The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789-1815
The French Revolution Begins
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In the 1700s, France was considered the most advanced country of Europe.
Large population, prosperous foreign trade, and was the center of the
Enlightenment; French culture was widely praised and imitated throughout
the rest of the world
 Success however can be deceiving; bad harvests, high prices, high taxes, and
disturbing questions raised by the Enlightenment ideas of Locke, Rousseau,
and Voltaire
I. The Old Order
 In the 1770s, the social and political system in France, the Old Regime,
remained in place
 Under this system, the people of France were divided into three large social
classes, or estates
a) The Privileged Estates
 First and Second Estates were privileged (access to high offices, exempt
from paying taxes, and hated Enlightenment ideas because they
threatened their status); made up 3% of the population
 First Estate, The Roman Catholic Church’s clergy, owned 10% of the land
in France, provided education and relief services to poor, gave 2% of
income to government
 Second Estate, was made up of the rich nobles, 2% of population owned
20% of land and paid almost no taxes
 Clergy and nobility scorned Enlightenment ideas as radical notions that
threatened their status and power as privileged persons
b) The Third Estate
 The Third Estate, was made up of 97% of the population, paid high taxes,
made up of three groups
 The first group, the Bourgeoisie, or middle class were bankers, factory
owners, merchants, professionals, etc.
 Believed in Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality
 Some were as wealthy as nobles and felt that wealth should bring a
higher social status and more political power
 The workers of France’s cities made up the 2nd poorest group in 3rd
Estate, includes trades-people, apprentices, laborers and domestic
servants; paid low wages and often out of work
 Often went hungry; if cost of bread rose, mobs of workers might attack
grain carts or bread shops to take what they needed
 Peasants formed the largest group in 3rd Estate, paid about half of their
income in dues to nobles, tithes and taxes.
 Resented the clergy and the nobles for their privileges and special
treatment
 Discontented and eager for change
II. The Forces of Change
 Other factors besides the resentment of the lower classes led to a
revolutionary mood in France
1. New ideas of government
2. Serious economic problems
3. Weak and indecisive leadership
 All generated a desire for change
c) Enlightenment Ideas
 New views about power and authority in government were spreading among
the Third Estate
 Members were inspired by the success of the American Revolution
 They began questioning long standing notions about the structure of society
 Quoting Rousseau and Voltaire, they began to demand equality, liberty, and
democracy
d) Economic Troubles
 By the 1780s, France’s once prosperous economy was in decline
 This caused alarm among merchants and factory owners of Third Estate
 Cost of living was rising rapidly, and crop failures because of bad weather
caused a grain shortage and people faced starvation because the price of
bread doubled in 1789
 France’s government sank into debt because of extravagant spending of
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
 France had large debt already because of previous kings
 Louis XVI borrowed a lot of money to help the American revolutionaries
during the war against Great Britain; this doubled the government’s debt
e) A Weak Leader
 Louis XVI, was indecisive and allowed matters to drift; he had paid little
attention to his government advisers
 The queen only added to problems; she often interfered in government
and often gave poor advice
 Louis’s solution was putting off dealing with the financial crisis until he
had almost no money left, he then tried to tax the nobility
 However, the Second Estate forced him to call a meeting of the EstatesGeneral, an assembly of representatives from all three estates-to approve
this new tax; it was held on May 5, 1789 at Versailles
III. Dawn of the Revolution
 The clergy and the nobles had dominated the Estates-General throughout the
Middle Ages and expected to do so in the 1789 meeting.
 Under old rules, each estate’s delegates met in a separate hall to vote; each
estate had one vote; the two privileged estates could always outvote the
Third Estate
f) The National Assembly
 The Third Estate delegates, made mostly of the bourgeoisie who views
had been shaped by the Enlightenment, were eager to make changes in
the government
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Insisted that all three estates meet together and that each delegate have a
vote
 Even though the king sided with the nobles and the old medieval rule,
Third Estate delegates became more determined to wield power
 In a dramatic speech, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes suggested that the Third
Estate delegates name themselves the National Assembly; to pass laws
and reforms in the name of the French people
 On June 17, 1789, following Sieyes’ ideas, the Third Estate voted to
establish the National Assembly, in effect ending absolute monarchy and
beginning of a representative government.
