Unit IX: The French Revolution, 1789-1804

Old Regime

Old Regime

the pre-revolutionary society of France

First, Second and Third Estates

the church/clergy, the nobility, and the rest of the people (bourgeoisie, peasants, working poor), respectively

Estates-General

a meeting of representatives from all three estates that created new legislature

taille

highly important land tax that most of the nobility, clergy, and bourgeoisie were exempt from

tithe

1/10 of annual produce/earnings, taken as a tax for the support of the church and clergy

metayer

one that cultivates land for a share of its yield; sharecropper

"hunting rights"

a right enjoyed by the owner of a manor; allowed him to hunt and keep game preserves on his and the peasants' land

banalites

fees collected on the use of the village mill, bakeshop, or wine press, which the manorial lord held a monopoly over

"eminent property" rights

possessed by every owner of a manor; meant that all lesser landowners within the manor "owned" their land (and could sell, buy, lease, inherit, or bequeath it) but owed certain annual rents and transfer fees to the manorial lord

"feudal dues"

peasants began resenting these payments to the manorial lords prior to the Revolution

Calonne

France's director of finances dismissed after his "assembly of notables" ended in a deadlock; notables wanted something in return for endorsement of his ideas about equal taxation of the classes

Lomenie de Brienne

Calonne's successor, pushed the same ideas as Calonne to the Parlement of Paris(which rejected him and insisted he call the Estates-General); a revolt of the nobles followed his and Louis XVI's attempts to disband the parlements

What is the Third Estate?

Abbe Sieye's published this pamphlet describing the nobility as useless and that the Third Estate was essentially the nation and should thus hold the sovereignty of the French nation

National Assembly

declared by the Third Estate and the members of the First Estate who were joined together under the Tennis Court Oath

"active" and "passive" citizens

both had the same civil rights, but only one was allowed to vote for the electors who would then choose deputies for national legislature and local officials

The Rights of Man

written by Thomas Paine in 1791 defending the French Revolution and giving the phrase power and impact in English

The Rights of Woman

published in 1791 by Olympe de Gouges; applied each of the 17 articles in the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" explicitly to women and asserted that women have the right to divorce, control property in marriage, and get higher education

Tennis Court Oath

signed by the original members of the National Assembly that affirmed that wherever they gathered they were the LEGIT National Assembly and would not disband until a constitution was drafted

capture of the Bastille

crowds swarmed a stronghold built in the Middle Ages, which lead to mobs violently assaulting the fortress, overtaking the governor and killing 6 other soldiers (98 were lost on the attacking side); saved the National Assembly by forcing King Louis XVI to accept what was happening

Great Fear of 1789

vague insecurity in the rural districts rose to high proportions, peasants armed themselves and destroyed manors

"night of August 4"

during the National Assembly when many were absent: declared that "feudalism is abolished"

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

issued by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789; affirmed the general principles of the new state, mainly: rule of law, equality of individual citizenship, and collective national sovereignty of the people

"electors"

chosen by the active citizens, 1 for every hundred active citizens

assignats

bonds (eventually regarded as currency) issued against the confiscated church lands; used by citizens to buy back parcels of the confiscated land

Mary Wollstonecraft

published "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" in England in 1792, similar to Olympe de Gouges's "The Rights of Woman"

"patriots"

those who were afraid to put the nobility in a place where they could re-establish themselves as a collective force and also afraid to make king stronger by giving him a full veto power

march on Versailles

crowd of market women and revolutionary militants followed by the revolutionary Paris national guard, besieged and invaded the chateau, forced Louis XVI and his family to live in Paris, under supervision

Jacobins

a club that the most advanced members of the Assembly were a part; used club as caucus to discuss policies and develop plans

Constitution of 1791

created by the Constituent Assembly; put the sovereign power of the nation in the hands of a single chamber elected assembly (Legislative Assembly) and also gave the king a suspensive veto power to postpone legislation desired by the Legislative Assembly

"flight of Varennes"

Louis XVI tried to escape the kingdom in June 1791, join with other escapees and seek help abroad, but he was arrested at Varennes and brought back to Paris and forced to accept his position as a constitutional monarch

Le Chapelier law

renewed the prohibitions of the compagnonnages (trade unions) from the Old Regime: they are illegal

nonjuring clergy

the refractory clergy (not the constitutional clergy, loyal to the Catholic Church)

Olympe de Gouges

a woman who gained prominence as a writer through theater but published "The Rights of Woman" in 1791

Reflections on the Revolution in France

published by Burke in 1790; predicted that France would end in anarchy and dictatorship, advised England to accept slow adaptation of their English liberties, advised the rest of the world that a people must be shaped by its own national circumstances, history and character

emigres

someone who has left their country to settle in another country (usually for a political purpose)

Count of Artois

Louis XVI's brother who left France during the Revolution

Miranda

a Venezuelan who later became a general in the French army, but exemplified the spread of the interest in independence in Latin Americans

Leopold II

the Habsburg emperor who refused the emigres demands and met with the king of Prussia in Saxony at Pillnitz (which led to the Declaration of Pillnitz)

Girondins

Jacobins

Madame Roland

famous wife of Jacobin/Girondin leader Roland whose house became the headquarters for the group

Francis II

Leopold II's successor who was more inclined to return to the Old Regime

Brunswick Manifesto

a proclamation to the French people from Prussia and Austria that said if harm befell the king or queen of France, the Austro-Prussian forces would enact revenge on the guilty in Paris

Marseillaise

a new marching song from the summer of 1792 which was a fierce call to war upon tyranny

storming of the Tuileries

August 10, 1792: the working-class quarters of the city revolt, storm and seize (as well as imprison) the French King and his royal family

