Transcript Time Line of the French Revolution 1789-1815

Time Line of the
French Revolution
1789-1815
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The French monarchy on the verge of bankruptcy by 1788 due to wars; the loss of
valuable colonies and support for the American Revolutionary war (combined with a weak
economy)
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Desperate to raise money, King Louis XVI recalled his former finance minister, Jacques
Necker and decided to recall the Estates-General
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This was the legislative body of ancient regime, made up of representative of the three
estates, or levels of society
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Although limited in power, the Estates-General did have the right to approve or veto any
new taxes or increases in taxes
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For the previous 175 years, absolute monarchs of France had been able to avoid calling
the Estates-General by extracting money from overseas colonies and other sources
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King was forced to take this radical step in the hope that the Estates-General would agree
to increase taxes in exchange for some minor political and constitutional reforms
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Recalling the Estates-General sparked a series of events that turned into the French
Revolution and signaled the (temporary) end of the monarchy in France
5 May 1789
Louis XVI recalls the Estates-General
• Estates-Generals meet (this includes all three estates)
• Third estate arrive and they realize they had been locked out of the hall
• They believed this was an blatant attempt by the King to end their
demands for reform
• Fearful and worried that the King had planned to disperse of the Third
Estate by force, the group retreats to a nearby tennis court
• Swore to stay together until a constitution was made
• Higher ranked Estates joined the Third Estate (ie. Abbe Sieyes – First
Estate)
20 June 1789
The Tennis Court Oath
Tennis Court Oath (1789) – Jacques Louis David
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people of Paris rose up and decided to march on the Bastille, a state prison that
stood for the absolute despotism of the Ancient Regime
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raid symbolically planned because the Bastille signified French oppressive power
and signified justice of unlawful, criminal acts against one’s country, which the Third
Estate felt the Second Estate were guilty of committing
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home to seven inmates however, claims were made that Bastille was also home to
fire arms and ammunitions used by those friendly with the King
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was a violent act of protest
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upon storming the Bastille, the crowds freed criminals and began slaughtering
anyone in their way
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final acts of violence allowed the “ball” of the French Revolution to gain speed and
power to the Third Estate
14 July 1789
The Fall of the Bastille
Anonymous - Prise de la Bastille
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slavery was common in Europe
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by 1792 – ships were delivering up to 38,000 slaves a year
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most in favour of slavery esp. political leaders (not leaders of the Enlightenment)
and property owners
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seen as supporting the economy – without it commerce would collapse
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Voltaire called attention to the fact that hundreds of thousands of slaves were dying
just so Europeans could have things like sugar, tea, and cocoa
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Rousseau could not bear to see his fellow human beings being turned into beasts
for the service of other people
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Finally resolved during the French Revolution when the National Assembly issued
the Declaration of the Rights of Man which declared the equality of all men
1791
Slavery is abolished in France
• Legislative Assembly dissolved and the Convention convened
• First act was the abolition of the monarchy
• Membership of Convention consisted of 750 men, including 189 deputies from
previous assemblies (mostly lawyers, although two workers, a peasant, and 23
former nobles
• Black deputy who lived in France, but who represented the sugar colony (Haiti)
• They sat in a semi-circle facing the president, radicals on the left and
conservative opponents on the right, the majority seated themselves in the middle
• From this, the modern terminology of the political left & right come
1792
France declared a Republic
• Jacobins signaled their determination to break free from Europe’s past by
executing Louis rather than imprisoning
• Occurred after the proclamation of the new republic by the Convention
(January 21)
• Went on trial and sentence to death with a closed vote
• The guillotine was a symbol of the French Revolution
• After the death - there were struggles between the groups of deputies in
the Convention -- Jacobins and Girondins
• Death of King affected the French Revolution based on the fact that it
would almost be impossible to go back to a monarchy
January 1793
Louis XVI is executed by guillotine
• Period of the revolution characterized by a wave of executions
of enemies of the state
• Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the terror was
essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the country in a
national emergency
• Designed to fight the enemies of the revolution, to prevent
counter-revolution from gaining ground
• Most people rounded up were ordinary people not aristocrats
• Most believed “It was dreadful but necessary”
1793 –1794
The Reign of Terror
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Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre born of Irish descent on May 6, 1758 (advocate in 1781)
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Elected to the Estates-General in 1789 and attached himself to the extreme left
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Influence grew daily and people admired him
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Was the driving force behind the reign of terror and most powerful and influential man in France
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Forced mass executions with the guillotine – 1,376 people were guillotined in only 47 days
