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Marquis de Lafayette
He was a champion of liberty because of his involvement in the American Revolution. He also led the formation of a National Guard (1789). -
Assembly of Notables meets
The cause was a terrible financial situation. It was made up of aristocrats & churchmen to see if they would willingly pay a new land tax that would apply to all, regardless of social status. The consequences were the Nobles refuse, the French Revolution started and noble set the stage for their downfall with their demand for the Estates General. -
Estates General
It is an institution from medieval times that consisted of a 3 house body made of the clergy(1st estate), the nobility and the commons. In the commons, everyone from bourgeoisie to peasants (who were never nobility nor clergy). Efficient means of ensuring that the monarchy wouldn’t implement any economic reform that would place limits on their privileges, and the bourgeoisie would not be able to limit the rights of the nobility. -
Abbé Sieyes writes “What is the Third Estate?”
He was an obscure lower clergyman. “What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been in the political order up to the present? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something. -
Louis XVI decides to call the Estates General
Many simple parish priests felt more aligned with the 3rd estate. Writers began to declare that the 3rd estate (majority) was the true embodiment of the political will of the nation. The chagrin of the conservative nobles. -
Cahiers de doléances
It is a list of grievances. They were presented to the King by the various electoral assemblies at the start of the meeting of the Estates General. It demanded a lessening of royal absolutism. All were loyal to idea monarchy (believe they should still lead the French state). -
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Monarchy to Republic
The French Revolutionaries first tried to establish a constitutional monarchy based on the Enlightenment principles of human rights and rational government. A new war created new tensions in a second revolution that deposed the king and established a republic in which all power rested in an elected legislature. Peasants feared that the beggars and vagrants crowding the roads might be part of a plot to starve the people by burning crops or barns. (The Great Fear). -
Estates General meets for the first time
Louis XVI angered the 3rd Estate by keeping them waiting for several hours as he formally received the credentials of members of the 1st estates. The king wouldn’t compromise on voting as individuals (clear), the members of the 3rd Estate delayed formally submitted their credentials for several weeks. -
Third Estate declared that they will only meet as a National Assembly
It would not meet as a medieval estate based on social status but instead would only assemble before the King as a national assembly representing the political will of the entire French nation (including representatives from all 3 estates). The 1st Estate: (1) great clerics (Bishop of Paris) (2) simple parish priests (see more common with 3rd estate). These (2) 1st Estate voted to join 3rd Estate & to meet as a national assembly. -
Tennis Court Oath
Cause: 1. Rumor -King was preparing to take action against 3rd Estate 2. the meeting hall was closed off. 3rd Estate gathered at a tennis court on the grounds of Versailles & promised to continue to meet “until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon solid foundations.” King’s Reaction: 1. granted a number of concessions (call Estates General & drop some of the more onerous taxes on the 3rd Estate). -
Louis agreed to the consolidation of all 3 estates
Louis XVI formally agreed to the consolidation of all 3 estates into a new national assembly. His actions to maintain his power was considered “too little, too late.” -
Storming of the Bastille
Bastille is a fortress prison in Paris famous as a symbol of royal despotism since it had held critics of the monarchy. 0,000 crowds demanded the surrender of the fortress so they could confiscate the arms they believed were inside. Rebel promised safe passage to the small garrison inside, but they surrounded them, cut head of the commander of the troops, and marched around the city with his head on a pike. Louis asked “Is this a revolt?” Louis asked “Is this a revolt?” -
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The Great Fear
Peasants: poor harvest. Rumors: nobility were using the increasingly anarchical situation both at Versailles & in Paris to organize groups of thugs to steal from the peasants. Response: Peasants attacked some of the great noble estates, carefully burning documents that verified some of their old manorial obligations. -
Renunciation of aristocratic privileges
The Aristocrats in the National Assembly wanted to stop the Great Fear. Rights: 1. separate caste in French society
Outcomes: 1. peasants were no longer obligated to work on the local lord’s lands 2. Nor barred from fishing in common streams / hunting in the forests. All the people of France were subject to the same laws and obligations to society. -
Declaration of Rights of Man is adopted by the Constituent Assembly
By Lafayette & Thomas Jefferson. It used the language of Enlightenment. Political sovereignty X monarch, but in the nation at large. All citizens were equal before the law & in their enjoyment of all rights and responsibility of the society. “Born and remain free and equal in rights”. Freedom of religion, press, engage in the economic activity of their choice. Property was inviolable & sacred. -
Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
It focuses on the principle of utility and how this view of morality ties into legislative practices. His principle of utility regards "good" as that which produces the greatest amount of pleasure and the minimum amount of pain and "evil" as that which produces the most pain without the pleasure. He lays down a set of criteria for measuring the extent of pain or pleasure that a certain decision will create. -
Women’s march on Versailles
By Olymepe de Gouges. Women should enjoy such fundamental rights. Some examples are education, control property, and initiate divorce. Demand full political rights for women. Inspiration for Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women. -
Lafayette selected as commander of the National Guard
