The French Revolution

I.  The Origins of the French Revolution
  A. military expenses led to financial crisis
      after the  The Seven Years' War
  B. interest payments
  C. nobility was not taxed
  D. attempts to reform the tax system
     tax farming
    The Enlightenment Economists
      i.  Turgot
      ii. Necker
      iii. Calonne
      iv. Brienne
   E. social inequality
 read  18th Century Social Order :
      Peasants and Aristos
   F. inefficient government
II.  Outbreak of Revolution
   A. The three estates
status, civil rights, and privileges were determined by the estate to which a person belonged
      i. The First Estate consisted of the clergy. (about 130,000 - one half of 1 percent of the total population - owned 10 % of the land)
      ii. The Second Estate was made up of the nobility (around 300 - 350 thousand members - owned 25 - 30% of the land)
      iii. The Third Estate included everyone else (around 22 million - owned 35-40% of the land)
lawyers, doctors, merchants, and businessmen
urban wage earners--which consisted of skilled artisans, servants, and laborers
over 80% were peasants
         18th Century Social Order
         Peasants and Aristos
  B.  complaints against the King
      i.  Lower clergy - resented pampered lives
          of the higher clergy and felt concern for
          France’s poor
      ii.  nobility - jealous of the King’s power
      iii. Third Estate
         a. peasants - wanted a fairer tax system
             and an end to the payment of fees to
             nobility  
         b. bourgeoisie - upset by high food prices,
             wanted influence in the government.
  C.  the  Estates General called to meet by
        the King to get approval of tax
         i. assembly of the three Estates
         ii. traditionally met separately and voted
             in groups 2/3 had to agree - nobles and
             clergy often voted together
         iii. Third Estate wanted to double the
              representation of the Third Estate
       The First Revolution
       French Revolution Chronology
  D. National Assembly
         i. Third Estate delegates declared
             themselves National Assembly
         ii. Abbe Sieyes :
         What is the Third Estate?  
            Revolutionary Pamphlets
         iii. locked out of meeting hall - moved to
               indoor tennis court
         iv. demanded a constitution for France
              and swore not to disband until they
              achieved this goal
         The Tennis Court Oath
         v. King gave in and ordered other Estates
             to join the National Assembly
         vi. King brought soldiers to Versailles
              and Paris
  E. The Storming of the Bastille
       i. The Great Famine of 1788 and the bread
          riots of 1789 (July 20 - Aug 6)
      ii. Parisians were desperate due to food
          shortages, unemployment, and high prices
      iii. feared the King’s soldiers would crush
            the National Assembly
      iv. stormed the Bastille in search of
            guns/gunpowder July 14, 1789
         The Fall of the Bastille
        v. the creation of the national guard --
            Lafayette
  F.  Reforms
     i. abolition of feudalism
     ii. the nobility could not demand fees, taxes,
          or labor from peasants
         ** peasants still had to purchase their land
     iii. equal rights
     iv. freedom of speech and press
     v. all positions in Church, government, and
         army were opened to citizens
         regardless of birth
     vi. church could no longer collect tithes
     vii. The Declaration of the Rights of Man
     viii.  tried to bring clergy under state control
        The Civil Constitution of the Clergy  1790
        a.  confiscated church and monastic lands
        b.  used lands to assign bonds
        c.  clergy paid by the state
        d.  clergy elected by the parish
        e.  clergy were to be controlled by the
             republic.
        f.  pope forbade swearing allegiance to
            the Constitution -- 1791
        g. limited the power of the king and set up
            an elected lawmaking body
 G. Women in the Revolution
     i. Women’s march on Versailles
     ii. rights for men did not extend to women
          Mary Wollstonecraft's
       A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
III. The Radical Stage of the Revolution