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Any who opposed the killings were executed
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Many committee members felt he was too powerful and out of control; turned on him because they
thought their lives were in danger; declared an outlaw: no one knew who was on his execution list
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His motion for the executions was removed; he and his committee members were arrested
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Executed along with his followers by guillotine on July 1794
1794
The Terror reaches its height and
Robespierre falls from power
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Group of five men who held the executive power in the third year of the French Revolution
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Decision was made through three committees, The Legislature, the Council of Five Hundred, and the
Council of Ancients
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Each year one of the members would be replaced
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The two councils chose the man who was to be replaced
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Directory established during a time when France was nearly bankrupt
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Directory helped the French Revolution because the corruption angered the French people and created
an uprising
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September 1797 some conservative members ousted, and old measures against the church were
revived
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Lost control of foreign policies to Napoleon, and Napoleon’s actions were responsible for the Second
Coalition of France
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Military of 1799 brought the discontent with the Directory to a head, invasion was stopped, opposing
forces defeated
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Abbe Sieyes, elected director in 1799, put Napoleon in power and replaced the Directory with the
Consulate
1794-1796
The oligarchy known as the Directory
fails to establish order in France
• Helped by Abbe Sieyes who prepares the Coup of 18 Brumaire
(French calendar year – October –November)
• He returns from Egypt to save France
• November 9, 1799 Napoleon is put in charge of the council’s
safety
• November 10,1799 Napoleon storms the deputies’ chamber
with a small force of soldiers and forms a coup within a coup
• Motion is made by the Council of Five Hundred to declare
Napoleon an outlaw
1799
Napoleon seizes power in a coup d’etat
• First successful legal code and strongly influenced the law of
many other countries
• Dealt with civil issues ie personal status, property and
acquisition of property
• Shaped the civil law for Quebec
• Code so impressive that by 1960 over 70 different states either
modeled their own laws after them or adopted them verbatim
• Appoints himself “Premier Council” or “First Council”;
eventually crowns himself Emperor of France
1804
Code Napoleon declared the new constitution
in France & Napoleon crowns himself emperor
• Regarded as Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest victory, Austerlitz was a
sublime trap that destroyed the armies of his enemies Russia and Austria
• Tricking his opponents into thinking he was weaker than he actually was,
and then calling in nearby reinforcements, Bonaparte initially met the
combined Allied army of 85,000 men and 278 guns with just 66,000 men
• After much hard fighting the French crushed the Allies. Thousands of
fleeing troops drowned when a frozen lake split under the weight of men
and guns
• French losses amounted to 8000 while the Russian and Austrian
emperors, present at the battle, saw more than 27,000 men killed,
wounded and captured. Bonaparte also captured 180 cannon
• Motive –Land acquisition
1805
Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz
Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz - François Gérard
• He places blame on Russia for the economic instability of his nation
• 600 000 men – army to attack Moscow
• No major battle, therefore to decisive victory; however, death toll was
high due to insufficient resources and Partisan attacks by the
Russians
• Despite high losses, Napoleon still arrives in Moscow, finding it
already burned by the retreating Russian army
• Lack of men – Napoleon retreats, and loses even more men as a
result of the harsh Russian winter for which they were unprepared
• Austria, Britain, Russia, Prussia and Sweden form an alliance against
France (seeing Napoleon’s weaknesses
• Due to number of defeats, Napoleon loses Spain, Germany, Holland,
Switzerland, and Italy, significantly reducing the span of the French
empire
1814
Napoleon fails in his attempt to
conquer Europe and Russia
• Napoleon is offered a peace treaty if they reduced
France to its original size – Napoleon refuses
• Raises a new army and wins a number of battles
• Loses a decisive battle at Leipzig and retreats to Paris
• Napoleon loses Paris in a desperate gamble &
recognizing his defeat, he surrenders (April 11, 1814)
• Allies put Louis XVIII back on the French throne
(grandson of Louis XV and brother of Louis XVI, Louis
XVII is his nephew but he never reigned because Louis
XVIII put himself as his regent after the execution of
Louis XVI 1793)
• Napoleon is exiled to the island of Elba
1814
Napoleon fails in his attempt to
conquer Europe and Russia
• He escapes from Elba with about 1000 followers
• Lands at Cannes marches towards Paris, gathering
support and followers along the way
• An army is sent to stop him, but instead they join
him
• Napoleon enters Paris on March 20, 1815 – is
welcomed by the people, but is allowed to rule only
under a constitution
• Defeats a Prussian army at Ligny, and engages the
British army at Waterloo
Napoleon’s Return
• Battle fought 13 km south of Brussels b/w French and the
Allied armies
• French greatly outnumbered the British, but a lapse in
judgment by the French allowed the British to regroup and
bring in reinforcements
• French defeat at Waterloo marked the end of 23 years of war
that had begun with the French Revolution Wars in 1792
• Also marked the end of Napoleon’s final bid for power
• Napoleon flees to Paris and abdicates his rule of France
• Attempts to escape to the United States, but is intercepted by
a British battleship
• Napoleon finally exiled to the island of St. Helena, where he
dies on May 5, 1821
1815
Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of
Waterloo
Napoleon After The Battle Of Waterloo – Francois Flameng