WORLD HISTORY
Section 1 (pages 215-243)
Revised September, 2014
 Section 1
 Pages 217-221
 Problems in French
society led to a
revolution, the
formation of a new
government, and the
end of the monarchy.
 Economic and social
inequalities helped
cause the French
Revolution.
Europe, 1789
 Old order
 The King and his family (monarchy) were at the top, followed
by three social groups called “estates.”
 King Louis XVI (16th) and his wife Marie-Antoinette lived an
extravagant life 10 miles outside of Paris.
 The lived at a palace called Versailles
 The Queen of France married to King Louis XVI.
 She was born in Austria, a member of the Royal Family,
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a traditional enemy of the French, thus making her very
unpopular .
She often gave her husband poor advice and helped drive
the French into deeper debt and poverty.
As queen, she spent on gowns, jewels, gambling, and gifts
that she became known as “Madame Deficit.”
She hosted lavish parties, bought frivolous items, and was
self-indulgent.
She enjoyed fancy clothes and wigs, while many of the
common people wore rags.
 During the 1770s and 1780s France’s government sank
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deeply into debt.
Louis had inherited considerable debt from previous
kings.
He had also borrowed heavily in order to help the
American revolutionaries in their war against Great
Britain.
Louis could have solved these problems with strong
leadership, but allowed the problems to escalate.
He paid little attention to his government advisers and
was indecisive in taking action.
 Roman Catholic clergy (1%)
 The clergy had held several privileges since the Middle Ages.
 Only church courts could try priests and bishops for crimes,
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thus they did not have to answer to the same laws as everyone
else.
Neither the clergy nor the Roman Catholic Church had to pay
taxes.
Land belonging to the Church was also exempt from taxes.
The Church owned almost 10% of the land in France and this
produced vast sums of money from rent and fees.
Bishops and other clergy controlled this wealth and became
very rich.
 Nobility , made up of key positions in government &
the military (2%)
 Although the nobility controlled much of the country’s
wealth, they paid few taxes.
 Many lived on country estates where peasants did all the
work and were forced to pay high fees and rents to the
landowner.
 Some nobles lived in luxury at the king’s court, where
their only real jobs were ceremonial.
 Largest group (97%)
 Bourgeoisie Merchants, factory owners, & professionals, like doctors and lawyers.
 Even though they had no role in the government, some were highly educated and
quite rich.
 Their wealth did not buy them any influence in government.
 Sans culottes Artisans & workers, like shoemakers, carpenters, bricklayers, dressmakers,
and laborers.
 Named for the pants they wore during their jobs which did not have “knee breeches”.
 Seen as a sign of being lower class because the nobility wore tight knee-length
breeches.
 If these people had no work, they went hungry.
 Peasants Worked hard and had very little.
 They had to pay rents and fees to the landowners.
 They also had to pay 10% of their income to the Church.
 In addition, they had to perform labor, such as working on roads, without pay.
 Many peasants lived miserable lives with little hope of things getting better.
 Upper—1% Old money/new money
 Upper middle—14% High income
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business/Professional
Lower middle—30% Mostly white collar jobs
Working class—30% Blue collar jobs
Working poor—22% Lowest paying jobs/assistance
Under class—3% Public assistance
Reasons:
1. Inequalities in society (estates)
2. Ideas of Enlightenment writersLocke,
Montesquieu,
Rosseau
3. Poor leadership from Louis XVI— he
tried to tax the Second Estate, but the nobles
refused to pay.
4. Financial crisis—heavy debt after
spending money on wars, but the King/Queen
continued to spend money lavishly.
5. Widespread hunger and record
cold—poor harvest
 Instead of cutting expenses, Louis XVI wanted to increase taxes on the
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nobility.
The 2nd Estate (Nobles), forced Louis to call a meeting of the EstatesGeneral.
Estates General had not met for over 175 years, met on May 5, 1789.
They needed to vote to approve a new tax.
 Representatives wrote notebooks (cahiers) to document their
grievances.
The King sided with the medieval rules and the nobility.
As the notebooks arrived in Paris, it became evident that the people
wanted extreme reforms.
 Voting process threatened reform
 Before, 1st/2nd Estate voted together, thus outvoting the 3rd estate
 One vote for each estate.
 3rd Estate wanted voting procedures changed.
