Chapter 17 Notes
American and French Revolution
The Beginning of the French Revolution
 commoners are tired of high taxes and the nobility is not taxed at all
 church is subordinate to the church
 Clergy: Catholic churchmen
 Nobility: Members of the French aristocracy.
 3rd estate: anyone. Peasants, farmers, those who were neither peasants, farmers, clergery
and nobility.
 The Clergy and Nobility could always out vote the third estate.
 June 17, 1789 the 3rd estate declared itself a National Assembly: two days later the clergy
joined them.
 June 20 the King closed and locked the doors of the room in the palace at Versailles where
the third estate was to meet.
Louis Reacts to the Revolution
 Louis XVI during the Revolution
 Bastille: prison were Louis XVI kept his victims
 National Assembly: informed of the fall of the Bastille and the bloodshed involved, was
uncertain what steps to take. Peasants repeated the attack on Bastille by invading the
closest castles. Killed local noblemen and their families.
 Within two days of the fall of the Bastille Louis XVI agreed to leave Versailles and go to
Paris and meet with the revolutionaries.
 France doesn't want to be ruled by an Absolute Monarch again.
A Declaration of Right
 The Declaration Rights of Man
 Serfdom comes to an end.
 Declaration Rights of Man contained a list of rights and liberties which the Assembly
intended to recognize and protect. Own property, equality before the law, right to
resist tyranny, freedom of speech and of the press, and religious toleration.
 French Declaration very similar to the American Declaration of Independence
Reign of Terror
 Jacobins' campaign of Fear.
 Collapse of the Girondians, the Jacobins gained control.
The Age of Napoleon
 The French Revolution: A Roller Coaster Ride.
 1799 a General named Napoleon Bonaparte seized power by force.
 He established a dictaroship, ending a decade of change reform, war and failure called
the French Revolution.
Napoleon at War
 Napoleon War Efforts
Napoleons's Domestic Policies
 demanded state influence
 created public elementary and secondary schools
 By 1810 civil and commercial laws were in place
 By 1882 single power
 Emperor of France
Creating an Empire
 An Empire in the Making
Problems for Napoleon
Napoleon and his unpleasant encounters
French armies occupied Portugal