| The French Constitution of Year III (1795) has generally been misunderstood and misrepresented by historians as a failed work of bourgeois reaction or as exemplary of the presence of classical republicanism in revolutionary France. However, through investigation of the interconnected contexts in which it was created, debated, revised, and accepted, this project contends that the authors of this constitution fused the lessons of their revolutionary experiences, including two failed constitutions, with seventeenth and eighteenth-century political philosophy in order to create a distinct form of constitutional republicanism that could preserve individual rights while providing protection against forces of disorder. Thus, the Constitution of Year III represents a political act, a summation of revolutionary experience, and a synthesis of political philosophy. Furthermore, the French-style constitutional republicanism embodied in the Constitution of Year III proved inspirational to republicans of western Europe and would inspire, in whole or in part, eight constitutions of France's satellite republics. Using Cambridge-school methodological tools, this dissertation provides analysis of the language of the constitution itself, as well as the two earlier French constitutions, the speeches and memoirs of the members of the National Convention, letters written to the National Convention, newspapers, contemporary images of the constitution, as well as the eight constitutions of the so-called "sister republics." By analyzing the political life of the Constitution of Year III, this dissertation makes clear that it was far from a work of hasty reaction or an example of classical republicanism. The Constitution of Year III was a critically constructed work of historical significance that shaped post-revolutionary republicanism. |
