Sans-culottes

The (; ) 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 . The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792.

According to Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, secretary and interpreter to Baron de Steuben, Steuben first used the expression sans culottes in 1778: "The Baron loved to speak of that dinner, and of his sans culottes as he called us. Thus the denomination was first invented in America, and applied to the brave officers and soldiers of our revolutionary army, at a time when, it could not be foreseen, that the name which honoured the followers of Washington would afterwards be assumed by the satellites of a Marat and a Robespierre".

The name refers to their clothing, and through that to their lower-class status: were the fashionable silk knee-breeches of the 18th-century nobility and bourgeoisie, and the working class wore pantaloons, or long trousers, instead. The , most of them urban labourers, served as the driving popular force behind the revolution. They were judged by the other revolutionaries as "radicals" because they advocated a direct democracy, that is to say, without intermediaries such as members of parliament. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, with little or no support from the middle and upper classes, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army and were responsible for many executions during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Political ideals

thumb|A with a [[halberd, by Jean-Baptiste Lesueur]]

The most fundamental political ideals of the were social equality, economic equality, and popular democracy. They supported the abolition of all the authority and privileges of the monarchy, nobility, and Roman Catholic clergy, the establishment of fixed wages, the implementation of price controls to ensure affordable food and other essentials, and vigilance against counter-revolutionaries.

They expressed their demands through petitions of the sections presented to the assemblies (the Legislative, and Convention) by the delegates. The had a third way of applying pressure to achieve their demands: the police and the courts received thousands of denunciations of traitors and supposed conspirators. The height of their influence spanned roughly from the original overthrow of the monarchy in 1792 to the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794.

The also populated the ranks of paramilitary forces charged with physically enforcing the policies and legislation of the revolutionary government, a task that commonly included violence and the carrying out of executions against perceived enemies of the revolution.

During the peak of their influence, the were seen as the truest and most authentic sons of the French Revolution, held up as living representations of the revolutionary spirit. During the height of revolutionary fervor, such as during the Reign of Terror when it was dangerous to be associated with anything counter-revolutionary, even public functionaries and officials actually from middle or upper-class backgrounds adopted the clothing and label of the as a demonstration of solidarity with the working class and patriotism for the new French Republic. He demanded the reconstitution of the army on a democratic basis to allow passive citizens. He felt that the army had to become the instrument of defence of the Revolution and no longer be a threat to it. On 28 April, despite Robespierre's intensive campaign, the principle of an armed bourgeois militia was definitively enacted in the Assembly. According to Jean Jaures, he considered this even more important than the right to strike.

Following the king's veto of the Assembly's efforts to raise a militia of volunteers, the reinstatement of Brissotin ministers and suppression of non-juring priests, the monarchy faced an abortive Demonstration of 20 June 1792. Sergent-Marceau and , the administrators of police, urged the to lay down their weapons, telling them it was illegal to present a petition in arms, although their march to the Tuileries was not banned. They invited the officials to join the procession and march along with them.

Early in the morning (10 August 1792) 30,000 Fédérés,  and militants from the sections led a successful assault upon the Tuileries; according to Robespierre a triumph for the "passive" (non-voting) citizens. , head of the in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, was appointed provisional president of the Insurrectionary Commune.

In Spring 1793, after the defection of Dumouriez, Robespierre urged the creation of a " army" to sweep away any conspirator.

On 1 May, the crowds threatened armed insurrection if the emergency measures demanded (price control) were not adopted. On 8 and 12 May Robespierre repeated in the Jacobin club the necessity of founding a revolutionary army consisting of , paid by a tax on the rich, to beat the aristocrats inside France and the convention. Every public square should be used to produce arms and pikes. On 18 May, Marguerite-Élie Guadet proposed to examine the "exactions" and to replace municipal authorities.

As rioting persisted, a commission of inquiry of twelve members, with a very strong Girondin majority, was set up to investigate the anarchy in the communes and the activities of the . On 28 May, the Paris Commune accepted the creation of a army to enforce revolutionary laws. Petitioners from the sections and the Commune appeared at the bar of the Convention at about five o'clock in the afternoon on 31 May. They demanded that a domestic revolutionary army should be raised and that the price of bread should be fixed at three a pound, that nobles holding senior rank in the army should be dismissed, that armouries should be created for arming the , the departments of State purged, suspects arrested, the right to vote provisionally reserved to only, and a fund set apart for the relatives of those defending their country and for the relief of aged and infirm. According to Hampson, the subject is quite extraordinarily complicated and obscure. The next day all Paris was in arms.

Hanriot was ordered to march his National Guard, by this time mostly consisting of , from the town hall to the Palais National. On 2 June 1793, a large force of supposedly 80,000 and National Guards led by Hanriot, surrounded the convention with 160–172 guns.

On 4 September, the again invaded the convention. They demanded tougher measures against rising prices and the setting up of a system of terror to root out the counter-revolution. The took an especially active interest in the revolutionary army.

