The Revolution in PoliticsThe Revolution in Politics (1789-1815)

A Presentation by:Samantha CegliaSamantha Ceglia

and Diana KeenanDiana Keenan

RecappingRecappingthe Revolutionary Period the Revolutionary Period

of Franceof France

The French Revolution

(1789-1791)

World War & Republican

France

(1791-1799)

The Napoleonic Era

(1799-1815)

ObjectivesObjectives

• In this presentation we hope to answer the following:• What caused this era of revolution? What were the ideas and objectives of the

men and women who rose up violently to undo the established system?

What were the gains and losses for privileged groups and for ordinary people in a generation of war and upheaval?

Revolutionary TimelineRevolutionary TimelineFrance, 1789-1799

• May 5, 1789- Estates General convene at Versailles• June 17, 1789- Third estate declares itself the National

Assembly• June 20, 1789-Oath of the Tennis Court is sworn.• July 14, 1789 -Storming of the Bastille occurs• July—August 1789 -Great Fear ravages the countryside• August 4, 1789 -National Assembly abolishes feudal

privileges• August 27, 1789 -National Assembly issues Declaration of

the Rights of Man• October 5, 1789 -Women march on Versailles and force

royal family to return to Paris• November 1789 -National Assembly confiscates church

lands• July 1790 - Civil Constitution of Clergy Establishes a

national church. Louis XVI reluctantly agrees to accept a constitutional monarchy

• June 1791 – Royal Family is arrested while attempting to flee France

• August 1791 – Austria and Prussia issue the Declaration of Pillnitz

• April 1792 – France declares war on Austria• August 1792 – Parisian mob attacks the palace and takes

Louis XVI prisoner• September 1792 – September Massacres, National

Convention declares France as a republic & abolishes monarchy

• January 1793 – Louis XVI is executed• February 1793- France declares war on Britain,

Holland and Spain. Revolts take place in provincial cities.

• March 1793 – Bitter struggle occurs in the National Convention between Girondists & the Mountain

• April-June 1793 – Robespierre and the Mountain organize the Committee of Public Safety and arrest Girondist leaders.

• September 1793 – Price controls are instituted to aid the sans-culottes and mobilize the war effort

• 1793-1794 – Reign of Terror darkens Paris and the provinces

• Spring 1794 – French armies are victorious on all fronts

• July 1794 – Robespierre is executed, Thermidorian reaction begins.

• 1795-1799 – Directory Rules• 1795 – Economic controls are abolished, and

suppression of the sans-culottes begins• 1797 – Napoleon defeats Austrian armies in Italy

and returns triumphant to Paris• 1798 – Austria, Great Britain, and Russia form the

Second Coalition against France• 1799 – Napoleon overthrows the Directory and

seizes power.

The French RevolutionThe French Revolution1789-1791

• No country felt the consequences of the American Revolution more directly than France.

• French intellectuals and publicists engaged in passionate analysis of the federal Constitution as well as the constitutions of the various states of the new United States.

• The American Revolution undeniably hastened the upheaval in France, yet it did not mirror the American example. It was more radical and more complex, more influential and more controversial, more loved and more hated.

• It was the great revolution of the 18th century, opening the modern era in politics.

The Breakdown The Breakdown of the Old Order of the Old Order

• The French Revolution had its immediate origins in the financial difficulties of the government.

• By the 1780s, 50% of France’s annual budget went for ever increasing interest payments on the ever-increasing debt. Another 25% went to maintain the military, while 6% was absorbed by the costly and extravagant king and his court at Versailles. Less than 20% of the entire national budget was available for the productive functions of the state, such as transportation and general administration---these outrageous debts created a very tense financial scene for the French.

• The French debt was being held by an army of aristocratic and bourgeois creditors, and the French monarchy, though absolute in theory, had become too weak for such a drastic and unpopular action.

• France had no central bank, no paper currency, and no means of creating credit. French money was good gold coin. Therefore, when a depressed economy and the difficulty of obtaining new gold loans collided, the French government had no choice but to try increasing taxes.

Legal Orders and Social RealitiesLegal Orders and Social Realities• France’s 25 million inhabitants were still legally divided into three estates: the clergy, the nobility,

and everyone else. The clergy owned about 10% of the land and paid only a “voluntary gift” every 5 years. The 2nd estate, the nobles, owned about 25% of the land and they were taxed very lightly. They enjoyed manorial rights (privileges of lordship) which allowed them to tax the peasantry for their own profit. Everyone else was “common” and were members of the third estate. Some were well educated, some were urban artisians, or unskilled day labors, but majority were peasants and agricultural workers.

