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