Download The French Revolution and Napoleon -causes:

The French Revolution and Napoleon
-causes:
-Enlightenment
-appealed to bourgeoisie (middle class) grievances
-challenged absolutism
-social contract and natural rights
-France had sent troops and aid to aid the American revolutionaries, mainly
because of their dislike of Britain and the costly 7 Years’ War that they lost land
in
-take up arms against tyranny
-introduced to revolutionary ideas being put into action
-no taxation without representation
-a republic is superior to a monarchy
-France had an absolute monarchy with weak monarchs (Louis XV and XVI)
-Louis XIV died in 1715, he was succeeded by his 5-yr. old great
grandson Louis XV (1715-1774)
-both preferred personal interests to those of the state
-Louis XV was far more interested in his numerous mistresses than
the affairs of the state
-both unwilling to step to up the nobles and clergy
-Louis XVI (1774-1792) took over in 1774 at 20 when his grandfather,
Louis XV, died
-influenced by his wife, Marie Antoinette
-she was the youngest daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, wed
Louis at age 15 while he was still dauphin in 1770 at Versailles
-people were suspicious of her being a foreigner and possibly
plotting against France
-gambled, spent extravagant amounts of money on balls and
dresses, had an affair with the handsome Swedish diplomat Count
Axel Fersen, and built the Petit Trianon in imitation of a simple
peasant village
-unpopular also b/c she didn’t produce any children in the first 8
years of their marriage (ended up having 4 kids, including the
future Louis XVII)
-Diamond Necklace Affair of 1785
-A woman named Jeanne de la Motte and her husband
concocted a plan that involved impersonating the queen to
swindle a Paris jeweler out of a diamond necklace
-After convincing a high-ranking cardinal to buy the
necklace (in the queen's name), the swindlers took the
necklace, forged a repayment note and promptly fled the
country.
-When the cardinal failed to collect his 1.5 million francs,
rumors began to circulate that Marie Antoinette had
reneged on a debt
-never actually said, “Let them eat cake,” but this was her general
attitude towards her people
-society split up into 3 estates
-France’s 25 million people were still legally divided into 3 orders
(estates)
-clergy, nobility, and everyone else
First Estate – the clergy, less than 1% of population but Catholic Church
owned 10% of the land – exempt from taxes
-levied a tax (tithe) on landowners
-church tax equivalent to 10% of annual income
-Similar to apartheid in S. Africa: 10% of population owning 90%
of land
Second Estate – the nobles, 2% of the population but owned 35% of the
land – exempt from taxes
-enjoyed manorial rights, privileges of lordship that gave them the
right to tax the peasantry for their own profit
-village monopolies on baking bread, hunting, pressing grapes for
wine, etc.
Third Estate – the middle class (bourgeoisie), urban workers, and
peasants, 97% of population – especially the peasants subjected to
oppressive taxes (owned 55% of the land):
-land tax, tithe, income tax, poll tax, salt tax, and local duties paid
to lord
-gov’t could imprison anyone without charges or trial (habeas
corpus)
-bourgeoisie mad because of its lack of influence in a system that
they disproportionately supported
-a priest, Emmanuel Sieyes, said in 1789 “What has the 3rd estate
been in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand? To
become something.”
-“nobility is a tiny, over-privileged minority, and that the
neglected 3rd estate constituted the true strength of the
French nation”
-bourgeoisie led the entire 3rd estate in a great social revolution
-financial difficulties
-in 1748, Louis XV appointed a finance minister, Rene Maupeou, who
decreed a 5% income tax on every individual
-clergy and nobility, whom had been exempt from taxes, protested
heavily
-Louis retreated and the new tax was dropped
-following the very expensive Seven Years’ War, Louis tried to enact
emergency taxes after the war
-the gov’t caved in again after protests in 1764
-gov’t had large debts w/ heavy interest
-by 1780s, 50% of France’s annual budget went to the increasing
interest payments on the increasing debt
-another 25% went to the military, 6% went to the king and his
court at Versailles
-less than 20% of annual budget was available for productive
functions of the state, like transportation and general
administration
-extravagant court spending
-need for tax reform
-nobles determined not to give up their tax exemption
-peasants and bourgeoisie were unhappy with their tax burden
-King Louis XVI (1774-1792)
-revolution was under way by 1787
-Louis’ minister of finance, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, revived old proposals
to impose a general tax on all property
-nobles and clergy were not in favor of it
-nobles said that these tax changes required the approval of the Estates
General, the representative body of all 3 estates, which hadn’t met since
1614 (174 yrs.)
-king refused and established the new taxes by himself
-nobles declared these new taxes null and void and protest swept
the countryside
-frightened investors refused top advance more loans, too
-finally, in July 1788, Louis bowed to public opinion and called for a
session in 1789 of the Estates General
The First, or Moderate, Stage of the Revolution (1789-1792)
-May 1789 Estates General meet in Versailles – legislative body (like a
parliament or congress, representative of the 3 classes)
-1200 delegates of the 3 estates attended
-three separate houses, and any agreement needed only 2 branches
to agree on it
-general agreement that royal absolutism should give way to constitutional
monarchy, in which laws and taxes would be only at consent of the Estates
General
-representatives of the 3rd estate brought their list of grievances (aka.
Cahiers de doleances)
-to be presented to the king
-criticized gov’t waste, taxes, church power, and corruption
-called for periodic meetings of the Estates General, more equal
taxes, a system of unified weights and measures (future metric
system, which came into effect in 1795), and a free press
-basically, it called for equality of rights
-one of these representatives was Maximilien Robespierre was
elected to represent his town of Arras at the Estates General
-extremely critical of royal absolutism
-“any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is
essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.”
-delegates of the 3rd estate refused to transact any business until the king
ordered the clergy and nobility to sit with them in a single body
-June 17, 1789 Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly
-by a narrow vote on June 19, the 2nd Estate joined the Assembly, too
-locked out of their meeting place by the king’s troops, they moved to an
indoor tennis court
-on June 20, they swore to the Tennis Court Oath
-promise not to disband until they had written a new
constitution in France
-National Assembly renamed itself the National Constituent
Assembly b/c of their desire to writer a constitution
-June 23 king called in 18,000 troops and dissolved the Estates General by force
-July 11 he dismissed his finance minister and his more liberal ministers
-harvest failure and high bread prices unleashed an economic depression
-led to the demand for manufactured goods to collapse, too
-over 25% of Paris was unemployed and peasants everywhere were
starving
-July 14, 1789 several hundred people marched to the Bastille to search for
weapons and gunpowder
-the Bastille – a fortress that symbolized royal injustice (former French
prison for political prisoners)
-similar to Auschwitz or Abu Ghraib
-governor of the fortress-prison refused to hand over the powder and
ordered his men to fire on the mob
-98 people killed, and fighting continued until the prison
surrendered
-the governor was hacked to death and his head was stuck on a
pike and paraded through the streets
-Paris was thought to be lost to the king
-French revolutionaries of the militia of Paris, now known as the National
Guard, started using the current-day flag
-the head of the National Guard was Marquis de Lafayette
-young, liberal aristocrat and hero of the American
Revolution
-supporter of a constitutional monarchy, and thus became
disillusioned with the radical turn the revolution would
eventually take
-used the red and blue stripes from the colors of the coat of arms of
Paris, separated by the white stripe of the royal flag
-Used from storming of the Bastille until Napoleon’s defeat
at Waterloo in 1815, and then brought back again in 1830
-July 14 is still known as Bastille Day
-Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)"
-the motto of the French Republic
-The slogan of the French Revolution was Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!
(Freedom, equality, fraternity, or death!)
-throughout France, peasants rose in spontaneous insurrections against their lords,
ransacking their homes and burning feudal documents that recorded peasant
obligations
-taxes went unpaid
-in the end, serfdom was abolished, hunting rights for only nobles was
abolished, village monopolies abolished, etc.
