AP Euro Unit 5: french revolution

1st estate

Church (about 0.5% pop)

Owned 10% land and wealth, but paid some money to the monarchy

Most of the money went to leadership, rural priests were POoR

2nd estate

About 1.5% pop, made of nobility

Nobles were exempted from the land tax

Nobles we’re divided between SWORD nobility (traditional, long bloodlines that hand down titles), and the ROBED nobility (purchased their titles)

Tension in France because the nobility wanted to take power from the monarchy

3rd estate

98% of France, peasants, very few with land

Paris was the epicenter of the revolution because peasants migrated there

Peasants in rural areas were still subject to feudal obligations and preferred the sword nobility to the more corrupt robed nobles

Also contained artisans (wage-earning members living in towns), who had lost economic power as inflation grew and would shape much of the revolution

Bourgeois

8% of the 3rd estate

Mostly merchants who didn’t like the 2nd estate, but they wanted the privileges of the 2nd estate

Once they brought their way in, they stopped complaining (robed nobility)

Summary

The French Revolution was complicated and France was broken

Enlightenment ideals

Used by the revolutionaries to justify their actions

Failure to reform

The kings of France were limited by the parlements, law courts that could stall royal edicts

Louis XVI (16) was not a harsh ruler, so nobles on the parlements began to exhibit more independence and blocked laws (normally blocking new taxes and defending their own Liberty)

Louis XVI (16)

He was indecisive and frequently changed positions

He was never a great monarch, but the timing made it even worse

The seven years war

Disaster for France

They ended up Allies with Austria, who they despised

Alliance was sealed by Marie Antoinette marrying Louis XVI

Financial crisis

France was in a ton of debt because of Louis XIV (14) wars

France had no national bank, so all debt was tied to the monarch

The tax system made life miserable for the 3rd estate, but the first and second don’t have to pay much

Short crisis

France decided to help the Americans in their revolution

By 1786, nobody is willing to loan France money

In 1788, half of their Gov spending was paying back debt

They decided to raise taxes, but to do that they needed to call the estates general

Price pressure (1788-1789)

The harvest was bad because of a hailstorm, resulting in famine

The physiocratic policies of supply and demand increased prices and bread began to cost most of one’s income

The vast majority of France was barely making ends meet

Public opinion

The average French person didn’t like the monarchy at all by 1789

Calling the estates

Louis XVI (16) called the estates general, sparking the revolution

May 1789

The first meeting of the estates general

Each estates vote would count equally, meaning that the first and second would team up against the 3rd

June 1789

The three estates couldn’t agree on meeting format, locations, or voting format

On June 17th, the 3rd estate declared themselves the National Assembly and they alone held the authority to tax (this broke the law)

About 100 members of the clergy joined them

The tennis court oath

The National Assembly got locked out of their usual meeting place

They go to a tennis court and declared that they would continue meeting until France had a constitution and they remained the true governing body of France

They had no legal right to do any of this, but they argued that they represented the GENERAL WILL (Rousseau) of the people

The people intervene

The third estate would’ve failed without the support of the common man

The common people hold a series of riots, including the storming of the Bastille on July 14th

This was a fortress which had historically housed political prisoners

Storming it started the revolution

August 1789

The National Assembly voted to abolish feudalism, titles, and most privileged of the first and second estates

After abolishing titles, they began to refer to each other as Citizen

The assembly also passed the Dec of man and citizen

Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen

This stayed the goals of the revolution and confirmed its basis in enlightenment ideals

Summer 1789

A bunch of peasants hear the declaration and attack noble estates to burn debt records and feudal charters

Villagers in the country armed themselves to protect from rumored foreign invasions or royal plots (The Great Fear)

October 1789: the women’s March on Versailles

Women get together to demand bread and threaten the royal family

They were followed by the national guard, a citizen’s militia formed in Paris

Impacts of women’s March

All of the food in Versailles is given to the crowd

Full royal acceptance of everything that has happened

The royal family and the National Assembly move to Paris

1790: civil constitution of the clergy

The revolution began to nationalize the Catholic Church

The National Assembly passed the civil constitution of the clergy, putting the church under the state and offending Catholics

1791: a new constitution

France became a constitutional monarchy

The power of the king was greatly limited and the National Assembly was replaced by the legislative assembly

1791: the flight to Varennes

The revolution became more radical and the royal family tried to escape, but was caught at Varennes

Members of the first and second estates also fled

1792: war and coups

The National Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia and that France was a republic

This is the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the radical revolution

Political parties

The National Assembly tied to turn France into an enlightened society

Political parties started out as political clubs that sat together during meetings

The jacobins were the mosh liberal and radical of all parties

The girondins were more moderate and were their rivals

Sans-culottes and mob violence

The mobs of Paris were led by lower class workers called Sans Culottes

These mobs were spurred on by radical leaders like Jean Paul Marat, whose newspaper advocated for violence

Karat’s assassination was a factor that led to the Reign of Terror

The jacobins were dominated by a sub-group known as The Mountain, the most radically left/leaning of the political parties

