The idea of patriotism during the first years of the French Revolution

The words ‘patrie’, ‘amour de la patrie’, ‘patriote’, ‘patriotique’ and ‘patriotisme’ were very popular at the beginning of the great French Revolution. A patriot was expected to love his home country, or even his own city or village, but soon his loyalty was taken to concern the state in which he was living. A patriot was considered to be a good citizen (Lat. ‘civis bonus’, Fr. ‘bon citoyen’). The dictionary of the French Academy in 1798 gave the definition: ‘Celui, celle qui aime sa patrie, et qui cherche a lui ctre utile. Un bon patriote.” A patriot had to work for the common good of his fatherland. The word ‘patriotism’ appeared in England in 1726 and in France in 1750.2 It denoted a political idea or a political attitude to one’s own country or society. Patriotism was the love of one’s country and of the common good. From the viewpoint of the Greek and Roman authors good patriotism had been possible primarily in a republican state, and even Montesquieu identified patriotism with love for a republic3 Chamber’s Encyclopaedia of 1786 stated that a patriot is a person who loves his native country under a free government. Voltaire insisted that a person’s fatherland was the country which made him or her happy.4 People began to demand that their country should give them a better living. Therefore the subjects ought to be citizens, and they should take part in legislation. The new thinking was reflected in new meanings given to the words ‘patriot’ and ‘patriotism’. A patriot was now a person who took part in a political movement, such as the Whigs in England. From the viewpoint of the enlightenment philosophers a great many reforms were needed, and thus a person who desired reforms was the greatest lover of his country. The rebellious Dutch in the 1780s called themselves patriots. The word ‘patriotism’ received a new connotation. The country which people ought to love was chiefly a state which had the characteristics of a modern state. From the 1780s onwards patriotism developed within a few years to become a form of revolutionary activity, although the conservatives in France used the word ‘patriotism’ in the old sense. The French historian Alphonse Aulard studied the words derived from the Latin word ‘patria’ from the Middle Ages on. He said (in 1915) that ‘patriote’ had two meanings at the beginning of the French Revolution, namely a person who loves the country where he was born and a person who desires to organise his fatherland by means of liberty.5 In his opinion the latter meaning almost replaced the former in 1789 and 1790. Thus ‘patriot’ became synonymous with ‘revolutionary’ and the opposite of ‘aristocrat’. As for the conclusions reached by Aulard it should be pointed out that the development of the words denoting

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