French Revolution: Constituent & Legislative Assemblies 1789–1792

National Constituent Assembly (1789–1791)

• Finally, the king agreed to the Third Estate demands. A new Constituent Assembly was formed to write a constitution.
• News that troops were being sent to Versailles led to a riot in Paris on 14 July 1789, in which people attacked the fortress and prison of the Bastille in order to seize weapons and defend their representatives.
• In the days following the storming of the Bastille, rioting continued in other cities and in the countryside, where peasants attacked the homes of the nobility, burned their archives and refused to pay feudal duties.
• The first orders approved were to abolish feudalism and nationalise the Church’s property.
• Furthermore, they approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), which recognised the rights to freedom, property and equal protection by the law.
• Two years later they approved the first French Constitution (1791), which established popular sovereignty, separation of powers and censitary suffrage (sufragio censitario), which was restricted to men who possessed certain property.
• Thus, absolutism gave way to a liberal political system.

Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)

• After the Constitution of 1791 had been adopted, there were elections for the new Legislative Assembly.
• Two main political groups emerged:
  • Girondins (girondinos) represented the interests of the wealthy bourgeoisie. They had moderate views and supported the constitutional monarchy and limited suffrage. They dominated the Legislative Assembly.
  • Jacobins (jacobinos) represented the petite bourgeoisie. They had more radical views. They wanted to abolish the monarchy, establish a republic and introduce universal manhood suffrage (all adult males would have the right to vote).
• In its short existence it faced several problems:
  • Opposition by exiled nobles who conspired from abroad against the Revolution.
  • Opposition by the king, who was arrested when he tried to flee (huir, escapar) the country (1791).
  • The war against Austria and Prussia, two countries that supported the counter-revolutionaries for fear of the Revolution spreading to their territories.
  • An army of citizen volunteers stopped the Austrians and Prussians at the Battle of Valmy (20 September 1792).