French Revolution

What was the significance of balance of power in the European states?

• diplomacy more often utilized to maintain peace

• alliances formed against the most influential powers of the time (Britain and France)

What is reason of state?

When a ruler looks to the desire of the people and futuristic outcomes when ruling over their state

What was one of the expenses of centralization?

significant amount of money needed to maintain it

What was the premise of the War of Austrian Succession?

• Charles I enacted the Pragmatic Sanction which other rulers had to agree to

  • allowed his daughter Maria Theresa to rule

• Prussia and France took advantage of Maria Theresa

  • Austria allied with Britain (British x French rivalry)

• Prussia invaded Silesia and France invaded the Netherlands

  • war ensues across Europe and the colonies

• Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle

  • all territory was given back (except Silesia → cause for seven years’ war)

What was the cause of the Seven Years’ War?

• Maria Theresa wanted to regain Silesia

  • developed her army

  • separated the alliance between France and Prussia

  • alliance formed between France, Austria, and Russia

What took place during the Seven Years’ War?

• “First World War”

• Conflict in Europe

  • Prussia defeated Austria, France, and Russia

  • new Russian monarch withdraws troops from Prussia

  • Peace of Hubertusburg

• Conflict in India

  • Britain was able to gain the favor of native Indian princes to maintain control

    • Treaty of Paris acknowledged this

• French and Indian War

  • French allied with the Indians

    • Britain centralized their very strong navy in the colonies

    • French had a weak navy and allowed Britain to win

  • Treaty of Paris gives Britain control of French American land

What was the shift in warfare that occurred at this time?

• no longer ideological or religious warfare

  • often violent and not strategic

• rise in strategy instead of confrontation

  • valued technology (very little of it) and their soldiers

What role did the American Revolution play at this time?

• conflict for liberty

  • British were levying taxes without representation and Americans decided to fight for their rights and country

  • French aided the Americans in their fight

    • Lafayette

  • British forfeit at the Battle of Yorktown

  • Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776

    • included many different enlightenment ideas

• the new nation formed based on Enlightenment principles

  • divided the government into three branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) each with checks on their power

  • Bill of Rights embodied the natural rights philosophes praised

• Impact in Europe

  • accounts of the events in America spread across Europe

  • created of the Society of Thirty (liberty)

What was French society like in the Old Regime?

• rapid population increase

• divided into a three-estate system

  • First estate (130,000)

    • clergy

    • further division among the higher clergy (aristocratic, elite) and parish clergy (poor commoners)

  • Second estate (350,000)

    • nobility who held positions in government, military, law, and church

    • division among the nobles of the robe (fought for position) and nobles of the sword (hereditary)

      • segur law: limited hereditary nobility

    • special privilege (tax exemptions)

  • Third estate (majority)

    • common people

    • division by occupation, education, and wealth

    • given very little land to survive

    • peasants lived horrible lives

      • economic struggle with inflation and taxation

      • landless in the city

    • middle class gained more influence

      • worked in trade, manufacturing, law, and industry

      • similarities with nobility (tense relationship with nobility)

What were some problems with France at this time?

• economic crisis occurred

  • depression from 1778-1787

  • price of products fell but prices for rent remained the same

  • government was incredibly short on money

    • continued with warfare and normal activity

    • went to obscure means in order to keep taxes high

• poor harvest

• philosophes disliked French society

  • these ideas spread to the French people

• reform limited in France until it is too late

What was the Estates General? What was wrong with it?

• representatives from each estate made decisions

  • the third estate was given double representation but only one final vote

  • acknowledged local grievances

• a division occurred over whether the vote should be counted by head (third estate) or estate (first and second estate)

  • in the end they voted by estate

  • first and second estates overpowered third estate

What is the National Assembly?

• June 17, 1789: third estate voted to write a constitution and rename the Estates General to National Assembly

  • locked out the following day

  • took the Tennis Court Oath: swore to not stop fighting until there was a French constitution

• Formed the National Assembly seperate from the Estates General

What role did the common people play in the Liberal Phase of the French Revolution?

• revolted against the first and second estates

• Fall of Bastille

  • king tried to double the troops in Paris

  • common people revolted even more and attacked the royal armory of Bastille

  • Parisians won and had newfound hope

• monarchy lost power and control over Paris

• Lafayette formed the National Guard

• peasant revolts took place across the major cities

• the Great Fear began

  • panic with the increase in militias

What is the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen?

• adopted by the National Assembly on August 26

• life’s principles were liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression

  • very enlightenment based

• ended privilege

What was the women’s march to Versailles?

• October 5, women marched to Versailles to confront the king about the rising and unaffordable bread prices

  • met with violence and weaponry

  • October 6, king gave the women what they wanted and accepted the wishes of the National Assembly

How was the Catholic Church diluted during the French Revolution?

• represented the old regime

  • property confiscated

  • Civil Constitution of the Clergy: bishops and priests were elected for by the people

What was the new constitution of the National Assembly?

• 1791

• Legislative Assembly: changed every two years and had 745 representatives

• monarch but very little power

• active and passive citizens divided

• France divided into 83 departments

• offices given to the middle class

Who were the Jacobins?

• political club of radical revolutionaries

• associated themselves with the Parisians

  • represented their views on political topics

What opposition did France face from abroad?

