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AP European History
The French Revolution
Overview: The French Revolution became the most momentous upheaval of the
revolutionary age.
► It replaced the “Old Regime” with a “modern society”
► It profoundly influenced future revolutions.
Chronology and periodization are very important for this unit.
The “Age of
Montesquieu”
(Constitutional
Monarchy)
1789-1792
Nat’l Assembly:
1789-1791
 Tennis Court Oath
 Storming of the
Bastille
 Great Fear and
abolition of
feudalism
 Civil Constitution
of the Clergy
 Declaration of the
Rights of Man
Legislative
Assembly: 1791-92
 Jacobins vs.
Girondins
 War of the First
Coalition
 Paris Commune
 September
Massacres
I.
The “Age of
Rousseau”
(The Republic)
1792-1799
Nat’l Convention:
1792-1795
 Creation of the
Republic
 Execution of Louis
XVI
 Committee of
Public Safety
 Reign of Terror
 Thermidorian
Reaction
The Directory:
1795-99
 Ruling
bourgeoisie vs.
aristocracy and
sans-culottes
 Coup d’etat
Brumaire
The “Age of
Voltaire”
(Napoleon’s Empire/
Enlightened Despot)
1799-1815
Consulate:
1799-1804
 Code Napoleon
 Concordat of 1801
 War of the 2nd
Coalition
Napoleonic
Empire: 1804-15
 Confederation of
the Rhine
 Continental
System
 Treaty of Tilsit
 Peninsular War
 Russian Campaign
 Waterloo
Louis XV (r. 1715-1774)
A. The nobility gained influence during his reign
B. His ministers and mistresses exercised undue influence on him, controlling affairs
of state and undermining the prestige of the monarchy
 Madame de Pompadour: most famous mistress of 18 th c. who influenced
Louis XV in making important gov’t decisions and giving advice on
appointments and foreign policy.
C. The high court of Paris—the Parlement—was restored with the power to approve
or disapprove the king’s decrees.
1. Once members the middle-class under Louis XIV, these judges had worked
their way up to the “nobility of the robe” (by purchasing their titles).
2. Louis sought to raise taxes to pay for the War of Austrian Succession and the
Seven Years’ War but the Parlement of Paris refused
 Thus, French kings in the 18th century suffered a similar struggle with
taxation that James I and Charles I suffered in England over a century
earlier.
 Judicial opposition in Paris and the provinces stated that the king could not
levy taxes without the consent of the Parlement of Paris, which acted as
the representative of the nation.
 Received major support from educated public opinion.
3. 1768, Louis XV appointed René de Maupeou as chancellor and ordered him
to subdue judicial opposition.
a. Parlement of Paris was abolished and its members exiled to isolated areas
in the provinces.
b. A new and docile parlement of royal officials was created.
c. Privileged groups were taxed once again.
d. Philosophes and educated public highly critical of the new parlement and
royal authority.
4. Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) dismissed Maupeou and repudiated Maupeou’s laws.
a. Old Parlement of Paris reinstated.
b. Although the public hoped for reforms leading to more representative
government, it was ultimately disappointed by the stalemate between the
monarchy and its judicial opponents.
II. Overview—France in 1789
A. France was in many ways the most advanced country of the 18th century.
1. Population of nearly 25 million made it the largest country in Europe.
2. Wealthiest country in Europe (but not per capita).
3. Productive economy: French exports larger than Britain’s to the European
continent.
4. French culture dominated the continent.
a. French was the language of official diplomacy and also spoken in most
European courts.
b. France was the center of the 18th century Enlightenment.
c. French science led the world.
d. Most powerful military in Europe.
B. The Three Estates were a remnant of medieval France and did not reflect the
modern French nation
1. The clergy (First Estate)
a. Less than 1% of population but the Catholic Church in France (Gallican
Church) owned 20% of the land.
b. Clergy and the Church were exempt from taxes.
 Much of church’s income was drained away from local parishes by
political appointees and high-ranking aristocrats.
c. However, conditions of the church and the position of the clergy have been
much exaggerated as a cause of the French Revolution.
 Though the French church levied a tithe on all agricultural products,
England did as well.
 Bishops both in England and France often played a part in gov’t affairs.
 The clergy and monastic orders had greatly declined by 1789 in the
wake of the Enlightenment
2. Nobility (Second Estate)
a. 2-4% of total population; exempt from taxation.
b. Owned about 25% of the land
c. Experienced a great resurgence since the death of Louis XIV in 1715.
d. Enjoyed certain manorial rights that dated back to medieval times that
allowed them to tax peasants for their own profit.
3. The Third Estate consisted of a few rich merchants or professionals, the
middle class, urban artisans, unskilled workers and the mass of peasants.
a. Bore the vast majority of tax burden.
 Taille: land tax
 Tithe: church tax equivalent to 10% of annual income.
 Income tax
 Poll tax
 Salt tax (gabelle
b. Peasants also had to honor feudal obligations such as taxes and fees.
 Peasants owned about 40% of land in France; occupied nearly all of
France.
 The Second Estate taxed the peasantry for its own profit.
o The corvèe obligated peasants to work for nobles several days a
year.
 Nobles enjoyed “hunting rights,” or the privilege of keeping game
preserves, and hunting on the peasant’s land.
 Yet, the relation of lord and peasant was not the same as with serfdom
in eastern Europe.
c. The Bourgeoisie demanded that political and social power be congruent
with their emerging economic power.
 Resented the First and Second Estates who held all political and social
power.
 Wanted reduction of privileges for the nobility and tax relief for
themselves.
 Hated the lettre de cachet: Gov’t could imprison anyone without
charges or trial.
III. Causes of the French Revolution
A. Long-Term Causes – Breakdown of the old order—ancien regime
1. The French Revolution was partly influenced by the American Revolution
a. Many French soldiers had served in America during the American
Revolution.
b. The French bourgeoisie and lower nobility were intrigued by American
ideals of liberty.
c. Massive French aid to the Americans resulted in an increase in the already
huge French debt
2. Increased criticism of the French gov’t was spurred by rising expectations of
the Enlightenment.
a. Political theories of Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu and other philosophers
were popular
b. Laissez faire economic ideas of French physiocrats (such as Quesnay) and
Adam Smith were popular among the middle class
 Middle class resented gov’t interference in their economic activities.
c. Criticism mounted of gov’t inefficiency, corruption, and privileges of the
aristocracy.
 The legal system was chaotic, with no uniform or codified laws.
d. Divine right theory invoked by the Crown did not fit in during the age of
“enlightened despots”.
 No representative assembly existed in France
3. The Three Estates did not reflect the realities of wealth and ability in French
society.
4. Historical interpretations of class conflict leading to the French Revolution
a. Traditional view:
 Bourgeoisie was united by economic position and class interest and
frustrated by feudal laws
 Eventually, rose up to lead the Third Estate in the Revolution which
resulted in abolition of feudal privileges and established a capitalist
order based on individualism and a market economy.
b. Recent research has challenged the traditional view.
 Revisionist historians have questioned the existence of a growing social
conflict between the bourgeoisie and feudal nobility.
 Bourgeoisie and nobility were not monolithic but were plagued by
internal rivalries.
 Both groups formed two parallel social ladders, increasingly linked at
the top by wealth, marriage, and Enlightenment culture.
o Nobility continued to accept the wealthiest members of middle class
into its ranks (as the “nobility of the robe”)
o Many nobles shared liberal ideas with the middle class.
o Until the revolution, the middle class was supported by judicial
opposition led by Parlement of Paris.
B. Immediate Cause: Financial Mismanagement
1. During the reign of Louis XVI, France was nearly bankrupt.
a. By the 1780s half of France’s annual budget went for payment of interest
on the mounting debt.
 Colonial wars with England.
