Transcript French Revolution

The French Revolution
The Estates General
• France was left in heavy debt and discontent following the rule
of Louis XIV
• 3 levels of society
– 1st Estate- Clergy- .5% of the population who owned 10% of the land
– 2nd Estate- Nobles- 1.5% of the population who owned 20% of the land
– 3rd Estate- Bourgeoisie- 98% of the population (middle class merchants
and bankers and peasants)
• Enlightenment ideas inspired the 3rd Estate to question their
situation.
Conditions Ripe for Revolution
• Huge debt accrued from Louis XIV wars.
• Due to heavy debt, King Louis XVI raised taxes
on the 3rd Estate. Louis attempted to tax the 1st
and 2nd Estates, but they refused to pay.
• Poor harvests and steady economic decline led
to food shortages - people flocked to Paris
demanding bread.
The Tennis Court Oath
• Delegates to the Estates General from the 3rd
Estate were elected,
• Could not vote unless they owned property!!!
• Always outvoted, they declared themselves the
rightful National Assembly.
• When they found they were locked out of their
meeting place, they met on a tennis.
• Took an oath to meet regularly no matter what until
France had a real constitution.
The Tennis Court Oath
Bastille Day
• On July 14th, 1789 Parisians stormed the Bastille, a prison for
political prisoners. They freed seven prisoners and collected
gun powder and weapons to protect the National Assembly. It
quickly became a symbol of the Revolution.
• It is still a huge holiday for France today.
Revolts
• Various factions took to the streets of Paris
and the provinces.
• Marquis de Lafayette
• Headed the National Guard, a middle class army formed
in response to government troops arriving in Paris.
• “Tricolor.”
• Women march from Paris to Versailles
demanding that the king return to the capital to
help the people.
• They demanded food and bread
• Caught attempting to escape to Austria, Louis XVI is
returned to Paris where he was virtually a prisoner.
The Women’s March
National Assembly Reforms
• The National Assembly, in its first efforts to
pass a constitution set forth the Declaration of
the Rights of Man.
– It abolished feudalism
– It sited natural rights and demanded an end to the
estate discrimination.
• Passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• Took church lands and put the church under government
control.
• The Pope, Pope Pius VI condemned the French
Revolution.
• They passed the Constitution of 1791, which
established a limited monarchy and encouraged
free trade.
Flight of the Nobles
• Louis and Marie try to flee France, but are caught and
returned to Paris.
• Emigres (nobles, clergy an others) flee France and tell horror
stories of the events there, leading enlightened despots to
condemn the revolution and begin to mass armies against a
possible French threat.
NATIONALISM!!!
• Prussia and Austria vowed to destroy Paris if the royal
family was harmed.
• The Commune (revolutionaries) get the Legislative
Assembly to accuse Louis XVI of plotting against
Constitution of 1791.
• Revolutionary troops arrive in Paris from Marseillaise
to fight invading armies.
• The Monarchy officially suspends the office of the king
on August 10, 1792.
La Marseillaise
Let's go children of the
fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce
soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our
friends!
This horde of slaves, traitors, plotting kings,
What do they want?
For whom these vile shackles,
These long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Frenchmen, for us, oh! what an insult!
What emotions that must excite!
It is us that they dare to consider
Returning to ancient slavery!
What! These foreign troops
Would make laws in our home!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would bring down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brows would bend beneath the yoke!
Vile despots would become
The masters of our fate!
Refrain
Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!
Tremble, tyrants! and you, traitors,
The disgrace of all groups,
Tremble! Your parricidal plans
Will finally pay the price! (repeat)
Everyone is a soldier to fight you,
If they fall, our young heros,
France will make more,
Ready to battle you!
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Bear or hold back your blows!
Spare these sad victims,
Regretfully arming against us. (repeat)
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
But not these accomplices of Bouillé,
All of these animals who, without pity,
Tear their mother's breast to pieces!
Sacred love of France,
Lead, support our avenging arms!
Liberty, beloved Liberty,
Fight with your defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to your manly tones!
May your dying enemies
See your triumph and our glory!
Refrain
We will enter the pit
When our elders are no longer
there;
There, we will find their dust
And the traces of their virtues.
(repeat)
Much less eager to outlive them
Than to share their casket,
We will have the sublime pride
Of avenging them or following
them!
Refrain
Rise of Radicals
• National Convention
– Replaced with National Convention by radicals.
– Faced problems both domestic and abroad.
– Governed France for three years.
• Declared the end of the monarchy and the beginning of a republic.
• Had to write new constitution.
• Girondins
– Called for a Republic and did not want all of France to be
governed by Paris.
• Jacobins
–
–
–
–
They call for a Republic.
Extreme radicals
They behead the king an queen.
They form the Committee of Public Safety to defend the
revolution.
– War erupts between French Revolutionaries and European
Monarchs
Robespierre
“It is necessary to annihilate (completely
destroy) both the internal and external
enemies of the republic or perish with its
fall.”
~Robespierre
• September 1793 – July
1794
• Lawyer and politician who
headed the Committee on
Public Safety.
• Reign of Terror
• 17,000 executed in the
name of the revolution
• Most were peasants and
bourgeoisie
• Eventually executed
himself
The Reign of Terror
Reaction After the Reign of Terror
• New Constitution
• Government now 2 house (bicameral) legislature and run by
council of five directors.
