From Monarchy to Republic, 1789–1793

Until July 1789, the French Revolution had followed a course much like that of the protest movements in the Low Countries. After that point, however, events in France escalated at a pace never before seen in history, leaving witnesses breathless with anticipation, anxiety, even shock. The French revolutionaries first tried to establish a constitutional monarchy based on the Enlightenment principles of human rights and rational government. This effort failed when the king attempted to flee and raise a counterrevolutionary army. When war broke out in 1792 and foreign soldiers invaded, a popular uprising on August 10 led to the arrest of the king and, for the first time in French history, the establishment of a republic.