AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
 Last years of the 18th century marked by Revolutions that challenged the old order of monarchs and
aristocrats.
 The world of modern domestic and international politics was born.
Liberty & Equality
I. Liberty: Declaration of the Rights of Man “liberty consists in being able to do anything
that does NOT harm another person.”
* Theory: citizens rights had no limits except those which assure to the other
members of society the enjoyment of those same rights.
1) Liberals
a. called for individual human rights!
b. protested the monarchs belief that it was their duty to regulate what people wrote &
believed.
c. demanded freedom to worship freely, end to censorship, freedom from arbitrary laws and
judges who acted as “puppets” of the government.
d. call for new kind of government based on popular sovereignty
* Republicanism – representative government that is accountable to the people that they
represent.
II. Equality: equality of rights, justice, and opportunity
 Theory: all citizens should have identical rights and civil liberties – nobles have no
right to privileges based on accident of birth.
a. no call for equality between men & women
b. no call for economic equality
 great differences in wealth and income were acceptable to liberals as long as
everyone had equal opportunity
III. Roots of Liberalism in Western Society
* Ancient Greeks societies & Judeo-Christian traditions – established sanctity & value of the
individual human being as well as personal responsibility on the part of every individual.
- Protestants fought for individual rights to have your own religious beliefs in the 16th century
A. Classical Liberalism: established at the end of the 17th century and during the Enlightenment
of the 18th century.
1. Enlightenment stressed human dignity and human happiness
2. Writers were committed to greater personal liberty and equal treatment before the law,
and joined personal freedom and legal equality to justify liberal self-government
ie: John Locke – “If government oversteps its proper function of protecting natural
rights of life, liberty, and private property – it becomes a tyranny
& the contract with that government can be broken.”
Ie: Baron de Montesquieu – believed that powerful intermediary groups (Judicial
Nobility) offered the best defense of liberty against
despotism.
B. Representative Government – did NOT mean democracy which liberal thinkers equated with
mob rule.
1. voting was restricted to those who owned property (had a stake in society)
2. Liberal movement found support among the prosperous, well-educated elites in
western Europe.
3. Liberalism lacked strong popular support for 2 reasons:
1) commoners were more concerned with survival than with theoretical,
political ideas
2) some traditional practices and institutions that liberals wanted to abolish
were favored by peasants and urban workers
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
The American Revolution (1775-1789)
I. Origins of the Revolution
A. 7 Years War (1753-1760) “French & Indian War”
1. Parliament increased taxes in American colonies to offset the cost of the war &
anticipated expenses for defending recently conquered lands.
a. direct taxes: Stamp Act (1765)
- American colonist responded with violent protest and boycotts of British
goods = resulted in Parliament repealing the Stamp Act
2. Not an economic issue but a political issue!
a. questions?
> to what extent could the home government refashion the empire and
reassert its power while limiting the authority of colonial legislatures and
their elected representatives?
> who should represent the colonies in Parliament and who had the right to
make laws for the Americans?
b. responses:
> American Colonist: proclaimed that taxation without representation is
tyranny.
> Parliament: argued that Americans were indirectly represented in
government (like all English citizens) and that absolute supremacy of
parliament could not be questioned.
B. 1773 – British government allowed the East India Company to create a monopoly of
the tea business in America – excluding American merchants.
1. colonist protested – Boston Tea Party
2. Parliament responded by passing the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) – series
of acts that closed the port of Boston, stopped local elections and town
meetings, expanded royal governing powers, and instituted marshal law.
C. 1774 – 1st Continental Congress: delegates from the American colonies met in
Philadelphia to discuss their problems with Britain
1. Radicals gained influence in the Congress and rejected any concessions to the
crown – sent a petition to Parliament listing their grievances.
2. Parliament responded with a denial of any compromises
D. 1775 – Battles of Lexington & Concord: war between the American colonist and Britain
began with these two conflicts
II. Independence
A. Common Sense (1775) pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that captured the growing
sense of separateness and moral superiority of the American patriots.
B. July 4, 1776 – Declaration of Independence
1. 2nd Continental Congress listed the tyrannical acts committed by King George
III and Parliament
2. proclaimed natural rights of mankind (right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness) and sovereignty of the American states
3. made English Rights universal “all men are created equal”
C. 1778 -French support: money, supplies, and military support aided the Americans in
winning the war.
