French Revolution: The people of France wanted representation at the table of power
Causes of the French Revolution:
Commoners/ Third Estate
All the power for political change belonged to the clergy and nobility
The Old Order had been around forever, but there are some issues that push the third estate to rise up
Economic Crises: Louis XIV plunged France into debt because he fought many wars to establish his dominance. All of the people would benefit from expansion, you would think everyone was funding the wars. The economic burden of Louis fell on the shoulders of the commoners, while the clergy and nobility were exempted. The first two estates did not have to pay, even though they were financially able to, while the third estate were forced to give up their earnings when they couldn’t even provide for themselves.
Imbalance of the Estates General: The Estates General was the representative body of France made of the Three Estates. Louis XVI was a timid monarch that was easily pressured by the clergy and nobility. When he tried to make his own taxes, the noble judges of the Parlement rejected him. . The Estates General was unequal because each estate only got one vote, despite the population. The clergy and nobility are always overpowered against everyone else. (3% of the population decided how life would go for the other 97%).
Bread Shortages: By 1788, famines caused bread to be scarce. The lower class of the French were struggling with hunger.
During the Estates General to discuss how to fix these problems, the clergy and the nobility completely deny the concerns of the third estate since they have all the power. The people of the third estate walk out and create the National Assembly, which is now the only legislative body that represents the people of France.
In June 1789, the representatives of the third estate were barred from going to another meeting of the Estates General, so they go to a nearby tennis court.
Tennis Court Oath: They promised not to leave until they drafted a new constitution for France. When they completed it, Louis XVI was forced to accept this new limitation on his power (while he was secretly assembling troops to crush the assembly)
The Sans Culottes found out his plan and stormed the Bastille. Prison that symbolized the tyranny of the king. This was the first real uprising.
The Liberal Phase: the National Assembly writes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen which called for freedom of speech, representative government (constitutional monarchy), and the riddance of first and second estate privileges. inspired by the Bill of Rights and declaration of Independence in America.
The National Assembly nationalizes the Catholic Church. Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790): expands monastic orders, takes Church’s lands, eliminated the tithe (tax peasants had to pay to the church, and clergy were placed at the authority of the state.
Women were important. October March on Versailles: Thousands of Women marched in the pouring rain to Versailles because they were angered because Louis and Marie continued to have parties and spend as if there was no famine. They demand bread that was hoarded in the Palace, but they don’t comply. As a result, the women storm the Palace and kill several guards. They put the heads on pikes and march. They force Louis to accept the Declaration of ROMAC and were ready to kill him, but Lafayette appears.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: ideas of the philosophes adopted by the National Assembly. (natural rights) Allowed for nobility advantages to dissipate, a restricted monarchy, and more freedom
Olympe de Gouges: writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen which articulates the rights of women. The legal status of women improves, but is eventually overturned and citizen is restricted to men.
The Radical Phase: By 1790, the National Assembly had broken into factions. Most radical group known as the Jacobins.
In 1792, the National Assembly becomes the National Convention. The Jacobins are in control and implemented a more radical set of policies.
Policies of the National Convention
Year 1 was no longer the year of Christ’s birth, but rather 1792. Era of Liberty
Dissolves the constitutional monarchy which had been established by the National assembly, advocated for a Republic, Louis XVI is guillotined
Other monarchies around France were terrified that the French cut off the heads of their king. Surrounding areas around France allied against them.
Reign of Terror (
Maximillien de Robespierre: radical Jacobin leader who becomes a dictator
Committee of Public Safety: established by Robespierre,
A Nation in Arms: to protect France from enemy states that threatened the revolution, largest army created through mass conscription, used to spread ideals of the revolution around Europe
Robespierre was put in the Guillotine 1794
Reactions to the French Revolution across Europe and the Whole world
Conservative: The fight for liberty and overturn of the aristocratic privilege was right, but as the revolution grew more radical, intellectuals began to say it had gone too far.
Dissent within France:
Joseph de Maistre was a big critic of the Enlightenment, especially regarding the right of the people to govern themselves. He advocated the return of monarchy and the divine Right of kings. He says the violence of the French Revolution was an example of how much damage the Enlightenment thought could do.
From outside of France, though people initially supported the revolution because it eliminated political competition, some saw the democratizing of France as a threat. Strong fear from other nations that their people would be inspired.
Edmund Burke: author of Reflection of the Revolution in France, he warns British people about how far the revolution had gone. written before the Reign of Terror. This prevented people in England from ending up like France
The Haitian Revolution:
Saint-Domingue was a French colony, which consisted of a small group of French officials, Plantation owners, merchants, and free people of color and a huge amount of enslaved African laborers.
The enslaved Africans were granted little to no rights by the French government. The National Assembly also fails to spread the fight for freedom to the people on the island and isolates them instead. The island was angered and the island is ripe for revolution.
August, Rebellion broke out. Hundreds of Coffee and Sugar plantations were destroyed. This was france’s most profitable colony. The rebels were actively diminishing the profits in France. As the rebellion went on, Spain and Britain became involved..
