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French Revolution & Napoleon
The French Revolution first grabbed the attention of the world because it seemed to promise universal human rights, constitutional government, and broad-based poltical participation. Its most famous slogan pledged "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" for all. -
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Monarchy to Republic
Unlike July 1789, the French Revolution followed a course much like that of the protest movements in the Low Countries. Unlike the Dutch and Belgian uprisings, howver, the French Revolution did not come to a quick end. The French revolutionaries first tried to establish a constituional monarchy based on the Enlightenment principles of human rights and rational government. -
Convening of the Estates General
Last time the Estates Gneeral was called into session was in 1614 -
The Estates General opens at Versailles
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The Third Estate decides to call itself the National Assembly
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"Tennis Court Oath"
Shows determination of deputies to carry out a constitutional revolution -
Tri-Color Flag designed
Combination of red, white and bue became the flag of France -- devised in July of 1789 -
Storming the Bastille
The Constitutional Crisis came to a head when armed Parisians captured the Bastille, a royal fortress and symbol of monarchial authority in the center of the capital. The fall of the Bastille, like the women's march to Versailles three months later, showed the determination of the common people to put their mark on events. -
Noble deputies annoucned their willingness to give up their tax exemptions and seigneurial dues.
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Natioanl Assembly abolished "feudalism"
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August Decrees
Renunciation of aristocratic privileges.
Overall goal was to:
Safeguard the right of private property.
Feudal dues were not renounced outright.
Peasants would compensate their landlords through a series of direct payments through a series of direct payments for obligations from which they had supposedly been freed. -
National Assembly passes Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
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Women's March on Versailles
he march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. -
Removal of civil disabilities against Jews
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The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Set pay scales for the clergy and provided that the voters elect their own parish priests and bishops just as they elected other officials. -
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
It is often stated this law confiscated the Church's French land holdings or banned monastic vows: that had already been accomplished by earlier legislation. It did, however, complete the destruction of the monastic orders, legislating out of existence "all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam, for either sex", etc. It also sought to settle the chaos caused by the earlier confiscation of Church lands and the abolition of the tithe. -
Festival of Federation
Marked the first anniversary of the fall of Bastille. -
Declaration of the Rights of Women
Olympe de Gouges played on the lnaguage of the official declaration to make the point that women should also be included. De Gouges linked her complaints to a program of social reform in which women woul dhave equal rights to property and pubuic office and equal responsibility in taxes and criminal punishment. -
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Food riots across Paris
The people of Paris were starving and the food prices were staggeringly high, so therefore people were reduced to rioting. -
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Politics of the National Convention
Montagnards: Power base was in Paris.
Garnered main support from the sans-culottes.
Would attempt extreme measures to achieve their goals.
Saw Paris as the center of the Revolution.
More centralized approach to government.
King was seen a traitor.GirondistsPower base in the provinces.
Feared the influence of the sans-culottes.
Feared the dominance of Paris in national politics.
Supported more centralized national government. -
Declaration of war on Austria
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Insurrection in Paris and attack of Tuilies palace lead to removal of the king's authority
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The Second Revolution of August 10, 1792
The ordinary people of Paris did not passively aggressively await their fate. Known as sasn-culottes, because men who worked with their hands wore loung trousers rather than the knee breeches of the upper class, they had follwoed every twist and turn in the revolutionary fortunes. Faced wih the threat of military retaliation, and frustrated with the inaction of the Legislative Assemly, on August 10 1792, the sans-culotttes organized an insurrection and attacked the Tuileries palace. -
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Murder of prisoners in September Massacre in Paris
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National Convention
Its first act was the formal abolition of the monarchy on September 22, 1792.
Year I of the French Republic.
The Decree of Fraternity:
Offered French assistance to any subject peoples who wished to overthrow their government. -
Establishment of the Republic
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Trial of the king begins.
he trial of Louis XVI was a key event of the French Revolution. It involved the trial of the former French king Louis XVI before the National Convention and led to his execution. Louis was tried on 33 counts -
Vendee Revolt
The need for 300,000 French troops for the war effort.
Rural peasantry still highly taxed.
Resentment of the Civil Constitution towards the Clergy.
Peasants had failed to benefit from the sale of church lands.