D. 1779-1780 – Dutch & Spanish declared war with Britain
E. 1780 – Catherine the Great organized the League of Armed Neutrality against Britain
to protect neutral shipping rights – Britain refused to recognize the league
F. 1781 – most of Europe and the American colonies were at war with Britain
G. 1783- Treaty of Paris – Great Britain officially recognized the Independence of the
new United States of America
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
III. Framing the Constitution of the United States
A. Articles of Confederation (1781-1787) – First national government of the United States
1. established a weak national government with only a legislature that had little
power over the individual states united in a confederation
B. 1787 – Constitutional Convention
1. “Founding Fathers” drafted the new constitution that was based on
a. popular sovereignty
b. limited powers
c. created a stronger federal government that included 3 separate
branches (legislative, executive, judicial)
d. that had the power to check and balance one another
e. a Republican government that included popularly elected
representatives
f. included a Bill of Rights (10 Amendments) that guaranteed the
individual rights of each American – ratified in 1791
C. Federalist Papers (81 articles) published in the New York news papers to convince
anti-Federalist (those who opposed ratification of the new constitution) to ratify the
constitution which was ratified in 1789.
The French Revolution
I. The Old Regime
A. The Estates System – consisted of 3 estates that divided society by title, privileges,
and immunities
1. The First Estate – Clergy (Church)
a. less than 1% of population (approximately 100,000)
- included cardinals, bishops, abbots, monks, and priest of the
Catholic church
b. owned 10% of the land – included some of the highest valued lands
c. privileges: paid a voluntary gift tax to the state every 5 years, had the
authority to levy a tithe (tax) on property owners
2. The Second Estate – Nobility (aristocracy)
a. 2% of the population (approx. 400,000)
b. owned 25% of the wealthiest land
c. privileges: taxed very lightly, had manorial rights that allowed them to
tax local peasants, had greater liberties & rights than members of the
3rd Estate.
3. The Third Estate – Everyone except the clergy & nobility
a. more than 97% of the population (approximately 25 million)
- included wealthy middle class (bourgeoisie), urban artisans,
unskilled laborers, peasants and agricultural workers
- a variety of social classes united only by a legal status that was
distinct from the nobility & clergy
b. owned less than 50% of the land
c. No privileges of law, rights, or liberties – paid a majority of the taxes that
supported the government
II. The Decline of a Absolute Monarchy in France
A. Louis XIV died in 1715
1. succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV (r.1715-1774)
2. discontented nobles and learned judges sought to limit the new king’s power
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
B. duke of Orleans (1674-1723) governed as regent until 1723
1. under him the nobility made a strong comeback
2. he restored the high courts of France (the parlements) with the ancient right
to evaluate royal decrees publicly in writing before they were registered and
given force of law.
a. judges had originally come from middle class – by the 18th century
judges had risen to become hereditary nobles.
C. Louis XV’s (r. 1715-1774) attempts at tax reform
1. 1748 – War of Austrian Succession plunged France into a financial crisis
a. Louis’ finance minister decreed a 5% income tax on every individual
regardless of social status
b. those with tax exemptions vigorously protested, backed by parlement –
the monarchy gave in and dropped the new tax
2. 1764 – following the loss of the Seven Years War, the monarchy tried to
maintain emergency taxes after the war ended
a. Parlement responded by challenging the basis of royal authority –
claimed the monarchs power had to be limited to protect liberty
b. Monarch gave-in and cancelled the war time tax – Parlement responded
by asserting that the monarchy couldn’t levy taxes without the consent
of Parlement
3. 1768 – Louis XV stood up to Parlement
a. statement: “The magistrates are my officers…. In my person only does
the sovereign power rest.”
b. Louis appointed Rene de Maupeou as chancellor & ordered him to
crush the judicial opposition
- Manpeou abolished the existing Parlements & exiled the most
vociferous members in Paris to the provinces
- He created a new and docile parlement of royal officials
- He began to tax the privileged groups
4. Monarch image – widespread criticisms of “royal despotism”, illegal
scandalmongering, pornographic attacks on the king and his court = the king
was being stripped of his sacred aura of a God anointed on earth – and being
reinvented as a loathsome degenerate
D. Louis XVI (r.1774-1792)
* arranged marriage to Marie Antoinette (Habsburg princess) – to create an alliance
with Austria & end the ongoing wars between France & Austria.
