Transcript chapter 20 notes

The French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Era 1789-1815
•
France
• Dominated by
traditional institutions
of:
Monarchy, Church, and
Aristocracy
vs.
Poverty, Illiteracy, and
Superstition
• For the most part,
peasants were small
landholders or tenant
farmers, subject to
feudal dues, to the
royal agents indirect
farming (collecting)
taxes, to the corvee
(forced labor), and to
tithes and other
impositions
Leading to the Revolution
• Economic /
intellectual
development was
not matched by
social and political
change
• France was still
governed by
privileged groups–
the nobility and the
clergy–while the
productive classes
were taxed heavily
to pay for foreign
wars, court
extravagance, and a
rising national debt.
Financial Problems
• State loans used to
support foreign wars
• Began getting
additional loans just to
pay interest, servicing
fees, and actual debt
on existing loans
• Lost much money in 7
Years War:
• Lost money used to
support troops and
military campaign and
lost lands in Canada
• Louis XV saw taxation
as only solution: lower
classes targeted
Political Problems
• Monarchy vs.
aristocracy/
Parlements
• King needed the
Parlement to approve
taxes. Did not because
they claimed they
were exempt: noble
status
• Louis XVI inherited
all these problems
• Spend money in War
of Independence
• Felt burden resided
with peasants
• Public criticized
monarch as literacy
spread
Attempts at Reform
• Turgot’s Reform: tried
to encourage
economic growth by
ending forced labor
and regulations
• Necker’s Reform:
didn’t need increase in
taxation- reduce
ordinary costs
• Calonnes: shift burden
of tax to the rich
• Archbishop Brienne:
emergency loans
• Parlement blocked
loans and King
disbanded them
• 1788 Louis XVI
yielded and convened
the Estates General
First Stage of the Revolution
• After the EstatesGeneral was
convened, Necker,
returned to preside
over government
• Monarchy had
collapsed
• 1788-1789 political
forms succeeded on
another
• Break with the past
was violent. Reform
was met by bloodshed
and repression
• Estates-General
became representative
body of the people to
address grievances:
demanded a greater
role in government
Convening the EstatesGeneral
• May 1789 and
separated by rank
• Third Estate
demanded that votes
be counted per
representative and not
estates-this would
swing balance
• Other estates denied
this
• Third estate decided to
meet apart from the
other estates
• Took on the name,
National Assembly
and proposed to
construct a new
French constitution
Storming of the Bastille
• Louis XVI refused to
accept the existence of
the National Assembly
and began to marshal
troops at Versailles to
enforce his will
• In response the
citizens of Paris
stormed the royal
armory: Bastille
• They formed a citizen
militia, the National
Guard, in support of
the National Assembly
• Soon other cities
followed Paris and
other National Guards
sprang up
Revolution of the Peasantry
• Peasants continued to
bear the brunt of
taxation
• They regarded the
National Guard and
storming of the
Bastille as an
aristocratic plot that
threatened needed
reforms
• Peasants began
spreading false rumors
of a great conspiracy
Fear took hold:
workers connected
economic hardships to
politics
• In some areas they
revolted and drove out
local aristocracy: no
more privileges
• National Assembly
agreed to abolish
principle of privilege,
but at a cost: common
rights (grazing)
Women on the March
• Women were active
participants in all parts
of the early stages of
the Revolution
• October 5, 1789 a mob
of women marched to
Versailles in protest
against to soaring
prices of food
• Women killed several
of the Royal Guard
• Forced Louis XVI to
return to Paris and he
was taken prisoner by
revolutionary women
March on Versailles
Trials of Constitutional
Monarchy
• National Assembly
• 1790 all monasteries
began reconstruction
were dissolved (ex.
of the French
Education/ poor) and
government
priests became
salaried employees of
• Divided country into
the states
new districts,
departements
• Those who refused to
take an oath to the
• Anniversary of the
state were sent into
storming of the
exile
Bastille was celebrated
Trials on Constitutional
Monarchy
• Assault on the Church
led to a counterrevolution among
aristocrats-in-exile
• 1791 National
Assembly established
a new constitution
with a limited
monarchy
• Louis XVI had to
accepted new
constitution
• Soon the King and his
family attempted to
flee the kingdom to
join the counterrevolution. He was
caught and taken
prisoner
Trials on Constitutional
Monarchy
• The new constitutional
monarchy began with
one major problem:
debt
• It accepted the debt of
the old regime and
was hopelessly in debt
• To pay for
expenditures, the
Assembly issued
assignats (treasury
bonds worth varying,
low amounts)
• Inflation ravaged
already depressed
economy
• Peasants began to riot
due to inability of
government to
regulate prices
• In midst of economic
disaster the
government declared
war on Austria in 1792
Second Stage of Revolution
• Men declared equal in
1789 in the
Declaration of the
Rights of Man and
Citizen
• Constitution of 1791
created a
constitutional
monarchy
• According to the
constitution only
wealthy men had the
right to vote
• All titles abolished
• Early in the
Revolution religious
toleration and the end
of slavery in colonies
Second Revolution
• Women were not
subject to new rights
• 1792 the second
revolution began and
equality was its most
important issue
• Workers were not
benefiting from the
early revolution
• The popular
movement of the
revolution began with
the storming of the
Tuileries, or King’s
place in Paris
• Sans-culottes wanted
government to be
decentralized with
neighborhoods ruling
themselves
Johann Zoffany in 1795
Political Groups
• Convention of 1792
determined form of
government
• A republic was
announced in 1792
• 1793 Louis XVI sent
to the guillotine
• Girondins: more
moderate
revolutionaries
• Jacobins: more radical
fraction
• Beginning of the
second revolution the
Jacobins took power
• Jacobin leader was
Maximilien
Robespierre
• Leader of the
Committee of Public
Safety in 1793: 12
man committee that
ruled France
Reign of Terror
• The Committee of
Public Safety under
the leadership of
Robespierre had to
end internal anarchy
and fight external wars
• Reign of Terror 17931794: state repression
• Removed political
rivals through mass
executions
• Christianity was
replaced by religion of
reason. Wanted to
create a new moral
universe
• Robespierre and the
new religion of France
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierresupreme.html
Anonymous
print, "It is
dreadful but
necessary"
("Cest
affreux mais
nécessaire"
), from the
Journal
d'Autre
Monde,
1794.