 Refused to follow King’s orders to vote the old way.
 Wanted each delegate to have one vote.
 King Louis refused to recognize them.
 Thus, they formed the National Assembly on June 17,
1789.
 Gave themselves the right to make law.
 Locked out of the meeting room by the King and thus
met in an indoor tennis court
 Tennis Court Oath—would not leave until they had
written a constitution for France.
 Spring of 1789—no group was happy
 The King stationed his mercenary army of Swiss guards
around Versailles.
 1st/2nd Estates (upper clergy & nobility)
 Resented they had lost power to the monarchy
 3rd Estate
 Wealthy bourgeoisie resented gov’t regulations that
hampered business growth
 Poorer members resented the hunger & unemployment
 Demanded more representation and rights
 Rumors of retaliation spread.
 Foreign troops were coming to massacre French citizens.
 The King ordered troops to Paris and Versailles in case he
needed to preserve the monarchy by force.
 People began to gather weapons to defend the city.
 In response, the Nat’l Assembly armed themselves against any
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action taken by the King.
On July 14, 1789, a mob of Parisians went to the Bastille, an
ancient prison, looking for weapons.
The Bastille was viewed as a symbol of oppression by the
people.
The mob first tried to negotiate for weapons, but when the
Bastille’s commander refused, they stormed into the prison.
The mob killed the commander and put his head on a stick
before parading through the streets of Paris.
 This became a powerful symbol of the French Revolution.
 Some were fearful of punishment from the king.
 Rumors were spread about the king hiring foreign
soldiers to punish the 3rd Estate.
 As a result, a panic swept through France.
 Some stories were true, but most were not.
 As a result of years of abuse by landowners, some
peasants did take revenge.
 Records listing feudal dues and rents were burned, along
with some of the nobles’ homes.
 In October 1789, thousands of Parisian women rioted over
the rising cost of bread.
 Over 7000 women marched through the rain from Paris to
Versailles and demanded bread.
 Bread was the staple of life for most peasants.
 Brandishing knives, axes, and other weapons, the women
marched on Versailles.
 Women’s March on Versailles
 Demanded that the National Assembly provide bread and
then broke into the palace, killing several guards.
 King Louis and his family hid from the crowd and finally
agreed to return to Paris.
 They would ultimately leave and never return.
 King Louis again called troops to the palace to protect
his throne after becoming alarmed by the actions of
the National Assembly.
 This angered the common people.
 They feared he would crush the Revolution.
 Section 2
 Pages 222-227
 The revolutionary
government of France
made reforms but also
used terror and violence
to retain power.
 Some governments that
lack the support of a
majority of their people
still use fear to control
their citizens.
 Everyone in France was on edge, including the nobles and
officers of the Church.
 Throughout France, bands of angry peasants struck out
against members of the upper classes.
 They attacked and destroyed many manor houses.
 During the summer of 1789, some nobles and members of
the Church responded to the uprisings at the National
Assembly.
 Motivated more by fear than by idealism, the National
Assembly swept away the privileges of the 1st & 2nd Estates,
thus making commoners equal to the nobles and the
clergy.
 The Old Regime was dead by early August, 1789.
 The violence that marked the beginning of the
Revolution subsided.
 The National Assembly began to transform centuries
of French tradition.
 France’s monarchy crumbled.
 By August, 1789
 National Assembly had eliminated all the feudal dues
and services owed by peasants to landowners.
 Eliminated the 1st Estates’ legal privileges.
 Yes
 They represented 97% of the people in France.
 1789- NATIONAL
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ASSEMBLY
Eliminated Feudal
dues
Tax the First Estate
Wrote the Declarations
the Rights of Man
“LIBERTY, EQUALITY,
AND FRATERNITY”
Freedom of speech
press and religion
The National Assembly adopted individual rights.
 Borrowed these ideas from the English Bill of Rights, the American
Declaration of Independence, and the writings of Enlightenment
philosophers.
 Liberty, equality, fraternity, security and resistance to
oppression..
 All men are born equal and remain equal before the law
 Freedom of speech, press, and religion
 US Bill of Rights
 Women were not given these rights.
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Olympe de Gouges, a famous playwright wrote a bill
for women’s rights also.
 National Assembly turned it down.
 De Gouges was declared an enemy of the Revolution and executed.
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the …rights of