1. 1778 – Failing economy of France due to overwhelming national debt
National Budget = 50% to pay for interest on debt, 25% military, 6%
for monarchy, 19% to run the state (far below the needed amount)
a. Louis XVI’s minister of finance imposed a general tax on all
landed property
b. Louis assembled notables to gain support for the tax
c. Notables demanded a meeting of the Estates General
1) Louis passed the tax by decree
2) Parlement declared the royal initiative null & void
3) Louis attempted to exile the judges – but a wave of
protest swept across France
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
2. 1788 – Louis agreed to a meeting of the Estates General
a. members of the 3 estates began to meet among themselves to draft
petitions for change & to elect their delegates
b. consensus of demands:
1) royal absolutism should give way to a constitutional monarchy
2) individual liberties would have to be guaranteed by law
3) economic position of the parish clergy would have to be improved
* reflected the broad commitment of France’s educated elite
to liberalism
3. 1789 – The Estates General
a. The estates had traditionally sat separately, with each estate having
one vote (this gave the 1st & 2nd estates an advantage over the 3rd )
b. The 3rd Estate demanded that all three estates meet as one & the 3rd
estate have more voting power.
* abbe Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes What is the Third Estate?
4. June 17, 1789 – 3rd Estate voted to call itself the “National Assembly”
a. June 20 – swore the Tennis Court Oath: pledge not to disband until they
had a new written constitution
b. June 27 – Louis ordered the members of the three estates to meet as
one
* secretly – Louis ordered an army of 8,000 toward Versailles to
disband the Estates General & at the same time he dismissed his
popular finance minister and other liberal ministers
> Louis sought to reassert his “divine right” to rule
D. Open Revolt
1. Economic depression led to high unemployment & bread prices
a. Bastille Day (July 14) rumors of the king’s army staging an attack of
Paris incited mobs to arm themselves in revolt
b. The popular uprising broke the power monopoly of the royal army & in
doing so saved the National Assembly
2. The Great Fear – throughout France peasants began to rise in spontaneous,
violent, and effective insurrection against their lords, ransacking manor houses
and burning feudal documents that recorded the peasants’ obligations.
> fear of vagabonds and outlaws seized the country sides & fanned the
flames of rebellion
3. August 4, 1789 – The National Assembly urged equality in taxation and the
elimination of feudal dues
a. ended serfdom, exclusive hunting rights for nobles, fees for justice,
village monopolies, right to make peasants work on road.
E. Limited Monarchy
1. Declaration of the Rights of Man & of Citizen (August 27, 1789)
1) men are born and remain free and equal in rights
2) mankind’s natural rights are “liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression”
3) every man is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty
4) law is an expression of the general will (all citizens have the right to
concur personally or through their representatives in its formation)
5) free expression of thoughts and opinions – every citizen may speak,
write, and publish freely
* In short: it guaranteed equality before the law, representative
government for a sovereign people, and individual freedom
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
2. October 5 – thousands of women marched from Paris to Versailles to demand
action
a. the women invaded the royal apartments
b. the King and Queen moved back to Paris under the guard of the mob
the next day
3. July 1790 – the National Assembly abolished the French nobility as a legal
order and pushed forward with the creation of a constitutional monarchy
a. Louis reluctantly accepted the constitution which kept him as the head
of state, but all law making power was placed in the hands of the
National Assembly
b. Changes made by the National Assembly: applied the critical spirit of
the critical spirit of the Enlightenment to reform France’s laws and
institutions completely
1) new laws broadened women’s rights to seek divorce, inherit
property, & obtain financial support from fathers of illegitimate
children
2) women were still denied the right to vote, or to hold political office
> reasons: belief that women should be limited to child
rearing and domestic duties, women used their sexuality to
corrupt politics & by keeping them out it would help
preserve civic virtue
3) replaced the historic provinces with 83 departments
4) introduced a simple, uniform metric system
5) promoted the liberal concept of economic freedom by prohibiting
monopolies, guilds, and barriers to trade within France
6) granted religious freedom to Jews & Protestants
7) nationalized the Catholic church’s property as collateral for
assignats (new paper currency) & then sold the property to
improve the financial state of the nation
8) established a national church with priest chosen by voters
> required the Catholic clergy to take a loyalty oath to the
new government
* The actions toward the church drove a wedge between the
educated classes and the common people
World War & Republican France, 1791-1799
I.