 French participation in the American Revolution
 Yet, debt was only 50% of Britain’s and less than 1/5 as heavy per
capita; also less than Dutch Republic; about the same as sum left by
Louis XIV.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
b. Major issue: Gov’t could not declare bankruptcy as it had done in the past
 Aristocratic and bourgeois creditors did not allow their loans to be
repudiated by the monarchy.
c. France had no central bank, no paper currency, and no means of creating
credit.
 Only way for gov’t to get revenue was to increase taxes
Gov’t was dependent on the poorest classes in society for revenue despite its
having been taxed to its limit.
 Inefficiency and corruption of tax system hurt revenues.
Businessmen and merchants attacked France’s state-controlled mercantilist
economy for its restrictive features.
Inflation between 1730 and 1780s resulted in dramatic price increases while
wages did not keep up.
 Prices of consumer goods rose 65% while wages rose only 22%.
Privileged classes refused to pay increased taxes.
Louis XVI summoned an Assembly of Notables (1787) hoping they would
either approve the king’s new tax program or consent to remove their tax
exemptions.
a. Nobles refused tax increases and demanded that control over all gov’t
spending be given to the provincial assemblies (that nobles controlled).
b. Louis refused. Nobles demanded that sweeping tax changes required
approval of Estates General.
c. The king then dismissed the nobles and established new taxes by decree.
The Parlements controlled by the nobility, blocked tax increases as well as new
taxes in order to force the king to share power with the Second Estate.
a. Asserted some “fundamental laws” against which no king could violate such
as national consent to taxation and freedom from arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment.
b. King tried to exile judges but protests swept the country and investors
refused to advance more loans to the state.
c. On July 5, 1788, king reluctantly summoned for a spring session of Estates
General.


King asked that all parties study the tax situation and make proposals
on the organization of the Estates General under modern conditions.
Ironically, by forcing the summoning of the Estates General, the nobility
unwittingly initiated the Revolution.
C. Estates General-- May, 1789
1. Feudal assembly that represented the Three Estates
 Had only met twice: 1302 (its inception) & 1614.
2. 1788-89 excitement swept over France on the eve of its very first election.
3. “Cahiers de doléances”: Each estate was instructed to compile a list of
suggestions and grievances and present them to the king.
4. Common agreement among the Three Estates:
a. France should have a constitutional monarchy
b. Individual liberties must be guaranteed by law
c. Position of parish clergy had to be improved
d. Abolition of internal trade barriers
5. The main issue dividing the three estates was how the Estates General should
vote
a. Each Estate was expected to elect its own representatives.
b. Finance minister Jacques Necker oversaw the convening of the Estates
General and convinced Louis to double the number of representatives in
Third Estate as a gesture to its size.
 Almost all male commoners 25 years or older had the right to vote.
 Most representatives were well-educated and prosperous members of
the middle class (lawyers and gov’t officials).
 There were no delegates from the ranks of the peasantry and artisans.
c. Parlement of Paris ruled that voting in the Estates General would follow
the tradition of each Estate voting separately.
 First and Second Estates would thus control the Estates General as both
had similar interests to protect, despite increased size of Third Estate.
 The Third Estate was furious
d. The Abbé Sieyès was the most influential writer in
the 3rd Estate: wrote, What is the Third Estate?
 Claimed the Third Estate should have the power in France.
 Stated nobility should be abolished.
 Believed the Third Estate represented the vast majority of French
society
 Brought the ideas of Rousseau’s Social Contract to the forefront.
e. The election took place during the worst depression in 18th century France.
 Grain shortages, poor harvests, and inflated bread prices.
f. May 5, 1789: the Estates General met and the Third Estate was furious that
the voting method was by Estate and not per capita.
 Each estate was ordered to meet and vote separately.
 The Third Estate refused and insisted that the entire Estates General
vote together.
 A 6-week deadlock followed until the Third Estate asserted its power in
June, aided by some parish priests who defected from the First Estate.
IV. The French Revolution and the “Age of Montesquieu”
A. National Assembly, 1789-1791
1. June 17, the Third Estate declared itself the true National Assembly of France.
a. When locked out of their meeting place by Louis XVI they met instead in an
indoor tennis court.
b. Tennis Court Oath: The Third Estate swore to remain together until it had
given France a constitution.
c. Third Estate thus assumed sovereign power on behalf of the nation.
 In response, Louis XVI brought an army of 18,000 troops to Versailles
d. Defections from the 1st and 2nd Estates caused Louis XVI to recognize the
National Assembly on June 27, after he dissolved the Estates General.
e. National Assembly dominated by the bourgeoisie
f. Point of no return: the king was now allied with the nobles while the Third
Estate now feared the nobles more than ever.
g. July 11, Necker was removed, infuriating millions of French people who saw
him as an ally among the nobility. King was forced to bring him back.
2. Storming of the Bastille – July 14, 1789
a. “Parisian” revolution began in response to food shortages, soaring bread
prices, 25% unemployment, and fear of military repression.
 The king’s dismissal of his liberal finance minister, Necker, created fear
of subjugation by aristocratic landowners and grain speculators
 Workers and tradesmen began to arm themselves in response to the
king’s summoning of troops to Versailles.
b. On July 14, an angry mob stormed the Bastille in search of gunpowder and
weapons.
 The heads of the prison’s governor and the mayor were put on pikes
and paraded through the streets.
 Citizens appointed marquis de Lafayette commander of the city’s armed
forces.
 Paris was lost to the king.
c. The storming of the Bastille inadvertently saved the National Assembly.
 The king had been prepared to use force to put down the new
government
3. The “Great Fear” of 1789
a. The spirit of rebellion spread to the French countryside, sparking a wave of
violence.
b. Peasants attacked manor houses in an effort to destroy the legal records of
their feudal obligations.
c. Middle class landowners were also attacked.
d. Recent enclosures were undone, old common lands were reoccupied,
forests were seized, and taxes went unpaid.
e. The middle class responded by forming a National Guard Militia to protect
property rights.
4. August 4, National Assembly voted to abolish feudalism in France and declared
equality of taxation to all classes.
a. Constituted one of the two great social changes of the Revolution (the
other was the abolition of guilds)
 This was an attempt to stop further violence.
 Amounted to a peaceful social revolution
b. Ended serfdom (where it existed), exclusive hunting rights for nobles, fees
for justice, village monopolies, the corvée, and other dues.
c. Peasantry thus achieved a great and unprecedented victory.
 Henceforth, they would work to consolidate their gains.
 As the Great Fear ended, peasants became a force for order and
stability.
5. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen issued August 26, 1789
a. Became the constitutional blueprint for France.
 Influenced by American constitutional ideas
 Guaranteed due process of law; a citizen was innocent until proven
guilty.
 Sovereignty of the people.
b. Enlightenment philosophy: classical liberalism
 “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
 Natural rights are “liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression” (Locke)
 Law is expression of the “General Will” (Rousseau)
 Liberty defined as freedom to do anything not injurious to others, as
determined only by law
c. Freedom of expression and religion
d. Taxes could be raised only with common consent
e. All public servants accountable for conduct in office
f. Separation of powers through separate branches
g. Confiscation of property from private persons had to be done with fair
compensation.
h. “Citizen” applied to all French people, regardless of class
6. The unity of the National Assembly began to unravel when dealing with the
issue of the monarch’s power.
 This occurred shortly after the adoption of Declaration of Rights of Man.
7. Rights of Women
a. Women gained increased rights to divorce, to inherit property, and to get
child support from the fathers of their illegitimate children.
b. Drawback of Declaration of Rights: Women did not share in equal rights.
 Women could not vote or hold office while the existing system gave
males the advantage in family law, property rights, and education.
 At this point in history, there were very few that believed in gender
equality.
 Among the leaders of the revolution, only Condorcet argued for gender
equality.
c. Olympe de Gouges: The Rights of Woman, 1791
 Following the official Declaration of the Rights of Man in each of its 17
articles, she applied them to women explicitly in each case.
