 This was the date when a Parisian mob of 8000 people
stormed the Bastille, a royal armory filled with
ammunitions and weapons. It was defended by the
Marquis de Launay and a small garrison of men of 114
men. Only 98 of the mob members died.
 The second continental congress approved a
Declaration of Independence. With this the war for
American independence had formally begun.
 The writer Thomas Jefferson used the idea of natural
rights in his writing. This was the idea of “life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.”
 This was the city where General Cornwallis, in 1781,
was forced to surrender by a joint army of American
and French, and supported by the French naval fleet.
 The British decided to call it quits after this surrender.
 These were the 12 amendments that were proposed to
the Congress. The 10 the were approved were called the
Bill of Rights.
 It granted freedom of religion, speech, press, petition,
assembly, the right to bear arms, protection from
unreasonable searches and arrests, trial by jury, due
process of law, and protection of property and rights.
 He served in the American revolution and was closely
associated with George Washington.
 He returned to France with ideas of individual liberties
and notions of republicanism and popular sovereignty.
 He became a member of the Society of Thirty, a club
composed of people from the Paris salons. They were
influential in the early stages of the French Revolution
 The 1st Estate was the group of French people who were
the clergy. They numbered about 130,000 people and
they owned about 10% of the land. They were
exempted from the tallie (the French chief tax).
However, they did have to pay a “voluntary”
contribution every five years to the state
 This was composed of the nobility. They numbered no
more than 350,000 people and they owned about 25%30% of the land. They were also exempted from the
tallie.
 Most had leading positions in the government,
military, the law courts and higher church offices.
 They controlled much of the industry by either
investment or ownership.
 This was everyone else in France. They were divided by
vast differences in occupation, level of education, and
wealth. It was about 90% of the total population in
France, but they held very little land.
 It also included the Bourgeoisie. They were about 8%
or 23 million people. They were the middle class and
owned about 20%-25% of the land. They included
merchants, industrialists, bankers, finance, and any
other professional people.
 They were run by the leaders of the three Estates. They
were responsible for registering the royal decrees. The
13 law courts could block royal edicts by not registering
them.
 Louis the fourteenth forced them into submission but
they gained new strength in the 18th century
 Their noble judges assumed the role of defenders of
“liberty”. As noble defenders they often pushed their
own interests, especially blocking new taxes.
 This was pushed by the 3rd Estate because the 1st and
2nd Estate always voted together, so therefore the 3rd
Estate would always lose.
 This would have the decisions by the number of people
voted for it. This would help the 3rd Estate make the
laws more fair.
 He issued a pamphlet in which he asked, “What is the
third Estate. Everything what has it been thus far in
political order? Nothing. What does it demand? To
become something.”
 It consisted of representatives of the three orders of
French society. The government decided to vote by
order by head. It opened at Versailles on May 5th, 1789.
 With the new order of voting by order by head, the
nobles advocated voting by order according to the
form used in 1614. each order would vote separately;
each would have veto power over the other two, thus
guaranteeing aristocratic control over reforms.
 On June 17th, 1789 the 3rd Estate voted to make itself
the National Assembly decided to draw up the
constitution. Three days later on June 20th, the
deputies of the 3rd Estate arrived at the meeting place
to find locked doors.
 It was sworn in the tennis courts of Versailles. It said
that they would meet until they produced a French
Constitution.
 It was signed on August 26th. It reflected many of the
same rights as the Declaration of Independence. It
said that people had “liberty, property, security and
resistance to oppression.”
 It ended exemptions from taxes, it gave freedom, it
gave equal rights for all men, and access to public
office based on talent
 She was a playwright and pamphleteer, who refused to
accept the exclusion of women from political rights.
She penned a Declaration of Rights of Women and the
Female Citizenship in which she insisted that women
should have the same rights as men
 The National Assembly simply ignored her demands
 This was when the women of France marched into
Versailles and demanded bread from the King.
 On October 6th he complied and sent wagons filled
with flour from the palace. All were escorted by
women armed with spikes that were singing, “We are
bringing back the baker, the baker’s wife, and the
baker’s son.
 After this the king lost almost all of his power and was
a prisoner in Paris.
 In 1790 this was written and it said that all bishops and
priests of the Catholic Church were to be elected by
the people and paid by the state. All clergy were also
forced to take an oath to the constitution. Since the
Pope forbade this only 54% of the clergy took the oath.
 This was a critical development because the Church
was still an important part of the French people’s life.