• many of the nobles had fled France to border countries

  • Legislative Assembly encouraged them back

• Declaration of Pillnitz: issues by Austria and Prussia and encouraged monarchs to give nobility shelter

  • France declared war on Austria

  • Austria posed a threat of invasion of Paris

    • called troops back to Paris

    • inflamed hatred of the kind

  • August 1792: radicals forced Legislative Assembly to call a national convention

  • Prussian treat increased

    • traitors of Paris executed

What was the sans-culottes?

• working class who supported the popular will of the people

What was the National Convention?

• Formed in September 1792

  • the ruling body of France

  • made up of young lawyers and artisans

  • abolished the monarchy for a republic

What was the division within the National Assembly? What happened because of it?

• Girondins: wanted to keep the king alive

• Mountains: made up of radicals who wanted the king killed

  • mountains won

• July 21, 1793: the king was executed

  • signified the end of the old regime

• June 1793: Paris commune stormed the National Convention and removed all Girondins

What was the foreign crisis during the Radical Phase of the French Revolution?

• coalition between Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and Dutch Republic

  • wanted a French monarchy

  • prepared to invade

    • in response National Convention enacted the Committee of Public Safety

• Maximilien Robespierre: head of the committee and had a passion for political cleansing of anarchy

What is a nation in arms?

• August 23, 1793: universal mobilization decreed across France

  • EVERYONE called to get involved however they can to benefit France

  • nationalism

• largest army in Europe

• May 1795: coalition against France divided

What was the Reign of Terror?

• goal was to protect France from internal enemies

  • many threats to the new France were executed

• around 16,000 people killed by guillotine

• those who revolted against the Committee of Public Safety were taken by force

  • many were killed

• all of this killing was directly against a republic

What was the “Republic of Virtue”?

• people could report issues so they had a chance of resolution

• Law of General Maximum: price controls on specific needs of the people

What was the role of women during the French Revolution?

• February 25, 1793: women formally requested improved bread prices from the National Convention

• 1793: Society of Revolutionary Women

• men felt threatened by the all-of-the-sudden female involvement and decided it needed to end

  • Paris Commune abolished women’s clubs and involvement in the National Convention

What was de-christianization? How did the National Convention go about it?

• de-Christianization: attempt to create a new, secular order in society

  • removal of all Christian people and closure of churches

• November 1793: a ceremony to worship reason

  • Notre Dame: Temple of Reason

• October 5, 1793: republican calendar enacted

  • a new calendar with different day configurations and month names

  • represented the hope of an entirely new citizen and society

  • lots of controversy and eventually was ignored by most

How were slavery and equality handled during the French Revolution?

• Friends of the Blacks: abolitionist group in France

• February 4, 1794: slavery abolished

• Haitian revolution occurred in 1791:

  • the spread of enlightenment and revolutionary ideas caused the slaves in Hispaniola (in horrible conditions) to revolt

  • Toussaint L’Ouverture led the army

    • claimed the island in 1801

  • Napoleon abolished slavery at the threat and reinstated it in the colonies

    • L’Ouverture captured and died in prison

  • January 1, 1804: Haiti declared freedom

How did the Committee of Public Safety decline?

• 1794: radical Paris Commune leaders and the Committee of Public Safety backed off

• Robespierre: wanted to continue the “political cleansing” that came with the Reign of Terror

  • terror continued despite opposition

  • National Convention formed a coalition to have him killed and the terror ended

    • Robespierre was beheaded on July 28, 1794

What occurred after the execution of Robespierre?

• Thermidorean Reaction: coup against the French government

• National Convention ended the radical phase

• free worship and laisse-faire enacted

• new constitution

  • national legislative assembly: governing body of the upper and lower house

  • members elected by elite property owners (active citizens)

  • Directory: 5 men chosen by the House of Elders to make decisions

What was the age of the directory? What was the reaction to it?

• age of the directory: materialistic (property, fashion, etc.) reaction to the events of the radical revolution

• two sides in politics

  • right: royalists

  • left: Jacobins

• Coup d-etat: coup that was ended by Napoleon in 1799

How did Napoleon come to power?

• born in Corsica

  • raised with Italian pride

  • attended military school

• named lieutenants in 1785

  • disliked by others

  • gave him an opportunity to show his talent

• October 1795: saved the National Convention from a mob

• 1797: appointed commander of an army in Italy

  • easily won over his soldiers

    • lived among them and not better than them

  • military success

• 1797: hired to invade Britain

  • job went poorly so he fled back to Paris

• new republic established after the coup

  • 3 consuls had executive power

    • Napoleon held the first position and controlled everything

  • 1802: Napoleon made consul for life

  • 1804: crowned emperor

What were the policies of Napoleon?

• 1801: made peace with the Catholic Church

  • reinstated the Catholic Church with almost full state control

• new code of laws

  • civil code: equality, freedom of professions, religious toleration, no serfdom or feudalism, property rights, no strikes or unions

• laws against women

  • harder to get a divorce

  • fathers controlled their families

  • property controlled by husbands

• bureaucratic revival

  • 83 departments of France

    • weak local governments

  • tax collection was made efficient

  • civil and military offices determined by skill, not hereditary

• Napoleon enacted more and more despotism throughout his rule

What happened abroad during Napoleon’s rule?