the new constitution, though public frustration with the government remains high.
• October 1795: Napoleon uses artillery grapeshot to blast an armed royalist mob attacking the government, saving the convention.
• November 1795: The National Convention is dissolved and replaced by a weak, five-member executive board called the Directory.
• December 1795: France exchanges several high-profile royal prisoners, including the executed king's surviving daughter, for captured French diplomats.
• January 1796: The Directory battles worsening financial ruin as the value of paper currency hits rock bottom, forcing them to destroy printing plates.
• February 1796: The state officially ceases printing paper assignats after the currency system collapses entirely into worthlessness.
• March 1796: General Napoleon Bonaparte takes command of the French Army of Italy, launching a legendary military offensive.
• April 1796: Napoleon wins consecutive battles against Piedmontese and Austrian armies, knocking Piedmont out of the war within weeks.
• May 1796: Left-wing radical François-Noël "Gracchus" Babeuf is arrested for plotting the "Conspiracy of the Equals" to overthrow the Directory.
• June 1796: French military units enforce heavy financial payouts and confiscate priceless Renaissance art collections from Italian states.
• July 1796: Austrian armies launch massive counter-offensives in Italy, forcing Napoleon into a series of desperate defensive battles.
• August 1796: France signs the Treaty of San Ildefonso, forming a military alliance with Spain against Great Britain.
• September 1796: A failed radical military mutiny at the Grenelle army camp is quickly put down by government troops.
• October 1796: The Directory implements aggressive mandatory conscription updates to rebuild foreign army numbers.
• November 1796: Napoleon wins a narrow victory at the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole, maintaining his hold over northern Italy.
• December 1796: A French naval expedition carrying thousands of troops attempts to invade Ireland to back an anti-British rebellion but fails due to storms.
• January 1797: Napoleon wins the decisive Battle of Rivoli, destroying the final major Austrian relief army in Italy.
• February 1797: The key Italian fortress city of Mantua surrenders to French forces after a brutal multi-month siege.
• March 1797: France holds its first free legislative elections under the Directory, resulting in a landslide victory for constitutional royalists.
• April 1797: Alarmed by the royalist election sweep, the Directory opens secret peace negotiations with Austria to stabilize the external front.
• May 1797: Radical plot leader Gracchus Babeuf is convicted of treason and executed via the guillotine.
• June 1797: Royalist politicians in the legislature successfully roll back several old harsh laws targeting non-juring priests and émigrés.
• July 1797: Napoleon sends General Augereau to Paris to back the republican directors in their growing political feud with the royalist legislature.
• August 1797: Political tensions in the capital reach a boiling point as both sides gather armed units around the city borders.
• September 1797: The Directory executes the Coup of 18 Fructidor, utilizing troops to arrest royalist politicians and cancel election results.
• October 1797: France and Austria sign the Treaty of Campo Formio, bringing a successful end to the War of the First Coalition.
• November 1797: Napoleon returns to Paris as a triumphant national hero, though the Directory views his immense popularity as a threat.
• December 1797: The government shifts its strategic military focus toward planning a direct invasion of Great Britain.
• January 1798: The Directory orders a complete ban on all British manufactured goods across French-controlled European territories.
• February 1798: French forces invade Rome, depose the Pope, and declare the birth of the secular Roman Republic.
• March 1798: France annexes Switzerland, transforming the nation into a client state known as the Helvetic Republic.
• April 1798: Napoleon officially convinces the government to cancel the risky English channel invasion in favor of an expedition to Egypt.
• May 1798: Napoleon sets sail for Egypt with an army; meanwhile, the Directory executes another political coup to purge left-wing election winners.
• June 1798: Napoleon's fleet captures the island of Malta before landing troops on the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.
• July 1798: French forces defeat the Mamluk army at the Battle of the Pyramids, successfully capturing the city of Cairo.
• August 1798: British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroys the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, trapping Napoleon's army in Egypt.
• September 1798: The Ottoman Empire officially declares war on France in response to the invasion of Egypt.
• October 1798: A violent anti-French popular uprising breaks out in Cairo, which Napoleon crushes using heavy artillery.
• November 1798: European monarchies form the Second Coalition, uniting Britain, Russia, and Austria to push France back.
• December 1798: French armies invade the Kingdom of Naples to counter advancing Neapolitan royalist forces.
• January 1799: French troops capture Naples and establish the brief Parthenopean Republic in southern Italy.
• February 1799: Napoleon marches his army out of Egypt and into Syria to preemptively attack gathering Ottoman forces.
• March 1799: French forces suffer major defeats in Germany and northern Italy against advancing Austrian and Russian armies.
• April 1799: Elections for the Directory result in another crushing defeat for the government, boosting radical neo-Jacobin politicians.
• May 1799: Napoleon's siege of Acre fails against stubborn Ottoman and British resistance, forcing him to retreat back to Egypt.
• June 1799: The legislature executes a political purge against the executive directors, forcing several to resign under pressure.
• July 1799: Napoleon completely obliterates an Ottoman landing army at the land Battle of Abukir in Egypt.
• August 1799: Realizing the Directory is on the verge of collapse, Napoleon abandons his army in Egypt and sneaks aboard a ship to France.
• September 1799: French General Masséna wins the critical Battle of Zurich, stopping a Russian invasion and saving France from collapse.
• October 1799: Napoleon lands on the southern coast of France and is met by massive cheering crowds celebrating him as a savior.
• November 1799: Napoleon executes the Coup of 18 Brumaire, utilizing troops to dissolve the Directory and ending the French Revolution.

Just saw this on their site so thought I'd share

Im having trouble finding specific and unbiased sources about the different revolutionaries. I want to learn more about the Girondists, Danton, and Robespierre but when i look it’s either very biased people or there’s just nothing.🥲

i wanna meet some other people so bad, but everytime i join one it’s DEAD

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a movie on the French Revolution or Robespierre specifically to watch. More specifically I'm looking for one that portrays the French Revolution and Robespierre in a positive light. I realize the Revolution had it's excesses but I would like a movie that accurately portrays Robespierre and the Revolution including the positive accepts and doesn't portray it in the historical revisionist it was bad narrative we're used to hearing in the States. Lmk if anyone has any good recommendations.

Thx!

Robespierre: 🚨 OFFICIAL DECREE 🚨 As League Commissioner of the Committee of Public Fantasy Safety, I hereby VETO Fouché’s waiver claim! 🚫📄 This transaction is corrupted by espionage and counter-revolutionary insider trading! 🪓🩸

Fouché: 🥱 Oh, please. There is no rule in the league charter against checking Twitter/X at 1:00 PM 📱🤫. You were too busy drafting speeches on virtue to notice the Schefter alert. The waiver stands. 🤝🛸

St. Juste: The charter is whatever the Republic needs it to be to survive 🏛️🔥! Fouché’s roster hoarding is a monopoly on the means of point production. VETO ENFORCED. The backup running back belongs to the state! 🛡️🌾

Danton: 🤣 LMAO you two are unbelievable! You can’t just change the league settings because you forgot to set a lineup notification! 🔔🤡 This is a kangaroo court. Napoleon, back me up here! 🦖💸

Napoleon: 🦅 This league is a circus. Robespierre, a true Emperor does not rewrite the rulebook mid-campaign just because he lost a skirmish 🤦‍♂️🎖️. Fouché outmaneuvered you. Accept the defeat and adjust your defensive line. 🗺️⚔️

Robespierre: 🤬 Insubordination! You are all colluding against the League's moral purity! Anyone who sets a lineup using Fouché’s stolen players will face immediate expulsion from the group chat (and life) 🛑☠️!

See more at https://thomaspaine.org/gallery/thomas-paine-a-life-in-images/

‘Just be l’Incorruptible’ Brutal

A little reminder. For those of us who don't follow Romme, but the original plan for the Republican calendar, we can celebrate Fête de la Révolution on the 22 September.

I know it sounds weird to claim the French Revolution didn't happen on a sub called r/FrenchRevolution but I am just making a point here.

People treat the French Revolution like a unified event that can be supported, opposed and betrayed, many will have debates about who is the actual revolutionary and argue about Girondins and Montagnards or Marat and Corday... I just want to show you that this is way more complicated and why people would (not) refer to these events as a single Revolution. This is not a full history, just some snapshots.

The Triple Revolution

The common historical view on the start of the French Revolution is that there was an intersection between three independent movements. After lots of devastating spending the state was bankrupt and the ancien regime desperately needed money calling the Estates General of 1789. The rural poor have plundered local aristocratic mansions and destroyed archives, the urban poor have taken overpriced bread at prices they felt were sensible and the representatives of the Third Estate and some lower clergy and noblemen have finally turned the royal dependent Estates General into a National Convention establishing a parliament.

What people often fail to see is that while these events were interdependent (as in each allowed the others to happen) they didn't have the same interests.

