STAGES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION RISE AND FALL OF THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE
Long-term Causes of the French Revolution
- Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality
- Example furnished by the American Revolution
- Social and economic injustices of the Old Regime
Immediate causes of the French Revolution
- Economic crisis – famine and government debt
- Weak leadership in times of crisis
- Fundamental discontent of the Third Estate
Outbreak of Revolution, 1789 – 1791
July-September 1788 Another poor harvest results in high grain prices, rumors of
hoarding, and unrest in the cities.
January 1789
The Abbe Sieyes publishes “What is the Third Estate?”, which
claims that the Third Estate alone (everyone but the nobility and the
clergy) is the French nation. “What has it been?” he asked.
“Nothing.” – “What shall it be? Everything.”
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May 5 , 1789
Huge royal debts compel King Louis XVI to call for a meeting of
French medieval parliament, the Estates-General (Les Etats
Generals).
May 1789
The Jacobin Club is formed during the Estates-General meeting.
Initially moderate, it becomes increasingly radical as the
revolution progresses and the leaders from the Reign of Terror
emerge from it.
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June 17 , 1789
The Third Estate defects from the Estates-General; the delegates to
the Estates-General declare themselves the National Assembly
(Assemblee Nationale). A few nobles and several clergy join the
National Assembly.
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June 20 , 1789
Delegates of the Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
July 14th, 1789
Parisians, citizens of the French capital, mostly from the lower
classes, storm the Bastille, a fortress and prison in the Eleventh
Arrondissement in the city of Paris. The Bastille is a widely hated
symbol of the Ancien Regime.
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August 26 ,1789
The National Assembly ends feudalism in France and adopts the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, allegedly
written by Marie Joseph de Lafayette.
October 5th, 1789
Parisian underclass women, most of whom are working in the Paris
fish market, storm the Palace of Versailles. After Queen Marie
Antoinette makes a brave stand before the working class women,
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those women take King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette prisoner,
march them triumphantly back to Paris, and have them imprisoned
in the Tuileries Palace.
1789 – 1791
The National Assembly passes laws and reforms to set up a new
government; the intent is to establish a constitutional monarchy.
November 2nd, 1789 Church property is nationalized and otherwise expropriated.
1790
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed to bring the French
Roman Catholic Church and the clergy, the previous First Estate,
under state control; the National Assembly sells church lands.
June 20th-25th, 1791 Royal family’s flight to Varennes; upon discovery, Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette are forced to return to Paris.
September 1791
The National Assembly adopts a constitution, the first of eight
constitutions of modern France. The Constitution of 1791 limits
monarchy and creates a Legislative Assembly (unicameral system).
Radical Stage of the French Revolution, 1792 – 1794
April 20th, 1792
France declares war on Austria, the Revolutionary Wars begin.
France responds to initial defeats with general conscription (levee
en masse), military reform, total war, and having French soldiers
fight for the idea of nationalism and the ideals of the French
Revolution, which would ultimately lead to French victory over
Austrian and Prussian forces.
August 13th, 1792
The Commune seizes power; the new government grants suffrage to
all men. A Parisian mob storms the Tuileries Palace; Louis XVI of
France is arrested and taken into custody, along with the entire
royal family.
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August 19 , 1792
Lafayette flees to Austria.
September 21st, 1792 Radicals take control of the Legislative Assembly and set up a
National Convention. The National Convention, established by the
Commune, abolishes the monarchy and declares France a republic.
January 21st, 1793
Radical Republicans try King Louis XVI for treason and have
the king guillotined; this marks the end of the Bourbon dynasty,
the French monarchy, the end of French absolutism and the end of
the French feudal medieval state.
October 16th, 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is found guilty of treason and is also
publicly executed.
July 1793 -1794
The Jacobin Club has the Committee of Public Safety set up. The
leader of the radical Jacobin Club, Maximilien Robespierre,
becomes head of the Committee of Public Safety and implements
the Reign of Terror in order to rid the revolution of its enemies.
1793-1794
The Committee has at least 20,000 people executed as enemies of
the Revolution during the Reign of Terror; eventually, Robespierre
himself is guillotined as well (“The Revolution devours its
children.”).
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Immediate Effects of the French Revolution
- End of the Old Regime
- Execution of the monarchs
- War with the First Coalition of Austria and Prussia
- Reign of Terror
- Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
Return to Moderation, 1795 – 1799 –
From Directory to Napoleon Bonaparte
1795
Conservative leaders draft a new moderate constitution that creates
a new government known as the Directory, an oligarchy of five
moderate leaders of the bourgeoisie. This marks the end of the
bloodshed of the radical stage, the Reign of Terror.
1795 – 1799
Leadership under the five-man Directory is corrupt and inept; riots
are suppressed, and the nation is threatened by chaos.
November 9th, 1799 The Directory is dissolved; the fall of the Directory marks the end
of the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte helps overthrow the
Directory and assumes dictatorial powers as first Consul of the
Republic; he seizes power in a coup d’etat (strike against the state).
