The state of France in 1815 was significantly different to the pre revolution period. For example, the way the country was structured in 1789 was quite different as they used feudalism, a society where people were born into the estate they would be in for their whole life, limiting the opportunities to improve. The system was completely revolved around the king as it was believed that God put him there to do that job. (Crosby, 2005)
However, this was slowly changed due to the French enlightenment where people started looking at the ideas of capitalism which challenged the power of feudalism making many realise that there was no need for a king and it allowed people to believe in equality. Many believed that it would benefit their lives as it would allow them more opportunities and room to move up in society. (Crosby, 2005) This is part of the reason many people started becoming interested in the revolution. The revolution could have been influenced by the lack of leadership from King Louis XVI. King Louis XVI was known as the absolute monarch at this time and he was unable to lead France in a way that made the people feel stable. The wars that Louis XVI had lost ended up being very expensive and this continued behaviour put France to an economic disadvantage and bankrupt the French state. (Crosby, 2005) Napoleon had a good chance here to then take his power as the current king was not who the people of France wanted to rule them due to their lack of stability and the new ideas that came with enlightenment, they then had a reason to be opposed to having Louis XVI as the absolute monarch. In 1789 France went through a constitutional change that happened due to the new capitalist ideas and had been called by the third estate who wanted a “written constitution and an elected assembly” (Crosby, 2005, p15) This then lead to the National Constituent Assembly being more important leaving louis XVI in a unstable position to which he reacted by making forces guard Versailles therefore leaving people having a negative attitude towards the monarchy. (Crosby 2005) This then lead to the storming of the bastille 1798, which resulted in 89 fatalities. These riots spread over France therefore the storming of the bastille is seen as an influential symbol of the revolution. (Crosby, 2005)
The pictorial source illustrated by George Cruikshank in 1819 is trying to use symbolism to show the consequences of the French revolution. In the cartoon there is axes with blood dripping off them and below them is a man standing with a knife. These could be there to symbolise the violence of the revolution and to show people that if you are pro revolution, this is what post revolution will look like. By doing this Cruikshank can persuade people to turn against the idea of revolution due to the masses of violence it will cause. Many people will look at this aspect of the cartoon and see the opposite of what their ideas of revolution are. Cruikshank could be referring to the fact the revolution did bring a lot of violence to France, for example, the horrific mob violence that spread across France in 1789. (Crosby, 2005) However, if we look at the consequences of this violence we can see that not all of the outcomes were bad. Because of the great fear in France, peasants then attacked members of the aristocracy which lead to the end of aristocracy privilege and feudalism. Another result of the fear, was the declaration of rights the rights of man, which allowed men to be “born and remain free and equal in rights.” (Crosby, 2005, p17) Therefore, we can then see that the cartoon does not actually accurately portray the revolution as it implies that only negative things came from the violence, when in fact there were some positive consequences.
Another interesting part of the illustration by Cruikshank is the guillotine. This could symbolise the official violence that occurred during the revolution. For example, the reign of terror. Many people were killed during this period so Cruikshank is not completely wrong with his idea of violence as around 17,000 were killed during the terror. (Crosby, 2005) The terror was supported by the Jacobins as they believed that people who did not support the revolution would just get in the way of the plan. (Lee, 1982) This was a very important part for the revolution as it had many consequences. Cruikshank portrays this to be a really terrible thing for the country and that supporting the revolution means supporting the violence and murders of many people. However, this does not seem to be the case. Lee, for example, described it as a “necessary terror”. (Lee, 1982, p14) This was due to the fact that the terror had prevented the revolution from being destroyed by foreign armies. The terror was also a catalyst for the end of decentralisation which means there would be a more ordered government and again this also lead to the declaration of the rights of man. (Lee, ) This, therefore shows that Cruikshank’s cartoon does not accurately portray the French revolution.
From the cartoon, at the bottom we can see a foot on the Bible. This could symbolise the attack on religion and the process of De-Christianisation there was in France. There was a big decline in religion during the French revolution due to the unreliability of the monarchy and the new ideas of enlightenment, therefore people started to go against religion. An example of this happening is when there was an introduction to the revolutionary calendar. This was a calendar with a ten-day week which overruled the idea of the holy Sunday and rest day that is popular with us now. (Betros, 2010) This idea of a revolutionary calendar degraded the Christian way of thinking as there would no longer be a seven-day week or Christian holidays. This shows that religion was no longer than important to the people of France. Land was also taken from the church and sold to fund the revolution. This highlights the attack on Religion. (Lindemann, 2013) However, although the cartoon is right about this, it does not show that these ideas did not last for long. According to Lindemann, the revolutionary calendar only lasted a few years, which means the cartoon is not completely accurate as it only illustrates the initial attack on religion.
