French Indo-China
French possessions in extreme southeast Asia, including the colonies of Cochin-China. Tongking, Laos, Annam, Cambodia, and Battambang. They are all grouped near the little kingdom of Siam whose territories have been steadily encroached upon by the French. Their estimated area in 1920 was 256,200 square miles and their population about 17,500,000.
Although missionaries from France were in the country as early as Louis VIV.'s time and occasional interference by French soldiers occurred in and just after Napoleon I.'s rule, it was not until the Second Empire that the real conquest of these possessions was begun and completed. From the institution of the Third Republic the accessions to French power in this region have been steadily growing until France is now suspected of desiring to include Siam in its "sphere of influence."
The number of French in Indo-China is very small, small, practically all of them being connected with the administration. The capital is Saigon, where the governor-general resides, who has oversight over the four provincial governors. The exports consist largely of rice and rice products and about half the trade is done with France and the other French colonies. The French have built nearly 1,200 miles of railways in the country and have also trained and equipped a small native army under French officers, part of which took part in the European battlefields of 1914- 1918.
FRENCH REVOLUTION. Although there have been not a few revolutions in France the name is always given to that extraordinary series of events which occurred between the summoning of the Estates-General in 1788 and the assumption of power by by Napoleon in 1799. The Estates-General which met at Versailles on May 5, 1789, was composed of three orders: the clergy or first estate, the nobility or second estate, and the third estate, comprising representatives of all those in the nation who were not clergymen or nobles. In the previous centuries the three orders had assembled separately and voted separately and it was the intention of the king and the court party that the custom should be continued. But the deputies of the third estate were in no mood FRENCH REVOLUTION to have themselves outvoted in this manner and, under the leadership of Mirabeau, one of their number, they called upon the other two orders to join them in a single body. The king had already granted them 600 deputies, while the other two orders had about 300 apiece.
As there were many of the clergy who were in sympathy with the aims of the third estate, these, with the aid of the few liberal nobles, would place the deputies of the third estate in control of the situation, provided they all sat and voted as one body, and not as three separate orders. After continued refusto join them, the deputies of the third et als on the part of the other two orders declared them selves a "National Assembly" and invited members of the clergy and nobility to associate themselves with them.
Three days later, finding themselves excluded from their meeting places, they took the famous "Tennis Court" oath binding them to assemble together until the "constitution of the kingdom shall be established." After a weak attempt on the part of the king to force the estates to vote separately, he finally agreed to order the clergy and nobility to assemble with the deputies of the third estate in the National Assembly.
The dismissal of Necker and the actions of the court party in collecting troops in and about Paris led to a rising of the Parisians on the 14th of July and their capture of the Bastille. The necessity of preserving order and yet avoiding placing power in the king's hand led to the formation of the "National Guard," a volunteer citizen army of which Lafayette assumed command.
These events stimulated the deputies at Versailles to action and on Aug. 4, 1789, they passed series of decrees abolishing feudalism, doing away with the titles of the Church, abolishing all exemptions from taxation, and declaring that "all the peculiar privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the provinces once for all abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all Frenchmen."
Thus, at one blow, the most serious of the abuses of the old régime were remedied. France was divided into 81 departments in which all laws and taxes were to be uniform. The Assembly followed this action by passing on Aug. 26 the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," in which were stated the privileges which belong to man as man everywhere and under all conditions. are Rumors began to circulate about the beginning of October that the king, under the influence of the court, was preparing to use force to dismiss the As- FRENCH REVOLUTION a FRENCH REVOLUTION sembly and put an end to the revolution. mained in France. Suspicion was al- These rumors led to a fresh outbreak ready general in France that the king of the mob of Paris which brought about march of several thousand women to Versailles, whose purpose was to bring the king and the Assembly to Paris where they might be under the watchful eye of the Paris Commune.
The women invaded the royal palace at Versailles and had it not been for the timely arrival of Lafayette and the National Guard the queen would have probably been killed. The court and Assembly obeyed the commands of the mob to return with them to Paris where the monarch was lodged in the Tuileries, while the Assembly continued its sessions in a riding school nearby. This transfer to the capital placed the Assembly under the domination of the Commune which more and more began to usurp the power of the French Government.