• The growing tension between the nobility and the comfortable members of the third estate (bourgeoisie/middle class) was the deep root which triggered the French Revolution.

• The bourgeoisie was solely united by economic position and class interest. As the size of this group began to increase, the rising bourgeoisie became progressively exasperated by the archaic “feudal” laws restraining the economy and by the pretensions of a reactionary nobility, concerned by the growing power of the middle class.

• As a result, the bourgeoisie eventually rose up to lead the entire 3rd estate in a great social revolution, which would destroy feudal privileges and establish a capitalist order based on individualism and a market economy.

• In contrast to these above views, some historians see the conflict between the bourgeoisie and nobility as an complex internal rivalry.

• Rather than standing as unified blocs against each other, nobility and bourgeoisie formed two parallel social ladders increasingly linked together at the top by wealth, marriage, and Enlightenment culture.

• France had become a society based on wealth and education, where an emerging elite that included both aristocratic and bourgeoisie notables was frustrated by a bureaucratic monarchy that continued to claim the right to absolute power.

The Three EstatesThe Three Estates

As in the Middle Ages, France’s 25 million inhabitants were still divided into three orders, or estates. The first estate: the clergy. The second estate: the nobles. The third estate: everyone else, the commoners.

The Formation of the The Formation of the National AssemblyNational Assembly

• ·          Spurred by a depressed economy and falling tax receipts, Louis XVI’s minister of finance revived old proposals to impose a general tax on all landed property as well as to form provincial assemblies to help administer the tax, and he convinced the king to call an assembly of notables to gain support for the idea, however, instead of bolstering support he only created discontent!

• ·          After a rough year of dept and struggle, in July 1788, Louis XVI called for a spring session of the Estates General- absolute monarchy in France was collapsing.

• ·          The petitions of change coming from the three estates showed a surprising degree of consensus on most issues. There was general agreement that royal absolutism should give way to constitutional monarchy, in which laws and taxes would require the consent of the Estates General.

• ·          Yet an increasingly bitter quarrel undermined this consensus during the intense electoral campaign: how would the Estates General vote, and precisely who would lead in the political reorganization that was generally desired?

• ·          Reflecting increased political competition and a growing hostility toward aristocratic aspirations, the abbe Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes argued in 1789 in his famous pamphlet What is The Third Estate? That the nobility was a tiny, over privileged minority and that the neglected third estate constituted the true strength of the French nation.

• ·          In May 1789, the twelve hundred delegates of the three estates paraded through Versailles to an open session, an immediate deadlock between the estates regarding how the French government should be run, which was resolved with the famous Oath of the Tennis Court, (named after the area of the event- a large indoor tennis court).

• ·          However Louis XVI, would not go down without a fight. Faced with growing opposition since 1787, he resigned himself to the state’s bankruptcy. Now he was trying to reassert his “divine right” to rule. The middle-class delegates and their allies from the liberal nobility had done their best, but they were resigned to being disbanded at bayonet point.

The Tennis Court Oath

Both of these painting depict the revolutionary rupture that occurred on June 20, 1789. The delegates of the third estate moved to an indoor tennis court (hence, “The Tennis Court Oath”) and swore never to disband until the creation of a new constitution and firm foundation for France.

National AssemblyNational Assembly

On August 27, 1789 the National Assembly took a great step forward with the publication of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, shown here. This declaration maintained many rights for French men.

The Revolt of theThe Revolt of the Poor & Oppressed Poor & Oppressed

• While the highly educated members of the third estate pushed for equality with the nobility and clergy, economic hardship gripped the French commoners.

• Harvest failure and high bread prices unleashed a classic economic depression of the preindustrial age. By the end of 1789, almost half of the French people were in need of relief. One in every eight people was a pauper living in extreme want.

• With a background of poverty and political upheaval, the French proceeded into a revolutionary state.

• On July 13th, many people began to seize arms for the defense of the city as the king’s armies moved toward Paris, and on July 14 several hundred people marched to the Bastille to search for weapons and gunpowder.

• Bastille, a medieval fortress that had long been used as a prison, was the sight of ninety eight deaths, the popular uprising had broken the power monopoly of the royal army and thereby saved the National Assembly.

