History UsefulNotes / TheFrenchRevolution

** The early part of the Revolution also saw a lot of pro-English and pro-American sentiment which never did die away (at least among the Girondins and moderate republicans), but once France went to war and the Jacobins came to power, there was a lot of CulturalPosturing about how it was a true Republic while England still kept its king. Later, they denounced England as the "Modern Carthage" with themselves being "the Romans". The National Convention refused to send diplomatic missions to nations that were not "true" republics so only America and Switzerland had diplomatic offices, though later for reasons of {{Realpolitik}} they entered into negotiations with Ottoman Turkey.

** Danton was called ''The Titan, Jove the Thunderer, Mirabeau of the Masses'', Lazare Carnot was called ''Organizer of Victory'', Robespierre was called ''L'Incorruptible'' almost to the point of being used nearly as often as his real name.

** When Napoleon made his big splash in defending Paris from the Chouannerie rebellion, he was called ''"General Vendemmiare"'' by both enemies and friends, which he considered [[IllTakeThatAsACompliment the first real honour he earned]]. Later critics and Jacobins would call him, ''Robespierre on Horseback''. Among his already loyal soldiers, he was, of course, ''[[AFatherToHisMen Le petit caporal]]''

** When Kissinger asked Deng Xiaoping about the consequences of the French Revolution, Deng famously replied; "It is too early to say yet".

** The early part of the Revolution also saw a lot of pro-English and pro-American sentiment which never did die away, but once France went to war, there was a lot of CulturalPosturing about how it was a true Republic while England still kept its king. The National Convention refused to send diplomatic missions to nations that were not "true" republics so only America and Switzerland had diplomatic offices, though later for reasons of {{Realpolitik}} they entered into negotiations with Ottoman Turkey.

* ThePurge: The ReignOfTerror eerily anticipates the Soviet examples. The jury is still out if it was genuinely driven by stresses and tensions of wartime necessity and siege mentality, or a result of Robespierre's desire for power which lead him to cull other factions. After Thermidor, there was the White Terror, where the Thermidorians hunted down Jacobins and Robespierre holdouts, even sponsoring street gangs such as the "jeunesse doree" and the Muscadins who killed with impunity. After Robespierre's death, the Thermidor executed 77 supporters in a single day, the largest single mass guillotine during the Revolution.

** When Napoleon made his big splash in defending Paris from the Chouannerie rebellion, he was called ''"General Vendemmiare"'' by both enemies and friends, which he considered [[IllTakeThatAsACompliment the first real honour he earned]]. Later critics and Jacobins would call him, ''Robespierre on Horseback''.

* JustTheFirstCitizen: The Committee of Public Safety had no leadership positions; Robespierre was just another member, but he soon emerged as the most public and terrifying face of the ReignOfTerror.

* Louis XVI stayed King until 1792. He called the Estates-General in 1789 (the only body in France representing every Estate, or class, which hadn't been called since ''1614'') but some disagreement about the method of voting led to the formation of the National Assembly by the representatives of the Third Estate (peasantry/bourgeoisie). Initially the members of this body were split between those who wanted a constitutional monarchy similar to England (Feuillants) and those who wanted a Republic (Girondins and Jacobins). Robespierre was a leader of the Jacobins, though he only came to the forefront of the Revolution later when the Committee of Public Safety was in power. Lafayette was the leader of the National Guard in Paris until he was accused of being a counter-revolutionary and he fled the country.
* It went to hell when the King tried to suppress the changes leading to the Jacobins gaining power.

** Averted with the Gribeauval canon, to which Revolutionary and Napoleonian armies owed their edge in artillery (famously, at Valmy). It was developped under LouisXV and [[{{Irony}} definitively adopted few months after the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI]].

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: [[IncrediblyLamePun L'autrichienne]]. All in all, she had ''horrible'' political sense and her pieces of advice to Louis XVI [[WithFriendsLikeThese made more ill than good]]. Not that he was any better.
** For those who don't speak French: ''autrichienne'' means '(female) Austrian', but ''chienne'' means, well, 'female dog' (and is just as insulting as in English). In addition, ''autruche'' means 'ostrich'.

** It's real edge however was the groundbreaking Semaphore line nascent telegraph technology developed by Claude Chappe. This was a telegraph system with mounted visual relays on towers that covered 556 stations across 4800 kms. Its ability to rapidly transmit information about the war from the frontlines to Paris, while the rest of the Coalition struggled in confusion, allowed for superior mobilization of resources.

** A lot of 20th Century writers, including Hannah Arendt and recently, Hilary Mantel, have come to see Robespierre himself this way. Even a critic like Francois Furet noted that Robespierre represented the Revolution at its best and most tragic discourse. He represents the recent adage, [[Film/TheDarkKnight "You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain!"]]

