Transcript Napoleon

Section 1:
On the Eve of Revolution
 Deficit spending had left
France in great debt.
 In 1780’s, bad harvests
sent food prices soaring.
 Louis XVI appoints
Jacques Necker as
economic advisor.
 Necker proposes to tax
the First and Second
Estates.
 The king at the time was
Louis XVI. He was
married to Marie
Antoinette, who was
from Austria, one of
France’s enemies. They
were at the top of the
social order. Everyone
else was divided into
three social classes called
Estates.
 The First Estate was
made up of the Roman
Catholic clergy. It only
made up 1 percent of the
total population. They
did not have to pay taxes
and owned about 10
percent of the land.
 The Second Estate was
made up of the nobility,
which made up less than
2 percent of the
population. They also
controlled much of
France’s wealth.
 The Third Estate was the
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largest group of people.
It was made up of three
groups: bourgeoisie,
artisans, and peasants.
The Bourgeoisie were at the
top of the estate. They made
the most money of anyone in
the Third Estate.
The artisans were the
workers of the city. They
were also called the sans
culottes.
The peasants were at the
bottom. They did all of the
farm work and had to pay
rent.
 The final straw was when
King Louis XVI kept
asking for money to
fight wars. The country
eventually went into debt
and the people started to
get angry.
 A meeting of the Estates
General was called in Spring
1789. Each estate only had
one vote. Louis wanted to use
the old rules which angered
the Third Estate so they
proclaimed themselves a
legislature called the
National Assembly, with the
right to make new laws for
France. The King then locked
them out of the meeting
room so they went to a tennis
court and met. They agreed
not to leave until a new
constitution was written.
 The Bastille was taken
over on July 14, 1789.
They were looking for
weapons. This was the
start of the Revolution.
 The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the
Citizen was passed in 1789
which stated that all men
are born equal and remain
equal before the law.
 In 1791, the National
Assembly would finish the
constitution which stated
that granted 25 year old
men who paid taxes the
right to vote. It also
restricted the king’s power.
The French Revolution Unfolds
 Political crisis of 1789
and a terrible famine hit.
 Peasants were starving
and unemployed.
 Inflamed by famine and
fear, peasants unleashed
their fury on the nobles.
 Moderates looked to
Marquis de Lafayette.
 Does he sound familiar?
 Radicals looked to the
Paris Commune and
replaced the city’s
royalists government.
 The storming of the
Bastille and the peasant
uprising pushed the
National Assembly into
action.
 In late August, the
Assembly issued the
Declaration of the Rights
of Man and the Citizens (It
declared that all male
citizens were equal before
the law.)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizens?
Women’s Rights
Olympe de Gouges
 Olympe de Gouges, a
journalist, was upset
women did not have
equal rights and wrote a
declaration that
provided this.
 Assembly did not adopt
it.
 King Louis XVI was not
willing to accept reform.
 There was much hatred
towards the queen, Marie
Antoinette.
 Why???????
 Marie Antoinette was
Austrian and lived an
extravagance life style.
 National Assembly
produced the
Constitution of 1791.
 The Constitution
reflected Enlightenment
ideas:
 Limited monarchy
 Equality among male citizens
before the law
 Ended Church interference
in government
 October 1791, the newly
elected Legislative
Assembly took office
with the following
problems:
 Falling currency
 Rising prices
 Food shortages
 Working class men and women, called sans-culottes,
pushed the revolution in a more radical direction.
Demanding a republic, sans-culottes found support
among other radicals, known as the Jacobins.
 Eager to spread the revolution, they declared war on
Austria and other European monarchies.
Radical Days of the Revolution
 In 1793 revolution
entered into the bloody
phase.
 War with Austria was not
going well for France.
 August 10, 1792, a mob
stormed the royal palace.
 Radicals took control of
the Assembly and called
for new elections.
 Suffrage was extended to
all male citizens, not just
those who owned land.
 The new assembly voted
to abolish the monarchy
and establish a French
Republic.
 King Louis would be sentenced
to death and was executed on
January 21, 1793 by the
guillotine.
 The Committee of Public
Safety would then be set up to
command the military. It would
be controlled by National
Convention.
 All able bodied men between 18
and 45 had to sign up for
military service.
 This time period would become
known as the Reign of Terror.
 Reign of terror lasted
from September 1793July 1794.
 During this time courts
conducted hasty trials
against those who
disagreed with
revolution.
 Many people were
victims of false
accusations.
 By the end of the Reign of
Terror in 1794, France
needed a new constitution.
Robespierre had been
killed and France needed
another constitution.
17,000 people had been
executed.
 The National Assembly
wrote another constitution.
This one limited voting
rights. Now, only men who
owned property could
vote.
 Dominated by the
bourgeoisie.
 Moderates set up
Constitution of 1795.
 This set up a five-man
Directory to rule, and a
two house legislature.
Napoleon comes
to power
France’s war
continued with
Britain and
Austria. They
turned to
Napoleon
Bonaparte, a
popular military
war hero.
 Napoleon Bonaparte was
put in charge of French
military. He gained fame
and popularity because of
this. In November 1799,
Napoleon’s supporters
staged a coup d’etat,
putting him in power.
 The new government
would be called the
Council and Napoleon was
put in charge. He acted as a
dictator.
The Age of Napoleon
 Napoleon wanted to make
his power and rule
permanent, so he issued a
plebiscite in 1804. They
voted yes and he then
became emperor
Napoleon I. He then
moved to build France into
an empire. He would soon
give up on an American
empire by selling the
Louisiana Territory to the
United States.
 Napoleon’s quest to
conquer Europe became
known as the
Napoleonic Wars.
 They would last until
1815 and would be pretty
successful until the end.
 No matter how hard he
tried, Napoleon could
never defeat Britain,
France’s biggest rival.
 Napoleon planned to
weaken Britain by using
the Continental System,
which was a blockade
system.
 Spain would then threaten
France and Napoleon sent
troops to put down the
resistance.
 His troops would be
defeated because the
Spaniards used guerilla
warfare.
 Maybe Napoleon’s biggest
achievement was his legal
code called the
Napoleonic Code. It
promoted order and
authority over individual
rights. It also only applied
to male citizens. Women
were denied rights and
husbands had all
authority over their wives.
 Napoleon decided that the
time had come to attack
Russia in 1812.
 He had an army of around
600,000 men. They would be
cursed almost from the start.
 Bad planning and the lack of
food helped in the defeat of
the French troops. When
faced with keeping his troops
in Russia through the winter
or retreat, he chose retreat.
 Only 94,000 French troops
made it back.
 Napoleon had to give up
the throne in 1814, as part
of an agreement with the
Germans after they
defeated the French
troops at Leipzig. He
would then be exiled to
Elba, a small island off
the coast of Italy in the
Mediterranean Sea.
 Louis’s brother Louis XVIII was
made king of France and all
borders returned to what they
were before Napoleon took
power.
 He was unpopular and
Napoleon was able to make his
way back to France in 1815. He
would stay in power for around
100 days until his forces were
defeated by the British at the
Battle of Waterloo.
 Napoleon would then be sent to
St. Helena, a small volcanic
island in the South Pacific. He
would die 6 years later at the age
of 51.
 The Congress of Vienna met in
1815 for the purpose of restoring
order and stability to Europe.
 They wanted to make sure that
France could never rise to power
and try to take over Europe
again. National boundaries
were changed so that France was
surrounded by strong countries.
 France had lost all of its
conquered lands and its
boundaries were pushed back to
where they had been in 1792.
 France also had to compensate
other countries for damages.