PART 2:  MORE DETAILS

American Revolution

• The significance of the American Revolution 1776
• Many French soldiers fought in the Revolutionary War
• Ideals were taken to France by soldiers who belived in them Marquis de Lafayette returned home from America with love of liberty and firm republican convictions
• French intellectuals and publicists engaged in analysis of constitutions of U.S. and other states

  Liberty and Equality

  • Political revolutionaries were fueled by the ideas of liberty and equality
  • Liberty was a call for human rights
    Liberals protested governmental controls:
    a) an end to censorship
    b) freedom of religion
    c) freedom of speech and expression
  • Equality meant all citizens were equal with the nobility having no extra rights
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man liberty consists of being able to do anything that does not harm another person
  • This concept was extremely radical to monarchists and absolutist regimes
  • It was call for a new kind of government
  • People were sovereign
  • Liberals believed that men and women were not equal. Women should not have the same rights
  • People were not economically equal - everyone should legally have an equal chance
  • Classic liberalism reflected the Enlightenment
    a) human dignity
    b) human happiness
    c) faith in science, rationality, and progress
  • Attracted the well-educated and rich
  • Representative government did not mean democracy - because those who could vote would own property
  • John Locke Second Treatise on Government and Baron de Montesquieu Spirit of Laws
  • Liberalism lacked was popular support:
    i) comfortable Liberals did not have to worry about food
    ii) traditional practices and institutions that the Liberals wanted to abolish were important to the peasants
  • French Revolution was a direct consequence of the American Revolution, but it was more radical and more controversial.
  • It opened a new era of politics
  • Locke "Life, liberty, and property"
  • Montesquieu "Power checks power"

  Louis XVI

  • Old Regime (ancien regime)
  • Absolute monarch
  • Weak monarch
  • Weak economy
  • Most of the debt held by the nobles
  • No central bank, paper currency, or means of credit

  Marie Antionette

  • Wife of Louis
  • Sister of Austrian King Leopold II
  • Older and vivacious - not interested in politics
  • Give them cake (?) - did not understand the situation

• Historians have long believed the struggle between the nobility and the bourgeoisie
• But bourgeoisie was riddled with internal problems
• New theories include:
  i) nobility remained fluid and open, commoners could seek positions and titles
  ii) the nobility and the bourgeoisie formed the bulk of enlightened thinkers
  iii) nobility and bourgeoisie not really at odds
• Chateaubriand, "The patricians began the Revolution, the plebeians finished it"

• 25 million people divided into 3 Estates
• First Estate - Clergy - 300 seats
• Divided into:
  a) upper -bishops and abbots - sold offices - usually wealthy
  b) lower - priests - usually poor
• i) 10% of land
  ii) paid "voluntary tax once every five years"
  iii) Could levy a 10% tithe on landowners
• Second Estate - Nobility- 300 seats
• Nobility of the Sword - lineage
• Nobility of the Robe - appointed offices
  i) 400,000 noblemen
  ii) owned 25% of land
  iii) labor dues (corvee)
  iv) could tax peasants for privileges, i.e. wine press or mill.
  v) supported the philosophes - but criticized by them
  vii) wanted a constitutional monarchy to limit the king
• Third Estate - The rest - 600 seats
  i) The peasants, Middle Class,
  Urban workers
  ii) some commoners were educated and rich - bourgeoisie
  iii) they wanted status which was not recognized through wealth
  iv) felt frustration with the second estate
  v) wanted positions in the church, government, and army open to the most qualified
  

• Population
• Debt
• Food shortages
• Inflation
• Disease
• Recession in textiles
• Nobility demanded more power
• The cause of the revolution was financial problems:
  50% interest
  25% military
  6% Versailles

• Four-fifths of the population were rural
• Foreign trade had increased fivefold between 1713 and 1789
• Consumer prices rose 65%; wages rose 22% between 1730-80
• But lord peasant relations were not master/man.
• Nobles had the right of "Eminent Property"