-August 27, 1789 National Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Citizen (only 2-pages long)
-“men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
-“natural rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression”
-“man is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty”
-“free expression of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious
rights of mankind: every citizen may therefore speak, write and publish
freely”
-taxes could only be imposed only by consent of the governed, right to
rule was not just the king’s but the whole nations
-applied to men, though, not women
-October 5, 1789 a Paris mob of 7000 women, armed, marched to Versailles
-wanted nothing but bread
-invaded the National Constituent Assembly with scythes, sticks, and
pikes
-didn’t trust Louis, so they demanded he and his family return to
Paris with them
-invaded royal apartments, slaughtered royal bodyguards, and
furiously searched for Queen Marie Antoinette
-“We are going to cut off her head, tear out her heart, fry her liver,
and that won’t be the end of it”
-only way to calm them was for the king to agree to go to Paris with them
-King Louis XVI and Marie went to the Tuileries, the old royal residence
in Paris, where they were imprisoned
-led by a procession of 2 aristocrats’ heads stuck on pikes
-crowds hurled crude insults at the queen the whole time
- National Constituent Assembly came to Paris, too
-July 1790 National Constituent Assembly issued the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy, covenants and monasteries abolished, reduced number of bishops by 1/3,
and all clergymen were to be elected by the citizens – became civil officials
-June 1791 Louis and his family, disguised as servants, left Paris
-on their way to eastern French city of Metz where a royalist army was
waiting for them
-a company of soldiers recognized them and escorted them back to Paris
-Olympe de Gouges and her 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman
-a butcher’s daughter from NW France
-addressed it to Marie Antoinette
-much of it reprinted the Dec. of the Rights of Man, just adding the word
woman to all the clauses
-said women should be considered as citizens, not merely as daughters,
sisters, mothers, and wives
-wanted women to be able to own property, improved education for
women
-“Women, wake up…discover your rights.”
- National Constituent Assembly created a constitutional monarchy, which Louis
reluctantly agreed to
-new legislature was the Legislative Assembly
-King accepted final constitution in Sept. 1791
-king remained head of state, but lawmaking power was with
Legislative Assembly, elected by French males
-unicameral legislature
-Legislative Assembly convened in Oct. 1791
-many of the new members were allied and called
Jacobins
-distrustful of the monarchy and ready to
take on threatening countries throughout
Europe
-only active citizens – men paying annual taxes equal to three days
of local labor wages – could vote
-only about 50,000 citizens of the 25 million French
population would qualify to vote then
-women couldn’t vote or hold office
-they chose electors, who then voted for members of the
legislature
-Maximilien Robespierre, lawyer and member of the National Assembly, said,
“The Revolution is over”
-Foreign Reactions
-kings and nobles of Europe at first invited the revolution because it
weakened a competing power, but they began to feel threatened that the
fever would spread to their countries
-August 27, 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz
-Austria’s Leopold II (Marie Antoinette’s brother) and Prussia’s
Frederick William II declared their willingness to intervene in
France if any harm were caused to the king and queen
-had to be signed by all of European powers to be valid, though,
and Great Britain would never have signed it
-Legislative Assembly: courts of Europe were attempting to incite a war
of kings against France, then “we will incite a war of people against kings.
Ten million Frenchmen, kindled by the fire of liberty, armed with the
sword, with reason, with eloquence would be able to change the face of
the world and make tyrants tremble on their thrones.”
-some Assembly members wanted war as an opportunity to
unmask the revolution’s domestic enemies and to spread the
revolution beyond France
-Robespierre said that people would not be liberated at the point of
a gun, though
-Napoleon Bonaparte, a Lieutenant in the army, “I’d rather die than let a
foreign power invade French soil”
The Second, or Radical, Stage of the Revolution (1792-1795)
-women
-Pauline Leon petitioned the Legislative Assembly in March 1792 on
behalf of a group of women for the right to bear arms and to fight to
protect the revolution
-wanted women to serve in the National Guard
-April 1792 Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria – Wars of the
Revolution begin
-Prussia joined Austria in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium)
-became First Coalition
-commander of the Prussian army, about to invade France, issued the
Brunswick Manifesto, threatening the people of Paris if harm came to the
king
-August 1792 rumors circulated that imprisoned aristocrats and priests were
plotting with allied invaders
-angry mobs slaughter over 1,000 priests, bourgeois, and aristocrats who
oppose their program, including slaughtering the king’s guards
-Sans-culottes
-group of radical Jacobins that were shopkeepers and
factory workers
-name means “without breeches”, derived from the long
pants that workers wore instead of the aristocratic kneebreeches
-sought relief from food shortages and rising prices through
price controls
-hostile to aristocracy and monarchy
-wanted a republic
-Sept, 21, 1792 France proclaimed a republic, the First French Republic, by the
National Convention
-nation governed by an elected assembly w/out a monarch
-end of monarchy
-National Convention replaces Legislative Assembly; becomes new
assembly (unicameral)
-consisted of 2 primary groups:
-the Girondists (named so b/c many came from the Gironde
region in SW France)
-more conservative, split over the death penalty for
Louis
-those who opposed it felt Louis should be
kept alive b/c of fear of foreign invasion if
they killed him
-the Montagnards (known as “Mountain” b/c their seats
were high up in the assembly hall)
-Robespierre was elected to lead the Montagnards
-led by the Jacobins – republicans who wanted a
representative gov’t)
-more radical, felt Louis needed to be killed as a
symbol of breaking with the Old Regime, as well as
punishing him for treason
-won the vote to execute Louis
-by winning the vote, the Montagnards
became the major force in the Convention
-the Convention then sentenced Louis to death in Jan. 1793 for
treason
-evidence had been presented to the Convention showing
Louis had conspiring to not only limit the revolution, but
also to destroy it with France’s enemies
-Maximilien Robespierre pushed for execution of the king
-“Liberty cannot be secured unless criminals lose
their heads”
-Louis XVI guillotined in Jan. 21, 1793
-monarchists name his oldest son, Louis
XVII the new king of France in 1793
-declaration at the time was without
authority, since France was a republic
-never actually reigned as king of France
-Marie Antoinette later guillotined in Oct. 1793
-guillotine – introduced by Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin in 1789, a member
of the legislature, and was chosen as the method of execution in 1792
the idea of making mechanical decapitation the uniform means of
France's execution stemmed not from barbarity but from a desire to
make death as quick and painless as possible for the victim
-"This machine was created out of humanist concerns as the least
painful and most egalitarian means of death. Its precision and ease
of use also made it the starting point for mass industrial murders."
- Jean Clair
-the Convention, fearful of rioting around the country, formed the
Committee of Public Safety and gave it dictatorial powers
-consisted of 12 members elected by the Convention
-Robespierre was elected joined this Committee, later
headed it
-mandate was to counter foreign agents and internal subversion
-set up a revolutionary tribunal system to try suspects;
denied the accused the right to a defense
-death was the penalty for offenses ranging from
criticizing the republic to stealing public property
-Foreign Reaction
-everywhere French armies went, they abolished feudalism and found
support among peasants and the middle-class
-but the “liberators” looked increasingly like foreign invaders
-they forcefully and violently brought in “liberty” and “equality”
-forcing the Dec. of the Rights of Man and Citizen
throughout Europe
-but they occupied most territories they went to
-in Feb. 1793, the National Convention declared war on Britain, Holland,
and Spain, and were still at war with Prussia and Austria
-in Spain, their king, Charles IV, was a cousin of Louis XVI, and
thus refused to support the French Revolution, which led to France
declaring war on Spain in 1793
-France now at war with almost all of Europe, and would be until
1815
-Irish-born author and British statesman Edmund Burke
-the most outspoken foreign critic of the French Revolution
-1790’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
-very critical of the violence of the revolution
-forecast further turmoil as people w/out political
experience tried to govern France, predicting the
deaths of the king and queen, and eventually ending
in military despotism
-1796’s Letters on a Regicide Peace
-opposed a proposed peace treaty between Great
Britain and revolutionary France
-mainly because he saw the revolution as too
violent and corrupt, as seen through the
execution of Louis XVI, the confiscation of
church and noble property, and the deChristianization
-France had 800,000 soldiers on active duty
-outnumbered their enemies almost 4 to 1
-de-Christianization
-Nov. 1793, the National Convention proclaimed a new calendar dating
from the first day of the French Revolution
-were 12 months, each with 30 days, with names associated with
seasons and climates
-months: Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor, Vendemiaire,
Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal,
Floreal, and Prairial
-every 10th day would be a day of rest, not every 7th
-also wanted the Cathedral of Notre Dame to be renamed the
“Temple of Reason”
-closed churches by burning them down or simply desecrating them and
prosecuted clergy and believers (Catholic and Protestant)
-Summer 1793-Summer 1794 Committee of Public Safety launches the Reign of
Terror
-maintained order on the homefront
-political weapon directed against those who might oppose the
revolutionary gov’t
-special courts responsible only to Robespierre’s Committee of Public
Safety tried rebels and “enemies of the state” for political crimes
-40,000 people (75% of them working class and peasants), including many
criminals, prostitutes, military and political leaders, executed
-Olympe de Gouges opposed the Reign of Terror and was
guillotined for her beliefs in Nov. 1793
-guillotine used, severed heads were then held up on pikes for display
-if you missed a beheading, engravings were sold so you could be
reminded of the popular event
-firing squads and drownings also used in the countryside
–handcuffed and set adrift on the River Loire in leaky barges –
2,000 people perished this way
-Robespierre “We must annihilate the enemies of the republic at home and
abroad, or else we shall perish.”
