-FRENCH REVOLUTION- -AND NAPOLEON-

1789 - 1815 ~ Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

INFLUENCE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

• The Philosophes: Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau believed that knowledge should be converted into reform

• Believed their task was to apply reason to society for the purpose of human improvement

CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

• The American Revolution: The concept of revolution was validated as a legitimate means to produce social and political change

• The French involvement increased the economic plight of the country

• The Aristocracy was trying to reassert the power they had lost under Louis XIV

• Cumulative Dissent with the Ancient Regime

  • The poor and middle classes suffered from an increasing tax burden

• 1786: the state was bankrupt

• The Assembly of Notables refused a new tax, and the parlements insisted that Louis call together the Estates General

• Louis agreed to allow each estate to choose its representative and to “Double the Third” (double the third estate’s number of representatives)

• 1788: bad harvests, unemployment and inflation led to the uprisings in the summer of 1789

THE ESTATES GENERAL ***

• The First Estate - The Clergy > 1% of the population

  • Dominated by Bishops and archbishops from the noble ranks

  • Generally wealthy and exempt from taxes

  • Owned 20% of the land

• The Second Estate - The Nobility - >2% of the population

  • Exempt from direct taxes

  • Owned 25% of the land

• The Third Estate - 98% of the population

  • Made up of peasants, the middle class, (Bourgeoisie), and urban workers (Sans Culottes)

  • Paid high taxes

  • Many owned the land they farmed

  • Not as concerned with political rights, but wanted relief from taxes

  • Owned 55% of the land

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION

• May 5: Estates General convened

• June 17: The Third Estate declared themselves the National Assembly

• June 20: Members of the Third Estate declared the Tennis Court Oath

• June 27: Louis forced the First and Second Estates to join the National Assembly

REVOLUTION OF 1789

• July 14: Storming of the Bastille

• Summer: The Great Fear - Émigrés (emigrants - French nobility)

• August 4: Decrees

• August 26: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

• October: Women’s March on Versailles

1790 - 1791

• The Constituent Assembly

  • Write a new Constitution for France

  • Govern the nation in the process

    • Martial Law and censorship

• Civil Constitution of the Clergy

  • Clergy became salaried, elected officials who had to pledge their allegiance to the State

Monasteries and Convents were abolished

• The Church lands were sold

• The Pope’s authority was not recognized

CONSTITUTION OF 1791

• Limited Monarchy

  • The king's powers were restricted to a 3-year veto power over the Legislative Assembly

• July 20

  • The royal family was caught trying to flee the country

1791 - 1792

• Declaration of Pillnitz

  • Prussia and Austria seek to restore the French monarchy

• The Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria in April 1792 with disastrous results

  • The mood of the nation soured and many blamed Louis

• August 10

  • The royal family were driven from the Tuileries by an angry mob and imprisoned

• The National Convention, elected by Universal male suffrage, was summoned to create a Republic

THE RADICAL PHASE

• The National Convention abolished the monarchy and its calendar

  • Declared September 22, 1792, as Day one of Year I of the Republic

• July: Thermidore, November: Brumaire, June: Prairial

• January 21. 1793: After being tried for treason, Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine

• The National Convention split into 2 factions

  • Jacobins (Montagnards) - Radicals

  • Girondins - Moderates

THE TERROR

• Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in July 1793

• Levee En Masse - call to arms for all French citizens to support the war effort

• 300,000 people were arrested and 40,000 executed in an attempted to eliminate all opposition and dissent

• Republic of Virtue: dress and decorative objects became a means for displaying political commitment

  • Liberty trees, Marianne (Goddess of Liberty), government organized festivals

• 9 Thermidor: On July 27th, Robespierre is denounced by the Committee of Public Safety and sent to the guillotine the next day

THE DIRECTORY

• Thermidorian Reaction:

  • Swing to the right after the fall of Robespierre

  • White Terror

• Constitution of 1795

  • Reinstated old system of electors

  • Electors chose the new Legislative Assembly

  • The Legislative Assembly chose a 5-member Directory

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

• Under the Directory the economy suffered

• The war abroad was successful thanks to a brilliant young military general named Napoleon Bonaparte

  • He was a Corsican Noble

• Coup of 18 Brumaire

  • 1799- Napoleon staged a Coup d’etat to overthrow the Directory

• 1800: Consulate, Bank of France established

• 1801: Concordat of 1801, Slave Rebellion in Haiti

• 1802-03: Consul for Life, Peace of Amiens, Louisiana Purchase

• 1804: Civil Code of 1804, Coronation as Emperor

• 1805: Defeated at Trafalgar

  • British counter blockade prevented trade between the Americas and Europe 

    • Context for War of 1812

• 1806: Continental System, Holy Roman Empire abolished

• 1807: Treaty of Tilsit with Russia

NAPOLEON’S THREE (3) COSTLY MISTAKES

1. Continental System

• Naval blockade between Great Britain and Europe

2. Peninsula War - 1808

• Spanish Guerillas attacked French troops en route to Portugal

  • Guerilla - little war; sneak-attack type war

  • Not waged by people in the military

3. Invasion of Russia - 1812

• Lost half a million troops to the scorched-Earth policy and the Russian winter

  • Scorched-Earth Policy: Russians would burn land that the French were coming to, rather than fight them