man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to
oppression
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to
society….
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to
participate personally, or through his representative, in its formation. It
must be the same for all…
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases
and according to the forms prescribed by law…
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared
guilty…
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most
precious of the rights of man…
12. A common contribution (tax) is essential. This should be equitably
distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
 Revolution’s leaders took bolder steps.
 They passed several anticlerical measures.
 In November, the National Assembly seized church lands
and sold them to pay off France’s huge debt.
 All religious orders were disbanded.
 Also passed an act to turn the clergy into public employees.
 This outraged most members of the clergy and horrified
many peasants, who were devout Catholics.
 They believed the Pope should rule over a church
independent of the state.
 From this point on, many peasants opposed the assembly’s reforms.
 King Louis and Marie-Antoinette feared for their lives.
 Some of their advisors warned them of imminent
danger.
 Many other supporters of the family fled France.
 The family disguised themselves and fled in June 1791.
 Trying to escape to Austrian Netherlands.
 They were eventually caught and returned to Paris,
under guard.
 This escape attempt sealed their fate as radical
enemies became stronger.
 In September 1791, the National Assembly completed the
new constitution, which Louis reluctantly approved.
 This constitution stripped the king of much of his
authority, thus he was much weaker.
 Constitutional monarchy
 It created a new legislative body—the Legislative Assembly.
 This body had the power to create laws and to approve or
reject declarations of war.
 However, the King still held the executive power to enforce
laws.
 Despite the new government, old problems, such as
food shortages and government debt, remained.
 These questions caused a split in the assembly and
each faction sat in different parts of the meeting hall.
 Radicals, sat on the left side of the hall, opposed the idea
of a monarchy and wanted sweeping changes.
 Moderates sat in the center of the hall and wanted some
changes to government.
 Conservatives sat on the right side of the hall and
wanted to keep a limited monarchy, with few changes in
government.
 Emigr’es, nobles and others who had fled France,
hoped to restore the Old Regime.
 Sans-culottes, Parisian workers and shopkeepers,
wanted to exert their power to the assembly.
 They wanted to see greater changes in France.
 Monarchs and nobles in many European countries
watched the changes taking place in France with
alarm.
 They feared similar revolts would break out in their country.
 Austria & Prussia issued a warning against harming the
French monarchs and urged the French to restore Louis
to his position as absolute monarch.
 In response, the Legislative Assembly declared war.
 Prussian troops threatened to destroy Paris if the Royals were
harmed.
 They were finally stopped by French forces.
 A mob of some 20,000 men marched on the Tuileries palace in Paris and
slaughtered the guards.
 The king and queen, with their children, were thrown in prison.
 They had been reduced to commoners.
 Rumors also had spread that supporters of the king held in Paris prisons
planned to break out and seize control of the city.
 Mobs stormed the prisons and killed over 1000 prisoners in what is called the
September Massacres.
 Faced with mob violence and foreign invasion, the Legislative Assembly felt
powerless.
 It voted itself out of existence and called for the election of a new legislature
called the National Convention on September 21, 1792.
 This violence put the radical faction in control.
 They wanted extreme change.
 This National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic.
 Also, the French army had won a battle against foreign invaders.
 Beat the Austrian/Prussians at the Battle of Valmy.
 The French Republic had held its ground against Europe’s Old Order.
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Jean-Paul Marat
Advocate of violence and leader of
Paris sans culottes
 One of the most radical leaders
 Printed radical newspaper
 Had a skin condition which
required daily medicinal baths
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Stabbed to death while taking his
bath
Georges-Jacques Danton
Lawyer and violent agitator – very
popular with public.
 Talented speaker.
 Devoted to helping the poor.
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Maximilien Robespierre
Intense dedication to the
Revolution
