The French Revolution

By Ruben Ygua

Traditional methods of studying the past have always given greater importance to nationalist, religious and moral interests, which subordinated the historical fact to the System point of view. That’s how we have been educated. The time has come to simplify and show respect for our ancestors, striving to know what really happened in the past, and not just what they want to inform us about. After so many years of studying History, I came to the conclusion that the best study system is through an impartial, objective Chronology that just put each event in its exact place in time, revealing History without manipulation. This Chronology contains not only purely political facts, such as the foundation of cities, the birth of kingdoms and empires, scientific and geographical discoveries, natural disasters and epidemics; it also includes information on the most different fields of human activity: chemistry, astronomy, geography, mathematics, and so on. In parallel, the chronology is complemented by data that do not belong to a specific date, but to an entire epoch, they are each society generalities, curiosities, customs, the religion of each civilization, inventions or discoveries that cannot be placed in an exact date, etc. The result of all this set is one of the most complete chronologies within its reach, periodically updated with the latest archaeological and scientific discoveries, and that transforms the reader into an eyewitness of the past, understanding the relation of geographically distant facts to each other, but closely connected in time and influencing unexpected consequences. This is something that traditional history has generally ignored when it was not usable. A work of this magnitude could not be published in a single book, so I have divided it into several collections, and the Spanish originals are being translated into French, English, Italian and Portuguese. The chronology goes from prehistory to the present day year by year, as far as possible. For those who prefer a deeper and more detailed study, I have prepared a second chronology, day by day, which for now covers from 1789 to 1946, divided into five collections.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clube de Autores
• Release date: Oct 5, 2024

Book preview

RUBEN YGUA

RUBEN YGUA

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

1789- 1795

CHRONOLOGY

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Contact with the author: [e-mail]

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The content of this work, including the spell check, is the sole responsibility of the author 3

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Dedicated to my family

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Introduction

Traditional methods of studying the past have always given greater importance to nationalist, religious and moral interests, which subordinated the historical fact to the System point of view.

That’s how we have been educated.

The time has come to simplify and show respect for our ancestors, striving to know what really happened in the past, and not just what they want to inform us about.

After so many years of studying History, I came to the conclusion that the best study system is through an impartial, objective Chronology that just put each event in its exact place in time, revealing History without manipulation.

This Chronology contains not only purely political facts, such as the foundation of cities, the birth of kingdoms and empires, scientific and geographical discoveries, natural disasters and epidemics; it also includes information on the most different fields of human activity: chemistry, astronomy, geography, mathematics, and so on. In parallel, the chronology is complemented by data that do not belong to a specific date, but to an entire epoch, they are each society generalities, curiosities, customs, the religion of each civilization, inventions or discoveries that cannot be placed in an exact date, etc.

The result of all this set is one of the most complete chronologies within its reach, periodically updated with the latest archaeological and scientific discoveries, and that transforms the reader into an eyewitness of the past, understanding the relation of geographically distant facts to each other, but closely connected in time and influencing unexpected consequences. This is something that traditional history has generally ignored when it was not usable.

A work of this magnitude could not be published in a single book, so I have divided it into several collections, and the Spanish originals are being translated into French, English, Italian and Portuguese.

The chronology goes from prehistory to the present day year by year, as far as possible.

For those who prefer a deeper and more detailed study, I have prepared a second chronology, day by day, which for now covers from 1789 to 1946, divided into five collections.

Ruben Ygua

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

France, 1787…

The country is bankrupt. To solve the crisis, Louis XVI did what many kings had done before him ... implement a new tax.

1786 had been a year of bad harvests. The shortage of food and speculation had resurrected the old ghost of hunger. The increase in taxes was the spark that burned the country.

Frustrated, hungry and desperate, the people are thrown into the streets; properties of the nobility and the Church are invaded, looted, burned and razed. The king summons the Assembly of the Notables, composed of nobles interested only in preserving their privileges.

The rebellion is widespread throughout the Kingdom; regional leaders encourage the people not to pay more taxes.

Then, to control the situation, the king calls the States-General

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1789- 1795

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1789

JANUARY

1- France: in the 40,000 parishes of the kingdom, the priests invite their faithful to choose their representatives for the General States and to write in a notebook the complaints they would like to send to the king.

2- Paris: An anonymous brochure is published, attributed to Abbot Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, entitled What is the Third Estate?, of which thirty thousand copies are sold in a month.

7- Paris: death of Baron de Holbach. In the United States first presidential election; One month later, George Washington will be named president of the Union.

13- Austria: Emperor Joseph II, anxious to prevent papal bulls from entering his empire through the Catholic Netherlands, expelled the nuncio and tried to introduce radical reforms in the government of the region.

15- France: in the city of Rennes there are clashes in the street between the Nobility and the Third State.

17- Paris: King Louis XVI establishes the voting rules of the States-General.

20- Poland: the Diet decrees the abolition of the Permanent Council and declares its own mandate for an unlimited time.

