Transcript The French Revolution and Napoleon 1789-1815

Chapter 7
Chapter 7, Section 1
The Old Order: Three Estates
The Privileged Estates
 Top two estates
 Exempt from taxes, had
access to high offices
 Church clergy was First
Estate
 Rich nobles were Second
Estate
The Third Estate
 97 percent of people
were Third Estate
 Bourgeoisie were middle
class
 Workers were the second
group
 Peasants were 80 percent
of population
Enlightenment Ideas
 New views about power
and government spread
among the Third Estate
 People were inspired by
American Revolution
 Began to demand liberty,
equality, and democracy
Economic Troubles
 By 1780, France’s
economy was in decline
 Taxes were high, cost of
living was rising, and
widespread crop failures
 Government was deeply
in debt due to Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette’s
spending and war
expenses
A Weak Leader
 Louis XVI was indecisive
and did not like
governing
 Marie Antoinette was
extremely unpopular,
since she was Austrian
 Louis called a meeting of
the Estates-General in
1789 to impose tax on
nobles
The Estates General
 The First and Second
Estate could always
outvote the Third in the
Estates-General
 The Third Estate
proposed a change that
would allow each
delegate to have a vote
instead of each Estate,
giving the Third Estate
the advantage
The National Assembly
 The king sided with the
nobles, and decided to
run the Estates-General
as it had always been
 The Third Estate voted to
establish the National
Assembly in 1789,
agreeing to pass laws and
reforms themselves
 First deliberate act of
Revolution
The Tennis Court Oath
 Three days later, delegates
were locked out of their
meeting room
 They met in an indoor
tennis court, and pledged
to stay until they drew up a
new constitution
 The pledge became known
as the Tennis Court Oath
 In response, Louis
stationed an army around
Versailles
Storming the Bastille
 In Paris, rumors of
violence circulated
 People began gathering
weapons
 July 14, 1789, a mob
stormed the Bastille, a
French prison, looking
for gunpowder and
overwhelmed the guards
 Became symbolic act of
French Revolution
The Great Fear
 Rebellion spread from
Paris to the countryside
 A wave of panic called the
Great Fear descended
 Peasants broke into or
burned down nobles’
homes
 In October 1789, Parisian
women rioted over the
price of bread and
marched on Versailles
Chapter 7, Section 2
The Assembly Reforms France
 Nobles and officers of
the Church were afraid
of the peasants revolting
 They call the National
Assembly together in
August 1789
 They do away with the
“Old Regime”, getting rid
of the Estate system and
making all people equal
The Rights of Man
 The National Assembly
adopts the Declaration
of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen in
1789
 Similar to Declaration of
Independence, grants
citizens equal justice and
freedoms
 Revolutionary leaders
adopt slogan, “Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity”
A State-Controlled Church
 Many early reforms of the
National Assembly
focused on the Church
 Assembly took over
Church lands and sold
them to help pay for
France’s debt
 The Church lost both land
and political
independence, which
upset many Catholic
peasants
Louis Tries to Escape
 Louis’s advisors warned
that he and his family
were in danger
 In June 1791, the royal
family tried to escape
from France to the
Austrian Netherlands
 They were apprehended
near the border and
returned to Paris under
guard
A Limited Monarchy
 In September 1791, the
National Assembly
completed a new
constitution
 Created a limited
monarchy and a
legislative body called
the Legislative
Assembly
Factions Split France
 The Legislative Assembly
had three groupsRadicals, Moderates, and
Conservatives
 Ěmigrẽs (nobles who
fled France) wanted to
restore Old Regime
 Sans-culottes (Parisian
workers) wanted greater
changes
France at War
 Many monarchs and
nobles in European
countries wanted France
to undo the recent
changes
 Austria and Prussia
demanded Louis be
restored to absolute
monarch
 The Legislative Assembly
declared war in April 1792
France at War (Cont.)
 By summer 1792, Prussia
was advancing on Paris
and threatened to
destroy the city if the
royal family was harmed
 Parisians invaded the
palace, massacred the
guards, and imprisoned
the royal family
France at War (Cont.)
 The Legislative Assembly
set aside the Constitution
of 1791
 It stripped the king of all
power, dissolved the
assembly, and called for a
new legislative body
 The new legislative body,
the National Convention,
declared France a republic
and gave adult males the
right to vote and hold office
Jacobins Take Control
 The Jacobin club was a
radical political
organization
 The National
Convention, guided by
Jacobins, tried Louis XVI
for treason and
sentenced him to death
 He was executed by the
guillotine on January 21st,
1793
The War Continues
 In 1793, Great Britain,
Holland, and Spain
joined Austria and
Prussia against France
 The Convention drafted
300,000 French citizens
to reinforce the army in
1793, and by 1794, there
were over 800,000
people (including
women) in the army
Robespierre Assumes Control
 Maximilien Robespierre
gained power in 1793
 Wanted to wipe out
France’s past
 Changed the calendar,
closed all churches, and
did away with Sundays
 His rule known as Reign
of Terror
Robespierre Assumes Control (Cont.)