• Louis’ minister of finance proposed a general tax on all landed people, he persuaded the king to call an Assembly of Notables
• Louis attempted to rule by decree, but Parlement of Paris interfered
• Louis attempted to exile the Parlement but there was a huge outcry
• The Assembly promised support if the provincial assemblies could control spending
• The king dismissed the Assembly of Notables and tried to reassert his authority
• Parlement declared the king’s power null
• In July 1788 Louis was forced to call the Estates General first time since 1614- absolutism was collapsing
• People started to elect representatives and organize their demands
• Two-thirds of the clergy delegates were commoners by birth; one-third of the nobility were committed to liberalism; but no delegates were actually poor.
• The Estates wanted:
  a) absolutism to give way to constitutional monarchy
  b) liberties would have to be guaranteed
• But how would they vote?
• The old system virtually guaranteed control by the first and second estates
• The government "doubled" the Third Estate but still useless as long as they voted as estates.
• Abbe Sieyes wrote, "What is the Third estate?" - the neglected Third Estate was the strength of France
• May 1789 the Estates General met at Versailles
• June 13, delegates from the Third Estates refused to transact business, a few clergy moved into the Third Estate
• June 17 Third Estate became the National Assembly

• Moved to an indoor tennis court and pledged not to disband until they had written a new constitution
• Louis allied with the nobility - attempted to assert divine right to rule
• The king moved the army to Versailles and dismissed the Liberals

• August Assembly ends feudalism
• By 1789 almost half the people needed relief
• July 14 1789
• Symbol of power
• 7 prisoners
• Turned a political event into revolution
• Great Fear
• Lafayette proclaimed commander of the city's armed forces

• August 1789
• "All men are born free and equal"
• Natural rights
  - liberty, property, security
  freedom from oppression
  innocent until proved
• Didn’t guarantee economic equality

• October 1789 7,000 women marched to Versailles to protest the price of bread.
• King, queen and National Assembly taken to Paris

National Assembly

• The National Assembly passed major reforms
• July 1790, Louis agreed to a constitutional monarchy.
• New laws increased opportunities for women, but still no vote.
• Reorganized the provinces into 83 departments
• weights and measures were standardized (metric), guild restrictions lifted.
• Abolition of special privileges for the nobility
• Wrote a constitution which limited the monarchy
• Torture was abolished, citizen juries introduced, sale of offices was abolished
• customs tax on internally transported goods was lifted
• The government used assignats as paper currency
• Subordinated the church to the state
• The clergy was required to take an oath of loyalty to the state. Only half did - first failure and caused deep divisions
• By September 1791 the National Assembly announced its work completed, Louis accepted the constitution.
• Most lasting reforms in place, little gained in following years
• Robespierre declared the Revolution over!
• By 1792 the Revolution had turned radical because of:
  a) a counter revolution led by the king, church, and Catholic peasants
  b) economic, social, and political discontent among the peasants, artisans, and wage earners (sans-culottes)

• Louis made several concessions to the Assembly but he never intended to keep them
• The people still loved the king and blamed his ministers for the problems
• Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France intellectual defense of conservatism
• But in June 1791 Louis and his family had tried to escape to Austria, "flight to Varennes" (Leopold was Marie’s brother)
• Louis was captured at Varennes and returned to Paris
• August 1791, Declaration of Pillnitz - Austria and Prussia to show support for the king "if"
• Political clubs take over the Assembly

• In April 1792 France declared war on Austria
• July 25, Brunswick Manifesto: Austria and Prussia promise revenge if the monarch is hurt
• Prussia joined Austria to create the First Coalition
• The French were easily defeated, but the leaders of the Coalition argued amongst themselves
• Gradually the French the gained the upperhand and a wave of patriotism swept the country

• The sans-culottes insisted it was the duty of the government to protect them
• Wanted the government to increase wages, fix prices, and end shortages
• They wanted to prevent extremes of wealth
• Wanted a democratic republic liked the ideas of Thomas Paine
• In August 1792 they attacked the palace and killed several hundred guards

• The second phase was much more radical
• By September Paris was in turmoil
• "September Massacres" slaughtered prison inmates
• On September 1st, 1792 France was declared a Republic
• The king was imprisoned and tried in December - executed by one vote
• After the execution the Assembly became the National Convention
• British Prime Minister Pitt said France had to leave Belgium
• Problems stopped them from being successful
• February 1, 1793 France declares war on Britain, Holland, Austria, and Prussia (later Spain)
• Members of the National Convention were republican and Jacobins
• But divided into two groups: Girondists from western France, and the Mountain led by Robespierre and Danton
• Both advocated war
• In the spring France was pushed from Belgium

• Republican armies captured Nice, invaded the Rhineland and occupied Austrian Netherlands
• Girondists and Mountainist became very suspicious of each other
• May 31 1793, the Commune, under sans-culottes pressure, has the Girondists arrested
• Sans-culotte emerge as the most powerful group in Paris
• Robespierre (disciple of Rousseau) formed the Committee of Public Safety to ensure success of the revolution
• Mandated economic controls, but too weak to enforce, except the price of bread
• Nationalized the war effort
• Arrested thousands of suspected counter-revolutionaries
• Robespierre wanted to create a Republic of Virtue
• To ensure his ideals he implemented the Reign of Terror (1793-4)