It aroused counterrevolutionary ideas a popular base
from which to operate.
 They were the radical deputies of the French
Revolution, especially during the events of the night of
August 4th 1789.
 After October of 1789, they occupied the former
Jacobin convent in Paris. Clubs formed in the
provinces (mainly as discussion groups). They
eventually joined together in an extensive
correspondence network and by the 1790s they were
seeking affiliation with the Parisian club. 1 year later
there were 900 clubs.
 King Louis tried to flee with his family to Austria in
1791. He was recognized at Varennes when he went to
pay the owner of the inn for lunch. Since his picture
was on the money he was recognized and sent back to
Paris. This led to a desecrated and seemingly disloyal
monarchy.
 On August 27th, 1791, Emperor Leopold the 2nd of
Austria and King Fredrick William the 2nd of Prussia
issued this.
 It invited other European monarchs to strengthen the
French King, perfect their liberty, and put an end to
Revolution in France.
 Other nations were to suspicious of each other to join.
 On August 20th, 1792 France declares war on Austria.
Some hoped this new war would defeat the Revolution
and rebuild he old regime. Other hoped it would
consolidate the Revolution.
 The French fared badly in the initial fighting. Cries at
Paris were heard that the King has betrayed them,
along with the generals, and that no on could be
trusted.
 This led to radical groups declaring themselves an
insurrectionary commune and attack the royal palace.
They took the King prisoner in August of 1792.
 They forced the Legislation to suspend the monarchy
and call for a national convention.
 He leaders of this would be decided by the basis of
universal male suffrage, to decide on the future form of
the government.
 It came before the National Convention happened.
 It was led by Georges Danton. The sans-culottes
(ordinary patriots without fine clothes. Mostly the
working people or the poor) sought revenge on the
people who aided the king. Thousands of traitorous
arrests were made and then massacred.
 In September of 1792 the newly elected National
Convention began. It was only called to draft a new
constitution, it also acted as the sovereign ruling body
of France.
 It was largely dominated by lawyers, professionals,
property owners, and a handful of artisans.
 All were distrustful of the monarchy so one of their
first steps were on September 21 was to abolish the
monarchy and set up a republic.
 The fate of the King was split into two groups: the
Girondins and the Mountain.
 Both were part of the Jacobin clubs.
 The Girondins feared the radical mobs forming in
Paris.
 The Mountain won in 1793. they had the king executed
by the Guillotine.
 In June of 1793 they had the leading Girondins killed,
thus leaving the Mountain in control of the
Convention.
 This was the department of the National Convention
that was led by the peasants.
 They revolted against the new military draft. This was
the Vendee rebellion.
 “Long live the King and our good priests,” this was
their counterrevolutionary appeal.
 They were given broad powers of execution by the
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government.
It was initially dominated by Georges Danton.
Maximilien Robespierre soon become one of its most
important members
On August 23rd, 1793 they declared a universal
mobilization of the nation.
This new Republic's army was now able to push the
allies back across the Rhineland and even conquered
the Austrian Netherlands.
 This was lead by the Committee of Public Safety.
 The victims of this movement ranged from royalists to
former revolutionary Girondins, and even included
thousands of peasants. Many of the victims were the
people who opposed the radical ideas of the
sans-culottes. In nine months over 16,000 people died
with the use of the Guillotine. When the guillotine
proved to slow they would use cannons or grape shot
to blow condemned men into open graves
 Most of the killings took place in cities like Vendee,
Lyons, and Marseilles.
 It established price controls on goods declared of first
necessity, ranging from food and drink to fuel and
clothing.
 The controls failed to work well because the
government lacked the machinery to enforce them.
 The cathedral in Paris, Notre Dame, was designated
the Temple of Reason.
 In November of 1793, a public ceremony to dedicated it
to the worship of reason was held there.
 The dechristianization of France made more enemies
then friends.
 Robespierre had become a dominant figure was highly
corrupted.
 Members of the National Convention were now eager
to destroy him. They eventually gathered enough votes
to condemn him.
 On July 28th, 1794 he was guillotined.
 In 1791 black slaves on the French sugar colony of Saint
Domingue (the western third of the island of
Hispaniola) revolted against their plantation owners.
The plantation owners retaliated with equal brutality.
 The leadership of the revolt was taken over by
Toussaint L’Ouverture. They seized control of all of the
island of Hispaniola by 1801.
 Napoleon reinstated slavery there in 1802 and sent an
army that captured Toussaint L’Ouverture, who died in
a French dungeon within a year.