 Vote was the first deliberate act of revolution
 Three days later, the Third Estate delegates found themselves locked out
of their meeting room
 They broke down the door to an indoor tennis court, pledging to stay
until they had drawn up a new constitution
 This pledge became known as the Tennis Court Oath
g) Storming the Bastille
 In Paris, some people suggested that Louis was intent on using military
force to dismiss the National Assembly
 Others charged that the foreign troops were coming to Paris to massacre
French citizens
 People began to gather weapons in order to defend the city against attack
 On July 14, a mob searching for gunpowder and arms stormed the
Bastille, a French prison
 After overwhelming the guards and seizing control of the prison, the
attackers hacked the prison commander and guards to death and paraded
around the streets with their heads on pikes
 The fall of the Bastille became a great symbolic act of revolution to the
French people
 Ever since, July 14 or Bastille Day has become a French National holiday
similar to the 4th of July
IV. A Great Fear Sweeps France
 Rebellion started to spread to the countryside before long
 Rumors that the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize peasants created a
wave of senseless panic known as the Great Fear
 Peasants soon became outlaws themselves
 Armed with pitchforks and other farm tools, they broke into noble’s manors
to destroy old legal papers that bound them to pay feudal dues
 Peasants sometimes simply burned the manors down
 October 1789, Parisian women rioted over the rising price of bread;
brandishing weapons, they marched on Versailles
 Demanded that National Assembly take action, then turned to the king and
queen demanding that they return to Paris
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The king, his family, and servants left Versailles, never again to see their
magnificent palace
Revolution Brings Reform and Terror
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Peasants were not the only members of French society to feel the Great Fear;
nobles and officers of the Church were equally afraid
 Bands of angry peasants struck out against members of the upper classes,
attacking and destroying many manor houses
 Before the women’s march on Versailles in 1789, some nobles and clergy in
the National Assembly responded to the uprisings
V. The Assembly Reforms France
 Throughout the night of August 4, 1789, noblemen gave speeches and
declarations about their love of equality and liberty
 Motivated by fear, not so much idealism
 Joined other members of the National Assembly to sweep away feudal
privileges of the First and Second Estates; the Old Regime was dead
a) The Rights of Man
 Three weeks later, the National Assembly adopted a statement of
revolutionary ideals, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen
 Document stated that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
 Rights included “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”
 The document also guaranteed citizens equal justice, freedom of speech,
and freedom of religion
 Revolutionary leaders adopted the expression “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity” as their slogan
 However did not apply to women
 Olympe de Gouges published a declaration of the rights of women, she
was rejected and later executed as being an enemy of the revolution
b) A State Controlled Church
 Many early reforms focused on the Church
 The National Assembly took over Church lands and declared that Church
officials and priests were to be elected and paid as state officials; Catholic
Church lost its land and political independence
 Move was largely economic; proceeds from the sale of Church land
helped pay off France’s huge debt
 This alarmed millions of French peasants, who were devout Catholics
 The effort to make the Church part of the state offended them; believed
that pope should rule over a church independent of the state.
 From this time on, peasants opposed the assembly’s reforms
c) Louis Tries to Escape
 As the relationship between Church and state was restructured, Louis XVI
pondered his fate as a monarch
 Many advisers warned him that he and his family were in danger
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The royal family, seeing France as unsafe, tried to flee the country to the
Austrian Netherlands in June 1791
 As they neared the border, they were apprehended and returned to Paris
 His attempted escape increased the influence of his radical enemies in the
government and sealed his fate
VI. Divisions Develop
 For two years, the National Assembly argued over a new constitution for
France
 By 1791, the delegates had made significant changes in France’s government
and society
d) A Limited Monarchy
 In September 1791, the National Assembly completed the new
constitution, which Louis reluctantly approved
 This constitution created a constitutional monarchy stripping the king of
much of his authority
 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; executive power to carry out laws still lied with the
king
e) Factions Split France
 Despite the new government, old problems still remained such as food
shortages and government debt
 The question of how to handle these problems caused the Legislative
Assembly to split into three groups, each of which sat in a different
section of the meeting hall
 Radicals, who sat on the left side of the hall, opposed the idea of a
monarchy and wanted sweeping changes on the how the government was
run
 The Moderates, sat in the center of the hall, wanted changes but not as
many as the Radicals
 The Conservatives, sat on the right side of the hall, upheld the idea of a
limited monarchy and wanted few changes to government
 Factions outside of the Legislative Assembly wanted to influence the
direction of government as well
 Emigres, nobles and others who had fled France, hoped to undo the
revolution and restore the Old Regime
 In contrast, some Parisian workers wanted the Revolution to bring even
greater changes to France; they were called sans-culottes or “those
without knee-breeches
 These people wore regular trousers, unlike the upper class
VII. War and Execution
 Monarchs and nobles from other countries watched the changes taking place
in France with alarm
 Feared that similar revolts might break out in their own countries
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Some radicals wanted to spread these revolutionary ideas throughout
Europe
 Some countries took action
 Austria and Prussia, for example, urged the French to restore Louis to his
position as absolute monarch
 Legislative Assembly responded by declaring war in April 1792
f) France at War
 By summer of 1792, Prussian forces were advancing on Paris
 The Prussian commander threatened to destroy Paris if the
revolutionaries harmed any member of the royal family
 Enraged by this, 20,000 Parisians on August 10, invaded the Tuileries
(palace).
