Chapter 23 - The French Revolution and Napoleon

23.1 - The French Revolution Begins

• Two of the estates were given benefits that the members of the third were not given, such as access to high posts and tax exemptions. 

  • The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, known as the First Estate, possessed 10% of France's territory.
  •  It supplied poor people with education and assistance programs, as well as contributing around 2% of its revenue to the government.

• The Third Estate was adopting new perspectives on government power and authority. 

• The success of the American Revolution encouraged members of the Third Estate. 

  • They began to examine long-held beliefs about society's structure. They began to demand equality, liberty, and democracy, quoting Rousseau and Voltaire.

• Strong leadership may have been able to solve these and other issues.

• Louis XVI, on the other hand, was indecisive and let things drift. He was uninterested in his government advisers and had little patience for the minutiae of running a government.

• Louis' issues were exacerbated by the queen. She interjected herself constantly in government affairs and frequently gave Louis bad advice.

• The delegates of the Third Estate, largely bourgeoisie members whose opinions had been formed by the Enlightenment, were ready to reform the government. 

  • They insisted on a meeting of all three estates, with each delegate having a vote. This would give the Third Estate an advantage, as it possessed more delegates than the other two estates combined.

  

23.2 - Revolution Brings Reform and Terror

• The Church was at the center of many of the National Assembly's early measures. The assembly seized Church lands and stated that Church officials and priests would be elected and paid in the same way as state authorities.

  •  As a result, both the Catholic Church's lands and its political freedom were lost.

• Louis XVI contemplated his future as a monarch as the National Assembly rebuilt the relationship between church and state. He and his family were in danger, according to several of his advisers.

  •  Many monarchy supporters left France because they thought it was unsafe. The royal family then attempted to flee France to the Austrian Netherlands in June 1791. 
  • They were captured and returned to Paris under escort as they approached the border.

• The National Assembly finalized the new constitution in September 1791, which Louis reluctantly ratified. 

  • A restricted constitutional monarchy was established by the constitution. It took away a lot of power from the king.

• Old difficulties, including as food shortages and government debt, persisted despite the new government. 

  • The Legislative Assembly was divided into three general groupings, each of which sat in a different portion of the meeting hall, due to the question of how to deal with these issues.

• The French had a terrible start in the war. Prussian armies were moving on Paris by the summer of 1792.

• If the revolutionaries damage any member of the royal family, the Prussian commander vowed to destroy Paris. The Parisians were furious by this.

  

23.3 - Napoleon Forges an Empire

• In October 1795, fate bestowed a chance for glory for the young lieutenant. A government official told Napoleon to defend the delegates when royalist rebels marched on the National Convention. 

  • The thousands of royalists were met with a cannonade by Napoleon and his gunners. 
  • The attackers fled in terror and bewilderment within minutes. Napoleon Bonaparte became the hero of the day and was hailed as the savior of the French republic throughout Paris.

• The Directory had lost control of the political situation and the French people's trust by 1799. Napoleon's associates urged him to assume political power when he returned from Egypt. 

• Napoleon launched his campaign in early November 1799. His troops besieged the national legislature and forced out the majority of its members.

• Napoleon made no attempt to return the country to Louis XVI's reign. Rather, he preserved many of the reforms brought about by the Revolution. 

  • In general, he favored legislation that would strengthen the central authority while still achieving some of the Revolution's goals.

• Napoleon declared himself Emperor in 1804, and the French people backed him. Napoleon marched down the long aisle of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on December 2, 1804, clad in a magnificent purple velvet robe. 

  • With a gleaming crown, the pope awaited him.

• When the Revolutionary ideas reached the planters of Saint Domingue in 1789, they asked that the National Assembly provide them the same rights as the French people. 

  • Enslaved Africans in the colony eventually claimed their own rights—in other words, their liberation.

• Napoleon switched his attention to Europe after abandoning his imperial ambitions in the New World. 

  • He'd already annexed the Austrian Netherlands and sections of Italy to France, as well as establishing a puppet government in Switzerland.

• Napoleon's successes in the first decade of the 1800s gave him control over most of Europe.

  •  Britain, Portugal, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire were the only areas of Europe free of Napoleon's power by 1812.

• Napoleon ruled over a number of ostensibly autonomous countries in addition to the French Empire's territory.

  

23.4 - Napoleon’s Empire Collapses

• Napoleon made a second costly blunder in 1808. He deployed an invasion force across Spain in an attempt to persuade Portugal to embrace the Continental System. 

  • The Spanish people reacted angrily to this conduct. 

• Napoleon responded by deposing the Spanish king and installing his own brother, Joseph, on the throne. 

  • The Spaniards were enraged, and their nationalistic passions were stoked.

• Napoleon's most egregious blunder occurred in 1812.

• Despite becoming Napoleon's friend, Alexander I of Russia refused to stop providing grain to the British.

•  Furthermore, the French and Russian monarchs suspected one another of plotting against Poland.

  •  Napoleon decided to invade Russia as a result of the breakdown of their partnership.

  

23.5 - The Congress of Vienna 

• Although Europe's leaders desired to weaken France, they did not want it to become impotent. 

  • They risk inciting the French to retaliate if they punish them harshly. 
  • If they dismantle France, another country might rise to the point that it threatens them all. 
  • As a result, the victorious forces did not exact a high price from the conquered country.

• The great nations affirmed the idea of legality, agreeing to restore as many of the rulers who had been deposed by Napoleon to their thrones as feasible. 

  • The ruling houses of France, Spain, and a number of Italian and Central European kingdoms have all reclaimed their thrones.

• The European monarchs were greatly concerned about the French Revolution's legacy. They were concerned that the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity would inspire revolutions in other parts of the world. 

  • The Holy Alliance was struck late in 1815 by Czar Alexander I, Emperor Francis I of Austria, and King Frederick William III of Prussia.

• The Congress of Vienna left an indelible mark on world politics for the next century.

• France's size and strength were reduced as a result of continental efforts to develop and maintain a balance of power.

• At the same time, Britain's and Prussia's influence grew.

  

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