* ReignOfTerror: The TropeNamer. It cast such a dark mark on leftist revolutions that even UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin insisted that he wouldn't institute a Revolution style Reign of Terror in his earlier speeches, though whether the replacement of the Gulag with public executions is a step up, is anyone's guess.
** The Reign lasted for less than a year and while the final tally is a large figure, the executions did not get excessive until towards the end, the start of the Great Terror where an even worse Law of 22 Prairial was instituted, this saw numbers rise from 5 deaths a day to 27, with 38% of the victims being aristocrats, doubling the death toll of the previous year in Paris.

* ''La Marseillaise'' (Jean Renoir film)
* ''Reign of Terror/The Black Book'' a 1949 BMovie done in a FilmNoir style.
* ''Danton'' (1983 movie, Andrzej Wajda)

*** Later she was actively involved in the Flight to Varennes, where she and the King planned to go to a royalist territory and with support from the Austrian army attack France and re-install the Ancien Regime (which she supported). Supporters of constitutionnal monarchy tried to RetCon it by putting all the blame on Marie-Antoinette, while Louis XVI was as much, if not more, behind it than her. Few people were fooled, though.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: [[IncrediblyLamePun L'autrichienne]]. All in all, she had ''horrible'' political sense and her pieces of advice to Louis XVI [[WithFriendsLikeThese made more ill than good]]. Not that he was any better.
** For those who don't speak French: ''autrichienne'' means '(female) Austrian', but ''chienne'' means, well, 'female dog' (and is just as insulting as in English). In addition, ''autruche'' means 'ostrich'.
* GorgeousPeriodDress[=/=]PimpedOutDress: The new Greco-Roman inspired high-waisted muslin gowns replacing the aristocratic wigs and full-skirted dresses.

*** Likewise the people of France didn't turn against ''"L'Autrichienne"'' for being a lesbian foreigner who hated the poor, they primarily did it because she was extremely capricious and spendthrift in the first years of Louis XVI's reign, wasting loads of public money in gambling and for people she liked (notably the Polignac family), to the point of being nicknamed ''"Madame Déficit"'' (Mrs. Deficit). Ironically, she had largely reformed when TheAffairOfTheNecklace happened and discredited her even more while she was completely innocent.

*** Likewise the people of France didn't turn against ''"L'Autrichienne"'' for being a lesbian foreigner who hated the poor, they primarily did it because she was extremely capricious and spendthrift in the first years of Louis XVI's reign, wasting loads of public money in gambling and for people she liked (notably the Polignac family), to the point of being nicknamed ''"Madame Déficit"'' (Mrs. Deficit). Ironically, she had largley reformed when TheAffairOfTheNecklace happenned and discredited her even more whil she was completely innocent.

*** Likewise the people of France didn't turn against ''"L'Autrichienne"'' for being a lesbian foreigner who hated the poor, they primarily did it because she was extremely capricious and spendthrift in the first years of Louis XVI's reign, wasting loads of public money in gambling and for people she liked (notably the Polignac family), to the point of being nicknamed ''"Madame Déficit"'' (Mrs. Deficit). Ironically, she had largley reformed when the Affair of the Diamond Necklace happenned and discredited her even more whil she was completely innocent.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: [[IncrediblyLamePun L'autrichienne]].

** UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette is portrayed as more of a naive but good natured woman recently, with films like Sofia Coppola's and Antonia Fraser's biography citing the horrific smear campaign she endured. In truth, the smear campaign by Jacques Hebert while exceptionally vicious by any standards (going as far as false accusations of incest during her trial) was part of a political strategy to criticize the Royalist government since the 1791 Constitution refused to allow criticism of the King but left his family members [[LoopholeAbuse an open target]].
*** Likewise the people of France didn't turn against ''"L'Autrichienne"'' for being a lesbian foreigner who hated the poor, they primarily did it because she was extremely spendthrift in the first years of Louis XVI's reign, wasting loads of public money in gambling and for people she liked (notably the Polignac family), to the point of being nicknamed ''"Madame Déficit"'' (Mrs. Deficit). Ironically, she had largley reformed when the Affair of the Diamond Necklace happenned and discredited her even more whil she was completely innocent.

** UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette is portrayed as more of a naive but good natured woman recently, with films like Sofia Coppola's and Antonia Fraser's biography citing the horrific smear campaign she endured. In truth, the smear campaign by Jacques Hebert while exceptionally vicious by any standards was part of a political strategy to criticize the Royalist government since the 1791 Constitution refused to allow criticism of the King but left his family members [[LoopholeAbuse an open target]]. Likewise the people of France didn't turn against "L'Autrichienne" for being a lesbian foreigner who hated the poor, they did it because she was actively involved in the Flight to Varennes, where she and the King planned to go to a royalist territory and with support from the Austrian army attack France and re-install the ancien regime (which she supported).

