10
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
― Maximilien Robespierre
To this point, the focus has been on theorists of revolution each of whom contributed significantly to contemporary understanding of revolutions, their origins, and outcomes. This chapter will apply the theories presented in this book’s first part towards the French Revolution. The French Revolution began in 1789; whether one believes that the Bastille storming of the monarchy’s dissolution is the events that began the Revolution is a matter to debate. However, the problems that led to this seminal event occurred decades if not centuries before (Popkin, 2019, p.101). The French Revolution manifests the French people’s ire over the increased taxation that the privileged aristocracy of the feudal Ancien Régime placed upon them. King Louis XVI and his aristocrats’ extravagant spending caused the people to go into poverty, which led to a state of civil unrest after having their taxes continually increased (Popkin, 2019, p.101). Though the last king of the Ancien Régime, Louis XVI cannot be entirely accountable for the unrest in France. Preceding 1789, poor harvests gripped France and brought about starvation and suffering to the French people. This famine, coupled with the system of privileges that the aristocrats enjoyed, placed the financial burden of running France onto the businessmen and peasant classes (Tocqueville, 2008, p.44). When the American Revolution occurred, Louis XVI’s financial and military investments in assisting the Americans led France to an unavoidable financial collapse (Popkin, 2019, p.69).
The French Revolution is one of the most frequently cited accounts of revolution. The actions by the French revolutionaries set a precedent for revolutions to come. Many that endeavor to formulate theories on revolutions cite and study the French Revolution’s events to build a stable theory. In this chapter, Crane Brinton and Barrington Moore’s theories are applied to the French Revolution. Amidst France’s financial strain, hunger, and anger is where the story of the French Revolution begins.
Barrington Moore
To revisit the earlier chapters, theorist Barrington Moore claims three routes for an agrarian society to transition to an industrial society. Moore claims a strong bourgeoisie acts as a necessary precondition to determine which route a revolution may take, emphasizing the importance of social classes in a revolution. The three routes include the Capitalist-Democratic Route characterized by the rise of a strong bourgeoisie, the Capitalist-Reactionary Route where the bourgeoisie joins forces with the aristocracy, and the Communist Route with the rise of the peasantry as actors for social change (Moore, 1966). The French Revolution takes the Capitalist-Democratic Route. In this route, class struggles define the Revolution and the revolutionary outcome (Moore, 1966). The French Revolution began because t