 Led the National Convention
during its most blood-thirsty time.
 Initially detested the death penalty
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 Now guided by the radical Jacobins, not only had Louis
role been reduced, but he was tried and convicted of
treason.
 The Jacobin Club were a radical political organization
 The National Convention, by a close vote, sentenced
Louis to death.
 On January 21, 1793, the former king walked up the
scaffold to be beheaded by a machine called the
guillotine.
 He tried to give a speech about his innocence, but was
drown out by a drum roll.
 In early 1793, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain joined
the war against France.
 Forced to contend with so many enemies, the French
suffered a string of defeats.
 To reinforce the French army, Jacobin leaders in the
Convention ordered a draft of 300,000 18-40 year-olds
in February 1793.
 By 1794, the army had grown to over 800,00, including
women.
 Early months of 1793
 Led by powerful leader Maximilien Robespierre.
 Many people in and out of France criticized the
Revolution.
 Revolution leaders worried about a counterrevolution.
 A revolution against a gov’t that was established by a
revolution.
 Included Great Britain, Holland, Spain, Austria, and
Prussia who all formed a coalition to make war against
France.
 In response, revolutionary leaders began a series of
accusations, trials, and executions.
 Committee of Public Safety (summer of 1793)
 M. Robespierre declared the need to use terror to
defend the republic from its many enemies.
 He governed France virtually as a dictator.
 The terror campaign started with the those who had favored a
constitutional monarchy.
 Soon, anyone who had criticized the Revolution or was
connected to the Old Order, was in danger of being hauled in
for a trial.
 The committee often tried “enemies” in the morning and executed
them in the afternoon.
 Some were tried because of their counterrevolutionary
activity.
 The accused had few rights and some were even forbidden
to defend themselves.
 Such a death was quick, in contrast to the agonizing methods of
execution used in the past.
 The executioner could execute more than one person per
minute.
 Paris executioner complained that decapitation by sword dulled
the blade.
 Sharpening the sword took time, and their were many to be
executed.
 Sometimes the condemned bribed the executioner to be “on target”
with their swing.
 Dr. Joseph Guillotine, a member of the Nat’l Assembly,
recommended a “decapitation machine” used by other countries.
 Guillotine believed this method was more in line with
Enlightenment ideals.
 The guillotine became a symbol of terror.
 Leaders wanted to erase all connections to old ways of life,
including religion.
 Many clergy members lost their positions.
 In Paris, the local government closed the churches and
replaced Catholic Churches with “the Cult of the Supreme
Being”.
 A metric system replaced the old system of weights and
measures.
 A new calendar also cut ties to the past.
 This calendar, renamed the months and made each month 3
weeks of 10 days.
 This calendar also had no Sundays because it’s link to
religion.
 This calendar fell out of use, but the metric system stayed.
 The peasants had won their main goal—the end of
feudal dues—they then returned to their conservative
roots.
 Most remained devoutly Catholic.
 After the institution of the draft, the peasants’ hatred
for the gov’t erupted.
 “They have killed our king; chased away our priests; sold
the goods of our church; eaten everything we have and
now they want to take our bodies . . . No, they shall not
have them.”
 The Reign of Terror did not spare any particular class,
occupation, or gender.
 More peasants and laborers formed the largest group of victims.
 85%
 However, nobility and even women were executed.
 Marie-Anoinette—Queen of France
 Olympe de Gouges—wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman
 Nuns who refused to close their convents.
 Robespierre sent G.J. Danton and followers to the guillotine.
 Robespierre himself was executed along with about 100 of his
followers.
 During the 10 months of the Terror, some 300,000 people were
arrested, and about 40,000 were executed.
France had to start over with a new gov’t
It ended in July 1794, when Robespierre’s execution.
In 1795, the Nat’l Convention wrote another constitution.
After the new constitution was adopted, voters elected a
governing board called the Directory
 Directory made up of 5 men called Directors
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 The Directory did pass some legislation, but was mostly
ineffective
 France’s troubles continued because of the ineffectiveness
and corruption of the Directory
 As a result, there was a power vacuum, with no one really in
control
 High prices, bankruptcy, citizen unrest still continued
