The French Revolution

Napoleon

Defender or Destroyer

Origins of Revolution• Born in Corsica in 1769 just after it was ceded to

France from Genoa.• One of 8 children his father’s family was of ancient

Tuscan nobility.• His father was a lawyer who resisted at first the

French occupation but later sided with them.• He was very close to his mother.• He studied in France and and being an ‘immigrant’

he did not share in the prejudices nor the traditions of French society.

• His final studies were in the Parisian French Military Academy in the new area of Artillery.

• Napoleon was part of France’s 3rd Estate and his only chance for a career was the military.

• All other offices required French Nobility titles and he had none.

• Napoleon came to appreciate his education and the French and no longer believed that Corsican independence was a good idea.

• He reached the rank of Lieutenant and became a career officer and went back home to Corsica for almost 2 years rejoining his unit in 1788.

• He was a reader of Voltaire and Rousseau and knew that France was in need of change.

• France was in deep economic trouble while Naoplean was growing up.

• Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette epitomized the excesses of Absolute Monarchy.

• There was no chance for upward mobility in France.• The country was made up of the Three Estates of

France: 1st Estate was the Clergy, 2nd Estate was the nobility and the 3rd Estate was everybody else.

• The 1st and 2nd Estate represented 3 % of the population and owned 35% of the land.

• Poverty, hunger, heavily taxed and two years of poor crop yields had the 3rd Estate furious

• With no public input in gov’t, the monarchy had driven the country to bankruptcy by 1788.

• The American Revolution and the Philosophes of the Enlightenment had offered an alternative to absolute monarchy.

• In desperation Louis XVI called for the old Estates-General to meet on May 5, 1789 (175 years before).

• The General Assembly’s purpose was to solve the country’s problems; especially debt problems.

• A lawyer and delegate of the 3rd Estate named Maxilien Robespierre demanded that all estates had to pay taxes.

• The General Assembly’s purpose was to solve the country’s problems; especially debt problems.

• A lawyer and delegate of the 3rd Estate named Maximilien Robespierre demanded that all estates had to pay taxes.

• The 3rd Estate was forced to hole up in the Tennis Court of Versailles and refused to leave swearing the Tennis Court Oath.

• In effect, this claimed that the 3rd Estate was the true representation of the nation and would only leave if expelled by force or the monarchy had to recognize their importance.

• They now called themselves the National Assembly (parliament) and was proof that the king had lost his authority.

• While the King was forced to recognize the Assembly he fired his enlightened finance minister and oredered 30,000 troops to surround Paris.

• The Paris mob was born and on July 14, 1789 they stormed the Bastille.• Pikes on heads and the French Tri-colour flag was born.• The General Assembly quickly drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man in

August, 1789.• It listed the rights as “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression."

Liberty was defined as “the power to do anything that does not injure others." The declaration guaranteed protection from arbitrary arrest and the assent of the people to taxation. It endorsed free communication of ideas, but with the provision that this freedom was subject to legal restrictions against abuse.

• Freedom of the press though also allowed for men like Jean Paul Marat to whip the Paris mob into a frenzy. In October, 1789 he incited the mob and they charged the Palace of Versailles and forced the King and Queen to go to Paris where they were under a type of House arrest. Louis signed the Declaration.

Revolution

• Napoleon begins to become interested in politics but flirts with the idea of Corsican independence again.

• After a trip to Corsica he is refused by a separatist leader Paoli and returns to France.

• Napoleon becomes a 1st Lieutenant and is stationed at Valence, near Marseilles .

• He joins a the Jacobins club denouncing the Clergy, nobility and monarchy.

• France’s national assembly was split into two major factions: the Girondins and the Jacobins.

• The Jacobins represent the radicals who wanted to use violence to entrench the Revolution on a French Republic.

• The Girondins were the moderates who favoured a constitutional monarchy and a more legalistic approach to changes.

• The Jacobins will win in the end and they use violence to suppress their opponents such as the September Massacres. Napoleon chose the right side.

• Napoleon takes part in the taking of Marseilles and Toulon (1793) where he helps defeat royalist and British forces. He is promoted to Brigadier General at age 22.

• Robespierre’s brother tells him of this new general and Napoleon becomes commandant of artillery for the French Army in Italy in 1794.

