The French revolutionDawn of a New Era

Chapter 22/ Section 3Red and Blue headings

The French Republic

• French Army defeats Prussians at Valmy

• National Convention makes France a Republic– Universal suffrage all men

regardless of property– New Weights and

measures– New Calendar

• Day One Year One

Death of a King

• The King is tried and sentenced to die by guillotine.

• National Convention divided between Jacobins and the Girondists with the Plain in the Middle

• San-Culottes demand respect in the streets.

Spreading the Revolution

• European Monarchs feared democratic revolutions in their countries

• Great Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Sardinia join Austria and Prussia against France

French Expansion

• Expand French borders to their natural boundaries: Alps, Pyrenees, Rhine River and Mediterranean Sea.

• Army of Volunteers proving “Liberty, equality and fraternity” against Mercenaries

• Defeats cause conscription by the Committee of Public Safety

The Revolution in Crisis

• Civil War breaking out at home; western royalists re. draft, city dwellers re. food shortages and prices

• Government divided between Jacobins and Girondists; gets bloody (Marat)

The Reign of Terror

• Jacobins set out to crush all opposition to the Revolution within France

• Lasts from July 1793 until July 1794

Crushing Opposition

• Neighborhood watch committees hunt down suspected traitors

• Many innocent people suffered. 85% of the 40,000 killed were not Aristocracy.

• Marie Antoinette was killed.

Republic of Virtue

• Committee of Public Safety tries to set up a “Republic of Virtue”– New Schools aand

Universal Education– Teach Farmers skills– Introduce price controls

and Wage freezes

Religious issues about Catholicism and it’s connection to the Monarchy

End of the Terror

• By the Spring of 1794, many of the Jacobins felt the Reign of Terror had gone on long enough.

• Robbespierre accused them of treason and had them executed.

• The others executed Robespierre

• At this point the Terror came to an end and society began to change

The Directory

Convention writes new Constitution– Voting from Universal to

Property Owners only– Directory with of 5

Directors and a Bicameral Legislature.

Used army to put down Sans Culottes descent

Public looks to the Military to solve problems

Napoleon Takes Over

• As the French Society took over, the French Military won a number of battles against the European Monarchs.

• One of the Military leaders was Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon’s Early Fame

• Napoleon puts down an uprising against the Directory

• Marries Josephine de Beauharnais, a well connected socialite

• Defeats the Austrians and gains land in Italy

Napoleon’s Bold Move

• Napoleon leaves his troops after a defeat by Horatio Nelson off the coast of Egypt

• Returns to France and, arriving in Paris to a hero’s welcome, overthrows the Directory in a coup d'état in October 1799