THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

UNIT 3 AREA OF STUDY 2: CREATING A NEW SOCIETY

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS AND THE FOMARTION OF POLITICAL CLUBS

Learning outcome:Identify who formed the revolutionary crowd

and understand the formation of political groups

• Understand the characteristics of people who participated in revolutionary behaviour

• Understand why political clubs formed• Identify when the Cordeliers and the

Jacobins formed, and understand how they sought to represent the revolutionary crowd

• Identify prominent figures in the Cordeliers and Jacobin clubs

Who was in the revolutionary crowd?

Consider the two journeés we have explored. List which members of the third estate were responsible for them.

The Revolutionary crowdRudé’s srgument

Not necessarily

poor

Working class and

lower (petite)

bourgeois

Many were employed

and ‘socially respectable’ Artisans

(Skilled craftsmen)

Master Artisans (Running

workshops)

Small shop-keepers and

traders

Not necessarily

poor

Unskilled labourers

and working women

Minor government officials and

some journalists

COMPLETE THE PARAGRAPH…

According to Rudé, the revolutionary crowd was made up of…

The Revolutionary Crowd:A culture of revolution?

• Working people knew how to protest: history of food problems• 1780s: Urban working people participated more in politics:

- Revelion Riots- Supported parlements in their conflict with Louis XVI over tax reform- Book of Grievances

• By 1791, the working people came to understand that bourgeois deputies did not always understand their material working problems

• From this time the popular movement both defended the Revolution and challenged it by demanding better economic conditions

The Role of the Political Club• After 1789 the revolutionary

movement worked mainly through political clubs

• From 1790 onward, ordinary citizens felt they could participate in political issues through political clubs

• The two most famous of these clubs were:

THE CORDELIERSTHE JACOBINS

THE CORDELIERS THE JACOBINS

THE CORDELIERS

• Founded in January 1790, from the Cordeliers district in Paris• Charged a low subscription fee, held meeting in a Convent• Radical group• Objected to distinction between active and passive citizens• Supported the Sans-Cullote, and had great support• Admitted women• Led by bourgeois lawyers Danton, Desmoulins and journalists Hébert, Brissot and

Marat

Danton Desmoulins Hébert Brissot Marat

A DESCRIPTION OF A CORDELIERS MEETING:

"About three hundred persons of both sexes filled the place; their dress was so unkempt and so filthy that one would have taken them for a gathering of beggars. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was stuck on the wall, crowned by crossed daggers. Plaster busts of Brutus and William Tell were placed on each side, as if expressly to guard the Declaration. Facing, behind the tribune, as supporters, there appeared busts of Mirabeau … with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the middle.’

THE JACOBINS

• Formed in Paris in 1789• Had provincial branches (so sub groups met in other French towns

and cities)• Met in a Jacobin Dominican Convent, and so got their name• Began as a moderate bourgeois movement supporting constitutional

monarchy• Became a radical republican movement, instituting the reign of terror• Early prominent members included Maximillein Robespeirre, Abbé

Sieyès, Mirabeau, Abbé Grégoire • Ended in 1794

Learning outcome:Identify who formed the revolutionary crowd

and understand the formation of political groups

• What were the characteristics of the people who participated in revolutionary behaviour?

• Why did political clubs form?• When did the Cordeliers and the Jacobins

form?• How did they seek to represent the

revolutionary crowd?• Who were the prominent figures in the

Cordeliers and Jacobin clubs?