The Revolt targeted:
Local government officials
National guardsmen
Jurying priests. -
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Radical Phase
The “Second” French Revolution
National Convention:
Girondin Rule: 1792 -1793
Jacobin Rule: 1793 – 1794 “Reign of Terror”
Thermidorian Reaction: 1794 – 1795
The Directory-> 1795 - 1799
The “Second” French Revolution
National Convention:
Girondin Rule: 1792 -1793
Jacobin Rule: 1793 – 1794 “Reign of Terror”
Thermidorian Reaction: 1794 – 1795
The Directory-> 1795 - 1799 -
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The Republic of Virtue
The program of Terror went beyond pragmatic measures to fight the war and internal enemies to include efforts to "republicanize everything" - in other words, to effect a cultural revolution. While censoring writing deemed counterrevolutionary, the government encouraged republic art, set up civic festivals, and in some places directly attacked the churchs in campaige known as deChristianization. -
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Religious Terror
De-Christianization:
The Catholic church was linked with real or potential counter-revolution.
Religion was associated with the Ancient Regime and superstitious practices.
Very popular among the sans-culottes.
Therefore, religion had no place in a rational, secular republic. -
King Louis XVI Executed
One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris -
France declares war on Britain and Holland.
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Conflict between Girondins and Mountain comes to a head
In spring of 1793, the conflict between the more moderate Girondins and the more radical Mountain came to a head. Militants in Paris agitated for the removal of deputies who had proposed a referundum on the king, and in retaliation the Girondins engineered the arrest of Jean_Paul Marat, a deputy allied with the Mountain who in his newspaper had been calling for more and more executions. Marat was acquitted, and Parisian militants marched into the National Convention on June 2 1793 -
Beginning of the Uprising in Vendée
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France & War
France now faces war with Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, Sardinia, and the Dtuch Republic. -
Committee of Public Safety
Set up by the Natioanl onvention in order to set the course for government and the war, it increasingly fell the twelve members of this commitee. -
Expulsion of the Girondists (the party of compromise) from all offices. The Commune of Paris becomes the centre of power.
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. They came into conflict with The Mountain (Montagnards, a more radical faction within the Jacobin Club). This conflict eventually led to the fall of the Girondists and their mass execution -
Jacobin Constitution accepted by the Convention.
The Jacobin were the ones who instituted the Reign of Terror. The Jacobin Club was named after the former monastery in Paris where the club first met. The Jacobin Club in Paris headed a national poltical netwok of clubs that linked all the major towns and cities. Lafayette and other liberal aristocrats who had supported the constitutional monarchy fled into exile. -
Assassination of Jean Paul Marat
Charlotte Corday assassinated the outspoken deputy Jean-Paul Marat in July of 1793. Corday fervently supported the Girondins, and she considered it her patriotic duty to kill the deputy who in columns demanded more heads and more blood. Marat was immediately eulogized as a great martyr, and Corday went onto the guillotine vilifed as a monster, but confident that she had avenged many inncoent victims. -
Robespierre named to the Committee of Public Safety
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Festival of Unity
Jacques-Louis David's festival to celebrate the first anniversay of the overthrow of the monarchy. In front of the statue of liberty built for the occassion, a bonfire consumed crowns and scepters symbolizing royalty while a cloud of three thousand white doves rose into the sky. -
Cult of Reason
In Paris in the fall of 1793, a goddess of Liberty, played by an actresss, presided over the Festival of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral. Local militants in other regions staged similar festivals, which alarmed the deputies in the National Convention, who were wary of turning rural, devout populations against the Republic. -
Law of General Maximum
September 5, 1793.
Limited prices of grain & other essentials to 1/3 above the 1790 prices & wages to ½ of 1790 figures.
Prices would be strictly enforced.
Hoarders rooted out and punished.
Food supplies would be secured by the army. -
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Reign of Terror
eriod of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris), and another 25,000 in summary executions across France. -
Law of Suspects
September 17, 1793
This law was widely drawn that almost anyone not expressing enthusiastic support for the republic could be placed under arrest. -
National Convetion introcued a new calendar
National Convention issues a new calendar which replaces the Christian one. Its bases were reason and republic principles. Year I dated from the beginning of the republic on September 22 1792. Twelve months of exactly 30 days each recieved new names dervied from nature. Instead of 7 day weeks, every ten days pointedly eliminated the sunday of the christian calendar. -
Marie-Antoinette tried and executed.