-“in time of revolution a democratic government must rely on
virtue and terror…Terror is nothing but justice, swift, severe, and
inflexible”
-like Machiavelli??
-British poet William Wordsworth wrote of the Reign of Terror:
“—all perished, all—
Friends, enemies, of all parties, ages, ranks,
Head after head, and never heads enough
For those that bade them fall.”
-March 1794 Robespierre arrested 4 members of the National Convention for
anti-revolutionary activities
-shows that he had gone too far, like McCarthy going after US Army
Major Irving Peress and Gen. Ralph Zwicker in 1954 that led to him
-going after them for being communists
-died in disgrace as a drunk Wisconsin senator in 1957
-he and his supporters were arrested by the Convention
-July 28, 1794 Robespierre executed when public opinion turned against the
excesses of the Reign of Terror
The Final, or Reactionary, Stage of the Revolution (1795-1799)
-after the death of Robespierre, the revolution tempered
-Thermidorian Reaction (named after the month it took place during)
-a conservative backlash began
-got rid of the machine of terror that had persisted over the last
year b/c it was too radical
-National Convention withdrew the dictatorial powers of the
Committee of Public Safety
-Jacobins and Sans-culottes were weakened
-revival of Catholic worship
-France was Europe's first country to abolish slavery, in 1794
-a new constitution was drawn up by the National Convention,
calling for a bicameral legislature
-upper body, the Council of Elders (men over 40 who were
married or widowed)
-lower body, the Council of Five Hundred (men of at least
30 who could be married or single)
-executive was a 5-person Directory (chosen by the
Elders from a list that the Council of 500 submitted)
-property qualifications, except for soldiers
-common people of France, especially Paris, revolted against the winter of 17941795 which caused the worst food shortages in years
-royalists wanted to take advantage of this, so they fueled the food riots
-wanted to restore the Bourbon monarchy by legal means,
supported by Catholics
-monarchy promised stability
-the Convention quickly used the army to suppress these insurrections
-General Napoleon Bonaparte, who was in Paris at the time, put
down the riot and was rewarded the command of the French armies
fighting in Italy
-Napoleon was born on island of Corsica in 1769, an island
that was Italian owned for centuries but just recently had
been annexed by France before his birth in 1768
-supported the revolution and the republican gov’t
-a French army officer and Jacobin
-1793 gov’t ordered him to recapture Mediterranean
city of Toulon from British and Spanish navies and
monarchist supporters
-24 yr. old returned to Paris a hero after this
first victory of his
-1795, now as a brigadier general, he put down a popular
uprising in the streets of Paris and mowed down hundreds
in the streets
-continued to battle enemy monarchs intent on destroying
its republican experiment – looked at as a hero who could
protect France from abroad and domestically, too, who
wanted to overthrow new gov’t
-1797, Napoleon invaded Italy trying to deprive Austria of its rich northern
province of Lombardy
-drove Pope Pius VI from Rome, eventually dying in exile in France
-he ended up dominating all of Italy and Switzerland
-again he returned to Paris a hero in 1797 to try and defeat France’s
enemy, Britain
-he said it was impossible to invade Britain across the English
Channel, so he decided to attack British interests in the
Mediterranean
-hoped to drive the British fleet from the Mediterranean
-set out to capture Ottoman-controlled Egypt, largely to
cut off British trade and communications with India
-he easily overran Egypt, but the invasion was a
failure
-it had alarmed Russia, which had its own
ambitions in the Mediterranean and Ottoman
Empire
-Russians, Austrians, and Ottomans joined
Britain to form the 2nd Coalition against
France
-he was defeated in Italy and Switzerland by this
coalition, which then threatened to invade France
-first major defeat of his career
-returned to France in Oct. 1799 to popular acclaim
-in 1799, with support from his followers, he overthrows the unsuccessful
Directory by a coup d’ètat and formed a new gov’t, the Consulate, made up of 3