The unjust apportionment of the revenues of the Church, which gave the higher clergy extraordinary sums of money while the parish priests barely received a living wage, had been one of the most obvious abuses of the ancient régime. By its action of Aug. 4th the Assembly had abolished the tithes; it now confiscated to the state the immense properties of the Church, and made all the clergy dependent on the state for their revenue. The lands of the Church were sold and served as security for paper money-the assignats which the government issued in great quantities. Owing to the amount issued and to the drop in the market price of the land this paper money greatly depreciated. Equally sweeping were the changes made by a bill passed by the Assembly entitled "The Civil Constitution of the Clergy." By it the 134 bishoprics were reduced to 83, the number of the departments, and the bishops were to be elected by the people. Although the salaries of the parish priests were greatly increased by these measures, thousands of them and nearly all of the bishops refused to take the oath required of them by the state, and the harsh treatment of these "nonjuring clergy" aroused the enmity of many who had hitherto wished the revolution well.
The year 1790 saw many of the French nobles leave the country and collect upon the border of France a small army, with which, with the assistance of Leopold II., the Emperor and brother of Marie Antoinette, they hoped to regain their former privileges. The result of the action of the émigrés was to further excite hostility to their fellows who reand queen were secretly opposed to the "patriot" party, nor was this suspicion lessened by the attempted flight of the royal family from France on June 21, 1791. The National Assembly finished its work on the new Constitution the following month and gave way to the Legislative Assembly which was to operate under its provisions.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 27, 1791, the king of Prussia and the Emperor Leopold united in issuing the Declaration of Pillnitz in which they asserted their readiness to join with other powers to place the king of France in a position to form a government which "shall once more be in harmony with the rights of sovereigns and shall promote the welfare of the French nation." This idle threat, issued on the eve of the assembling of the new lawmaking body, served to throw power into the hands of the Jacobins as the extremists of the Paris Commune were called. Radical newspapers, such as "The Friend of the People," e." called for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic. The Legislative Assembly declared the property of the émigrés confiscated to the state and passed severe laws against the non-juring clergy. The deputies from the Gironde district, suspecting the patriotism of the king, urged upon the Assembly a declaration of war against Austria in which event the king would be forced to show his colors. Accordingly, France, on April 24, 1792, declared war upon Austria, thus opening a struggle which was destined to continue almost uninterrupedly for nearly twenty years.
The half-hearted measures of the king, the ill-success of the French arms, and a threatening manifesto of the commander of the Austrian-Prussian army invading France, brought about a rising of the Paris mob on Aug. 10, 1792. The king was forced to take refuge in the Assembly, while the mob placed its leaders in control of the municipal government of Paris. The uselessness of the monarchy was now apparent to all the leaders and a call was issued for a Constitutional Convention to form a new government for France.
The Convention met on Sept. 21, 1792, and its first act was to declare France a republic, and to declare the twentysecond day of September as the first day of the Year One of French Liberty.
The Convention was a much more radical body than either of its predecessors and more under the influence of the Paris Commune. Three weeks before FRENCH REVOLUTION the meeting of the Convention the Parisian leaders had arrested and executed hundreds of persons suspected of sympathy with the émigrés. The purpose of these "September Massacres" was to inspire terror in the hearts of the aristocrats who still remained in France.
The problem of how to treat the king who was now rendered useless puzzled the Convention until in January, 1793, the monarch was brought before the Convention and by a small majority was sentenced to death. Louis XVI. mounted the scaffold with the dignity and composure of a martyr. His death aroused his brother monarchs to greater exertions to put down the revolution.
The convention now offered the assistance of its armies to any nation whose people would throw off the yoke of monarchy and, ten days after the execution of Louis, they declared war on England. When, in March, Spain joined the enemies of France, a formidable coalition had been formed in Europe against the revolution. The loss of the Netherlands, together with the treason of one of the French generals, convinced the Convention that it had no opportunity to take thought on anything but defense. For that purpose they placed all power in the hands of a Committee composed of twelve of its members, the famous "Committee of Public Safety." From the date of the appointment of this committee in April, 1793, the reign of terror may be said to have begun. Power in the Convention had previously passed from the Girondists to the more radical "Mountain." These men believed that every trace of the ancient régime should be completely eliminated, even those who sympathized with the old régime or who were lukewarm toward the new should be put to death. The people of Paris were easy converts to this view and by their influence on the Convention imposed it on the rest of France. Robespierre and Danton were the leaders of the Mountain and, while heartless in the prosecution of their aims, few will question their ability and the sincerity of their views. Among the first to be arrested were the Girondist deputies who on June 2, 1793, were expelled from the Convention. These extreme measures brought about a serious rebellion in some of the outlying provinces, notably in La Vendée and in Lyons, which were put down only with terrible slaughter by the troops of the Convention. Meanwhile the Committee was displaying great energy in meeting the attacks of its foreign enemies. In August, Carnot, FRENCH REVOLUTION the "Organizer of Victory," was added to the body and before the end of the year he had raised and equipped the armies which expelled the invaders from French soil.
