Kings ate lavish feasts regularly while peasants starved to death
Economy
France in debt due to war and frivolous spending by kings
King Louis XVI cannot borrow money to fund government.
Cheap English industrialized goods flood French markets, putting French businesses out of business
Agriculture
Flooding in some parts of France ruined crops in the years leading up to 1789.
Drought in some parts of France in the years leading up to 1789.
Low grain yields create a grain shortage.
This forces grain prices to rise.
Shortage of bread.
3 Estate System
1st Estate: Clergy (church)
Made up of about 0.5% of the population
Paid about 0-2% of taxes
2nd Estate: Nobility (rich)
Made up of about 1.5-2% of the population
Paid about 0-1% of taxes
3rd Estate: Commoners
Made up of about 97-98% of the population
Paid about 97-100% of taxes
King Louis XIV and Louis XV Lavish Spending
The building and expanding of the Palace of Versailles
Louis spent money building Versailles and throwing parties.
Spending on food.
Political Abuses
Nobles were forced to stay at Versailles for 3 months a time.
The king had political opponents and undesirables thrown in prison numerous times without being charged with a crime, without a trial, and without ever meeting a judge.
The Bastille was a famous prison where Louis sentenced people to live.
Support and Abuse of the 3 Estate System
Kings and nobility would spend lavishly on food and drink nightly, whilst the 3rd estate had to deal with poverty.
Kings supported nobility that socially and economically abused the 3rd estate.
False accusations of crime against members of the 3rd estate.
Nobility controlled the flow of money to commoners through employment, tax, and loans.
The Estates General
Old system: one vote for each estate, meaning the 3rd Estate was consistently outvoted, despite representing 98% of the population.
3rd estate establishes the National Assembly to represent all of France.
Each person gets a vote.
King Louis XVI's response was to lock the 3rd estate out of General Meetings.
The 3rd estate finds a tennis court and proclaims the Tennis Court Oath.
Tennis Court Oath
The assembly will not leave the Tennis Court, at Versailles, until a new Constitution is established in France.
Storming of the Bastille
July 14, 1789
Bastille was a form of abuse and oppression by the king and 1st and 2nd estates.
Held political prisoners and those disliked by the king and 1st and 2nd estates.
Held 7 political prisoners on July 14, 1789.
Purpose: to get gunpowder.
OFFICIAL START TO FRENCH REVOLUTION
Citizens of Paris tear down Bastille the next day.
The Great Fear
2-3 month period after the storming of the Bastille.
Uprising of commoners and peasants against the nobility.
Killing of nobility and their families by commoners.
Burning down houses of nobility.
Destruction of legal documents that tied peasants to debt.
Slow communication of truth, combined with rumors, led to widespread panic across France.
Spread and localized uprisings.
Women’s March on Versailles
October 5, 1789
Forced King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to leave Versailles and return to Paris.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Adopted in 1789, during the French Revolution, it defined the fundamental rights and freedoms of all citizens.
Included natural rights, sovereignty, separation of powers, etc.
Influenced by the American Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson helped Marquis de Lafayette write the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen.
The Execution of Marie Antoinette
October 16, 1793
She is tied and convicted of treason and conspiracy against the state.
Executed.
Part II: The Reign of Terror
Promoted and championed republicanism and democratic reform.
Suffrage: the right to vote
Maximilien Robespierre leads the execution.
Implemented policies like price controls, mass conscription, and dechristianization movement.
Revolutionary Groups
Sans-Culottes: “Without knee breeches”
Participated in street protests, armed insurrections, and joined radical political clubs
Helped to topple the monarchy, but then became main victim of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror.
The Reign of Terror
September 1793 - July 1794; Jacobin leaders executed anyone they suspected to be an enemy of the revolution.
Around 15,000 were executed in Paris alone, approximately 50 a day.
40,000 nationwide.
Émigrés
French nobles and other wealthy individuals who fled France during the revolution.
Opposed to the revolution and the changes it was bringing about in French society.
Ended with the execution of Maximilien Robespierre.
The French Revolutionary Wars
At the time, France was the most powerful nation in Europe.
Restoring the monarchy in France was a necessary political move to show their own citizens and others that disrupting the traditional power structure is not tolerated.
Invasions by:
French
Austria
Prussia
Great Britain
Spain
The Netherlands
Sardinia
Russia
Naples
The French war changed the nature of modern warfare and was an important step in modern nationalism.
The New Government
The National Convention created a new constitution reflecting the desire for stability.
The Directory
The new constitution established “The Directory,” made up of 5 directors, as executives for the new government.
The Rise of Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte dominated European history from 1799-1815.
Napoleon was born in 1769 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Went to military school in France on a royal scholarship.
In 1785, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the French army.
Napoleon educated himself in philosophy and the greatest military campaigns.
The French Revolution and European wars gave him opportunities to use his knowledge.
At 24, he was made brigadier general by the Committee of Public Safety.
Won victories as a French commander against armies in Italy.
Returned to France in 1797 as a conquering hero.
Tried to conquer England by taking Egypt and threatening India, but failed.
In 1799, he returned to Paris.
November 9, 1799, Napoleon took part in the coup d’état that overthrew the Directory.
Even though France was a republic, Napoleon held absolute power as the first consul of the new government called the Consulate.
Appointed members of the bureaucracy, controlled the army, conducted foreign affairs, and influenced the legislature.
In 1802, Napoleon made himself emperor and consul.
Concordat (1801)
An agreement that established the Catholic Church as the recognized religion of France.
Gave the French government control of bishops.
Significant change where the Pope appointed bishops.
Required clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the French government.
Napoleonic Rule
Plebiscite: a direct vote in which the entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal
In Napoleon's case, he used Plebiscites to legitimize his rule and gain popular support for his policies.
Lycées
Secondary schools established during Napoleon's reign. They were designed to provide a rigorous education to students from all backgrounds, regardless of social class or family connections.
Created a merit-based system, where talented students from any background could rise.
Napoleonic Code
Sets of laws designed to establish a uniform legal system for France, which had previously been ruled by a patchwork of laws based on local customs.
Emphasized individual rights and equality before the law and established basic civil rights, such as the right to own property and a fair trial (ripped from constitution).
Criticized for being too strict and failing to address social and economic conditions.
The law helped him gain more control over France.
The Napoleonic Wars
A series of conflicts that took place between 1803 and 1815, involving France and several European powers.
Napoleon's Grande Armée fought many of the same European powers as the French Revolutionary Wars: Austria, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain.
Napoleon's Victories
September 7, 1812: Battle of Borodino
One of the deadliest battles in history, with an estimated 70,000 casualties.
Napoleon enters Moscow.
He finds that the Russians have committed to a scorched earth policy.
Russians had destroyed all agriculture and animals in Moscow.
Russians set their own city on fire before fleeing.
A major defeat for Napoleon: Battle of Leipzig, October 1813
Napoleon loses.
He is sent to live in exile on the small Mediterranean island of Elba.
Concert of Vienna
Meetings in Vienna, Austria from 1814-1815
Goal: to reestablish peace and stability in Europe after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
Accomplishments:
Redrew the map of Europe and established a new balance of power.
Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France
Creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
German Confederation
Established the principle of collective security.
Napoleon's 100 Days
Napoleon escaped his exile on Elba and returned to Paris in March 1815.
Over the 100 days, he gained supporters, regained control of the French army, and won a few small battles.
Napoleon’s Final Defeat at Waterloo
Napoleon’s final defeat.
Waterloo, Belgium, June 18, 1815
Defeated by the Duke of Wellington (Great Britain) and Prussia.
END OF REVOLUTION
Napoleon’s Final Exile
He is exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena.