Transcript The French Revolution 1789: Calling of the Estates General 1789-1792: Liberal Revolution 1792-1794: Radicalization 1795-1799: Thermidorean Reaction 1799-1815: Napoleon Sources: Halsall, Paul.

The French Revolution
1789: Calling of the Estates General
1789-1792: Liberal Revolution
1792-1794: Radicalization
1795-1799: Thermidorean Reaction
1799-1815: Napoleon
Sources:
Halsall, Paul. "Liberal and Radical Revolution in France." Modern History
Sourcebook. Fordham University, 1998. Web. 27 Jan 2011.
<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/hs1000.html>.
Hooker, Richard. "Revolution and After." World Civilizations. Washington
State University, 1996. Web. 27 Jan 2011. <http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REV/>.
Achievements of French Revolution
• Liberal Revolution
- Ends Feudalism; completes the rise of
the bourgeoisie
- Made the people important in politics
- The old order was never re-established
•Radical Revolution
- Nationalism: Total Mobilization of
nation; National Army; Total War
- Abolishes Slavery in Colonies
Problems of French Revolution
• It did not produce a stable government
• The Reign of Terror
• Radical. Rev led to totalitarianism
• Radical Rev never accomplished a true
social revolution
The Problem of the Estates System
First Estate: The Clergy
1% of pop, with 10% of land. They had wealth, land, privileges, and they levied a tax
on the peasantry, the tithe, which generally went into the pockets of a bishop or
monastery rather than the local parish priest. The First Estate was perhaps 100,000
strong. But note that there were many poor clergymen in this Estate, and they were
going to support the Revolution.
Second Estate: The Nobility
2-5% of pop, with 20% of the land. 400,000 people. They also had great wealth and
taxed the peasantry. The great division among the Nobility was between the Noblesse
d‘Epee, dating from the Middle Ages, and the Noblesse de Robe: later nobles whose
titles came from their possession of public offices.
Third Estate: Everyone Else
95-97% of the pop. There were a few rich members, the artisans and then all the
peasantry. These were also class divisions. In the modern world we only consider the
Third Estate to be the true holders of power. Its Victory has been total.
Subdivisions of the Third Estate
The Bourgeoisie
8% of the pop, with 20% of land. The bourgeoisie often owned land and exploited the
peasants on it. The bourgeoisie had been growing throughout the century, to some extent
encouraged by the monarchy. By 1788 this class had become very important, and its
members were well read, educated and rich. Yet this important group had no say in
running the country.
The Peasants
90% of the pop. on 40% of the land. Peasants alone paid the taille (land tax) and the
tithe (church tax). They alone had to give labor service to the state. And feudal services to
their landlords. Poverty was intense, but varied by region. Peasants farmed the land and
regarded it as their own, but it did not belong to them. What they wanted was LAND
REFORM.
The Urban Poor of Paris
The artisans, guild members, factory workers, and journeymen who earned wages by
producing goods in the city had different interests than the bourgeoisie, but they played an
essential role at several points in the Revolution. They were the most politicized group of
poor people, possibly due to high literacy.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
"L ‘etat, c'est moi"
Economic Weakness in an Absolutist State
Cost of the Wars of Mid-Century
- France had pursued a different financial course than Britain after the War of the
Spanish Succession at the outset of the 18th century.
- Whereas England had repaid its creditors’ interest on its debts, France repudiated
much of its debt. From then on, financiers were unwilling to lend the government
money at favorable rates. Ironically, because the absolute monarch could not collect
taxes from the richest property owners, the king could obtain little credit.
- The cost of raising money to finance The War of the Austrian Succession (174048) and then The Seven Years War (1756-63) stretched France’s ability to finance its
territorial ambitions. The American Revolution (1776-1783) cost France even more.
France had more or less paid for the American war against the British.
Bankruptcy of the State.
- By the 1780s the government was nearly bankrupt. Half of government income
was going to pay interest on debts (annual deficit 126 Million Livres.) The overall
national debt was almost 4 Billion Livres. This debt was not greater than in Great
Britain or Holland. The problem was that the government could not pay the interest
on the debt.
Economic Weakness
Taxation Problems
In France, the Nobles and Clergy, the richest people in the country, were not
taxed. Taxes were only levied on the poorest members of the population.
- the taille on peasant produce and land
- the Gabelle - on salt
- various trade tariffs
Ironically, in Europe’s richest economy there was not enough income for the
government to do its job. To deal with the fiscal crisis, taxes on the poor were
raised. However, even squeezing the peasants more could not provide enough
income to put the government back on its feet. The upper classes themselves
would have to pay taxes.