• Napoleon is arrested after Robespierre’s exectuion and accused of treason but later released and stripped of his command.

• Napoleon is in Paris after and the Director Paul Barras asks him to take charge of the Army and put down the mob. In October 1795, Napoleon saves the Revolution.

• He becomes commander of the Army of the Interior and meets Josephine Tasher.

• For two years Louis acted as a constitutional monarch and signed whatever bills the Assembly put before him.

• Marie, daughter of the King of Austria (absolute monarch) convinced Louis to make a run for it.

• On July, 1791, just before the Austrian border they were caught and brought back.

• The National Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia in April, 1792.

• The French won a great victory at Valmy against the Prussians in September, 1792. France is declared a Republic and monarchy is abolished.

• After the Prussians threaten to raise Paris if the King is harmed Louis is put on trial and found guilty of treason and is guillotined in January, 1793. France is now a Republic.

• France experiences great military success against Austria and Prussia and takes over the Austrian Netherlands. This causes Britain, Holland and Spain to declare war on France.

• For over a year France suffers defeat until the summer of 1794 when her civilian armies meet with success after success so that by 1795, Spain and Prussia have made Peace with France.

• During this time the Jacobins slaughter thousands and repress rebellions in France against the revolution. This time is known as the “Terror”.

• In July 1794, surviving Girondins inflict their vengeance in what is known as the Thermidorian Reaction and the Jacobins are now slaughtered including Robespierre.

• In September 1795, the National Convention approves a new constitution which creates a bicameral legislature with a Directory of five in charge. They are met by Jacobins and royalists and the Paris mob.

Napoleon Rises

Revolution and Radicalism:The Church

• The French revolutionaries hated the church and all it stood for. They set about to destroy it.

• On 11 August 1789 ‘tithes’ ( church taxes) were abolished.

• On 2 November 1789, Catholic Church property that was held for purposes of church revenue was nationalized, and was used as the backing for the assignats (paper money).

• On 13 February 1790 all ecclesiastical orders and congregations were dissolved, excepting those devoted to teaching children and nursing the sick.

• On 19 April 1790, administration of all remaining church property was transferred to the State

• The National Assembly passed the Civil Constitution on 12 July 1790 and church property was nationalized and monastic vows were forbidden. All clergy had to swear an oath of allegiance to the state.

• Many refused to swear and became the targets of oppression and imprisonment. The Vatican denounced those priests that did abide by the Civil Constitution resulting in France and the Vatican recalling their ambassadors in May 1791.

• In Sept 1792, Divorce was legalized and only Civil Marriages were allowed.

• Women going to church were beaten.• Mass was forbidden, church vessels confiscated

and churches were closed.

•This prompted counter revolutions or rebellions with the most famous one being in the north west of France known as the ‘Vendee War’ (1793-96).

•Eventually Republican forces won but and the region was pacified after hundreds of thousands of people were killed, raped and displaced.

•During the Revolution France was as much at war with itself as with other countries.

•In May 1794, Robespierre decreed a festival for France’s new religion, the cult of the Supreme Being.

• With the Declarations of the Rights of Man the nobility lost their titles and privileges.

• Many within the Jacobins still suspected and feared that the remaining noblemen were plotting against the revolution.

• They also feared that not all the public was truly agents of revolution and were instead ‘False Revolutionaries’.

• When French armies suffered defeats in Belgium in 1793, the National Convention thought it prudent to create a special gov’t office to deal with counter-revolutionaries.

• In April 1793, a Committee of Public Safety was set up and presided over by the President of the Convention, Robespierre.

• In October 1793, the Revolutionary Tribunal was given authority to conduct trials of suspects. In effect, they were ‘witch hunts’.

• In June 1794, Robespierre pushed the infamous Law of 22 Prairial which forbade prisoners to have lawyers for their defense, suppressed the hearing of witnesses and made death the only penalty for convictions.

• Convictions were rather the norm and eventually Robespierre used the Tribunal to eliminate any opposition.

• Not only nobles but even the Girondins were considered not revolutionary enough and Robespierre had many killed off.

• In the space of 15 months, over 2,500 people were executed for Treason by this tribunal alone.

• He went too far in April of 1794 when he had many of his friends executed and threatened fresh lists of criminals. The other members of the Directory turned on him and he was executed in May, 1794.

