French Revolution
Liberty and Equality
• Political revolutionaries were fueled by the
ideas of liberty and equality
• Liberty was a call for human rights
Liberals protested governmental controls:
a) an end to censorship
b) freedom of religion
c) freedom of speech and expression
• Equality meant all citizens were equal with
the nobility having no extra rights
• It was call for a new kind of government
• People were sovereign
• Liberals believed that men and women
were not equal. Women should not have
the same rights
• People were not economically equal
• Classic liberalism reflected the
Enlightenment
a) human dignity
b) human happiness
• Attracted the well-educated and rich
• Representative government did not mean
democracy - because those who could
vote would own property
• Liberalism lacked popular support:
i) comfortable Liberals did not have to worry
about food
ii) traditional practices and institutions that the
Liberals wanted to abolish were important to
the peasants
• French Revolution was a direct consequence of
the American Revolution, but it was more
radical and more controversial.
• It opened a new era of politics
• Chateaubriand, “The patricians began
the Revolution, the plebeians finished it”
Louis XVI
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Old Regime (ancien regime)
Absolute monarch
Weak monarch
Most of the debt held by the
nobles
Marie Antionette
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Wife of Louis
Sister of Austrian King Leopold II
Older
“Give them cake”
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
The Estates General
• 25 million people divided into 3 Estates
• First Estate - Clergy - 300 seats
• Divided into:
a) upper -bishops and abbots - sold offices usually wealthy
b) lower - priests - usually poor
• i) 10% of land
ii) paid “voluntary tax once every five
years”
iii) Could levy a 10% tithe on landowners
• Second Estate - Nobility- 300 seats
• Nobility of the Sword - lineage
• Nobility of the Robe - appointed offices
i) 400,000 noblemen
ii) owned 25% of land
iii) labor dues (corvee)
iv) could tax peasants for privileges, i.e.
wine press or mill.
v) supported the philosophes - but
criticized by them
vii) wanted a constitutional monarchy to
limit the king
• Third Estate - The rest - 600 seats
i) The peasants, Middle Class,
Urban workers
ii) some commoners were educated and
rich - bourgeoisie
iii) they wanted status which was not
recognized through wealth
iv) felt frustration with the second estate
v) wanted positions in the church,
government, and army open to the most
qualified
FINANCIAL
PROBLEMS
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Population
Debt
Food shortages
Inflation
Disease
Recession in textiles
Nobility demanded more power
The main cause of the revolution was the
financial problems:
50% interest
25% military
6% Versailles
AGRARIAN
PROBLEMS
• Four-fifths of the population were rural
• Foreign trade had increased fivefold between
1713 and 1789
• Consumer prices rose 65%; wages rose 22%
between 1730-80
• But lord peasant relations were not
master/man.
• The participants were motivated by economic
distress
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
• Louis’ minister of finance proposed a
general tax on all landed people, he
persuaded the king to call an Assembly of
Notables in 1787
• The Assembly promised support if the
provincial assemblies could control
spending
• The king dismissed the Assembly of
Notables and tried to reassert his
authority
• Parlement declared the king’s power null
• In July 1788 Louis was forced to call the
Estates General first time since 1614absolutism was collapsing
• People started to elect representatives
and organize their demands
• Two-thirds of the clergy delegates were
commoners by birth; one-third of the
nobility were committed to liberalism;
but no delegates were actually poor.
• The Estates wanted:
a) absolutism to give way to
constitutional monarchy
b) liberties would have to be guaranteed
• But how would they vote?
• The old system virtually guaranteed control by
the first and second estates
• The government “doubled” the Third Estate but
still useless as long as they voted as estates.
• Abbé Sieyès wrote, “What is the Third estate?”