The fact that the King had to raise taxes on the upper classes finally led him to
extreme measures. Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the national
legislature, the Estates General, for the first time in over one hundred and fifty
years.
1789: King Calls the Estates General
Estates General meets May 5, 1789 at Versailles
• The legislative system in France had always been rigged to maitain
aristocracy’s hold on power. Although the Third Estate had twice as many
representatives as the other two, it had only one vote: the nobility and the
clergy had the other two.
• The Third Estate, whose representatives were largely members of the
bourgeoisie, disputed the voting procedure. They argued that the three estates
should not each have a single vote; instead, each representative should have a
single vote.
June Events
1. The Third Estate declares itself a National Assembly on June 17th. Tennis
Court Oath June 20th 1789
2. The king opposed this move, but a majority of the clergy and even some
nobles joined the National Assembly.
3. On June 27th the King capitulated and recognized the new form of the
legislature.
4.National Assembly takes name NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The 3rd Estate Awakens
The Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789
July 14, 1789. The Fall of the Bastille.
The Parisian working class makes sure that its voice is heard as well.
July 1789 The Great Fear
• Following the fall of the
Bastille, anti- government
and anti-noble violence
spread throughout the
country as peasants and
workers sought to demolish
the remnants of feudalism.
• In this engraving, a crowd
parades the severed head of
an official.
August 4, 1789. National Constituent Assembly Abolishes Feudalism.
The August 4th Laws
- All French, regardless of class, are now equal under
the law.
- Abolishment of the "feudal regime":
The ancient feudal privileges of the nobility are
outlawed: aristocratic tax exemptions, church tithes,
obligatory labor on state roads, and the payment of
seigneurial dues to aristocratic landowners are all
banned.
- Peasants were supposed to pay compensation to the
landowners, but this requirement was abolished under
the Radical Revolution in 1793.
August 26, 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen.
August 26, 1789. The National Assembly adopts
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
Printed in thousands of leaflets and distributed around France.
A combination of Enlightenment ideas + American Bill of
Rights
The Assembly created :
- a constitutional monarchy with separation of powers:
executive vs. legislative.
- equality before the law
- natural rights: life, liberty, property
- sovereignty resides in the nation, not in the monarch
- law is an expression of the General Will of the people
- freedom of religion (for Jews as well, for the first time in
European history)
- freedom of speech
October Days 1789: The Women’s March Upon Versailles
Workers and peasants march on Versailles demanding the return of the King to
Paris. Government functions under threat of mob rule.
"Triumph of the Parisian Army and the People"
King and Government Move to Paris - October 6th Forced by the Poor Women
of Paris [The government function under threat of mob violence.]
1789-91 Challenges Faced by Liberal Government
The National Constituent Assembly faced massive problems.
It could not repudiate the state debt (since many of its members were owed
money). It also had to find a way to rule France now that the power of the
monarch was in shreds.
A. Administrative Reform:
The traditional provinces are replaced by 83 Departments.
B. Economic Liberalism:
Gets rid of tariffs - unlimited economic freedom
Suppresses guilds and forbids workers associations.
C. The Huge State Debt
The solution was to nationalize Church lands: (Civil Constitution of the Clergy
July 1790) The problem was that many people remained loyal to Church, and
this action made the Revolution unpopular in many quarters.
Printed bonds, assignats based on value of Church land, became currency.
Constitution of 1791
A Constitutional Monarchy:
- Monarchy shares power with a Legislative Assembly
- Only men who paid taxes could vote.
- Only 50,000 could qualify as potential representatives to be
elected to serve in the National Assembly (less than the number of
the nobility).
- Looming war with the other monarchies of Europe is welcomed
because the French believe the war will help resuscitate the
economy and raise tax revenues.
- The Legislative Assembly took over October 1, 1991.
- It would prove ineffective and eventually led to a radicalization of
the Revolution.
Departments of France
Traditional Provinces of France
June 22, 1791 "Arrest of the King at Varennes”
Attempting to flee France, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their children are
arrested at Varennes and brought back to Paris.
August 27, 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz
Austria and Prussia declared war on France, vowing to re-establish its
absolute monarchy and return aristocratic privileges. By the end of the
year, England had also declared war against the revolutionary
government.
War Period - Begins April 1792
Radicals thought a successful war would bring them support.
Louis XVI supported the war - he hoped a loss would restore his
position - as did many monarchist members of the National
Assembly.
[Robespierre opposed the war as he saw danger of defeat]
The French armies were soon retreating - causing radicalization at
home.