  A. The flight of the royal family
     i. nobles, the King, and the Queen felt the
        revolution had gone too far
     ii. attempted to flee the city to organize
         opposition with other European monarchs
     iii. recognized and forced to return
  B. Deepening divisions
     i. doubts about the King increased
     ii. the middle class was divided over what
          should be done
     iii. radicals wanted France to become
           a Republic
  C. War with Austria and Prussia
     i. French Revolution scared other European
        monarchs
        Edmund Burke and
        Reflections on the Revolution in France
     ii. revolutionaries worried that Austria might
          help a counterrevolution
         The Declaration of  Pillnitz
     iii. April 20, 1792 France declared war on
          Austria - Prussia backed Austria
     iv. Austria and Prussia invaded France
     v. Commune seized power and imprisoned
         the King
IV.  The Legislative Assembly
   A. The  Girondists
        Jacobins
       The Mountain
   B. Commune ordered the election of a new
        assembly - National Convention
     i.  abolished of the constitution
     ii.  the sans culottes  (without breeches)
   Fact and Fiction of The Sans-Culottes
          the Jacobins -- the Mountain
     iii.  The September Massacres
     iv. the Republic  (1792-1795)
          dominated by professionals/
          property owners
          Year One of the French Republic
          renamed the months of the year
          abolished monarchy - established
          Republic (Sept. 21, 1792)
          Louis tried and condemned
          Louis XVI executed (Jan. 21, 1793)
     v.  uprisings in the Vendee (countryside)
     vi. Jean Paul Marat
          and the radical revolution
         preserve revolution by punishing counter-
         revolutionaries assassinated
IX. The Reign of Terror
      The Great Terror
   A. the policies of Maximilien Robespierre
      i. the Republic of Virtue
      ii. The Committee of Public Safety
         300,000 arrested
          16,000 - 50,000 executed
         The Guillotine Headquarters
         The Guillotine
      iii.  Danton called for an end to the terror
      iv.  Robespierre had Danton executed
  B.  the downfall of Robespierre
  C.  the conservative reaction to Robespierre:
        Thermidor
X.  The Directory
XI. Napoleon
       The Napoleon Project
  A. early career:  
       1796: the revolution spreads
       The Italian Campaign
       Milan, Genoa, the Papal States, Naples
       The Treaty of Campo Formio 1797 and
        the temporary defeat of Austria
  B. Rise to power:
         The coup of November (Brumaire) 1799
         Napolean as first consul
         the Abbe Sieyes's support of Napoleon
         Third Estate's opposition to
         radical change
         Napoleon in Egypt
  C. reconciliation with the Pope:
       Concordat of 1801
  D. Emperor Napoleon I   -- 1804
      The Napoleonic Revolution
  E. The Napoleonic Code (1804)  
  F.  The Conquest of Europe --
      i. The defeat at Trafalgar in 1805 by
          Admiral  Horatio Nelson
         Trafalgar
      ii. Napoleon's defeat of the Austrian and
          Russian forces at Austerlitz 1805
         The Battle of Austerlitz
      iii. The Confederation of the Rhine
            in 1806
      iv. The Berlin Decree
          The  Continental System  
      v. The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807: Prussia and
          Russia were subdued
      vi.  revolt in Spain:
      vii.  nationalism in Germany:
                    Herder and the Volksgeist
  G. The Beginning of the End:
         Napoleon's Invasion of Russia -
         Napoleon's March to Moscow    1812
  H.  Defeat in 1814
          exile to Elba
  I. The Hundred Days
      Napoleon Escapes From Elba
       Defeat at Waterloo in 1815 by forces led
       by Duke of Wellington
       exiled to St. Helena
       death in 1821
XII.  The Congress of Vienna
         the triumph of conservatism
         the balance of power

   Revolution and After Learning Module

   The French Revolution
    - lecture Professor Gerhard Rempel

   France During the French Revolution and Under Napoleon Bonaparte

   The Tragedy of Louis XVI   Chronology

   The Napoleonic Revolution

   The 18th Century Town and Its Inhabitants

   French Revolution and Napoleon Quiz