• Jean Paul Marat, owner of the paper “Friend of the People”, helped incite attacks on the nobles and Girondins. He was assassinated in June, 1793, by a woman avenging her noble family’s misfortune and her friends execution.

• He is famous for inciting the September Massacres in Paris; the killing of prisoners, noblemen and priests. Over 1200 were killed.

Revolution and Radicalism:The Nobility and the Terror

• On March 7th, he marries Josephine Tascher after having only known her a few months and is appointed Commander of the Army in Italy by the Directory.

• He performs some brilliant campaigns and defeats the Austrian and Sardinians in less than 2 months annexing Nice and Savoy to France.

• Napoleon tries to instill Republican ideals in Italy and creates the Cisalpine Republic and takes over Corsica. After repulsing four Austrian attacks he invades Austria and she surrenders late in 1797.

• In September 1797, Napoleon sends some of his officers and a small army to help the Directory in the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor.

• In 1798, Napoléon dismisses the Directories plans for an invasion of England and instead suggests an attack on Egypt.

• He takes Malta and Alexandria but the British destroy the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, 1799. Napoleon is forced to make his way through Syria but is stopped by the British and Turks and Acre. He makes a disastrous retreat back to Egypt.

• In August, Napoleon makes his way back to Paris to ‘save the Republic’ in another Coup d’etat which takes place in November 1799.

• The Directory is dissolved and a new ‘Consulate’ is created with three consuls: Sieyès, Ducos and Napoleon as First Consul. In reality, it is Napolean running the show.

• Napolean, at age 30, is now in charge of France and about to establish a military dictatorship.

• He is an enlightened despot, a ‘true son of Voltaire’ who will combine reason but not give in to popular will.

• While not a monarchist his success will prompt him to become emperor.

• The Directory faced many problems in the new Republic.

• They faced a France tired of revolution, exhausted of the terror and counter-terror, a general trend leaning towards monarchy or royalists.

• In elections they often rigged the results and became famous for corruption.

• The assignats were steadily declining in value.• The population was growing war weary and tired of

its youth being conscripted.• Victory in battle allowed for plunder and distraction.

It also made Napoleon the only popular figure.• The coup d'état of 18 Fructidor was the end to an

era of pretense. Elections had given a majority to moderates and royalists and the Directory, with the army, purged the government, suspended elections, restarted military tribunals and so on.

• France’s only enemy now was England and the Directory ordered Napoleon to conquer Egypt and cripple England.

• France now faces a new coaltion of England, Austria, Turkey and Russia in 1799. The Italian Peninsula is in revolt and a new coup d’etat in France (June 1799)puts Jacobins back in control of the Directory.

• A new director Emmanuel Sieyès feels only a military dictatorship could restore order and recalls Napoleon to France.

• However, danger of invasion and a Jacobin revolt is soon gone but a new plot is hatched in which the Directory is abolished and a Consulate gov’t is established.

• The new constitution of Dec. 1799, gives the First Consul almost complete power but does not promise the rights to life, liberty etc.

The End of the Republic

The First Consul• To ensure the best chance of success Napoleon had the new constitution of 1799 submitted as a plebiscite and

in 1800 the people voted overwhelmingly yes.• Napoleon has now effectively sidelined the other 2 consuls and he proceeds to implement reforms that will make

his position very powerful indeed.• At the head of the government was the Council of State, who created legislation and an administrative tribunal; it

was selected and presided over by Napoleon• At the head of the administration of the départements were the prefects, who supervised the application of the

laws and acted as the instruments of centralization for the government (kind of like governors). • The judicial system was profoundly changed: judges were no longer elected but appointed for life and thereby

independent.• The Napoleonic legal code was completed on March 21, 1804. It guaranteed individual liberty, freedom of work,

freedom of conscience, the lay character of the state, and equality before the law; but, at the same time, it protected landed property, gave greater liberty to employers, and showed little concern for employees. It maintained divorce but granted only limited legal rights to women.

• The police organization was greatly strengthened. • The economy was improved by the creation of tax collectors instead of the municipalities; the franc was stabilized;

and the Banque de France (a joint private and public corporation) was created. • Education was transformed into a major public service; secondary education was given a semi-military

organization, and the university faculties were re-established. Primary education, however, was still neglected.• The constitution guaranteed that legislation against the ‘émigrés’ would remain in place and that sale of public

lands were to be honoured.