The Radical Revolution
The Radical Revolution began in the summer of 1792 as the war effort
languished, reactionary resentment against the central government
built in the provinces, and the people of Paris began to clamor for
overthrow of the king.
Political Factions in the Legislative Assembly:
- Monarchists - including Lafayette
- The Jacobins - an elitist political club which wanted a republic
and the end of the monarchy. (Their name comes from their meeting
place in a Dominican priory)
- The Girondists who wanted to preserve the constitutional monarchy
assumed power initially.
- The Declaration of War on Austria (April 20, 1792) was believed by
many to be a move which would bring the Jacobins to power.
The Radical Revolution begins…
The War, the Monarchy and the Press
- By August of 1792, the Prussian Army had pushed into France as far as
Verdun in the Northeast and threatened Paris. In July the Duke of Brunswick
issued a threat to decimate Paris if the King were harmed
- The Girondists themselves blamed the monarchy and Marie Antoinette for
secret intrigues, and this accusation put the monarchical constitution under
strain.
- Since the new constitution guaranteed absolute freedom of the press,
journalists waged a campaign of denunciation vs. the government: Jean-Paul
Marat and his Ami du Peuple were prominent here.
This popular agitation was transformed into a powerful force by two factors:
- The arrival of volunteer National Guardsmen from all over France in July
[Volunteers from Marseilles came singing the Marseillaise.]
- The political organization of Paris into a Commune and 48 Sections - all
became centers of insurrection.
Demonstration within Tuileries Palace: 20 June 1792
On 20 June crowds of
people in Paris took
matters into their own
hands, invading first the
Assembly and then the
Tuileries Palace, where
they forced the King to don
a Phrygian cap and drink a
toast to the health of the
nation.
Rise of the Jacobins
The rising tide of protest in Paris and in provincial
centers around the country led to the downfall of the
Girondists; power now fell to a faction called the
Jacobins, named after the political club to which they
belonged. Unlike the Girondists, they wanted to
completely do away with all aspects of social distinction.
They believed that the vote should be universal and that
government should provide for the welfare of the poor.
Maximillian Robespierre
The Jacobins, as soon as they rose to power, called for a
national convention. Members of this convention would
be elected by a universal vote, and the job of the new
convention would be to dismantle the constitution of
1791 in favor of a republican constitution, that is, a
constitution without a monarch. The members of the
convention were elected in September of 1792, and the
convention they made up became the effective national
government of France until 1794. (Hooker)
August 10, 1792. The Fall of the Monarchy
The attack on the Tuileries Palace, which housed the royal family.
Two thousand people die.
Foundation of the Republic, 10 August 1792
A new National Convention meets to draw up a new constitution which ends the
monarchy and establishes a republic.
September 2-7, 1792. The September Massacres
The Paris Commune orders the summary execution of 1200 clergymen
being held in prison as ‘counter revolutionaries’.
1792-95 Rule of the National Convention
The National Convention was supposed to have been elected by universal
male suffrage, but only 7.5% of the electorate actually voted. (It was not
the best atmosphere for a free election.)
The National Convention first met September 21, 1792 and declared
France a republic.
The liberal Girondists were still a major political faction, but they
gradually lost control of the legislature over the next few months to a
group of radical Jacobins known as The Mountain (because they sat high
in Convention Hall). Maximillien Robespierre was one of its leaders. The
Mountain wanted the King to be tried and executed so that there could be
no going back to the ancien regime. To pressure the Girondists, they made
overtures concerning land reform and labor organization to the working
people of Paris, the Sans-Cullottes, who did not vote but influenced the
proceedings with threats of armed violence.
Nine months of political struggle in the Convention ensued.
The Rise of the Montagnards and Sans-Culottes
The Sans-Culottes were Parisian
artisans, shopkeepers, wage earners
and factory workers, the leaders of
the Paris Commune.
Their name comes from the fact they
wore long trousers not the knee
breeches (culottes) favored by the
middle and professional classes.
The desires of the sans-culottes were
simple: subsistence was a right for all
people; inequality of any kind was to
be abolished; the aristocracy and the
monarchy was to be abolished;
property was not to be completely
eliminated, but to be shared in
communal groups. (Hooker)
August 1792- April 1793: Fighting the War
• August 1792 - Lafayette defects to Austria .
• 20 September 1792 - Battle of Valmy: General Dumouriez beats the Prussians and
effectively gives the Revolution breathing space. Victory at Valmy began the French
attempt to spread the Revolution across Europe. Where successful, it provided loot for
the government.
• Autumn 1792 - Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) is attacked. By November, Brussels
is in French hands
• November 1792 - The Convention offers aid to all revolutionary groups in Europe.