23- Austria: the reaction to the reforms of Joseph II is a rebellion in Brabant, led by Hendrick Van der Noort, who crossed the border to the German part of Brabant and recruited a small army in Breda.

24- Paris: King Louis XVI finally convened the States General.

26- Geneva: the government's decision to increase the price of bread triggers riots in Saint-Gervais, the poorest neighborhood in the city.

28 – Persia: Shah Jafar Khan is poisoned and happens to his son Sayed Murad Kan.

FEBRUARY -1789

4- United States: the 69 electors, who had been elected to elect the president and the vice president, meet in accordance with the new Constitution.

10- United States: George Washington is unanimously elected as the first president of the country; the vice president was John Adams.

12- Austria: Joseph II decrees the end of drudgery.

17- In Brazil, the ringleaders of the Tiradentes rebellion were captured and imprisoned.

Tiradentes tried to hide in a friend's house, but a denunciation allowed him to be captured as well.

19- Spain: the expedition of Ensign Martinez departs from San Blas, bound for the bay of Nootka, where he must build a fort to control the fur trade.

21- Gustav III of Sweden establishes a regime close to absolutism through the Act of union and security.

23-Italy: law on trusts in Tuscany.

MARCH-1789

1- In Africa: second Care war between the settlers of South Africa and the Bantu.

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4- United States: the presidential mandate comes into force, but communications for such a large country are not easy and, for the first and last time in history, the Congress and the Presidency of the United States did not begin their term in the legal term.

9-Italy: Ludovico Manin is appointed Doge of Venice.

14- Persia: Shah Syed Murad Khan is dethroned by his brother Lotf Ali Kan.

27- France: in Reims, a crowd of homeless attacks a convoy loaded with wheat.

APRIL-1789

6- United States: with a considerable delay the First Congress of the country begins to operate.

7- King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia organizes the wedding of his son Victor Emmanuel with Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Duke Ferdinand I of Modena, brother of Emperor Joseph II.

8- Ottoman Empire: begins the reign of Selim III.

10- France: Wheat reserves in the mansions of parliamentarians are sacked in Besancon.

15- Australia: smallpox epidemic in Port Jackson will spread rapidly among the aborigines, causing great mortality.

17- Africa: begins the reign of Agonglo, king of Abomey.

21- United States: Vice President Adams is sworn in and takes office.

23- France: clashes between nobles and students in Rennes.

26 - In Paris, the owner of a wallpaper factory called Réveillon declares that a worker can live with 15 salaries a day, and causes great indignation among his workers.

27 – Paris: a mutiny breaks out in the Saint Antoine neighborhood, looting of the Réveillon paper factory. Hundreds of people take to the streets with images of Réveillon shouting slogans such as Death to the rich!.

28 - Popular revolt in Paris against presumed food grabbers. The Guard represses the tumults in the French capital, recorded more than three hundred dead. In the Pacific: Mutiny of the Bounty.

29 - In Marseille, a crowd assaults three military barracks and kills officer Beausset.

30 – France: Deputies from Brittany meet to found the Breton Club, the future Jacobin Club.

United States: finally George Washington swears his position as President.

MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY

Two years ago, a former comrade of Cook named William Bligh had sailed from Britain under the command of the Bounty with the task of obtaining as many as possible of the so-called breadfruit trees in Tahiti, very prolific plants, each producing between 50 and 150 fruits a year.

Therefore, the British wanted to use them as cheap food for the slaves of the Caribbean islands.

The trip had been very painful, because, after a month without getting round Cape Horn, Bligh decided to turn around and turn the Cape of Good Hope.

Once in Tahiti, they had to wait five months for the trees to be mature enough to support the trip. Two weeks after setting sail for the Caribbean, the bluntness with which Bligh treated the crew (which, in fact, did nothing but strictly enforce the cruel regulations of the British navy) provoked a riot led by Lieutenant Fletcher Christian. On April 28, the mutineers left Bligh and eighteen loyal men in a boat that barely fit, with a few provisions, but without a map or compass. The mutineers returned to Tahiti. On June 14, Captain Bligh had performed the feat of 9

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

driving his boat with his men to the island of Timor, without having suffered more than a loss in a meeting with natives on the island of Tonga.

There he received help from the Dutch who took him to Batavia (where some of his men died of plague) and from there he returned to Britain. Meanwhile, Fletcher Christian had tried to settle on the island of Tubuai, but its inhabitants were cannibals, and they soon returned to Tahiti, where on June 16 Christian married the daughter of a local chief.

MAY-1789

2 - Louis XVI receives in Versailles the deputies of the three States.

3- North America: the expedition of Ensign Martinez arrives at Nootka Bay, where he meets two American ships with which he has good relations.

4 - Popular demonstration in Languedoc demanding a fair price for bread.

5- In a tense atmosphere the sessions of the States General are inaugurated.

6 - Brissot publishes the first issue of the newspaper Patriote Français In Canada: the Spanish captain Esteban José Martinez takes possession of Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island and builds Fort San Miguel, it will be the only Spanish base in Canada.

