The French Revolution Begins

Background to the Revolution

• The year 1789 witnessed two far-reaching events: the beginning of a new United States of America and the beginning of the French Revolution.

  • The causes of the French Revolution include both long-range problems and immediate forces.

• France’s population of 27 million was divided, as it had been since the Middle Ages, into three orders, or estates.

  • The First Estate consisted of the clergy and numbered about 130,000 people.

  • The Second Estate, the nobility, included about 350,000 people.

    • The nobles sought to expand their power at the expense of the monarchy.

  • The Third Estate, or the commoners of society, made up the overwhelming majority of the French population.

    • The peasants, who constituted 75 to 80 percent of the total population, were by far the largest segment of the Third Estate.

• Serfdom no longer existed on any large scale in France, but French peasants still had obligations to their local landlords that they deeply resented.

• These relics of feudalism, or aristocratic privileges, were obligations that survived from an earlier age.

• Another part of the Third Estate consisted of skilled craftspeople, shopkeepers, and other wage earners in the cities.

  • The bourgeoisie, or middle class, was another part of the Third Estate.

• Members of the middle class were unhappy with the privileges held by nobles.

• In addition, both aristocrats and members of the bourgeoisie were drawn to the new political ideas of the Enlightenment.

• Social conditions, then, formed a long-range background to the French Revolution.

• The French economy, although it had been expanding for 50 years, suffered periodic crises.

  • In spite of these economic problems, the French government continued to spend enormous sums on costly wars and court luxuries.

• On the verge of a complete financial collapse, the government of Louis XVI was finally forced to call a meeting of the Estates-General to raise new taxes.

• This was the French parliament, and it had not met since 1614.

From Estates-General to National Assembly

• The Estates-General was composed of representatives from the three orders of French society.

  • The meeting of the Estates-General opened at Versailles on May 5, 1789.

• The Third Estate demanded that each deputy have one vote.

• The Third Estate reacted quickly.

• On June 17, 1789, it called itself a National Assembly and decided to draft a constitution.

• The deputies then moved to a nearby indoor tennis court and swore that they would continue to meet until they had produced a French constitution.

  • The oath they swore is known as the Tennis Court Oath.

• Louis XVI prepared to use force against the Third Estate.

  • The common people, however, saved the Third Estate from the king’s forces.

• On July 14, a mob of Parisians stormed the Bastille, an armory and prison in Paris, and dismantled it, brick by brick.

  • Paris was abandoned to the rebels.

• Louis XVI was soon informed that he could no longer trust the royal troops.

• At the same time, popular revolutions broke out throughout France, both in the cities and in the countryside.

• Peasant rebellions took place throughout France and became part of the Great Fear, a vast panic that spread quickly through France in the summer of 1789.

The Destruction of the Old Regime

• The peasant revolts and fear of foreign troops had a strong effect on the National Assembly, which was meeting in Versailles.

• One of the assembly’s first acts was to destroy the relics of feudalism, or aristocratic privileges.

• On August 26, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

  • Reflecting Enlightenment thought, the declaration went on to proclaim freedom and equal rights for all men, access to public office based on talent, and an end to exemptions from taxation.

• Olympe de Gouges, a woman who wrote plays and pamphlets, refused to accept this exclusion of women from political rights.

  • The National Assembly ignored her demands.

• In the meantime, Louis XVI had remained at Versailles

  • The crowd now insisted that the royal family return to Paris to show the king’s support of the National Assembly.

• Because the Catholic Church was seen as an important pillar of the old order, it, too, was subject to change.

  • The Church was also secularized.

• A new Civil Constitution of the Clergy was put into effect.

• The National Assembly completed a new constitution, the Constitution of 1791, which set up a limited monarchy.

• The Assembly was to consist of 745 representatives.

• The way they were to be chosen ensured that only the more affluent members of society would be elected.

• By 1791, the old order had been destroyed. How- ever, many people — including Catholic priests, nobles, lower classes hurt by a rise in the cost of living, and radicals who wanted more drastic solutions — opposed the new order.

• In this unsettled situation, with a seemingly disloyal monarch, the new Legislative Assembly held its first session in October 1791.

• Over time, some European leaders began to fear that revolution would spread to their countries.

• The rulers of Austria and Prussia even threatened to use force to restore Louis XVI to full power.

• The French fared badly in the initial fighting.

• A frantic search for scapegoats began.

• Defeats in war, coupled with economic shortages at home in the spring of 1792, led to new political demonstrations, especially against Louis XVI.

• Members of the new Paris Commune took the king captive.

• The French Revolution was about to enter a more radical and violent stage.