• December 1792 - The Convention abolishes feudalism in occupied territories:
beginning the restructuring of Europe.
• January 1793 – Danton, a leading Jacobin, proclaims the doctrine of natural frontiers
- ie the Rhine, a la Louis XIV.
• February 1, 1793 - Declarations of War vs. England, Netherlands and Spain. France
was at war with all of Europe
• April 1793 - Dumouriez defects to Austria - aware he could not restore monarchy
in France.
December 1792- January 1793: Trial and Condemnation
of Louis XVI
• Condemnation and Execution of the King:
- The necessary consequence of August 10th and the King's treachery over
the war was the trial of the King.
- Members of the Montaignard had found Louis XVI's correspondence to
Austria.
- The condemnation of the King also put Girondists in a bind: if they
supported it, they lost moderate support; if they opposed it, they lost
patriotic support. Robespierre exploited this situation.
Vote to Condemn:
- 28 absent, 321 other Penalties, 13 Death with a respite vs.
- 361 Death: a majority of one.
- No one thought Louis was innocent.
. The King was executed on January 21, 1793.
January 2, 1793. Last Meeting of Louis XVI with His
Family at the Temple Prison
January 21, 1793. Execution of Louis XVI.
The Terror Commences
Counter-Revolutionary Activity
By March 1793 counter-revolution had
broken out in regions throughout France,
particularly in conservative Catholic areas
in the Vendee Province.
There was a great concern in the National
Convention, still under Girondist control,
about the counter-revolution:
-The Convention strengthened laws
against émigrés.
- Revolutionary Tribunals were set up.
-A decree was passed condemning to
death all rebels taken in the act.
-March 21 1793 - Watch Committees
were set throughout the country.
The moderates had in fact set up the
structure of the Terror by Spring 1793.
April 6, 1793. Committee of Public Safety created by the
National Convention
Danton
Robespierre
Marat
The Committee of Public Safety was authorized to use emergency
powers to fight foreign threats and civil war.
The Days of 31 May and 1–2 June 1793:
The Girondists Are Overthrown.
Parisians demonstrated outside the Convention and through intimidation forced
the politicians inside to give up the Girondists who were being vilified.
May 31, 1793 The Mountain Takes Over
The working population of Paris was still not happy: there was inflation
due to war and the government’s decision to issue paper currency to help
finance the war effort.
- June 2, 1793 A mob of sans-culottes demand the expulsion of the
Girondist members of the National Convention.
- The Montaignards seize control and pass a new Democratic
Constitution on June 22nd but it is left it in cold storage until the war
was over. Instead, the Committee on Public Safety remained the
defacto power.
- June 22, 1793 80,000 armed sans-culottes surround the National
Convention and demanded the arrest of the Girondist faction.
- June 1793 The Convention appoints a new Committee of Public
Safety. This body was to rule France for the next year.
July 13, 1793. Charlotte Corday assassinates Marat.
Jean-Paul Marat had been appointed
to the Committee on Public Safety
after achieving fame and power as a
propagandist for the Montaignard.
He used radical pamphlets to
expose ‘enemies of the people’ and
clamor for their execution. He was
assassinated by a Girondist
supporter, Charlotte Corday, while
in his bath tub where he was being
treated for a skin disease.
The Death of Marat, (1793) Jacques Louis David
Charlotte Corday: Marat’s Assassin
H. de la Charlerie, Charlotte Corday on the
Way to her Execution in 1793
Baudry, 'Charlotte Corday after the
murder of Marat', 1861.
Jacques Hebert and the Enragees
The Mountain had taken control of the
Convention with the aid of the sans-cullottes
who clamored for radical social change
including price controls and land reform. Their
leaders, from the Paris Commune, were called
the enragées, and were led by a fiery journalist
named Jacques Hébert. These radicals were
even more devoted to the ideas of Rousseau,
particularly his condemnation of property as a
fundamental perversion of moral human
society. They also called for the deChristianization of France, martial law, and the
execution of the moderate Girondists. Their
thought, with some exaggeration, came close to
what we would call communism. In December
1793, The Committee on Public Safety would
turn on their former allies, and Hebert went to
the guillotine in March 1794.
July 1793-July 1794: The Rise of Nationalism
The Montaignard, now in control of the Convention, still had to
contend with the Counter-Revolution and the War with Europe. It too
still had to deal with the financial problems which had initially caused
the revolution . The solution they discovered was truly revolutionary.
- To mobilize the country, the Committee combined appeals to
patriotic nationalism with the threat of terror. To fight the invaders,
they completely reorganized the military, and to fight the civil war,
they imposed terror.
