法国大革命(French Revolution)
1787～1799年间震撼法国的革命运动。既表示法国旧秩序已告结束，革命的起因包括不能充分供养的人口太多；将富有的和日益扩大的资产阶级排除在政治权力之外；农民不愿支持封建制度；法国参加美国革命战争，是国家财政彻底破产。1787年增加特权者赋税，引起了「贵族集团」的叛乱。国王路易十六世召开三级会议，由教士、贵族和第三等级组成。代表们在一个基本问题上发生分歧，第三等级在网球场集合，宣誓如不制订新宪法，他们绝不离散。国王终於作出让步，成立国民议会。但国王和贵族阴谋推翻第三等级的消息引起1789年7月的大恐慌。1789年7月14日，巴黎的群众进攻巴士底狱。国民议会拟订新的宪法，发表《人权和公民权利宣言》，宣布公民有自由、平等以及反抗压迫的权利。1791年的宪法意图建立君主制政权。国民议会将教会地产收归国有以清偿公共债务，并改组教会，实行《教士公民组织法》。路易十六世企图逃出法国，但在瓦雷讷被截，押回巴黎。新国家主义的法国，在法国革命开始之前，於1792年4月向奥地利和普鲁士宣战。1792年8月，法国革命者把王族关入丹普尔监狱。杀死囚禁在那里的贵族和教士。1792年9月，新的议会，即国民公会--分裂成吉伦特派和极端分子的山岳派。宣布废除君主制，建立第一共和。路易十六世受到国民公会审讯，以叛国罪判处死刑，并於1793年1月21日处决。山岳派夺得权力，他们实行极端的经济和社会政策，引起了强烈的反抗。但是恐怖统治把反抗分子镇压下去。1794年革命政府军队大败奥地利军队的胜利使恐怖统治、经济和社会的限制失去意义，於是力主采取限制措施的罗伯斯比尔於共和2年热月9日在国民公会中被推翻，次日被送上断头台（参阅Thermidorian Reaction）。保王党想在巴黎夺取，但是共和4年葡萄月13日（1795年10月5日），被拿破仑.波拿巴粉碎。国民公会通过的宪法规定：行政权由五人督政府行使，立法权由两院行使。战争使法国督政府和立法两院之间的对立日益激烈。後来通过政变（主要是果月十八日政变和雾月十八～十九日政变），才解决了双方的争执。波拿巴推翻了督政府，并成为第一执政官。亦请参阅Public Safety, Committee of、Constitution of 1795、Constitution of the Year VIII、Corday, Charlotte、Cordeliers, Club of the、Danton, Georges、Feuillants, Club of the、Jacobin Club、Marat, Jean-Paul、Marie-Antoinette、Saint-Just, Louis de、Sieyes, Emmanuel-Joseph。
English version：
French Revolution
Movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799 and ended the ancien régime. Causes included a large underfed population, loss of peasant support for the feudal system, an expanding bourgeoisie that was excluded from political power, and a fiscal crisis worsened by participation in the American Revolution. The efforts of the regime in 1787 to increase taxes levied on the privileged classes initiated a crisis. In response, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General, made up of clergy, nobility and the Third Estate (commoners) in 1789. Trying to pass reforms, it swore the Tennis Court Oath not to disperse until France had a new constitution. The king grudgingly concurred in the formation of the National Assembly, but rumors of an “aristocratic conspiracy” led to the Great Fear of July 1789, and Parisians seized the Bastille on July 14. The assembly drafted a new constitution that introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming liberty, equality, and fraternity. The Constitution of 1791 also established a short-lived constitutional monarchy. The Assembly nationalized church lands to pay off the public debt and reorganized the church (see Civil Constitution of the Clergy). The king tried to flee the country, but was apprehended at Varennes. France, newly nationalistic, declared war on Austria and Prussia in 1792, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars. Revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family and massacred nobles and clergy at the Tuileries in 1792. A new assembly, the National Convention—divided between Girondins and the extremist Montagnards—abolished the monarchy and established the First Republic in September 1792. Louis XVI was judged by the Convention and executed for treason on January 21, 1793. The Montagnards seized power and adopted radical economic and social policies that provoked violent reactions, including the Wars of the Vendée and citizen revolts. Opposition was broken by the Reign of Terror. Military victories in 1794 brought a change in the public mood, and Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown in the Convention on 9 Thermidor, year II, and executed the next day (see Thermidorian Reaction). Royalists tried to seize power in Paris but were crushed by Napoleon on 13 Vendémaire, year IV (1795). A new constitution placed executive power in a Directory of five members. The war and schisms in the Directory led to disputes that were settled by coups d'état, chiefly those of 18 Fructidor and 18-19 Brumaire, in which Napoleon abolished the Directory and declared himself leader of France. See also Committee of Public Safety, Constitution of 1795, Constitution of the Year VIII, Charlotte Corday, Club of the Cordeliers, Georges J. Danton, Club of the Feuillants, Jacobin Club, J.-P. Marat, Marie-Antoinette, Louis de Saint-Just, E.-J. Sieyès.