But the dynamics of the revolution were then irreversibly
altered by the war that broke out in 1792 between France
and the “first coalition,” led by Austria. The war increased
the resolve and radicalism of the revolutionaries and of the
masses (the so-called sans-culottes , which translates as
“without knee breeches,” because they could not afford to
wear the style of trousers then fashionable). The outcome of
this process was the period known as the Terror, under the
command of the Jacobin faction led by Robespierre and
Saint-Just, unleashed after the executions of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette. It led to the executions of not only scores
of aristocrats and counterrevolutionaries but also several
major figures of the revolution, including the former popular
leaders Brissot, Danton, and Desmoulins.
But the Terror soon spun out of control and ultimately
came to an end in July 1794 with the execution of its own
leaders, including Robespierre and Saint-Just. There
followed a phase of relative stability, first under the
somewhat ineffective Directory, between 1795 and 1799,
and then with more concentrated power in the form of a
three-person Consulate, consisting of Ducos, Sieyès, and
Napoleon Bonaparte. Already during the Directory, the
young general Napoleon Bonaparte had become famous
for his military successes, and his influence was only to
grow after 1799. The Consulate soon became Napoleon’s
personal rule.
The years between 1799 and the end of Napoleon’s
reign, 1815, witnessed a series of great military victories
for France, including those at Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstadt,
and Wagram, bringing continental Europe to its knees.
They also allowed Napoleon to impose his will, his reforms,
and his legal code across a wide swath of territory. The fall
of Napoleon after his final defeat in 1815 would also bring a
period of retrenchment, more restricted political rights, and
the restoration of the French monarchy under Louis XVII.
But all these were simply slowing the ultimate emergence
of inclusive political institutions.
The forces unleashed by the revolution of 1789 ended
French absolutism and would inevitably, even if slowly, lead
to the emergence of inclusive institutions. France, and
those parts of Europe where the revolutionary reforms had
been exported, would thus take part in the industrialization