The Revolution Itself: Part Three
As the French Revolution began to come to a close, there were still many attempts by the revolutionaries to keep the fire burning, so to speak. However, this chapter shall still be short, as the fire would, in fact, die down quite swiftly following the Reign of Terror.
“The Republic of Virtue,” which had largely been formed by the Committee of Public safety and had a large part to play in the regulating of the French military, was now no longer as applicable to society because of the death of Maximilien Robespierre. To add to that, even the revolutionaries seemed to realize that they perhaps were a little bit out of control. In 1779, before the Reign of Terror had ended, the Committee of Public Safety had passed the “Law of 14 Frimaire,” which sought to “centralize the administration of France more effectively.” It essentially proclaimed that representatives of the Committee could not undergo unapproved “action.”
The revolutionaries also had executed the leaders of the Paris Commune (which had included Georges Danton) in another attempt to try and clean things up a little bit (how ironic. I can only imagine what a kick in the teeth that would have been for the radical extremists in the Commune).
However, the revolutionaries still pursued many of their goals. For instance, they still attempted to de-Christianize France as much as possible (surprisingly, Robespierre had actually been against this. But now that he was out of the picture, there were that many fewer challenges in the way).
Another organization that was formed before the end of the Reign of Terror was the Society for Revolutionary Republican Women (est. 1793). This organization was arguably the most famous women-led group within the Revolution. Its goals were largely to ensure that the needs, rights and privileges of women were met by the Revolution. However, both the moderate revolutionaries and the extremest Jacobins were alarmed by this society, and the push for women’s rights as a whole, so they put an end to the organization in early November of that same year. The society had lasted only about five months (I guess that when the revolutionaries preached equality for all, they didn’t really mean for all).
Another minority group was much more successful: “Friends of the Blacks” (est. 1788) was an organization of individuals who wished to see slavery completely abolished in France and all of its colonies. Thankfully, their efforts would actually pay off, with slavery finally being ended all throughout France and its territories in 1794 (unfortunately, France would still participate in slave-trading).
However, it was not through political reforms and the urges of progressives alone that banned this practice. The abolition of slavery in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) would involve the only successful slave revolt in world history.
The Haitian revolution took place from 1791-1804. The French colony of Saint-Domingue did not experience many of the sweeping reforms of the French Revolution. Therefore, many of its peasants and lower-class citizens still had few rights, and there was still slavery in the colony by the late 1700s. François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture(1743-1803), the son of an educated slave, led the revolution. Interestingly enough, he had no desire to participate in the revolution at first, but as soon as large amounts of slaves and poor peasants began sweeping the colony, he became caught up in it.
Despite the fact that L’Ouverture had helped his former master to escape from rebel captivity, he was definitely an extremist. He looked upon the willingness of the other rebels to compromise with Europeans with scorn, and soon began to train his own armies in guerrilla tactics. He was an outstanding general, could lead his troops very well, engaged in coordinated military strikes with Spain, and largely led what we now call Haiti on the road to abolish slavery. Even the abolitionist Europeans soon came to look up to him.
In 1803, however, L’Ouverture was tricked into attending an event at which he was captured and, under orders of Napoleon, interrogated. He would die in captivity. Though he had overseen numerous periods of relative peace on Haiti, it was still not yet an independent nation.
The leadership fell to Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806), who finally led Haiti to independence in 1805. He would serve as the nation’s first emperor, until his death in 1806. The independence of Haiti was no small feat. They had fought the troops of France during the revolution, and later on even defeated Napoleon’s troops.
However, before the nation would even gain its independence, things had not even settled down in France. With the wheels of the Revolution finally beginning to come to a halt, the National Convention lost a lot of power. In 1794, the Jacobin club was formally shut down. Though some small groups of former Jacobins tried to keep the spark alive by forming smaller, unofficial clubs, by the turn of the century, there was really no real trace of the Jacobins remaining. In England and other nations, the term Jacobin began to be associated with political extremists and radicals, but even this term would soon be pushed aside by new titles, such as “socialist” and “Marxist.”
In 1795, the Directory was established by the Legislative Assembly, pretty much putting an end to the National Convention, the Committee of Public Safety and the Assembly itself. As stated earlier in this book, the Directory was composed of a council of elders who were elected by “council” members, who were elected by males over the age of twenty one who paid taxes.
But the Revolution was already pretty much dead. Both sides were quite tired, and most groups were in a state of disarray and inorganization (that should be a word). With this evident, the “Great Fear” swept France. Essentially, the Great Fear was the worry that other nations would see France’s state of disarray as an opportunity to invade the nation. It would all come to an end in 1799, however, when an infamous individual would put an end to the Directory and assume his position as the main leader of France.
This individual was, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Much of the changes made during the French Revolution, in fact, Napoleon sought to undo. Whether or not this was for the best is still up for debate, but one thing is for sure: under Napoleon, France resumed its former strength and unity, and for some time, it would swell and expand across Europe, Africa, and even make plans to invade India with Russia and the Persians. This era would encompass what we today refer to as the Napoleonic Wars (1800-1815).