• Power now passed from the Assembly to the Paris Commune.

• Many of its members proudly called themselves the sans-culottes, ordinary patriots without fine clothes.

Radical Revolution and Reaction

The Move to Radicalism

• The Paris Commune had forced the Legislative Assembly to call a National Convention.

  • Before the Convention met, the Paris Commune dominated the political scene.

• Led by the newly appointed minister of justice, Georges Danton, the sans-culottes sought revenge on those who had aided the king and resisted the popular will.

  • Thousands of people were arrested and then massacred.

• New leaders of the people emerged, including Jean-Paul Marat, who published a radical journal called Friend of the People.

• In September 1792, the newly elected National Convention began its sessions.

  • The Convention was dominated by lawyers, professionals, and property owners.

  • That, however, was as far as members of the convention could agree.

• They soon split into factions (dissenting groups) over the fate of the king.

  • The two most important factions were the Girondins and the Mountain.

  • Both factions were members of the Jacobin club, a large network of political groups throughout France.

• The Mountain won at the beginning of 1793 when it convinced the National Convention to pass a decree condemning Louis XVI to death.

• Disputes between Girondins and the Mountain were only one aspect of France’s domestic crisis in 1792 and 1793.

• A foreign crisis also loomed large.

• The execution of Louis XVI had outraged the royalty of most of Europe.

• By late spring of 1793, the coalition was poised for an invasion of France.

• To meet these crises, the National Convention gave broad powers to a special committee of 12 known as the Committee of Public Safety.

• It was dominated at first by Georges Danton, then by Maximilien Robespierre.

The Reign of Terror

• For roughly a year during 1793 and 1794, the Committee of Public Safety took control.

• The Committee acted to defend France from foreign and domestic threats.

• To meet the crisis at home, the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety set in motion an effort that came to be known as the Reign of Terror

• Revolutionary armies were set up to bring rebellious cities back under the control of the National Convention.

• The Committee of Public Safety decided to make an example of Lyon.

• In western France, too, revolutionary armies were brutal in defeating rebel armies.

  • Perhaps the most notorious act of violence occurred in Nantes, where victims were executed by being sunk in barges in the Loire River.

  • People from all classes were killed during the Terror.

  • Along with the terror, the Committee of Public Safety took other steps both to control France and to create a new order, called by Robespierre the Republic of Virtue—a democratic republic composed of good citizens.

• By spring 1793, the Committee was sending “representatives on mission” as agents of the central government to all parts of France to implement laws dealing with the wartime emergency.

  • The committee also attempted to provide some economic controls by establishing price limits on goods considered necessities, ranging from food and drink to fuel and clothing.

• In 1789, it had been a group of women who convinced Louis XVI to return to Paris from Versailles.

  • In its attempts to create a new order that reflected its belief in reason, the National Convention pursued a policy of dechristianization.

  • Another example of dechristianization was the adoption of a new calendar

  • The anti-Christian purpose of the calendar was reinforced in the naming of the months of the year.

A Nation in Arms

• In less than a year, the French revolutionary government had raised a huge army.

  • By September 1794, it was over one million.

• The republic’s army was the largest ever seen in European history.

• It pushed the allies invading France back across the Rhine and even conquered the Austrian Netherlands.

• The French revolutionary army was an important step in the creation of modern nationalism

• By the summer of 1794, the French had largely defeated their foreign foes.

• Many deputies in the National Convention who feared Robespierre decided to act.

• After the death of Robespierre, revolutionary fervor began to cool.

The Directory

• With the terror over, the National Convention reduced the power of the Committee of Public Safety.

  • In an effort to keep any one governmental group from gaining control, the Constitution of 1795 established a national legislative assembly consisting of two chambers: a lower house, known as the Council of 500, which initiated legislation; and an upper house, the Council of Elders, which accepted or rejected the proposed laws.

• The 750 members of the two legislative bodies were chosen by electors (individuals qualified to vote in an election)

  • From a list presented by the Council of 500, the Council of Elders elected five directors to act as the executive committee, or Directory.

• At the same time, the government of the Directory was faced with political enemies.

• Increasingly, the Directory relied on the military to maintain its power.

• In 1799, a coup d’état, a sudden overthrow of the government, led by the successful and popular general Napoleon Bonaparte, toppled the Directory.

  • Napoleon seized power.

The Age of Napoleon

The Rise of Napoleon

• Napoleon Bonaparte dominated French and European history from 1799 to 1815.

  • Napoleon was born in 1769 in Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, only a few months after France had annexed the island.

