French Revolution-1789 Uprising of the underprivileged Influenced by the American Revolution Will overthrow the Bourbon Monarchy.
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French Revolution-1789
• Uprising of the underprivileged
• Influenced by the American Revolution
• Will overthrow the Bourbon Monarchy
Causes of the French Revolution
• Ancine Regime– Monarch holds total power– No legislative body/representative assembly– Privilege to nobility
• Unfair tax system
• Inflation
• High government debt
Why did the French have so much debt?
• Foreign Wars
• High costs at court (Louis XIV-Versailles)
• Extravagant spending by the king and queen
Estates General
• May 1789
• Gathering of the three estates of France– Church (First Estate)– Nobles (Second Estate)– Commoners (Third Estate)
• Advised the king
• Gain support for unpopular royal policy
Estates General (Cont.)
• Called together by King Louis XVI
• King wanted to raise taxes– Had not been called in 175 years– Set the revolution in motion
• Unfair voting– Each estate-one vote– Church and Nobles voted together
• Third estate always out voted– Only estate who paid taxes or Taille
French National Assembly
• Formed by the Third Estate in opposition to Estate General
• Pledged the Tennis Court Oath
• Issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Tennis Court Oath
• June 1789
• Third Estates locked out by the king
• Meet at a large open hall called the Tennis Court
• Vow to continue to meet until a French Constitution was produced
Storming of the Bastille
• French prison
• July 14, 1789
• Began the French Revolution
• Bastille Day– French Independence Day celebrated on
July 14th
Louis XVI
• Forced to accept the National Assembly's decrees-July 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
• Written by National Assembly-August 1789• Equal rights for all men• Did not include political rights for women• Thomas Jefferson was a consultant
– U.S. Minister to Paris
• Influenced by U.S. Declaration of Independence
• Enlightenment
Parisian women
• Armed with knives and brooms
• Marched to Versailles
• Wanted bread for their children (financial struggle)
• Captured Louis XVI and his family-October 1789
Marie Antoinette
• Wife of Louis XVI
Constitution 1791
• Established by the National Assembly
• Created a law making body called the Legislative Assembly (limited monarchy)
• Abolished the ancine regime
• Accepted by Louis XVI
Louis XVI
• Attempts to flee France (June, 1791), but is captured
War with Austria
• Austria and Prussia plan attack to restore Louis XVI to the throne
• Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
• France badly defeated
Paris Commune
• Economic and political chaos led to the rise of a new faction
• Paris Commune seized power from the Legislative assembly
• Forced to call a National Convention– Chosen by universal male suffrage– Decide new form of government
• Begins the radical phase of the Revolution
Paris Commune (Cont.)
• Led by Georges Danton
• Made up of Sans-culottes– “without breeches”– Ordinary patriots without fine clothes– Wanted revenge on supports of the king
National Convention
• September 1792
• Acts as new sovereign ruling body of France
• Pursed a policy dechrisitianization
• Adopted a new calendar
• Abolish the Monarch-September 21
• Divided on fate of the king
Factions in the National Convention
• Jacobin Club (Radical political group)– Girondins- keep the king alive– Mountain-execute the king
• Mountain take control
Louis XVI
• Executed (January 1793)– Foreign armies prepare to invade France-
restore status quo
• National Convention creates the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
• Given broad powers to defend France from threats
• Curb anarchy and counterrevolution
• Begins a “Reign of Terror”– Purge internal enemies of France – Over 40,000 executed– All social classes
Guillotine
• Used by the revolutionaries to execute opponents
Maximilien Robespierre
• Radical Jacobin
• Brutal head of the Committee of Public Safety
• Believed Reign of Terror would be followed by the Republic of Virtue
• Lost his supporters and was beheaded by the guillotine
Republic of Virtue
• Democratic nation composed of good citizens, which the Committee of Public Safety tried to establish
End of the Reign of Terror
• Robespierre executed
• Republic of Virtue never realized
• People wanted political stability
Directory
• 1795-1799
• Established after the Reign of Terror
• Five man executive committee chosen by a Council of Elders
• Overthrown by Napoleon's coup d etat
Napoleon
• General of French Army at 26
• Fought enemies of France all over Europe
• Married Josephine in 1796
• Overthrew the Directory -1799
• Emperor of France 1804-1814
Napoleon’s Grand Empire
• Consisted of:– The French Empire– The Dependent States– The Allied States
Code Napoleon (Internal)
• Reform of legal system and education in France
• Codification (organization) of French civil (not military or religious) laws
• Based on Enlightenment principals– Equality – Separation of church and state
• Remains basis of French law today
War with Europe (External)
• Napoleonic Wars; 1796-1815
• Wars on countries of Europe– Austria– Prussia– Spain– Russia– Britain
Continental System
• Napoleon’s plan to weaken the British economy
• Cut off all trade to Britain by French allies and neutral countries
British Response
• British set up blockades of French ports– Countries could only trade with France
through Britain
• Led to War of 1812– U.S. vs. Great Britain in North America– Restricted right of neutral ships to trade freely
with Europe
Napoleonic Wars
• 1796-1815
• Wars on the continent of Europe
Napoleon’s Army
• Grande Armee• Promotion based on ability only, not rank
or birth• Land victories
– Russia– Austria– Prussia
• Defeat on water– Great Britain
Russia
• Napoleon invades Russia• 1812-Napoleon takes Moscow• Defeated Napoleon’s Grand Army by
retreating and burning their own villages and countryside
• French retreat– Severe winter weather– No supplies– 500,000 deaths
Battle of Leipzig
• 1813
• Napoleon’s Grand Armee defeated
• 1814-Napoloen abdicates as Emperor of France; first exile
End of Napoleon’s Empire
• Survival of Great Britain– Failure of the Continental System
• Nationalism outside France– Resistance to French control– Success of Nationalism in France
Elba
• Island off the coast of Tuscany, where Napoleon was first exiled
Louis XVIII
• Restored the Bourbon monarchy in France
• Brother of Louis XVI
Hundred Days
• Napoleon returns from Exile
• Takes control of France
• Begins building a new army
Congress of Vienna
• 1814-1815
• International peace conference
• Met to prevent the rise of another “Napoleon”
• Continued to meet during the Hundred Days
• Austria, Britain, Prussia, Russia, France under Louis XVIII
Napoleon’s Final Defeat
• Waterloo (Belgium) by the Duke of Wellington
• June 1815– Napoleon’s second abdication– Second exile
St. Helena
• Island Napoleon was exiled after his final defeat
Outcomes of French Revolution and Napoleon’s Empire
• Spread revolution throughout Europe
• Movement to balance power
• Search for political stability
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