The Military Genius• Napoleon was smart enough to know that peace was preferable

to war – a great asset considering his real genius was on the battlefield.

• In 1801 he signed the Concordat with Pope Pius VII which made peace with the Church and France. Like the philosophes he believed that people needed to believe in a god so why not stick with the traditional Roman Catholic Faith. The two were reconciled but they were on his terms and France still controlled the clergy.

• At the same time he would have himself crowned Emperor in 1804 but rather than have the Pope crown him; he crowned himself.

• Napoleon had an intricate understanding of the military. He had sayings like “An army marches on its stomach” and he put his faith not in new technologies as much as in the ‘legs of his infantry’ and the ‘espirit de corps’ of his troops. He created an elite Imperial Guard of 80,000 strong who were said to be invincible because they refused to ever run back.

• In a brilliant campaign to take out Austria once and for all he slipped through the Alps and attacked the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo near Genoa in June, 1800. He sent another army around the other part of the Alps to defeat the Austrians in Germany in December that same year. Austria sued for peace and signed the Treaty of Lunéville of February 1801. Frances borders were now the natural ones Caesar had given Gaul, the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees.

The Emperor• The Russians had already pulled out of the coalition so the only country still at war was England, who soon tired

of it and a separate peace was signed on March 27, 1802. France and Europe was finally at Peace and it was done under Napoleon.

• As a token of ‘national gratitude’ a new referendum was put to the people: “Should Napoleon be First Consul for Life”. Again it was overwhelmingly yes and in August 1802, Napoleon became in effect a dictator.

• He now conceived an a European common market, especially western Europe (no tax breaks for the English). He also encouraged a more centralized government on the Swiss Confederacy. He then added Piedmont to Frances borders but he did this without fighting.

• He began expanding French influence in India, the Mediterranean and retook control of Haiti.• For the British this was too much French power and in May 1803 they declared war on France again.• The British wanted Napoleon to be gone and financed royalist agitation including a plot by the Duke d’Enghien,

living in nearby Germany at the time. The French police kidnapped him, tried him at Vincennes and shot him.• His chief of police Fouche suggested that Napoleon declare himself Emperor as a deterrence to assassination

since there would be a hereditary heir. Napoleon accepted and the Empire was declared in May, 1804 although his coronation would take place only in December of that year.

• Princely titles were introduced for his family members and an imperial nobility was created in 1808. He declared himself King of Italy in 1805 and crowned in Milan in May.

• Using propaganda, strict censorship and the police, he created a dictatorship where French public opinion had no voice. And as long as he was winning his wars most were content to go along with him.

• France could not defeat Britain unless it could land an army in England and to do that it needed control of the sea. Napoleon convinced the Spanish to join in the war and together their navies might defeat the British. In October, 1805, the British won the Battle of Trafalgar where the famous Horatio Nelson was killed.

• Britain could not defeat the French army without the help of other countries on the continent so in early 1805, they had convinced Sweden, Austria, Russia and Naples to join them in a new Coalition against France.

Napoleonic Wars 1805- 1815• Napoleon took charge and he led an Army into

Austria; a week before Trafalgar he won at Ulm and was in Vienna by November, 1805.

• A month later he achieved his greatest military victory at Austerlitz where he smashed two major armies (Russian and Austrian).

• Austrian sued for peace and gave up any claims to Italy. Napoleon made his brother King of Naples and Austria also gave up parts of the Dalmatian coast to France and other territory to a new Confederation of the Rhine that Napoleon created in 1806.

• In September, 1806 Prussia made the mistake of declaring war against France and was soundly defeated in the battles of Jena and at Auerstädt of October, 1806.

• Russia fared a little better at Elyau in February 1807 but were completely routed in June at Friedland.

• Napoleon fell in love with Countess Marie Walewska, a Polish patriot who hoped that Napoleon would resurrect her country. Napoleon had a son by her and when the Russians sued for peace in June 1807 (part of the deal was for the creation of a Grand Duchy of Warsaw). The Kingdom of Poland had been partitioned by Prussia, Russia and Austria in 1795 so now Prussia will relinquish its portion for this renaissance of Poland.

