Questions for the reading
1. List the ideas of the Enlightenment (as indicated in the reading) that are held dear in America. In other
words, which of these ideas did you learn about last year in your American History class?
Natural rights = life, liberty, property
Right to revolt
Free speech, press, etc
Religious toleration
Free education
Democracy
Separation of powers
3 branches of government
Checks and balances
2. What are man’s natural rights according to John Locke?
Life, liberty, property
3. What is government’s purpose according to Locke?
To protect our natural rights
4. Montesquieu describes and prescribes what we in America call the ___Separation______________ of
powers and the 3 ___branches_______________ of government.
5. Which of the Enlightenment thinkers on the reverse side would be opposed to the French Revolution?
Thomas Hobbes
Enlightenment in sum:
A. Focus and Major Ideas
1. Seeing the light – throwing off the darkness of Authority = Monarchy, Church, and Tradition and
seeing the world according to reason alone.
2. Individual rights – all men are free and equal by nature with rights to life, liberty and property.
3. Liberty = do what one wishes as long as it does not interfere with the rights of another
4. Government – exists to protect man’s natural rights
B. Key figures (in France) and quotes
1. Voltaire 1694-1778 – “Kill the Church,” & "I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it."
2. Rousseau 1712-1778 – Government is a “Social Contract”
3. Diderot 1713-1784 – Leader of the Encyclopedists who collected “all” knowledge into massive volumes of
books – Greatest hope was that “the last king might be strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
The French Revolution
Stages 2-4
Stage 2
The second stage of the French Revolution kicked off in 1792 and peaked by 1794. It ended in 1795 with the rise
of the Directory upon the ashes of the National _Convention_____. With 1) the country plunged deeper into war with
__Prussia____ and __Austria_, 2) the economy in a shambles leaving many folks hungry, and 3) a __Civil war still
ongoing, the time was ripe for disaster. The massacre of 1500 priests and nobles at the hands of Parisian mobs in the
month of _September____, 1792 was a foreboding of what was to come. With support from this notorious and powerful
mob, the __Radicals_____ took over the government. This new government allowed universal male _suffrage____ and
was called the _National_____ _Convention_____. It would last three years.
Within the new government three major groups formed representing the left, right, and center. On the right were
the Girondists. They felt the revolution had gone far enough. In the middle was the Plain. To the left were the
_Jacobins_____ who formed the Mountain. This was the group that came to control the Convention. They desired the
most radical change and were happy to use violent measures to achieve it. Led by George-Jacques Danton, Jean-Paul
Marat and ultimately Maximilien__ _Robespierre_, “The Incorruptible”, they had one major goal in two parts: protect
the _Revolution___ from anything that threatened it whether the threat was 1) foreign or 2) internal.
To put down the foreign threat, the Convention created the Committee of _Public Safety. This was a 12 man
group that took over executive functions. They took the offensive in the war with Prussia, Britain, Spain, etc, and turned
the war into a total national effort by requiring all _citizens___ to contribute to it in some way. This was called the
_Levee en Masse. Moreover, they promoted military commanders on the basis of _merit_____, leading to a much
superior fighting force. Among those who would rise through the ranks as a result was a young man named
__Napoleon__________ __Bonaparte_______. In consequence of these and other measures, the French army had
successfully taken the war off of French soil by 1794.
In order to achieve the other part of the Revolution Protection Plan, the radicals had to eliminate all domestic
obstacles to their form of revolution. This meant the elimination of 1) the _monarchy_____, represented by Louis XVI,
2) the destruction of the _Church______, the other bulwark of society, and 3) the wiping out of opposition from the
Girond and those favorable to its ideas. Consequently, __Louis_________ _XVI__ was killed on January 21,
__1793___. His _wife___, Marie Antoinette died at the hands of the government later that year. Their son, the dauphin
died shortly thereafter while in captivity leaving the entire royal family dead with the exception of a daughter. Thus, the
monarchy came to a clearly defined end.
To kill the Church, the Convention attempted to de-Christianize____ society by abolishing Christianity, killing
priests, closing churches and eliminating holy days including Sunday. The last was accomplished by instituting a _10_day week. In the place of the old religion, the Convention substituted the Cult of _Reason_______, even celebrating the
Feast of the Goddess Reason on the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Finally, to squelch all opposition to Jacobin radical policies, the _Committee___ of Public Safety, led by
Robespierre commenced the _Reign_____ of Terror in 1793. Anyone who opposed the radicals was accused of
_Treason________ and executed – typically by the _guillotine_____. 40,000 people died in this effort to __purify_____
the nation. Clergy, nobles, peasants and everyone else was fair game for death. The leaders of the party on the right in
The National Convention – the _Girond_____ succumbed to death in this fashion. Eventually, the revolution started to
eat its own as the Jacobin leaders George-Jacques _Danton____ and others died under the guillotine. Finally, fearing for
their own lives, the members of the Convention turned on _Robespierre______ “The Incorruptible” and put him and his
brother to death in the same fashion on July 28, _1794____.