A " army" (in a sense, Robespierre's brain-child) was formed in Paris.

Barère voiced the Committee of Public Safety's support for the measures desired by the assembly: he presented a decree that was passed immediately, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,000 gunners "designed to crush the counter-revolutionaries, to execute wherever the need arises the revolutionary laws and the measures of public safety that are decreed by the National Convention, and to protect provisions (A force of citizen-soldiers which could go into the countryside to supervise the requisition of grain, to prevent the manoeuvres of rich and deliver them up to the vengeance of the laws)". The sections lost all rights to control their delegates and officials.

On 4 March 1794, there were rumours of uprising in the Cordeliers club. The Hébertists hoped that the National Convention would expel Robespierre and his Montagnard supporters. The did not respond, and Hanriot refused to cooperate. On 13 March Hébert, the voice of the , had been using the latest issue of to criticise Robespierre. On 18 March Bourdon attacked the Commune and the army. Jacques Hébert, Ronsin, Vincent, Momoro, Clootz, De Kock were arrested on charges of complicity with foreign powers (William Pitt the Younger) and guillotined on 24 March. On 27 March the infantry and cavalry of the revolutionary army, for eight months active in Paris and surroundings, were finally disbanded, except their artillery.   (Hanriot was denounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal as an accomplice of Hébert, but seems to have been protected by Robespierre.)

Montagnard influence

The working class was especially hurt by a hail storm which damaged grain crops in 1788, which caused bread prices to skyrocket. While the peasants of rural France could sustain themselves with their farms, and the wealthy aristocracy could still afford bread, the urban workers of France, the group that comprised the ', suffered. In the city, the division grew between the and these wealthy aristocrats; the former had a particular hostility "towards those with large private incomes."

The faction known as the Montagnards expressed concern for the working classes of France. When the National Convention met to discuss the fate of the former king Louis XVI in 1792, the vehemently opposed a proper trial, instead opting for an immediate execution. The moderate Girondin faction voted for a trial, but the radical Montagnards sided with the ', deeming that a trial was not necessary, and won with a slim majority. Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793.

The demands of the did not stop with the execution of the King, and the Montagnards worked hard to fulfil their mounting orders. This increased pressure from the radical masses exacerbated the ideological split between the Montagnards and the Girondins, and tensions began to grow within the convention. Eventually, by May 1793, the Montagnards worked with the National Guard—which was, at this time, mostly '—to depose many of the Girondin deputies. Jeremy Popkin writes, "[the Montagnards and the sans-culottes] surrounded the Convention, and two days later the intimidated assembly suspended twenty-nine Girondin deputies. The defeated Girondin leaders fled to the provinces. The Montagnards were left in control of the Convention, which itself was clearly at the mercy of whoever could command the armed battalions." Now, whoever was in control of France's destiny had to answer to the ', who "effectively exercised legislative power" in situations of unrest. Otherwise, they would risk a similar uprising and their own exile, or possibly even execution. This political shift towards radicalism would soon turn into the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

thumb|A ' (left, wearing full length [[trousers), compared with figures wearing culottes (right, knee length breeches)]]

The mass violence of the created a lasting impact during the Reign of Terror. These revolutionaries allied themselves most readily with those in power who promised radical change. The believed in a complete upheaval of the government, pushing for the execution of any that were considered corrupt by the leaders, even going as far as wanting "the enemies of the republic [to] hang-main and the guillotine to stand like the first patriots, the finisher of the law." The support of the could be used as a political weapon to get rid of enemies of the Revolution. The key to Robespierre's Terror lay in their willingness and ability to mobilize. Thus, the Committee leaders used speeches to gain their support. In a speech On the Principles of Political Morality. Robespierre proclaimed: "It has been said that terror was the mainspring of despotic government. Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed." Robespierre expressed a desire for liberty that the admired. They pushed the committee for radical changes and often found a voice with Robespierre.

Legacy

The popular image of the has gained currency as an enduring symbol for the passion, idealism and patriotism of the common man of the French Revolution. The term sans-culottism, in French, refers to this idealized image and the themes associated with it. The members of the were constantly on edge and fearing betrayal, which can be attributed to their violent and radical rebellion tactics.

Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm observes that the were a "shapeless, mostly urban movement of the labouring poor, small craftsmen, shopkeepers, artisans, tiny entrepreneurs and the like". He further notes they were organised notably in the local political clubs of Paris and "provided the main striking-force of the revolution".

Modern colloquial usage

The term "culottes" in more recent French describes women's underpants, an article of clothing that has little or no relation to the historical culottes, but now also refers to apparent skirts that are actually split with two legs. The term has been used colloquially to mean not wearing underpants.

Political ideals

Montagnard influence

Reign of Terror

Legacy

Modern colloquial usage

See also

References

Sources

Further reading