Warfare and Peace in the French Revolution

Revolutions always appear with violence and conflicts, because interests of different
groups would be redistributed. On the other hand, most revolutions seek for a peaceful end as
a sign of success. In the French Revolution, a long-lasting revolution which has greatly
reformed France, there are a great many problems of war and peace worth discussing. There
are two kinds of typical warfare, which involved massive military operations between
enemies. Namely, they are the citizens’ rebel to control Paris and the defense of France
against the foreign invasion.
The beginning success of the revolution was marked by the fall of Bastille, which
symbolized that the citizens completely took the control of Paris from Louis XVI. The rebel
was a typical armed uprising conducted by the the citizens of Paris to fight against the clergy
and the nobility. The rebel forced Louis XVI to admit the legality of National Constituent
Assembly, which greatly limited power of the king and ended the absolutism in France. What
is more, the success of rebel made it possible to pass Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen, which claims that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. 1 The idea
of freedom and equality greatly liberated and inspired French people’s consciousness.
The effort made in this rebel was clever and effective. Before the rebel, in the last
Estates General, members of the Third Estate, people except the clergy and the nobility,
protested against the custom that the estates meet separately and vote by order and demanded
its votes be doubled. 2 These proposals were not agreed, which greatly resulted in the later
rebel. The rebel was clever because the rebels fully made use of their priority in number of
people: there were far more members of the Third Estate than their enemies, the clergy and
the nobility. Thus, when most of the citizens got weapons and began intensive attack inside
1 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western
Civilizations. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016: 295.
2 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “What Is the
Third State?” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. W.W. Norton &
Company, 2016: 291.

the city, they became unstoppable.
Besides the tactical wise, the rebel itself turned out to be a strategical success. This is
because taking control of the administration of Paris was the most effective way to make
Louis XVI compromise. Since Louis XVI was a member and the leader of the upper classes
of France, he would not agree to weaken the upper classes’ power and abandon absolutism,
which would harm his own interests. Although the members of the Third Estate could debate
with Louis XVI by law, Louis XVI’s inner nature of absolutism decided that he would be
unlikely to compromise, which actually had occurred. The king might partly agree with the
reformers’ demands if they kept asking, but the results must have been far below the
expectation. Thus, only by making the king militarily inferior could the citizens gain power
and have an opportunity to make a revolution.
Besides civil wars, France had also encountered the threat from outside. By September
1793, the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety faced mounting fear of foreign invasion. 3
This was because, in 1793, Anti-French Alliance composed of other European countries
began to invade France. Obviously, to French people, the warfare was self-defensive. France
finally managed to defeat the enemies. Evidently, The victory of fighting against the foreign
invasion protected the fruits of the revolution from the foreign power and maintained a
relatively peaceful environment inside the country. What is more, the success in warfare
would improve confidence of French people in the revolution, because the fact that the
country won the wars right after the revolution would make people tend to believe the
revolution’s effectiveness.
To succeed in military campaigns, France passed a general levy. It was numerous
setbacks of the French revolutionary army after its initial victories in 1792 that compelled the

3 Law of Suspects: Duvergier, J-B. (1793). Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlements,
avis du conseil d’état . . . de 1788 a 1830 . . . , 2d ed., 110 vols. Paris. 6:172–73. Retrieved October 5, 2012,
from: http://sourcebook.fitchburgstate.edu/history/lawofsuspects.html

government to pass the levy to repulse the enemy. 4 The levy stipulates at the beginning that
the French People are in permanent requisition for army services until the enemies have been
driven from the territory of the Republic. 5 The effect of this decree was remarkable. It
mobilized the French nation for war, marking a new era in the modern history of warfare. 6
The levy was successful because it ensured a full investment into a warfare, which is well
manifested in its first stipulation: a lasting, intense and general input of resources. More
specifically, the levy stipulates that the young men shall go to battle, the others shall transport
or produce supplies and a sum of 50,000,000 from the 498,200,000 livres in assignats in the
“Fund of the Three Keys” shall be placed at his disposal by the National Treasury. 7 A
government’s ability to conscript soldiers, requisition supplies and organize the economy for
war provides one critical reason for success in the government’s military campaigns. By well
concerning the three aspects, the levy managed to provide France with sufficient materials to
win the warfare.
In summary, the two kinds of warfare are respectively a citizen rebel and a self-
defensive war. The rebel essentially started the French Revolution and made France abolish
absolutism, while the defense protected the revolution achievement and ensured a relative
peace in the country. The rebel succeeded because of the tactical and strategical wise to use
the priority in number and decisively wage the uprising without compromise, while the
victory of the defensive wars was due to the general levy which guaranteed sufficient

4 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “What Is the
Third State?” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. W.W. Norton &
Company, 2016: 299.
5 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “What Is the
Third State?” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. W.W. Norton &
Company, 2016: 299.
6 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “What Is the
Third State?” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. W.W. Norton &
Company, 2016: 299.
7 Brophy, James M., Joshua Cole, John F. Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, and Carol Symes. “What Is the
Third State?” Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations. W.W. Norton &
Company, 2016, pp. 299-300.

resource investment into any warfare.