Paris Commune (1789–1795)

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9 Thermidor

The Paris Commune during the

Champ de Mars
(17 July 1791).

By 1792, the Commune was dominated by the

Legislative Assembly, though its practical victories were limited and temporary. The violence provoked by the Jacobins and their excesses meant that the power of the Commune would end up being limited by increasing support for more moderate revolutionary forces until the Thermidorian Reaction and the execution of its leaders led to its disestablishment in 1795.[2]

Legislative origins and early history

When

procureur of the commune, representing the King, gave a speech warning against anarchy.[5] Early March the Paris Department was placed above the Commune in all matters of general order and security. According to Jan ten Brink
it had the right to suspend the Commune's decisions and to dispose of the army against her in case of emergency.

The distinctions between an active and passive citizen were abolished by the Commune on 25 July 1792 as the Commune became increasingly Jacobin in its orientation, and ideas of full citizenship were beginning to take root. The theoretical basis for the establishment of the Commune meant that administrative power could be brought closer to the people in a revolutionary manner, and Paris could achieve localisation of revolutionaries to modernise the city and country, alongside creating a rational framework or administration that could function efficiently without agents of the state.[6]

The insurrection on 10 August 1792

In the earlier days of the Commune,

assailed the Tuileries. During the ensuing constitutional crisis, the collapsing Legislative Assembly of France was heavily dependent on the Commune for the effective power that allowed it to continue to function as a legislature. The insurrectionary commune had elected Sulpice Huguenin during the night as its first President.[8]

On 10 August and the following days, all 48 districts of Paris decided to elect representatives with unlimited powers (28 districts jointly made this decision on the eve of the assault on the Tuileries, whilst the remaining 20 joined them over the days that followed). The 11th district, covering an area which included

Temple fortress. A list of "opponents of the Revolution" was drawn up, the gates to the city were sealed, and on 28 August the citizens were subjected to domiciliary visits, ostensibly in a search for muskets. A sharp conflict developed between the Legislative and the Commune and its sections.[11][12] On 30 August the interim minister of Interior Roland and Guadet tried to suppress the influence of the Commune because the sections had exhausted the searches. The Assembly, tired of the pressures, declared the Commune illegal and suggested the organization of communal elections.[13] On Sunday morning 2 September the members of the Commune, gathering in the town hall to proceed the election of deputies to the National Convention, decided to maintain their seats and have Rolland and Brissot arrested.[14][15]

The September Massacres of 1792

One of the bloodiest consequences of the Paris Commune was the

Girondin sympathiser) on 13 July 1793, who blamed him for the violence, triggered an even further wave of radicalisation amongst Jacobins, as a cult of martyrdom emerged around him. Blame for the massacres remains controversial, but Danton and his inflammatory rhetoric is the most frequent figure emphasised by historians. However, Gwynne Lewis emphasises the "sanguinary outbursts in the press" promoted by Marat and notes that the massacres marked a watershed in a troubled history between the people and the political elite in a new combination of forces unleashed by revolution, counter-revolution, and the support of both amongst conflicting popular and elite forces.[23] William Doyle further argues that Danton's irresponsibility in provoking the violence served to devalue the popularity of the revolution on a local, domestic, and international level.[24]

The Insurrection of 31 May - 2 June 1793

It called for the reinstatement of the Revolutionary Tribunal to try political opponents, and on 10 March 1793, the tribunal was restored. On 18 April the Commune announced an insurrection against the convention after the arrest of Jean-Paul Marat. Mid May Marat and the Commune supported Robespierre publicly and secretly.[25] On 25 May, the Commune demanded that Hébert be released. The president of the Convention Maximin Isnard, who had enough of the tyranny of the Commune, threatened with the total destruction of Paris. "If the Commune does not unite closely with the people, it violates its most sacred duty", Robespierre said.[26] In the afternoon the Commune demanded the creation of a Revolutionary army of sansculottes in every town of France, including 20,000 men to defend Paris.[27][28] The next day the Commune decided to create a revolutionary army of 20,000 men to protect and defend Paris.[29] On Saturday 1 June the Commune gathered almost all day. Unsatisfied with the result the commune demanded and prepared a "Supplement" to the revolution for the next day. Hanriot was ordered to march his National Guard from the town hall to the National Palace.[30] "The armed force", Hanriot said, "will retire only when the Convention has delivered to the people the deputies denounced by the Commune."[31] The insurrection was organized by the Paris Commune and supported by Montagnards.

The tribunal presided over the arrest, trial, and execution of the Girondins (see Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793), and the enactment of the law of General Maximum on 29 September 1793. It played an essential role in the revolutionary wars following 1793, forming militias and providing weaponry to many of the revolutionary armies during the Reign of Terror.[32]

The Defeat of the Girondins

The Commune took charge of routine civic functions but is best known for mobilizing the people towards direct democracy and insurrection when it deemed the Revolution to be in danger, as well as for its campaign to dechristianize the country. This campaign of dechristianization was spearheaded by many prominent figures within the Commune, such as the minister of war

Montagnard ideas and policies, and was headed by Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and Hébert himself from November 1792 - some of the most extreme voices within the Commune [34]
- until their overthrow and eventual execution, along with 91 other members of the Commune, as part of the Thermidorian coup in July 1794.