** Georges-Jacques Danton got this a lot especially after the film, ''Danton'' where he was played by Gerard Depardieu and especially for the fact that he and Camille Desmoullins made a commendable effort in trying to stop the Terror. In actual fact, Danton was a highly pragmatic individual who played the angles and who used the Revolution to line his pockets, while at the same time organizing city resistance and inspiring revolutionary fervour. He also instigated the famous September Massacres and created the very instruments of the ReignOfTerror : The Law of Suspects and the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre only got elected there after he had left. The Committee called him to trial because they cited undisclosed funds, his extravagant lifestyle and a recent financial scandal involving shares from the French East India Company that he had involved himself in.

** Of course, it turns out that many of the people in Napoleon's cabinet never had real loyalty to the man and were secretly working to undermine him all the time and return France to a more democratic system. Talleyrand, ex-Bishop and Girondin, was the main glue in this.

* EatTheRich: The UrExample for this StockPhrase came about near this time when Jean-Jacques Rousseau reportedly said, "When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich", which would make an interesting corollary with Marie Antoinette's alleged "Let them eat cake" comments. Note that Rousseau died in 1778, though...

** The Thermidorian Faction of Tallien, Fouche and Barras were full supporters of the ReignOfTerror, with Tallien and Fouche committing atrocities that Robespierre himself called as excessive. He denounced them and drove them into hiding, they later plotted his defeat and the takeover of the Directory, and soon started persecuting their ex-Jacobins and friends in the White Terror campaign. Later Fouche became Napoleon's spymaster and much later betrayed him causing his downfall.
** France itself suffered this, especially in the eyes of the Americans and (to a lesser extent) British and Dutch. While the Absolutists were naturally horrified by the idea of popular sovereignty and democratic republicanism, the major Western maritime powers were liberal and democratic in their on right and initially had sympathy for it on the whole. However, they were increasingly turned off by the various things the revolution turned to, and the MoralEventHorizon for the British was the terror and/owr Republican France's declaration of war against the Dutch Republic and "Crowned" Republic of Great Britain. Likewise, America suffered this to the French revolutionaries for applauding its' "sister revolution" only to declare neutrality when it started declaring wars, even going so far as to say the alliance it had with the Ancien Regime did not apply to the new Republic.

* ThePurge: The ReignOfTerror eerily anticipates the Soviet examples. The jury is still out if it was genuinely driven by stresses and tensions of wartime necessity and siege mentality, or a result of Robespierre's desire for power which lead him to cull other factions. After Thermidor, there was the White Terror, where the Thermidorians hunted down Jacobins and Robespierre holdouts, even sponsoring street gangs who killed like Muscadins who killed with impunity. After Robespierre's death, the Thermidor executed 77 supporters in a single day, the largest single mass guillotine execution during the Revolution.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Much like the "King George III wrote 'nothing important' in his diary on [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution July 4, 1776]]" story, Louis XVI wrote "Nothing." in his journal on July 14, 1789. This is a subversion however, as a) he was referring to his unsuccessful hunting trip that day, and b) an aide burst in shortly after and informed him of the revolt (which is where we get the dialogue at the top of the page).

* WarForFunAndProfit: While it took the form of authentic national liberation at first, the French Revolutionary Wars also had this character. The war was originally declared by Revolutionary France itself in the hope of expanding its borders under the idea that they would "spread the Revolution", the same justification used by Napoleon. The new Republics in Holland and Italy which they established were forced to pay a great deal of tax to the French government. The Louvre Museum actually built its collections from art theft committed by the Army during this period, including the famous Apollo Belvedere and the Horses of Saint Mark which Napoleon took down from Venice and sent to France. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt likewise involved quite a few of the same, including the Rosetta Stone which the English eventually got hold of, and which the Egyptians desperately want back to this day.

The French Revolution is usually considered to be a radical alternative to UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. Ironically, at the time the French and American revolutions were seen as ideological twins (subject peoples inspired by [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment radical liberal ideas]] overthrowing aristocracies, lead by radicalised members of the middle class like Robespierre and Washington) and supporters of one were usually supporters of the other (Creator/ThomasPaine, the Anglo-US radical, considered a traitor by the British for his support of the American revolution, was an equally-fierce supporter of the revolution in France; he later turned against the leaders of both considering them what we would now call sell-outs). Also ironically, the most famous man to say anything about both revolutions, Irish statesman Edmund Burke, supported the American Revolution but not the one in France - he supported the Americans because they were fighting for freedom but opposed what the French were doing because they were trying to change too much too fast and based only on largely untested ideas.

* EvilCripple: Georges Couthon was condemned by Thermidorians because of that.

* FullCircleRevolution: The Girondins wanted to establish a liberal democracy with a constitutional framework but their failings resulting from them instigating a foolish war, resulted in the Jacobins starting the ReignOfTerror and establishing Robespierre as dictator. Years later, the Thermidorians, the Directory and others brought Napoleon into power as a compromise between the few radicals that remained and the monarchists, neither of whom they wanted back.
--> '''Madame de Staël''': ''"Robespierre on Horseback"'' [[describing Napoleon]]