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University Studies 



Vol. IV OCTOBER, 1904. No. 4 



I. — The Causes of the Insurrection of the 5th and 6th of 

 October, 1789 



BY JULIA CREWITT STODDARD 

 INTRODUCTION 



Many explanations have been offered by historians for the 

 insurrection of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, when a Parisian 

 mob marched to Versailles and brought back the king to Paris. 

 It has been claimed by some writers that the movement was the 

 result of conspiracies, that it was brought about by individuals 

 for motives of personal ambition ; by others that "it was entirely 

 unforeseen, spontaneous, and truly popular," that "the events of 

 these two days are due to an extraordinary concatenation of 

 fortuitous circumstances." 1 



It will be the purpose of this paper to find as much as possible 

 of the truth or error in these various interpretations. By a study 

 of the economic conditions of France, and by tracing the in- 

 fluence of a bad system of agriculture and a demoralized grain 

 trade in producing a state of want and suffering, I shall endeavor 

 to show that Paris was ripe for revolt. And if it does not appear 

 that hunger was the only "real and certain cause" of the insur- 



'Sybel, History of the French Revolution, I, 124, 131, 132; Stephens, His- 

 tory of the French Revolution, I, 220, 227; Lomenie, Les Mi>abeau, IV, 493; 

 Blanc, Histoire de la revolution francaise, III, 44, 45, IV, 117, 118. See also 

 Michelet, and Battifol cited by Mathiez. 



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