The radical stage of the Revolution had come to a close and the reaction set in. Freaked out by rule by the
masses, the new government that was set up, the Directory, allowed only citizens who owned property the right to vote.
Thus, government by the wealthy was restored.
Stage 3 (1795-1799)
1. The Directory oversaw great military success, but many problems at home from royalists to sans-culottes, to inflation
to corruption. There were uprisings all over. 2. To stop an insurrection in 1795 the Directory had to call upon
_Napoleon_______________.3. Two places where Napoleon gained great fame on the battlefield included _Egypt and
__Italy___. 4. Finally, the military and Napoleon overthrew the government in what is called a _coup d’etat.
Stage 4 – Napoleon Takes Over: 1799-1815
Napoleon took over first as first consul (1799) in the new government called the Consulate. Eventually, he would
become emperor (1804) – in a ceremony purposely similar to the coronation of Charlemagne 1000 years earlier – and rule
as a dictator. In the meantime, he accomplished much.
Domestic Affairs
Education – national, public schools (called ____lycees____________) and universities.
Economy – taxes paid by all, and the __Bank_______ of ___France________, which controlled the money and slowed
inflation.
Religion – Restored better relations with the __Catholic_________ Church in the __Concordat____________________
of 1801.
Law – Made laws standard across France and ensured equality of men and religious freedom (but also limited freedom of
speech and press in the ____Napoleonic Code.
Foreign Affairs
Napoleon, the military man that he was, never turned his attention away from the battlefield. He met with great
success in his attempt to subjugate all of Europe to his command, but ultimately fell short. By 1812 he had control of
almost the entire mainland; however, by 1814 he had been sent into exile on the little island of Elba. Having come back
in 1815, he lost again at Waterloo. It would be his last defeat. He was then exiled to an island off of South America until
he died.
As seen on the map below of Europe in 1812, Napoleon failed to gain control of one major country in western
Europe. That was ___Great___________ Britain___________. While preparing to attack this country by sea,
Napoleon’s navy was destroyed in the famous battle at Cape ___Trafalgar_____________ in 1805. Napoleon then tried
to destroy this nation by way of a “blockade” or trade embargo, called the _Continental________________
___System___________________. This also failed.
Napoleon’s biggest failure was his invasion of __Russia_______________ in 1812, where he had to face not just
the enemy, but their eternal ally – Old Man Winter. 400,000 out of his 600,000 troops died in this campaign. It was the
beginning of the end for Napoleon.
What had the Holy Roman Empire become under Napoleon?
The Confederation of the Rhine
Start of Revolution there was an absolute monarchy under the Bourbons
Stage 1 (1789-1792)
Stage 2 (1792-1795)
Stage 3 (17951799)
Constitutional monarchy
King dead – executed
Directory
Declaration of the Rights of
Declaration of Rights suspended
Property owners
Man
Reign of Terror vs. all classes
vote
Feudalism (and rights)
De-Christianization of society
Corruption
abolished
War with Austria, Prussia, G.B.
everywhere
Church under state control
Universal male suffrage
Napoleon puts
War with Austria and Prussia
Committee of Public Safety
down uprising
Storming of Bastille
Robespierre rules
Revolution dying
Tennis Court Oath
Stage 4 (1799-1815)
Dictatorship after coup
d’etat
Napoleon – 1st consul
(1799)
Emperor (1804)
Concordat with Church
War across Europe
Massive Fr. Empire
Waterloo
100 Days
At the end of the Revolution there was a limited monarchy under the Bourbons
The English Civil War(s) and the French Revolution - a comparison
English Civil War and the
Interregnum
(Commonwealth)
1642-1660
French Revolution
Dynasty before the war
Stuarts
Bourbons
Monarch before the war
Charles I
Louis XVI
Parliament
Estates-General
Reason the representative body was
called
Money
Money
Words to describe monarch’s power
prewar
Absolute – Divine Right
Absolute – “The State
that’s me”
19 Propositions
Beheading
Declaration of the Rights
of Man
Beheading
Form of government set up after king
was deposed/killed
Republic –
“Commonwealth”
Republic – “National
Convention”
Form of government that arose soon
thereafter
+ name of leader
The kind of government the country
had when it was all over
Dictatorship - Cromwell
Dictatorship – Napoleon
Monarchy (limited)
Monarchy (limited)
Dates for purposes of this comparison
“Representative” body name
Power-limiting document the king
was asked to submit to
Ultimate fate of the king
1789-1815
It should be noted that after each of these wars the power structure was radically changed even if everything seemed to have returned
to normal. The monarchy was severely weakened in each case and would be a mere shadow of its former self within the next fifty
years.