French Revolution: A History From Beginning to End (One Hour History Revolution Book 1) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2016-01-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Vive la Revolution!

"Allons enfants de la Patrie,

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

Contre nous de la tyrannie,

L'etendard sanglant est leve."

—La Marseillaise

In the spring of 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, responding in part to the threatening tone of the Declaration of Pillnitz. It was believed that a large number of royalists and other enemies of the Revolution had fled to Austria and were planning an attack of their own. The Legislative Assembly was also hoping to forestall the enemies of the Revolution overall, unify the people of France against an external enemy, and spread the ideas of the Revolution throughout Europe. Queen Marie Antoinette seemed to confirm the Legislative Assembly's fears of Austria's determination to reinstate the monarchy as she wrote in her diary, “The ministers and the Jacobins are making the king declare war tomorrow on Austria. The ministers are hoping that this move will frighten the Austrians and that within three weeks we will be negotiating May we at last be avenged for all the outrages we have suffered from this country!”

With the new citizen government now at the head of a revolution in their own country and a foreign war, the attempt at managing the French effort was confused and chaotic. The French military was spread thin and at first fared poorly against their powerful adversaries. When coalition armies invaded France on April 25th, the mayor of Strasbourg requested his friend Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle compose a battle song for the French army. That night, perhaps inspired by the foreign army so near, he wrote the song originally called "Chant de guerre pour l'Armee du Rhin," or, in English, "War Song for the Army of the Rhine". This song, with its stirring call to protect the homeland, soon became the anthem of the French Revolution. The name was changed after a group of volunteer citizen soldiers from Marseille sang it as they marched into Paris to join the revolutionary forces there. "La Marseillaise" was adopted as the national anthem of France until Napoleon took power. The song was reinstated in 1879 and remains the French national anthem to this day.

Not long after, in September 1792, the French military at last achieved their first major victory and pushed back an invasion of allied Austrian and Prussian forces near the northern town of Valmy. After being cut off from their supply lines by some clever maneuvers on the part of the French army, the Prussian infantry forces found themselves in a battle with the canons of a well-placed French division. When the Prussian line seemed to have reached a standstill, the French forces joined together in shouting, "Vive la nation" and singing “La Marseillaise.” Unexpectedly, and seemingly miraculously to the French, the Prussian army broke off the attack and left the field. The invading force managed a hasty circuitous retreat and was pushed back well beyond the border of Rhine river. The famous German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was with the Prussian army and witnessed the rout.

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