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sans-culotte

  (sănz'kyū-lŏt', -kū-, säN-kü-lôt') pronunciation
n.
  1. An extreme radical republican during the French Revolution.
  2. A revolutionary extremist.

[French : sans, without + culotte, breeches.]


 
 
Political Dictionary: sans-culottes

Literally, ‘without breeches’. Urban supporters of extreme factions in the French Revolution who wore trousers, rather than aristocratic breeches.

 

Name given from 1791 or 1792 to the more committed partisans of the Revolution, who wore trousers of coarse fabric rather than the aristocratic culotte (breeches). At first used mockingly, the name was adopted enthusiastically, the radical sansculotte being contrasted with the conservative bourgeois. A sans-culottide was an extra day in the Revolutionary calendar.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: sans-culottes
(säN-külôt') [French,=without knee breeches], a term loosely applied to the lower classes in France during the French Revolution. The name was derived from the fact that these people wore long trousers instead of the knee breeches worn by the upper classes. The term applied to the sectionary “elites” in Paris connected with the Jacobins and to the popular masses aroused during the revolutionary journées (mass protests). Sans-culottism referred to the collectivist ideology that valued fraternity above liberty and demanded economic controls. With the suicide of Roux and the fall of Hébert, sans-culotte power was neutralized. The enragés were a distinct group of sans-culottes.

Bibliography

See A. Soboul, The Sans-cullotes (1981).


 
Wikipedia: sans-culottes
Painted rendition of a sans-culotte.
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Painted rendition of a sans-culotte.
Sans-culottes
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Sans-culottes

Sans-culottes (French for without knee-breeches) was a term created 1790 - 1792 by the French aristocracy to describe the poorer members of the Third Estate, according to the dominant theory because they usually wore pantaloons (full-length trousers or pants) instead of the chic knee-length culotte. .The term came to refer to the ill-clad and ill-equipped volunteers of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, but, above all, to the working class extremists of the Revolution. From this comes the now slightly archaic term sansculottism or sans-culottism, meaning extreme egalitarian republican principles.

The sans-culottes were for the most part members of the poorer classes, or leaders of the populace, but during the Reign of Terror, public functionaries and persons of good education styled themselves citoyens sans-culottes.

The distinctive costume of typical sans-culottes featured:

  • the pantaloon (long trousers) - in place of the culottes (knee-breeches) worn by the upper classes (hence the name 'without breeches')
  • the carmagnole (short-skirted coat)
  • the red cap of liberty
  • sabots (clogs, wooden footwear mainly worn in the countryside).

Their support came from domestic crises, such as shortages of bread, or political injustice. Led by extreme revolutionaries such as Jacques Hébert, the sans-culottes played a crucial role in such events as the September massacres of 1792, and supported the most radical left-wing factions in successive revolutionary governments. During the Reign of Terror, they provided important support for Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety; in March 1794, though, the government distanced itself from the Hébertists; Hébert himself was convicted by the very Revolutionary Tribunals he had lauded, and was guillotined; months later, in the Thermidorian Reaction, Robespierre would suffer the same fate.

The influence of the sans-culottes ceased with the reaction that followed the fall of Robespierre (July 1794), and the name itself became proscribed. Without effective leadership of their own, and no longer allied with the Jacobins, the sans-culottes largely ceased to be a major factor in French politics.

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sans-culottes" Read more

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