The main part of the illustration that we can see in the very middle is the world that is on fire. This could be a symbol for the war that went on in the whole world and how the revolution had an impact on more than just France. Lindemann has the idea that the revolution would spread to other countries would change European relations. (Lindemann, 2013) The French armies actually spread all across Europe which meant that the world was also impacted by the revolution. This symbol of continuous war throughout the world portrays the revolution to be negative, however, the ideas of revolution was also spread with it and allowed many other places to start believing in more enlightened ideas. (Crosby, 2005) However, the source does not mention any positive impacts from the revolution therefore, cannot be seen as an accurate portrayal.
There are many historians who have given their interpretations of the French revolution that can be compared to Cruikshank’s illustration. Take Crosbie for example, he shows the events in the revolution in chronological order. (Crosby, 2005) From this we can see that many things happened during the French revolution, however, the pictorial source seems to only symbolise and capture the period of the terror which only lasted from 1793-1794. (Crosby, 2005) This was only a very short part of the French revolution where lots did happen, however, a lot still happened outside of this period of time. For instance, before the terror, the land of the church was taken away, the monarchy was overthrown, and the declaration of the rights of man were published. (Lindemann, 2013) (Crosby, 2005) However, the cartoon only looks at the negative effects of the terror and does not illustrate the many positive impacts it had on France
and therefore, cannot be seen as an accurate source for the consequences of the French revolution.
Another part of the French Revolution that Cruikshank does not fit into the illustration is the rise of Napoleon. Instead, Cruikshank focuses on making the picture seem like the revolution was a bloodshed however, in Napoleons time of ruling, many good things came about for France. Napoleon was able to take lead after the directory failed and managed to bring France a sense of stability due to his military success. (Rapport, 1998) (Hobsbawm, 1962) This shows that during the French revolution there were periods of time where France felt stable and some positive things happened rather than just violence and death which the cartoon fails to show, therefore is not an entirely accurate representation of the consequences of the revolution.
The cartoon shows no positive consequences for the revolution however, there are many that overrule the illustration. For instance, there are many social consequences that came from the revolution. Before the revolution there was a feudal structure that was then abolished during the revolution. (Crosby, 2005) This means that because of the French revolution, people had opportunities to improve and move up in society which they did not have before. They are now able to own their own land and feel stable. This is a positive social consequence that came from the revolution that is not shown in the pictorial source therefore, the pictorial source cannot be seen as very accurate. Another social consequence than came from the revolution is that everyone was equal in law and were all in the same tax system. (Crosby, 2005) This shows that the revolution brought a sense of equality to the country and people’s ideas about society were changing and developing to more capitalist views. However, this was not shown in the pictorial source, therefore, the source is not completely accurate.
The cartoon also fails to mention the positive impacts that the revolution had on the world. The source portrays the world being burned which gives us a reason to believe that the revolution caused pain and suffering to the world, however it does not portray the ideas of equality and liberty across the world, which according to Crosby, was the case. (Crosby 2005) The declaration of man was also missed out of the cartoon. This shows that from the French revolution came equality and freedom of speech, which is not portrayed in the cartoon. (Crosby, 2005) The revolution also allowed the idea of liberalism and nationalism to be spread to further parts of Europe, again which is not portrayed in the cartoon. (Lindemann, 2013)
In conclusion, the pictorial source, although reflecting some truth, is neither complete nor accurate and therefore does not give us a clear understanding of the main consequences of the French revolution over the period of 1789 until 1815. This source is used as propaganda to influence people not to support the radicals therefore, it is a bias piece of work. The radicals were a political movement post war who believed revolutionary ideas (Crosby, 2005) The pictorial source is trying to influence people against radicals by showing them that if they support it the outcome will reflect the revolution and there will be blood and chaos and no religion. Cruikshank is trying to convince people that the revolution was a lot worse than it actually was so therefore the pictorial source does not represent historical truth meaning the source is not accurate.