 The mob massacred the royal guard and imprisoned Louis, Marie
Antoinette, and their children
 French troops that were defending Paris were sent to reinforce the
French army in the field
 Due to rumors spreading that imprisoned citizens were planning to break
out and support the king, people began to take the law into their own
hands
 For several days in September, prisons were raided and 1,000 prisoners
were murdered; royalist sympathizers were victims during these
September Massacres
 Under pressure from the Radicals, the Legislative Assembly set aside the
Constitution of 1791
 It declared the king deposed, dissolved the assembly, and called for the
election of a new legislature
 The National Convention took office on September 21
 It quickly abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic;
adult, male citizens were given the right to vote
g) Jacobins Take Control
 Most governmental changes that took place in September 1792 came
from members of a radical political organization, the Jacobin Club
 One prominent Jacobin, Jean-Paul Marat, edited a newspaper called
L’Ami du Peuple (Friend of the People)
 In many editorials, Marat called for the death of all those who continued
to support the king
 Georges Danton, a lawyer, was also known for his devotion to the rights
of Paris’s poor people
 The National Convention has reduced Louis XVI from that of king to that
of a common citizen and prisoner
 Now guided by the radical Jacobins, it tried Louis for treason.
 Found guilty, the Convention sentenced him to death
 On January 21, 1793, the former king was beheaded by the guillotine
h) The War Continues
 When the Convention took office, the French army won a stunning victory
against the Austrians and the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy
 When Great Britain, Holland, and Spain joined forces with Austria and
Prussia, a draft was ordered by the National Convention; 300,000 French
between the age of 18-40 were ordered to fight
 In 1794, the army had grown to 800,000 and included women
VIII. The Terror Grips France
 Besides foreign enemies, the Jacobins had thousands of enemies within
France itself
 These included peasants who were horrified by the king’s execution, priests
who would not accept government control, and rival leaders who were
stirring up rebellion in the provinces
 How to contain these problems became a central issue
i) Robespierre Assumes Control
 In early 1793, one Jacobin leader, Maximilien Robespierre, slowly gained
power.
 Robespierre and his supporters set out to build a “republic of virtue” by
wiping out traces of France’s past
 They changed the calendar, dividing the year into 12 months of 30 days
and renaming each month; calendar had no Sundays—considered
religion old fashioned and dangerous
 Closed all churches in Paris; cities and towns in France eventually did the
same
 July 1793, Robespierre became leader of the Committee of Public Safety
 Governed France virtually as a dictator
 His period of rule was known as the Reign of Terror
 The main task of the Committee was to protect the Revolution from its
enemies
 “Enemies” were often tried in the morning and guillotined in the
afternoon
 Robespierre justified his use of terror by suggesting that it enabled
French citizens to remain true to the ideals of the Revolution
 Enemies of the Revolution were often radicals who challenged
Robespierre’s leadership
 In 1793 and 1794, many of those who had led the Revolution received
death sentences
 Their only crime was that they were considered less radical than
Robespierre.
 By early 1794, Georges Danton found himself in danger
 Danton’s own friends in the National Convention were afraid to defend
him and actually joined in condemning him.
 Told the executioner, “Don’t forget to show my head to the people, it’s
well worth seeing.”
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Besides Danton and Marie Antoinette, thousands of unknown people
were sent to their deaths, often on the flimsiest of charges
 An 18 year old boy was sentenced to death for chopping down a tree that
had been planted as a symbol of liberty.
 As many as 40,000 people were executed during “The Terror”
 About 85% of those were peasants and urban workers for whom the
Revolution was started
IX. End of the Terror
 In July 1794, fearing for their own safety, members of the National
Convention turned against Robespierre.
 They demanded his arrest and execution
 His Reign of Terror ended on July 28, 1794, when Robespierre was sent to
the guillotine
 French public opinion shifted greatly after Robespierre’s death.
 People had grown weary of the Terror
 Tired of skyrocketing prices for bread, salt and other necessities of life
 In 1795, moderate leaders in the National Convention drafted a new plan of
government; the third since 1789
 Power was placed firmly in the hands of the upper class and called for a twohouse legislature and an executive body of 5 men known as the directory
 They were moderates, not revolutionary idealists; some were corrupt and
became wealthy at the country’s expense
 Did provide order to France; Napoleon Bonaparte chosen to command
France’s army