The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. While terror was never formally instituted as a legal policy by the Convention, it was more often employed as a concept.
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin".
The sans-culottes were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime. The word sans-culotte, which is opposed to "aristocrat", seems to have been used for the first time on 28 February 1791 by Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan in a derogatory sense, speaking about a "sans-culottes army". The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792.
The French Revolutionary Wars began on 20 April 1792 when the French Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria. This launched the War of the First Coalition.
Jacques René Hébert was a French journalist and leader of the French Revolution. As the founder and editor of the radical newspaper Le Père Duchesne, he had thousands of followers known as the Hébertists. A proponent of the Reign of Terror, he was eventually guillotined.
This glossary of the French Revolution generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations; those can be found in List of people associated with the French Revolution.
Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron was a French politician, journalist, representative to the National Assembly, and a representative on mission during the French Revolution.
Eugène Édine Pottier was a French revolutionary, poet, song-writer, and freemason. Pottier's most famous work, the revolutionary anthem "The Internationale", usually sung in the setting by Pierre De Geyter from 1888, is much better known than he is, as it has been translated from the original French into many languages, including at least five English versions, as many in Spanish and in German, three in different dialects each of Chinese and Arabic, and individual versions in languages from Afrikaans, via Bengali, Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Galician, Hindu, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian, Okinawan, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Tamil, Urdu, Vienamese, Yiddish, to Zulu.
Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation. Amongst the most well-known revolutionary songs are "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Many protest songs can be considered revolutionary - or later become canonized as revolutionary songs following a successful revolution. On the other hand, once a revolution is established, some of the aspects of protest song may be considered counter-revolutionary.
"Le Chant du départ" is a French revolutionary war song, composed by Étienne Méhul and written by Marie-Joseph Chénier in 1794. It was the official anthem of the French Empire, and it is currently the unofficial regional anthem of French Guiana and the presidential anthem of France.
"Ça ira" is an emblematic song of the French Revolution, first heard in May 1790. It underwent several changes in wording, all of which used the title words as part of the refrain.
La Révolution française is a two-part 1989 historical drama co-produced by France, Germany, Italy and Canada for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The full film runs at 360 minutes, but the edited-for-television version is slightly longer. It purports to tell a faithful and neutral story of the Revolution, from the calling of the Estates-General to the death of Maximilien de Robespierre. The film had a large budget and boasted an international cast. It was shot in French, German and English.
"Marche Henri IV", alternatively "Vive Henri IV" or "Vive le roi Henri", is a popular French song celebrating King Henry IV of France. The melody was heard of as early as 1581, when it was mentioned in the book of Christmas songs of Christophle de Bordeaux, under the name "Chant de la Cassandre". It was a de facto anthem of the post-Restoration Kingdom of France.
Pauline Léon was an influential woman during the French Revolution. She played an important role in the Revolution, driven by her strong feminist and anti-royalist beliefs. Along with her friend Claire Lacombe, founded the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, and she also served as a prominent leader of the Femmes Sans-Culottes.
La Marseillaise is a French film of 1938, directed by Jean Renoir. A vast political, social, and military panorama of the French Revolution up to the autumn of 1792, its many episodes range from the life of ordinary working people through the committed bourgeois struggling for change up to those in the upper echelons of society defending the status quo.
François Mireur was a French general who is notable for having sung the "War Song for the Army of the Rhine", later known as La Marseillaise, in 1792 when he volunteered for the newly created republican army. He later served under Napoleon Bonaparte and was killed in Egypt in 1798.
Symbolism in the French Revolution was the use of artistic symbols to emphasize and celebrate the main features of the French Revolution and promote public identification with and support for the cause. In order to effectively illustrate the differences between the new Republic and the old regime, revolutionaries implemented new symbols to be celebrated instead of the old religious and monarchical symbolism.
Events from the year 1792 in France.
