The French Revolution

1789-1815

1700s France

Background• 24,000,000 citizens – most in

Europe

• Political and social order dating back to the Middle Ages

• Wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe

• Unequal distribution of wealth

Social Order• Society broken up into three estates

• 1st Estate • Clergy

• 2nd Estate• Nobility

• 3rd Estate • Everyone else

Causes• Enlightenment

• American Revolution

• Unfair tax system and land distribution

• Poor harvests

• Royal spending

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

% of Income Spent on Bread

1787

1788

Stages of the Revolution

The Liberal Phase 1789-1792

The Radical Phase 1792-1795

The Directory 1795-1799

Age of Napoleon 1799-1815

The Liberal Phase – 1789-1792

• June 1789 • Estates General convene at Versailles

• Third Estate declare themselves legislative body: National Assembly

• Goal is to create a constitution

• King does not intervene

• July 1789• Parisian citizens storm the Bastille gathering arms and munitions

The Liberal/Moderate Phase

• August 1789 • Titles of nobility and feudal obligations terminated, tax system

abolished

• Great Fear: Peasants attack feudal lords throughout countryside

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen written

• November 1789• Civil Constitution of the Clergy: Church lands seized, tithe abolished

• 1791 • Constitution completed, creation of a limited monarchy

The French Plague!

Who is going to be terrified of the French Revolution?

Why?

Chaos Breads Change and Violence

The Terror: 1793-1795

War Prompts Radicalism - 1792• Austria, Prussia, Spain and England at war with France

• Constitutional Monarchy abolished

• Radicals abolish Legislative Assembly and create the National Convention – republic declared

• Moderates not achieving enough

• Louis XVI imprisoned in Paris

First Louis is taken from the Palace of Versailles…

Then he is taken to the Tuileries Palace

in Paris…

The Temple Prison

• Did Louis need to die?

• Why or why not?

1793• Louis XVI and Marie

Antoinette executed

• Foreign armies continue to attack

• Committee of Public Safety formed

• 12 member group led by Robespierre charged with protecting the country and revolution

• “Terror is the order of the day”

Reign of Terror The Directory

• Guillotine drops until foreign armies are repealed • Terror ends with

Robespierre's execution

• Over 12,000 officially guillotined

• Thousands more still unofficially executed

The Directory 1795-1799

• Five member governing body elected from the upper house of the legislative body

• Largely inefficient and corrupt body of government• Doesn’t end the bread crisis

• Doesn’t end the foreign wars

• Doesn’t create a sense of stability within France

Napoleon!1799-1815

Napoleon

• Common born, successful general

• Rules as a member of the Consulate (1 of 3) in 1799

• Declares himself emperor in 1804

• Create political stability in France

• Expands some of the ideals of the French Revolution through war• Conquer territory in Spain,

Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Egypt, Prussia, and Russia

Europe in 1800

Napoleon’s Expanding French Empire

Continental System 1806

Effects

• New code of law in conquered lands• Napoleonic Code

• Abolished titles of nobility and serfdom

• Eliminated medieval law and customs

• Abolished church privileges

• Equal rights for male citizens

• Eliminated primogeniture

Spread of the Napoleonic Code

The “Host”Prince Klemens von Metternich (Aus.)

Foreign Minister, Viscount Castlereagh (Br.)

Tsar Alexander I (Rus.)

King Frederick William III (Prus.)

Foreign Minister, Tallyrand (Fr.)

Key Figures at Vienna

Congress of

Vienna

• Objectives

• Establish long lasting peace between the great powers

• Turn back the clock/return to the status quo to 1789

• Politically, socially, and territorially

• Principles

• Compensation

• Create a balance of power

• Principles of legitimacy

• “Concert of Europe” and intervention

• Key Figures

• Metternich

• Alexander I

• Talleyrand

Europe After the Congress of Vienna