 Also asserted the right of women to divorce under certain conditions, to
control property in marriage, and equal access to higher education and
civilian careers and public employment.
d. Mary Wollstonecraft in England published Vindication of the Rights of
Woman in 1792.
 Ideas similar to de Gouges
e. Madame de Stael
 Ran a salon and wrote widely read books.
 Deplored subordination of women to men that the Revolution had done
so little to change.
8. Women’s march to Versailles (Oct. 1789)
a. Women pushed the revolution forward in October when shortages of bread
persisted.
b. Incited by Jean-Paul Marat, 7,000 women (along with the Paris national
guard) marched 12 miles from Paris to Versailles demanding the king
redress their economic problems.
 Unemployment resulting from reduced demand for garments
devastated women in the putting-out system.
c. Women invaded the royal apartments; slaughtered
bodyguards while searching for Queen Marie
Antoinette.
d. King and Queen forced to move to Paris to live at
the Tuleries, the royal residence in Paris

On the way back to Paris, the violent crowd chanted, “We have the
baker, the baker’s wife, and the baker’s little boy.”
 Louis XVI met with a group of women in the palace and signed decrees
guaranteeing bread in Paris at reasonable prices.
e. National Assembly also moved to Paris and was intimidated by the
Parisians.
 King’s power reduced to temporary veto in lawmaking process.
 King and Assembly made sure bread was available to the masses.
 The more conservative revolutionaries began to drop out of the
Assembly due to disillusionment by mob violence.
9. Creation of the constitution
a. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)
 In essence, secularized religion
 Created a national church with 83 bishops and dioceses.
 Biggest mistake made by the National Assembly; represented its first
significant failure
 Convents and monasteries abolished.
o Church property was confiscated to pay off the national debt.
o Significantly undermined religious orders and schools
 Archbishoprics abolished.
 All clergymen would be paid by the state and elected by all citizens.
 Protestants, Jews, and agnostics could legally take part in the elections
based on citizenship and property qualifications.
 Clergy forced to take a loyalty oath to the new gov’t (since the pope
had condemned the Revolution).
o Clergy forbidden to accept the authority of the pope.
 Result: deeply divided France over the issue of religion.
o Pope condemned the act as an attempt to subjugate the church.
o Half of French priests refused to accept it—“refactory clergy”
 They had the support of the king, former aristocrats, peasants,
and the urban working-class.
o The backlash later led to increased papal influence on the French
church during Napoleon’s rule and beyond.
b. France became a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral Legislative
Assembly
 Middle class controlled the gov’t through an indirect method of voting
and property qualifications.
 Half of males over 25 years eligible to vote
 Nobility was abolished
c. The National Assembly divided France into 83 departments governed by
elected officials.
 Replaced the old provincial boundary lines
d. New system of law courts gave France a uniform administrative structure:
83 dioceses, departments and judicial districts.
e. Weakness: Local communities enforced national legislation at their
discretion
 Proved ruinous when war came.
10. Economic reform—favored the middle rather than the lowest classes.
a. Metric system replaced sloppy system of weights and measures.
b. Le Chapelier Law (1791) outlawed strikes, workers coalitions and
assemblies
 Monopolies also were prohibited
c. Internal tariffs abolished
d. Assignats became the new paper currency
 Former church property was used to guarantee value of assignats.
e. Church land was sold to pay off the national debt
 Much of it was purchased by peasants.
11. Flight to Varennes, June 1791
a. Louis XVI tried to escape France in June, 1791 to
avoid having to approve the Constitution of 1791
and to raise a counter-revolutionary army with
émigré noblemen and seek help from foreign
powers.
b. He was captured and the King and Queen became
prisoners of the Parisian mobs.
c. King forced to accept a constitutional monarchy.
12. International reaction to the French Revolution
a. Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790)
 One of the great intellectual defenses of European conservatism.
 Defended inherited privileges, especially those of English monarchy and
aristocracy.
 Predicted anarchy and dictatorship in France.
 Advised England to go slow in adapting its own liberties.
 Denounced political philosophy based on abstract principles of right and
wrong.
 Believed nations should be shaped by national circumstance, national
history, and national character.
 Eventually, Burke came to urge war as an ideological struggle against
French barbarism.
b. Thomas Paine: Rights of Man (1791)
 Responded to Burke’s argument by defending Enlightenment principles
and France’s revolution.
 Saw triumph of liberty over despotism.
c. Kings and nobles of Europe, some of which initially
welcomed the Revolution, began to feel
threatened when it became more radical.
B. Legislative Assembly, 1791-1792
1. A completely new group of legislators replaced the National Assembly in the
new government.
a. Members of the National Assembly had agreed that no one in that group
would take part in the new gov’t.
b.
New gov’t reflected emergence of political factions in the revolution
competing for power—most important were republican groups.
 Members were younger and less cautious than members of the National
Assembly.
c. Jacobins, named after their political club, came to dominate the Legislative
Assembly
 The Girondins, a group of Jacobins, became the left or advanced party
of the Revolution in the Legislative Assembly and led the country into
war.
 Passionately committed to liberal revolution.
d. Domestic problems
 Nation became sharply polarized.
 Economic and political chaos mounted.
2. War was the main issue during the period of the Legislative Assembly
a. Declaration of Pillnitz issued by Prussia and Austria in August, 1791.
 Émigrés, French nobles who fled France beginning in 1789, influenced
Prussia and Austria to declare the restoration of the French monarchy
as their goal.
o Preached a kind of holy war.
 The Austrian Emperor, Leopold, would be willing to take military steps
to restore order to France if all other powers joined him.
He did not expect to receive unanimous agreement among all the
Great Powers
 The Declaration was really a bluff intended to slow down the revolution
and rid himself of French émigrés.
 Leopold misjudged French revolutionary sentiment and Republican
sentiment in France gained strength in response to the Declaration
b. Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria in April, 1792.
 Fueled by ideological fervor and anti-Austrian sentiment.
 Girondins became the party of international revolution.
o Claimed the Revolution could never be secure in France until it
spread to the world.
c. War of the First Coalition (1792-1797)
 French revolutionary forces were soundly defeated by the Austrian
military.
 Only the conflict between eastern monarchs over the division of Poland
saved France from defeat.
 Intensified existing unrest and dissatisfaction of unpropertied classes.
d. Jacobins blamed their defeat on Louis XVI, believing him to be part of a
conspiracy with Prussia and Austria.
e. Brunswick Manifesto (July 25, 1792): issued by Prussia and Austria;
threatened to destroy Paris if the royal family was harmed.
 In response to Brunswick Manifesto, Jacobin-incited mobs seized power
in Paris.
 Revolutionary sentiment was stoked by Robespierre, Danton, and the
journalist, Marat
 August 10, 1792: Tuleries (the king’s palace in Paris) was stormed
and the King was taken prisoner, after fleeing to the Legislative
Assembly.
o Swiss Guards were defeated and many were murdered by the
Parisian mob.
 Marked the beginning of the “Second Revolution”
3. Paris Commune
a. Revolutionary municipal gov’t was set up in Paris, which effectively usurped
the power of the Legislative Assembly.
b. Led by Georges-Jacques Danton
c. At the urging of radicals, the Legislative Assembly suspended the
Constitution of 1791.
d. Ordered new elections based on universal male suffrage to summon a new
national convention to give France a republican form of gov’t.
4. September Massacres: (led by the Paris Commune)
a. Rumors spread that imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats and
priests were plotting with foreign invaders.
 The Prussian army’s invasion of eastern France increased popular
hysteria.
b. In response, mobs slaughtered over a thousand priests, bourgeoisie, and
aristocrats who opposed their program; many were in prison.
 Most of the revolution’s remaining foreign supporters were shocked by
the violence.
o
V. The “Age of Rousseau”: 1792-1799
A. The National Convention, 1792-1795
1. France was proclaimed a republic on Sept. 21, 1792
a. Abolished the monarchy; installed republicanism.
b. Based on the ideals of Equality, Liberty, Fraternity
c. A majority of the members of National Convention were Jacobins and
republicans, largely well-educated middle class.