• Fear of vagabonds and outlaws—called the Great Fear—seized the countryside and sparked the flames of rebellion. The long-suffering peasants were doing their best to free themselves from manorial rights and exploitation.

The Surrender of BastilleThe Surrender of Bastille

Wild Parisians attacked the military fortress Bastille. They saw it as a grim symbol of oppression and royal despotism. July 14—Bastille Day—is France’s most important national holiday.

The Great FearThe Great FearPeasants seized forests and taxes went unpaid. Fear of vagabonds and outlaws called the Great Fear seized the country side and fanned the flames of rebellion. The long suffering peasants were doing their best to free themselves from manorial rights and exploitation.

A Limited Monarchy

• In hopes of establishing peace and equality, the Assembly abolished feudal constraints.• On August 27, 1789 the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man.• The Declaration stated “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights” as well as secured man’s

natural rights of “liberty, property security and resistance to oppression”• There were many other basic rights in this Declaration similar to the opportunities in American

including the “innocent until proven guilty” concept, the right to petition, freedom of speech & expression, and equality before the law.

• On October 5th and shortly after, the French women started a riotous uproar demanding relief for the increasing hunger and unemployment widespread in France. In the middle of a frenzied panic, the King, Queen and their son became the targets. The Royal Family was forced to retreat to France.

• Under middle-class leadership, the National Assembly abolished the French nobility and pushed forward France’s constitutional monarchy, the king remained head of the state but all the lawmaking responsibilities belonged to the National Assembly.

• Although women were still not permitted to vote or hold office, they could seek divorce, inherit property and obtain financial support from fathers for illegitimate children.

• The National Assembly applied the critical spirit of the Enlightenment to reform France’s laws and institutions completely.

• The Assembly also imposed a radical reorganization on the country’s religious life. It granted religious freedom to the tiny minority of French Jews and Protestants. The Assembly also confiscated all Catholic Church land property.

• This caused conflict with the Catholic Church, as the Assembly sought to establish a “national church.” The attempt to remake the Catholic Church sharpened the conflict between the educated classes and the common people that had been emerging in the 18th century. This became one of the revolutionary government’s first major failures.

Rousseau’s EmileRousseau’s Emile

The great majority of French males in the National Assembly believed that women should be limited to child rearing and domestic duties and should leave politics and most public activities to men, as Rousseau had advocated in his influential Emile.

World War and Republican World War and Republican FranceFrance

•Louis XVI accepted the final version of the completed constitution in September 1791, a young and still obscure provincial lawyer and member of the National Assembly named Maximilien Robespierre evaluated the work the work of two years and concluded that, "The Revolution is over." • He wasn't exactly wrong, but he wasn't right either. A much more radical stage lay ahead for the French Revolution. • New ideologies were to erge in the time ahead.

Foreign Reactions and the Foreign Reactions and the Beginning of WarBeginning of War• The Revolution in France brought great excitement but also division of ideas in Europe and in the

United States. Liberals and radicals saw triumph over despotism. In Great Britain, the hope was that the French Revolution would lead to fundamental reordering of Parliament.

• Conservative leader, Edmund Burke, was upset about the aroused spirit of reform. He published Reflections of the Revolution in France, a great intellectual defense of European conservatism. He predicted that the ongoing reform in France would only lead to chaos. This work caused much debate.

• Mary Wollstonecraft published a rebuttal book called A Vindication of the Rights of Man. Then she took a big leap and wrote A Vindication of Rights of Woman.

• In June 1791, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were arrested after trying to leave France. After this the monarchs of Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz. This carefully worded statement declared their willingness to intervene in France in certain circumstances and was expected to have a sobering effect on revolutionary France without causing war.

• These monarchs misjudged the revolutionary spirit in France. When the National Assembly disbanded, it decreed that its members would not be able to run or be elected into this new Legislative Assembly. This meant that the new Legislative Assembly had completely different character. Many of its members were still well-educated, middle class men. Many of the deputies were loosely allied and called Jacobins, after the name of their political club.

• On August 10, 1792 a revolutionary crowd attacked the royal palace at the Tuileries. Capturing it after fighting with the Swiss Guards. The King and his family fled, in fear for their lives, to the nearby Legislative Assembly. He called for a new National Convention, which would be elected by universal male suffrage.

• This left the French monarchy on its "death bed."

