THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION
CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
King Louis the 16 th of France had bankrolled
the American Revolution and racked up a
huge debt as a result.
Economic problems plagued
the peasantry.
Heavy regressive taxes
on the peasantry.
The nobility continued to live
lives of wealth and privilege.
CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Radicalized veterans of the American
Revolution return home to France.
Spread radical ideas about democracy and
equality.
Often unemployed/struggling.
Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France,
continues to live (VERY PUBLICLY) an
absolutely outrageous lifestyle.
POLITICAL SYSTEM
The King had vast executive powers.
The Estates-General
1 st Estate: Clergy.
2 nd Estate: Nobility.
3 rd Estate: Everyone else (98% of the
population)
THE BEGINNING
 Necker was the Finance Minister and the most popular
member of the government.
 Necker suggested that the Royals needed to cut back on their
absurd lifestyle.
 Necker is fired; infuriating the King’s opponents.
 The Third-Estate complains and is locked out of the Estates General.
 Take the Tennis Court Oath and declare themselves the
National Assembly.
THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
 Louis brought troops to Paris (including foreign mercenaries)
to try and intimidate the National Assembly.
 Backfires, instead causing many French veterans to join the
National Assembly’s forces, calling themselves the National
Guard.
 Angry mobs, furious at the king, storm the Bastille, releasing
prisoners and stealing the cache of weapons there.
KING BACKS DOWN
 Louis backs down.
 Many nobles, called émigrés flee the country, taking their
wealth out of fear of rebellion.
 Funded counter-revolutionary forces in France.
 Encouraged foreign kings to support Louis.
 Louis leaves Paris for his palace in Versailles.
 Holds a dinner party in which some nobles sneered and desecrated
the new flag of the French National Assembly - the tricolour.
 Parisians hear about this and march on Versailles, dragging Louis
back to Paris. Initially Louis resists, but angry, armed women
change his mind.
POLITICS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
 Factions emerge amongst the Revolutionaries
 The Right Wing: Monarchists.
 The Center/Center-Right: The Girodians. (Necker)
 The Left: The Jacobins. (Robspierre)
THE END OF THE MONARCHY
 The King and Queen decide they will flee to Austria to rally
the emerges and return at the head of an army.
 The Royal Family is captured by the National Guard and
returned to Paris.
 The King and Queen are declared traitors and beheaded.
WAR!
 The other monarchs of Europe, terrified of
spread of revolutionary violence, declare war.
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Austria
Prussia
Britain
Belgium
Netherlands
Italy
Spain
 The Austrian Emperor was Marie Antoinette’s
brother.
VICTORIES!
 Despite being outnumbered and poorly -trained, the French
Republican Armies smash the invaders.
 Highly enthusiastic armies turn back the Allied forces arrayed against
them.
 Nationalism as fervor.
 The allies agree to peace with France.
THE TERROR: WAR AT HOME
 Emerges continued to fund anti -Revolutionary activities at
home.
 Murder of Marat!
 The Committee of Public Safety is formed
 Led by Maximillian Robespierre
 Hunt down and execute traitors
 Make extensive use of the Guillotine.
 Regarded as more humane.
GIRODIANS STRIKE BACK
 Girodians order the arrest of Robspierre.
 Robspierre is executed.
 The Directory, a conservative and semi -autocratic institution
takes power.
 Rather unpopular.
 Remain in power from 1795-1799.
Sensing weakness, a new alliance of
European kingdoms declare war in
1797.
THE RISE OF NAPOLEON
 Napoleon was France’s most capable general.
 Defeated the Italian invasion and led French Republican troops into
Italy to conquer everything they saw.
 Napoleon was sent to take Egypt from Britain.
 While he was away, France suffered a series of defeats from renewed
invasions.
 Napoleon returns and reorganizes the defense of the Revolution.
 The Directory’s unpopularity makes it a target.
 Napoleon topples the Directory and takes power for himself.
NAPOLEON THE CONQUEROR
 Between 1797 and 1812, the kingdoms of Europe fight a
series of wars with France.
 Napoleon, through amazing military skill, crushes everything
sent against the French.
NAPOLEON AND WEAPONRY
 Napoleon, despite his reputation as an artillery of ficer in an
era when artillery was changing war, wasn’t particularly
interested in the latest equipment. He refused to use either
shrapnel or observation balloons. He liked to keep things
simple so that he could move fast. He had a sense of what
his soldiers could digest and dominate in weaponry. These
weapons had to be a natural extension of the soldier, not the
contrary. If dominated by his weaponry, the soldier would not
be able to act naturally and with speed.
NAPOLEON IN SPAIN
 Napoleon’s invasions of Spain were mostly a stalemate Spanish guerillas rarely gave Napoleon direct battles.
 Regardless, the invasion weakened Spain so much that it
allowed for successful rebellions in South America against the
Spanish crown.
NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR
 Napoleon is nominally the Consul of France.
 In 1804, however, he crowns himself Emperor of France.
 As Emperor Napoleon
Liberalizes the legal code, accelerating the end of feudalism
Establishes freedom of worship
Enacts reforms to protect Jews from persecution
Created the Confederacy of the Rhine, the precursor to the German
nation.
 Introduced the metric system.
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RUSSIA
 In 1812, leads a vast army against the Russian Empire.
 Russians refuse to give battle and burn anything the French could
use.
 French army freezes and Napoleon is forced to flee .
 Grand Armée had lost some 380,000 men dead and 100,000 captured.
FIRST OVERTHROW
 Realizing that Napoleon is temporarily weakened, the other
kingdoms of Europe again invade.
 Napoleon brilliantly fights a series of battles against this alliance.
 Despite winning victory after victory, his reduced forces are ground
down.
 Napoleon surrenders rather than allow the invaders to take Paris
through force.
EXILE
 While the other monarchs of Europe want to kill Napoleon,
they fear making him a martyr.
 They declare him the Emperor of Elba and send him into exile.
 A new king is placed on the throne of France.
100 DAYS
 Napoleon remains in exile for 6 months until he decides to
return to France.
 Sneaks of f of the island, returning alone to France.
 The king sends soldiers to arrest Napoleon. Napoleon simply
informs the soldiers that “their Emperor has returned” and
they fall in behind him.
 Napoleon gathers more and more troops to him while he
walks to Paris.
 The King flees and Napoleon
resumes his rule.
REACTION
 Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia bound themselves
to each put 150,000 men into the field to end Napoleon’s
rule.
 Napoleon gathers as many veterans to him as he can.
 Decides not to wait on the allies and immediately takes the
fight to them by invading Belgium.
WATERLOO
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Wins a series of battles against the allies.
Finally, at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is defeated.
Napoleon is exiled again and dies (poisoned by the English.)
The Kings of Europe are very, very relieved.
LONG TERM EFFECTS
 The monarchs of Europe want to pretend like the French
Revolution and Napoleon never happened.
 However, Napoleon’s conquests had carried many ideas with
him.
 Spread nationalism throughout Europe.