2. Two factions emerged among the Jacobins:
a. The Mountain: radical republicans; urban class
 Its leaders, Danton and Robespierre, sat on the uppermost left-hand
benches of the assembly hall.
b. Girondins: more moderate than the Mountain and predominantly rural
3. The sans-culottes became very influential on the National Convention
a. Predominantly from the working-class; extremely radical.
 Were a separate faction from those of the National Convention and had
an economic agenda.
b. Their violence and influence kept the revolution moving forward
 Responsible for storming the Bastille, marching to Versailles, driving the
king from the Tuleries, and the September Massacres.
 They feared the National Convention might be too moderate.
c. Favored direct democracy in their neighborhood clubs and assemblies,
together with a mass rising if necessary against the Convention itself.
4. Revolutionary army won victories in the fall of 1792
a. Prussians were stopped at the indecisive Battle of Valmy on Sept. 20,
1792.
 Great moral victory for the National Convention
b. Battle of Jemappes: first major victory for France resulted in the occupation
of the entire Austrian Netherlands by November 1792.
5. In February 1793, the National Convention declared
war on Britain, Holland and Spain, in addition to its
war with Austria and Prussia—First Coalition
6. Louis XVI was convicted of treason and executed in January 1793.
a. King was accused of having conspired with Austria against the Revolution
b. Those who voted for regicide now had to preserve the gov’t for they would
lose their lives if royalists returned to power.
c. Republic’s military fortunes were in a state of crisis by spring of 1793
7. May 1793: The “Mountain” (“Jacobins”) supported
by the sans-culottes ousted the Girondins
a. The Mountain believed the Girondins would ally with
conservatives and royalists to retain power.
b. Enragés—radical working class leaders of Paris—
seized & arrested 31 Girondist members of National
Convention and left the Mountain in control.
 Even more radical than the sans-culottes
c. The revolutionary government had finally lost the
confidence of much of France.
d. Many Girondins fled Paris and worked against the Revolution.
 Marat was stabbed by Charlotte Corday, a supporter of the Girondist
faction, in 1793.
 See Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) famous neoclassical painting
“The Death of Marat”
8. Jacobins closed women’s political clubs by 1793-94
B. Committee of Public Safety (1793-94)
1. By the summer of 1793, the Committee of Public Safety became an
emergency gov’t to deal with internal and external challenges to the
revolution.
2. Led by Maximilien Robespierre (1753-1794)
a. Influenced heavily by the ideas of Rousseau and fanatically supported
revolutionary idealism
b. Louis Saint-Just also was a major leader alongside Robespierre.
3. Committee closely collaborated with the sans-culottes
4. Law of Maximum: a planned economy to respond to food shortages and
related economic problems.
5.
6.
7.
8.
a. Would enable France to wage total war against its external enemies.
b. Gov’t decreed maximum allowable prices, fixed in paper assignats, for key
products.
c. Price of bread fixed at levels poor could afford.
d. Rationing introduced to make sure bread was shared fairly.
e. Gov’t nationalized many small workshops and requisitioned raw materials
and grain from peasants.
f. Arms and munitions were produced for war effort.
g. In effect, it was an early version of socialism.
Slavery was abolished in the French colonies (Santo Domingo and Haiti)
Military victory
a. Lazare Carnot reorganized the French army.
 Lévee en masse: the entire nation conscripted into service as war was
defined as a national mission.
 Size of army grew to 1 million men; unprecedented in history of
European warfare.
b. By July 1794, the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland were once again
controlled by France.
 The First Coalition was falling apart.
c. The planned economy made mobilization effective.
d. Nationalism became a strong force uniting French people.
e. Victories led to relaxation of emergency controls but the Reign of Terror
extended.
Reign of Terror (1793-94)
a. Most notorious event of the French Revolution.
b. Law of Suspects: Alleged enemies of the revolution were brought before
Revolutionary Tribunals that were created to hear cases of treason
 Instituted as an alternative to the lynch law of the September
massacres.
c. Queen Marie Antoinette executed later in the year.
d. About 40,000 people throughout France executed or died in prison; many
by the guillotine.
e. Executions became a spectator sport.
f. The terror became a political weapon; not directed at any class in
particular.
 8% were nobles
 14% bourgeoisie (mainly from rebellious southern cities)
 6% clergy
 70% peasant and laboring classes.
 Most deaths occurred in places in open revolt against the Convention,
such as the Vendée in western France.
 Another 300,000 were imprisoned
g. Eventually, no one could feel safe from Robespierre’s reign of terror as
leading Jacobins who opposed Robespierre were eventually executed
 Girondists were executed in September of 1793 (including Charlotte
Corday who assassinated Marat)
 Jacques Hébert, radical social democrat who led the “angry men”—
Hébertistes were his followers.
o Hébertistes were a party of extreme terror
o Most of its leaders were executed in March 1794.
o Had been responsible for deaths of 2,000 people at Nantes where
they were loaded on barges and deliberately drowned.
o Paris Commune was thus destroyed.
 Danton and his followers were executed in April, 1794
“Republic of Virtue” emerged as new political culture under Robespierre to
inculcate revolutionary virtue
a. Cult of the Supreme Being introduced in June, 1794

Deistic natural religion, in which the Republic was declared to recognize
the existence of God and the immortality of the soul.
 Notre Dame Cathedral was converted into the “Temple of Reason”
b. The Revolutionary Calendar was instituted to eliminate religious and
royalists influences as well as to support the move toward the metric
system.
 Lasted until 1805 when Napoleon discontinued it.
c. Catholics were now firmly against Convention.
9. End of the Terror
a. Opposition to Robespierre mounted in July, 1794
 July 27, 1794, Robespierre was denounced in the Convention, arrested,
and executed the next day, along with his close associates.
o Some followers of the Enlightenment who were influenced by the
ideas of Voltaire, helped bring about Robespierre’s downfall.
 After death of Danton, many in the National Assembly feared they
might be next.
 Working-class radicals no longer supported him after deaths of Hébert
and other left-wing radicals.
b. Thermidorian Reaction (1794): ended reign of terror.
 Constituted a significant swing to the right (conservatism).
 Respectable bourgeois middle-class lawyers and professionals who had
led liberal Revolution of 1789 reasserted their authority.
 Reduced powers of the Committee of Public Safety and closed the
Jacobin club.
 Girondins were readmitted.
C. The Directory: 1795-1799
1. New constitution written in 1795 which set up a republican form of gov’t.
a. A new assembly chose a five-member executive to govern France: the
Directory
b. Bicameral legislature
c. Executive was the Directory, made up of 5 directors.
d. Almost all adult males were able to vote but they only voted for “electors.”
e. Office holding was reserved to property owners.
2. Middle class controlled the government
a. This became the Directory’s major weakness as it’s support came from a
narrow band of French society.
b. All economic controls were removed which ended the influence of the sansculottes.
 More paper money was printed.
 Allowed prices to rise sharply.
 Middle class sought peace in order to gain more wealth and to establish
a society where money and property determined prestige and power.
c. Directory in 1795 disbanded women’s workshops and urged women to tend
to their homes
3. Challenges to the Directory
a. October, 1795, the aristocracy attempted a royalist uprising.
 Reaction to a provision in the constitution stated that 2/3 of men
elected to the legislature had to be ex-members of the National
Convention of 1789-91.
 Rebellion put down with the help of Napoleon Bonaparte who happened
to be in Paris at the time.
 Thus, the constitutional republic made itself dependent on military
protection at the outset.
b. Sans-culottes repeatedly criticized the gov’t and its economic policies but
did not have the influence to force change
c. Conspiracy of Equals led by “Gracchus” Babeuf formed to overthrow
the Directory and replace it with a dictatorial “democratic” gov’t which
would abolish private property and enforce equality.