1800 – 1803
A plebiscite approves the fourth French constitution giving all real
power to Napoleon; Napoleon restores order.
1804
A concordat between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII is signed
recognizing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church but
maintaining government control.
1804
Legislation of the Civil Code of 1804, alternatively called the
Napoleonic Code or Code of Napoleon, thus modernizing the
Justinian Code. Two basic ideas of the Civil Code were that all men
are equal under the law (but not women) and all people have a right
to property.
Other economic, administrative and religious reforms are instituted,
such as giving equal access to French secondary schools, called
lycees, thus providing equality of opportunity and gaining support
and loyalty in the general population for Napoleon; the Napoleonic
reforms help kindle the spirit of nationalism among ordinary French
citizens.
1804
Napoleon has named himself consul for life; in 1804 he crowns
himself as the Emperor of France.
From Napoleonic Empire 1799 – 1815 to Congress of Vienna 1815
1805 – 1812
Military victories create a French empire in Europe; Napoleon’s
victories are result of a new military strategy: fast attacks, including
the use of cavalry, giving up the traditional battle order, taking
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coverage, etc.
October 21 , 1805 Napoleon’s naval fleet is defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar,
forcing him to give up plans of a British invasion.
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December 2 , 1805 Napoleon’s army crushes the joint Austro-Russian army in Moravia
at Austerlitz; the Battle of Austerlitz is regarded as Napoleon’s
greatest military victory.
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October 14 , 1806 The Prussian army, previously considered the strongest army on the
European continent, suffers a crushing defeat in the Battles of Jena
and Auerstaedt; Napoleon enters Berlin on October 27th, 1806.
1806
Napoleon dissolves the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
This First German Empire, founded by Charlemagne in 800 A.D.,
ceases to exist after 1,006 years of history. Germany falls apart and
is segmented into approximately 140 formally sovereign states.
November 1806
Napoleon decrees a blockade with the intention of preventing all
European ports to trade with Great Britain; the Continental System
is supposed to force Great Britain into submission economically,
yet it backfires on Napoleon. The Continental System helps trigger
off the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (transition to Unit
10.3.: The Industrial Revolution)
1808-1813
The Peninsular War with Spain costs many lives and weakens the
Napoleonic Empire; the Peninsular is the first guerilla war waged in
the history of modern warfare.
1812
The attempted conquest of the Russian Empire by the Grand Army
is defeated by the Russian winter (Grande Armee consisting of
650,000 soldiers, of which fewer than 10,000 men would survive
the invasion of Russia).
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October 16 French defeat in the Battle of the Nations (Voelkerschlacht bei
October 19th, 1813 Leipzig) against Prussian, Austrian, Russian, and Swedish troops
leading to Napoleon’s abdication; the Battle of the Nations is the
largest battle in European history before World War I.
1814
Napoleon is forced to give up his throne and is exiled to the Italian
island of Elba, closely located to the coast of southern France.
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June 16 , 1815
Napoleon has escaped from Elba, rules France for 100 days, and is
eventually defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium. Forces
from Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria under the
leadership of Wellington and Bluecher bring about Napoleon’s
ultimate defeat. Wellington is on the verge of defeat (“I wish it
were night, or the Prussians came.”), Marshall von Bluecher comes
to his rescue, Napoleon cannot win against both English and
Prussian troops.
June 22nd, 1815
Napoleon is forced to abdicate and is exiled to the British island of
St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he dies in 1821 at age 51.
Allegedly Napoleon is either poisoned or dies from stomach cancer.
In France, he is still revered as a national hero up to this very day;
his sarcophagus can be seen in Paris at the Dome des Invalides.
As a visionary, Napoleon wanted to create the United States of
st
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1815
Europe, however, under French domination only. Revered as a hero
by most Frenchmen, he was seen as a monster by the suppressed
peoples of Europe.
The Congress of Vienna, under the leadership of Clemens August
von Metternich, meets in the Austrian capital for almost an entire
year; it restores order and establishes a “balance of power” in
Europe. All of the old rulers from the days prior to the French
Revolution are restored to their thrones; ideas of nationalism,
republicanism, and democracy will be suppressed on the European
continent for 104 more years – until after the end of World War I.
Summary:
The Congress of Vienna accomplishes four things:
1. It is primarily directed against France; it is successful in
preventing another French invasion of the European continent
from then on.
2. It establishes a balance of power among the European powers.
3. It insists on the principle of legitimacy and restores all the old
European rulers to the thrones they held before the French
Revolution.
4. It is the victory of the reaction; the idea of nationalism and the
ideals of the French Revolution will be suppressed throughout
Europe from then on.
Long-Term Effects of the French Revolution
- Conservative reaction
- Decline in French power
- Spread of Enlightenment ideas
- Growth of nationalism throughout Europe
- Rise of international organizations (such as the Congress of
Vienna, Concert of Europe, Holy Alliance)
- Revolutions in Latin America
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