I believe that these aims are so different because of events that took place between 1789 and 1793. These began with Louis XVI’s reluctancy to accept the reforms taking place in Paris. Louis responded to the Tennis Court Oath by sending military force into Paris in order to dissolve the National Assembly. He dissolved Necker at the height of his popularity, inspiring large-scale popular demonstrations against him. After the storming of the Bastille, the King refused to officially support the August Decrees and the Declaration of Rights and instead adopted a policy of non-cooperation until forced to accept them in the October Days, and even after this, once he was returned to Paris he regarded himself as a prisoner of the Paris mob and not bound by anything he was forced to accept. In 1791, Louis weakened the moderates’ supportive argument for him and all of his hopes of popularity with the radicals when he attempted to flee to Varennes. Here, it was clear that the King had not wanted the Revolution or its changes despite his words in the October Days and support for a republic began to grow, while the popularity of the King declined. The Champ de Mars demonstrated the change in feelings of the people of Paris. In 1792, the King worsened his popularity even further. This was due to him using his suspensive veto on laws against refractory priests and counter-revolutionaries, making it seem as though he was protecting them and again demonstrating that he did not support the revolution. Louis refused the Girondin’s help when it was offered to him in exchange for recalling Girondin ministers, angering them. The military defeats made it seem as though the monarchy were in league with the Austrians, and this came to a head with the Brunswick manifesto. Louis’ actions were some of the primary causes of the growing Republican movement and radicalism. The execution of the King in 1792 demonstrated the growing radicalism in Paris.
War was another leading event that changed the aims and objectives of the people of Paris between 1789 and 1793. It affected almost everything in France that happened in 1792 onwards and directly led to the civil war and the Terror, as well as being a great factor in the overthrow of the monarchy. Military defeats and desertions of commanders to the enemy created great tension and fear in Paris that the capital would be captured. Lafayette’s desertion to the Austrians also led to panic sweeping the country. War led to suspicion of the monarchy – that they were in league with the Austrians and helping them, and led to the growing Republican movement as the moderates were weakened by Louis vetoes and seemingly less than committed attitude towards winning the war, whereas the sans-culottes’ argument seemed much more credible and was much more popular. The defection of the Girondin army commanders to the Austrians (Dumoriez) led to the destruction of the Girondin party and the growth of the Jacobins. The war also led to many economic issues within the nation. To pay for the war more and more assignats were printed, leading to inflation, and bread was scarce. This led to the introduction of price controls and requisitioning, a huge demand of the sans-culottes. The declaration of war from the rest of the First Coalition, hugely strong European powers, also led the Jacobins to think of other methods such as levee en masse and total war in order to enable France to win this almost impossible war where the odds of winning were very small. In order to keep these very unpopular methods in power, the machinery and groups of the Terror like the representatives on mission and surveillance watch were set up to keep order.
Another huge movement that took place in the period between 1789 and 1793 was the rise of the sans-culottes and clubs in Paris. The actions and blunders of the King led the Jacobin club to move further and further towards the left, obtaining the support of the radical sans-culottes as they too became radical. The fact that there were 136 Jacobin deputies in the left wing of the Legislative Assembly already showed their increased control over the country. The support of the sans-culottes was vital. The sans-culottes heavily dominated the 48 Paris Sections and showed their power when on 20 June 1792 they poured into the Tuileries without facing much opposition. Their growing dominance was witnessed yet again when the National Assembly were forced to admit passive citizens into the National Guard and sectional assemblies. The bourgeois control of 1789 had begun to give way to the popular democracy of the sans-culottes. The arrival of the federes in June strengthened the sans-culottes further as they were armed and radical. The federes cooperated heavily with the Jacobins and sans-culottes as they plotted their radical takeover of Paris. Their joint power was demonstrated with the overthrow and execution of the King in January 1793. The Convention was so scared of these powerful mobs that they would agree to most demands the sans-culottes made. In September 1792, hints of the changes in policy to come in 1793 were in the September Massacres where sans-culottes murdered many prisoners without opposition. The Jacobin coup in June 1793 meant that the demands of the sans-culottes and aims of the Jacobin club such as centralisation and a more planned economy were introduced without conflict.
The uprisings against the policies of the government also led the aims of the revolutionaries to become much more radical. The Vendee rebellion could not be tolerated with a huge war going on – and this meant that it had to be crushed. This was the same with the uprisings in Lyon and other federal towns. It was hard enough for the Convention to fight a war against the First Coalition and revolt from towns in France and counter-revolutionaries meant that odds of winning the war would be reduced further. Because of this, policies had to be adopted in order to crush these revolts to concentrate on the war before dealing with the problems within the country. This reason, along with war, the blunders and actions of the monarchy and the rise of the Jacobins and sans-culottes resulting in the weakening of the royalists and moderates led the bourgeois aims of 1789 – equality, laissez-faire, no internal customs, guilds, or privileges and exemptions, an end to the feudal system and a constitutional monarch granting them more power to run the country with – to change into the sans-culotte dominated aims of 1793, where control and order was needed in order to remove both internal and external enemies from France. The country aimed now to become a popular democracy with the right of insurrection and universal male suffrage – and if one was not a supporter of the radical demands of the revolution, one was removed from the country in order to regain control.