• May 1789 the Estates General met at Versailles
• June 13, delegates from the Third Estates
refused to transact business, a few clergy moved
into the Third Estate
• June 17 Third Estate became the National
Assembly
Tennis Court Oath
• Moved to an indoor tennis court and
pledged not to disband until they had
written a new constitution
• Louis allied with the nobility
• The king moved the army to Versailles and
dismissed the Liberals
The Bastille
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By 1789 almost half the people needed relief
July 14 1789
Symbol of power
7 prisoners
Turned a
political event
into revolution
• Great Fear
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen
• August 1789
• “All men are born
free and equal”
• Natural rights: liberty, property,
security freedom from oppression,
innocent until proved
• Didn’t guarantee economic equality
• October 1789 7,000 women marched to Versailles to
protest the price of bread.
• King, queen and National Assembly taken to Paris
• The National Assembly passed major reforms
• July 1790, Louis agreed to a constitutional
monarchy.
• New laws increased opportunities for women,
but still no vote.
• Reorganized the provinces into 83 departments
• Weights and measures were standardized
(metric), guild restrictions lifted.
• Abolition of special privileges for the nobility
• Wrote a constitution which limited the monarchy
• Torture was abolished, citizen juries introduced,
sale of offices was abolished
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Customs tax on internally transported goods was lifted
The government used assignats as paper currency
Subordinated the church to the state
The clergy was required to take an oath of loyalty to the
state. Only half did.
• The Assembly declared the Revolution over!
• Louis made several concessions to the Assembly but he
never intended to keep them
• The people still loved the king and blamed his ministers
for the problems
• But in June 1791 Louis and his family had tried
to escape to Austria, “flight to Varennes”
(Leopold was Marie’s brother)
• Louis was captured at Varennes and returned to
Paris
• August 1791, Declaration of Pillnitz - Austria
and Prussia to show support for the king “if”
• Political clubs take over the Assembly
• By September 1791 the National Assembly announced
its work completed, Louis accepted the constitution.
• By 1792 the Revolution had turned radical because of:
a) a counter revolution led by the king, church, and
Catholic peasants
b) economic, social, and political discontent among the
peasants, artisans, and wage earners (sans-culottes)
• In April 1792 France declared war on Austria
• July 25, Brunswick Manifesto: Austria and
Prussia promise revenge if the monarch is hurt
• Prussia joined Austria to create the First
Coalition
• The French were easily defeated, but the
leaders of the Coalition argued amongst
themselves
• Gradually the French the gained the
upperhand and a wave of patriotism swept the
country
The Second Revolution
• The sans-culottes insisted it was the duty of the
government to protect them
• Wanted the government to increase wages, fix
prices, and end shortages
• They wanted to prevent extremes of wealth
• Wanted a democratic republic liked the ideas of
Thomas Paine
• In August 1792 they attacked the palace and
killed several hundred guards
• The second phase was much more radical
• By September Paris was in turmoil
• “September Massacres” slaughtered prison
inmates
• On September 1st, 1792 France was declared a
Republic
• The king was imprisoned and tried in
December - executed by one vote
• After the execution the Assembly became the
National Convention
• British Prime Minister Pitt said France had to
leave Belgium
• Problems stopped them from being successful
• February 1, 1793 France declares war on Britain,
Holland, Austria, and Prussia (later Spain)
• Members of the National Convention were
republican and Jacobins
• Jacobins divided into two groups: Girondists
from western France, and the Mountain led by
Robespierre and Danton
• Both advocated war
• In the spring France was pushed from Belgium
National Constitutional
Convention
• Republican armies captured Nice, invaded the
Rhineland and occupied Austrian Netherlands
• Girondists and Mountainist became very
suspicious of each other
• May 31 1793, the Commune, under sans-culottes
pressure, has the Girondists arrested
• Sans-culotte emerge as the most powerful group
in Paris
• Robespierre (disciple of Rousseau)
formed the Committee of Public Safety to
ensure success of the revolution
• Mandated economic controls, but too
weak to enforce, except the price of bread
• Nationalized the war effort
• Arrested thousands of suspected counterrevolutionaries
• Robespierre wanted to create a Republic
of Virtue
• To ensure his ideals he implemented the
Reign of Terror (1793-4)
Reign of Terror
• Leaders of the Girondins were executed
including Danton
• Revolutionary courts tried enemies of the state
• Dictatorship
• 40,000 executed, 300,000 imprisoned
• Levée en masse
• Abolished feudalism
• Robespierre tried to dechristianize the country
• New calendar with no Christian holidays or
Sundays - Sept. 1, 1792 was day one, year one.