The "Reign of Terror" began in earnest with the appointment of the Revolutionary Tribunal which rapidly passed on the guilt of those brought before it and executed hundreds with hardly a trial at all. In October the former queen, Marie Antoinette, fell a victim to the guillotine, while commissioners were despatched to Nantes and other centers of disaffection who brought about the death of thousands, many of them guiltless of any crime except a doubt of the justice of the more radical of the Convention's acts. The leader of the Paris Commune, Hébert, advocated even greater excesses than these, while Danton, already tired of so much bloodshed, advocated more moderation. By careful intriguing, Robespierre brought about the death of both these men and for a space of a few months ruled as the dictator of France. His own turn came on July 27, 1794, when the reaction set in and the Convention, in defiance of the Commune, ordered his arrest and execution. Soon afterward the Convention abolished the Committee of Public Safety and resumed its task of forming a new Constitution for France. In 1795 it completed its task by establishing as the executive branch of the government a directory of five members and vesting the legislative power in two houses, a Council of Five Hundred, and a Council of Elders. In October of the same year the Convention adjourned, having brought France safely, although not without disorder, through unprecedented foreign and domestic dangers.
The success of the republican troops had forced Prussia and Spain to conclude peace with France, leaving in the spring of 1795 only Austria, England and Sardinia at war with the Republic.
In 1796 the Directory despatched a rising young republican general, Napoleon Bonaparte, to Italy to force Austria to sue for peace. By a series of brilliant marches he separated Sardinia from her allies and quickly dictated peace to that little state. Turning about, he drove the Austrians from the plains of Lombardy and in 1797 pressed his offensive to within a hundred miles of Vienna.
The Austrians were glad to sign the peace of Campo-Formio in October of 1797, by the terms of which the Austrian Netherlands were ceded France together with the larger share of the Austrian possessions in Italy. to FRENCH WEST AFRICA The successes of Bonaparte and his haughty demeanor alarmed the Directors and in 1798 they were glad to assent to a scheme which took him away from France. This was nothing less than his plan to strike at English commerce in the Mediterranean by seizing Egypt. seizing Egypt .
Napoleon and his army successfully eluded the English fleet and by the battle of the Pyramids he destroyed the Sultan's army in Egypt. His attempt to advance into Syria met with reverses and it was only after great loss that he succeeded in making good his retreat to Alexandria. In the meanwhile Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir , leaving the French army stranded on the Egyptian shores. By clever reporting Napoleon had concealed his defeats from the French people while magnifying his victories. The Directory was proving itself an inefficient and corrupt government, and was unable in the new European war to defend its recently gained possessions. Leaving his army in Egypt Napoleon with a few officers escaped the British patrols and landed in France.
Proceeding immediately to Paris by a coup d'état he overthrew the Directory on November 9, 1799, and established himself in power as First Consul. With this event the French Revolution may be said to close.
FRENCH WEST AFRICA. By a decree of the French Government of Oct. 18, 1904, French West Africa was declared to consist of French Guinea , Senegal, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Mauritania, Upper Senegal, and Niger, and (Decree of 1911), the military territory of the Niger. These seven colonies situated in western Africa contain an estimated area of over 1,500,000 square miles with a population close to twelve million.
Taking them altogether they are perhaps the most single valuable colonial possession of France. In 1912 and 1913, the years just prior to the World War, the imports of French West Africa were valued at 150,817,649 francs and their exports reached almost the same figure. Taken together with the French Congo they represent enormous potential wealth, for their resources have not as yet been touched. The French during 1912 and 1913 carried on extensive road and telegraph building, as well as work in deepening harbors and improving waterways .