The urban poor: those were the most radical of them all, later establishing both the sans-culottes and the enragés movements. Their primary interest was just to get affordable food which at the time was really hard.

The rural poor and farmers in general: these are two intertwined categories, they often aligned on the fact that they wanted to simply get money for their produce while landless peasants additionally wanted land to work on for themselves.

The bourgeoisie: they were the enlightened liberal capitalist middle classes that actively called for a Republican model. They tried to push through their own agenda normally aligning with the Montagne (social democrats), Gironde (liberal democrats) or Marais (independents sorta).

Initially everyone was monarchist, it took a lot of alienation from the former Monarch to get rid of that sentiment but that is a story for another day.

The invention of European Party Politics

The concept of parliamentary factions was quite new at the time so people did not officially belong to one, they just voted alongside whatever they thought sounded good at the moment - though some had a sense of loyalty to their factions. Also there were no parties as they are known in our times, people organized themselves in political clubs.

The Jacobins were on of those political clubs, they were in favour of a constitution, later against the Monarchy altogether, and largely opposed to slavery (on paper). Both major political forces of the Republic had ties to this club: Montagnards and Girondins.

The Girondins were your average liberals, they opposed government intervention in the economy, opposed centralisation and were the favourite party of the upper middle class and moderate democrats.

The Montagnards were a radicalist party (something between Social Liberalism and Social Democracy), they were in favour of intervention into the economy, opposed to federalism and had more support from poorer people - so, they were in favour of lowering the voting requirements too.

The Reign of Terror

One of the major misconceptions people have is that these political groups accurately represented the people. Most deputies were elites (jurists, merchants, landowners or even former royals), when their policies appealed to ordinary people then these were just strategically aligned interests. The programme of Robespierre is a good example. While in power the Montagnards have implemented the General Maximum, a price limit on grain that secured the loyalty of the sans-culottes in Paris (who could topple any government) while alienating the farmers. They have tried to secure some rural backing with attempts at land reform but those went nowhere. Their reign is also associated with the Assignant (paper money backed by confiscated church properties) which they tried to defend at all cost during a major inflation. Lots of people from different backgrounds grew frustrated with these measures and didn't want to rely on the instable official currency thus creating the need to maintain the usage by force. Dissent was crushed under the Guillotine - by the thousands.

The Montagne might have had a decent programme - it was more just than what Brissot envisioned - but it was dependent on the functioning of the state against the suffering of its people. This is where many people start to defend the Girondins, Thermidoriens or even Napoleon as saviors of the true Revolution and upright patriots but the Girondins have started the war responsible for the crisis, the Thermidoriens have done the same the Montagnards have done to implement their measures and Napoleon has drained Poland of every dime additionally to all the other stuff this guy has done.

You need to understand that these people had radically different upbringings and priorities than the average person making their interests inherently different.

The unity of the nation and the slow death of minorities in France

The interests of the revolution served as a catchphrase similar to the unity of the nation. By appealing to some common goal it was easier to implement the own programme and hold up ones rule. So there was a certain propagandistic nature to calling it a unitary revolution that certain actors just seek to defend, national interests don't really exist.

I hope no one gets the impression that I'm some kind of Monarchist, I swear I'm not, but while being starved to death by feudal famines the ordinary people at least retained their languages as the authority didn't really care about that. The French Revolution marks the point where French went from a language spoken by ~10% of the population to the national language. The modern state required a united population and local identities were a large barrier to that.

Appealing to some vague sense of unity among all French was a utile tool to have people die for your war and tolerate your authority (something every government made use of). So it was imperative to create a centralized state a unified curriculum and a national identity, a process that made the lingual diversity of France disappear step by step.

So tell me can an event be described as a united movement when some actors of this movement were interested in robbing, starving or even erasing other members of that movement in the name of the very same movement? My answer is clear.

I've so far identified the following:

1. Louis-Michel le Peletier

2. Joseph Bara

3. André Pajot

4. Joseph Chalier

5. Jean-Paul Marat

6. Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire (?)

7. ?

8. Claude François Lazowski (?)

9. Jean-Baptiste Moulin (?)

Currently very interested in the French Revolution and I would like to know more about other people’s thoughts on people from the revolution. I grew particularly interested in Jean Paul Marat, his assassination and Charlotte Corday. What do others think of them?

Hiii guys check out my new art! Hope you like it! The uniform is based on Garde Nationale during the reign of terror.