AP European History - Spielvogel Chapter 19: French Revolution

Marquis de Launay

leader of garrison at the fall of the Bastille

Why American colonies revolted

British empire oppressed them with taxes and exercise monarchial power over them, and they believed in a Parliamentarian rule

Continental Army

army created by the Second Continental Congress that was made of ragtag group of undisciplined soldiers and led by George Washington.

George Washington

leader of the Continental Army and a big aid in winning the Revolutionary War

French in the Revolutionary War

helped the Continental Army by giving soldiers and supplies

Articles of Confederation

first document that established the United States; called for a centralized government and eventually failed because everyone was afraid of concentrating too much power in one person.

United States Constituion

made when delegates met in 1787 to revise Articles of Confederation but made this, an entirely new document. It split the government into three branches and gave it limited powers in each.

Marquis de Lafayette

worked closely with George Washington during the Revolutionary War to land a blow against France's old enemy: England. When he went back to France, he talked about liberty and it led to the formation of the Society of Liberty

Impact of American Revolution on Europe

led Europeans to believe that the ideas of the Enlightenment were in fact achievable in a government; lit up revolutions elsewhere

Short-term cause of the French Revolution

period of economic prosperity only felt by the aristocratic

Long-term cause of the French Revolution

the old regime that the French had lived by since the medieval times; severely oppressed lower classes

First Estate

clergy; owned about 10% of the land. Exempt from the taille and radically divided amongst itself

Second Estate

Nobility; owned about 25-30% of the land. Held positions in the military and government and were exempt from the taille.

Segur Law

tried to create a law that excluded new nobles that rose to new terms

Third Estate

largest estate; paid all the taille. Made up most of the mobs during the French Revolution, mostly due to bread prices.

Third Estate: Bourgeoisie

Middle class; professional people and merchants. Incredibly similar to the nobility and resented the nobility for the privilege they had.

Third Estate: Peasantry

had to uphold fees and payments, even though they weren't serfs anymore. Made up 75-80% of the population and deeply resented their landlords.

Third Estate: Urban Workers

wage earners in cities that weren't large; therefore, were a small faction of the population.

Similarities between upper bourgeois and nobility

both fairly divided on different levels based on what you did, both dressed and acted the same, both could climb ranks.

Differences between bourgeois and nobility

nobles got to their position by privilege and bourgeois had to become skillful wage earning masters

Role of philosophes in the French Revolution

philosophes attacked the institutions of social and political aspects, which was widely known among the nobility and the bourgeois.

Relationship between monarchy and parlements in the 18th century

monarch would attempt to send out reforms, but the parlements, being of the noble class, would never register the decrees and reforms would never go through. Most of these reforms were taxes, so this further deepened the financial crisis.

Financial crisis in France

Government was drastically short of money but debt to other countries' banks grew due to war and royal extravagance. Parlements didn't do anything to help because they feared taxes. Led to King Louis XVI being forced to let the Estates General meet.

Louis XVI

king during the start of the French Revolution

Jacques Necker

assistant to the controller of general finance; denied that monarchy was in debt and hid France's pays in interest. Ended up trying to expose France's situation, but it didn't help the situation

Assembly of notables

an attempt to revamp the fiscal and administrative system done by Charles de Calonne, but it failed because no one wanted to cooperate and it brought more disaster

Estates-General

French Parliamentary body that hadn't met since 1614; met as the king's defeat: he had to resort to taxes

Delegates of the First, Second, and Third Estates at the Estates-General meeting

those of the Third were largely urban representatives and some of the Second were liberal minded with enlightenment ideas.

Cahiers de doleances

advocated a constitutional government that would abolish the privileges of the clergy and the nobility

Vote by head

Third Estate and few of the Second and First in favor of this; meant that every person would be one vote during the Estates-General meeting

Vote by order

Most of the Second and First Estates in favor of this; ensured that whatever the nobility voted for would be chosen during the Estates-General meeting

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

emerged from the First Estate and represented a small faction of liberal upperclassmen in favor of the abolishment of the old regime. Said "What is the Third Estate? Everything."

Tennis Court Oath

occurred when the First Estate declared in favor of voting by order, and the Third Estate responded by declaring they would create a National Assembly and swore in a tennis court that they would create a French constitution

Parisian common person's reaction following the establishment of the National Assembly

decided from there on they'd uprise against the rich. Peasants overthrew their landlords and stopped paying taille and caused massive mayhem in the countryside

Fall of the Bastille

a mob of eight thousand men attacked a small royal garrison that guarded a prison. Considered the collapse of royal authority.

