Megan Mallory

 

World History E-Core

 

Period 5

 

19 November 2004

Chapter 19 Outline

 

1. The Old Regime
1. Everyone in France belonged to one of three classes:

                                                               i.      The First Estate (made up of the clergy)

                                                             ii.      The Second State (made up of nobility)

                                                            iii.      The Third Estate (the vast majority of the population)

2. The French clergy enjoyed enormous amounts of wealth and privilege, and owned about 10 percent of the land
3. Many nobles hated absolutism and resented the royal bureaucracy that employed middle-class men
1. The King Takes Action
1. King Louis had all estates prepare cahiers (notebooks) listing their grievances; many wished for fairer taxes, freedom of press, or regular meetings of the Estate General
2. The Third Estate wanted all three orders to meet together
3. Eventually the Third Estate formed what they called “the National Assembly” and invited members of other estates to help them shape a constitution
2. Storming of the Bastille
1. More than 800 Parisians assembled outside the Bastille, a grim medieval fortress used as a prison for political and other prisoners
2. The commander of the Bastille refused to open the gates and opened fire on the crowd killing many people
3. This quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution
3. Revolts in Paris
1. Tales of marauders attacking villages and towns spread panic, known as the “Great Fear”
2. Inflamed by famine and fear, peasants unleashed their fury on nobles who were trying to re-impose medieval dues
3. Peasants attacked the homes of nobles, burned old manor records, and stole grain from storehouses
4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
1. On August 4 at a stormy all-night meeting, nobles gave up their privileges including no taxes, exclusive hunting rights, and more because of peasant revolts
2. Feudalism was thus abolished due to equal taxation
3. The Assembly issued the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” and was modeled in part to the American Constitution
5. Women March on Versailles
1. On October 5^th, and angry mob marched 12 miles to the palace to see the king of France
2. Much of the crowd’s anger was toward Queen Marie Antoinette because she was the one who ignored the peasants’ needs
3. To clam the crowd, king Louis XVI went with the mob to Paris and for the next 3 years was a prisoner inside the Tuileries palace
6. A Time of Reform
1. To pay off the huge government debt, the Assembly voted to take over and sell Church lands
2. Many bishops and priests refused to accept the Civil Constitution
3. The Constitution of 1791 set up a limited monarchy in the place of the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries
4. In 1791, Louis, Marie, and their children disguised themselves and tried to escape from their palace prison, but were recognized and brought back to Paris
7. Reaction Outside France
1. European rulers and nobles denounced the French Revolution for fear of their own power to come to an end
2. In August 1791, the emperor of Austria-Marie’s brother- issued the Declaration of Pilnitz and in it, threatened to intervene if necessary to protect the French monarchy, but it was mostly a bluff
3. The rebels in France took it seriously and prepared for war, thus making everything more radical
8. War at Home and Abroad
1. In October 1791 the newly elected Legislative Assembly took office
2. In Paris and other cities, working-class men and women were called sans-culottes and pushed the revolution into even more radical action by demanding a republic
3. They used pamphleteers and sympathetic newspaper editors to advance the republican cause
9. Downfall of Monarchy
1. A crowd of Parisians invaded the Tuileries on August 10, 1792 and slaughtered the king’s guards; the royal family fled to the Legislative Assembly
2. The National Convention, for the first time in history, gave every citizen the right to vote, not just men or property owners
3. The Convention also put the former king and queen on trial as a traitor to France, thus lead to the beheading of both
10. The Convention under Siege
1. By early 1793 France was at danger for war with Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Russia
2. To deal with threats to France, the Convention created the Committee of Public Safety made up of 12 members
3. The “Reign of Terror” lasted from July 1793 to July 1794
11. Reaction and the Directory
1. The Constitution of 1795 set up a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature elected by male citizens of property
2. The Directory help power from 1795-1799 but soon riots stopped it from holding any power
3. As chaos threatened, politicians turned to a popular military hero, Napoleon Bonaparte
12. Women in the Revolution
1. Working-class women demonstrated and fought in street battles
2. Some women, for example Jeanne Roland, were noted leaders and supported the revolution through her writings
3. As the revolution went on, women’s rights to express their views in public came under fire and some even declared that women did not have the “moral and physical strength to practice political rights”
13. Changes in Daily Life
1. Elaborate fashions and powdered wigs gave way to practical clothes and simple haircuts
2. To show their revolutionary spirit, enthusiastic parents gave their children named like “Constitution” or “Republic”
3. The revolution and war gave people a strong sense of national identity
14. The Man from Corsica
1. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the French-ruled island of Corsica in the Mediterranean
2. He favored republican rule and conflicting ideas and clashing personalities of the revolution confusing
3. During the turmoil of the revolution, Napoleon rose quickly to the army and by 1799 he moved from victorious general to political leader
15. France Under Napoleon
1. During the consulate and empire, Napoleon consolidated power, strengthening the central government
2. To restore prosperity, he modernized France by regulating the economy to control prices
3. Napoleon created a new law code, otherwise known as the “Napoleonic Code” which included principles such as the equality of all citizens before the law, religious toleration, and advancement before merit
16. Subduing an Empire
1. As a military leader, Napoleon valued rapid movements and made effective use of his large armies; one man said that, “Napoleon’s worth was 40,000 troops”.
2. Britain alone was the one country that Napoleon had not taken over; and at the battle of Trafalgar, Britain defeated France
3. For years the French celebrated unforgettable success
17. Challenges to Napoleon’s Empire
1. Many Europeans who welcomed the ideas of the French Revolution nevertheless saw Napoleon’s armies as foreign oppressors
2. In 1808 Napoleon replaced the king of Spain with his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte
3. When the Russian emperor, Alexander I, resigned from the Continental System, Napoleon brought 600,000 troops into Russia, but soon realized that he did not have enough food to supply his army through the winter (only 100,000 soldiers survived)
18. Downfall of Napoleon
1. In 1813 Napoleon was defeated by an alliance with Russia, Austria, and Prussia and he finally abdicated his throne
2. Napoleon died in 1821, but his name will continue to live on
3. Napoleon failed to make all of Europe French, but instead sparked nationalist feeling across Europe
19. The Congress of Vienna
1. Europe had been involved with war for the previous 25 years, so the congress of Vienna sat down at Waterloo and faced the task of restoring Europe
2. The Congress met for 10 months from September 1814 to June 1815
3. While entertainment kept thousands of smaller players busy, the real work fell to Prince Clemens von Metternich of Austria, Czar Alexander I of Russia, and Lord Robert Castlereagh f Britain.
20. The Vienna Settlement
1. Their decisions set the stage for European politics for the next 100 years
2. In the north, they added Belgium and Luxemburg to Holland to create the kingdom of the Netherlands
3. Europe would not see war like Napoleon’s again until 1914