• Each month had 30 days, with 10 day weeks
• June 1794 Robespierre introduced the cult of the
Supreme Being in which the Republic
acknowledged the existence of God
• Alienated Catholics
Marie Antoinette
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Beheaded Oct. 16
“Terror is the order of the day”
1794 French armies successful on all fronts
1795 Spain and Prussia quit
1796 Austria quit leaving only Britain
Thermidorean Reaction
• Robespierre wanted an ideal democratic
republic without rich or poor
• Through despotism and the guillotine he
eliminated all opposition
• Robespierre was arrested by the Convention
and executed (July 28, 1794) by fearful middle
class who really benefited from his removal
• Inflation increased, self-indulgence increased,
people turned to religion
• National Convention abolished economic
controls and wrote a new constitution
The Directory
• 1795 leadership passed to five Directors, but
same old leaders - people who had survived dominated by bourgeoisie
• Lowered prices; alleviated hunger; reorganized
the tax system; won military victories; wrote a
constitution which incorporated Belgium
• Faced revolts from the left - “Gracchus” Babeuf
and the “conspiracy of equals”
from the monarchists - Barthelemy and Carnot
• 1795 Louis “XVII” died, the Count de Provance
claimed to be Louis “XVIII”
• Declaration of Verona:
a) restore the Old Regime
b) return all confiscated land
c) restore old privileges, taxes, and dues
• 18 Fructidor (Sept 4, 1797) three Directors
occupy Paris and stage a coup
• They annulled the elections, imposed censorship,
and exiled troublemakers
• Napoleon sent deputy to Paris to ensure the
success of the coup
Napoleon Bonaparte
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March 1795 France signed a treaty with Prussia
June Spain dropped out of the coalition
Napoleon had sweeping success in Italy
April 1796 defeated the Austrians at Millesimo
The British had problems: social unrest, rebellion in
Ireland, cost of the war, naval mutinies and started talks
with the French
• The French demanded more concessions and talk
stopped
• October 1797 the Hapsburgs signed the Treaty of
Campo Formio, which left only Britain at war
• November 1797 Napoleon returned to Paris a hero, and
planned to invade Britain
• He persuaded the Directory to let him invade Egypt to
cut Britain off from India
• August 1, 1798 Admiral Nelson annihilated the French
fleet at Abukir
• In Egypt he lost to the British but kept his reputation
• Dec. 1798, Tsar Paul I signed with Britain to create the
Second Coalition, later Austria and the Ottomans joined
• May 1799 Sieyes was elected a Director and started to
plot against the government
• “confidence from below, power from above”
• In October Napoleon appeared on French soil
• 18 Brumaire Napoleon led a coup and almost messed
up the coup saved only by his brother Lucien
• By December the Consulate ran the country and
Napoleon was in charge
The Consulate
• Napoleon offered King George III peace but Britain
refused to negotiate
• June 1800 at Marengo he crushed the Austrians
• 1801 Treaty of Luneville expanded French control over
Italy and western Germany
• 1802 Peace Amiens with Britain restored peace to
Europe
• Napoleon could now focus on France
• Created a new administrative system run by prefects
• Wanted peace with the Catholic Church
The Concordat of 1801
• Pope recognized the sale of church land and the govts.