consuls with Napoleon as the head consul
-changed constitution to say that he would have all power as First Consul
-“power is my mistress”
-first modern politician who used the rhetoric of revolution and
nationalism, backed with military force, and combined these into a
mighty weapon of imperial expansion in the service of his own
power
-Consulate ended the Revolution in France
-Revolution began as a moderate attempt at reform, degenerated into radical bloodshed,
and swung back to authoritarianism in search of order
-Similar to Germany after WWI – Weimar, inflation, Hitler
-Effected all of Europe
-Napoleon
-signed the Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII – Pope renounced (gave up)
claims over church property seized during the Revolution, allowed Napoleon to
nominate Bishops
-said that Catholicism is the religion of France again
-1802 slavery revived by Napoleon, and only banned for good in France in 1848
-1802 a referendum named him Consul for life
-Civil Code of 1804 (aka. Napoleonic Code)
-reforming and codifying French law
-would be put into effect in all nations he “liberated”
-creating a European legal code
-a single currency throughout Europe
-feudalism and serfdom abolished
-freedom of religion established (except in Spain)
-devised a Constitution
-universal male suffrage
-established a Parliament and Bill of Rights
-made higher education open to all religions and classes
-free public education
-a system of weights and measures throughout Europe
-metric system – enacted by the National Assembly between 1790
and 1795
-most nations, except U.S., use it for math, science, and
daily life
-in 1804, there was an assassination attempt on his life with a bomb
-he used this to declare himself emperor
-said that establishing a dynasty would make the government
secure and make further attempts on his life useless
-Napoleon invited Pope Pius VII to Notre Dame to take part in his
elaborate coronation where he would crown himself the Emperor
of France
-end of the Consulate
-known as Napoleon I now
-not everyone liked this power in one man, though: Ludwig van
Beethoven “Now Napoleon, too, will trample on all the rights of men and
indulge only in his ambition. He will…become a tyrant.”
-Napoleon’s Empire 1804-1815
-France trying to expand territory while other rulers tried to overthrow French
revolutionary government
-ideological conflict between France and monarchical Europe
-aim was to unite Europe under France’s leadership
-in a decade, he was able to conquer more land than Louis XIV did in his
60 yr. reign
-would be called the greatest military genius of the 19th century
-presence on the battlefield was said to be “worth 40,000 troops”
-had an army of 700,000 men, and could risk 100,000 troops in a single
battle and still fight again
-he could conscript citizen soldiers in unprecedented numbers,
thanks to their loyalty to their nation and him
-no nation could match his resources
-it was not other nations or coalitions, but Napoleon’s own mistakes that
led to his defeat
-Third Coalition forms in 1805
- alliance of Britain, Austria, Russia, against French Empire
-created by Britain’s Prime Minister William Pitt
-Oct. 1805 Battle of Trafalgar
-fought off the Cape Trafalgar in south-west Spain
-France and Spain vs. Britain
-Britain soundly defeated them
-French and Spanish lost 22 ships, Britain lost none
-showed that Britain had a superior navy
-ended all French hope of invading Britain, and gave Britain
control of the sea for the rest of the war
-Dec. 1805 Battle of Austerlitz
-regarded as Napoleon's masterpiece
-Napoleon defeated the combined Russian and Austrian forces that
outnumbered him in present-day Czech Republic (then it was
Austria)
-Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire
-significant blow to the Third Coalition
-Austria withdrew from Italy because of the loss, recognizing
Napoleon as the King of Italy
-decided against national unity for the Italians because it
might pose a threat to French dominance
-established a French protectorate over most of Germany
-1806, Napoleon has the Arc de Triumph built on the Champs
Elysses in Paris as a sign of his military accomplishments
-inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus
-built after the Battle of Austerlitz