 Regarded as a precursor to modern communism.
 The Directory repressed the Conspiracy of Equals without difficulty and
guillotined Babeuf.
d. Growing inflation and mass public dissatisfaction mounted but was ignored
by the Directory.
 Gov’t was bankrupt, corrupt and unwilling to control inflation that
severely hurt the impoverished masses of French peasants.
e. Elections in April 1797 resulted in victory for royalists right but the results
were annulled by the Directory.
 A dictatorship favorable to the revolution established—“Post
Fructidorian Terror”
 Idea of maintaining the republic as a free or constitutional gov’t was
abandoned.
4. Military successes during the Directory enabled it to remain in power until
1799.
a. First Coalition was effectively defeated by 1797.
b. England was isolated; removed its army from the Continent.
c. France defeated English armies in Egypt—Battle of the Pyramids (1798)
 However, Napoleon later had his navy destroyed by England’s Lord
Horatio Nelson in the Battle of the Nile (1798)
5. End of the Directory
a. A conspiracy emerged to save the Revolution and prevent a royalist return
to power.
b. Abbé Sieyès, the leader of the conspiracy, invited Napoleon to join
conspirators and overthrow the Directory; he did so upon returning from
Egypt with his forces.
c. Coup d’Ètat Brumaire, November, 1799
 Upon returning from Egypt with his forces, Napoleon drove legislators
from the Legislative Assembly.
 A new constitution established beginning the Consulate Era.
 A plebiscite (general referendum) overwhelmingly approved:
3,011,007 to 1,562.
French Social Classes in the Revolution & Empire: 1799-1815
Social
Class
Monarchy
Clergy
The “Age of
Montesquieu”
(Constitutional
Monarchy)
1789-1792
Power no longer
absolute:
Constitutional
monarchy
 Civil Constitution
of the Clergy
made Church a
dep’t of the gov’t
 Clergy members
required to take
an oath to the
gov’t
 Church lands
confiscated
Nobility
 Political influence
eclipsed by the
bourgeoisie
 Feudalism
(seigneurialism)
abolished
Middle
Class
(Bourgeoisie)
 Took control of
France in July,
1789
 Noble privileges
abolished
 Declaration of
the Rights of
Man resulted in
codification of
political, social
and civil rights
 Reforms in
higher education
Social
Class
The “Age of
Montesquieu”
(Constitutional
Monarchy)
The “Age of
Rousseau”
(Republic)
The “Age of
Voltaire”
(Napoleon)
1792-1799
 King and queen
executed
 Republic had no
monarch
 Revolutionary
Calendar
replaced the
Christian
calendar
 The Cult of the
Supreme Being
further
undermined the
Catholic Church
1799-1815
Napoleon
became emperor
with absolute
power
 Concordat of
1801 restored
relations with
the Catholic
Church
 “Refactory
clergy”
reinstated while
clergy loyal to
the Revolution
were removed
 Church was far
weaker than in
1789
 Many èmigrès
returned to
France
 Increased
influence in
Napoleon’s
imperial
nobility
 Imprisoned or
fled the country
as émigrés
between 1791-95
 Later influence
undermined the
Directory
 In rural areas,
patriotic nobles
remained most
politically and
economically
powerful group
 Lost influence
between 179295 as a result of
the San culottes
and the Reign of
Terror
 Back in control
during the
Directory but
under attack
from the right
and the left
The “Age of
Rousseau”
(Republic)
 Constitution of
1799 did not
guarantee
human rights
or liberty
 Political
freedoms of
bourgeoisie
wiped away
 Some gained
noble titles &
served in
Napoleon’s
gov’t
The “Age of
Voltaire”
(Napoleon)
PostNapoleon
Constitutional
monarchy;
Bourbons were
restored
 Church never
did regain the
influence it
had prior to
1789
 Significant
influence
politically
(though not
as much as
before 1789)
 Feudalism
abolished
since 1789
 Nobles
continued to
dominate
rural areas
 Reduced
influence
until the
Revolution of
1830
PostNapoleon
Urban
Working
Class
Peasantry
Women
1789-1792
 Saw increased
influence in
Paris (e.g.
storming of the
Bastille)
 Guilds dissolved
providing more
job
opportunities for
artisans.
 Le Chapelier
Law (1791)
outlawed
strikes, workers
coalitions and
assemblies
 Bread was more
affordable
 “Great Fear”
resulted in some
gains for the
peasantry
 Feudalism
abolished
 Wealthy
peasants bought
confiscated
church lands
 Women
influential in
March on
Versailles and in
san-culottes
 Gained equal
right to divorce
and increased
property
inheritance
rights
 Child support
from fathers of
illegitimate kids
 Workshops in
cities employed
more poor
women
1792-1799
 San-culottes
enjoyed major
influence from
1791-95
 Land gains
remained but
lords continued
to hold the most
political and
economic power
in rural areas
 Heavily taxed by
the Republic
 Women’s
political clubs
closed by
Jacobins by
1793-94
 Reign of Terror
also targeted
certain women
(e.g. Olympe de
Gouges)
 Directory in
1795 disbanded
women’s
workshops and
urged women to
tend to their
homes
1799-1815
 Ban on trade
unions
continued
 Workers were
restricted in
their travel
 Established
reasonable
prices for
bread & flour
 Napoleon
supported the
ban on
feudalism
 Indirect
taxation was
as bad as
during the Old
Regime
 Divorce laws
rewritten to
favor
husbands
 Gains in
inheritance
and property
rights were
removed
 Guilds
remained
illegal
 Little
influence
until after
1830
 Increased
socialist
influence
during
Revolution of
1848
 Wealthier
peasants
were only
group to
improve
between
1799 and
1815
 Rural poor
gained little
from the
Revolution
Women
essentially
gained little
from the
Revolution
(although their
actions did
inspire future
reformers)
I. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
A. Born of Italian descent to a prominent Corsican family on the French island of Corsica.
B. Military genius who specialized in artillery
C. An avid “child of the Enlightenment” and Revolution.
D. Associated with the Jacobins and advanced rapidly in the army due to vacancies caused
by the emigration of aristocratic officers.
E. Eventually inspired a divided country during the Directory period into a unified nation but
at the price of individual liberty.
II. Consulate Period: 1799-1804 (Enlightened Reform)
A. Took power on December 25, 1799 with the constitution giving supreme power to
Napoleon.
1. As First Consul, Napoleon behaved more as an absolute ruler than a revolutionary
statesman.
2. Sought to govern France by demanding loyalty to the state, rewarding ability and
creating an effective hierarchical bureaucracy.
 However, wealth determined status
3. Napoleon may be thought of as the last and most eminent of the enlightened despots.
B. Reforms
1. Napoleon Code— Legal unity provided first clear and complete codification of French
Law
a. Perhaps the longest lasting legacy of Napoleon’s rule.
 Included a civil code, code of criminal procedure, a commercial code and a penal
code.
 Emphasized the protection of private property
b. Resulted in strong central gov’t and administrative unity.
c. Many achievements of the Revolution were made permanent.
 Equality before the law: no more estates, legal classes, privileges, local liberties,
hereditary offices, guilds, or manors.
 Freedom of religion
 State was secular in character
 Property rights
 Abolition of serfdom
 Gave women inheritance rights
d. Denied women equal status with men (except inheritance rights)
 Women and children were legally dependent on their husband or father.
 Divorce was more difficult to obtain than during the Revolution
 Women could not buy or sell property or begin a business without the consent of
their husbands.
 Income earned by wives went to their husbands
 Penalties for adultery were far more severe for women than men
2. “Careers Open to talent”
a. Citizens theoretically were able to rise in gov’t service purely according to their
abilities.
b. However, a new imperial nobility was created to reward the most talented generals
& officials.
c. Wealth determined status
 The middle class benefited significantly
 The gov’t rewarded wealthy people who effectively served the state with
pensions, property or titles.
o Over ½ of titles were given to those who had served in the military
 Napoleon created 3,600 titles between 1808 and 1814
Yet, the number of nobles in France in 1814 only totaled 1/7 of the nobles
that had existed in the Old Regime.