"September massacres"

mobs of insurrectionary volunteers dragged 1,100 jailed persons out of prison and brutally executed them after drum-head trials

William Pitt

the British prime minister, resisted Burke's war cries and tried to focus on a policy of orderly finance and systematic economy (his domestic program would be ruined by war)

National Convention

Battle of Valmy

essentially an artillery duel between France and Prussia but, due to France's victory, stopped Prussia's march on Paris

sans-culottes

outside the convention, the leading revolutionists called so because they were from the working class, who wore long trousers instead of knee breeches

Dumouriez

the most prominent French general who defected to Austria in April 1793 after winning victories against Belgium five months prior

revolt of the Vendee

peasants revolt against military conscription, worked on by outside forces who wanted the Revolution to be gone

"federalist" rebellions

"federalist" rebels demanded a more "federal" or decentralized republic

enrages

highly excited militants, composed of men and women outside the Convention

"Reign of Terror"

set up by the Committee of Public Safety to repress the "counterrevolution"; Revolutionary courts were instituted as an alternative to the lynch law of the "September massacres"

Maximilien Robespierre

one of the most highly argued and least understood figures in history; began as elector for the Third Estate-> held minor role in the Constituent Assembly-> then sat for Paris Constituency in the National Convention-> then became a high member of the Mountain

Committee of General Security

created as a kind of supreme political police force by the Committee of Public Safety

Committee of Public Safety

group of 12 members (reelected every month) who were granted much power by the National Convention to conduct the government

levee en masse

proclaimed by the Convention in order to win the war; called all able-bodied men to join the army and all other French citizens to serve the revolutionary nation in whatever ways possible

"general maximum"

set ceilings for prices and wages; checked inflation during the Revolution but hard to control and became less successful

Constitution of 1793

republican constitution that allowed for universal male suffrage, but suspended indefinitely and the government declared "revolutionary until peace" (revolutionary meaning of an emergency character)

Ventose laws of March 1794

Hebertists

based on extreme revolutionist Jacque Hebert; large and indefinable group, indiscriminately denounced merchants and bourgeoisie, a party of extreme terror

dechristianization

launched by Hebertists because they believed all religion to be counterrevolutionary, strongly supported new republican calendar

revolutionary calendar

a product of dechristianization that counted the years from the founding of the French Republic, divided each year into new months with 30 days each and 10 day decade replacing the week

"Worship of the Supreme Being"

"Thermadorian reaction"

the months following Robespierre's execution

insurrection of Prairial

one of the greatest uprisings of the "Thermadorian reaction": May 1795 when a mob all but dispersed the National Convention by force; troops called to Paris and working-class throw up barricades in the streets; army prevailed but the Convention arrested/deported/imprisoned 10,000 of the insurgents

Toussaint L'Ouverture

one of the autonomous black military commanders whom the revolution in Saint Domingue relied on; became general in French army that drove the Spanish and British away from the island; became France's governor-general in the colony but his government soon broke from French control

Directory

the first formally constituted French Republic, 1795-1799

Constitution of 1795

applied to both France and Belgium; committed the Republic to a program of successful expansion, restricted the politically active class; almost universal male suffrage

"Louis XVIII"

the late king's brother, Count of Provence, who was the worst obstacle in the resurgence of royalism in France

Declaration of Verona

issued by Louis XVIII in 1795 announcing his intention to restore the Old Regime and punish all involved in the Revolution back to 1789

"Gracchus" Babeuf

organizer of a tiny group of extremists (The Conspiracy of Equals) whose intention it was to overthrow the Directory and replace it with a dictatorial government in which private property would be abolished and equality would be decreed (modern day Communism)

General Augereau

one of Napolean's generals sent to Paris to stand by with military force while the councils annulled the elections of the previous spring keeping the Old Republicans of the Convention

Treaty of Campo Formio

through this, Austria recognized France's annexation of Belgium, the French right to incorporate the left bank of the Rhine and the French-dominated Cisalpine Republic in Italy and Bonaparte allowed Austria to annex Venice and most of mainland Venetia

Second Coalition

Austria, Russia, and Great Britain formed an alliance 1 1/2 years after the Treaty of Campo Formio

Battle of the Nile (or Aboukir)

ended unfavorably for the French because the British cut off the French army in Egypt

Sieyes

author of "What is the Third Estate?", including in the changing Directory

coup d'etat of Brumaire

armed soldiers drove the legislators out of their chambers; proclaimed a new form of a republic (titled the Consulate, headed by three Consuls)

"plebiscite"

general referendum which the First Consul utilized to further his aims

"notables"

chose by the citizens and selected by the government for public positions; held no powers of their own, were merely available for appointment to office

Council of State

the main agency in the new government; prepared the significant legislation often under the presidency of the First Consul

Treaty of Luneville

signed by the Austrians in 1801 which confirmed the terms of Campo Formio

"prefect"

under direct orders of the minister of the interior, ruled firmly over each of the regional departments created previously by the Constituent Assembly

Fouche

minister of police in the Consulate; prior to 1789 was an obscure bourgeois physics professor; Hébertist and extreme terrorist in 1793

Talleyrand

minister of foreign affairs in the Consulate; before 1789 was a bishop; was in the U.S. during the Terror

Concordat of 1801

between France and the Vatican:

pope gets to depose French bishops, public displays of Catholicism allowed in France

France: the Republic gets recognized by the pope, Vatican asks no questions about the former tithes and church lands, or Avignon, disarmed the counterrevolution

"careers open to talent"

no more estates, legal classes, privileges, local liberties, hereditary offices, manors or guilds allowing for those with talents to rise

Bank of France

revived bank from the Old Regime

Code Napoleon

the Civil Code of the five codes of Napoleon (Napoleanic Codes)