Louis sent away some of the troops to use disperse the National Assembly. It formally recognized the Commune of Paris (the new municipal government that would come to play a pivotal role in the later stages of the Revolution). They agreed to the formation of a National Guard under the leadership of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757- 1834). -
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The King was forced to accept the passage of the Civil Constitution of Clergy. Legislation made Church a department of state. It assemblies of parish priests (elected by their parishioners) chose bishops. Clergy: civil servants with salaries to be paid by the state. Clergy had to swear an oath of loyalty to the French State. Church: Pope Pius VI denounced the Civil Constitution & Declaration of the Rights of Man. -
Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
Attacks on the privileges of the Church instigated a counter-revolutionary movement. Counter-revolutionary reaction, royalism, and Catholicism became associated in the public mind. National Assembly took a step to establish a workable system of government. -
Constitution promulgated
A constitutional monarchy was created. The king had the right to delay legislation passed by the unicameral, single house, legislature, for at most 4 years. Monarch retained significant powers (control over foreign policy & command of the army). -
Revolt breaks out in French colony of St. Domingue
Count of Artois (youngest brother of Louis XVI). 100s of nobles had fled their countries & tried to restore the ancient regime & feudal privileges -
Louis XVI attempts to flee Paris
Royal family reached French town of Varennes (border with the Netherlands). He was escorted back to Paris. Leaders of National Assembly were still interested in the constitutional monarchy, so they lied that King had not fled -
Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women
It was the first great feminist treatise. Talks about overcoming the ways in which women in her time are oppressed and denied their potential in society, with concomitant problems for their households and society as a whole. It also preached that intellect will always govern. -
September Massacres
They were a series of defeats by French armies. Around 1200 individuals who had been arrested as potential counter-revolutionaries were slaughtered by a frenzied mob that was reacting to rumors that the prisons were about to escape and attack French armies from behind. -
France declares war on Austria
It sealed the fate of the royal family & helped further radicalize the Revolution. 2 clubs: Jacobins (represented in the National Assembly) & Girondins (leadership role in the assembly - favoring a revolutionary war from Austria & Prussia). Duke of Brunswick (Prussian commander) promised to destroy Paris if royal family was harmed. -
Mob of sans-culottes storms the Tuileries Palace
King & Queen were living in the Tuileries palace. 600 of the King’s Swiss guards were slaughtered. The people storming the palace found no king inside, but murdered anyone within the walls that might have been associated with the king: cooks, servants, maids, etc., no one was spared. -
Battle of Valmy
The threat to Paris ended when a French army stopped the combined Austrian and Prussian advance at the battle of Valmy. Threat: inflamed by revolutionary passion. -
France becomes a republic
The royal family was placed under arrest. Revolution saved from the combined threat of foreign armies and counter-revolution. This republic incorporated a very strong legislative control of the government and faced very difficult political and economic problems, which culminated in a an army revolt in Algeria. -
Execution of Louis XVI
Letters exchanged between Louis XVI and the Austrian emperor were discovered. Louis is tried, found guilty, and guillotined. It was a major event of the French Revolution. His execution made him the first victim of the Reign of Terror. His wife Marie Antoinette was guillotined on 16 October, the same year. -
Britain enters the war against France
On 1 February, France declared war on Great Britain. Thomas Paine urged people to rise up and rebel against what he believed were generations of oppression. Enthusiasm for the Revolution was particularly marked among those who promoted political reform. -
Universal conscription for the French armies begins
Done in order to provide manpower for the country's military at the time of the French Revolution. Initially used when the Republic needed stronger military forces to defend the country against counter-revolutionary invasion and eventually to expand its radical ideas throughout Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte inevitably inherited a greatly expanded army based on conscription, from which he created the Grand Armée. -
Counter-revolution breaks out in the Vendee
Largely influenced by the anger toward Church’s restrictions. In the Western region of France. -
Reign of Terror
Inspired by the counter-revolutionary revolt that began in March in Western France (Vendée). French armies met a major defeat: same month in the Austrian Netherlands → betrayal of their commanding officer General Dumouriez. -
Establishment of the Committee of Public Safety
Response to General Dumouriez’s provocations. The convention created 2 committees: committee of General Security & Committee of Public Safety assumed virtually dictatorial power over France throughout the following year. Leaders: Danton, Carnot, Robespierre(lawyer) -
Expulsion of Girondins from the Convention
Associated with 3 leaders of the Committee of Public Safety. Sans-Culottes: mob of the former who stormed the hall where the Convention successfully demanded the expulsion of Girondin members. Allowed the Mt to further consolidate its control (had been enhanced by Charlotte Corday stabbed to death the radical journalist Marat). Mt.-led Convention established a law of maximum prices (limits on bread & taxed the wealthy to pay for the war effort). -
Murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday
Marat: radical journalist. Hero of the sans-culottes, while he lay in his bath. -
Levée en Masse
By Lazare Carnot. Proclamation: drafting the entire population for military service. First time that all citizens of a nation were called on to serve their country. Men were expected to go to battle and Women were to make tent & clothing, Children were expected to turn old linen into lint. Old: public places & arouse the courage of the warriors. Turns out to be surprisingly successful against the well-trained but unmotivated soldiers of Austria & Prussia → Russia. -