Foreign Reaction & the Beginning of War
A. Conservative reaction to Liberalism in France
1. Edmund Burke – published Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
a. great intellectual defense of European Conservatism
1) defended inherited privileges
2) glorified the unrepresentative Parliament and predicted that
reform (like that occurring in France) would only lead to chaos
and tyrrany
b. rebuttal – Mary Wollstonecraft: The Vindication of the Rights of Man,
1790
1) she advocated rigorous coeducation, which would make women
better wives and mothers, good citizens, and even economically
independent people
> marked the birth of the women’s movement for equal rights
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
B. Reaction to the arrest of Louis XVI & his family in June, 1791 (after attempting to
escape France)
1. The monarchs of Austria & Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz
a. carefully worded statement declared their willingness to intervene in
France in certain circumstances and was expected to have a sobering
effect on revolutionary France without causing war.
C. Legislative Assembly (Oct. 1791) - National Assembly was replaced by a new
republican form of government – NO King
1. The Legislative Assembly – required that no members of the National
Assembly could be elected to the new government
a. Jacobins – political club: consisted of a majority of the members in the
new Legislative Assembly, made up of prosperous, well-educated,
middle-class men, younger & less cautious
> they were passionately committed to liberal revolution and
distrustful of monarchy after Louis’s attempted flight
2. April 1792 – France declared war on Francis II, the Habsburg monarch
“If the courts of Europe were attempting to incite a war of kings against
France, then we will incite a war of people against the kings…”
D. World War
1. Prussia joined Austria in the Austrian Netherlands in the 1st Coalition
a. French forces broke and fled the battlefield leaving the road to Paris
open to the invading army
> conflicts between eastern monarchs over the division of
Poland slowed the invasion of France
2. August 10, 1792 – Revolutionary crowd attacked the royal palace at the
Tuileries
a. Royal family fled to the Legislative Assembly – which suspended the
king from all his functions, imprisoned him, and called for a new
National Convention to be elected by universal male suffrage
II. The Second Revolution (radical phase of the revolution that coincided with the fall of the
monarchy)
A. September Massacres (1792): Angry Parisian mobs stormed the prisons of Paris and
murdered aristocrats & clergy
B. popularly elected National Convention proclaimed France a republic (1792)
1. New popular culture:
a. new revolutionary calendar – which eliminated saints’ days and renamed the days
of the week & months (seasons of the year)
i. 10 day weeks / 9 days of work & 1 day of rest (No Sundays – No Mass)
b. citizens were expected to address each other with the friendly “thou” (tu) rather
than “you” (vous) – associated with aristocracy
c. promoted broad, open-air, democratic festivals – meant to replace Catholic
holidays and celebrations with secular, nationalistic rituals that emphasized civic
virtue & love of nation
C. Members of the National Convention
1. Republicans (most belonging to the Jacobin Club of Paris)
2. control of the Convention hotly contested between the Girondists (moderates / rural
populace) vs. the Mountain (radicals led by Robespierre & Danton) – differences were
mostly personal dislike for one another
3. Girondists & Mountain both supported the “war against tyranny”
AP Euro: Chap. 21 Lecture Notes – French Revolution & Napoleonic Era
D. War with the 1st Coalition
1. by 1792 - French armies invaded Savoy and captured Nice, moved into the German
Rhineland, and occupied the Austrian Netherlands
a. French armies abolished feudalism (serfdom) & found support among peasants
and middle-class people
b. French armies lived off the land, requisitioned food and supplies, and plundered
local treasures – originally seen as liberators, French armies soon appeared
to be foreign invaders.
2. Feb. 1793 – The National Convention declared war on Britain, Holland, and Spain
3. The Vendee – peasant revolts against the draft in Western France, supported by
Catholics, royalists, and foreign agents
E. Sans-culottes: laboring men and women of Paris (elemental force that drove the
Revolution forward).
1. Immediate interest mainly economic they demanded radical political action to
guarantee their bread.
2. the Mountain joined with the sans-culottes to orchestrate a popular uprising in 1793 to
take power in the Convention by ousting 31 Girondist deputies.
F. Committee of Public Safety: led by Robespierre and others from the Mountain, were
given doctoral powers by the Convention to deal with the national emergency