The French Revolution and Napoleon
I. On the Eve of Revolution
A. The Old Regime
1. Under the ancien regime, or old order, everyone in France belonged to one of three classes: the First Estate, made up of the clergy; The Second Estate, made of up the nobility; or the Third estate, the vast majority of the population.
2. The Second Estate was the titled nobility of French society. In the middle ages noble knights had defended the land.
3. Members of the Third Estate resented the privileges enjoyed by their social �betters.� Peasants were burdened by taxes on everything from land to salt to soap.
B. A Financial Crisis
1. This crisis was caused in part by years of deficit spending, that is, a government spending more money than it takes in.
2. A general decline began in the 1770s. Then, in 1780s, bad harvests sent food prices soaring and brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers.
3. The heirs of Louis XIV were not the right men to solve the crisis. Louis XV ran up more depts., his grandson Louis XVI, was well meaning but weak and indecisive.
C. The King Takes Action
1. In May 1789 Louis XVI summoned the Estates General to meet at Versailles. In Preparation Louis had all three Estates prepare cahiers, or notebooks, listing their grievances.
2. From the beginning, the Estates General was deadlocked over the issue of voting. Traditionally, each estate had met separately and voted as a group.
3. The crisis deepened in early July. The king, who had brought back Necker to help with the financial crisis, again dismissed the popular minister.
D. Storming the Bastille
1. On July 14, Paris seized the spotlight from the National Assembly meeting in Versailles. The streets buzzed with rumors that royal troops were going to occupy the capital.
2. The commander of the Bastille refused to open the gates and opened fire on the crowd. In the battle that followed, many people were killed.
3. The storming of the Bastille quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution. Supporters saw it as a blow of tyranny, a step towards freedom.
II. Creating a New France
A. Revolts in Paris and the Provinces
1. The political crisis of 1789 was punctuated by the worst famine in memory. As grain prices soared, even people with jobs had to spend up to 80 percent of their income on bread.
2. Inflamed by famine and fear, peasants unleashed their fury on nobles who were trying to reimpose medieval dues.
3. Paris too, was in turmoil. As the capital and chief city of France, it was the revolutionary center.
B. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
1. In late August, as a first step toward writing a constitution, the Assembly issued the declaration of the Rights of ma and the Citizen.
2. The declaration further proclaimed that all male citizens were equal before the law.
3. In addition the Declaration asserted freedom of religion and called for taxes to be levied according to ability to pay.
C. Women March on Versailles
1. Angry mobs were not a new sight in France. What surprised people, was that this mob was made up of thousands of women.
2. On October 5, they showed themselves as determined as the men who had stormed the Bastille three months earlier.
3. Much of the anger was directed towards the queen, Marie Antoinette. Enemies accused her of immortality.
D. A Time of Reform
1. To pay off the huge government dept, much of it was owed to the Assembly voted to take over and sell Church lands.
2. Many bishops and priests refused to accept the Civil Constitution.
3. In 1791, a coach headed north from Paris towards the boarder. Inside was the royal family disguised.
E. Reaction Outside France
1. European rulers and nobles denounced the French Revolution.
2. Fueling the fears were the horror stories that were told by the �migr�s, nobles, clergy, and others who had fled revolutionary France.
3. The declaration may have been a bluff but France took the threat seriously and prepared for war.
F. 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, called sans-culottes, pushed the revolution into more radical action.
3. In April 1972, the war of the words between French revolutionaries and European monarchs moved onto the battlefield.
III. Radical Days
A. Downfall of the Monarchy
1. Battle disasters inflamed revolutionaries who thought the king was in league with the invaders.
2. Suffrage, the right to vote, was extended to all males, not just to property owners.
3. The king was beheaded in January 1793 and in October Marie Antoinette was also executed.
B. The Convention Under Siege
1. By 1793, France was at war with much of Europe, including Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Prussia.
2. To deal with the threats to France, the Convention created the Committee of Public Safety.
3. The Reign of Terror lasted from about July 1793 till July 1794 lead by Robespierre.
C. Reaction and the Directory
1. In reaction to the Terror, the revolution entered a third stage. Moving away from the excesses of the Convention, moderates produced another constitution, the third since 1789.
2. The Constitution of 1795 set up a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature elected by male citizens of property.
3. The directory held power from 1795 to 1799.
D. Women in the Revolution
1. Many women were disappointed when the Declaration of the Rights of Man did not grant equal citizenship to women.
2. Women did gain rights. The government made divorce easier, a move aimed at weakening Church authority.
3. Among the many women who became victims of the Terror were republicans like Gouges and moderates like Roland.
E. Changes in Daily Life
1. By 1799, the 10-year-old French Revolution had dramatically changed France.
2. Nationalism, an aggressive feeling of pride in and devotion to one�s country, spread throughout France.
3. By 1793, France was a nation of arms.
IV. The Age of Napoleon Begins
A. The Man from Corsica
1. Napoleon Buonaparte was born on the French-ruled island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
2. In December 1793, he drove British forces out of the French port of Toulon. He went on to win several dazzling victories.
3. By 1799 he moved from victorious leader to political leader. In 1802, he had himself named consul for life. Two years later, he accumulated enough power to take the title Emperor of the French.
B. France Under Napoleon
1. Napoleon consolidated power, strengthening the central government. Order, security, and efficiency replaced liberty, equality, and fraternity as the slogans on the new regime.
2. He won support across class lines. He recognized the rights of the peasants, and the middle class approved his economical reforms.
3. The Napoleonic Code embodied Enlightenment principles such as the equality of all citizens before the law, religious toleration, and advancement based on merit.
C. Subduing an Empire
1. From 1804 to 1814 Napoleon furthered his reputation on the battlefield. As a military leader he valued rapid movements and made effective use of his large armies.
2. He redrew the map of Europe. He annexed, or added outright, some areas to France, including the Netherlands and Belgium as well as parts of Italy and Germany.
3. He put friends and family members on the thrones of Europe. He later divorced his wife Josephine to marry the niece of Marie Antoinette.
V. The End of an Era
A. Challenges to Napoleon�s Empire
1. Under Napoleon, French armies spread the ideas of the revolution across Europe.
2. In 1808, Napoleon replaced the king of Spain with his brother. He also introduced liberal reforms that sought to undermine the Spanish Catholic Church.
3. In 1812, Russia resigned from the Continental System, Napoleon responded by assembling his Grand Army of about 600,000 to invade Russia.
B. Downfall of Napoleon
1. In 1813, they defeated Napoleon in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. The next year he abdicated, or stepped down from the throne.
2. Napoleon died in 1821, but his legend lived on in France and around the world.
3. On the world stage, napoleon�s conquests spread the ideas of the revolution. He failed to make Europe into a French empire. Instead he sparked nationalist feeling across Europe.
D. The Congress of Vienna
1. At the Congress of Vienna they faced the monumental task of restoring stability and order in Europe after 25 years of war.
2. The Congress me for 10 months, from September 1814 to June 1815. It was a brilliant gathering of European leaders.
3. The chief goal at Vienna was to create everlasting peace by establishing a balance of power and protecting the system of monarchy.
E. The Vienna Settlement
1. To contain French ambitions, they ringed France with strong countries. In the north they added Belgium, and Luxembourg to Holland to create the kingdom of the Netherlands.
2. The Vienna statesmen achieved their goals. They failed to foresee how powerful new forces such as nationalism would shake the foundations of Europe.
3. Many people inspired by revolutionary ideals condemned the Vienna settlement.