THE EVENTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Financial Situation

Debt from Wars

Debt from King’s extravagance

Interest payments ½ tax revenue

Tax structure problems

Change necessary soon

Estates General called

Last called in 1614

Legislative body in an Absolute Monarchy

Meeting at Versailles’ palace

Each Estate gets one vote

May 5th, 1789

Double the Third

Third Estate won’t cooperate; knows result

Meets in Tennis Court

King offers two votes to Third Estate

Third rejects King’s offer

King closes the Estates General to the 3rd Estate

June 17th, 1789

National Assembly

June 20th, 1789

Three Estates meet

Form National Assembly

All Three Estates represented

Question format of Assembly

Tennis Court Oath

National Assembly vows to make change

Vow taken in Tennis Court

Will not disband until Constitution is created

Bastille

King’s Prison in downtown Paris

Symbol of King’s power and control

Crowds of 3rd Estate members attack

Free prisoners and gain weapons

Great Fear

Rumors of violence against peasants

Untrue Rumors

Violence caused against Manor houses

Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen

Old Order is Gone

1789

Based off of the American Declaration of Independence

Incorporated ideas from Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau for freedom

No equality for women

Women March on Versailles

King refused to accept reform and the Declaration of Rights

National Assembly moved to Paris

October 1789, thousands of women march to the King’s palace in Versailles

King announces that he will come to Paris to show support for the National Assembly

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

The French Catholic church was under government control turning the clergy in to elected salaried officials

Passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790

Created a deep disagreement between the Church and the Revolution

Many clergy refused to accept it.

It took all church land and sold it to the highest bidder

Pope Pius VI condemns this bill and it creates two churches: one loyal to the state and one to the Pope

New Government

Unicameral Legislature

Divided between Royalists and Radicals

National Assembly created a constitution of the people in 1791

Guaranteed the basic rights of the People and limited the monarchy

Middle Class gained power

First and Third Estates were unhappy because they were losing power

Emigres

Nobles who fled to Austria

The royalty of Austria and other European countries were worried that their rule would be challenged by

the Revolution

Hoped to restore Louis XVI to power in stead of the Revolution

Declare war on Austria

1792

Paris crowds attacked king’s palace

King fled to legislators for help

Legislators threw Royals in jail instead of helping them

Mobs of Paris killed Nobles and Priests

New Constitution written which allowed all men the right to vote

Section Three: Dawn of a new Era

Battle at Valmy

French (in flux) went to war against Austria, Prussia and Silesia (Monarchies)

In Sept 1792, French Army won the conflict

Soldiers were subjected to poor conditions

Victory boosted their spirits

National Convention and the New Calendar

Met from 1792-1795 and most members were bourgeoisie

Wrote the first Democratic Constitution

Adopted a new calendar: 9.22.1792 = day one of year one. Rename the months of the year. Redefine the

borders of France for natural boundries

Trial and Execution of the King

Louis was executed in January of 1793

Accused of crimes against the liberty of the nation

Use a box of letters found to accuse him; the letters were from foreign monarchs. In the letters he pleads for help and badmouths the Revolutionary leaders.

The Crowds rejoice

Committee of Public Safety

National Convention forms the Committee of Public Safety to direct the war effort

Adopt conscription: Draft all men between 18-45 for military service (2 million men) Skilled with

resources were prized.

Jacobins control the committee led by Maximilien Robespierre and extreme radical

They support the Sans Coulottes

Reign of Terror

July 1793- July 1794

40,000 French people are guillotined (111 per day)

Enemies of the Revolution were tried and executed

It’s like a witch hunt

Constitution of 1795

Universal male suffrage goes away; only property owners can now vote.

