Transcript National Assembly

Words that you may find difficult:
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Contempt: to look down on something or someone.
Calamity: an unfortunate event.
Inalienable: something that cannot be changed.
Redound: contribute greatly
Auspices: something coming from heaven
Imprescriptible: something that cannot be planned
or changed.
• Promulgate: to announce something.
• Inviolable: something that cannot be disturbed.
• Indemnify: to pay off a damage or loss
The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen
• How is the 'nation' defined in
the document?
• What do the words, "liberty,"
"equality," and "fraternity"
actually mean, according to
the document?
The French Revolution
starts rolling
The “Age of
Montesquieu”
(Constitutional
Monarchy)
1789-1792
The “Age of
Rousseau”
(The Republic)
1792-1799
The “Age of Voltaire”
(Napoleon’s Empire/
Enlightened Despot)
1799-1815
Nat’l Assembly: 17891791
 Tennis Court Oath
 Storming of the
Bastille
 Great Fear and
abolition of feudalism
 Civil Constitution of
the Clergy
 Declaration of the
Rights of Man
Nat’l Convention: 17921795
 Creation of the
Republic
 Execution of Louis XVI
 Committee of Public
Safety
 Reign of Terror
 Thermidorian Reaction
Consulate:
1799-1804
 Code Napoleon
 Concordat of 1801
 War of the 2nd
Coalition
Legislative Assembly:
1791-92
 Jacobins vs. Girondins
 War of the First
Coalition
 Commune
 September Massacres
The Directory: 1795-99
 Ruling bourgeoisie vs.
aristocracy and sansculottes
 Coup d’etat Brumaire
Napoleonic Empire:
1804-15
 Confederation of the
 Continental System
 Treaty of Tilsit
 Peninsular War
 Russian Campaign
National Assembly, 1789-1791
• June 17, the Third Estate declared itself the true National
Assembly of France.
a.
b.
c.
When locked out of their meeting place by Louis XVI they met instead in an
indoor tennis court.
Tennis Court Oath: The Third Estate swore to remain together until it had
given France a constitution.
Third Estate thus assumed sovereign power on behalf of the nation.
 In response, Louis XVI brought an army of 18,000 troops to Versailles
d. Defections from the 1st and 2nd Estates caused Louis XVI to recognize the
National Assembly on June 27, after he dissolved the Estates General.
e. National Assembly dominated by the bourgeoisie
f. Point of no return: the king was now allied with the
nobles while the Third Estate now feared the nobles more
than ever.
g. July 11, Necker was removed, infuriating millions of
French people who saw him as an ally among the nobility.
King was forced to bring him back
Storming the Bastille, July 14, 1789
•
A rumor that the king was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly.
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18 died.
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73 wounded.
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7 guards killed.
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began in response
to food shortages,
soaring bread
prices, 25%
unemployment, and
fear of military
repression.
The Great Fear: Peasant Revolt
(July 20, 1789)
Y Rumors that the feudal aristocracy [the aristos]
were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and
pillage their land.
The Path
of the
“Great
Fear”
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen
Posed New Dilemmas
1. Did women have equal rights with men?
2. What about free blacks in the colonies?
3. How could slavery be justified if all men
were born free?
4. Did religious toleration of Protestants
and Jews include equal political rights?
5. How did the king fit in?
The National Assembly begin to Unravel
• National Assembly also moved to Paris
and was intimidated by the Parisians.
– King’s power reduced to temporary veto in
lawmaking process.
– King and Assembly made sure bread was
available to the masses.
• The more conservative revolutionaries
began to drop out of the Assembly due
to disillusionment by mob violence.
How to Finance the New Govt.?
1. Confiscate Church Lands (1790)
One of the most controversial decisions of the
entire revolutionary period.
2. Print Assignats
V
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Issued by the National Constituent Assembly.
Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as
security.
Depreciation of the Assignat
V Whoever acquired them were entitled to certain
privileges in the purchase of church land.
V The state would retire the notes as the land was
sold.
V They began circulating as paper currency.
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
Government printed more  INFLATION [they lost
99% of their value ultimately].
Therefore, future governments paid off their
creditors with cheap money.
New Relations Between Church &
State
V Government paid the salaries of the French
clergy and maintained the churches.
V The church was reorganized:
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
Parish priests  elected by the district
assemblies.
Bishops  named by the
department assemblies.
The pope had NO
voice in the
appointment of
the French clergy.
V It transformed France’s
Roman Catholic Church
into a branch of the state!!
Pope Pius VI
[1775-1799]
The French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V
The king got the “suspensive” veto [which
prevented the passage of laws for 4
years].
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A permanent, elected, single chamber
National Assembly.

V
He could not pass laws.
His ministers were responsible for their
own actions.
Had the power to grant taxation.
An independent judiciary.
The French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
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“Active” Citizen [who pays taxes
amounting to 3 days labor] could vote vs.
“Passive” Citizen.
 1/3 of adult males were denied the
franchise.
 Domestic servants were also excluded.
V
A newly elected LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY.
GOAL  Make sure that the country
was not turned over to the mob!
