French Revolution
 One of the biggest turning points in European
history
Background
 Unlike the Russian Revolution or The Chinese
revolution
 France was the most advanced country of the age
 24 million people
The Three Estates
 1. Church
 2. Nobility
 3. Third Estate
 Church – 100 000 people
 Deeply involved in the prevailing social system in
France
 They owned between 5 and 10 percent of the land
 Church was the greatest of all landowners
 Church wealth concentrated in the hands of few
 Nobility – 400 000
 They had enjoyed great resurgence since the death of




Louis XIV
Army, parlements, government offices all
monopolized by the nobility
Had blocked any plan at taxation
Middle class – bourgeoisie, not part of this estate,
didn’t enjoy the same privelidge
MC taxed
 Third Estate – disgruntled
 In the 40 years prior to the rev, prices rose 65%,
whereas wages rose 22%
 4/5 of the population
 Not like serfdom in Russia – they worked for
themselves
 Noble still had rights – hunting, collected fees for
mills, bakeshop, wine press
Feudal Reaction
 The manorial lord performed no economic function
 He lived not by managing his land, but by collecting
a series of dues
 During the 18th century, lords were faced with rising
living costs, and consequently, collected their dues
more vigorously
 They also revived the old ones that had previously
been ignored
 Leases and sharecropping also became less favorable
to the peasants
 Additionally, peasants began to resent the feudal
dues because they saw themselves as the true owners
of the land
Enlightenment Spirit
 We remember the culture that promoted social and
political criticism
 People began to question the idea of ancient
aristocratic priviledge
 Underlying discontent: King trying to suppress the
nobility unsuccessfully, Nobility trying to maintain
its priviledge, peasants beginning to express
discontent, and bourgeois class angry at social
hierarchy
Financial Crisis
 As we saw, France struggling with financial burden
 Upkeep of army, and servicing debt
 Revenues falling short of expenditure
 Nobility and church avoiding taxation
 Louis XVI, also had appointed Jacques Necker, a
Swiss Banker – also dismissed
 His successor, Calonne, proposed a general tax to
replaced the taille - a tax on all landowners
 He wanted to pass it by an Assembly of Notables,
Louis wouldn’t allow it
 dismissed
 He wanted to pass it in an Estates General, because
he knew parlement wouldn’t accept it
 Additionally, they tried to replace the parlements
 Nobles angered – fillibusters – wouldn’t do anything,
like a strike
 Louis called the Estates General and various classes
were called to elect representatives
“What is the Third Estate?”
 Estates General hadn’t met since1614-1615
 It is an assembly of representatives elected from the
three estates
 Each estate voted seperately on an issue
 Then the rep from estate would vote
 Nobility and clergy – 2%
 Rift between old and new nobility – reps for the EG





had to be from long established noble lines
Angered new nobility , and pushed them toward 3rd
estate
3rd estate thought the voting system was unfair
Led by Abbe Sieyes
They demanded that double the number of reps be
given to the third estate
Louis gave the 3rd more reps, but it was still rep by
estate
Cahiers
 Demands of the estates
 Fairer tax system
 End to feudal dues
Estates General
 Louis missed his chance to be a strong leader in the
EG
 Main issue was the 3rd refused to do anything until
there was a unicameral legislature
 Even disgruntled parish priests left the first estate
and joined the third
 June 1789 – Third Estate called itself the National
Assembly – urged the other estates to join
 Tennis Court Oath – on June 20th the kings officials
locked the 3rd out of the hall
 The 3rd thought the EG was being dissolved, and met
at a Tennis court
 They vowed to stay together even against the king’s
will bc they were the nation, not the king
 First assertion of power by the 3rd
 Louis calls for a constitution shortly after
 Led to the revolutionary myth, united people
 Louis eventually capitulates – June 27
 National Assembly formed
 Why did Louis do it? He was scared
National Assembly
 Unicameral body- set out to provide the monarchy
with a constitution
 NA faced a series of obstacles
Fall of the Bastille
 July 14, 1789
 The dismissal of Necker, who was a reformer,
sparked outrage amongst the masses because he was
seen as a reformer, and it was viewed as a conspiracy
 In Paris, rioters stormed a prison – the high officials
were lynched, and their heads paraded through the
streets on a pike
 Fall of the Bastille important because it was a symbol
of tyranny
 Its fall gave birth to a revolutionary myth of popular
action against tyranny
 A century later, the French republic made it a
national holiday
 Short term, it made Louis more receptive, but this
angered the nobles
Back to the NA
 Now it could turn France into a constitutional