-30 shields engraved with the names of major
Revolutionary and Napoleonic military victories, as well as
the names of 558 great French generals
-Oct. 1806 Napoleon defeated Prussia
-on Nov. 21 in Berlin, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decrees,
forbidding his allies from importing British goods
-June 1807 defeated Prussia, which was being defended by Prussian and
Russian troops
-he was now master of all of Germany
-consolidated the nearly 300 independent political states
into just 39
-decided against national unity for Germany b/c it might
pose a threat to French dominance
-Russia’s Tsar Alexander I was ready to make peace by July ‘07
-he met Napoleon and they agreed on the 1807 Treaty of
Tilsit
-Prussia lost 50% of its territory and 5 million
inhabitants, and had to pay $154.5 million francs to
France in reparations
-only Alexander’s agreement to concede
prevented it from being completely occupied
-left Prussia militarily defeated,
economically ruined, and politically
impotent
-Prussia and Russia became allies of France
-also forbade continental Europe to trade
with Britain (naval blockade)
-Continental System (Russia, Prussia,
Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Spain, German states, Switzerland, and
Italy)
-English ships were banned from all
continental harbors, and any trade
with the British Isles was illegal
-economic warfare against Britain,
hoping to cause domestic unrest
there
-Pope Pius VII refused to recognize the treaty and
allowed trade with Britain, so Napoleon put him on
house arrest in France in 1808 and the Pope
excommunicated him (Pius didn’t return to Rome
until 1814)
-Nepotism – favoritism shown to relatives by a person in high office
-“I am building a family of kings”
-made his brother Joseph king of Spain
-made his brother Louis king of Holland
-made his brother Jerome king of Westphalia in Germany
-made his sister Caroline queen of Naples
-made his sister Elisa Grand Duchess of Tuscany
-gave his son, Napoleon II, the title of king of Rome
-Spanish and Russian problems
-1808 Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula to force Portugal to
abandon its alliance with Britain and to force Spain to “get in line” with
the Napoleonic idea of liberty
-France occupied Spain, and his army stayed in Spain to protect
lines of supply and communication
-replaced the new Spanish king, Ferdinand VII (who had
just taken over for Charles IV in 1808), with one of his own
8 brothers, Joseph Bonaparte
-Napoleon's invasion of Spain and abdication of the
Bourbon ruler brought about violent protests against
the French in Madrid
-French faced guerrilla warfare from the Spanish almost
immediately in 1808 up to the end of French rule in 1814
-Spanish Uprising of 1808
-Spain referred to as the “Spanish ulcer” of France
-armed Spanish resistance
-they cut French lines of communication, killed stragglers
in the army, and then disappeared into the mountains
-French responded by mass executions of Spanish
citizens who rose up in opposition to Napoleon's invasion
-British also landed an army to support the Spanish insurgents
-Russia had withdrew from the Continental System at the end of 1810 and
started trading with Britain because of the economic hardships it was
causing
-England was one of the larger importers of Russian goods, so
Russia suffered under the blockade
-June 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia
-Grand Army – 700,000 men from 20 nations
-only 1/3 were French
-Russians had a mere 160,000 troops, so instead of fighting,
they retreated before his advance, following a “scorched-
earth” policy (destroyed all food and supplies as they
retreated)
-the expanse of Russia made supply lines too long
to maintain
-Napoleon believed that if he occupied Moscow, the
Russian government, under Tsar Alexander I, would
collapse and he would rule Russia with little opposition
-waited outside of Moscow for the surrender of the
czar, but it didn’t come so they entered Moscow on
Sept. 14, 1812
-Russians had burned the city so the French
couldn’t survive the winter there
-took over the czar’s palace, but no one was
in the city
-soon saw that they couldn’t survive the coming
winter in the abandoned city, but they waited too
late to retreat (Oct.)