83 Revolutionary Departments
February 26, 1790
Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution
& the National Assembly. 1791
Understanding Radicalization
Catholic
Peasants
who resisted
Revolutionary
Bourgeois
The King
Foreign
Monarchs
Radicalization
Paris
Commune
Attitudes &
actions of
monarchy
& court
Fear of
CounterRevolution
Religious
divisions
The Causes of
Instability in France
1792 - 1795
Economic
Crises
War
Political
divisions
March of the Women,
October 5-6, 1789
A spontaneous demonstration of Parisian
women for bread.
We want the baker, the baker’s wife
and the baker’s boy!
The “October Days” (1789)
The king was thought to be surrounded by evil
advisors at Versailles so he was forced to move to
Paris and reside at the Tuileries Palace.
The Royal Family Attempts
to Flee
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June, 1791
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Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel
von Fusen [Marie Antoinette’s lover].
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Headed toward the
Luxembourg
border.
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The King was
recognized at
Varennes, near
the border
Legislative Assembly, 1791-1792
1. A completely new group of legislators replaced the
National Assembly in the new government.
a. Members of the National Assembly had agreed that
no one in that group would take part in the new gov’t.
b. New gov’t reflected emergence of political factions in
the revolution competing for power—most important
were republican groups.
c. Members were younger and less cautious than
members of the National Assembly.
d. Jacobins, named after their political club, came to
dominate the Legislative Assembly
 The Girondins, a group of Jacobins, became the left or
advanced party of the Revolution in the Legislative
Assembly and led the country into war.
 All passionately committed to liberal revolution.
The Jacobins
Jacobin Meeting House
 They held their meetings in the
library of a former Jacobin
monastery in Paris.
 Started as a debating society.
 Membership mostly middle class.
 Created a vast network of clubs.
The Sans-Culottes:
The Parisian Working Class
 Small shopkeepers.
 Tradesmen.
 Artisans.
They shared many of the
ideals of their middle
class representatives in
government!
The Declaration of Pillnitz
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Declaration of Pillnitz issued by Prussia and Austria in
August, 1791.
 Émigrés, French nobles who fled France beginning in 1789,
influenced Prussia and Austria to declare the restoration of
the French monarchy as their goal.
o Preached a kind of holy war.
The Austrian Emperor, Leopold, would be willing to take military
steps to restore order to France if all other powers joined him.
o He did not expect to receive unanimous agreement among all
the Great Powers
The Declaration was really a bluff intended to slow down the
revolution and rid himself of French émigrés.
Leopold misjudged French revolutionary sentiment and
Republican sentiment in France gained strength in response to
the Declaration
Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria in April, 1792.
Fueled by ideological fervor and anti-Austrian sentiment.
Girondins became the party of international revolution.
Claimed the Revolution could never be secure in France until it
spread to the world.
The First Coalition &
The Brunswick Manifesto
(August 3, 1792)
Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed,
Paris will be leveled!!
FRANCE
17921797
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
BRITAIN
SPAIN
PIEDMONT
This military crisis undermined the new
Legislative Assembly.
Wars of the First Coalition
 French revolutionary forces were soundly defeated by
the Austrian military.
 Only the conflict between eastern monarchs over the
division of Poland saved France from defeat.
 Intensified existing unrest and dissatisfaction of
unpropertied classes.
• Jacobins blamed their defeat on Louis XVI,
believing him to be part of a conspiracy with
Prussia and Austria.
• e. July 25, 1792: Brunswick Manifesto issued by
Prussia and Austria and threatened to destroy Paris
if the royal family was harmed.
 In response to Brunswick Manifesto, Jacobin-incited
mobs seized power in Paris.
 Revolutionary sentiment was stoked by Robespierre,
Danton, and the journalist, Marat
The Storming of the Tuilieres:
August 9-10, 1792
This was triggered in part by the publication in
Paris of the August 3 Brunswick Manifesto,
which confirmed popular suspicions concerning
the king’s treason.
The September Massacres, 1792
(The dark side of the Revolution!)
 Rumors that the anti-revolutionary political prisoners
were plotting to break out & attack from the rear the
armies defending France, while the Prussians attacked
from the front.
 Buveurs de sang [“drinkers of blood.”] over 1000 killed!
 It discredited the Revolution among its remaining
sympathizers abroad.
The “Second” French Revolution
 The National Convention:
 Girondin Rule: 1792-1793
 Jacobin Rule: 1793-1794
[“Reign of Terror”]
 Thermidorian Reaction:
 The Directory  1795-1799
1794-1795
The National Convention
(September, 1792)
 Its first act was the formal
abolition of the monarchy on
September 22, 1792.
 The Year I of the French Republic.
 The Decree of Fraternity
 it offered French assistance to any
subject peoples who wished to
overthrow their governments.
When France sneezes,
all of Europe catches cold!
The Political Spectrum
TODAY:
1790s:
Montagnards
The Plain
(swing votes)
Girondists
(“The Mountain”)
Monarchíen
(Royalists)
Jacobins
The Politics of the
National Convention (1792-1795)
Montagnards
 Power base in Paris.
 Main support from the
sans-culottes.
 Would adopt extreme
measures to achieve their
goals.
 Saw Paris as the center of the
Revolution.
 More centralized [in Paris]
approach to government.
Girondists
 Power base in the
provinces.
 Feared the influence
of the sans-culottes.
 Feared the dominance
of Paris in national
politics.
 Supported more
national government
centralization
[federalism].
French Expansion: 1791-1799