Neither military commissions nor civil offices could
be bought and sold.
Granted amnesty to 100K émigrés in return for a loyalty oath.
 Many soon occupied high posts in the expanding state.
Some nobles from foreign countries (e.g. Italy, Netherlands and Germany) served
the empire with distinction
Working-class movement (e.g. sans-culottes) was no longer politically significant.
 Workers were denied the right to form trade unions
o
d.
e.
f.
g.
3. Religious reforms:
a. Concordat of 1801 with Roman Catholic Church
 Napoleon’s motives:
o Making peace with the Church would help weaken its link to monarchists who
sought a restoration of the Bourbons.
o Religion would help people accept economic inequalities in French society
 Provisions:
o The pope renounced claims to Church property that had been seized during
the Revolution
o French gov’t had power to nominate or depose bishops.
o In return, priests who had resisted the Civil Constitutions of the Clergy would
replace those who had sworn an oath to the state.
o Since the pope gave up claim to Church lands, those citizens who had
acquired them pledged loyalty to Napoleon’s gov’t.
o Catholic worship in public was allowed.
o Church seminaries were reopened.
o Extended legal toleration to Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and atheists who all
received same civil rights.
o Replaced the Revolutionary Calendar with the Christian calendar.
b. To dispel the notion of an established church, Napoleon put Protestant ministers of
all denominations on the state payroll.
4. Financial unity
a. Bank of France (1800) served the interests of the state and the financial
oligarchy.
 A revived version of one of the banks of the Old Regime.
b. The gov’t balanced the national budget
c. Established sound currency and public credit.
 This was far superior to the chaos surrounding the assignats during the
Revolution.
d. Economic reforms stimulated the economy:
 Provided food at low prices
 Increased employment
 Lowered taxes on farmers
 Guaranteed that church lands redistributed during the Revolution remained in
hands of the new owners, mostly peasants.
 Created an independent peasantry that would be the backbone of French
democracy.
 Tax collections became more efficient.
 Workers were not allowed to form guilds or trade unions
o Retained the Le Chapelier Law of 1791
5. Educational reforms were based on a system of public education under state control
a. Rigorous standards; available to the masses
b. Secondary and higher education (called lycées) was reorganized to prepare young
men for gov’t service and professional occupations.
c. Education became important in determining social standing: one system for those
who could spend 12 or more years at school; the other for boys who entered work
force at age of 12 or 14.
d. Napoleon sought to increase the size of the middle class.
6. Creation of a police state.
a. Spy system kept thousands of citizens under continuous surveillance.
b. After 1810, political suspects were held in state prisons, as they had been during
the Terror.
 2,500 political prisoners existed in 1814.
c. Gov’t ruthlessly put down opposition, especially guerrillas in the west in provinces
of the Vendèe and Brittany.
d. Most publicly notorious action was the 1804 arrest and execution of a Bourbon, the
duke of Enghien, who had allegedly took part in a plot against Napoleon.
 There was no evidence he was involved with the plot
 European public opinion was livid
7. Drawbacks of Napoleon’s reforms
a. Severe inequality for women (see above)
b. Workers not allowed to form trade unions
c. Repressed liberty, subverted republicanism, and restored absolutism in France
through the creation of a police state
d. Practiced nepotism by placing his relatives on the thrones of nations he conquered
(see below)
III.Napoleonic Wars during the Consulate Era
A. The series of wars were usually short and distinct.
1. Only Britain was at war continually with France at this time.
2. The four Great Powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia) did not fight France
simultaneously until 1813.
a. Nations were willing to ally with Napoleon for their own foreign policy benefit.
b. Only gradually, after Napoleon had conquered Italy, did they decide Napoleon had
to be defeated for a peaceful Europe.
B. War of the Second Coalition: 1798-1801
1. Napoleon had his navy destroyed by England’s Lord Horatio Nelson in the Battle of the
Nile (1798).
 Napoleon and the French army were thus isolated in North Africa.
2. Napoleon was victorious in the war, nevertheless
3. Treaty of Lunèville (1801)
a. Ended the Second Coalition
b. Resulted in Austria’s loss of its Italian possessions
c. German territory on the west bank of the Rhine was incorporated into France.
d. Russia retreated from western Europe when they saw their ambitions in the
Mediterranean blocked by the British.
e. Britain again was isolated.
C. Peace Interim, 1802
1. Treaty of Amiens with Britain in 1802 temporarily suspended war between Britain and
France
a. Hoping to increase its trade with the Continent, Britain agreed to return Trinidad
and Caribbean islands it had seized from France in 1793.
b. France remained in control of Holland, Austrian Netherlands, west bank of the
Rhine, and most of Italian peninsula.
c. To the dismay of Britain, the treaty did not expand commerce between Britain and
the Continent.
 Treaty clearly a victory for Napoleon.
d. Britain technically violated treaty by failing to evacuate the island of Malta, thus
provoking a new war with Napoleon
2. Napoleon reorganized the Confederation of Switzerland.
3. Napoleon sent a large army to Haiti to subdue a slave rebellion
a. French forces were decimated by disease and slave rebels.
b. He thus sold Louisiana to U.S. as his hopes for re-creating an American empire
were squelched by problems in the Caribbean and an impending war with Britain.
IV. Empire Period, 1804-1814 (War and Defeat)
A. Dec 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself hereditary Emperor of France in Notre-Dame
Cathedral.
1. Hoped to preempt plans of royalists to return the Bourbons to the throne
2. Believed an empire was necessary for France to maintain and expand its influence
throughout Europe.
a. Napoleon viewed himself as a liberator who freed foreign peoples from the
absolute rulers who oppressed them.
b. His domination over other nations unleashed the forces of nationalism in those
countries which ultimately resulted in his downfall
B. The Grand Empire
1. Beginning in 1805, Napoleon engaged in constant warfare
2. Eventually, Napoleon achieved the largest empire since Roman times (although it
was only temporary)
a. France extended to the Rhine, including Belgium and Holland, the German coast
to the western Baltic, and the Italian coast extending down to Rome.
b. Dependent satellite kingdoms where Napoleon put his appointees on the throne:
 Confederation of the Rhine
 Brother, Joseph Bonaparte, became king of Spain in 1808.
 Youngest brother, Jerome, became king of Westphalia.
 Brother, Louis, was king of Holland for 6 years before Napoleon had him
removed and incorporated Holland into France.
 Italy
o His sister, Caroline, became Queen of Naples
o Lombardy, Venice and Papal States ruled by his step-son
o Abolished feudalism and reformed the social, political, and economic
structures.
o He decided against creating a unified Italy since it might one day threaten
his influence.
 Duchy of Warsaw
 Illyrian Provinces, which included Trieste and the Dalmatian coast.
3. Independent but allied states included: Austria, Prussia and Russia.
4. All countries of the Grand Empire saw the introduction of some of the main principles
of the French Revolution.
a. Notable exception: no self-gov’t through elected legislative bodies.
b. Initially, Napoleon was supported by commercial and professional classes who
supported the Enlightenment.
c. Repression and exploitation eventually turned his conquered territories against him.
 Conscription into the French army
 Higher taxes (while taxes in France were lowered)
 Continental System
d. Enlightenment reformers believed Napoleon had betrayed the ideals of the
Revolution.
C. War of the Third Coalition: (1805-1807)
1. In 1803, Napoleon began preparations to invade Great Britain.
2. In 1805, Austria signed an alliance with Britain.
3. Coalition was complete with the addition of Russia under Tsar Alexander I
(grandson of Catherine the Great) and Sweden
4. Napoleon’s conquest of Italy convinced Russia and Austria that Napoleon was threat
to balance of power.
5. Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805
a. French and Spanish fleets were destroyed by the British navy under the
command of Lord Horatio Nelson, off the Spanish coast.
 Established supremacy of British navy for over a century.
b. French invasion of Britain no longer feasible
c. Though killed in the battle, Nelson became one of the great military h eroes in
English history.
6. Battle of Austerlitz, December, 1805 (Moravia)
a. Alexander I pulled Russian troops out of the battle, giving Napoleon another
victory
b. Austria accepted large territorial losses in return for peace.
c. Third Coalition collapsed.
d. Napoleon was now the master of western and central Europe
e. In commemoration of his victory, Napoleon commissioned the Arc de Triomphe
in 1806
 Using a classical style, the Arc hearkened back to the Roman Empire when
the Caesars would build arches to signify important victories.
 Napoleon was clearly emphasizing the conquest of an empire
7. Prussia was twice defeated by Napoleon in 1806 at the Battle of Jena and at
Auerstadt
8. Alexander I of Russia sought peace after Napoleon won another victory in spring of
1807.
9. Treaty of Tilsit, June 1807
a. Provisions:
 Prussia lost half its population in lands ceded to France.
 Russia accepted Napoleon’s reorganization of western and central Europe.
 Russia also agreed to accept Napoleon’s Continental System.
b. In many ways, the treaty represented the height of Napoleon’s success.
 French and Russian empires became allies, mainly against Britain.
 Alexander accepted Napoleon’s domination of western Europe
 France continued to occupy Berlin and enjoyed increased control in western
Germany
D. Reorganization of Germany
1. After soundly defeating the two most powerful and influential German states—Austria
and Prussia—Napoleon reorganized Germany.
2. He consolidated many of the nearly 300 independent political entities.
a. Confederation of the Rhine: 15 German states minus Austria, Prussia, and
Saxony.
 Napoleon named himself “Protector” of the Confederation.
 Many tiny German states abolished.
b. Holy Roman Empire was abolished; emperor had traditionally been ruler of Austria.
c. A new kingdom of Westphalia was created out of all Prussian territories west of the
Elbe and territories taken from Hanover.
 Ended serfdom and gave peasants the right to own land and move about freely
d. Napoleon unwittingly awoke German nationalism due to France’s domination and
repression of the German states.
E. The Continental System
1. Napoleon decided to wage economic warfare against Britain after his loss at the Battle
of Trafalgar.
 Through shifting alliances, Britain had consistently maintained the balance of power
against France.
2. Berlin Decree, 1806: Napoleon sought to starve Britain by closing ports on the
Continent to British commerce.
 Napoleon coerced Russia, Prussia, neutral Denmark and Portugal, and Spain all to
adhere to the boycott in the Treaty of Tilsit (1807).
3. England, in response, issued the “order in council”: neutrals might enter Continental
ports only if they first stopped in Great Britain.
a. Regulations encouraged these ships to be loaded with British goods before
continuing on to the Continent.
b. British sought to strangle French trade, not French imports of British goods.
4. Milan Decree, 1807: Napoleon’s response to the “order in council”
 Any neutral ship entering a British port, or submitting to a British warship at sea,
would be confiscated by if it attempted to enter a Continental port.
5. War of 1812: U.S. eventually declared war against Britain in defense of its neutral
shipping rights.
6. Continental System ultimately was a major failure
a. Caused widespread opposition to Napoleon’s rule in Europe.
b. Imports from America enjoyed high demand in Continental Europe.
c. European industries could not equal Britain’s industrial output.
d. Without railroads, the Continental system was impossible to maintain.
e. Shippers, shipbuilders, and international merchants, a powerful element of the
older bourgeoisie, were ruined.
 Eastern Europeans especially were hard hit as they had no industry and were
dependent on imports.
f. British made up lost trade with Europe by expanding exports to Latin America.
F. The Peninsular War (1808-1814)
1. First great revolt against Napoleon’s power occurred in Spain.
2. When Napoleon tried to tighten his control over Spain by replacing the Spanish King
with his brother, Joseph, the Spanish people waged a costly guerrilla war.
a. Aided by the British under one of their ablest commanders, Duke of Wellington.
b. France suffered from Britain’s counter-blockade resulting in the Continental
System’s failure.
c. Looking for a scapegoat, Napoleon turned on Alexander I of Russia, who had
actually supported his blockade against Britain.
G. 1810, Napoleon married Marie Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the Austrian emperor
and niece of Marie Antoinette.
 By marriage, Napoleon was now nephew of Louis XVI and he began to show more
consideration to French noblemen of the Old Regime.
H. Russian Campaign (1812)
1. Napoleon invaded Russia in June of 1812, with his Grand Army of 600,000
a. Only 1/3 of his forces were French.
b. Cause: Russians withdrew from the Continental System due to economic hardships
it had caused.
2. Battle of Borodino, 1812, ended in a draw with the Russians retreating in good
order.
 Napoleon had thus overextended himself.
3. Napoleon forced to retreat from Moscow after 5 weeks during the brutal Russian winter
due to the “scorched earth” tactic of the Russians.
 Russians evacuated, then burned Moscow and refused to negotiate.
4. Only 30,000 men in Napoleon’s army returned to their homelands.
a. 400,000 died of battle casualties, starvation, and exposure.
b. 100,000 were taken prisoner.
5. Napoleon raced home to raise another army while Austria and Prussia deserted
Napoleon and joined Russia and Great Britain in the Fourth Coalition.
I. War of the Fourth Coalition: (1813-1814) Britain, Russia, Austria & Prussia
1. Battle of Leipzig (“Battle of Nations”), October, 1813: Napoleon finally defeated
a. Napoleon lost 500K of his 600K Grand Army
b. Largest battle in world history until 20th century.
2. Napoleon refused to accept terms of Austrian foreign minister Metternich’s “Frankfurt
Proposals” to reduce France to its historical size in return for his remaining on the
throne
3. Quadruple Alliance created in March, 1814
 Each power agreed to provide 150,000 soldiers to enforce peace terms.
4. Napoleon abdicated as emperor on April 4, 1814 after allied armies entered Paris.
5. Bourbons were restored to the throne: Louis XVIII
a. Charter of 1814: king created a two-house legislature that represented only the
upper classes.
 First constitution in European history issued by a monarch.
b. Restoration maintained most of Napoleon’s reforms such as the Code Napoleon, the
Concordat with the pope, and the abolition of feudalism.
6. The “first” Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814
a. France surrendered all territory gained since the Wars of the Revolution had begun
in 1792.
b. Allied powers imposed no indemnity or reparations (after Louis XVIII had refused to
pay).
7. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba as a sovereign with an income from France.
8. Quadruple Alliance agreed to meet in Vienna to work out a general peace settlement.
V. Congress of Vienna (September 1814-June 1815)
A. Representatives of major powers of Europe, including France, met to redraw territorial
lines and to try and restore the social and political order of the ancien regime
B. The “Big Four”: Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia
1. Klemens Von Metternich represented Austria.
a. Epitomized conservative reaction.
b. Opposed to the ideas of liberals and reformers because of the impact such forces
would have on the multinational Hapsburg Empire.
2. England represented by Lord Castlereagh.
 Sought a balance of power by surrounding France with larger and stronger states.
3. Czar Alexander I represented Russia
 Demanded “free” and “independent” Poland, with himself as its king.
4. Prussia sought to recover Prussian territory lost to Napoleon in 1807 and gain
additional territory in northern Germany (Saxony).
5. France later became involved in the deliberations.
 Represented by Talleyrand, the French Foreign Minister.
C. Principles of Settlement: Legitimacy, Compensation, Balance of Power
1. “Legitimacy” meant returning to power the ruling families deposed by more than two
decades of revolutionary warfare.
a. Bourbons restored in France, Spain, and Naples.
b. Dynasties restored in Holland, Sardinia, Tuscany and Modena.
c. Papal States were returned to the Pope.