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Estates General (Old Order)
 Had not met for 175 years
 Sought changes to voting process/individual votes
Nat’l Assembly (created June 17, 1789)
 Locked out by King (Tennis Court Oath)
 Ended feudalism and privileges of the 1st & 2nd Estates
 Approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
 Seized church lands and made clergy paid employees
 Kept limited monarchy, which reduced the king’s power
Legislative Assembly (first met September, 1791)
 Inexperienced representatives, often deadlocked on domestic issues
 Declared war on Austria in April 1792
 Voted itself out in 1792
 Felt powerless, after royal family was imprisoned
Nat’l Convention (first met September, 1792) Extremely radical
 Abolished the monarchy & declared France a republic
 Tried and executed Louis XVI for treason
 Instituted draft to increase size of army
 In power during the Reign of Terror
 Began codifying laws and creating public education system
 Abolished slavery in French colonies
 Wrote a new constitution, and created the Directory
Directory (first met in 1795)
 Run by an executive branch of five directors, who were more moderate
 Weak, corrupt, and inefficient
 Ended in 1799 when Napoleon seized power
 Section 3
 Pages 229-233
 Napoleon showed early signs
of greatness
 1793- Defeated the English at
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Toulon
 Napoleon took over for a
wounded captain
1794- Defeated Austria in Italy
1795- Defeated the French
mob
 Fired a cannonade at the
mob
1790’s- Napoleon controlled
all French forces- kept France
secure in very difficult times
1798- Napoleon in Egypt
1799 Coup d'état- Directory
had grown weak and
ineffective
 Bonaparte was a ruthlessly ambitious young man
 The turmoil of the French Revolution gave him a prime
opportunity to rise quickly to power
 In just a few short years, he would rise from a mere army
captain to the ruler of France
 1793-forced British out of the port of Toulon
 1794-won victory over Austrian troops in Italy
 1795-faced off against Loyalist in Paris
 Fired into crowd with “grape-shot” and made the mob flee
 For this, he was put in command of the
interior of France
 He was only 26
 1796-Directory placed Napoleon in command of
French forces invading Italy.
 His army was poorly supplied, thus they had to take
their food from the countryside.
 Used this to his advantage and moved swiftly through
battles against Austria & Italy
 Did not have to wait for supply trains
 These victories kept France’s borders
secure and won territory for France.
 He wanted to disrupt the trade between Great Britain
and India
 He took a large army and the French fleet across the
Mediterranean Sea in 1798.
 Napoleon’s forces quickly defeated Egypt’s Ottoman
defenders and won control of Egypt
 The British navy, under the command of Admiral
Horatio Nelson, trapped the French fleet in the Battle
of the Nile
 British destroyed most of the French
fleet
 Napoleon wanted to keep the defeat a secret
 He placed his army under another officer in Egypt and
returned to France
 He kept his defeat out of the press and exaggerated his
successes
 He became a national hero in the process
 Using his hero status, Napoleon decided to seize
political power.
 By this time, the Directory had grown weak and
ineffective.
 Fearful of loyalists and other countries, a group of
conspirators planned to overthrow the French
government and place Napoleon in control.
 Thus, in November of 1799, a group of armed
supporters of Napoleon surrounded the Directory.
 They demanded the members to transfer
France’s power to Napoleon
 This is called a coup d’etat.
 The remaining lawmakers voted to dissolve the Directory.
 They established a group of three consuls, one of whom was
Napoleon.
 Napoleon quickly took the title of first consul and assumed
the powers of dictator.
 Exhausted by the chaos, death, and warfare of the
revolution, most French embraced the order and stability
Napoleon promised.
 Napoleon also promised to uphold some key revolutionary
reforms.
 The people were willing to give up some freedoms if
Napoleon could bring peace, prosperity, and glory to
France.
 In 1799, Britain, Austria, and Russia joined forces with
one goal in mind, to drive Napoleon from power.
 Napoleon led his army, but as the result of diplomacy,
all three signed peace agreements with France.
 By 1802, Europe was at peace for the first time in ten
years.
 Napoleon was free to focus his energies on restoring
order in France.
 He strengthened control by
submitting a plebiscite to the French
people
 The plebiscite or vote of the people
was put up for vote in 1800.
 This approved a new constitution.
 Napoleon was given power.
 Later French voters supported him
as emperor.
 Napoleon then became Emperor
Napoleon I.
 Pope Pius VII came from Rome to
crown him.