Convention writes a new constitution which creates the Directory (5 directors/bicameral legislature)

The Directory

Inept leadership

Corrupt Leadership

Created many enemies such as the Sans Culottes

Little effort to fix the close the gap between rich and poor

Section Four: Napoleon’s Empire

Overthrow of the DirectoryNapoleon overthrows the directory in 1799

Forms a dictatorship

Makes a new constitution

Consulate

Executive branch is made of three consuls

Napoleon names himself as First Consul, a Roman idea

Bicameral Legislature

Created Secondary Schools called Lycee, Universal Education

Created the Bank of France

Forced everyone to pay taxes

Crowns Himself Emperor

Takes the Crown from the Pope and places it on his own head, symbolizing his ability to crown himself

not needing the church to do it.

1802

Napoleonic Code

Had a new code written

Made the State more important than the individuals

Based on Enlightenment Idea: such as equality of all citizens, religious toleration

Limited freedom of speech and press

Women’s rights were also limited

French law was made clear and consistant

Males were given more power in their household over their wives and families

Concordat of 1801

Acknowledged Catholicism was the religion of the majority of French People

Affirmed the religious toleration of others

Retained the right to name all bishops who had sworn alliance with the state.

Eliminated the Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Pope and Napoleon hug

Battle of Trafalgar

The battle happened in October 1805

British Admiral Nelson defeated the French Navy

Off the southern coast of Spain

Removed the possibility of the French invasion of Britain

Continental System

France banned trade with Great Britain

Made the countries which they had beaten, not trade with Britain either

Britain said that any ship on it’s way to Europe had to stop in Britain and pay a tax.

British Navy maintained control of the seas

Napoleon was trying to destroy the British system

Attack on Russia

Russia begins to trade with Britain and this made Napoleon angry.

He invaded Russia

They retreated and used a “scorched earth” policy to stop the French

The 600,000 soldiers for France were hungry and cold, 400,000 died and 200,000 marched back to France

100 Days

Upon his return from Russia, he was exiled and replaced by Louis XVIII.

He was sent to a small island off the coast of Italy named Elba

After being rescued by the French Army he led them into battle

Battle of Nations @ Waterloo, Belgium

Great Britain, Netherlands and Prussia meet the French Army in Waterloo, Belgium

June 1815

After the battle, Napoleon was placed under house arrest

St. Helena

He was placed here under house arrest

Located in the middle of the South Atlantic, Napoleon dies here in 1821

Section Five: Peace in Europe

Congress of ViennaKlemens Von Metternich

The Kings, Princes and Diplomats gather for a Peace Conference in Vienna, Austria

Sept. 1814 to June 1815

RestorationReparation

Balance of Power

Restoration: The action of restoring the Monarchies to the condition they had been in before the French

Revolution

Reparation: compensation for the expenses incurred during the French Revolution

Balance of Power: No country should ever again dominate Continental Europe.

Buffer States

Neutral territories surrounded the country of France

This was to protect the Monarchies from Democratic reforms of the French people. They didn’t want

those ideas in their countries.

Examples of these countries were: Austrian Netherlands, Dutch Netherlands, German

Confederation, Switzerland, Sardinia

Reactionaries vs. Liberalism

Reactionaries: People who opposed change and want to return the Government to the format it was in earlier

times. These were the Nobles.

Liberalism: Believe in the ideas of the Enlightenment and the placed the rights of the individual above those of the State. Approved of the democratic

reforms of the French Revolution. These are the Middle class. They support the ideals of free speech

and press.

Alliances

Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia join the Quadruple Alliance

The Holy Alliance was Russia and Netherlands, Austria, Prussia.

France joins the Quadruple Alliance

Why: The alliance agreement agreed to discuss the security of Europe.

Metternich System

The Meetings of the Alliances were called the Concert of Europe and helped European countries avoid

conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars

Metternich achieved his political goals in opposing Liberalism and Nationalism as well as defending the

Absolute Monarchies of Europe

Nationalism

The idea of the people controlling their countries and not the Kings was not eliminated by the Metternich

System

In Germany, students rose up against the government

In Spain, the Absolute Monarch was forced to accept a constitution

In Greece the people won their independence from Turkey in 1829

The ideas of the French Revolution lived on!