A Revolution in Politics:
The Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon - Chapter 19
In this chapter, students will focus on:
1. The causes and results of the American Revolution, and its impact on Europe
2. The long-range and immediate causes of the French Revolution
3. The main events of the French Revolution between 1789 and 1799
4. The role of Lawyers, peasants, women, the clergy, the Jacobins, the sans-culottes, the French
Revolutionary Army, and the Committee of Public Safety in the French Revolution
5. The aspects of the Revolution preserved by Napoleon, and those he destroyed
6. The similarities and differences between the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the English revolution of the seventeenth century
I. The American Revolution
A. Reorganization, Resistance, and Rebellion
1. Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War
B.
2.
3.
4.
5.
50% of adult male population can vote
Indirect political representation in England
“No taxation without representation”
Boston Tea Party
War for Independence
1. Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
4.
5.
Battle of Yorktown, 1781
Peace of Paris, 1782
II. The American Revolution (cont.)
A.
B.
2.
3.
Forming a New Nation
1.
2.
Articles of Confederation, 1781-1789
Constitution, 1789
1.
2.
Declaration of Independence, 1776
Battle of Saratoga, 1777
a. Commitment of European aid
a. Bill of Rights, 1791
Impact of the American Revolution on Europe
Concept of freedom
Concept of rights
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A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
III. Background to the French Revolution
1. Social Structure of the Old Regime a. First and Second Estates
(1)
(2)
First Estate = clergy (130,000)
Second Estate = nobility (350,000)
2. The Third Estate
a.
b.
c.
Commoners
(1) Peasants = 75-80% of the population
(2) Peasants own 35-40% of the land
Skilled artisans shopkeepers, and wage earners
Bourgeoisie (middle class)
(1)
(2)
Own 20-25% of the land
Similarities between wealthier bourgeoisie and nobility
IV. Other Problems Facing the French Monarchy
Bad Harvests (1787 and 1788)
Poverty
1.
1.
Failure to Reform
1.
Financial Crisis
1.
2.
3.
One-third of the population was poor
Ideas of the Philosophes
Criticism of privileges of the clergy and nobility
Obstruction of reform by the French Parlements
Mounting debt
Calonne’s “assembly of notables” (1787)
Summoning of the Estates General (1789)
V. National Assembly
A.
B.
300 delegates each to the First and Second Estate
600 delegates to the Third Estate
C.
D.
E.
1. Strong legal and urban presence
Cahiers de doleances
Estates General meets May 5, 1789
1.
2.
Question of voting by order or head
Abbe Sieyes “What is the Third Estate?”
National Assembly
B.
C.
F.
1.
2.
Constituted, June 17
Tennis Court Oath, June 20
Intervention of the Common People
1.
2.
3.
Attack on the Bastille, July 14
Peasant rebellions, July 19-August 3
Great Fear
VI. Destruction of the Old Regime
A. Seigneurial rights abolished, August 4, 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
1.
2.
3.
August 26
Does this include women?
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female
Citizen, 1791
The women’s March to Versailles
1.
2.
October 5, 1789
Return of the king to Paris
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A.
B.
C.
D.
D.
E.
F.
The Catholic Church
1. Civil Constitution of the Clergy, July, 1790
A New Constitution
1. Establishment of a constitutional monarchy with real power residing in the
Legislative Assembly
2. Administrative restructuring
Opposition from Within
1. Growth of opposition to new order
a.
b.
c.
Clergy
Peasants
Radical political clubs
G.
2.
3.
(1) Jacobins
Continuing financial pressure
Composition of Legislative Assembly
Opposition from Abroad
1.
2.
Declaration of Pillnitz (1791)
Declaration of war on Austria, April 20, 1792
3. Early course of the war
VII. The Radical Revolution
National Convention, September, 1792
1.
2.
2.
3.
Universal male suffrage
Abolition of the monarchy, September 21
Domestic Crisis
1. Factions
a. Girondins
b. The Mountain
Execution of Louis XVI, January 21, 1793
Counterrevolution
Foreign Crisis
1. Military losses
A Nation in Arms
1. Mobilization of the nation
VIII. The Reign of Terror & Its Aftermath
A. Committee of Public Safety and Reign of Terror
1.
2.
July 1793-July 1794
Vendee
B. “Republic Virtue”
1.
2.
Price controls
Women
C. Dechristianization and a New Calendar
1. New Calendar
D. Equality and Slavery
1. Revolt in Saint Dominigue
E. Decline of the Committee of Public Safety
1. Execution of Maximilien Robespierre, July 28, 1794
IX. Reaction and the Directory
A.
B.
Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory
Curtails much of the Terror’s policies
C.
D.
Conservative turn of the Revolution
Constitution of 1795
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1.
2.
Five persons Directory
Period of stagnation
X. Age of Napoleon
A. Rise of Napoleon
1. Born in Corsica, 1769
2.
3.
4.
Commissioned a lieutenant, 1785
Promoted to brigadier general, 1794
Victory in Italy, 1797
5.
6.
Defeat in Egypt, 1799
Coup d’etat
XI. The Republic and the Empire
A.
B.
Republic of France proclaimed, 1799
1.
2.
First Consul
First Consul for life, 1802
3.
Domestic Policies of Emperor Napoleon
1.
2.
Crowned Emperor Napoleon I, 1804
Napoleon and the Catholic Church
a. Concordat of 1801
A New Code of Laws
3.
a.