2. “Compensation” meant territorially rewarding those states which had made
considerable sacrifices to defeat Napoleon.
a. England received naval bases (Malta, Ceylon, Cape of Good Hope)
b. Austria recovered the Italian province of Lombardy and was awarded adjacent
Venetia as well as Galicia (from Poland), and the Illyrian Provinces along the
Adriatic.
c. Russia was given most of Poland, with Czar as King, as well as Finland and
Bessarabia (modern-day Moldova and western Ukraine).
d. Prussia awarded the Rhineland, 3/5 of Saxony and part of Poland.
e. Sweden received Norway.
3. “Balance of Power”: arranged the map of Europe so
that never again could one state upset the
international order and cause a general war.
a. Encirclement of France achieved through the following:
 A strengthened Netherlands.
o United the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) with Holland to form the Kingdom
of the United Netherlands north of France.
 Prussia received Rhenish lands bordering on the eastern French frontier (left
bank of the Rhine)
 Switzerland received a guarantee of perpetual neutrality.
b. End of Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire
 Enhanced Austrian influence over the German states by creating the German
Confederation (Bund) of 39 states out of the original 300, with Austria
designated as President of the Diet (Assembly) of the Confederation.
 Maintained Napoleon’s reorganization
 Loose confederation where members remained virtually sovereign.
c. Sardinia (Piedmont) had its former territory restored, with the addition of Genoa.
d. A compromise on Poland reached—“Congress Poland” created with Alexander I of
Russia as king; lasted 15 years.
e. Only Britain remained as a growing power—began their century of world leadership
from 1814 to 1914.
D. Hundred Days (March 20-June 22, 1815)
1. Napoleon capitalized on the stalled talks at Vienna and escaped Elba for France.
2. Hundred Days began on March 1, 1815, when Napoleon landed in the south of France
and marched with large-scale popular support into Paris.
 Seized power from Louis XVIII, who fled Paris.
3. Napoleon raised an army and then defeated a Prussian army in Belgium on June 16,
1815.
4. Battle of Waterloo, June 1815
a. Last battle of the Napoleonic Wars
b. Napoleon was defeated in Waterloo, Belgium, by England’s army led by the Duke
of Wellington and Prussian forces
5. Napoleon was exiled to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, far off the coast of
Africa, where he died in 1821.
6. The “second” Treaty of Paris (1815): Allies now dealt harshly with France in
subsequent negotiations.
a. Minor changes of the borders previously agreed to.
b. France had to pay an indemnity of 700,000,000 francs for loss of life
VI. Evaluation of Napoleon’s rule
A. First egalitarian dictatorship of modern times.
B. Positive achievements.
1. Revolutionary institutions were consolidated.
2. Thoroughly centralized French government.
3. Made a lasting settlement with the Church.
4. Spread positive achievements of French Revolution to the rest of Europe.
C. Impact on other countries
1. Serfdom ended in much of Germany by 1807
2. Germany was reorganized into 39 states
3. Prussia and Austria, for self-preservation, reformed their military and provided some
reforms.
D. Liabilities
1. Repressed individual liberty
2. Subverted republicanism
3. Oppressed conquered peoples throughout Europe.
4. Caused terrific suffering as a result of war.
VII. Concert of Europe (1815-1848) (see Unit 7.1)
A. Included arrangements to guarantee enforcement of the status quo as defined by the
Vienna settlement
 Highly conservative in nature
B. Quadruple Alliance: Russia, Prussia, Austria & Britain
1. Provided for concerted action to put down any threat to the peace or balance of power.
2. France was usually seen as the possible violator of the Vienna settlement.
 No Bonaparte should ever again govern France.
3. Austria believed concerted action meant the great powers defending status quo as
established at Vienna against any change or threat to the system.
 Liberalism and nationalism were seen as threats to the existing order.
C. Congress System: 1815-1822
1. European international relations were controlled by series of meetings held by great
powers to monitor and defend the status quo.
2. Principle of collective security required unanimity among members of the Quadruple
Alliance.
3. Britain eventually bowed out
D. Evaluation of the Concert of Europe
1. Congress of Vienna has been criticized for ignoring liberal and nationalist aspirations of
Europeans.
 Underestimated the new nationalism generated by the French Revolution
2. Yet, the Congress of Vienna may have been more successful in stabilizing the
international system than those in the 20th century.
a. Not until the unification of Germany in 1870-71 was the balance of power in Europe
upset.
b. Not until WWI did Europe have another general war.
E. The “Holy Alliance” of Czar Alexander I of Russia
1. Proposed for all monarchs to sign a statement agreeing to uphold Christian principles
of charity and peace throughout Europe.
2. All signed it except the pope, the sultan, and Britain
3. No one except Alexander took it seriously.
4. Liberals came to view it as a sort of unholy alliance of monarchies against liberty and
progress.
VIII. French Revolution Evaluated
A. Results of the Revolution.
1. Old social system destroyed and replaced with a new one based on equality, ability and
the law.
2. Guaranteed triumph of capitalism
3. Gave birth to notion of secular democracy
4. Laid foundations for establishment of modern nation-state.
B. Some modern historians have challenged the traditional view of the origins of the French
Revolution.
1. Some argue that key sections of the nobility were liberal.
2. Others point out that the nobility and the bourgeoisie were not necessarily economic
rivals.
C. Historians have traditionally concluded the French Revolution ended in failure.
D. The Revolution can be seen as having numerous successes
1. After fall of Robespierre, solid middle class, with its liberal philosophy and
Enlightenment world-view, reasserted itself.
a. Under the Directory, it salvaged a good portion of social and political gains that it
and the peasantry had made between 1789 and 1791.
b. Old pattern of separate legal orders and absolute monarchy was never reestablished.
2. Napoleon built on the policies of the Directory
a. Added support of old nobility and the Church to that of the middle class and the
peasantry.
b. Promoted reconciliation of old and new orders.
c. Centralized government.
d. Careers open to Talent
3. Louis XVIII had to accept French society based on wealth and achievement.
a. Granted representative gov’t and civil liberties.
b. Core of the French Revolution thus survived a generation of war and dictatorship.
IX. How did the French Revolution embody the ideas of the Enlightenment?
A. Scientific and rational thought led to a desire for political reform.
1. Progress in all fields, including government, was seen as necessary and possible.
2. Political science could be based on natural laws. The economy, too, was made more
“rational” through the ending of internal barriers to trade.
B. Phase One. The Age of Montesquieu: Pre-1789—The Monarchy
1. In The Spirit of the Laws (1753), Montesquieu argued for a constitutional monarchy
and a liberal government.
 Advocated a separation of powers (three branches) among the nobles, the
monarchy, and the representatives of the cities to replace the Old Regime.
2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man called for the freedom of expression,
representative government, and equality before the law.
C. Phase Two. The Age of Rousseau: September 1792-November 1799—The
Republic
1. The Social Contract expressed the following republican views:
a. Popular Sovereignty—To have freedom, the people must control their own
government.
b. Christianity should be replaced by a civil religion.
c. Force might legitimately be used to bring about freedom; a strong government
might be needed to express the “general will.”
2. These ideas were adopted not only by the Republic, but also by the Committee of
Public Safety.
D. Phase Three. The Period of Voltaire: 1799-1815—Napoleon
1. Voltaire had argued for “enlightened absolutism.”
a. An efficient, organized state was the best design to bring about “progress.”
b. A centralized state was not necessarily a threat to freedom; in fact it might increase
freedom by reducing the power of the Church and the Parlements.
2. Napoleon was attracted to Voltaire’s updating of the “philosopher-king” concept.
a. Napoleon believed he was bringing “scientific” government to France and to Europe.
b. Napoleon’s use of the plebiscite had not been contemplated by Voltaire, nor would
Napoleon’s military campaigns been approved of by Voltaire.