• Leaders of the Girondins were executed including Danton
• Revolutionary courts tried enemies of the state
• Dictatorship
• 40,000 executed, 300,000 imprisoned
• Levée en masse
• Robespierre tried to dechristianize the country
• New calendar with no Christian holidays or Sundays - Sept. 1, 1792 was day one, year one.
• Each month had 30 days, with 10 day weeks
• June 1794 Robespierre introduced the cult of the Supreme Being in which the Republic acknowledged the existence of God
• Alienated Catholics

• Beheaded Oct. 16
• "Terror is the order of the day"
• 1794 French armies successful on all fronts

• Robespierre wanted an ideal democratic republic without rich or poor
• Through despotism and the guillotine he eliminated all opposition
• Robespierre was arrested by the Convention and executed (July 28, 1794) by fearful middle class
• Inflation increased, self-indulgence increased, people turned to religion
• National Convention abolished economic controls and wrote a new constitution

• 1795 leadership passed to five Directors, but same old leaders - people who had survived
• Lowered prices; alleviated hunger; reorganized the tax system; won military victories; wrote a constitution which incorporated Belgium
• Faced revolts from the left - "Gracchus" Babeuf and the "conspiracy of equals"
  from the monarchists - Barthelemy and Carnot

• 1795 Louis "XVII" died, the Count de Provance claimed to be Louis "XVIII"
• Declaration of Verona:
  a) restore the Old Regime
  b) return all confiscated land
  c) restore old privileges, taxes, and dues
• 18 Fructidor (Sept 4, 1797) three Directors occupy Paris and stage a coup
• They annulled the elections, imposed censorship, and exiled troublemakers
• Napoleon sent deputy to Paris to ensure the success of the coup

• Born 1769, a child of the Enlightenment
• 1795 married Josephine de Beauharnais (former mistress of Barras)

• October 1797 the Hapsburgs signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, which left only Britain at war
• November 1797 Napoleon returned to Paris a hero, and planned to invade Britain
• He persuaded the Directory to let him invade Egypt to cut Britain off from India
• August 1, 1798 Admiral Nelson annihilated the French fleet at Abukir
• In Egypt he lost to the British but kept his reputation
• Dec. 1798, Tsar Paul I signed with Britain to create the Second Coalition, later Austria and the Ottomans joined
• May 1799 Sieyes was elected a Director and started to plot against the government
• "confidence from below, power from above"
• In October Napoleon appeared on French soil
• 18 Brumaire Napoleon led a coup and almost messed up the coup saved only by his brother Lucien
• By December the Consulate ran the country and Napoleon was in charge

• Napoleon offered King George III peace but Britain refused to negotiate
• June 1800 at Marengo he crushed the Austrians
• 1801 Treaty of Luneville expanded French control over Italy and western Germany
• 1802 Peace Amiens with Britain restored peace to Europe
• Napoleon could now focus on France
• Created a new administrative system run by prefects
• Wanted peace with the Catholic Church

• Pope recognized the sale of church land and the govts. right to appoint bishops
• Pope gained an acknowledgment of Catholicism as the main religion of France - but not state religion
• Church was allowed to hold services
• State pays salaries
• 1802 Organic Acts stated the state was supreme over the church
• May have been the height of Napoleon’s career
• 1800 Bank of France created
• 1801 government discusses Civil Codes
• 1802 educational reform
• 1802 issues amnesty to émigrés
  a) swear an oath of loyalty
  b) had no claim on lost property
• Old Regime was dead and most very happy
• Consulate suggested Napoleon be made consul for life - 3,568,885 to 8,374
• Napoleon created the Legion of Honor headed by himself - with pay and privileges for a selected few - despite Constituent Assembly
• Napoleon becomes involved with Switzerland
• May 1803 Britain declares war on France
• French troops prepare to invade Britain, sold Louisiana to gain money (15c an acre)
• Napoleon makes himself Emperor
• Made himself consul with a lie, emperor with a murder
• December 1800 assassination attempt
• Duke d’Enghien the chief suspect
• Fouché rounds up all suspects
• May 1804 Senate declare him "First Consul of the Republic" became Napoleon I
• Dec. 1804 Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral, attempts to crown Napoleon
• Napoleon crowns himself
• Civil Code of 1804 reasserted two principles of the Revolution:
  a) equality for all male citizens
  b) absolute security for wealth and property
• Very rationalistic:
  strengthened laws on property, religious toleration, equality before the law for all- except women, strengthened the rights of employers
• 1807 the Civil Codes became the Napoleonic Codes