monarchy
1st issue – rural riots
The NA swept away the remnants of feudalism
August 26, 1789 “Declaration of the Rights of Man
Highly influenced by Locke, would be the basis for
the preamble of the constitution
 Paris then erupted
 Bread was scarce
 Women marched into the streets of Paris, others
joined, and it was diverted onto a march on
Versailles
 King moved his family to the Tuileries palace in Paris
 For the next two years there was no violence and the
NA could work on reform
 A new political system based on Montesquieu’s
checks and balance
 The constitution, brought in 1791, struck a balance
between king and legislature
The Church
 Controversial
 Civil Constitution of the Clergy
 Stripped away it’s priveledge, made them members
of the state
 Church lands were sold to private buyers
 Consequence, put the pope against the revolution
Back to Louis
 His biggest mistake is he didn’t consolidate the new
system
 June 1791, he fled with his family to Varennes
 He was forgiven, but he used his veto power far too
often to prevent changed as a Const. Monarch
 Additionally, factions were starting in the NA, and if
the King had been stronger, he could have prevented
them from hindering the NA
War
 War in 1792 against Austria and Prussia
 It was wanted by the NA now called the Legislative
Assembly
 King wanted it to crush the experiment
 Others wanted it to show how important the nobility
are in the army
 Others wanted it because they thought they could
win
 The army did disintegrate, and the king and officials
bickered over responsibility – king dismissed them
 August 16, 1792 – Second French Revolution
 Crowd moved against royal palace, and took it by
storm
 Assembly, led by the Jacobins, scared of the mob,
voted for the removal of the King, and called a
National Convention
Climax and Relapse
 2 years between 1792 and 1794 saw the fall of Louis,
the rise and fall of Robespierre, and war, both inside
and outside of France
 After Louis was suspended, there was another
election – for a National Convention
 Constitution making was suspended
 Convention ruled absolutely, with no checks and
balances
 The convention was a radical body
 No more monarchists, all republicans
 Two main groups – Brissotins and Mountain
 Aka Girondins and Jacobins
 Libertarian vs Egalitarian
Revolutionary War
 The convention launched a war against most of
Europe
 Their motivation – the spread of freedom, and they
annexed any land they took
 Also, the convention moved to execute the king
because of a cache of letters found
 His execution would anger fellow monarchs, and
ensure the wars would spread
 The execution of the king, and the conscription of
soldiers led to war within France
 All this turmoil, compounded with the failure of the
French army, led to the most radical members of the
convention to gain power
 Jacobins forced Girodins members out of office in
June 1793
 The double threat lead to authoritarian rule
 The 12 man Committee of Public Safety became the
governing authority
 Maximillian Robespierre and his henchmen became
the dominant faction
 Influenced by Rousseau and egalitarian ideas
Robespierre
 Policy of repression
 Mobilized nations manpower and resources for war
 Strict economic controls
 Purge machinery – executed critics
 Dantonists /Heberists – shaved by the National
Razor
 Reign of Terror
 With this behaviour, fear spread even amongst his




followers (such as doubt)
In June, more courts set up, citizens lost
fundamental legal freedoms
July 1794, called Thermidor
The fear led to the arrest of Robespierrest leaders
Most carted off to Guillotine
Consequence of Thermidor
 Marked the climax of the Terror
 Marked the end of the revolution
 Twenty thousand sent to the guillotine
 Led to relaxation and moderation – purge machinery
relaxed
 The pendulum began to swing back toward the ‘right’
 Royalists now had their turn
 In October 1795, Royalists led a riot in the streets,
and the Convention called on the regular army to
break the threat
 A young general named Bonaparte recieved the
assignment – scattered the crowd with a ‘whiff of
grapeshot’
 Led to the establishment of the Directory in 1795
The Directory
 1795
 Would last four years
 Constitutional government
 Five man board of directors in charge of the
bicameral legislature
 Failed – economic policy, always on verge of
bankruptcy
 Foreign policy – couldn’t win war in Europe but
couldn’t get out if it either
 Conflict between left and right- directory had to
violate constitution
 Eventually put power in teh hands of the military
 With war, they coulnd’t face the facts
 France could have negotiated with Britain, and be
satisfied with it’s ‘natural frontiers’
 But generals, particularly Napoleon, urged it on
 Great victories in Italy,
 Abandons the army in Egypt
 Abbe Sieyes, became one of the Directors in 1799
 He wanted a government that would have a strong
executive
 New consitution needed
 He got Bonaparte to help him
 November 1799, coup d’etat
 Military dictatorship
Age of Napoleon
 His critics call him a cynical, power hungry despot
with a taste for brutality and tyranny
 They see him as a counter revolutionary who crushed
liberty
 His admirers see him a a national hero, who
preserved the essential achievements of the
revolution, and brought their blessings to the rest of
Europe
 Born in Corsica, worked his way up through the
military because of the revolution
 His brilliant campaigns of 1796-97 allowed him to
dictate peace to the Austrians and turned Northern
Italy into Satellites
 The Directory wanted him to invade England, but he
convinced them not to, instead turning to Egypt
 Egypt was abandoned in 1799, and he returned to
France where he thought he was needed
The Consulate
 Napoleon becomes first counsul
 Immediately sought peace with Austria and Britain
 March 1802 signed a Treaty of Amiens with Britain
 Peace all over Europe
 “Peace of Amiens - 1802 pact by which the British
and French agreed not to fight. 1802 was the only
year during all of the Napoleonic era when no
European power was officially at war with another
European power.”
 So great was popular enthusiasm that Bonapartes
proposed to lengthen his ten year term to twenty.
 He jokingly said he would like to be consul for life,
and the nation approved this by referendum
Napoleon moved rapidly to stabilize France
He put down rebellions in the French provinces.
He created a secret police
He centralized the government of the various French
departments under a system of prefects.
 To reduce the number of potential revolutionaries
floating around Europe, he issued a general amnesty,
allowi ng various exiles, from aristocrats to Jacobins, to
return home.
 Napoleon ended the exclusion of the nobility from power
that had been the trademark of earlier post- revolution
regimes. He simply wanted the best men he could find




