Post on 08-Aug-2015
The French Revolution Begins
Radical Revolution and Reaction
The Age of Napoleon
The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789-1815
The French Revolution Begins
Objectives:
1. Specify why social inequality and economic problems contributed to the French Revolution
2. Explain why radicals, Catholic priests, nobles, and the lower classes opposed the new order
Background to the Revolution
1789: the beginning of a new United States of
America and the beginning of the French Revolution
The French Revolution was more complex, more violent, and far more
radical
It created both a new political and social order
The causes of the French Revolution include both long-
range problems and immediate forces
French society was based on inequality:
the three estates
The Three Estates
The First Estate consisted of the clergy and
numbered about 130,000 people and were exempt from the taille (France’s
chief tax)
Parish priests were often poor and from the class
of commoners
Higher clergy came from aristocratic families
The Second Estate, the nobility included about
350,000 people
They held many of the leading positions in the
government, the military, the law courts, and the higher church
offices
They were exempt from the taille
The Third Estate, or the commoners of
society, made up the overwhelming
majority of the French population
This estate was divided by vast differences in
occupation, level of education, and wealth
Peasants, (75 to 80 percent of the total
population)
Serfdom no longer existed on any large scale in France, but
obligations were owed—”relics of feudalism”
Skilled craftspeople, shopkeepers, and wage
earners
The *bourgeoisie, or middle class, was another part of the
Third Estate; merchants, bankers,
and industrialists, and professional people—lawyers, doctors, and
writers
8 percent of the population
Members of the middle class were unhappy with
the privileges held by nobles
Aristocrats and members of the
bourgeoisie were drawn to the new political ideas
of the Enlightenment
Many were upset with the abuses by the
monarchical system
Financial Crisis
The immediate cause of the revolution was the
near collapse of government finances
Bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 and a slowdown in
manufacturing led to food shortages, rising prices for food, and
unemployment
In spite of these economic problems, the French
government continued to spend enormous sums on
costly wars and court luxuries
The government had also spent large amounts to help
the American colonists against Britain
Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the Estates-General to raise new taxes—the French
parliament
From Estates-General to National Assembly
The Estates-General was composed of representatives from the three orders of French society:
the first and second held the majority despite the third estate
holding the majority
The 3rd wanted to establish a constitutional government and
equal taxes
The king and the 1st and 2nd maintained the traditional system
The 3rd estate rebelled and held a meeting in the
Tennis Court, having been locked out of the assembly
The storming of the Bastille
Royal authority soon collapsed
Popular rebellions emerged
“The Great Fear”
The Destruction of the Old Regime
The establishment of the “National
Assembly”
One of the assembly’s first acts was to
destroy the relics of feudalism, or
aristocratic privileges
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
The National Assembly adopted the *Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen—inspired by the American Declaration,
Constitution, and English Bill of Rights
Reflecting the Enlightenment, equal
freedom was declared for all men
*Olympe de Gouges saw this as an
incomplete declaration and penned the
Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female
Citizen—women should have all the same rights as men
The National Assembly ignored her demands
The King Concedes
He refused to accept the National Assembly’s decrees on the abolition of feudalism and the
Declaration of Rights
Church Reforms
The National Assembly seized and sold the lands
of the Church
The Church was secularized: bishops and priests were elected by
the people
The French government now controlled the
Church
A New Constitution and New Fears
The National Assembly set up a limited monarchy but the Legislative Assembly
would make the laws
Affluent members of society were still elected
and controlled France
Many claimed the “old order” had been destroyed
War with Austria
The rulers of Austria and Prussia threatened to use force to restore
Louis XVI to full power
Legislative Assembly declared war on
Austria in the spiring of 1792
Rise of the Paris Commune
Defeats in war and economic shortages resulted in new political demonstrations
Radical political groups in paris organized a mob attack
on the royal palace and Legislative Assembly
They forced the Legislative Assembly to suspend the
monarchy
A radical phase in the French Revolution
emerged
The *sans-culottes (without breeches)—patriots without fine
clothes took the lead in the radical movements
Power was transferred from the Assembly to the Paris Commune
Objectives:
1. Specify why social inequality and economic problems contributed to the French Revolution
2. Explain why radicals, Catholic priests, nobles, and the lower classes opposed the new order
Radical Revolution and Reaction
Objectives:
1.Report how radical groups and leaders controlled the Revolution
2. Discuss why the new French Republic faced enemies at home and abroad
The Move to Radicalism
The sans-culottes sought revenge on those who had aided the king and resisted
the popular will
*Jean-Paul Marat, a revolutionary, published a
radical journal called Friend of the People
This publication, read by many, encouraged the
rebellion further
The Fate of the KingThe newly elected National
Convention acted as the sovereign ruling body of France
Lawyers, professors, and property owners
National Convention’s first major act was the abolishment of the
monarchy and establishment of a republic
Factions split the Convention: All were members of the *Jacobin
club
*Girondins represented the provinces and outside the city,
fearing and supported the king
*The Mountain represented the interests of the radicals,
largely from Paris
The latter condemned Louis XVI and sentenced him to
death
This execution created many enemies abroad
Crisis and Response