right to appoint bishops
• Pope gained an acknowledgment of catholicism as the
main religion of France - but not state religion
• Church was allowed to hold services
• State pays salaries
• 1802 Organic Acts stated the state was supreme over
the church
• May have been the height of Napoleon’s career
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1800 Bank of France created
1801 government discusses Civil Codes
1802 educational reform
1802 issues amnesty to émigrés
a) swear an oath of loyalty
b) had no claim on lost property
• Old Regime was dead and most very happy
• Consulate suggested Napoleon be made consul for life 3,568,885 to 8,374
• Napoleon created the Legion of Honor headed by
himself - with pay and privileges for a selected few despite Constituent Assembly
• Napoleon becomes involved with Switzerland
• May 1803 Britain declares war on France
• French troops prepare to invade Britain, sold Louisiana
to gain money (15c an acre)
• Napoleon makes himself Emperor
• Made himself consul with a lie, emperor with a murder
• December 1800 assassination attempt
• Duke d’Enghien the chief suspect
• Fouché rounds up all suspects
• May 1804 Senate declare him “First Consul of the
Republic” became Napoleon I
• Civil Code of 1804 reasserted two principles of the
Revolution:
a) equality for all male citizens
b) absolute security for wealth and property
• Very rationalistic:
strengthened laws on property, religious toleration,
equality before the law for all- except women,
strengthened the rights of employers
• Dec. 1804 Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral,
attempts to crown Napoleon
• Napoleon crowns himself
• 1807 the Civil Codes became the Napoleonic Codes
• Alexander I of Russia sees himself as Napoleon’s
eastern counterpart
• August 1805 Russia, Austria, Britain form the Third
Coalition
• At Ulm Napoleon defeats the Austrians but lost
French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar
• Defeated Austria at Austerlitz (favorite victory)
• Treaty of Pressburg with Austria gave him full
sovereignty over Italy
• 1806 forms the Confederation of the Rhine and
disolves the Holy Roman Empire
• 1806 Prussia joins the war against France
• Battles of Jena and Auerstädt, Prussia easily
defeated
• “nation of shopkeepers”
• 1806 Berlin Decree closed continental ports to
British ships
• 1807 Milan Decree - ships not complying would
be
treated as hostile
• President Jefferson - passes the Embargo Acts
Peninsular War
• 1808 Napoleon forced the king of Spain to abdicate Joseph becomes king
• Civil uprising forces Joseph to flee and Nap. has to
send and army to help Joseph
• Nap. found himself in a guerrilla war against Spain
(supported by Britain)
• Wellesley (Wellington) drove the French from
Portugal
• 1813 Napoleon forced from Spain
• “It was the Spanish ulcer that ruined me”
• Friedland French defeated the Russians
• Tsar signs the Treaty of Tilsit, Prussia lost half her
population and Russia accepted Napoleon’s control of
Europe and promised to help blockade Britain
• Napoleon’s empire had three parts:
i) The core - France
ii) dependent satellite kingdoms
iii) independent, but allied states
• 1809 Austria rose against France but crushed at Battle
of Wagram - Treaty of Schonbrunn
• But neither Russia nor France trusted the other
• France had occupied Holland and not helped Russia
fight the Ottomans
• Napoleon blamed Russia for the failure of the
Continental System
• June 24 1812 the Grande Armee invades Russia
• Battle of Borodino, France win costly victory
• September 14 he occupies Moscow
• Five weeks later he retreats to France, only about 30,000
men escaped
• Prussia deserts France to join the Russians
• Austria joins the Grand Alliance - subsidized with
British money
• Battle of the Nations France is defeated
• Talks start about abdication
• Allies could not all agree on terms
• Problem was:
a) future of Napoleon
b) borders of France
• Nov. 1813 Frankfort Proposals were drawn up by
Prussia, Russia, Austria, and agreed to by Britain:
a)France would return to her natural borders; b)
Napoleon would still be emperor; c) Prussia would be
compensated
• Napoleon wanted better terms - so allies refused
• March 9, 1814 Treaty of Chaumont created the
Quadruple Alliance to last for 20 years
• Napoleon offered the Island of Elba
• Napoleon was allowed to keep his title and a pension of
2m. francs a year
• The allies wanted to restore the Bourbon monarchy
The Hundred Days
• May 3 Napoleon abdicated, Louis XVIII became
king of a constitutional monarchy
• May 30 “first’ Peace of Paris signed with plans
for Congress in Vienna in September