  • Napoleon’s education in French military schools led to his commission in 1785 as a lieutenant in the French army.

  • For the next seven years, Napoleon read the works of the philosophes and educated himself in military matters by studying the campaigns of great military leaders from the past.

  • Napoleon rose quickly through the ranks of the French army.

• Throughout his Italian campaigns, Napoleon won the confidence of his men with his energy, charm, and ability to make quick decisions.

  • In 1797, Napoleon returned to France as a conquering hero.

• The British, however, controlled the seas.

• By 1799, they had cut off Napoleon’s army in Egypt.

• In Paris, Napoleon took part in the coup d’état that overthrew the government of the Directory.

  • He was only 30 years old at the time.

• With the coup d’état of 1799, a new government— called the consulate—was proclaimed.

• Although theoretically it was a republic, in fact Napoleon held absolute power.

• As first consul, Napoleon controlled the entire government.

• In 1802, Napoleon was made consul for life.

Napoleon’s Domestic Policies

• Napoleon once claimed that he had preserved the gains of the revolution for the French people.

  • One of Napoleon’s first moves at home was to establish peace with the oldest enemy of the revolution, the Catholic Church.

• In 1801, Napoleon made an agreement with the pope.

  • The agreement recognized Catholicism as the religion of a majority of the French people.

  • With this agreement, the Catholic Church was no longer an enemy of the French government.

• Napoleon’s most famous domestic achievement was his codification of the laws.

• The most important of the codes was the Civil Code, or Napoleonic Code.

  • The rights of some people were strictly curtailed by the Civil Code, however.

  • Divorce was still allowed, but the Civil Code made it more difficult for women to obtain divorces.

• Napoleon also developed a powerful, centralized administrative machine.

• Napoleon also created a new aristocracy based on merit in the state service.

  • In his domestic policies, Napoleon did preserve aspects of the revolution.

• On the other hand, Napoleon destroyed some revolutionary ideals.

• Liberty was replaced by a despotism that grew increasingly arbitrary, in spite of protests by such citizens as the prominent writer Anne-Louise-Germaine de Staël.

Napoleon’s Empire

• Napoleon is, of course, known less for his domestic policies than for his military leadership.

• His conquests began soon after he rose to power.

• When Napoleon became consul in 1799, France was at war with a European coalition of Russia, Great Britain, and Austria. Napoleon realized the need for a pause in the war.

  • Napoleon achieved a peace treaty in 1802, but it did not last long.

• The French Empire was the inner core of the Grand Empire.

• Dependent states were kingdoms under the rule of Napoleon’s relatives.

• Allied states were those defeated by Napoleon and forced to join his struggle against Britain.

  • Within his empire, Napoleon sought to spread some of the principles of the French Revolution, including legal equality, religious toleration, and economic freedom.

• In the inner core and dependent states of his Grand Empire, Napoleon tried to destroy the old order.

The European Response

• Like Hitler 130 years later, Napoleon hoped that his Grand Empire would last for centuries.

• Britain’s survival was due primarily to its sea power.

• As long as Britain ruled the waves, it was almost invulnerable to military attack.

  • Napoleon hoped to invade Britain and even collected ships for the invasion.

  • Napoleon then turned to his Continental System to defeat Britain.

    • The Continental System, too, failed.

• Allied states resented being told by Napoleon that they could not trade with the British.

• A second important factor in the defeat of Napoleon was nationalism.

  • Nationalism is the unique cultural identity of a people based on common language, religion, and national symbols.

The Fall of Napoleon

• The beginning of Napoleon’s downfall came in 1812 with his invasion of Russia.

  • Within only a few years, the fall was complete.

• The Russians had refused to remain in the Continental System, leaving Napoleon with little choice but to invade.

• In June 1812, a Grand Army of over six hundred thousand men entered Russia.

• When the remaining Grand Army arrived in Moscow, they found the city ablaze

• This military disaster led other European states to rise up and attack the crippled French army. Paris was captured in March 1814.

• Napoleon was soon sent into exile on the island of Elba, off the coast of Tuscany.

• The new king had little support, and Napoleon, bored on the island of Elba, slipped back into France.

• No one fired a shot. Shouting “Vive l’Empereur! Vive l’Empereur!” (“Long Live the Emperor! Long Live the Emperor!”) the troops went over to his side.

  • Napoleon made his entry into Paris in triumph on March 20, 1815.

• The powers that had defeated Napoleon pledged once more to fight this person they called the “Enemy and Disturber of the Tranquility of the World.”

• At Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, Napoleon met a combined British and Prussian army under the Duke of Wellington and suffered a bloody defeat.