a.
Code Napoleon (Civil Code)
The French Bureaucracy
Centralization of administration
4. Growing despotism
XII. Napoleon’s Empire and the European Response
A. Peace of Amiens, 1802
B.
C.
D.
Renewal of war, 1803
Military victories, 1805-1807
Napoleon’s Grand Empire
1. Failure of the Grand Empire
a. Problems: Great Britain and Nationalism
(1)
(2)
(3)
Survival of Britain
Seapower
Continental System, 1806-1807
XIII. The Fall of Napoleon
(4) Nationalism
A. Invasion of Russia, 1812
B. Defeat of Napoleon, April, 1814
C. Exiled to Elba
D. Escape, 1815
E. Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815
F. Exiled to St. Helena
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An era of revolutions began with the American Revolution, justified ideologically by Locke’s social contract and natural rights philosophy. The Constitution of 1787, with its Bill of Rights, provided a strong central government with a separation of power between the three branches. Its affect in Europe was immense: Enlightenment ideals could become reality.
But there were other causes for the French Revolution, such as the legal inequality of the three Estates of the clergy, the aristocracy, and commoners, who were the vast majority. In 1788, the government, facing financial collapse, summoned the Estates-General for the first time since
1614. Assembling at Versailles in May 1789, it deadlocked whether to vote as estates or by head.
The Third Estate proclaimed itself the National Assembly, an illegal act which Louis XVI failed to repress, in part because of rural and urban uprisings, notably the capture of the Bastille prison in
Paris on July 14. In August, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen with its natural rights philosophy, and in October, the women of Paris walked to Versailles and forced the king to accompany them back to the city.
The constitution of 1791 subordinated the monarch to the Legislative Assembly. All were citizens, but only citizens who paid taxes had the vote. The Lands of the Catholic Church were nationalized and the church placed under civil control. The regime faced opposition from the church, some aristocrats, and conservatives in general, but also from those who demanded even more revolution, such as the Jacobins. Louis’ fellow European monarchs were also opposed, and the result was war in April 1792. In reaction to early military defeats, the revolution entered into a more radical stage, abetted by the Paris Commune of artisans and merchants. A republic was proclaimed and the ex-king, Louis XVI, was executed in January 1793.
To meet the domestic and foreign threats, the Committee of Public Safety was given dictatorial power. Under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, it raised an army motivated by national patriotism rather than dynastic loyalties. Revolutionary courts were created to ferret out those not sufficiently supportive of the revolution, and 50,000 were executed during “the Terror.”
Price controls were placed upon food and other necessary items and slavery was abolished. Notre
Dame Cathedral was designated the Temple of Reason and a new revolutionary calendar was adopted eliminating Sundays and church holidays. But in July 1794, the National Convention turned against Robespierre, who was quickly executed. A new government headed by a fivemember Directory was established which satisfied neither the radicals nor the royalists, and in
1799, the Directory was overthrown and the Consulate established.
An outsider from Corsica, revolution and war gave Napoleon Bonaparte his opportunity. A controversial figure, he was more the enlightened despot than the democratic revolutionary. He made peace with the papacy on his terms, and his Civil Code guaranteed equality, though less so for women. In 1804, he crowned himself Emperor. His armies conquered much of the continent but his empire did not last. Great Britain remained undefeated and French armies on the continent bred nationalistic reactions in many of the conquered areas. In June 1812, he invaded Russia with
600,000 troops, but ultimately the French were forced to retreat. National revolts, a reaction to
French occupation armies, broke out, and Napoleon abdicated in 1814. He briefly returned to power but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and sentenced to exile on the island of
Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. His shadow hung over Europe for decades.
At the end, order had triumphed over liberty, and the victors were the propertied classes.
However, the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity inspired future generations, and the citizen nationalism created in France led to the development of modern nationalism elsewhere.
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1776 1784 1792 1800 1808 1816
France
_________ _______________
National and Legislative Assemblies Directory
__________ _____________________________________________________________________________
National Convention Age of Napoleon
____ ____ _ ___ ___
Fall of the Bastille Reign of Terror Napoleon becomes emperor of France Battle of Waterloo
America
__
American Declaration ___Ratification of the Constitution of Independence
___________________________
War for Independence
__________________________
America under the Articles of Confederation
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7