Napoleon grabbed the crown and
placed it on his own head.
 He then wanted to rule all of Europe
and began a series of wars to do this.

Reform of Church-State Relations
 Agreement with Pope called Concordat
 Recognized most of French were Catholic, but did not have to be Catholic

Economic Reforms
 Established the Bank of France to regulate the economy
 It also set up a more efficient tax collection system
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Legal and Educational Reforms
 Scholars revised and organized French law and created the Napoleonic Code
 This code made laws uniform across the nation and eliminated many injustices
 However, it also promoted order and authority over individual rights.
 Freedom of press was restricted
 Denied rights for women
 Napoleon established a network of lyc’ees or high schools, universities, and technical
schools to educate young men in preparation for jobs

Napoleon’s legacy
 Ensured that some basic ideas of the Revolution would remain part of the French gov’t
 Democratic ideas included equality before the law and a representative gov’t
 Nationalism spread to peoples that Napoleon had conquered
 France had controlled parts of the Americas.
 These territories included: Louisiana, Florida and Saint
Domingo (present day Haiti)
 Napoleon wanted to reassert French power in the Americas.
 When a civil war broke out in sugar-rich Saint Domingo,
Napoleon sent an expedition to take back the colony and
restore the profitable sugar industry.
 The expedition failed miserably.
 After the failure, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to
the United States for $15 million and
turned his focus on Europe.
 These wars were an
extension of the ones
fought between France and
other European nations
during the French
Revolution.
 During this period, France
became the dominant
power.
 These wars lasted until
1815.
 Keeping France in a
continuous state of war for
more than a decade.
 Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain remained
France’s greatest enemy.
 Britain helped organize a series of coalitions of European
nations against France.
 Britain also funded resistance to Napoleon.
 Napoleon knew that he would have to defeat Britain to
achieve peace in Europe.
 He planned on invading Britain in October, 1805.
 Napoleon was defeated by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar.
 However, on land, Napoleon had been
successful.
 Defeated Russian and Austrian troops at the
Battle of Austerlitz, near Vienna, Austria.
 In spite of the loss in Spain, Napoleon managed to take
control of most of Europe through treaties, alliances,
and victories in battle.
 The only nations free of his control were Great Britain,
Sweden, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire.
 Napoleon placed his relatives in power.
 Brothers in Holland, Naples & Sicily (Italy), Westphalia
(Germany)
 Sisters and even his stepson, also held powerful
positions.
 Section 4
 Pages 234-237
 Napoleon’s conquests
aroused nationalistic
feelings across Europe
and contributed to his
downfall.
 Napoleon worried that his wife Josephine had failed to bear
him a male heir.
 He divorced her and formed an alliance with Austrian royal
family by marrying Marie Louise, the grandniece of Marie
Antoninette
 In 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to a son, Napoleon II, whom
Napoleon named king of Rome.
 Napoleon’s own personality proved to be the greatest
danger to the future of his empire.
 His effort to extend the French Empire and crush England,
would be his downfall.
 Many nations, who had been conquered, turned against the
French.
 Napoleon’s disdain for the British grew as they continued
to defy him.
 He knew this “nation of shopkeepers” relied on oversea trade.
 If he could disrupt this trade, he could make it more difficult for the
British to fund the rebellion in Europe.
 He planned a blockade of trade to Britain.
 This was called the Continental System.
 The British countered with requiring all ships from neutral
countries to stop in Britain ports for permission to trade
with the French.
 These trade restrictions caused more conflicts.
 Peninsular War
 Portugal, part of the Iberian peninsula, was neutral during
the Napoleonic Wars.
 Needed the trade with Britain, thus refused to comply with
the Continental System.
 Napoleon sent troops into Portugal to force out the king.
 He then conquered Spain and placed his brother Joseph in
power.
 Spanish resented a foreign ruler and revolted in 1808.
 Britain then sent troops to support the revolt.
 Napoleon was now fighting two military forces.
 He responded by sending troops from central Europe,
and they quickly won victories over the British and Spanish
forces.
 Spanish people began a guerrilla war.
 They ambushed French troops and raided French
camps.
 To punish the Spanish guerrilla fighters, the French
slaughtered many innocent Spanish civilians.
 This guerrilla war kept the French pinned down, and
eventually Napoleon had to pull his troops out of
Spain.
 Napoleon stationed troops near the western border of
Russia
 Czar Alexander I, who still sold grain to Great Britain, became
nervous and stationed his own troops there.
 Napoleon noticed these troop movements of the Russians
and decided to turn his troops east and move into Russia.
 Thus, in June 1812, Napoleon and an army of 420,000 men
marched across the Russian border.
 Many of these troops were new recruits from conquered
territories and felt no loyalty for Napoleon.
 Many of the army’s supplies were lost or spoiled along the
way.
 The summer heat made men and horses miserable.
 Thus, many me suffered from disease, desertion, and hunger, which
thinned the ranks.
 Napoleon wanted a quick victory over the Russians.
 The Russian troops withdrew as the French army advanced.
 Peasants, too, moved east after setting fire to their fields
and cities in order to leave nothing behind that the French
could use.
 Scorched earth (burned grain fields and slaughtered
livestock).