The Second RevolutionThe Second Revolution•The fall of the monarchy marked a rapid radicalization of the The fall of the monarchy marked a rapid radicalization of the Revolution, a phase that historians often call the second revolution. Revolution, a phase that historians often call the second revolution. •Stories that imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats and Stories that imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats and priests were plotting with allied incased. As a result of this, crowds priests were plotting with allied incased. As a result of this, crowds invaded the prisons in Paris and slaughtered half the men and invaded the prisons in Paris and slaughtered half the men and women that were found. In September 1792, the newly elected women that were found. In September 1792, the newly elected National Convention declared France a republic. National Convention declared France a republic. •The National Convention created a new popular culture. They The National Convention created a new popular culture. They eliminated saints' days from the calendar, and renamed the months eliminated saints' days from the calendar, and renamed the months after the seasons of the year. This republic promoted democratic after the seasons of the year. This republic promoted democratic festivals, as well. Events like this brought the entire public together. festivals, as well. Events like this brought the entire public together. •All of the members of the National Convention belonged to the All of the members of the National Convention belonged to the Jacobin Club of Paris. However control of the Convention was Jacobin Club of Paris. However control of the Convention was contested by two extremely competitive groups, the Girondists, and contested by two extremely competitive groups, the Girondists, and the Mountain, led by Robespierre. the Mountain, led by Robespierre. •In January 1793, the National Convention convicted Louis the XVI of In January 1793, the National Convention convicted Louis the XVI of treason and sentenced him to death. Louis was killed by the newly treason and sentenced him to death. Louis was killed by the newly invented guillotine. invented guillotine. •In February 1793, the National Convention who was already in war In February 1793, the National Convention who was already in war with Prussia, and Austria, declared war on Britain, with Prussia, and Austria, declared war on Britain,

Holland, and Spain. Republican France was now at war with pretty much all of Europe. Holland, and Spain. Republican France was now at war with pretty much all of Europe. As the forces of the First Coalition drove the French from the Austrian Netherlands, peasants in western France As the forces of the First Coalition drove the French from the Austrian Netherlands, peasants in western France revolted again being drafted into the army. They were supported by Catholics. revolted again being drafted into the army. They were supported by Catholics. In Paris, the National Convention found itself in a life-and-death struggle between the Girondists and the Mountain. In Paris, the National Convention found itself in a life-and-death struggle between the Girondists and the Mountain. Both groups wanted the same outcome, however, personal hatreds ran deep. The Girondists didn't want a bloody Both groups wanted the same outcome, however, personal hatreds ran deep. The Girondists didn't want a bloody dictatorship by the Mountain. The Mountain was afraid the Girondists would turn to others in order to gain power for dictatorship by the Mountain. The Mountain was afraid the Girondists would turn to others in order to gain power for themselves. With the middle class so divided, the poor found themselves as the decisive political factor. themselves. With the middle class so divided, the poor found themselves as the decisive political factor.

Robespierre Robespierre & The People & The People

• It was the artisans, day laborers, market women, and garment workers who initiated the radical revolutionary action. They were the ones who stormed Bastille, marched on Versailles, drove the King from Tuileries and carried out the September Massacres.

• The laboring poor and the petty traders were often called the sans-culottes, which meant, "without breeches." These men often wore trousers instead of the "fancy" knee breeches. During the spring of 1793, the sans-culottes became increasingly interested in politics. They began demanded radical political action to guarantee them their daily bread. At first both the Mountain and the Girondists rejected the demands, but as time went on the Mountain became increasingly sympathetic. The Mountain joined san-culottes activists in the city government to engineer a popular uprising, which forced the Convention to arrest thirty-one Girondist deputies for treason on June 2. This gave all power to the Mountain.

• Robespierre and others from the Mountain joined the Committee of Public Safety, which was newly formed. This committee was given power to deal with the national emergency. Development like this in Paris, triggered revolts in provincial cities. By July 1793, only the areas around Paris and on the eastern frontier were firmly held by the central government. Defeat seemed imminent.

Total War and the TerrorTotal War and the Terror• In 1794, the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland were once again in the

hands of conquering French Armies, and the First Coalition was falling apart.

• Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety advanced with implacable resolution on several fronts in 1793 and 1794. Along with his coworkers, Robespierre established a planned economy with egalitarian social overtones. This allowed the government to set maximum prices for key products.

