Why Was There a Counterrevolution?or Counterrevolutions?

Résumé du document

The term counterrevolution has its roots in the middle of the Eighteenth century. If we have to completely understand why there was a counterrevolution, we have to first define this word properly. Unless properly defines, it could cover diverse realities depending on the context and the period concerned. The theoretical aspect of this movement was born in opposition to the Enlightenment and its liberal philosophy in the 1770's. These theories were based on religious and conservative principles put into words in France by authors such as Mellet du Pan, De Bonald and Maistre. Even if they did not define themselves as counterrevolutionaries, mainly because the French Revolution was not initiated at that time, they gave birth to the theoretical tools which lead to the Counterrevolution movement.

Extraits

[...] These arguments met more and more success among the people as the Revolution spread and created a growing feeling of insecurity. Throughout the country this movement was interpreted as a Parisian phenomenon which consequences were imposed to the people locally. This makes me able to underline the fact that even if the counterrevolution is a movement in itself it is intrinsically dependant on the revolutionary process. If we focus on the counterrevolution movements locally, it is obvious that they differ one from another in motivations, intensity, and length. [...]

[...] In both of these regions the counterrevolutions were of popular and insurrectionary nature. In the South East it was mainly the most penniless people who took part to the counterrevolution for reasons that are completely different from the ones of the aristocratic. First, there was a very high level of unemployment in this region, coupled with a progressive "decapitalization" of the cities which was a cause of a rise in poverty. The religious issues of the French Revolution also reanimated the religious conflict as the so- called plot theory was used against the Protestants suspected of being responsible for the Revolution. [...]

[...] Why Was There a Counterrevolution–or Counterrevolutions? The term counterrevolution have his roots in the middle of the Eighteenth century, and if we want to completely understand why was there a counterrevolution we first have to give a proper definition of this word because it could cover diverse realities depending on the context and the period concerned. The theoretical aspect of this movement was born in opposition to the Enlightenment and its liberal philosophy since the 1770's. These theories were based on religious and conservative principles put into words in France by authors such as Mellet du Pan, De Bonald and Maistre. [...]

[...] Even if it is true that some counterrevolutionary newspapers were actually calling for military actions or the émigrés, for instance La Gazette du roi, of Rozoi, I think it is relevant and interesting to note that the part of the nobles in the émigrés only represented 25% and the one of the clergy only 17%. This is the reason why I believe that there also was a counterrevolution because the French Revolution needed an enemy to maintain the cohesion of the people. [...]

[...] From the revolutionary point of view a counterrevolutionary was a man whose behavior was preventing the Revolution to reach its aims. It was the source of many language abuses, as it became a very effective way to designate the enemy of the moment, both personal and political. Initially, the counterrevolutionaries were people from the aristocracy and then the émigrés. They lost privileges because of the Revolution and thanks to the existence of a public space they were able to diffuse their ideas throughout the France. [...]