The internal politics of the Commune and its political culture had a huge impact on the

Francois Hanriot
ordered the National Guard to march on the convention and join those Communard forces to oust the Girondins who had lost the faith of republicans. The Convention, now having the National Guard around it, demanded that the ousting of the Girondins be blamed for France's disintegration. Girondin deputies attempting to leave were arrested as the Convention was stormed, and the President of the Convention came out to plead with Hanriot to remove the troops, but he refused to do so, and under this pressure, the Convention itself ended upvoted for the arrest of those 22 leading Girondins - effectively destroying them as a political force. Marat and Couthon hailed Hanriot as a hero of the revolution, and he became seen as a hero of the Commune itself. This insurrection sparked by the Jacobins led to a new Montagnard governing force, the defeat of their Girondin enemies, and a completely new revolutionary government for France.

From 4 December 1793, the Commune of Paris and the revolutionary committees in the sections had to obey the law, the two Committees, and the convention.[36] Within three weeks majority of the Committee of Public Safety decided that the ultra-left Hébertists would have to perish or their opposition within the committee would overshadow the other factions due to its influence in the Commune of Paris.

In Summer 1794 the commune had to solve serious problems in the cemeteries because of the smell. On 23 July the Commune published a new maximum, limiting the wages of employees (in some cases by half) and provoking a sharp protest in the sections.[37] On 27 July the Paris Commune gave orders to close the gates (and to ring the tocsin), and summoned an immediate meeting of the sections to consider the dangers threatening the fatherland.[38] The Paris Commune was in league with the Jacobins to bring off an insurrection, asking them to send over reinforcements from the galleries, ‘even the women who are regulars there’.[39] At around 10 p.m., the mayor Jean-Baptiste Fleuriot-Lescot appointed a delegation to go and convince Robespierre to join the Commune movement.[40] After a whole evening spent waiting in vain for action by the Commune, losing time in fruitless deliberation, without supplies or instructions, the armed sections began to disperse.

The Thermidorian reaction and decline of the commune

It was not until 1792 that the government had a formal cabinet in place, with the appointment of the

Francois-Noel Babeuf and democratic militants associated with him - organised through a newly created Electoral Club - demanded the restoration of the Commune, but were unsuccessful in achieving their aims.[44] The government of the republic was then succeeded by the French Directory in November 1795, formally ending the Commune, but its after-effects remained strong in the Parisian imagination, and the memory of the 18th Century Commune provided inspiration for the later Communards of the Paris Commune of 1871.[45] However, with that later Commune of 1871, and his traumatic experiences of it, Hippolyte Taine writing in L'Origine de la France Contemporaine critically expressed the idea that there were strong reverberations of the 18th Century Commune, given how the 19th Century one restored institutions such as the Committee of Public Safety of 1793-1794.[46]

Women's rights

In 1791, the French Revolutionary Constitution attributed women to the category of "passive" citizens.[47] Later, in 1793, the Jacobin Constitution did not allow women to vote.[48] In 1795 some men lost their right to vote and the notion of "passive" citizenship was no longer in use, meaning that women lost their rights to be called citizens at all.[49] The lack of rights was not unusual at the time for most working-class and middle-class women, however, it significantly influenced those more wealthy who liked to be involved and could exercise some influence through their salons or their husbands.

The 1791 Constitution acknowledged that marriage was a civil contract, and with time divorce became a possibility.[50] In the early 1790s women also gained an opportunity to legally inherit property.[51]

In general, there was an upheaval in women’s political involvement which started with the Parisian

Jacobin Club was for men only, however, their public meetings were open to everyone.[52]
Even though women did not speak on the stage, attending and voicing their support of or disagreement with certain speakers was a way to be politically proactive.

Maximilien Robespierre, a member of the Jacobin Club, rose to power in 1792, and his popularity is largely attributed to his female supporters.[53] Robespierre, however, was not an advocate for women’s rights, and a lot of contemporary female activists opposed his policies. Among those activists was Madame Roland who held salons for the Girondins, bourgeois republicans, around 1791. Her party’s political disagreements with Robespierre had led to their falling out.[54]

Olympe de Gouges, another prominent activist on the French political arena at the time, had published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (1791) addressing the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In her work, she criticised the revolution for not addressing gender inequality. Similar to Mme Roland, Olympe de Gouges was associated with the bourgeois republicans and has favoured the idea of the constitutional monarchy, causing her to criticise Robespierre and the Montagnards after the execution of Louis XVI.[55] De Gouges’ criticism of the revolutionary movement in her writing and her affiliation to the Girondins led to her being convicted of treason and she was executed along with other party members (including Madame Roland) in November 1793.