End of the Revolution
• Thermidorian
Reaction: Robespierre
undermined support
needed to stay in
power by attacking
both Left and Right
• Began to break with
the popular movement
• He was branded a
traitor and guillontined
in 1794
• After fall of
Robespierre and
Jacobins price controls
were abolished leading
to many hardships
End of the Revolution
• Directory: government
that took over France
after the fall of
Robespierre
• Government ruled day
to day affairs of
France, but the people
were looking for more
stability and a leader
Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
• Born in Naples, he
was raised in French
military schools…
eventually becoming a
military leader
• The Revolution gave
him access to new
positions because he
was not born as a
noble
• Also made new posts
from war efforts and
aristocratic deserters
• Involved in foreign
campaigns: Italy and
Egypt. His
“successes” brought
him much fame and
support
Napoleon Bonaparte
• 1799 Napoleon joined
the plot to overthrow
the Directory
• After the coup d'état, a
new form of the
Republic was declared
in France, and
executive power was
given to three consuls
• Napoleon was
declared First Consul,
and possessed most of
the power in gov.
• He quickly took
advantage of his
situation and named
himself First Counsul
for Life in 1802. In
1804, France again
became a monarchy
when Napoleon
crowned himself the
Emperor of France
Napoleon Bonaparte
• His popularity as First
Consul flowed from
his military and
political success
• He was also popular
for reestablishing
Catholicism as the
religion of France
• Warfare represented
his entire reign
• 1803 France embarked
on an 11 yr. military
campaign across
Europe defeating:
Austria 05’, Prussia
06’, Russia 07’,
Friedland 07’
• 1808 invaded Spain
Napoleon Bonaparte
• 1806: Napoleon found
it difficult to fight
England and instead
began blocking
English goods from
European ports:
Continental System
• Black market and
smuggling activities
continued
• France drained and
depleted European
countries of their
resources
• Placed his relatives and
friends on thrones
• Maintained charade of
constitutional rule by
plebiscite
• 1804 proclaimed himself
emperor of France
Napoleon’s Reforms
• He supported the
sciences and made
science a pillar of
higher education
• Reformed taxes,
established a central
banking system
• Blockade forced
development of new
crops
• Law: Napoleonic
Code
• Regularized
contractual relations,
protected property
rights, support male
hierarchy in the family
(paternal authority)
Napoleon Bonaparte & Decline
• Peninsular War 18081814: problems in
Spain, but major
problem was Russia.
• 1812 Napoleon
moved into Russia
because Alexander I
abolished his
Continental System
• Tsar pulled
Napoleon’s troop
within Russia, but they
destroyed their own
cities and crops.
Napoleon’s men had
no winter quarters,
food, and were illequipped for the
Russian winter
Napoleon Bonaparte & Decline
• 500,000 men set out,
but only 100,000 men
came back alive
• England/ Britain,
Prussia, Sweden,
Russia, and Austria
joined forces against
France.
• 1813:Battle of Nations
France lost…occupied
Paris
• Napoleon exiled to
Mediterranean island
of Elba…gave power
to his son
• Allies refused to
accept Francois and
invited Louis XVI’s
brother, Louis XVIII,
to rule France
Napoleon Bonaparte & Decline
• Napoleon escaped the
island of Elba and
reclaimed his position
in France
• He gathered troops
and in June, 1815
went to war for his
EMPIRE
•  he underestimated
his opponents
• He was quickly
defeated at Waterloo
• Afterward, he was
exiled to the
inhospitable island of
Saint Helena in the
South Atlantic
• British watched over
him…died 6yrs later
France & Revolution
• 1789-1815 France
radically changed
• New elite emerged
sharing power based
on wealth and status
• Ownership of land
defining characteristic
of the wealthy
• Struggle for
democratic
government would
continue in France for
the next century
• Napoleon was unique
because he balanced
the revolution and the
old regime, however
he never effectively
balanced the will of
the people and
political power