Napoleonic Wars: The Peninsular Wars1807- 1814

• With only England left to contend with Napoleon planned to destroy the British Economy by banning all trade to or from Britain – an economic embargo.

• Portugal was reluctant to do so and in 1807 French armies crossed Spain and occupied Portugal.

• This prompted Britain and Portugal to work together and they created the Peninsular Anglo-Portuguese Army to try to force the French out of the Iberian Peninsula.

• In 1808, Charles IV of Spain turned power over to his son Ferdinand II. Napoleon invited both to Paris then forced them to abdicate in favour of Napoleon’s brother and held them hostage. This prompted a revolt in Spain and the beginning of a guerrilla war.

• At first the French commanders had a hard time in Spain but when Napoleon arrived in October 1808, he promised to be in Madrid in two months and to smash the Spanish armies. In December he entered Madrid. He turned command over to his generals and went back to Paris.

• However, the guerrilla fighting kept almost 200,000 troops French troops just doing pacification and guard duty rather than fighting.

• Napoleon thought the war was over and thought his French generals to be incompetent. He did not return to Spain but it would prove his undoing.

Napoleonic Wars 1805- 1815• In June 1808 a Portuguese uprising encouraged the

English to send a military force to try to free Portugal. • A combined British and Portuguese army spent the

next two years effectively fighting the French and expelling them. Now Britain had a base and an ally with which to strike at Napoleon’s forces on the continent.

• It was in Portugal that the first modern ‘scorched earth’ policy was applied to prevent French armies from resupplying and it worked quite well.

• Portugal’s Don Miguel Pereira Forjaz wrote a letter to the Russian court suggesting this as the only strategy to beat the French with, and the Tsar followed this advice and beat Napoleon.

• The Duke of Wellington spent the next 4 years battling the French with his Anglo-Portuguese Army in Spain and by 1814 had crossed the Pyrenees and into France.

• Napoleon was in trouble and asked for peace but got none.

• Portugal and Spain had resisted Napoleon’s troops but the French had left their mark and revolutionary ideas would incite civil war and rebellion in 1832 and 1848.

Napoleonic Wars: Continental Wars 1809- 1815

• With Napoleon’s army in Iberia, the Austrians go to war again in 1809 and attack Germany but Napoleon trashes them by July and they give up more land.

• To add insult to injury Napoleon now divorces Josephine and marries Marie-Louise, daughter of the Austrian Emperor Francis I. She gives him a son in 1811 and his empire seems destined to go on forever.

• In 1812, after many failed attempts to get the Tsar Alexander I to work with him against Britain, Napoleon collects his largest army yet, the Grand Armee of 600,000 men and invades Russia.

• Napoleon swarms over the Russian frontier on June 1812 but has only two minor battles at Smolensk and Valutino; both French victories.

• He hasn’t realized it yet but the Russian’s are adopting a ‘scorched earth policy’ and trading space for time.

• Outside Moscow the Russians make a firm stand at the Battle of Borodino and although some 70,000 men are killed no victor is declared.

• The Russians retreat from Moscow and the French move in finding the city burning. With an early winter setting in and no supplies he leaves Moscow and retreats.

• Freezing, starving and harassed by Russian Cossacks, Napoleon returns with only about 10,000 men. A revolt is in Paris and he has to rush off to stop it.

Napoleonic Wars: Continental Wars 1809- 1815

• News of Napoleons defeat in Russia encourage revolts across the empire.

• In France the people are tired of war and do not want to fight.

• Austria and Prussia revolt and declare war. • In 1813 he defeats the Russian and the Prussian at Lutzen

and Bautzen. • In Leipzig at the Battle of Nations in October 13, 1813 he is

soundly defeated and crushed. • Now in 1814, the Duke of Wellington approaches from

Spain, the Russians and Prussians from Germany, the Austrians from Italy and Napoleon still intends to win. He takes his army and sneaks around back but Paris surrenders and have had enough.

• Napoleon seeing this gives up and is sent to be Emperor of the tiny island of Elba in the Mediterranean; in essence he was imprisoned.

• He escaped months later and lands in France, heads towards Paris and now has an army of 250,000 men.

• He makes his way into Belgium and attacks the British, Austrians and Prussians at Waterloo in June 1815 and almost wins but is defeated and now sent to the far off island of St. Helena where he will die.

• He died on May 5, 1821 at age 52.