  • Attempt to lure the French deeper into Russia, leaving them ill-prepared for the Russian winter - starving troops

NAPOLEON’S DOWNFALL

• Weakened army could not defeat the Fourth Coalition (Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain)

• October 1813: Battle of Nations (Leipzig)

• April 4, 1814: Napoleon was forced to abdicate (step down from the throne) and was exiled to Elba

• Bourbon Restoration: Louis XVIII takes 

  • Bourbon Dynasty returned to power; absolute monarchy restored

• France returned to 1792 borders

THE HUNDRED DAYS

• March 1815: Napoleon returned to France with much support

• Battle of Waterloo: June 15th, 1815, Napoleon’s troops are defeated by the Duke of Wellington

• Napoleon is exiled to the Island of St. Helena where he died in 1821

CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1814 - 1815

• Prussia, Russia Austria, Britain (the Fourth Coalition), and France

  • Fourth Coalition mainly 

• Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria presided

• Attempt to restore Europe to what it was prior to Napoleon and the French Revolution; every country was independent, had their own power, balance of power

• 3 principles:

  • Compensation

    • Fourth Coalition should be compensated by the French for defeating them

  • Legitimacy *

    • Restoring the legitimate rulers to power throughout Europe

  • Balance of Power

- LATIN AMERICAN - INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS

CAUSES

• Economic:

  • Mercantilism

  • Cash Crops

    • A crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower

    • Can lead to food shortages - not enough food grown to feed popular

  • Unfair distribution of wealth

• Social:

  • Rigid class structure

    • Difficult to move out of your social class; if you’re born into it, you stay there

• Political:

  • Colonial rule

  • Unfair distribution of power

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

• Government exists to protect the citizens’ natural rights of life, liberty, & property

•  If the government violates the natural rights of the people, the citizens have a right to revolt

THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS

• The French and American Revolutions prove that Revolution is a legitimate means to bring about change

• Political upheaval and new Enlightened ideas dominate France

• Napoleonic Wars distract the European Powers attention away from their colonies

THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

HAITI

• A French colony known as St. Dominique

• The first Latin American Colony to win its independence

• It started out as a slave rebellion because slaves outnumbered their masters by 500,000

TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE

• An ex-slave who emerged as the leader of the revolution

• 1802; French troops landed on St. Dominique and L’Ouverture promised to stop the fighting if the French would end slavery

• Accused of plotting another rebellion and imprisoned

  • Died in prison in April 1803

• January 1, 1804, Haiti was declared an independent country

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The first to win independence

Started as a slave rebellion

French colony

MÉXICO

MIGUEL HIDALGO

• Highly educated Creole priest

• September 1810: El Grito de Dólares

  • Called upon his mestizo and indigenous parishioners to take up arms against the Spanish

  • Led an army toward Mexico City

  • Hidalgo never made it to the capital – He was captured and shot in 1811

JOSE MORELOS

• Mestizo Priests who took up the fight after Hidalgo

• Captured and executed in December 1815

AGUSTIN ITURBIDE

• Creole who declared independence for Mexico in 1821

• Proclaimed himself Emperor of Mexico

• 1824: Iturbide toppled and the Republic of Mexico was established

THE LIBERATOR: SIMON BOLIVAR

• Elite Creole planter -> Military General

• Called the “George Washington” of South America

• Known as the Liberator

  • Liberated territories of modern day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia

• Wanted to create a powerful, unified Latin American State

JOSE DE SAN MARTIN

• Creole officer who had trained in European armies

• Liberated Argentina from Spanish control

• Met with Bolivar in 1822

  • Turned over command of his armies to Bolivar

BRAZIL

DOM PEDRO

• 1808: Napoleon’s troops invaded Portugal

  • The royal family fled to Brazil and ruled the Portuguese Empire from there

• After Napoleon’s defeat, Brazilians wanted their independence

• 1822: 8,000 Creoles signed a petition asking Dom Pedro to rue Brazil independently

• He agreed and Brazil had a Bloodless Revolution

CONCLUSION

• Most Latin American colonies won their independence by 1825

• Most of the independence movements were led by the Creoles

• Haiti was different because:

  • It was the first

  • It was the only French colony to revel

  • It was the only rebellion led by slaves

• Brazil was different because:

  • It was a Portuguese colony

  • It was a bloodless revolution

  • It became a monarchy