A Revolution in Politics:
The Era of the French
Revolution and Napoleon

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Peace of Paris (1763) made Britain the world’s greatest colonial power, with control over Canada and lands east of the
Mississippi in North America.
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This was costly!
Brits saw their role as having defended the interests of the colonists now they had to pay up!
Stamp Act (1765) passed to get colonists to pay, but riot ensued and act was Repealed
Inevitable conflict came from 2 different views of governing the empire:
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Brits say ONE PARLIAMENT governs empire for good of Britain
Americans want autonomous representative assemblies - no taxation without representation.
 Thomas Paine Common Sense
The conflict escalated through the 1770’s
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1776 Second Continental Congress’s approval of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence , which affirmed the Enlightenment’s emphasis on the natural rights of “ life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ”
 GAME ON!

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A huge gamble for the colonists, whose resources and forces paled in comparison with the British.
Between 15-30% of the American population was comprised of loyalists as well!
Patriots had to win support – and did – among a diverse group from wealthy down to poor farmers and artisans (explained why voting privileges were broadened)
Foreign aid was also key: France eager to help out with supplies and officers to exact revenge against Brits (Who was sitting on the throne at the time?)
Defeat of Cornwallis by combined American and
French forces led to Brit surrender under Treaty of Paris 1783

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 Once independent, many Americans feared a strong central government which was seen as similar to the British overlords.
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Articles of Confederation ratified in 1781 didn’t allow for a strong central government, and sentiment grew in favor of having one
Constitution –with MANY compromises – narrowly ratified in 1788
 Bill of Rights passed as first 10 amendments to the constitution in 1789 – many of these based on work of French Philosophes

Sexy Lafayette
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Coincidence?
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1789: new United States of America solidified
1789: French Revolution erupts
Ideas of the philosophes were attainable goals that could form the basis of government
Returning French soldiers brought back ideas of popular sovereignty and republicanism as workable realities
Marquis de Lafayette
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French general who helped American revolutionaries
Lafayette became a member of the Society of
Thirty a club comprised of salon dwellers
They were instrumental in the early days of the
Revolution

I don’t like this game…
Louis, the Clergy and the nobility ride the back of the Third Estate, enslaved
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When Louis XVI took over,
France was still the most rich and influential nation in continental Europe.
French commerce and prosperity increased during course of 18th century, so what caused it?
Frustration caused by existing institutions – namely, the OLD ORDER (Ancien
regime)
Estate System
 1 ST – Church
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2 ND = Aristocracy
3 RD – Everyone else

The Three Estates – First Estate (Church)
 Population: 130k of 24 million total
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 owned 10% of the land income = half of the state’s exempt from taxes – “contributions” to state every 5 years: less than regular taxation
 control of education and censorship of the press
 enforced religious conformity when all else had religious tolerance.
 Divided
 Bishops and abbots were wealthy with political power
 priests and monks were poor and not influential

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The Three Estates – Second Estate (Aristocracy)
350k of 24 million total population
Owned 25-30% of the land
Under Louis XV and XVI, grew in strength holding key positions in government, military, courts and high church offices
The wealthiest lived at Versailles playing and enjoying leisurely activities.
Divided:
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Nobility of the Robe
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 new aristocrats rose from ranks of bourgeoisie to purchase judgeships and become nobles
Nobility of the Sword
 traced noble roots back to medieval nobility
 tried to limit ambition of the new nobles through passage of Segur Law
(1781), which limited sale of military officerships to 4th generation nobles.
Closed group – intermarried
Exempt from all direct taxation – especially the dreaded taille
(household tax based on land)

The Three Estates – Third Estate (everyone else)
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Bourgeoisie, proletariat, peasantry = roughly 96% of the population
Vastly divided
 Peasants
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75-80% of total population/Owned 35-40% of land
Over half had little or no land
Not serfs, but feudal obligations persisted
Skilled urban artisans, shopkeepers, wage earners
 Price revolution caused prices to rise faster than wages
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This meant bad times for this group
Had much to lose – just trying to survive
Revolts correspond with spike in price of bread, their main staple (1/3 to 1/2 of their diet!)
Thrown together in cities, where discontent grew – esp. Paris
Bourgeoisie or middle class
8% of total population/Owned 20-25% of land merchants, industrialists, bankers, professionals like lawyers, doctors, writers excluded from social and political privileges despite wealth and education
Several thousand at the top of this group did buy their way to aristocracy - this is significant!