Great Fear

fear that spread like wildfire for a foreign invasion on the aristocracy's behalf

First order of business of the National Assembly

to destroy any ties of feudalism to calm the revolting peasants in the countryside and restore order

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

declared the basis of the assembly's beliefs and target. Expressed enlightened ideals and parts of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence: liberty rights to citizens and property rights

Olympe de Gouges

wrote Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female citizen. Critical figure in the French Revolution because she believed women should have the same freedoms that men had. She was ignored by the National Assembly

Women's March to Versailles

during this, women marched to demand bread for their children, and Louis XVI gave them grain, hoping they would be appeased, but Lafayette when back with them and demanded that the royal family be moved to Paris

Roman Catholic Church after the start of the Revolution

clergy had less influence, as declared by the National Assembly, the church became more secularized, and church lands were confiscated and assignats were issued in return

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Bishops and priests were paid for by the state and all of the clergy were required to swear an oath to this, but over half the clergy denied this and made the Church an enemy

National Assembly and the constitution

finished in 1791; declared that there was still a king, but he couldn't do anything without the consent of the Legislative Assembly.

Legislative Assembly

replaced the National Assembly; active citizens could vote for electors, who would vote for deputies and they would vote for these

Jacobins

political club that opposed the way the French Revolution was working. Served mostly as a discussion center of tradespeople and artisans

Louis XVI in June of 1791

tried to free France in the midst of all the dissent, but was caught. The National Assembly didn't want radical forces to create a republic because of this, so they pretended he was kidnapped.

Leopold II

king of Austria during the French Revolution; worked with the king of Prussia to create the Declaration of Pillnitz

King Frederick Wilhelm II

king of Prussia during the French Revolution; worked with the king of Austria to create the Declaration of Pillnitz

Declaration of Pillnitz

a document created by the kings of Prussia and Austria to put the king of France back on his rightful throne. Led to France declaring war on Austria

France in the war initially

fared terribly; tried to invade Austria's Belgium and later feared invasion, and everyone started looking for a scapegoat for their problems

Paris Commune

part of the more radical stage of the French Revolution; composed of san-culottes and led by Georges Danton. Only lasted 3 months.

Georges Danton

leader of the Paris Commune

Makeup of the Paris Commune

made of sans-culottes, lawyers, and some artisans who sought revenge on anyone who supported the king and killed those people. Had a split between groups because they couldn't decide on what to do with the king

Girondins

part of the Jacobin club; feared the radical mobs and wanted to keep the king alive as leverage

Mountain

part of the Jacobin club; named for the slanted part of the convention hall they sat in. Owed much of its strength to the radical mobs and wanted the king dead

Who won between the Mountain and the Girondins?

The Mountain won and the King was beheaded after they declared he was guilty of treason

What happened to the Girondins?

The Commune arrested them and executed them as a demonstration of their power

Places that the National Convention couldn't control

Western France and their major cities like Lyon and Marseilles

France's foreign threat at the start of 1793

an informal coalition of much of Europe that was pitted against France.

What made up the informal coalition against France?

Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Dutch Republic.

Committee of Public Safety

program to keep the public from achieving anarchy during France's warring against the rest of Europe. Originally dominated by Danton, but eventually controlled by Robespierre.

Maximilien Robespierre

most important member of the Committee of Public Safety. Ensured the Reign of Terror.

"Nation in arms" with the Committee of Public Safety

Committee declared a universal mobilization of France, which meant every single person had to help with the war effort. Opened doors to future total war and created the largest army the world had seen

Reign of Terror

movement to stop any people from even showing that they were against the liberty of the Committee of Public Safety. Threats were anything that appeared to opposed to radical activities of the sans-culottes. Casualties included de Gouges, Marie Antoinette and former Girondins.

Guillotine

widely used during the Reign of Terror that killed around 16,000 people. Several were located in Lyons and Marseilles, where rebellion was largest.

Social/demographic breakdown of the victims of the Terror

had little class prejudice. Executed the same ratio of population of clergy, nobles, and peasants, but peasants were most affected.

Republic of Virtue

goal that the Committee of Public Safety had in mind. It was supposed to replace the Committee after the country became perfect and free of rebels. It failed in the end because the government lacked the measures to enforce control over food and economy.

Women's role in the French Revolution

radical part of the revolution (if men weren't doing what they were supposed to be, they would make sure men knew it). Men believed women belonged in the home, raising children.