The Commune, another fraction, favored radical change and put constant pressure on the National
Conventions to adopt ever more radical positions
A foreign crisis also loomed—an informal coalition of Austria, Prussia, Spain,
Portugal, Britain, and the Dutch Republic took arms
against France
The National Convention gave broad powers to a
special committee of 12 known as the *Committee of
Public safety—later run by *Maximilien
Robespierre
The Reign of Terror
The Committee acted to defend France from foreign
and domestic threats
*Reign of Terror
During the course of the Reign of Terror, close to
40,000 people were killed
16,000 people died under the blade of the guillotine
Crushing Rebellion
Revolutionary armies were set up to bring
rebellious cities under the control of the National
government
Robespierre enacted harsh punishments to control the “radical elements”
People from all classes were killed during the
Terror
The Republic of Virtue
Under Robespierre, the title “republic of virtue” was
given to the state
Slavery was abolished in French colonies
Price limits on goods considered necessities were established—but ultimately
failed
A new order that reflected reason, the National Convention pursued
a policy of dechristianization
The priests were encouraged to marry
Notre Dame was converted to the “temple of reason”
New Calender, 10-day weeks (the elimination of Sunday) and
months were renamed
France remained overwhelmingly Catholic
A Nation in Arms
To save the republic from its foreign
enemies, the Committee of Public
Safety declared for the mobilization of the
nation
The French raised a huge army, conquered
the *Austrian Netherlands
The End of the Terror
Robespierre, who had become very powerful,
was obsessed with ridding France of all its
corrupt elements
Robespierre was guillotined in 1794, the result of the National
Conventions condemnation
Jacobins lost power
The DirectoryThe National Convention reduced
the power of the Committee of Public Safety
A new constitution was established, 500 leaders were
elected
The new centralized power, the Directory, ruled with the
legislature
In 1799, a *coup d’etat led by a popular general, Napoleon
Bonaparte, overthrew the Directory
Objectives:
1.Report how radical groups and leaders controlled the Revolution
2. Discuss why the new French Republic faced enemies at home and abroad
The Age of Napoleon
Objectives:
1.Summarize how Napoleon built and lost an empire
2. Discuss how nationalism spread as a result of the French
Revolution
3. Describe how Napoleon was exiled first to Elba, and then to
St. Helena, where he died
The Rise of Napoleon
*Napoleon Bonaparte dominated French and European history from
1799 to 1815
“I am the revolution”
Early Life
Napoleon was born in 1769 in *Corsica, an
island in the Mediterranean Sea
Received a royal scholarship to study
at a military school in France
Student of the French Enlightenment
Military Successes
Napoleon rose quickly through the ranks of the
French army
Made commander of the French armies in Italy, where he used speed,
deception, and surprise to win a series of victories
He attacked Britain indirectly by invading its
colony in Egypt
Consul and EmperorNapoleon aided the coup that
overthrew the Directory
The new government—the *consulate—was proclaimed
Napoleon held absolute power, controlling the entire government
1802, he named himself ruler for life
1804, he crowned himself Emperor
Napoleon’s Domestic Policies
The idea of republican liberty
had been destroyed by Napoleon’s
takeover of power
Peace with the Church
Napoleon himself had no personal religious faith, but made an agreement
with the pope
He recognized Catholicism as the religion of a
majority of the French people
The Catholic Church was no longer an enemy of the
French government
Codification of the Laws
Napoleon’s most famous domestic achievement was his codification of the laws
The *civil code, or Napoleonic code preserved
most of the gains of the revolution—equality under
the law, choose a profession, religious
toleration, abolition of serfdom
A New Bureaucracy
Development a bureaucracy of capable
officials
Promotion was based on ability, not rank or birth
Napoleon also created a new aristocracy based on merit in the state service
Preserver of the Revolution?
In his domestic policies, Napoleon did preserve
aspects of the revolution
Napoleon shut down 60 of France’s 73
newspapers—all manuscripts must be
subjected to government scrutiny
Napoleon’s EmpireBuilding the Empire
When Napoleon became consul in 1799, France was at war with
the coalition of Russia, Great Britain, and Austria
Napoleon’s Grand Army defeated the Austrian, Prussian,
and Russian armies, trying to create a new European order
French Empire created dependent states and allied
states
Spreading the Principles of the Revolution
Napoleon sought to spread some of the principles of
the French Revolution
He tried to destroy the old order of other nations
The spread of French revolutionary principles
was an important factor in the development of liberal
traditions in these countries
The European Response
Napoleon hoped that his Grand Empire would last for centuries
The British navy’s decisive defeat of a combined French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in
1805
Economic blockade
The Allied States resented Napoleon’s economic
regulations
Britain’s Survival
Nationalism
*Nationalism is the unique cultural identity
of a people based on common language,
religion, and national symbols
Napoleon established Nationalism in France and to other regions: They were hated as oppressors, stirring
patriotism
The Fall of Napoleon
Disaster in RussiaThe Spanish debacle
The Grand Army and Russia
Russian forces retreated for hundreds of miles, burning
their own villages
The Grand Army discovered Moscow ablaze, lacking food
and supplies
“Great Retreat”
This military disaster led other European states to rise up and attack the crippled
French Army
Exile on the island of Elba
The Bourbon monarchy was
restored to France under Louis XVIII
The Final Defeat
Napoleon escaped from Elba, rallying France to
his side again
Mustering another army, Napoleon was defeated at
Waterloo, Belgium
He was exiled to the island of St. Helena, a
small island in the South Atlantic
Objectives:
1.Summarize how Napoleon built and lost an empire
2. Discuss how nationalism spread as a result of the French
Revolution
3. Describe how Napoleon was exiled first to Elba, and then to
St. Helena, where he died