-The Committee of Public Safety dealt with the military threat with
the first use in modern times of total war: the whole country was
put on a war footing (in contrast to the small mercenary armies of
the ancien regime).
-The Committee on Public Safety aimed to restructure society in the
most revolutionary manner. They portrayed the war and the Terror
as a patriotic mission against evil inside and outside France.
August 23, 1793. Decree of levée en masse
23 August 1793: The levee en masse conscripted ALL males into the
army. There was a planned economy to supply the war as well as aid the
poor and keep their support. Maximum price rules were established.
“The Marseillaise”
By Spring 1794, the
Committee on Public Safety
had created an Army of
800,000, the largest ever
assembled, until then, by a
European power.
This was a citizen army,
fighting for ideals, going up
against armies that were
often made up of serfs.
The Reign of Terror
Fall 1793 to July 1794: The Height of the Terror
- The Committee on Public Safety guillotined Marie-Antoinette and
the Royal Family, then aristocrats, then Girondists, then during 1794
the wave of terror moved to the provinces and included peasants and
sans-culottes; finally in Spring 1794 even republican leaders like
Danton were executed.
- The Committee for Public Safety also guillotined social
revolutionaries from more radical groups among the sans-cullottes:
socialists known as the Hebertists. The Montaignard’s overtures to the
working class had been a ruse.
June 10, 1794: The Law of 22 Prairial: conviction without evidence was
now allowed.
- Large increase in numbers killed in last month of The Terror.
- Approximately 25,000-40,000 people were killed; 300,000 were
arrested.
September 1793: "Siege and Taking of the City of Lyon"
The city of Lyon
surrendered on 9
October. The
Jacobin Generals
and local sans–
culottes then
wrought a terrible
vengeance, with
some 209 persons
being arrested,
tried, and executed
in the next two
months.
6–7 December 1793: "Drowning in the Loire by Order of
the Convention"
On 6–7 December 1793, Jean–
Baptiste Carrier, a deputy sent by the
Convention to suppress the
insurrection at Nantes, accepted a
measure proposed by the local
Revolutionary Tribunal to fill seven
boats with an estimated 200–300
prisoners (not all of them yet
convicted) and sink them in the
Loire River. Some accounts reported
that the victims had their hands tied,
but, if they managed to free them,
troops in boats were there to hack
off their arms.
Summoning to Execution
One of the most fearful parts of the Terror was its unpredictability. Many were
swept up in suspicion, including unexpected, even nighttime arrests. As reality and
imagination merged, this fear of the uncertainty of the era became an important part
of the story.
Terror and Virtue: Robespierre’s Version of Rousseau
If Marat had been the firebrand of the radical
revolution and Danton the architect of the
revolutionary army and the terror’s tribunals,
Robespierre was their inflexible ideologue,
passionately attached to the ideas of Rousseau
and the creation of a society free from
inequality. It was Robespierre who gave the
Terror its character, for he believed that
virtue was ineffective without terror and he
openly advocated terror as a political
virtue. To this end, he expanded the powers of
the tribunals and led them against other leaders
in his government. On June 10, 1793, he
managed to legislate the Law of 22 Prairial
which allowed tribunals to convict accused
enemies without hearing any evidence
whatsoever. (Hooker)
Maximilien Robespierre,
6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794
Robespierre’s Republic of Virtue
Adoption of a New Calendar:
- The Convention created a new calendar, dating Year One from Sept 22,
1792: when the Monarchy had been abolished.
- A system of new months was adopted on November 10th 1793:
Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor, Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose,
Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floreal, Prairal
- The decimal system week: every 10th day as rest day (not good for
workers): Aim was to blot out the cycle of Sundays and Saint's days
Adoption of a New Religion
- In November 1793, The Convention outlawed the worship of God
(where is religious tolerance?)
-The Cathedral of Notre Dame was renamed the Temple to Reason
ceremonies were conducted by the Commune of Paris.
- November 10: Cult of Reason begun: Alienated Christians made direct
efforts to close Churches throughout France.
Cult of the Supreme Being
- De-Christianization had been opposed by Robespierre; toleration of
Catholics was ordered by the Committee for Public Safety under his orders.
- Even so, Robespierre thought Catholicism was not an effective religion.
- On May 7, 1794, he proclaimed the Cult of the Supreme Being : cultic
festivals celebrating republican virtues - liberty, humanity, fraternity etc.
- On June 8th Robespierre led a massive public Festival of the Supreme
Being.
-He emphasized the attempt to restructure the whole civilization.