• Rationing was also introduced. Bakers were only allowed to make "bread of equality" which was a brown bread made out of a mixture of all available flours. White bread was outlawed as a luxury.

• The Reign of Terror used revolutionary terror to solidify the home front. Special revolutionary courts tried rebels for political crimes. Some 40,000 French men and women were executed or died in prison. This was the most controversial phase of the Revolution.

• The third and most decisive element in the French Republic's victory over the First Coalition was its ability to draw on the explosive power of patriotic dedication to a national state and a national mission. An essential part of modern nationalism, this commitment was something new.

• After August 1973, all unmarried young men under the age of 35 were subjected to a draft and by 1794, the French had about 800,000 active soldiers on duty in fourteen armies.

• By Spring of 1794, French armies were victorious on all fronts. THE REPUBLIC WAS SAVED!

Robespierre, the man behind Robespierre, the man behind the terror. the terror.

The Thermidorian Reaction & The Thermidorian Reaction & the Directory the Directory 1794-1799

• After the success of the French armies, Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety relaxed the emergency economic controls. Their goal was to create a republic where there would be neither rich nor poor. Their lowly means were unrestrained despotism and the guillotine which "struck down" any who might seriously question the new order.

• In March 1974, Robespierre's Terror wiped out many who had been criticizing him. Two weeks later, several of his own men marched up to the guillotine. A group of radicals organized a conspiracy and howled down Robespierre when he tried to speak to the National Convention. The next day it was Robespierre's turn to be shaved by the revolutionary razor.

• The Thermidorian Reaction recalled the early days of the Revolution. The respectable middle-class lawyers and professionals who had led the liberal revolution of 1789 reasserted their authority, drawing support from their own class.

• The collapse of economic controls hit the poor hard. Disorganized after Robespierre purged radical leaders, the common people of Paris finally revolted against the emerging new order in 1795. The army quickly took care of these people.

• In 1795, the members of the National convention wrote another Constitution. This stated that the mass of the population would vote for electors. The new assembly chose a five man executive, called the Directory.

• The Directory continued to support French military expansion abroad. The unprincipled action of the Directory reinforced widespread disgust with war and starvation. The Directory afraid for their lives began using the army and ruling France like a dictatorship. Two years later Napoleon Bonaparte ended the Directory in a coup d'etat and substituted a strong dictatorship for a weak one. The effort to establish a stable representative government had failed.

Timeline of Timeline of the Napoleonic Erathe Napoleonic Era

• November 1799 – Napoleon overthrows the Directory• December 1799 – French voters overwhelmingly approve

Napoleon’s new constitution.• 1800 – Napoleon founds the Bank of France• 1801 – France defeats Austria and acquires Italian and

German territories in the Treaty of Lunéville.• 1802 – France signs Treaty of Amiens with Britain.• December 1805 – Napoleon defeats Austria and Russia at

the Battle of Austerlitz.• 1807 – Napoleon redraws the map of Europe in the

treaties of Tilsit• 1810- The Grand Empire is at its height.• June 1812 – Napoleon invades Russia with 600,000 men• Fall-Winter 1812 – Napoleon makes a disastrous retreat

from Russia• March 1814 – Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain form the

Quadruple Alliance to defeat France• April 1814 – Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba• February- June 1815 – Napoleon escapes from Elba and

rules France until he is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Napoleonic EraThe Napoleonic Era

• From 1799 to 1814, France was in the hands of a keen-minded military dictator of exceptional ability, Napoleon Bonaparte.

• He is known as one of history’s most fascinating leaders.

• Napoleon saw himself as a man of destiny, and the glory of war and the dream of a universal empire took over his mind as his ambition proved to be his means to an end.

Napoleon’s Napoleon’s Rule of FranceRule of France

• In 1799 when he seized power, young General Napoleon Bonaparte was a national hero.• He was born in Corsica to an impoverished noble family in 1769, he gradually climbed the French social ladder through his French

military conquests and achievements.• At age 30, Napoleon became the ideal strong military leader and joined in the organized takeover of the current Directory

government in France.• After takeover on November 9, 1799, Napoleon was named first consul of the republic. A new constitution consolidating his

position was overwhelmingly approved in a plebiscite in December 1799. • Napoleon’s greatest achievements were his domestic reforms. • The essence of Napoleon’s domestic policy was to use his great personal powers to maintain order and end civil strife. He did so

by working out unwritten agreements with powerful groups in France. • In the Civil Code of 1804, two fundamental principles of liberty were reinserted into French society: 1. equality of all male citizens

before the law and 2. absolute security of wealth and private property.• Napoleon and leading bankers of Paris established the privately owned Bank of France, which loyally served the interests of both

the state and the financial oligarchy. The peasants supported the new economic structure because they gained both land and status from the revolutionary changes.

