Formation
As the ancien regime gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and then to a republic, the entire structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". The signing of the Declaration of Pillnitz between Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and King Frederick William II of Prussia and the subsequent French declaration of war meant that from its formation, the Republic of France was at war, and it required a potent military force to ensure its survival. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army.
Almost all of the ancien regime officer class had been drawn from the aristocracy. During the period preceding the final overthrow of the Monarchy, large numbers of officers left their regiments and emigrated. Between 15 September and 1 December 1791 alone 2,160 officers of the royal army fled France eventually to join the émigré army of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé. Of those who stayed numbers were either imprisoned or killed during the Reign of Terror. The small remaining cadre of officers were promoted swiftly; this meant that the majority of the Revolutionary officers were far younger than their Monarchist counterparts. Those high ranking aristocratic officers who remained, among them Marquis de la Fayette, Comte de Rochambeau and Comte Nicolas Luckner, were soon accused of having monarchist sympathies and either killed or forced into exile.
Revolutionary fervour, along with calls to save the new regime, resulted in a large influx of enthusiastic yet untrained and undisciplined volunteers (the first sans-culottes, so called because they wore peasants trousers rather than the knee-breeches used by the other armies of the time). The desperate situation meant that these men were quickly inducted into the army. One reason for the success of the French Revolutionary Army is the "amalgamation" (amalgame) organized by the military strategist Lazare Carnot, later Napoleon's Minister of War, who assembled in the same regiment, but in different battalions, young volunteers full of enthusiasm at the thought of dying for liberty and old veterans from the former royal army.
Read more about this topic: French Revolutionary Army
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