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I’m
BAAAACK!
In addition to shortcomings of the
Old Order, other issues cropped up in 1780s
 Bad harvests 1787, 1788 – rising food prices
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Manufacturing depression – layoffs and unemployment
Poverty – nearly 1/3 of population!
Rousseau
 Ideas of the Philosophes
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Increasing criticism of existing privileges, social and political institutions
Literate bourgeoisie and noble elites read enlightenment texts
 During revolution, Enlightenment writers often quoted – particularly Rousseau

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French Parlements blocked reforms and royal edicts by not registering them
Louis XIV had suppressed them, but under XV and XVI they gained new strength along with their noble judges
Made “arbitrary” decisions to bolster their own position – especially the blocking of new taxes that they might have to pay!
Under Louis XIV, king could arrest and imprison at will, but under the noble-run
Parlements, commoners could not get a fair trial vs. nobility
King had ruled by decree for nearly 2 centuries – Estates General had not met in 2 centuries!

 Monarchy was weakening at hands of aristocracy
 Louis XV weak and unpopular lost 7 Years’ War
 In 1780s Louis XVI inherited a throne that was in major debt with no way to directly tax the nobility or clergy
 No effective national banking system to help organize financial matters
 Tax collection was inefficient

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Louis XVI appointed Turgot , a physiocrat friend of Voltaire’s (1774)
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He argued against mercantilism and for a more free-trade system
Called for taxing all estates and didn’t support involvement in American Revolution – very unpopular as a result
Dismissed in 2 years 
Necker (1777)
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Necker drove the government into deeper debt, borrowing to finance the war effort
He, like Turgot, wanted to expand taxation to include the first 2 estates
Was popular for trying to keep price of bread down
He was dismissed in 1781
Calonne (1783)
 Replaced taille with a general tax on ALL landowners and confiscated church lands
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Tried calling Assembly of Notables , a group of aristocrats and powerful men
Notables refuse to comply and the notables criticized him bitterly
Calonne dismissed (1787)
Brienne appointed (1787)
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Tries again to restructure taxation
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Parlement of Paris rejects his reforms
They say only Estates General can modify taxes
Louis and Brienne tried to replace the parlements with a new system that could override them
Nobles revolt; intendants refuse to act; government at standstill
Necker recalled to service in 1788, and…
Louis forced to call Estates General to meet in May 1789

What is the Third Estate?
EVERYTHING!
-Sieyes
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Early 1789 – Elections held for representatives at the
Estates General
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As a concession to 3 rd Estate,
Louis doubles their representation
Double representation for 3 rd
Estate
Each estate compiles cahiers
(ka-YAY) de doleances or grievance lists
Pamphlets circulate calling for reforms e.g. Abbe Sieyes (ca-YES) What is the Third
Estate?

 4/1789 Arrival of delegates
 Gather at Versailles with cahiers (letters of grievance)
 Almost all members (delegates) of 3rd estate were bourgeoisie
 well acquainted with Enlightenment philosophy.
 5/1789 First Formal Meeting
 Voting discrepancy
 Each estate gets 1 vote (?!)
 Third Estate demands voting by HEAD
 6/17/1789
 3rd estate along with a handful of liberal thinkers from 1st estate declares itself the “National Assembly of France”
 invites the other 2 estates to join them.

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6/20/1789 Lock out!
 3rd estate arrives at its designated meeting hall to find it locked
 They held meeting in nearby indoor tennis court and took “ Tennis Court Oath ”
 swore not to disband until France had a constitution
6/23/89 – Standoff
 King meets with all three estates and commands them to meet separately and vote in traditional manner.
 3rd estate refuses to leave the adjourned meeting
 Louis gives in 3 days later: three would meet together and vote by head
 3rd estate triumphs!

Raise da roof!
We’re not breaking this party up until we have a
CONSTITUTION!
HOLLA!
DUDE! I think it’s da pope!
Gimme 10 down low, popey-pants!

Coincidence Strengthens National Assembly
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Parisians and peasants join revolutionary spirit!
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Poor harvests led to economic hardship for both groups
National Assembly seen as a ray of hope for reform.
Riots and uprisings in Paris led King to call troops from frontier garrisons back to
Versailles
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Parisians decide to counter threat of force with force!
7/14/89 , storm Bastille , an old prison and symbol of old regime!
In countryside, riots were also occurring
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7/20-8/5/89 Great Fear ensued as peasants believed nobles hired vagrants to attack villages to protect the grain harvest peasants revolted against lords, burned tax rolls, and attacked manors thousands of nobles fled France ( émigrés ) out of fear of brigand bands designed to create havoc.