 Finally, in August, 1812, the French army clashed with the
Russians at the Battle of Borodino.
 After hours of indecisive fighting, the Russians retreated,
allowing Napoleon to move on Moscow.
 However, they had extremely high casualties
 The Russians retreated, still 90,000 men strong.
 As the remnants of the French army pushed on to Moscow, they
discovered the city in ruins.
 Fires had been set and the city was nearly deserted.
 Napoleon knew he could not support his troops in this ruined city
through the winter.
 In October, he and his army left Moscow.
 The French army was forced to return from the direction they had
come.
 The fields were still scorched and they received isolated attacks from
Russian peasants.
 As the harsh Russian winter set in, starvation and freezing
temperatures killed thousands.
 What was left of the French army staggered home without a leader.
 Napoleon had rushed back to Paris by sleigh, leaving his troops behind.
 In the end, only 10,000 out of the original 420,000 French
troops made it back.
 British, Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish troops joined
together against Napoleon.
 In only a few months, Napoleon managed to raise another army.
 However, most of his troops were untrained and ill prepared for
battle.
 He faced the allied armies of the European powers outside the
German city of Leipzig in October 1813.
 The allied forces quickly defeated his inexperienced army.
 Some two months later in January 1814, King Frederick William
III of Prussia and Czar Alexander I of Russia led their troops in a
triumphant parade through Paris.
 Napoleon wanted to fight on, but his generals refused.
 In April 1814, he accepted the terms of surrender and gave up his
throne.
 371,000 killed in action[1]
 800,000 killed by disease, primarily in the disastrous
invasion of Russia[2]
 600,000 civilians[2]
 65,000 French allies (mainly Poles fighting for
independence lost in 1795)[2]
 Total: 1,800,000 French and allies (mostly Germans and
Poles) dead in action, disease and missing[1]
 As one of the terms of surrender, Napoleon had to give
up his throne.
 He was allowed to keep the title of emperor, but was
exiled to the island of Elba—a tiny patch of land off the
coast of Italy.
 He went into exile with a small pension and about 400
guards.
 The Allies expected not further trouble from Napoleon, but
they were wrong.
 The allies restored the French monarchy, recognizing
Louis XVIII, as the rightful king of France.
 Brother of executed king
 King’s son Louis XVII, had died in prison.
 Also returned the borders of France to 1792 areas.
 The king quickly became unpopular.
 Many were fearful of a return to the Old Order.
 After about one year, Napoleon hired a ship to take him and many
supporters back to France.
 As rumors spread about his return, Louis XVIII panicked and fled to
Belgium.
 The allies (Prussia, Austria, Russia, Gr. Britain) declared Napoleon an
outlaw.
 The French people, who had been dragged through years of bitter
warfare, were not happy. (over 1 million French killed)
 Thousands of other French citizens were excited to hear of Napoleon’s
return.
 They still adored the leader and the reforms he had made while he was emperor.
 In fact, the troops sent to arrest him, instead pledged their loyalty to him.
 Napoleon arrived in Paris to cheering crowds, thus this began a brief
period of renewed glory for France called the Hundred Days.
 Across Europe, Napoleon’s enemies were gathering their
troops for another showdown with Napoleon.
 After some indecisive battles, the final confrontation took
place on June 18, 1815 at Waterloo, a Belgian village.
 Napoleon led his troops against British (led by the Duke of
Wellington), Belgian, Dutch, and German troops.
 After heavy rain delayed the battle, Napoleon’s army was no
match for the combined strength of the multiple armies.
 There were about 50,000 casualties between France and Great
Britain, a great loss of life.
 The Battle of Waterloo was a crushing defeat for Napoleon
and ended his military career and the
Napoleonic Wars.
 Napoleon evaded capture for a short time, but was
eventually caught.
 This time they exiled him much further away at Saint
Helena, a bleak volcanic island in the South Atlantic,
some 1200 miles from the nearest mainland.
 Napoleon never escaped from his remote prison on
Saint Helena.
 He died just six years later at the age of 51.
 The cause of death is still not known.
Was Napoleon Murdered?
Does it matter whether Napoleon was murdered? Perhaps not, but at the time it
certainly did matter. Many French were sure that the British had something to do
with his death. The English were equally anxious to prove that they had not
mistreated him.
What facts do we have? The official autopsy results reported a perforated, or
punctured, stomach and stomach cancer. However, that report also documented a
high level of poisonous arsenic in Napoleon’s hair.
Does the presence of arsenic prove that the British had Napoleon killed? Not
necessarily. There are two possible sources for the arsenic other than deliberate
poisoning. One source of arsenic was medicine, since arsenic was an ingredient in
many 19th-century medicines. Because doctors treated Napoleon for many
ailments, the arsenic may have come from drugs.
Napoleon could also have been poisoned by the wallpaper in his sitting-room.
It included a green color made with copper arsenite. Although copper arsenite is
usually harmless, mold can convert it to a poisonous vapor. The climate on Saint
Helena is humid enough for this to have occurred.
Recently, Paul Fornes, a French forensic scientist, reviewed the old autopsy
report. Fornes concluded that while Napoleon had cancer, the cancer did not kill
him. Fornes also pointed out that the source of the arsenic in the hair sample
remains unknown. Thus, whether Napoleon was murdered is still one of history’s
mysteries.
 Section 5
 Pages 238-241
 After exiling Napoleon,
European leaders at the
Congress of Vienna tried
to restore order and
reestablish peace.
1789-1800