The island was apart of a Spanish empire. The Spain take the opportunity to weaken France and support the Haitian rebellion. The Britain also saw opportunity and surrounded the island with their navy and took some territory for themselves.
The National assembly said that any slave that fought for the French cause would win their freedom. The rebels felt no incentive because they had already freed themselves through this rebellion. The national assembly abolishes slavery and all of the territories.
The rise of Toussaint L’Ouverture: He was born a slave and was recruited by the Spanish to fight for them against the French and he does. Then, he abandons them and leads an army of 4000 against the Spanish and the British. By 1796, France had regained control of their colony.
National assebly makes him the commander of the colony. He defeats his rivals to the south to maintain control over all of San- Domingue. He made lots of independent decisions for France during Napoleon’s rule.
Napoleon wants to get rid of L’Ouverture and re-establish slavery on the island. A delegation is sent to arrest L’Ouverture and he was deported back to France and dies. His lieutenant defeats the French and proclaims Independence of Haiti in 1804.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: The revolution also was about how France would become a nation, concerns about how it would hold together socially, politically, and economically.
The people of France felt unstable. In 1794, he was general and was praised for his leadership of the French army in Italy. He was sent to fight the British in Egypt.
He creates a 3 member consulate, a new constitution was adopted in 1799. Being first out of 3 wasn’t enough. In 1804, he crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I. The people of France encourage this because after the Reign of Terror, they longed for normalcy, which Napoleon had promised to do. He claims to embody the principles of the rebellion.
Domestic Reforms:
Napoleonic Code, which reasserted three key principles of the Revolution: equity of citizens before law(men), protection for wealth and private property, limited religious tolerance to France
centralized government and bureaucracy
Religious reform from Concordat of Bologna in 1801: French Catholics could worship freely . Church was subservient to the State
His dominance: wanted to promote liberty, equality, and fraternity
To MAINTAIN his power, he suppressed the rights of the people through
using a secret police that listened for threats in the established order
censorship: established state-sponsored censors in the staff of every major french newspaper
marginalization of women: women lost the rights they gained. Napoleonic Code made it so that women could no longer enter into contracts of hold property apart from their husband, no independence
Napoleonic Wars: He says the purpose of these wars was to spread the ideals of the Revolution, but he might’ve just wanted to rule all of Europe
1806: won wars against Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
1810: Emperor of Europe, he had so much land across. Church lands were transferred peasants and slavery was abolished, the inherited priveleges of the aristocracy was strict. He didn’t lie about spreading the ideals of the Revolution.
He ministered this empire. 3 parts
Grand Empire: France, lands conquered around, under his direct control
Independent kingdoms that N kept faithful to him by installing members of his family on their thrones
Nations that were allied with France, including Austria, Russia, and Prussia
He couldn’t conquer Great Britain and uses his influence on the European continent to establish the continental system (British ships could not dock at any port controlled by France.
Napoleon’s defeat:
Nationalistic responses:
nationalism is strong identification with one’s own people and one’s own cultural heritage, strengthened by a shared language and history. When a foreigner invades, it stirs up national sentiments as it did in Spain
Nation: people who share the culture . State: land which they live on a map with borders and the government that rules over them
Rise of Nationalism: people demanded for their own state
Causes
Romantic Idealism: Romantic artists began to glorify the past of their readers and in doing so, unite people
Grimm brothers United Germany, Victor Hugo glorified the success of the French people overthrowing the government’s tyranny in Les Miserables
Liberal Reforms: For example, Francis Napoleon III allowed for international trade (France foreign markets) and boosted the economy. The institution of universal male suffrage also made him liked. French nationalism grew significantly because of Napoleon III.
Political Unification: For example, when Giuseppe Mazzini united the Italian states into a signal nation state. The unification movement was called Young Italy. He was successful.
Growth of Racialism: or the belief that one race is superior to the others. Positive: Pan-Slavic Movement… Negative: Rise of Anti-Semitism
1808: led a campaign to make Spain a satellite state of France. Catholics and Spanish Patriots resisted the invasion of the French army. After the French invaded the Capital city, the Spanish patriots fled to the hills and wages guerrilla warfare against the French. French imperialism was unwelcome.
1812: turns sides on Russia, claiming that he wanted to free Poland from Russian dominance. He invades Russia with an army of 600,000 soldiers. Russians retreated further into Russia to avoid Napoleon. They followed a scorched earth policy, which means they just burned everything in sight. Napoleon’s army was unable to live off the land. He then ordered a great retreat, but it was too late. Russian winters were too hard to survive without resources. 40,000 men returned out of 600,000.
1814: Napoleon was stretched too thin. He abdicates the throne in 1814 and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. He escapes in 1815 and returns to France, raising an army and wanted to dethrone Louis XVIII (18)
States United against Napoleon and defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was exiled to St. Helena where he lives for the rest of his life.