The bourbons leave

Their attempt to escape made the royal family look like enemies of the revolution

In 1793, the king was placed on trial and executed for treason, followed by his wife

These executions shifted PERCEPTIONS and the rest of Europe was so horrified that they prepared for war to stop them

Within France, there was also counter-revolutionary movements and by the end of 1793, revolutionaries were fighting mosh of Europe and half of France

Women

Their status remained a continuity

1793, women’s political clubs were banned and French women continued to struggle to gain rights (impact of rousseau’s ideas)

Rationality reigns

The goal of France was to make France a completely rational society

They incorporate the metric system and establish a new calendar with 1792 as year 1, however the new calendar didn’t last

Dechristianization

The radicals attempted to dechristianize France and targeted the Catholic Church

They executed priests and nuns, saint was removed from town names, and the cathedral of notre dame was renamed the temple of reason

The reign of terror

In 1793, it looked like the Revolution was falling apart

The jacobins embarked upon the reign of terror, a 10-month span of show trials and executions of suspected “enemies” of the revolution

The terror was led by the committee of public safety, who claimed 50,000 lives

Robespierre

Jacobin Maximillian Robespierre led the reign of terror

He believes France could become a republic of virtue and you should kill everyone who wasn’t virtuous enough

Danton

Georges Danton was a leader of the committee of public safety, but did not like mob violence after he gained power

He was then executed for not being radical enough

Mass conscription

In the 1790s, France passed the levee en masse, a program of mass conscription into the army

As a result, casualties soared and the total warfare style began to take root

They began to fight for their nation, NOT the king

The French army was modern: pay for soldiers, promotions based on merit, and pensions for widows

Terror’s end

In 1794, parisians get tired of executions

A coup was hatched to overthrow Robespierre and execute him and his fellow leaders (Coup of Thermidor)

The directory

After Robespierre, the more conservative, military dictatorship called The Directory takes over

In 1799, napoleon bonaparte, a general, staged a coup and replaced the directory with the consulate (3 men in charge)

In 1804, napoleon declared himself emperor

Basics of napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica, a part of France

He joined the French army in 1785 and gained notoriety by winning multiple major battles in Italy

People wanted stability and a return to normalcy after the revolution, which napoleon offered

Taking power

In 1799, napoleon led a coup against the directory, which ended the French Republic, even though he did not declare himself emperor until 1804

He needed to make sure he had the support to be a king without calling himself a king

An emperor

He promised STABILITY

He actively won military battles, which made him popular, along with him saying all the right things

Many people who wanted king Louis XVI gone loved emperor napoleon I

Napoleonic code

In 1804, napoleon instituted the napoleonic code, a set of laws designed to reform France and cement the gains of the Revolution

The code stated that all men were equal under the law, protected wealth, and protected private property

It also reintroduced religious toleration

Domestic reforms

Napoleon created an efficient bureaucracy

His code system was a meritocracy, prompting people based on skill

In 1801, the concordat of bologna brought France back into the Catholic Church

Suppression

Napoleon wanted to reign in the excesses of the revolution

He created a secret police to spy on people, censored the press, and treated women as second-class citizens

Military dominance

Napoleon was one of the greatest generals of all time

He conquered much of Europe in the period 1804-1812

He used artillery well and promoted generals based on skill

He dissolved the Holy Roman Empire

Spreading ideas

He spread the ideas of the Revolution

His most important idea was nationalism

Others were no nobility, no church lands, and meritocracy was good

Administration

The Grand Empire was under napoleon’s direct rule

Independent states were ruled by family members

Allied states often had napoleon-chosen leaders to run them

By 1810, nearly all of Europe was allied with napoleon or under his direct rule

The continental system

Great Britain’s fleet prevented napoleon from conquering them, so he tried to blockade them

He created the Continental System to try to cut out Britain, the trade center of the world

Europe was upset about not being allowed to trade; Russia and Spain go behind napoleon’s back to trade with Britain

An Iberian headache

Napoleon invaded Spain, leading to the Spanish war of independence (peninsular war)

Spain uses difficult guerrilla war tactics

Napoleon and the French were eventually defeated

Spain did lose many states in its American empire

Napoleon invades Russia

In June 1812, napoleon invaded Russia

Russia doesn’t fight directly, they continuously pull back into the interior of their country

They employed scorched earth tactics by burning supplies, even Moscow after napoleon takes it

With winter coming, stretched supply lines, and over half his army dead, napoleon began retreating back to France

A long winter

About 500,000 of the 600,000 man army was dead, missing, or captured

Prussia and Austria switched to join the Russo-British alliance, switching the balance of power to the Coalition against France

Invincible no more

Napoleon was defeated by the Coalition and exiled to the island of Elba

Louis XVI (16) ‘s brother, Louis XVIII (18), took the throne

After 24 years of warfare, Europe was finally at peace again

Encore

Napoleon escaped and fights one last battle

On June 18,1815 napoleon was defeated by the Coalition at the Battle of WATERLOO

He was exiled to the distant island of St. Helena

Post-napoleon questions

Europe was back at peace, but they needed to figure out what to do with France, the German states, and nationalism forming in Italy

these were answered at the congress of Vienna

Romanticism in the Revolution

Neoclassicism failed to bring the emotion that romanticism did

Intense emotion, imagination, and individualism

Weights

French Revolution created the metric system

Conservatism in the revolution

Opposed the radicalism

Left and right associations

Edmund Burke was the most important

Spanish American revolutions

The French Revolution inspired Latin American revolutions

Created representative forms of government

Haitian Revolution

Inspired by the French Revolution

The French were busy

Napoleon’s surrender

Ends 25 years of war in Europe

Goal of the congress of Vienna:1815

The goal of the congress of Vienna was to restore order and undo the French Revolution

create a BALANCE of POWER

Countries in the congress

Russia, Prussia, Britain, Austria, France

Austrian Metternich wanted France to remain a great power

Klemens Von Metternich

Austrian foreign minister

Conservatism: stability within and between states

• tradition, established institutions (the Church), aristocracy (nobility)

• Bad: liberal reform, popular Gov, nationalism

Concert of Europe

Powers work together to keep things stable

Goal was collective security (precedent for NATO, EU, UN)

The Holy Alliance

Agreement between Russia, Prussia, and Austria to help each other (1815-1825)

Results for France

Restored to 1792 boundaries

No extreme war reparations

Bourbons restored

Results for Russia

Gained polish territory

Debut on the world stage

Results for German confederation

Replaced the Holy Roman Empire

Association of German states, NOT yet Germany

300 states → 39 states

Last question

Do Austria or Prussia control the German confederation?

The congress worked

99 years before Europe had a major war (1815-1914)

Overview of romanticism

The romantic movement was seen as a reaction to the scientific revolution and the enlightenment

It focused on passion and emotion

Main point

Romanticism was NOT trying to get rid of knowledge, it just wanted to balance that with emotion

It emphasizes individuality and saw uniqueness as beautiful

They were fine with emotion overtaking works

Causes of romanticism

Historians think the “rational” French Revolution descending into bloodshed, chaos, and warfare was the cause

Others argue industrialization changed societal values as worker’s monotonous lives led to expression

Others see it as an extension of the enlightenment and humanist emphasis on individuality

Jean-Jacques Rousseau starts romanticism

Romanticism is credited to a single philosopher who questions the need to rely completely on rationalism

God is benevolent and you experience Him through emotion and being kind to others

Passion is important because one must care about things

He wrote songs and books

Romantic art

Romanticism rejected neoclassical austerity (simplicity) and the attempts at making mathematically “pure” enlightenment art

It was about feeling feelings passionately

There is romance literature, music, and virtual arts

Art and nature

A lot of romantic art explores our connection with nature

Romantics loved the natural world

Romantic music

The most famous composer was Beethoven

Music was supposed to make the listener feel emotions

Beethoven focused on intense tonal shifts and innovative instrumentation

Romanticism and religion

The romantic movement helped revive religious fervor in Europe

It is connected to the Great Awakening

Methodism: John Wesley introduced the ideas of knowing God’s love and salvation, along with attending revivals

They were seen as extremists by Christians, but they supported abolition, poor aid, creating libraries, and prison reform

Emotionalism and nationalism

Romantics felt strongly about their national identity, resulting in many nationalist works of art

The Brothers Grimm wrote specifically German tales

Existing national epics (Beowulf) we’re “rediscovered”

Romanticism, nationalism, and warfare

People were taught the value of having an army that cares

The sizes of armies skyrocketed

Mass uprisings and mob violence took place in major cities

Many unification or separatist movements popped up

Anglo-French rivalry

From 1688 to 1815, France and Britain’s were often at war with each other

The only consistency was alliances changed

This was a global conflict because of colonies

Nine years war (1688-1697)

Things kick off with the war against Louis 14th

Essentially nothing happens and they go to war in 1707

Still ENGLAND right now

Making Britain

In 1707, they passed the Acts of Union, bringing Scotland and England together

This and 1688’s Glorious Revolution (William and Mary) helped ensure domestic stability in Britain and helped Scotland’s economy recover

A new line

After the reign of William and Mary, the throne passed to Queen Anne (Mary’s sister), then to their cousin, George I

George I was also the ruler of Hanover, an electorate in the HRE

George’s I House of Hanover would rule Britain from 1714-1901, a period of great power and prosperity for Britain

Opportunity knocks

After the war of the Spanish succession, Britain becomes a great power and continued to gain more power

Britain and the Seven Years Wat

It was fought in Europe, India (proxy war), and the americas

Gives Britain control over most of India and North America (1756-1763)

The next war

Britain does lose its American colonies to debt and revolution

France helped the rebels out

However, Britain was still rich and a global power

French Revolution and onward

After the French Revolution ends, Britain emerges as a very strong state

Britain comes out of their rivalry with the French with a lot of land and the ability to project power (navy controls the seas)

This is why the Industrial Revolution starts in Britain: reconciliation with France and access to resources