Napoleon retakes Toulon from counter-revolutionaries
The dramatic social upheaval that swept away all of France’s previous power structures and hierarchies. Napoleon carried out a reconnaissance and quickly sized up the strategic situation. He was able to muster an artillery force that was worthy of a siege of Toulon and the fortresses that were quickly built by England in its immediate environs. -
Execution of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette was called Madame Deficit and blame was placed on her for the country's financial problems. In October, she was tried by a mock trial, as was her husband. Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and sentenced to be guillotined. On October 16, 1793 she was taken through the streets of Paris in an open cart. She maintained her dignity until the bitter end. -
Republic of Virtue
Most steps: unpopular & led to political backlash against the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre established “Cult of the Supreme Being”: turning the cathedral of Notre Dame into a Temple of Reason. Attack from Chruch: removal of religious symbols from public buildings. It angered workers, renamed to reflect the seasons. It also aimed to obliterate all traces of the old monarchical regime. THE JACOBINS. -
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Thermidorian Reaction
A violent backlash against Robespierre in Thermidor (July 1794). The men who attacked did not intend to reverse all his policies, but it happened anyway. As most of the instruments of terror were dismantled, newspapers attacked the Robespierrists. Former officials and local Jacobin leaders were harasses, beaten, and often murdered by paramilitary bands who had tacit support from the new authorities. -
Execution of Danton
Hébertists: violently anti-Christian & wanted government implement further economic controls. Danton (Jacobin committee leader) was brought to the guillotine for arguing time to close Terror. Joined by members of the National Convention who feared that they were next in line for the guillotine. -
Festival of the Supreme Being
To inaugurate the new state religion, Robespierre declared that 20 Prairial Year II (8 June 1794) would be the first day of national celebration of the Supreme Being. The festival was organized by the artist Jacques-Louis David and took place around a man-made mountain on the Champ de Mars. Every locality was mandated to hold a commemorative event, but the event in Paris was designed on a massive scale. -
Fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins
Robespierre spoke before the Convention about the need for major purge. “Down with the tyrant”. The next day, he & his leading supporters were arrested by “Thermidorians”: label for those who opposed to Robespierre → 100 were escorted to the guillotine. THERMIDOR! -
Establishment of the Directory
Led by an executive council of 5 men who possessed the title of director. New Constitution provided by 2 house legislature (Council of Ancient-discussed & voted on legislation proposed by the 2nd house) Council of 500. Witnessed the triumph of men of property over the sans-culottes. -
Napoleon puts down royalist revolt
“Vendémiarie”. Related to Directory. Napoleon Bonaparte - put down the rebel, and with a “ whiff of grapeshot” his cannon dispersed the rebels. → Directory had been saved, but soon it was to be destroyed by its savior. -
Napoleon begins invasion of Egypt
Still succeeded in conquering Egypt. Ushered in a new age of appreciation for Ancient Egyptian civilization, inspired by the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. -
French fleet defeated at the Battle of the Nile
Napoleon was unable to do much with his victories on land b/c British fleet. Under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a French fleet at the Battle of Abukir. -
Napoleon becomes First Consul
1 month after coup. Set up a new constitution with himself as 1st Consul. Granted universal male suffrage to satisfy republican sentiment. Left Napoleon in control over the real workings of the state. Staged plebiscite(a vote be the people) → used it to show popular support. -
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Napoleon
His most enduring accomplishment, the new Civil Code, tempered the principles of the Enlightenment and the Revolution with an insistence on the powers of fathers over children, husbands over wives, and employers over workers. His influence spread into many spheres as he personally patronized scientific inquiry and encouraged artistic styles in line with his vision of imperial greatness.He effectively ended the French Revolution and steered France toward an authoritarian state. -
Napoleon involved in coup overthrowing Directory
Napoleon backed to France. 19 Brumaire-11/10/1799, joined the Abbé Siéyes - one of the 5 Directors staged a coup d’etat, and overturned the Directory. Sieyes thought Napoleon could be controlled & established a new constitution with a powerful executive made up of three consuls (Roger-Ducos, Sieyes, Napoelon). -
Napoleon and Pope Pius VII sign concordat
Recognized hostility of French Catholics was problem. Religious, but knew the importance. Settlement worked to the benefit of Napoleon. “Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French”. Reestablish the church as the official state religion. -
Plebiscite establishes Napoleon as Consul for Life
The Civil Code of 1804 (Napoleonic Code) - framework for the French legal system, single unitary legal system for all France. Enshrined the equality of all people before law & safeguarded the rights of property holders. Women, paternalistic nature (X property sell/buy, but divorce is legal). -
Treaty of Amiens
French & British (Great Britain). Temporary measure to limit British influence. Sent troops to Haiti (slave revel) → many died from diseases. -
Napoleon sells the Louisiana territory to the U.S.
For the paltry sum of around $11 million. Refocused on Europe & readied plans to invade England. -
Napoleon crowned Emperor
Means to show popular support. Invited pope → yanked it out of the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. “He was the Emperor of the French not based on the will of God or through accident of birth, but rather as a result of the weight of his own achievements”. New aristocracy - based on service to state rather than births.