 Robespierre became leader
of the Committee of Public
safety, which presided over
executions by guillotine
 As many as 40,000 were
executed during the Terror,
often on little or no
charges
 85 percent of those
executed were peasants,
poor, or middle class
End of the Terror
 In July 1794, members of the
National Convention turned
on Robespierre and demanded
his arrest
 He was executed by guillotine
on July 28, 1794
 In 1795, moderates gained
control and drafted a new
government with a two-house
legislature and executive
committee of five men known
as the Directory
Chapter 7, Section 3
Napoleon Bonaparte
 Joined the army at 16
 In October 1795, he
defended Paris against
royalist rebels and
became known as a hero
 Appointed to lead the
French army in 1796
 Achieved great victories
and remained famous in
France
Coup d’Etat
 In 1799, Napoleon took
over the government and
dissolved the Directory
 He became a dictator in a
sudden seizure of power
known as a coup d-etat,
or “blow to the state”
 In 1802, France signed
peace agreements with
the countries they were
at war with
Napoleon Rules France
 Napoleon created a new
 Napoleon also created a
tax system and national
bank
 He set up lycées, or
public schools
 He signed an agreement
with the Pope, setting up
separation of church and
state
uniform set of laws
called the Napoleonic
Code
 This eliminated many
injustices, but limited
individual rights
 Crowned himself
emperor in 1804
Loss of American Territories
 Colonists and slaves in the
French colony of Saint
Domingue demanded the
same privileges as the
people of France
 A civil war erupted, and
Napoleon’s forces were
defeated
 Napoleon then sold the
rest of his American
territories
Conquering Europe
 Napoleon looked to
expand his influence in
Europe
 Fearing this, Britain,
Russia, Austria, and
Sweden joined forces
against France
 Napoleon defeated them
soundly and signed
treaties and gained land
from all except Britain
The Battle of Trafalgar
 The only major battle
Napoleon lost
 Naval battle fought
against Britain off the
coast of Spain
 Ensured British naval
supremacy for another
100 years
 Forced Napoleon to give
up plans for invading
Britain
The French Empire
 The largest in the world
at the time, the French
empire reached its
height from 1807-1812
 Empire was huge, but
unstable and ruled by a
group of Napoleon’s
“puppets”
Chapter 7, Section 4
Napoleon’s Costly Mistakes
The Continental System
 In 1806, Napoleon set up a
blockade of Great Britain
 This was called the
Continental Systemdesigned to make
continental Europe more
self-sufficient
 Other countries ignored
the blockade, and Britain
set up a blockade of France
in return
The Peninsular War
 In 1808, Napoleon invaded
Spain to get them to agree
to the Continental System
 He put his brother Joseph
on the throne
 Spain sent guerillas
(peasant fighters) to strike
French armies
 Napoleon lost over 30,000
troops in this Peninsular
War
Napoleon’s Costly Mistakes (Cont.)
The Invasion of Russia
 In 1812, the Russian czar refused to stop selling grain to
Britain
 Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with 420,000 soldiers
 The Russians pulled back and practiced a scorched-earth
policy- burning grain fields and slaughtering livestock so
the enemy has nothing to eat
 In September 1812, Napoleon took Moscow, but the
Russians had burned it
 The Russian winter and Russian raiders attached the
French through the winter and only 10,000 French
soldiers survived the war
Napoleon Suffers Defeat
 Britain, Russia, Prussia,
Sweden, and Austria declare
war on France
 Napoleon raises an army, but
they are untrained
 In October 1813, his army
was easily defeated by the
allied forces
 In April 1814, Napoleon
surrendered and was exiled
to Elba, an island off of Italy
The Hundred Days
 Louis XVI’s brother becomes King Louis
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XVIII
The people distrust the king, and
Napoleon escapes Elba and returns to
France
The people celebrate and Napoleon
forms another army
In 1815, Napoleon attacked the allied
forces at Waterloo, and Napoleon was
defeated
This ended Napoleon’s last bid for
power, called the Hundred Days
Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, an
island in the South Atlantic
He died six years later in 1821
Chapter 7, Section 5
The Congress of Vienna
 European heads of
government wanted to
establish peace on the
continent after Napoleon
 They call a series of
meetings in Vienna
known as the Congress
of Vienna that lasted for
eight months
Metternich’s Plan for Europe
 Most of the decisions made
at the Congress of Vienna
were made between
Britain, France, Austria,
Prussia, and Russia
 Klemens von Metternich
was the foreign minister of
Austria and the most
influential representative
 Metternich did not believe
in the French Revolution
or democratic ideas
The Containment of France
 The Congress of Vienna wanted
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to make the countries around
France stronger to prevent French
aggression
The Netherlands unite to form
the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Germany unifies as the German
Confederation
Switzerland becomes
independent
Italy adds Genoa
Balance of Power
 The Congress of Vienna
wanted to restore a
balance of power, so that
no one country would be a
threat to others
 They did not severely
punish France, so it
remained a major
European power
 No country could
overpower another
Legitimacy
 The great powers agreed to
the principle of legitimacythat the rulers Napoleon
had defeated be returned to
their thrones
 The Congress of Vienna was
the first time nations of an
entire continent met to
control political affairs
 Peace reigned in Europe for
nearly 40 years
Conservative Europe
 The rulers of Europe were
nervous about the legacy
of the French Revolution
 Russia, Prussia, and
Austria agreed to the Holy
Alliance- pledging to fight
revolutions
 A European alliance called
the Concert of Europe
ensured nations would
help each other if
revolutions broke out
Long-Term Legacy
 While France’s power diminished, Britain and
Prussia’s power increased
 Nationalism began to spread in Europe
 Spanish colonies broke away from Spain
 A new era of democratic ideals began