Many French people hated the Queen for her Austrian blood and her expensive tastes. Marie Antoinette was called Madame Deficit and blame was placed on her for the country's financial problems. As she matured, Marie Antoinette became less frivolous. She tried to change her image by wearing simple gowns and posing for portraits with her children, but her efforts had little effect on the brutal public. In October, she was tried by a mock trial, as was her husband. Marie Antoinette was convicted -
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Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several other leading members of the Terror. This ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. -
Slavery abolished in French Colonies
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Arrest, trial, and executions of so-called ultra-revolutionaries
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Arrest, trial, and executions of Danton and his followers
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Invasion of Austrian Netherlands
French armies invade Austrian Netherlands in summer of 1794, they proclaim a war of liberation. -
Law of 22 Prairial
Trials were now limited to deciding on liberty or death, with defendants not having any rights.
Were you on “enemy of the people. The law was so broadly written that almost anyone could fall within its definition.
1,500 executed between June & July. -
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The Thermidorean Reaction
July 26 , 1794:
Robespierre gives a speech illustrating new plots and conspiracies.
He alienated members of the CPS and CGS
Many felt threatened by his implications.
July 27, 1794:
The Convention arrests Robespierre.
July 28th Robespierre is tried and guillotined. -
Arrest of Robespierre and his supporters, end of the Terror
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Directory Government Takes Office
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French Army
Napoleon assumes command of French army in Italy. -
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Succession of Italian victories by Bonaparte
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Babeuf and his supporters are convicted but take their own lives.
François-Noël Babeuf was a French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was arrested, tried, and convicted for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals. -
French attacks Swiss Cantons
Set up the Helvetic Republic and curtailed many of the Catholic Church's priveleges -
Egyptian Campaign
In March 1798, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. The Directory, though troubled by the scope and cost of the enterprise, readily agreed so the popular general would be away from the center of power. The land battles were a success, but the British Navy continued to control the seas. Napoleon returns to France. -
Action of 18 June 1799
The Action of 18 June 1799 was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought off Toulon in the wake of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798. A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée, returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates and brigs had no choice but to surrender, given th -
Napoleon's Coup d'etat
Upon returning from Egypt, Napoleon took advantage of the political turmoil in France plaguing the Directory. Napoleon was able to overthrow the Directory in a bloodless coup d'etat. He became First Consul at this time. -
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Napoleon
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The Napoleonic Code
Napoleon set out to reform the French legal system in accordance with the principles of the French Revolution because the old feudal and royal laws seemed to be confusing and contradictory to the people. Before the Code, France did not have a single set of laws. Napoleon set out to create a set of laws that were easily accessible, easy to understand. The Napoleonic Code forms the basis of many legal systems in Europe today, and is the basis of civil law in the province of Quebec. -
Napoleon Becomes Emperor
The coronation of Napoleon I as Emperor of France was preceded by a vote on the issue of whether or not Napoleon should be appointed "First Consul for Life", which he won. Napoleon put the crown on his own head at his coronation. -
Napoleon Crowned as Emperor
In Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Napoleon I, the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. Pope Pius VII handed Napoleon the crown that the 35-year-old conqueror of Europe placed on his own head. -
The Continental System
The Continental System was the foreign policy of Napoleon Bonaparte's in his struggle against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars. It was inaugurated on November 21, 1806 and lasted until 1814. It was an attempt to prevent the British from trading on the European continent. -
Napoleon Divorces Josephine
Napoleon Bonaparte divorced his wife, Josephine because she was unable to have any more children. Napoleon desperately wanted to have an heir. He would marry in March 1810 to Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria. They would have one child together, who would become Napoleon II. -
Napoleon Invades Russia
Napoleon's attempted invasion of Russia began on June 15, 1812. Eventually the Russians "scorched earth policy" and the Russian winter took its toll on the Grand Armee. Napoleon left Russia, of the 600,000 troops he had at the beginning of the invasion 500,000 were either killed, captured or deserted along the way. -
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 total casualties. Napoleon was unable to destroy the Russian forces completely. -
The Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of the Nations (or Battle of Leipzig) which occurred on October 16-19, 1813 was one of the most decisive defeats suffered by Napoleon Bonaparte. -
Napoleon Arrives Back In France
Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba and returns to France on March 1, 1815. Marching through the Alps, Napoleon gains support along the way, even turning the troops that Louis XVIII sent out to destroy him to his side. -
Hundred Days
Napoleon's arrival in Paris on March 20, 1815 marks the beginning of the "Hundred Days". -
Napoleon Sent Into Exile on St. Helena
After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was sent into exile for a second time, this time to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