1. How revolutionary was the American War of Independence both domestically and in terms of its international heritage?
ANS:
2. What caused the French Revolution?
ANS:
3. How was France changed by the revolutionary events of 1789-1792? Who benefited the most from these changes?
ANS:
4. What explains the Reign of Terror?
ANS:
5. How did the French Revolution affect the roles of women in society? Did the Revolution and its consequences ultimately benefit or hurt female citizens? Did men win more out of this event than women? Why?
ANS:
6. Compare and contrast the French Revolution with previous revolutions in England and
America.
ANS:
7. In what ways did Napoleon’s policies repudiate the accomplishments of the French
Revolution? In what ways did his policies strengthen the accomplishments of the French
Revolution?
ANS:
8

8. Napoleon had been considered the greatest general of all time. Using examples from the text defend or refute this statement.
ANS:
9. Did Napoleon embody the Enlightenment?
ANS:
10. Which revolution—American or French—has had the greatest influence during the last two centuries and why?
ANS:
11. “Napoleon both fulfilled the ideals of the French Revolution but he also destroyed them.”
Discuss.
ANS:
12. Napoleon said that perhaps the world would have been better off if neither he nor
Rousseau had ever lived. What did he mean?
ANS:
1. July 14, 1789
ANS:
2. the Bastille
ANS:
3. July 4, 1776
9

ANS:
4. natural rights
ANS:
5. Yorktown
ANS:
6. The Constitution of 1789
ANS:
7. Bill of Rights
ANS:
8. the marquis de Lafayette
ANS:
9. First and Second Estates
ANS:
10. the taille
ANS:
11. Third Estate
ANS:
10

12. the bourgeoisie
ANS:
13. French Parlements
ANS:
14. vote by order or by head?
ANS:
15. Abbe Sieyes
ANS:
16. the National Assembly
ANS:
17. the Tennis Court Oath
ANS:
18. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
ANS:
19. Olympe de Gouges
ANS:
20. “We are bringing back the baker…”
11

ANS:
21. Civil Constitution of the Clergy
ANS:
22. the Jacobins
ANS:
23. escape to Varennes
ANS:
24. Declaration of Pillnitz
ANS:
25. Paris Commune
ANS:
26. sans-culottes
ANS:
27. Georges Danton
ANS:
28. National Convention
ANS:
12

29. Girondins and the Mountain
ANS:
30. the Vendee
ANS:
31. Committee of Public Safety
ANS:
32. Maximilien Robespierre
ANS:
33. Reign of Terror
ANS:
34. the guillotine
ANS:
35. Law of General Maximum
ANS:
36. Temple of Reason
ANS:
37. Toussaint L’Ouverture
13

ANS:
38. Thermidorean Reaction
ANS:
39. Directory
ANS:
40. Gracchus Babeuf
ANS:
41. Napoleon Bonaparte
ANS:
42. Italian and Egyptian campaigns
ANS:
43. First Consul and Emperor
ANS:
44. the Concordat
ANS:
45. the Civil Code
ANS:
14

ANS:
46. Germaine de Stael
ANS:
47. Austerlitz and Trafalgar
ANS:
48. fraternite
ANS:
49. the Grand Army
ANS:
50. Elba and Saint Helena
15

Romans 8:27 And the one who searches hearts, knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will
Romans 8:24-25 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance
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Name ___________________________Period ___________Date___________ Chapter 19
AP European History
Questions & Ideas Notes
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Name ___________________________Period ___________Date___________ Chapter 19
AP European History
Questions & Ideas Notes
18

Name ___________________________Period ___________Date___________ Chapter 19
AP European History
Questions & Ideas Notes
19

Name ___________________________Period ___________Date___________ Chapter 19
AP European History
Questions & Ideas Notes
20

21

A Revolution in Politics:
The Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon - Chapter 19
1. The causes and results of the American Revolution, and its impact on Europe
22

2. The long-range and immediate causes of the French Revolution
23

3. The main events of the French Revolution between 1789 and 1799
24

4. The role of Lawyers, peasants, women, the clergy, the Jacobins, the sans-culottes, the
French Revolutionary Army, and the Committee of Public Safety in the French Revolution
25

5. The aspects of the Revolution preserved by Napoleon, and those he destroyed
26

6. The similarities, and differences between the French Revolution, the American
Revolution and the English revolution of the seventeenth century
27

28