• On the brink of bankruptcy
• Peace was made with Spain
and Prussia, but France
was still at war with Britain
and Austria
• Corruption was widespread
• Rise of Napoleon
The Death of Robespierre
Napoleon Comes to Power
• Fame from crushing
royalist (peoplel loyal to
the king) uprisings.
• Returns to Paris from
campaigning against
British.
• Greeted with hero’s
welcome.
• Aided by other leaders,
he seized power from the
directory and the bicameral legislature.
Napoleon Consolidates Power
• Order, security and efficiency replace liberty,
equality, and brotherhood.
• He controls prices, encourages industry, and
builds infrastructure (roads, bridges, canals)
• He encourages émigrés (nobility that fled during
the revolution) to return to France
• Encouraged merit system, not class system
Napoleonic Code
• Based on ideas of the
Enlightenment
• Equality before the law
• Made laws clear and
consistent
• Religious toleration
Napoleon Rolls Back the Revolution
• Women lost rights as citizens, and men were
made heads of household
• The Concordat of 1801- Keeps religion in
France under the charge of the government, but
makes peace with the Catholics and gives them
the right to practice their religion.
• Tax all citizens equally & works to bring national
debt down.
Napoleon’s Empire
• 1804-1814 – Napoleon expands his Empire
• New battle tactics were developed that are still studied and
used today.
• Initially France and Spain vs. Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and
Sweden
France versus Britain
• Plans to invade England cut short.
• French fleet smashed at the Battle of Trafalgar by British
Commander Horatio Nelson
• Continental System
• Napoleon attempts to force a ban on trade with Great
Britain by its allies.
• Plan backfired when Spain and Portugal lost too much
money and took sides with England.
Problems for Napoleon
• Nationalism drove the French Revolution, but these
ideas led other countries like Spain to resent French
power and rule.
• Napoleon put his brother on the throne, but suffered heavily when the
Spaniard resorted to guerrilla warfare
• Napoleon defeated Austria in battle and married Marie
Louise of Austria to try to consolidate his power.
• Napoleon was getting very close to Russian territory.
• Napoleon had taken land from Prussia and Russia
(that used to be Poland) and created the Grand Duchy
of Warsaw.
• Czar Alexander of Russia decided in light of all these
events to resume trade with England.
• This pushed Napoleon over the edge, finalizing his
decision to invade.
Problems for Napoleon
• When he tried to invade, the Russians retreated and scorched the earth
as they went, leaving the French Army to starve and freeze as winter set
in.
• Napoleon took the city of Moscow, but as soon as he entered the
Russians set it on fire.
• The Russian winter was ruthless.
• 600,000 French soldiers entered Russia….less than 200,000 made it
back to France.
Problems for Napoleon (continued)
• Defeat in Russia and the
forming of an alliance of
Russia, Britain, Austria, and
Prussia, led to Napoleon’s
downfall at the Battle of
Leipzig.
• Napoleon abdicated the
throne to Louis XVIII, and
was exiled to Elba
• He returned to power in a
bloodless coup on his
famous march through the
Alps
Napoleon’s return from Elba
Exile on Elba
Waterloo
• When Napoleon returned to the
throne, he made overtures of peace to
the European powers, but they did not
believe him.
• They called for a million man army to
oust him, and Napoleon knew his only
chance was to strike first.
• He engaged the British and Prussian
armies in Belgium at Waterloo, where
he was ultimately defeated by his only
superior on the battlefield, the Duke of
Wellington.
• Napoleon was defeated and exiled to
the island of St. Helena where we
lived out his days.
Waterloo
Waterloo
ACTIVITY: See if you can identify the capitals of the
countries numbered below. Use your textbook if necessary
6
1
7
2
4
3
8
5
Island of Elba
Capitals and their Countries
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Great Britain – London
France – Paris
Spain – Madrid
Russia – Moscow
Ottoman Empire – Constantinople
Italy – Rome
Prussia - Berlin
Austria - Vienna
The Congress of Vienna
• European powers sent representatives to Austria for a meeting
in September of 1814.
• Prince Clemens Metternich of Austria presided over the
Congress of Vienna, and wanted to restore the “status quo” of
1792. A Balance of Power. His principle of restoring royal,
rightful authority was called “legitimacy.”
• Alexander I of Russia wanted a “Christian alliance” formed to
put down any future revolutions
• Lord Robert Castleragh of Britain wanted to limit French power
• Prince Charles Talleyrand of France played them all against
each other in order to keep France as an equal partner in the
proceedings
The Congress of Vienna
(continued)
• Conservatism – The belief that governments
need to go back to how things use to be.
• Liberalism – The belief that governments need
to change.
The Congress of Vienna
(continued)
• Principle of legitimacy- restored the monarchs that had
been removed in the French Revolution or by
Napoleon (France, Spain, Portugal and Italy)
• The Quadruple Alliance- Britain, Austria, Prussia, and
Russia vowed to work to keep a balance of power in
Europe
• Nationalism - resentment of foreign rule and the desire
to restore local customs and have a unique identity
• Europe would not see another large war until WWI,
but nationalism was on the rise and tensions were
high.
• The ideas of the French Revolution spread to Latin
America and the rest of the new world.
Europe 1815