- A month later Robespierre would be dead.
June 8, 1794: Festival of the Supreme Being
The Thermidorean Reaction (1795-1799)
- The Reign of Terror was not popular in the
long run. It was genuinely terrifying. It got
out of hand, and malicious accusations were
made.
- Politicians feared for their own heads
when Robespierre made a threatening
speech on July 26th. Also note that
Robespierre's fascination with the new
religion did not endear him to many in the
Convention.
Execution of Robespierre
- Finally, Robespierre himself was
condemned to the Guillotine in the
Convention on the 9th day of Thermidor
(July 27, 1794) and executed on July 28,
1794.
1795-1799: The Thermidorean Reaction
Exhausted by violence, the moderate bourgeoisie reasserted control over the
government. They sought to return to policies which protected individual
liberties. After the execution of Robespierre, the Committee on Public Safety
was disbanded, the National Convention dissolved and a new governmental
body, The Directory, assumed leadership. They banned the Paris Commune;
The Law of 22 Prairial was revoked; a liberal economy was re-established;
and Catholicism was revived.
The Directory was a five-man executive body constructed by the bourgeoisie
to avoid both dictatorship and excessive democracy. The Directory ended
the terror but proved too weak to solve France’s constitutional crisis.
Political stability during this four-year period was fractured by a series of
coup d'etats.
1795 August 22 - Constitution of the Year III
- Property and wealth, not birth,
were now important.
- France now had great national
consciousness; never again could
"L ‘etat, c'est moi" ever be said
- Rich Peasants now were a major
landowning group in society.
- The Sans-cullottes were removed
from political life.
- Riots by the poor were now put
down by the army.
-October 1795: Napoleon
commanded the cannon.
October 5 1795 Whiff of Grapeshot
Political Pressures on the Directory
- Political pressure on the Directory came from all directions. There was continuing
pressure from the left, from old Jacobins and from peasants who rioted whenever
the price of bread rose too high.
- There was also a strong movement on the right to have the Monarchy restored: the
Monarchists actually won a majority in the election of 1797. In response, the
Directory staged a coup which was supported by Napoleon: The Coup of 18
Fructidor/Sept 4, 1797
- The problem for Monarchists was the lack of an heir. Louis XVII, the young son
of Louis XVI, had died. The new Bourbon heir to the throne was an unrepentant
conservative who wanted to restore the 1789 Constitution, and that was not
acceptable to the peasants (who had gained land), or even the moderate Middle
Class.
- Restoration of the monarchy was also not acceptable to Napoleon who had his
own ambitions.
- To keep control, the Directory increasingly depended on the Army, and that choice
eventually opened the way to power for Napoleon.
Military Successes under the Directory
• Under the Directory, the military expansion begun
under the National Convention continued with the
help of the war economy initiated by the Committee
on Public Safety. Great new generals had been
brought to the fore, including eight of Napoleon’s
future marshals, as the old officer class went into
exile.
• March 1795: Peace was concluded with Prussia and
Spain, but war continued with Great Britain and
Austria. So the Directory became dependent on the
military for stability at home and success abroad.
1795-1797 Napoleon’s Rise to Power
He was born in Corsica—an Italian— in
1769; France had annexed Corsica in 1768,
so he was officially a French citizen.
Although his parents were not extremely
wealthy, they were nobility. While Napoleon
built up around himself a mythology of low
origins, he was still higher up on the social
scale than the overwhelming majority of
Europeans. In 1796 his armies conquered
Northern Italy (and established their
independence from the government).
Napoleon at St. Bernard (1800), David
He attended French schools and, at the age of
sixteen, became an artillery officer in the
French army in 1785. When the Revolution
started, he was an ardent supporter of the
Jacobin cause. He distinguished himself in
the Battle of Toulon and was appointed
general;
Military Conquests
Italy 1797 - Napoleon defeats Austrian and Sardinian Armies at the Battle of Rivoli. It
was success here that made him popular at home. Success in Italy also gave Napoleon an
independent way to support and enlarge his army. Despite the government by Directory,
already at this stage he was making his own treaties with the Pope and with Austria.
Military Methods
Napoleon was a military genius
He built his successful military campaigns on:
- Improvements in military theory made during the Ancien Regime in
response to France's defeats in the Seven Years War: an emphasis on
flexible formations in battle rather than fixed ones.
- His forces were divided into moderate sized units -each unit lived off the
land and traveled light-speed: maneuver were used to bring hostile armies
into battle - it was vital to time the uniting of the various bits of his army just
at the right time.
- His great citizen army that was motivated to fight well, put together under
the Committee of Public. Safety, and kept going by the Directory.