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8/4/89 National Assembly ends feudalism
 Nobles give up feudal rights and privileges
 Occurs in midst of Great Fear and flight of the nobles from France ( Night of August 4 )
8/26/89 – National Assembly proclaims
Declaration of Rights of Man and the
Citizen
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 modeled after English Bill of Rights of 1689
2 years before American Bill of Rights says all men are created free and equal, basically
Secures natural rights to liberty, property, security formally stated
Only for MEN
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen , 1791
9/89 King refuses to sign any of the August decrees

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10/1789, speeches filled the air in Versailles
A river of pamphlets and newspapers flooded Paris grain remained in short supply
10/5/89, several hundred women staged a protest against the high price of bread at the City Hall.
 news spread that royal soldiers at Versailles had desecrated the tricolored cockade to show their contempt for the National Assembly.
 As the crowd grew to approximately 10,000 women, a decision was made to march to Versailles and present their grievances to the assembly and to the
King.
10/5-6/89 – Women’s March on the Palace of Versailles
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Rugged “fish women” march 11 miles and surround palace
 With help of bourgeois National Guard, they take king and his family into
Paris
We have the baker, the baker’s wife and the little cook boy – now we shall have bread! – the fish mongers

Reforms of the National Assembly
 10/10/89 National Assembly moves to Paris
 Judicial Reforms
 no more parlement court system.
 New system of lower and higher courts established.
 Democratized system of justice.
 No more torture.
 Judges ELECTED for 6 year terms.
 Use of juries in criminal cases.
 Economic Reforms
 uphold laissez-faire doctrine and abolish guilds.
 labor unions and trade associations.
 All occupations were open to all classes.
 No internal tolls or customs.

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Reforms of the National Assembly
Religious Reforms
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 lands confiscated monasticism abolished clergy now elected by the people
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 salaries paid by the state
Bishops reduced in number and wealth
New Civil Constitution of the Clergy to guide clerics
Pope declares this heretical many bishops and majority of clergymen follow pope’s command to break from revolutionaries
First splinter of the ranks of revolutionaries
Financial Reforms
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No more unequal taxation
Taxes now based on land and profits from trade and industry
New paper money called assignats (a-seen-YA) established and backed by confiscated church lands

Reforms of the National Assembly
 Political Reforms - Constitution of 1791
 3 branches of government established – executive, judicial and legislative.
 Lawmaking given to legislative branch, a unicameral house of 745 elected officials for 2 year term.
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King could veto all but constitutional and financial bills, but
3x thru legislature could override king’s veto.
King’s budget limited by legislative assembly.
 For local government, France divided into 83 departments governed by elected local authorities.
 Voting was limited to 25 year olds and over, tax paying males, and office limited to what amounted to middle and upper class males with financial restraints.
 Bourgeoisie seemed to have the power!

Legislative Assembly
 National Assembly gives way to Legislative
Assembly 10/1791
 L.A. recently elected under new constitution
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At this point, peasants and bourgeoisie gain the most from the revolution, and many wanted to stop here
Parisians, clergy, soldiers, and aristocracy were not happy, however, and had diverse interests they wanted to see addressed
In Paris, more radical groups met to discuss the perpetuation of the Revolution
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This included Marat, Danton, and Robespierre
 They formed the core of the radical group known as the Jacobins
 This group wanted to end the monarchy and extend the Revolution

Triumph of the Radicals
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Foreign Intervention plays into the hands of radicals
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Leaders of Austria and Prussia, fearful of the spread of revolutionary ideas, made threatening moves and issued warnings to
France
Both reactionaries and revolutionaries favored international war as a means to further their own cause
Louis XVI approaches Legislative Assembly with a declaration of war, and they almost unanimously support it
With emigres gone, French troops are without officers
 Prussian and Austrian troops close in – things look bad…
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7/1791 Louis attempts to flee to Austria
(Flight to Varennes)
He is caught and suspected of treason
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Legislative Assembly imprisons Louis
8/27/1791: By Declaration of Pillnitz HRE
Leopold II and Fred Wm. II of Prussia say
European powers WILL intervene if Louis XVI is harmed.

A sans-culotte
Triumph of the Radicals
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International Conflict
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Initially, France got butts kicked
Parisians feared occupation by Austria and Prussia
Legislative Assembly calls for 20K National Guardsmen from the provinces to defend Paris
One group, from Marseilles, arrived singing a war song, soon known as the Marseillaise
As fear of defeat grew, many believed royals and even the Legislative Assembly were betraying
France
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Radical groups in Paris organized mob attacks on the Royal
Palace and Legislative Assembly and take King hostage
Demanded a National Convention based on universal male suffrage to decide future of government
Sans-Culottes (without knee britches) are among the most radical
Legislative Assembly surrenders power to these radicals, the
Paris Commune, who call for a National Convention to draw up a NEW constitution
7/25/1792: Brunswick Manifesto issued by Duke of
Brunswick, commander of allied troops (Austrian and
Prussian) says nothing will happen to the French people if the king is not harmed.

Triumph of the Radicals
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Paris Commune dominates political scene
Danton assumes emergency leadership of France during interim between governments.
He gathered recruits to send to the front and rumors spread that while they were gone their wives and children would be murdered by reactionary clergy and nobles.
Reactions to these rumors included the murder of nonjuring clergy and reactionary nobles.
For 3 weeks in 9/1972, over a thousand of these were killed.
During this time, elections for National
Convention held and reactionaries stayed away from polls in fear!
Revolutionary representatives are elected

National Convention rules France (1792-95)
 Struggle between 2 radical factions – the Girondins and the Mountain, or the
Jacobins following Danton,
Robespierre and Marat.
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They became the new right and left, respectively (originally based on seat positioning on right and left of speaker which incidentally corresponded with conservative and liberal).
National Convention’s
Accomplishments:
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 declaring France a republic deposing the King and beheading him (and later Marie Antoinette) halting the Prussian and Austrian armies by
9/1792
They even took offensive and took over
Austrian Netherlands!

National Convention rules France (1792-95)
 Almost all of Europe joined Austria and Prussia against France now.
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This was too much for French forces to take.
Many of the 83 departments rebelled against the National Convention, and invited other nations to overrun the
French government the Girondins were often sympathetic to their beliefs while Mountain turned to the
Paris government, or the Paris
Commune for support - particularly to the radical sans-culottes
With urging of the sans culottes,
National Convention voted for the expulsion and arrest of 29 Girondin leaders to effectively get rid of the opposition in the convention.
Thus, the leaders of the mountain inaugurated the “ reign of terror ” against political enemies.

Spinning Out of Control…
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National Convention delegates unlimited powers to newly formed
Committee of Public Safety, comprised of 12 men working in secret.
Robespierre was the leader
 At its call was the Committee of
General Security, a national police force.
 A Revolutionary Tribunal was set up to try, condemn and execute political dissidents.
 Perhaps half a million were imprisoned and 25k killed during reign of terror.
All rebellion was effectively quelled – the Vendee Rebellion , quite brutally

 Defense of the Republic was in hands of Lazare Carnot .
 A levee en masse was ordered to get all men, women and children to contribute to the war effort
 it was first national patriotic endeavor in history
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“liberty, equality, fraternity!”
Nationalism!
 1794 Tricolor officially designated the flag of France

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Price maximums set
New measures allowed peasants to more easily acquire land
Louvre Palace made into an art museum
National library and archives established
New fashions replaced old regime ones, titles abandoned and replaced with citizen.
New calendar created with year one beginning at 9/22/1792, declaration of the republic.
Jacobins still rejected women’s participation in politics
Supreme Being replaces
Christianity

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People grew discontent with Robespierre
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Terror was intensified.
Danton advised moderation, and Robespierre sent him to the guillotine!
Finally, the National Convention got enough courage to send Robespierre to the guillotine himself!
7/27/1794, Robespierre overthrown.
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This was 9 Thermidor in the new calendar, so this was termed the Thermidorian Reaction.
The propertied bourgeoisie, who had been silenced by Robespierre’s harsh regime, stepped up and took over.
The Terror ended and all chief terrorists were executed.
Armed bands of soldiers hired by bourgeoisie killed off many Jacobins.
White Terror ensues

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After Robespierre’s downfall…
 Power of Committee of Public Safety curtailed
 Jacobin club shut down
 Churches allowed to reopen
 Laissez faire economic system returns
 1795: National Convention finally got around to task of drawing up a new constitution
 More conservative in flavor than Constitution of 1791
 Only property owners could vote for legislators
 Executive powers were given to 5 Directors
 10/1795: National Convention turns over power to new government, known as the Directory

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1795-1799 Directory struggled to control government
Under Directory, things returned to practices of Old Order
Directory faced opposition on both sides
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Royalists longed for restoration of monarchy
Jacobins on left searched for opportunity to take control
Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals (1796)
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Aimed to provoke an armed uprising of the plebeian masses against the bourgeois regime of the Directory and establish a revolutionary dictatorship as a transitional stage to “pure democracy” and “egalitarian communism.”
The conspiracy was disclosed in May 1796.
At the end of May 1797 its leaders were executed.

 Elections in 1797 led to more uncertainty as economy tanked and war dragged.
 The Directory had to rely increasingly on the military to keep civil peace
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People of France wanted order after years of turmoil
Triggered coup d’etat that brought Napoleon to power in 1799

 Hailed from Corsica , which was recently annexed by the French
 From minor noble family
 Disliked by his classmates for his height, his Italian accent and his lack of money
 Military background

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1792: made a captain and in only one year was named brigadier general for his skill w/artillery
1795: at the age of 26 he saved
National Convention from Parisian mob
1796: made commander of French army in Italy
1797: returned to France as a conquering hero
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Given command of force training to invade
England
Invaded Egypt and India to cut off
England’s supply
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 abandoned his troops to return to Paris coup d’etat of unpopular Directory in
1799

Young Napoleon and the
Egypt Campaign

Hmpf!
 1799: After coup, Republic of France ( Consulate ) proclaimed - new constitution
 Bicameral Legislture
 Executive power in hands of three consuls
 Elected First Consul
 Article 42
 1802: First Consul for life
 1804 Crowns himself
Emperor Napoleon I

Emperor Napoleon I - Meaning of Images?
Napoleon
“shocker”

 Napoleon claimed to have preserved the
Revolution - did he?
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Napoleon and Concordat of 1801
Code Napoleon or Civil Code
 Preserved some Enlightenment principles
 Curtailed rights of women
 State bureaucracy prefects
 Taxation
 Meritocracy?
 Depotism?
 Censorship
 Germaine de Stael

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When Napoleon took power in 1799, France was battling a coalition that included Russia, Britain and Austria
Initially, Napoleon brought peace to France in 1802, but the peace did not last
By 1803, Napoleon was fighting a new coalition of Britain,
Austria and Russia
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Battle of Ulm 1805
Austerlitz
Prussia entered coalition when Napoleon began reorganizing German states
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Jena and Auerstadt 10/1806
Eylau and Friedland in 1807
Napoleon had defeated all the Continental members of the coalition, and moved to create a new European order

Napoleon’s Grand Empire
By 1810, France was an empire whose boundaries had absorbed many small states to its east. Other states were
French allies or dependencies.
In all of Europe only Britain, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, and the Ottoman
Empire remained independent.
Napoleon’s domination of Europe rivaled Charlemagne’s and ancient Rome’s.

 Required obedience, but also instituted
Enlightened practices
 Attempted to destroy the Old Order in the inner core of his empire and all dependent states
 Appointed family members to administer acquired states

 Great Britain
 Naval power
 Combined with Spanish -
Trafalgar off Iberian coast in
1805
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Napoleon’s continental system
 Spread of Nationalism ( fraternite )
 Johann Gottlieb Fichte and German nationalism
 Baron Heinrich von Stein and
Prince Karl von Hardenberg in
Prussia

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Russia defected from Continental
System, forcing Napoleon to invade in
1812
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600K French troops entered Russia
Russian troops retreated torching everything
Battle at Borodino - slim but costly victory
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Moscow set ablaze only 40K troops made it back to Poland
1/1813
 Starvation, desertion, typhus, and suicide cost more men than battle!
Russian defeat triggered a war of liberation across Europe
Napoleon’s defeat 4/1814 and subsequent exile to Elba off Tuscan coast
Louis XVIII , brother of executed Bourbon king, was restored

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King Louis XVIII was unpopular, however…
Napoleon got word of this and staged his comeback, escaping form Elba
His return to Paris in March
1815 triggered the “ Hundred
Days ”
 Combined force of British and
Prussian troops at Waterloo
6/18/1815
 Duke of Wellington
 Exiled to St. Helena , dying there in 1821

 What role did the Enlightenment play in the
American and French revolutions?
 After becoming a constitutional monarch, how did
Louis XVI’s actions affect the French revolution?
 Compare the urban and rural revolutions in France.
 How did nationalism affect the French Revolution?
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What changes in society were brought about by the
French Revolution?
Examine Napoleon’s rise to power. What lasting changes did his reign have on Europe?

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American Revolution
French Revolution
Estates-General
Louis XVI
Reign of Terror
Robespierre
Napoleonic Code
Duke of Wellington