Time And The French Revolution: The Origin And Demise Of The Republican Calendar

In the French old regime,the Catholic Church was in charge of time management,and they used the Gregorian calendar to dictate when people should work and when they should rest.After the outbreak of the French Revolution,the revolutionaries carried out political,economic and cultural reforms,including the reform of the calendar.The Republican Calendar,issued by the Convention on October 5,1793,was an example of a challenge to the authority of the Catholic calendar.As an important measure of the dechristianization movement of the revolutionary government,the Republican Calendar carried and embodied the great political aspirations of the revolutionaries.It can be said that the history of the Republican Calendar reflected the history of the French Revolution to some extent.From the perspective of New Calendar,we can understand the process of political power change of each revolutionary government in the first French Republic,the attitude towards the revolution in Paris and other regions,as well as the conflicts between revolutionary forces and counter-revolutionary forces,secularism and Catholicism.At the same time,the analysis of the reasons for the failure of the republic is helpful to understand the resistance of the great revolution in the process of development.Although the Republic Calendar died out in the end,its influence on French politics and economy still exists and continues to influence the history of France.The history of the Republic Calendar can be divided into three main stages.The First stage,the Republican Calendar was created at the end of the 18 th century when the dechristianization movement proceeded.The Catholic Church in privileged was unpopular in this newborn country.Republicans wanted create a new festival ceremony and a new calendar to replace the Gregorian Calendar which played dominant roles in people's daily life for a long time.At that time,the almanac reform and the reform of weights and measures laid a theoretical and practical foundation for the calendar reform.The Second stage,the emergence and early implementation of Republican Calendar.The reform of the calendar began on December 20,1792,when the Convention ordered the Committee of the Public Instruction to submit a report on the benefits of keeping the Republican Calendar in line with the Gregorian Calendar.Since then,the fate of the Republican Calendar has been closely tied to republican policies.During the reign of Terror,the Republican Calendar was an important weapon used by the government to eliminate the influence of Catholicism.After the fall of Robespierre in the Thermidor coup,the thermidoreans changed former radical policies,and the Republic Calendar fell silent for some time.After the Fructidor coup,the Republican Calendar rose again during the period of the Directory.The government tried its best to carry out the policy of the Republican Calendar,but it also met with more fierce opposition from the public.After Napoleon Bonaparte came into power,republican policy experienced another turning point,which was also the Final stage of republican policy.In order to appease the republicans in the early years of Napoleon's rule,the Republican Calendar was implemented for a period of time.After he declared himself emperor,Napoleon restored the Gregorian calendar and abolished the Republican Calendar on January 1,1806,out of political considerations to ease relations with the Pope.The history of the republic calendar as a national calendar ends here.This thesis will take the republican calendar as the core,discusses its development process in as much detail as possible,and systematically analyzes its connection with the surrounding historical things,so as to summarize the reasons for its failure and its historical influence.