 To reduce the number of potential revolutionaries
floating around Europe, he issued a general amnesty,
allowi ng various exiles, from aristocrats to Jacobins,
to return home.
 Napoleon ended the exclusion of the nobility from
power that had been the trademark of earlier postrevolution regimes. He simply wanted the best men
he could find
|Religion-Concordat
 with the Catholic pope
Smoothed the rift caused by the Civil Constitution of
the Clergy
He did not give the property back, but he did make
Catholicism the official religion of France
In exchange, the Vatican recognized the Consulate.
Even under this new agreement with the Church,
Napoleon upheld religious tolerance
Government
 Napoleon also set about improving and modernizing




French government
He wanted government power to apply to everyone
equally,
legal class differences and hereditary government
offices to be abolished
salaries to be given to his bureaucrats, who were to
be selected based on talent, not birth
stabilized French currency by creating the Bank of
France, and he simplified the tangle of French law by
producing the Napoleonic Code.
 Made a network of prefects – which carried decisions




of Paris to every hamlet of France
Financial reform – revamped direct taxation, and
enforced collection
Established the Bank of France and gave it control
over the Nations credit system
The bank was controlled by the leading financiers
For the next century, the Franc became the most
stable currency in world
Legal Changes
 He codified gains of the revolution
 Mainly equality before the law
 Also, the Legion of Honour – recognized talent in
every sphere
 Education encouraged because it would create good
subjects and trained officers
 Streamlined education
 But, he was concerned with training leadership elite,
not literacy
Napoleon and War
 1803, back at war with England
 Bonaparte used this to consolidate power even more,
and turn the Consulate into an empire
 He wanted to ensure stability by creating a dynasty
 December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowns himself
Emperor
Major Victories
 December 2, 1805 – Austerlitz
 Crushed an Austro-Russian force
 Late 1806, crushed the Prussians at Jena and
Auerstaedt – Marched to Berlin
 Treaty of Tilsit – Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I
signed a pact which divided most of Europe and Asia
amongst them
 This was all part of Napoleon’s Continental system, a
plan to put a stranglehold on England
 He hoped that by closing the continent to English
goods, Eng. Shopkeepers would be forced to sue for
peace
 Ultimately, England found new markets, and there
were leaks in the blockade
 Napoleon makes a fatal mistake – Portugal
 He crossed Spain to get to Portugal in 1807, but
some soldiers settled and refused to leave
 Battles break out –England backs Spain
 By 1810, Napoleon’s at his zenith
 His domination of Europe was almost complete
 Many satellite states, many of them ruled by his
brother’s and brother’s in law
 Most of German states fused in the federation of the
Rhine, controlled by Paris
 Only resistance was England, and the Geurilla war in
Spain
 At home, things were ok – Napoleonic nobility




created
But, liberty at home had disappeared
Number of political journals in Paris was reduced
from 73 to 4
Censorship
Many of his key men were in fear
 Rumblings all over Europe to take a stand against
Napoleon
 Signal came from Russia
 By 1810, the friendship was fading fast – Russia
pulled itself from the Continental system
 By 1812, Napoleon moved his largest force every
against Russia
 As the Russians retreat, the scorched the earth
 Forced Napoleon to rely on his own supply line
 As winter approached , he decided to continue on to
Moscow – found no one there and the city afire
 October he retreats, but discipline and morale were
low
 Soldiers were looting or fighting over food and vodka
 By December, 50 000 half frozen men remained of
500 000
 Napoleon abandons his troops, and returns to paris
to plot another attack on Russia
 But the Coalition against him, which now
outnumbers him, with dissent in France, leaves him
little hope
 The Coalition now consisted of Austria under
Metternich, England, Russia, and Prussia
 Napoleon abdicates to Elba
Legacy
 Military Genius – Napoleon rarely beaten
 Best Example – Austerlitz
 But- Critics say his opponents were rarely united, and he
had numerical superiority
 Guilty of carelessness in his later years
 Domestic Reform – he had long lasting reforms, such as
the administrative structure and legal system that have
survived to this day
 Some say he preserved the revolution – notably social
and civil equality
 He prevented the restoration of the monarchy for
fifteen years – which entrenched his changes
Foreign Policy
 Controversial – some say he was never happy, and
an aggressive expansionist who doomed Europe to
war, he wanted to take over all of Europe
 Others say he was a patriotic Frenchman, who was
concerned with achieving national unity and
France’s natural frontier
 His war was a defensive struggle which attempted to
preserve the revolution