Transcript Chapter 21 Part 6

Chapter 21
Part 6
The French Revolution
The Age of Voltaire
Napoleon 1799-1815
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Italian descent
From a prominent family on the French island of
Corsica
Was a military genius (specialized in artillery)
A big fan of the Enlightenment and the Revolution
Supported the Jacobins
Advanced rapidly in the army: talented AND many
vacancies due to the emigrees
Two distinct periods of rule
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1799-1804: Was First Consul during the
Consulate Period
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1804-1814: The Empire Period
The Consulate Period 1799-1804
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Took power December 25, 1799
Title: First Consul
Constitution gave him supreme power
Acted as a dictator
Demanded loyalty to the state, rewarded ability,
created an effective hierarchical bureaucracy
BUT wealth determined status
Napoleon: the last and the
greatest Enlightened Despot
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Because his reforms were widespread and longlasting (as he conquered Europe he brought the
Napoleonic Code with him)
Napoleonic Code
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Provided legal unity
Was the first clear and complete codification of
French law
Was the longest-lasting of his reforms
Included a civil code of criminal procedure, a
commercial code, & a penal code
Emphasized the protection of private property
The Napoleonic Code
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Provided for a strong central government and
administrative unity
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Included many of the reforms of the Revolution:
Equality before the law: no more estates, legal classes,
privileges, hereditary offices, guilds..
 Freedom of religion: State will be secular
 Property rights
 Abolished serfdom
 Women given inheritance rights
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Women
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Were denied equal status with men
Women and children were legally dependent on
husband/father
Divorce was even more difficult to obtain that during
the Revolution
Women could not buy/sell property or begin a
business without the consent of their husbands
Incomes of wives belonged to husbands
Penalties for adultery more severe for women than
men
Careers open to talent
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Theoretically citizens were able to rise in
government offices according to their abilities
(but wealth was really the key to status)
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Napoleon created a new imperial nobility for
talented generals and government officials
The New Imperial Nobility
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The government rewarded wealthy people who served
the state with pensions, property or titles
The middle class DID benefit
Over ½ of the titles of the titles granted went to folks
in the military
Between 1808-1814 Napoleon awarded 3,6000 titles
BUT the # of nobles in France only 1/7 of what it
was before the Revolution
Offices Could Not be Bought or
Sold
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Amnesty was granted to returning emigrees in
exchange for an oath of loyalty
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Many were given important posts in government
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Foreign “notables” were also able to serve (Italy,
the Netherlands)
The Working Class
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Still denied the right to strike or unionize
But now…not politically significant
Religious Reforms
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Napoleon wanted to make peace with the
Catholic Church to weaken its link with the
monarchists
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Understood that religion would help the French
people accept economic inequities
(Marx later: religion is the opiate of the masses)
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The Concordat of 1801
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The Pope renounced claims to the Church
property that was lost in the early years of the
Revolution (settled the issue of the peasantlandowners’ divided allegiances)
The French Government could nominate or
depose bishops
The Refractory Clergy (who had survived)
would replace those priests who had taken an
oath of loyalty to the state
The Concordat of 1801
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Catholics could worship in public
Church seminaries were reopened
Legal toleration was extended to: Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, Atheists …all had the same
civil rights
Replaced the “Revolutionary Calendar” with the
Christian calendar
Separation of Church and State
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Napoleon made certain to appoint as many
Protestants and others to high government
positions as Catholics
Economic Unity
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The Bank of France (est. 1800) served the
interests of the state and financial oligarchy
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Balanced the national budget
Established sound currency
Made public credit available
Increased employment
Lowered taxes on farmers
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Economics under Napoleon
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Guaranteed that the Church property that had been
seized and sold to peasants would remain in the hands
of the peasants
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Created an independent peasantry…would become
the backbone of French democracy
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Tax collections became more efficient
Economics
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Le Chaplier Law of 1791 was maintained:
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Workers could not form guilds OR trade unions
Education
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Established a system of public education under
state control
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Rigorous standards
Available to the masses
Secondary and higher education was to prepare
young men for porfessions or government
service
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Education
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Education became a key in determining social
standing
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One system for those who could spend 12 or
more years at school
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The other for boys who would enter the work
force at age 12 to 14
A Police State
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Citizens were under continuous surveillance by
government spies
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After 1810 political “suspects” were held in state
prisons….like they had during the Reign of
Terror
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By 1814 2,500 political prisoners were being
held
A Police State
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The most notorious incident:
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The 1804 arrest and execution of a Bourbon:
the Duke of Enghien
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He was accused of taking part in a plot to
overthrow Napoleon
There was absolutely no evidence of his
involvement
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Problems with Napoleon’s
Reforms
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Women did not benefit…serious gender
inequity
Workers denied unions
Individual liberty was repressed in favor of
absolutism and the creation of a police state
Much nepotism
Napoleonic Wars
during the Consulate Era
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Generally short and distinct
Only England was at war with France continuously
All four Great Powers did not fight Napoleon
TOGETHER until 1813 (Russia, Prussia, Austria,
England) after Napoleon conquered Italy
Above nations were sometimes compelled to ally with
Napoleon
1798-1801 The War of the Second
Coalition
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The Second Coalition: Austria, England, Russia
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1798 Napoleon’s navy had been destroyed by
the English (Lord Nelson) in the Battle of the
Nile
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But in the end, Napoleon’s army was victorious
The Treaty of Luneville
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Britain moved off of the European continent
Austria lost its Italian possessions to Napoleon
German territory on the west bank of the Rhine
became part of France
Russia had tried to take advantage of the turmoil
by gaining a foothold in the Mediterranean but
withdrew from western Europe due to a British
blockade
1802 The Treaty of Amiens
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France and Britain
Brits agreed to return Trinidad and some
Caribbean islands to France that it had taken in
1793
Had hopes that peace with France would enable
Britain to increase its trade with the European
continent
Treaty of Ameins
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By this time Napoleon had the former Austrian
Netherlands, the West bank of the Rhine, the
Netherlands and most of Italy
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The Brits were unable to increase their trade
with the European continent
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The Brits violated the treaty by failing to
evacuate Malta causing the truce to end (1805)
In the meantime
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Napoleon reorganized The confederation of
Switzerland
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Sent a large army to Haiti to re-enslave the
population
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French forces were devastated by disease
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Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States