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Jacobin Influence in the French Revolution
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Discusses the pros & cons of the Jacobin movement, which was a primary force during the French Revolution.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses the pros & cons of the Jacobin movement, which was a primary force during the French Revolution.
Paper Introduction:
FRANCE--HISTORY
The French Revolution was one of the major events in history, carrying forth the revolutionary fervor that started with the American Revolution and that would extend into the next century in other countries of Europe. The French Revolution had a colorful cast of characters, and it also saw the emergence, however temporary, of a number of political groups unlike any that had been seen before. Once such group was called the jacobins.
The role of the Jacobins during the French Revolution had much to do with the political struggles that took place and shaped the course of the post-revolutionary period. Historians have taken differing views of the role of the Jacobins, of their influence, and of the nature of their actions during and after the Revolution. These di
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The French Revolution 1787-1799 from the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon. Lefebvre more than the two writers discussed above relates the natureof the French Revolution to the international tensions and movements of thetime, and the Jacobins are thus seen as a force for national unity and evenchauvinistic dedication to a democratic vision of France, and this had aninfluence on the Committee, which would emphasize again and again thatmonarchists were part of a foreign plot. (1962). ReferencesKennedy, E. Kennedy sees theJacobins as a society that contributed to the Revolution by developingpolitical education among Frenchmen who were unaccustomed to participatingin government. Both Lefebvre and Soboul find the enveloping war as afunction of the internal tensions being fanned by the Jacobins and similargroups. The French Revolution had a colorful cast of characters, and italso saw the emergence, however temporary, of a number of political groupsunlike any that had been seen before. (1989). . They wereboth a product and shaper of the times. He finds that the Jacobins served in the summer of 1793 to savethe Republic: They re-established national unity, recruited and supplied the armies, and fed the population. FRANCE--HISTORY The French Revolution was one of the major events in history,carrying forth the revolutionary fervor that started with the AmericanRevolution and that would extend into the next century in other countriesof Europe. In them Jacobins learned to assume special responsibilities, such as sending a deputation on visits. and to prevail on those visited to adopt a particular course of action (Kennedy, 1989, 367).Kennedy makes the Jacobins sound much like incipient political parties, andparties with power they could exercise. Nevertheless there had been a surfeit of authorities and a lack of co-ordination and discipline (Lefebvre, 1964, 74).The Jacobins thus represented the dichotomy of patriotic national unity onthe one hand and ineffective and uncoordinated activity on the other. Palmer (1941) approaches the Revolution through the personalities ofthose who were leaders of the various factions involved, and he sees theJacobin club especially as the site of the battle between followers ofRobespierre and opponents of Robespierre. . In time, the Jacobins and other groups wouldhave a strong nationalistic influence that was reflected in the conduct andending of the war against Spain as the Committee determined that the peoplewere tiring of the conflict and were turning inward (Lefebvre, 1964, 127). Foreign influences were seen as provocative and as becoming moreinsistent, and these influences were also seen as enemies of theRevolution. The Jacobins are painted as having a strong role inchallenging any seemingly un-patriotic and anti-Revolutionary activityinside or outside France. Twelve who ruled: the year of the terror in the French Revolution. Kennedy portrays the Jacobins as a group that betrayed its statedprinciples. New York: Columbia University Press.Palmer, R.R. They were democratizing influences, says Kennedy, preparingthe people to challenge government as they had never done before and alsoto see themselves as the proper repositories of political power: Committees were the essence of the democratic experience. Some see theJacobins as a positive force, at least most of the time, and see it as wellas one of the truly revolutionary groups involved in the post-Revolutionaryperiod, while others see it as na organization rife with the possibility ofexcess and moral corruption. The direct political participation of the Jacobins through memberswho were also members of the Left in the Assembly is noted by Soboul(1962), who writes from the perspective of one in sympathy with theJacobins and convinced of their important influence on the course of theRevolution. Once such group was called thejacobins. Democracy was spoiled, not saved, by the Terror. (1964). Education was also seenas more ideological and political. His analysis presents theJacobin clubs as a setting as much as an organization, though he does notignore the dynamics of the clubs as political forces in their own right.Palmer emphasizes certain actions of the Jacobins as important in thecontext of the Revolution, especially its efforts toward De-christianization. As did Lefebvre, Soboul emphasizes theimportance of victory in the war to the continuation of the Revolutionarygovernment. (1941). Soboul is also a student of Lefebvre and sees a similar rolefor the Jacobins as being, along with the other salons, a force thataccentuated the political struggles developing after the Revolution andleading to war. He sees them as embodying Revolutionaryprinciples, and indeed he sees Dechristianization as the essence ofrevolutionary change, noting: Moreover, if revolution means change, overturn, innovation, then the Dechristianizers of 1793 were the revolutionists, and Robespierre was an exponent of counter-revolution, or at least of orderly change arrived at under the authority of government (Palmer, 1941, 117).The role of the Jacobins was thus to carry forth the revolutionary fervorthat had toppled the monarchy and to press for radical change, even moreradical than many wanted. Kennedy (1989) approaches the French Revolution from a culturalperspective, and he discusses the Jacobins as one of a number of clubs andgarrisons embodying revolutionary ideas of education, encompassing theatersas well as schools and garrisons as well as clubs. At the beginning of theRevolution, there had been a certain universalism in the air, a sense thatthis movement was universal and that the French might lead the way in aninternational revolution. . The Jacobin societies followed suit. The Masonic lodges were one group ofclubs that had established the principle of free association for thepursuit of knowledge, virtue, and fraternity on the grounds of commonlyshared beliefs. The role of the Jacobins during the French Revolution had much to dowith the political struggles that took place and shaped the course of thepost-revolutionary period. These differing views reflect anevolving view of history, differing interests on the part of thehistorians, and different sources for their information, reflecting bothalternative data and alternative methods of analysis. A cultural history of the French Revolution. Historians have taken differing views of therole of the Jacobins, of their influence, and of the nature of theiractions during and after the Revolution. Palmer sees the role of the Jacobins as more moderated andprogressive than does Kennedy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Lefebvre, G. The French Revolution from 1793 to 1799. New York: Random House. . The organization claimed to be democratic, and Kennedy sees itas attempting to establish a virtuocracy susceptible to the worst crimes--sacrilege, false testimony, fratricide, and pillage: Education can only be understood to mean what Jacobinism pretended it to mean, not what it usually conveys. The image ofthe Jacobins conveyed by Kennedy is cultural and political--they were aresponse to the revolutionary fervor of the time and participated as aforce to effect change in the direction of increased revolution. Their efforts were the subject of much argumenteven within their own confines, as occurred when Robespierre fought againstthe Dechristianization policy and supported the idea of religious freedom,in which he ultimately prevailed. In facing this crisis, the Jacobins built up a form ofplanned economy and advanced further along the road leading from anarchy toorder. New York: Atheneum.Soboul, A. a Jacobin is by definition a vigilante (Kennedy, 1989, 369-37 ).The popular societies had a role in mobilizing the people, but they alsowere given to ideological purges in the name of patriotism. Lefebvre (1964) also sees the Jacobins as an instigating force in thedevelopment of the Revolution and as a truly revolutionary forcethereafter, being so much so that they would produce the Anti-Jacobinreaction.
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