During the Reign of Terror activism began to decline. Most clubs and salons were closed in 1794 and women were prohibited from going into the Convention’s galleries.[56]

Notes

  1. ^ François Furet and Mona Ozouf, eds A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (1989), p. 519
  2. ^ Furet, pg. 520-522
  3. ^ Alfred Fierro Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris (1996), p. 87
  4. ^ Charles-Louis Chassin, Les Élections et les Cahiers de Paris en 1789: L'Assemblée des trois ordres et l'Assemblée générale des électeurs au 14 juillet, (Paris: Jouaust et Sigaux, 1889), p. 447
  5. ^ Municipalité de Paris. Installation du Conseil général de la commune, 24 février 1792
  6. ^ Alan Forest, "Reimagining Space and Power" in A Companion to the French Revolution (Oxford: Blackwell, 2012)
  7. ^ Éric Hazan Une histoire de la révolution française (Paris: La Fabrique, 2012) p. 161.
  8. ^ Hazan, p. 167.
  9. ^ Hazan, p. 168.
  10. ^ Hazan, p. 169.
  11. ^ Israel 2014, p. 267.
  12. ^ Hampson 1974, p. 121.
  13. ^ Israel 2014, p. 268.
  14. ISBN 978-0-582-43755-5
    .
  15. ^ Hampson 1974, p. 126.
  16. ^ Furet, p. 139
  17. ^ Frédéric Bluche Septembre 1792 : logiques d'un massacre. (Paris: Robert Laffront 1986)
  18. ^ Georges Lefebvre, The French Revolution: From its Origins to 1793 (2001) p.236
  19. ^ Timothy Tackett (2011) "Rumor and Revolution: The Case of the September Massacres", French History and Civilization Vol. 4, pp. 54–64
  20. ^ "I. "Dare, Dare Again, Always Dare" by Georges Jacques Danton. Continental Europe (380-1906). Vol. VII. Bryan, William Jennings, ed. 1906. The World's Famous Orations". www.bartleby.com.
  21. ^ Furet, p.521
  22. ^ Gwynne Lewis The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 38.
  23. ^ Lewis, pg. 38
  24. ^ William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, pg. 189-192
  25. ^ Mémoires de B. Barère, membre de la Constituante, de la Convention, du Comite de salut public, p. 96
  26. ^ Alison, Archibald (1848). History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution ... , pp. 288–291.
  27. ^ Davidson, Ian. The French Revolution, p. 160
  28. ^ Schama 1989, p. 722.
  29. ^ Gazette nationale ou le Moniteur universel, 4 juin 1793, p. 1/4
  30. ISBN 978-1-315-50892-4
    .
  31. OCLC 944662819
    .
  32. ^ Jean-Clément Martin, Les échos de la Terreur. Vérités d'un mensonge d'état, Les Voix de l'Histoire, August 2018.
  33. ^ John Thomas Gilchrist The Press in The Press in the French Revolution. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971) p. 21.
  34. ^ Lewis, p. 47
  35. ^ Furet, pg. 175
  36. ^ Le Moniteur Universel de 5 décembre 1793, p. 4
  37. ^ Rude, George (1967) The crowd in the French Revolution, p. 136. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  38. ^ Richard T. Bienvenu (1968) The Ninth of Thermidor, p. 212
  39. ^ Shusterman, N. C. (2014). "All of His Power Lies in the Distaff: Robespierre, Women and the French Revolution". Past & Present. 223 (1): 129–160. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtu001 – via www.academia.edu.
  40. ^ Hazan, E. (2014) A People's History of the French Revolution.
  41. ^ Marshall Dill Paris in Time (New York: Putnam, 1975), p. 167
  42. ^ Will Durant The Story of Civilization: The age of Napoleon; a history of European civilization from 1789 to 1815(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), p. 84
  43. ^ OCR A Level History: The French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon 1774–1815 by Mike Wells
  44. ^ Laura Mason, "The Thermidorian Reaction" in A Companion to the French Revolution (Oxford: Blackwell Companions to European History, 2021), pg. 317
  45. ^ Ernest Belford Bax, A Short History of the Paris Commune, (London: 20th Century Press, 1885), p. 7
  46. ^ Pascal Dupuy The Revolution in History, Commemoration, and Memory in A Companion to the French Revolution (2012), pg. 488
  47. ^ R. B. Rose, "Feminism, Women and the French Revolution", in Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, Winter 1995, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Winter 1995), pp. 187-205 (p. 193). JSTOR.
  48. ^ Rose, p. 193.
  49. ^ Rose, p. 193.
  50. ^ Rose, p. 198.
  51. ^ Rose, p. 197.
  52. ^ Roland N. Stromberg, "Reevaluating the French Revolution", in The History Teacher, Nov. 1986, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Nov., 198), pp. 87-107 (p. 139). JSTOR.
  53. ^ Stromberg, p. 137.
  54. ^ "Jeanne-Marie Roland". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online ed.). Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  55. ^ Lisa L. Moore, Joanna Brooks & Caroline Wigginton (2012). Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions. Oxford University Press. p. 245.
  56. ^ Stromberg, p. 159.

Sources

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