Nationalism and the French Revolution

Cause for Revolution

The Age of Enlightenment was a time of new and revolutionary ideas on human nature as well as one of dramatic reform. Lasting roughly from the 17th through the 18th century, the Enlightenment was host to many great philosophers and thinkers, whose ideas inspired many people and sparked revolutions.

Notable Philosophers

John Locke - believed that everyone was born with a tabula rasa, or clean slate, which was filled with knowledge gained from experience. He also believed in empiricism, where knowledge comes from the senses and with it comes power. He believed that if the government is not working, it is the responsibility of the people to rebel violently if necessary. He thought human nature to be inherently good.

Thomas Hobbes - wrote about the State of Nature, where all men are born with natural rights, such as the rights to life, liberty, and protection of property. Had the idea of the social contract, where people heed laws made by the government and in return they receive protection of rights and property. People enter the social contract to be protected from the bad things in life. He thought that if the government is not functioning well, the people had to endure it. He believed that human nature was inherently bad.

Montesquieu - argued for the separation of powers. He thought that there should be a stable system of checks and balances. Believed that a government should be divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Rousseau - agreed with the social contract, and supported a direct democracy. He defined government as an intermediary between the people and the sovereign.

Of all these philosophers, the resounding and key ideas were those of natural rights and the responsibility of the people to rebel against an oppressive power.

Nationalism

Nationalism can be characterized as intense patriotic feelings often directed at the advancement of one's own nation, often associated with the want for independence and progress.

The French Revolution

After years of oppression by a series of Bourbon monarchs, the French people finally decided it was time to rebel. The time was ripe for a rebellion, and the revolutionary ideas of Locke helped spark the beginnings of a revolution to overthrow the king.

The ruling monarch at the time, Louis XVI, was well, if not favorably, known for his tendency to ignore the people in their times of need. Those who benefitted from this were the French nobility and other elite members of the first and second estates in the Estates General.

Causes

Harsh winters resulting in flour shortages led to inordinately high bread prices which angered the members of the third estate. Through all this, Louis XVI did nothing to help the economic situation nor to provide any aid to the poor and hungry. He, along with his frivolous wife, Marie Antoinette were spending extravagantly on parties, food, and clothing. Louis XVI also sent troops to fight the English in the American Revolution.

The Spark

Realizing the possible problems with all this spending, Louis XVI appointed Jacques Necker as a finance minister. The king called a meeting if the Estates General at Versailles to try to solve the economic problem. After six weeks, the issues were still not resolved. At the next meeting, the third estate's representatives were locked out. Outraged at this, they went to an indoor tennis court area and swore in the famous Tennis Court Oath that they will not stop meeting until they have a constitution which will limit the power of the king.

The third estate was successful in limiting the power of the monarchy, and reduced the king's influence in the legislature to having the ability to slow yet not completely them from coming to pass.

Madness in the Name of Revolution

After many years if fear and countless executions by guillotine during the Terror, France's new government struggled to establish a solid foundation. During the time of the terror, anyone who came under the slightest suspicion of being counterrevolutionary was swiftly put to death.

The Role of Nationalism

The French Revolution was based on a hatred for the old regime, and was thus founded not on a feeling of nationalism, but of a collective hatred of the elite by the third estate. The violent and unorganized revolution led to little lasting change, as there was a ruling dictator just a few years after when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. Most of the rights that the French people thought they would gain were lost as quickly as they had been won. The French Revolution showed the rest of Europe that a violent revolution can and often will lead to massacres and loss of rights.