 With French solders weakened by disease soon
succumbed to slave forces.
 On January 1st, 1804 the western part of Hispaniola,
now called Haiti, announced its freedom and became
the first independent state in Latin America.
 This happened after Robspierre’s execution.
 The National Convention shut down the Jacobin club,
took power from the Committee of Public Safety, tried
to offer better protection from Parisian mobs,
churches could reopen, and a decree of February 21st,
1795 gave freedom of worship to all cults.
 Economic regulation was dropped for laissez-faire
economics and a new constitution was written in 1795.
 The council of 500 function was to initiate legislation.
 The Council of Elders consisted of 250 people. They
were married or widowed members over the age of
forty, which accepted or rejected
 These were the two chambers of legislation put in
place in the new constitution.
 It was an era of stagnation, corruption, and graft.
 People had to deal with political enemies on both sids of
the spectrum. Royalists wanted the monarchy and the
Jacobins hopes were revived by the economic problems.
 Gracchus Babeuf was appalled at the misery of the
common people. He wanted to abolish private property
and eliminate private enterprise. His Conspiracy of Equals
was crushed in 1796 and he was executed in 1797.
 With the Directory unable to control the country relied
more and more on the military. This led to a cout d'état in
1799 which was successfully led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
 He was born in Corsica in 1769.
 He obtained a military scholarship. his military education
led him to his commission in 1785 as a lieutenant. He was
disliked by his fellow officers because he was short, had a
Italian accent, and had little money.
 He quickly rose through the ranks and by the time he was
26 he was already a major general.
 His Italian campaign was successful. He won the
confidence of his men by his energy, charm, and ability to
comprehend complex issues quickly and make decisions
rapidly. In 1797 he returned to France a hero and was given
command of an army training to invade England.
 He believed that they weren’t ready to attack England so he
decided to attack Egypt (a major source of money for
England). Since England had control over the seas they cut
off his supplies in 1799. he didn’t hesitate to abandon his
troops and return to Paris where he took part in the cout
d'état that led to his virtual dictatorship of France.
 He started with 1st Consul where he had complete
control over the executive authority of government
and had overwhelming influence over legislature. He
controlled the army and foreign affairs.
 In 1802 he made himself 1st Consul for life
 In 1804 he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I.
 This was to make the Pope happy.
 It gave him power to dispose of French bishops, but
France could nominate them. This gave the Pope little
real power. it also let them hold and gain processions
and open seminaries.
 Catholicism wasn’t made the state’s official religion
and the clergy men would be paid by the state but so
were Protestant clergymen.
 It recognized the principle of the equality of all
citizens before the law, the right of individuals to
chose their professions, religious toleration, and
abolishment to serfdom and feudalism. It also largely
changed the rules for divorce, children’s rights, and
adulatory.
 Wherever Napoleon went so did his code.
 She refused to accept Napoleon’s gaining despotism.
 She wrote novels about Napoleon that denounced his
rule as tyrannical.
 He banned her books and exiled her to the German
States, where she continued to write. After Napoleon’s
downfall, she returned to die two years later.
 At Austerlitz, Russian and Austrian forces gathered to
fight Napoleon. He crushed their joined forces. Thus
in 1805 he made them become his ally.
 At Trafalgar he took his fleet to England to attack
them. The English found out about this attack and
sent them to meet them at Trafalgar where they split
up the French fleet and devastated them.
 It had 600,000 men.
 In July of 1812 Napoleon entered Russia. The Russians
refused to fight. At Borodino, the Russians fought and
lost. When Napoleon’s lasting forces made it to
Moscow they found the city in flames. Lacking food
and supplies he made the “Great Escape” in late
October. Only forty thousand soldiers made it back to
Poland in 1813.
 This military defeat led to a war of liberation all over
Europe and Napoleon’s defeat in April 1814.
 After Napoleon’s defeat he was exiled here off the coast
of Tuscany. He made it off the island on a fishing boat.
 He was met with an army when he tried to return to
Paris. He opened his coat and addressed them saying,
“I am your Emperor, if there is any man among you
would kill your Emperor, here I am!” No one shot at
him. They only shouted, “Vive l’Empereur!”
 He returned to Paris in April 1814.
 He took control of France again and raised a new army.
 This is where he met the forces of Britain and Prussia.
They were under the command of duke of Wellington
and suffered a bloody defeat.
 This time they exiled him to the island of Saint
Helena, a small forsaken island in the south Atlantic.