• Absolute control
• Eliminated corruption
• Women lost nearly all their rights
• Freedom of religion
• State over individual, freedom of speech and press were continually violated
• Joseph Fouché’s Secret police arrested potential troublemakers
• Alexander I of Russia sees himself as Napoleon’s eastern counterpart
• August 1805 Russia, Austria, Britain form the Third Coalition
• At Ulm Napoleon defeats the Austrians but lost French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar

• Defeated Austria at Austerlitz (favorite victory)
• Treaty of Pressburg with Austria gave him full sovereignty over Italy
• 1806 forms the Confederation of the Rhine and dissolves the Holy Roman Empire
• 1806 Prussia joins the war against France
• "nation of shopkeepers"
• 1806 Berlin Decree closed continental ports to British ships
• 1807 Milan Decree - ships not
  complying would be
  treated as hostile
• President Jefferson
  passes the Embargo Acts
• French soldiers wore
  English cloth

• 1808 Napoleon forced the king of Spain to abdicate - Joseph becomes king
• Civil uprising forces Joseph to flee and Nap. has to send and army to help Joseph
• Nap. found himself in a guerrilla war against Spain (supported by Britain)
• Wellesley (Wellington) drove the French from Portugal
• 1813 Napoleon forced from Spain
• "It was the Spanish ulcer that ruined me"
• Friedland French defeated the Russians
• Tsar signs the Treaty of Tilsit, Prussia lost half her population and Russia accepted Napoleon’s control of Europe and promised to help blockade Britain
• Napoleon’s empire had three parts:
  i) The core - France
  ii) dependent satellite kingdoms
  iii) independent, but allied states
• 1809 Austria rose against France but crushed at Battle of Wagram - Treaty of Schonbrunn

• Metternich arranges for Napoleon to marry Princess Marie Louise
• 1811 Marie Louise has a son "king of Rome"
• But neither Russia nor France trusted the other
• France had occupied Holland and not helped Russia fight the Ottomans
• Napoleon blamed Russia for the failure of the Continental System
• June 24 1812 the Grande Armee invades Russia
• Battle of Borodino, France win costly victory
• September 14 he occupies Moscow
• Five weeks later he retreats to France, only about 30,000 men escaped
• Prussia deserts France to join the Russians
• Austria joins the Grand Alliance - subsidized with British money
• Battle of the Nations France is defeated
• Talks start about abdication
• Allies could not all agree on terms
• Problem was:
  a) future of Napoleon
  b) borders of France
• Nov. 1813 Frankfort Proposals were drawn up by Prussia, Russia, Austria, and agreed to by Britain: a)France would return to her natural borders; b) Napoleon would still be emperor; c) Prussia would be compensated
• Napoleon wanted better terms - so allies refused
• March 9, 1814 Treaty of Chaumont created the Quadruple Alliance to last for 20 years
• Napoleon offered the Island of Elba
• Napoleon was allowed to keep his title and a pension of 2m. francs a year
• The allies wanted to restore the Bourbon monarchy
• May 3 Napoleon abdicated, Louis XVIII became king of a constitutional monarchy
• May 30 "first’ Peace of Paris signed with plans for Congress in Vienna in September

• a) Not punish France - make sure she could not wage war again
  b) Restore the balance of power - no one dominates
  c) Compensation -States should be compensated for the loss of land or people
  d) Legitimacy - restore the monarchs that ruled prior to Napoleon, if possible
  e) Victors should be rewarded
• Prince Karl von Metternich of Austria was in charge
  he believed in conservatism not liberalism
• Quadruple Alliance - Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia agreed to meet to review the situation
• March 1, 1815 Napoleon re-enters France
• But not overwhelming support
• Napoleon invaded Belgium
• At Waterloo he met the Duke of Wellington and was defeated

• "Second" Treaty of Paris - much harsher
  a) borders would the same as 1790
  b) indemnity of 700 million francs
  c) 150,000 troops occupy France for 3 to 5 years
  d) renewed the Quadruple Alliance
• Napoleon exiled to St. Helena
• Russia persuaded Austria and Prussia to form the Holy Alliance to rule under Christian principles
• Quadruple Alliance later admitted France

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