1789




1791



Louis XVI executed
First coalition formed against France
Reign of Terror begins
1795


Nat’l Convention forms
Monarchy ends
1793




Legislative Assembly forms
France declares war against Austria &
Prussia
1792



Nat’l Assembly forms
Fall of the Bastille
Declaration of the Rights of
Man/Citizen
The Directory forms
1799

Napoleon seizes power
1800-1815
 1805
 French defeat at Trafalgar,
victory @ Austerlitz
 1812
 Disastrous Russian
campaign
 1813
 Napoleon exiled to Elba
 1815
 Napoleon’s Hundred Days
 French defeat at Waterloo
 Napoleon exiled to St.
Helena
 Congress of Vienna
 A meeting in the winter of 1814-1815 to create a
plan to restore order and stability to Europe after
the Napoleonic Wars.
 700 diplomats attended the Congress, only a few
played crucial roles:




Lord Castlereagh--Great Britain
King Fredreick William III--Prussia
Prince Klemens von Metternich--Austria
Charles Tallyrand--France
 The congress redrew the map of Europe.
 It also formed the German Confederation
 Took and distributed France’s conquered territories
 Restored some monarchies
 Metternich was the leader of
the Congress of Vienna.
 Distrustful of democratic
ideals of the French
Revolution. He was also:
 Reactionary.
 Wanted to restore a balance





of power in Europe.
Make Europe peaceful
again.
Wanted to Restore old
monarchies.
Compensate the Allies.
Punish France .
Stop the Revolutionary
movement.
 Saw revolutions as a destabilizing force.
 Felt that Napoleon’s behavior had been a natural
outcome of experiments with democracy.
 Wanted to keep things as they were.
 Prevent future French aggression by surrounding
France with strong countries.
 Restore a balance of power, so that no country would
be a threat to others.
 Restore Europe’s royal families to the thrones they had
held before Napoleon’s conquests.
 Combination of Austrian Netherlands and Dutch Republic





combined to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
A group of 39 German states were loosely joined as the
newly created German Confederation, dominated by
Austria.
Switzerland was recognized as an independent nation.
The Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy was strengthened by the
addition of Genoa.
France remained a major but diminished European power.
Legitimacy to stabilize political relations.
 Rulers whom had been removed by Napoleon, were returned.
 France, Spain, and states in Italy.
 It discouraged wars but angered the lower classes.
 Reinstatement of monarchy in some areas.
 The nations of an entire continent had cooperated to
control political affairs.
 The settlements they agreed upon were fair enough
that no country was left bearing a grudge, thus it was
more successful than many other peace meeting in
history.
 None of the five great powers waged war on one
another for nearly 40 years.
 Britain/France vs Russia in Crimean War.
 Revolutionary Legacy Privileged positions (monarchy) were not




secure (fear of Revolution).
Enlightenment ideas of human dignity,
personal liberties and equality would not go
away. (individual rights)
The common man could make great
changes.
Voting rights.
Fair taxation.
 An agreement signed in 1815 between Czar Alexander I
of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria, and King
Frederick William III of Prussia.
 It pledged to combat the forces of revolution and
ensured that nations would help one another if any
revolutions broke out.
 This was called the Concert of Europe.
 Many people around the world, especially the poor,
became committed to the ideals of liberty, equality,
and fraternity.
 New political ideas could not be derailed by
conservatives around the world.
 Liberals around the world wanted to share power with
the king via a legislature.