7 – Paris: the State Council prohibits press or opinion newspapers without prior authorization from the king.

8 – Paris: the representatives of the Third State protest in favor of press freedom.

10- Japan: Menashi-Kunashir rebellion between the Ainu and the Japanese on the Shiretoko Peninsula, northeast of Hokkaido.

12- Paris: the States General discuss the voting system, the rules establish that the 3 States must deliberate separately. The deputies of the Third State claim to deliberate together and have one vote per person.

14- North America: incident between Spaniards and British in the bay of San Lorenzo or Nootka, located on the west coast of the island of Vancouver, the expedition of Ensign Martinez captures the English merchant Iphigenia Nubiana, who transported skins to Portugal.

16- Paris: the Committee of the Thirty is formed, a group of Parisian liberals composed mainly of people of the nobility that began to protest, demanding that the number of assembly members be doubled with the right to vote of the Third State (also called the Plain State).

18 - Paris: Robespierre intervenes for the first time in a parliamentary session.

19 Paris: The government accepts the proposal of the Committee of the Thirty, and grants to the assembly the task of determining the right to vote; a great tumult is created.

23 - Paris: The Commissioners Conciliators begin the round of conferences to bring positions closer.

TENSION IN THE GENERAL-ESTATES

The General-Estates of France finally met in Versailles on May 5.

The Third State had 600 representatives, as many as the Nobility and the Clergy as a whole.

They took with them the cahiers, in which the complaints and petitions of the citizens were recorded.

Essentially, the peasants demanded equal taxes for all, relief of the fiscal pressure, the suppression of the feudal charges and rights and the regulation of the commerce; for their part, the bourgeoisie demanded guarantees of civil and political liberties, the reform of the State and of the administration, the possibility of access of all Frenchmen to all positions and freedom of commerce. However, nobody paid attention to the cahiers.

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The Nobility and the Clergy insisted on deliberating separately, as well as that each State had a single vote, but that was not what had been established and the Third State refused to accept it.

The king was expected to pronounce, but Louis XVI, in a clumsy speech, denounced the

exaggerated innovations and did not settle on the question of voting.

The discussion went on for a month, and everything fell on June 10 when Abbe Sieyès invited the members of the Third Estate to take action.

JUNE-1789

1- Paris: a new political pamphlet appears, entitled Offrande à la Patrie, written by a doctor named Jean-Paul Marat.

4 – Paris: end of the conferences of the Conciliator Commissaries, without results.

6 – Paris: the archbishop of Aix offers himself as an intermediary to solve the poverty of the people.

7 - The electoral assembly of Paris demands to increase the military presence in the capital.

10 - Paris: Sieyès proposes for the last time the conciliation with the first two States.

13 - Paris: Three clerics, Cesve, Ballard and Jallet, come to meet the Third Estate.

14- North America: the sloop Princess Royal arrives at Nootka flying the British flag. It brought news of the bankruptcy of the Portuguese company of Carvalho, against whom Ensign Martinez had debit cards; consequently, and as Carvalho was also the owner of the Princess Royal, Martinez temporarily retained the sloop as a guarantee of the debt.

15- Germany: Mozart travels to Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, where he was received by King Frederick William II of Prussia, for whom he composed a string quartet.

17- Paris: the nobility and the clergy reject the proposal of the Third State. In response, representatives of the Third State are proclaimed NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. The king closes the session room.

18- Paris: the National Assembly meets in the Ballgame Hall (Salle du Jeu de Paume) and take an oath with the character of a proclamation. The king declares all the actions of the Assembly

null, illegal and unconstitutional. The deputies do not give up.

19 - Paris: The clergy voted to join the National Assembly, by 149 votes to 139. Some progressive nobles also joined, but most representatives of the Nobility refused to make common cause with the Third Estate. North America: the expedition of the English captain James Colnett arrived at Nootka Bay, who anchored in Nootka. The captain brought instructions to establish a factory in Yuquot. The Spanish Martinez visited him aboard his ship, and informed him that he had taken possession of the island, and that he only authorized him to stock up on wood and water. Colnett tried to evade the delivery of his instructions to Martinez and tried to march precipitately; but Martinez arrested him and his ships were taken as prey and sent to San Blas.

20- Paris: Deputy Vieuzac publishes the first issue of his Parisian newspaper Le Point du Jour.

21- Paris: A large number of members of the clergy join the 3rd. State, and then also 47

members of the nobility. The king has to yield and capitulate, inviting the session to be held as a whole.

22- Paris: King Louis XVI sends to Paris a regiment of his Swiss Guard. The deputies of the Third Estate meet in the Saint Louis de Versailles church. In Armentieres, a popular riot is stifled by the troops of Condé.

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23 - Paris: Closing of the General Estates. King Louis XVI tries to impose the sessions of the Estates separately and the joint vote, but the deputies who have met as National Assembly have committed themselves to each other by the oath of Jeu de Paume not to be separated.