Congress of Vienna
• a) Not punish France - make sure she could not wage
war again
b) Restore the balance of power - no one dominates
c) Compensation -States should be compensated for
the loss of land or people
d) Legitimacy - restore the monarchs that ruled prior
to Napoleon, if possible
e) Victors should be rewarded
• Prince Karl von Metternich of Austria was in charge
he believed in conservatism not liberalism
• Quadruple Alliance - Britain, Austria, Prussia,
Russia agreed to meet to review the situation
• March 1, 1815 Napoleon re-enters France
• But not overwhelming support
• Napoleon invaded Belgium
• At Waterloo he met the Duke of Wellington and
was defeated
• “Second” Treaty of Paris - much harsher
a) borders would the same as 1790
b) indemnity of 700 million francs
c) 150,000 troops occupy France for 3 to 5 years
d) renewed the Quadruple Alliance
• Napoleon exiled to St. Helena
• Russia persuaded Austria and Prussia to form the
Holy Alliance to rule under Christian principles
• Quadruple Alliance later admitted France
Congress of Vienna
• One of the 4 great treaties of modern history
a) Westphalia - 1648
b) Utrecht - 1713
c) Congress of Vienna - 1815
d) Peace of Paris - 1919
• No European war until 1850s - Crimean
• No major war until 1914
• Until 1815 economic and political revolutions were
usually separate
• After 1815 they fused into the “dual revolution” (Eric
Hobsbawn)
• 1814 Treaty of Chaumont - initial meeting of the Great
Powers
• Created Quadruple Alliance (Russia, Prussia, Austria,
Great Britain)
i. Remain united until France defeated and then for
another 20 years
ii. Each pledged 150,000 men
iii. Britain pledged £5m
• First Treaty of Paris 1814 was VERY lenient towards
France - a devastated France would cause more
problems for Europe
• Allies were motivated by:
a) self-interest
b) balance of power
c) legitimacy
• Balance of power meant military and political
equilibrium - so no one country gains an advantage
• Legitimacy means restoring the monarchy
• Austria - Metternich
Great Britain - Castlereagh
Russia - Tsar Alexander
Prussia - William III
• a)France keeps 1792 borders
(not 1789)
b) Few colonial possessions
c) No reparations
d) Restore Bourbon monarchy
e) France keeps war treasures
• But:
a) Belgium and Holland united
b) Prussia gained more land to the east
• Issue of territory would not be discussed until
the Congress in the Fall
• Great Britain won colonies
Austria gave up Belgium but expanded into northern
Italy and the Adriatic
Russia had already taken Finland and Bessarabia wanted Poland which would include parts of Prussia
and Austria
Prussia was willing to agree to Poland if they could
take Saxony
• But these demands were too much for Castlereagh and
Metternich they feared a strong Russia
• January 1815, Austria, Great Britain, and
France signed a secret agreement against
Russia and Prussia
• Fear of war caused Russia and Prussia to
reduce their demands
The Congress
• All countries involved in the war were invited - but
territorial decisions were only made by the Great
Powers
• Tsar Alexander wanted a significant role because he
felt more important
• Main focus was equilibrium - restoring the legitimate
monarchs
• Castlereagh wanted to be the honest mediator
• Von Hardenburg of Prussia was deaf
• France was also invited - Talleyrand
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Poland became independent
Prussia got some German states and 40% of Saxony
Austria got northern Italian states
Russia got the Duchy of Warsaw
France was surrounded by Netherlands, German
Confederation including part of Austria and Prussia,
Switzerland, and Spain ruled by Ferdinand VII (a
Bourbon)
• Napoleon’s return did not alter the territory, but the
conditions for France
• Second Treaty of Paris
a) Fat old Louis XVIII restored again
b) France lost territory - 1790
c) Indemnity of 700 million francs
d) Army of occupation (150,000) for five years
• The Quadruple Alliance agreed to meet periodically to
discuss events
• Marked the start of the European “congress system”
• 1815 Austria, Prussia, and Russia create the Holy
Alliance against the dual revolution based on Christian
principles, to lend support to protect religion, peace, and
justice
• Austria was both a German state and the most
important province in an empire of many nationalities
• Germany was the main language
• The Habsburgs needed the German middle-class to
support him
• Metternich kept the Magyar nobles loyal by fear of a
lower-class uprising
• Prussia and Austria both feared Russia, especially in the
Balkans
• Britain gradually withdrew from European affairs