- 700,000 strong army
Coup of 18 Brumaire: Sept. 4, 1797
When the Jacobins were thrown from power in 1794,
Napoleon had only barely hung on to his commission.
However, he became a national hero when he crushed
the Austrian and Sardinian armies in Italy and brought
the war with the alliance to a close in October of 1797
by negotiating the Treaty of Campo.
Napoleon appealed to many people who had become
disgusted with the weakness of the Directory. One of
these people was Abbé Sieyes (who had written What is
the Third Estate back in 1789). He concocted a plan for
a coup to bring Napoleon to power. Sieyes believed in
"Confidence from below, but power from above.“
Napoleon became one of three consuls and presented
himself to the people as the savior of the Republic. The
New Constitution of the Year VIII included a council of
state , but it actually made Napoleon the ruler. It was
approved by plebiscite (3,011,077 to 1,567) (Hooker)
Napoleonic Rule : The Consulate (1799-1804)
Napoleon maintained order combining Liberal and Conservative Policies.
a. He employed people from all political groups. (e.g. Talleyrand)
b. The civil rights of the peasants were confirmed.
c. He granted an amnesty to nobles.
d. He decreed improved education.
e. His greatest act of reconciliation, however, was allowing the Catholic
church back into France in his concordat with Pope Pius VII in 1801. He
acknowledged Catholicism as the religion of most Frenchmen, but he reserved
to the state the power to name bishops and pay priests. The Church gave up its
claims on property, and the clergy swore loyalty to the state.
f. The Central government took control of the Provinces.
g. Napoleon stopped the free press and free speech in1800.
h. He ruthlessly crushed any opposition using a secret police force loyal only to
him. (He had the Bourbon Duke of Enghien murdered in 1804.)
i. The French ‘voted’ him "Consul for Life" in 1802.
The Napoleonic Code 1804
Before the Code, France did not have a single set of laws; instead, laws depended
on local customs, and often on exemptions, privileges and special charters granted
by the kings or other feudal lords.
During the Revolution the vestiges of feudalism were abolished, and the many
different legal systems used in different parts of France were to be replaced by a
single legal code.
The Code granted all French people legal equality:
-It safeguarded property rights.
-It abolished all aristocratic privileges of birth.
-It directed that state officials be chosen by merit.
-It gave men control over their wives.
-Labor unions were forbidden.
-It set the tone of all later French life: legally egalitarian, socially bourgeois,
and administratively bureaucratic.
The Grand Empire
The principles of the French Revolution slowly diffused
outwards in Europe; governments began, quietly and
infinitesimally, to adopt some of the principles of
government forged in the French Revolution. This, of
course, is why the Revolution is so important to European
history even though it was a total failure in France. In
addition, Napoleon was highly responsible for this, for France
controlled many European territories, such as Italy, Germany,
and Holland, even though these territories were not under the
direct control of the Empire. It was in these territories that the
principles of the revolution were most thoroughly adopted,
such as the abandonment of privilege and the ideas of equality
under the law. (Hooker)
In 1804, Napoleon announced
his intention to be crowned
Emperor of France; by this
move, his position would
become hereditary and so
obviate all plots against his
life. You may kill me, he was
saying, but you won't kill the
institution. (Hooker)
Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor (1804)
Victory on Land
European powers banded together to form the Third Coalition in 1805 to
contain French ambitions. This alliance, led by Britain, but including Russia,
Prussia, and Austria, was a miserable failure. In battle after battle, they were
crushed by the French, and Napoleon looked more and more invincible. When
Napoleon defeated the Austrians at the battle of Austerlitz, they were forced to
cede all of Italy north of Rome to him—he then crowned himself king of Italy.
On July 7, 1807, after defeating both the Prussian and then the Russian armies,
Napoleon signed the Treaty of Tilsit. This treaty allowed Napoleon to keep
territory seized from Prussia and Russia, required the two countries to
participate in the Continental System and boycott all trade with Britain, and
required that Prussia become an open ally of France. Signed by Napoleon, by
Alexander I of Russia (secretly) – who becomes part of continental system. French Territorial gains confirmed - and Russia reduced in size.
The Continental System: Defeat at Sea
He had one significant obstacle in the way, however: Great Britain. In order
to bring Britain to its knees, he instituted The Berlin Decree which forbade
the importation of British goods into Europe. Napoleon claimed he was
liberating Europe from the English, a “Nation of Shopkeepers”.
But Great Britain’s trade with America and The East meant it could survive.