Society for Revolutionary Republican Women

society created by a chocolate manufacturer and an actress for women in the French Revolution

de-Christianization

policy put in place by the National Convention that took "saint" out of street names, closed churches and encouraged priests to marry. Ended up making more enemies, since most of France was Catholic

Temple of Reason

the cathedral of Notre Dame was redirected into this as part of the de-Christianization process

Republican Calendar

based off dates of the French Republic, eliminated days ordered by a Christian calendar, put in revolutionary festivals, and eliminated several worker holidays. Everyone disliked it and it was eventually abandoned.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

leader of the Haiti rebellion; eventually captured and died in a French dungeon

Saint-Domingue rebellion

slaves rebelled against their plantation owners, and it was suppressed for a while, but those fighting against the slaves eventually succumbed and Haiti became the first independent state in Latin America. Was led by Toussaint L'Ouverture

End of the Reign of Terror

the Committee tried to exercise more centralized power and it became scrutinized. They eventually executed their best supporters and the leaders of the National Convention found Robespierre to be too dangerous and executed him

Thermidorean Reaction

National Convention toned down the terror, stopped the Jacobin club and allowed churches to reopen. A new constitution was written and laissez-faire policies were adopted.

Constitution of 1795

Created two chambers, as opposed to one. Those in it were voted by electors that were chosen by active citizens. Relied on military and created an era of wild styles.

Council of 500

part of the Constitution of 1795; lower house and its function was to initiate legislation

Council of Elders

part of the Constitution of 1795; made of 250 people and function was to accept or reject proposed laws

Directory

part of the Constitution of 1795; 5 people elected by the Council of Elders. Considered the executive committee

Gracchus Babeuf

Said that the French Revolution was a war between patricians and plebeians. He was appalled at the expense the lower classes had to go through, but his Conspiracy of Equals was crushed and he was executed.

Directory: how well it functioned

didn't function very well and had to rely on the military to maintain order on the warring sides within France.

Napoleone Buonaparte's background

Born in Corsica as a son of an Italian lawyer. Was able to go to school in France, where he went to a military school. He was able to become a lieutenant after this, but wasn't very well liked. He studied past military masters and philosophes and rose through the ranks to become an artillery commander and eventually major general

Josephine Beauharnais

widow that lived in luxury because of her wealthy lovers, but Napoleon married her despite her continued affairs.

Napoleon Bonaparte's career: 1795-1799

turned a bunch of ill-disciplined soldiers into a fighting machine and charmed his soldiers and treated them as equals to him. Went to strike a blow against Britain in Egypt, but became surrounded and abandoned his troops to go back to France to run a coup.

Coup's government

had three consuls for an executive, but the First Consul had most of the power, which pretty much gave Napoleon control of France

Titles of Napoleon

First: consul for life

Later: Emperor Napoleon I

Napoleon and the Catholic Church

made peace with Pope Pius VII and made Catholicism the majority religion in France

Concordat

signed by both Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. Church recognized the French Revolution, Napoleon was friends with the Church, and Catholicism was the majority religion in France

Napoleonic Code

Also called the Civil Code: recognized equalities, had religious toleration and liberties, and abolished serfdom/feudalism.

Effect of the Napoleonic Code on women

Father's control over a family was restored and divorces were made more difficult for women. A man could only be committed of adultery if he brought his mistress to his home. Women's property became their husbands when they got married and they were treated as minors in court.

Centralization of French bureaucracy during Napoleon's rule

abolished self-governing local assemblies and put in prefects and tax collectors that collected EVERYONE'S taxes. Appointed officials based on expertise, not birth. Created nobles of bourgeois origin.

Censorship during Napoleon's rule

censored several newspapers and the government even read letters

Germaine de Stael

refused to accept Napoleon's censorship and wrote books anyways. Her books became banned and she was eventually exiled

Napoleon at war during first few years as consulate

at war with a coalition of Russia, Great Britain, and Austria. Napoleon found it necessary to obtain peace after so many years of fighting, but it was temporary

Peace at Amiens

peace between France and Britain that was very temporary

Battle of Austerlitz

in here, Napoleon obliterated allied forces of Russian soldiers, and Austria sued for peace and Russia withdrew its troops

Treaty of Tilsit

Agreement between France and Russia and France and Prussia in north Prussia after Napoleon's victories over the Prussians at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt

3 parts of Napoleon's Grand Empire

The French Empire, a series of dependent states, and allies states

Napoleon's Grand Empire: dependent states

states dominated by Napoleon (Italian states, Spain, Confederation of the Rhine etc)