• Building on the solid foundations that revolutionary governments had inherited from the Old Regime, Napoleon perfected a thoroughly centralized state. He consolidated his rule by recruiting former revolutionaries for the network of minister positions, prefects and centrally appointed mayors served him well.

• By 1800 the French clergy was dived into two groups: those who had taken an oath of allegiance to the revolutionary government and those in exile/hiding/or refusing to take oath.

• Pope Pius VII signed the Concordat of 1801 with Napoleon which granted French Catholics the right to practice their religion freely in exchange for Napoleon’s control the political structure of the French clergy.

• Women, on the other hand, lost many of their gained rights from the earlier revolutionary periods. Under the Napoleonic Code, women were dependents of either their fathers or their husbands, and they could not make contracts or even have bank accounts in their own names.

• Napoleon’s aim was a family monarchy where the power of the male dominated the power of the wife and children in the house. • In addition, freedom of speech and the press were continually violated led by the ruthless Joseph Fouché, minister of police.

Joseph FouchéJoseph Fouché

•A French statesman and the Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte.

•A member of the Jacobins, he was strongly in support of the king’s execution.

•He set up a harsh system of censorship and a collection of spies to watch suspicious and dangerous individuals against Napoleon’s rule.

Family Monarchy

Family monarchy was the revival of male control in the French households. Napoleon sought to return power in the home to the men, the fathers and the husbands. This move took away control from the women, who had in recent years received a great deal of rights. These rights also were alienated during the era of Napoleon’s rule.

Napoleon’s Wars & Napoleon’s Wars & Foreign PolicyForeign Policy

• Above all, Napoleon was a great military man. • French armies led by Napoleon decisively defeated the Austrians. In the Treaty of

Lunéville (1801), Austria accepted the loss of almost all its Italian possessions, and German territory on the west back of the Rhine was incorporated into France.

• Napoleon concluded the Treaty of Amiens with Great Britain in 1802. France remained in control of Holland, and the Austrian Netherlands, the west bank of the Rhine, and most of the Italian peninsula. This treaty was a diplomatic triumph for Napoleon, and peace with honor and profit increased his popularity in France.

• Aggressively redrawing the map of Germany so as to weaken Austria and attract the secondary states of southwestern Germany toward France, Napoleon tried to restrict British trade with all of Europe. Napoleon decided to renew war with Britain in May 1803.

• Austria, Russia and Sweden joined with Britain to form the Third Coalition against France shortly before the Battle of Trafalgar. Yet the Austrians and the Russians were no match for Napoleon, who scored a brilliant victory over them at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805.

• In 1806 Napoleon abolished many of the tiny German states as well as the ancient Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon’s intervention in German affairs alarmed the Prussians, who mobilized their armies after more than a decade of peace with France. Napoleon attacked and won two more brilliant victories in October 1806 at Jena and Auerstädt, where the Prussians were outnumbered two to one. The war with Prussia, now joined by Russia, continued into the following spring.

The Construction of The Construction of Napoleon’s “Grand Empire”Napoleon’s “Grand Empire”• In the treaties of Tilsit, Prussia lost half of its population, while Russia accepted

Napoleon’s reorganization of western and central Europe and promised to enforce Napoleon’s economic blockade against British goods.

• Increasingly Napoleon saw himself as emperor of Europe not just of France. The so-called Grand Empire he built had three parts.

• The core, or first part, was an ever-expanding France. By 1810 this included Belgium, Holland, parts of northern Italy, and much German territory on the east bank of the Rhine.

• Beyond the French borders Napoleon established the second part: a number of settlement kingdoms, ruled by members of his large family.

• The third part comprised the independent but allied states of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Both settlements and allies were expected to support Napoleon’s continental system and cease trade with Britain.

• The impact of the Grand Empire on the peoples of Europe was considerable. Napoleone introduced many French laws, abolishing feudal dues and serfdom where French revolutionary armies had not already done so. Some of the peasants and middle class benefited from these reforms.