The power of the British navy itself carried out an effective blockade of trade
against France. After Britain declared war in 1805, its most significant
victory was the defeat of the French and Spanish navies in the Battle of
Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. This engagement, led on the British side by
Admiral Nelson, effectively destroyed the naval power of Napoleon and
guaranteed that an invasion of Britain would not take place. It also solidified
Britain's dominance over world trade.
More Problems: Spanish Revolt 1808
In 1803 Bonaparte had faced a major setback in the Carribean when an
army he sent to reconquer Haiti and establish a base was destroyed by a
combination of yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Toussaint
L'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
In 1807 the French occupation of the Iberian Peninsula also led to the
costly and brutal Peninsular War. Napoleon wanted both Spain and
Portugal to become part of the Continental System; he overthrew the king
of Spain and put his brother Joseph on the throne. The Spanish, however,
would have none of it. They resented his presence in Spain, his abolition
of the Inquisition, and his control of the church and began to fight back.
Thus began the Wars of Liberation. The Spanish War went very badly for
the French; the Spanish, hopelessly outgunned, fought using guerilla
tactics which robbed Napoleon of several hundred thousand of his finest
troops at the hands of Spanish guerrillas and led to major defeats inflicted
by the Allies under the Duke of Wellington. (Hooker)
Spanish Campaign 1808
1812: The Invasion of Russia
In 1810 Russians withdrew from the
Continental System and resumed trade
with Great Britain. Napoleon, in 1811,
with the war still going badly in
Spain, assembled an army of six
hundred thousand men and invaded
Russian in 1812. As he marched
through Russia, the Russian army
refused to stand against him but
continually retreated deeper and deeper
into Russia. When he reached Moscow,
the Russian army simply allowed him to
occupy the capital, which they promptly
burned down. After a month of idling in
the capital, Napoleon set back for
France. It was, however, too late.
(Hooker)
Retreat from Moscow (1812)
The Russian winter settled on his return march with a vengeance. His troops could
barely make any progress through mountains of snow, acres of mud, and flooded rivers.
Mounted Cossacks would periodically fly out of the blizzards and pick off the hapless
soldiers. When Napoleon crossed over into Germany on December 13, over three
hundred thousand men had died out of the original six hundred thousand. Almost all
had perished in the deadly cold that blanketed Napoleon's retreat. (Hooker)
Minard, Napoleon's 1812-13 Campaign in Russia
The Hundred Days
Napoleon escaped from Elba 1815
-Battle of Waterloo 1815
-Defeated by the Prussians and English
-Duke of Wellington leads English/Field Marshal von Blucher the
Prussians
-Hardened the Peace Settlement for France
N. St. Helena
- Napoleon sent to exile in St. Helena
-note how he was treated by British. -died 1821
Defeat
The Opposition Becomes Effective - 1813
-The Fourth Coalition, (Russia, Prussia, Austria, GB)
- Prussia after defeat at Jena reorganized and modernized - some
land reform. end of serfdom, calls to patriotism. 42,000 men
trained each year - by 1813 it was strong again - army of 270,000.
- The war is seen as a German War of Liberation.
France defeated at the Battle of the Nations 1813 - at Leipzig in
Germany
- Allies take Paris in March 1814
- Napoleon Abdicated 1814 - Exiled to Elba
Napoleon’s Effect on his Contemporaries and on History
Personal Impact
A hero to half of Europe a traitor to the rest. (Old Boney)
Reaction of Beethoven - changes name of his 3rd Symphony to the Eroica
-in Paris his campaigns are celebrated e.g. Gare d'Austerlitz, Avenue Wagram +
His body is at Les Invalides
Many people yearned for a leader - Why ?
Spread of French Revolutionary Ideals
-French Soldiers were committed - liberal and French Rev. ideals were adopted
by many.
-Napoleon got rid of Feudalism in the countries he conquered.(But did not give
the land to the peasants)
-Abolished Established Churches + Monasteries.
-The Code carried many of these ideas on after Nap.
Nationalism
There was also a reaction to French Dominance as it became clear that Napoleon's
policies benefited France. There were also objections to his family becoming Kings
and Queens all over Europe.
-Even so, the growth of Nationalism in other countries was based on French
Revolutionary ideals (idea of Fraternity in French Rev).
-This was especially the case in Germany where weakness was blamed on political
division.
A Changed Political Map of Europe
-Holy Roman Empire Goes - Austria now its own thing 300 German States reduced
to 39. [More Catholic states than Protestant ones disappeared - no Habsburg would
again be elected emperor]
-Britain's mastery of the seas now total - there is for first time no other maritime
power for her to compete with (no Spain, Netherlands, or France)