-forced to retreat from Moscow during the brutal Russian
winter
-1,000 mile journey back to Paris, line of soldiers
was more than 50 miles long, got to -40 degress
-to keep warm, many French soldiers used the
frozen corpses of dead French soldiers like logs to
build huts
-best Russian soldier is the mud and the cold
-weather, guerilla attacks, and scorched-earth policy beat
the French
-of the 700,000 that went into Russia, only about 100,000 came out
alive
-Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840—93)
-Russian composer
-used Western European forms instead of Russian forms
-orchestral work
-1812 Overture
-commemorating the unsuccessful French
invasion into Russia, and the subsequent
devastating withdrawal of Napoleon's
Grande Army
-first preformed in 1882
-the end of Napoleon
-by 1813, Russia was driving westward, and Prussia and Austria joined them
marching into France
-supported by British money
-Oct. 13-18, 1813 Battle of Nations
-took place in Leipzig, Germany
-360,000 Allied troops from Russia, Prussia, Austria, Britain, and
Sweden fought and drove Napoleon’s army further west
-more than 100,000 men were killed in the battle
-Spanish and British troops from Spain marched north into France
-Napoleon was defeated by the combined forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria in
Oct. 1813 at the Battle of Leipzig
-soldiers were deserting army by the thousands and 80% of the state
budget was spent on military ventures
-March 1814 allied armies marched into Paris
-Treaty of Chaumont
-provided for restoration of the Bourbons to the French throne and
its territory to go back to its 1792 borders
-Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia form the Quadruple Alliance
(aka. Concert of Europe)
-Aim was to maintain status quo of pre-revolutionary
Europe
-Against the spread of revolutionary ideas, like
republicanism
-didn’t last long, but prevented war for 100 years
-Napoleon abdicated as emperor on April 6, 1814
-Bourbons restored to the throne of France with Louis XVIII and
Napoleon exiled to island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea
-Napoleon was furious, though, b/c King Louis XVIII was
withholding his pension of 2 million francs annually
-France surrendered all territory gained since the Wars of
the Revolution began in 1792 and Louis XVIII created a
legislature that represented only the upper classes
-people upset with this
-Louis XVIII signs the Constitutional Charter of 1814
-agreed to be a constitutional monarch, but under a
constitution of his own making
-constitution called for a hereditary
monarchy and a bicameral legislation
-Louis appointed the upper house,
the Chamber of Peers
-citizens who met a high property
qualification elected the lower house,
the Chamber of Deputies
-guaranteed most of the rights under the Dec. of the
Rights of Man
-religious toleration
-promised not to challenge the property rights of
current owners of land that they had confiscated
from aristocracy and the church
-Congress of Vienna (Sept. 1814-Nov. 1815)
-representatives from the major powers of Europe, including France, met to
redraw territorial lines and restore the social and political order that existed before
the Revolution and Napoleon
-return the “rightful” rulers of Europe to their thrones
-return to a balance of power that would guarantee peace
-no nation should be allowed to dominate Europe, and all were determined
to prevent France from doing so
-France was surrounded by the strong states, specifically:
-the Kingdom of the Netherlands (BeNeLux united under one ruler)
-Prussia given new territory along the Rhine River in western Germany
-the German Confederation was founded (had a federal assembly
and federal army)
-comprised of 39 independent German states
-Austria gained full control of northern Italy
-in Germany, the previous 300 independent states were reduced to 39
-France forced to pay reparations of 700 million francs and had to support a large
army of occupation for 5 years
The Hundred Days
-on March 1, 1815 Napoleon landed in the south of France and marched into Paris
-French army was still loyal to him, and many people preferred him to the
return of the Bourbons
-Napoleon promised a liberal constitution and a peaceful foreign
policy
-fearing his life, Louis fled the country
-with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000,
Napoleon entered Paris on March 22, 1815
-beginning his "Hundred Days" rule
-assumes the title of Emperor again
-coalition forces massed in Belgium and planned to invade France
-Napoleon took the initiative and attacked them first
-at Waterloo in June, he said, “this whole affair will not be more serious
than swallowing one’s breakfast”
-raised an army and defeated a Prussian army in Belgium on June 1815 but was
defeated by British at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815
-his escape from Elba had led to the deaths of 60,000 people
-“Waterloo will erase the memory of all my victories”
-end of the Napoleonic Wars
-on June 22nd, Napoleon was forced to abdicate again
-Napoleon II, age 4, rules for two weeks (June 22 to July 7), but he was
never recognized as ruler
-for security reasons, Napoleon was exiled for life to the island of St.
Helena (“hell-ain-ah”), a British island, in the South Atlantic off the coast
of Africa
-some of his faithful officers decided to go with Napoleon on their
own free will to St. Helena
-he was guarded there by 3,000 British troops and 10 warships
-Napoleon lived in a compound on the island
-Napoleon said that under his guidance, Europe would have
become a federation of free peoples
-died there on May 5, 1821
-some say of a stomach ulcer
-some say he was poisoned b/c traces of arsenic were found
in his hair
-1840 – remains moved from St. Helena to Hotel of Invalids in Paris
-Neo-Classicism
-art
-architecture