• The French rule sparked patriotic upheavals and encouraged the growth of reactive nationalisms for individuals in different lands learned to identify emotionally with their own embattled national families, as the French had done earlier.

Napoleon’s Grand EmpireNapoleon’s Grand Empire On the MapOn the Map

The Gradual Destruction of The Gradual Destruction of the Grand Empirethe Grand Empire

• In 1808 a coalition of Catholics, monarchists and patriots rebelled against Napoleon’s attempts to make Spain a French extension with a Bonaparte king. Resistance to French imperialism was growing in Spain!

• In 1810, the height of the Grand Empire, Britain remained at war with France, helping the guerrillas in Spain and Portugal. The continental system, was a failure, causing France to suffer from Britain’s counter-blockade.

• Napoleon turned his rage on Alexander I of Russia, who had openly disagreed with British blockade. He began an invasion of Russia in June 1812. However the Russian army, the Russian winter and starvation cut Napoleon’s army to pieces. 370,000 men had died and another 200,000 men had been taken as prisoners.

• Austria and Prussia deserted Napoleon and joined Russia and Great Britain in the Fourth Coalition. All across Europe, patriots called for a “war of liberation” against Napoleon’s oppression. The coalition held together, cemented by the Treaty of Chaumont, which created a Quadruple Alliance intended to last for twenty years.

• A month later, on April 4,1814, a defeated Napoleon abdicated his throne. After this unconditional abdication, Napoleon was granted exile in Elba.

The End of an EraThe End of an Era:: France France after Napoleonafter Napoleon

• The Bourbon dynasty was restored. The new monarch, Louis XVIII tried to consolidate support by issuing the Constitutional Charter, which accepted many of France’s revolutionary changes and guaranteed civil liberties.

• Yet Louis XVIII, characterized as old, ugly and crippled by gout, totally lacked the glory of Napoleon.

• In February 1815, Napoleon staged a daring escape from Elba. He landed in France and issued appeals for support and marched in Paris with a small band of followers.

• Louis XVIII fled, and Napoleon took control. It was short-lived though, because the allies responded quickly. These period, known as “the Hundred Days”, was ended at the crushing battle at Warterloo on June 18,1815.

• Napoleon was then imprisoned on the rocky island of St. Helena, off the western coast of Africa. Louis XVIII returned and regained his reign.

• An era of revolutionary upheaval encouraged generations of radicals to believe that political revolution might remake society and even create a new humanity. An era had ended!

From Radical RevolutionFrom Radical Revolutionto Reform & Changeto Reform & Change……

• The French Revolution became a pivotal period of time that transformed the history of France and all of Western Civilization.

• From King Louis to Robespierre to Napoleon, the French people had experienced radical changes throughout the exchange of power.

• The rising of the Bourgeoisie from the Third Estate, with the heavy influence of the atmosphere of Enlightenment ideas, led to a collision of force and rebellion, the revolution of the age, the French Revolution.

• The outbreak of the French Revolution in the summer of 1789 affected nearly all Europeans. The French revolutionaries – the courageous and thought provoking men and women- sensed in their hearts and minds that they were witnessing the birth of a new age, their actions would inspire many, and bring forth casualties and sweeping change to France as they knew it.

French RevolutionFrench RevolutionF u N f A c T s !F u N f A c T s !

• The guillotine has become the classic bloody symbol of the French Revolution.

• 13,800 people died through bloody executions: 28% were farmers, 31% workers & artisans, 20% Bourgeoisie, 8-9% Aristocrats and 6-7% Priests and Clergy.

• The French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," derived its title from the enthusiasm of the men of Marseilles, France, who sang it when they marched into Paris at the outset of the French Revolution. Rouget de l'Isle, its composer, was an artillery officer. According to his account, he fell asleep at a harpsichord and dreamt the words and the music. Upon waking, he remembered the entire piece from his dream and immediately wrote it down.

• Built in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower is one the most well known monuments in the world, visited by more than 5 million people

each year. • Robespierre had once been a fairly

straightforward liberal thinker - each night he slept with a copy of Rousseau's Social Contract.

• During the era of revolution, France had been governed as an absolute monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, a republic, a dictatorship and an empire. WOW!

THE END!

Thank you for your time!

CREDITS:A Ceglia/Keenan Production

A History of Western Society, 8th edition,

McKay, Hill, Buckler

Music: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Images: Google Image Search

“Liberty, Equality & Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution” http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/