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Packet #20
Revolutions Unit: Part I
The Atlantic Revolutions From the American Revolution to The
French and Napoleon
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This packet will include:
 Atlantic Revolutions
 The American Revolution
 The French Revolution
 Napoleon
What is the Divine Right
ATLANTIC REVOLUTIONS:
of Kings?
 The Atlantic basin became a world of intellectual and cultural
exchange as well as one of commercial and biological
intercourse.
 Atlantic Revolutions were greatly impacted by
Enlightenment ideas.
 At the heart of these ideas was the notion that human
political and social arrangements could be engineered and
improved by human action.
 The Divine Right of Kings, aristocratic privilege, state control of trade, and the
authority of the church went under attack. New ideas of liberty and equality, free
trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, & human rationality were at the heart of
these revolutions.
The American Revolution:
 Launched by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
 British colonists defeated the British in 1781 and generated a federal constitution in
1787.
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It joined 13 formerly separate colonies into a new nation. It was the FIRST of the
Atlantic revolutions.
Was it a revolution?
 It can be considered a conservative movement.
 For much of the 17th and 18th centuries the British colonies in North America
enjoyed a degree of local autonomy as the British government was embroiled in its
own internal conflicts.
 Local elected assemblies in N. America dominated by the wealthy property-owning
settlers achieved close to self-government.
 Colonists came to regard such autonomy as a birthright and part of their English
heritage.
 Initially, being a colony seemed beneficial to the colonists. The British government
would protect them, offer them markets, and confirm their identity as “Englishmen”
(cue the School House Rock video “No More Kings”!)
 Unlike Europe there were no Estates. There was no titled nobility and no single
established church. So social life was somewhat more free than in Europe.
 No legal distinctions differentiated clergy, aristocracy and commoners, as they did in
France. All free people ,which of course excluded black slaves, enjoyed the same
status before the law.
 This offered more economic opportunity, fewer social differences and easier
relationships among the classes than in
Europe.
 IMPORTANT: The American Revolution did
not grow out of social tensions within the
colonies, but from a sudden and unexpected
effort by the British government to tighten
its control over the colonies and to extract
more revenue from them.
 Financial problems from war with France
drained its treasury and ran up its national
debt, so Britain began to look at the
American colonies to make good on their losses in the 1760s.
 Like a strict imperial power, Britain began taxing the colonists.
 Armed with the ideas of Enlightenment (popular sovereignty, natural rights, and
consent of the governed) they went to war and the colonists prevailed by 1781. In
many ways through the aid of the French.
 What was revolutionary about the American experience was not so much the
revolution itself, but the kind of society that had already emerged within the colonies.
Independence from Britain was not accompanied by any wholesale social
transformation. Rather the revolution accelerated the established democratic
tendencies of the colonial societies. Political authority remained largely in the hands of
existing elites who had led the revolution, although property requirements for voting
were lowered and more white men were elected to
state legislatures.
 No women or people of color made political gains.
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Land was not seized from the privileged class.
Slavery was not abolished
Many of the aristocrats that led the revolution remained in
power (i.e. GW, TJ etc).
America was the first national republic on the worldstage. It would become the most democratic country in the
world through the 1800s.
It was less the direct product of the revolution and more
the gradual working out in the preceding century.
It sparked other revolutions worldwide.
The American Revolution was
REVOLUTIONARY
Point- Counterpoint
The American Revolution was a mere
Conservative Movement
The French Revolution
What is Absolutism?
Characteristics of the Old Regime:
 1. TREATMENT OF PEASANTS
 The peasants comprised of over four fifths of France’s 26 million people
o The peasants lost half their income in taxes
 They paid feudal dues to nobles, tithes to the church, and royal taxes
to the king’s agent. In addition, they paid a land tax called the taille
and performed forced labor called the corvee.
o Grain shortages led to sharp increases in the price of bread
 The rising cost of bread was a major cause of discontent
 2. GOVERNMENT DEBT:
o Louis XIV’s profligate spending left a massive public debt that
consumed half the nation’s tax revenues.
o The cost of fighting the Seven Years’ War and financing the American
Revolution worsened the fiscal crisis
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3. ARISTOCRATIC RESISTANCE:
o French nobles were exempt from paying taxes.
o The nobles successfully resisted all attempts to reform the tax system.
4. ROYAL WEAKNESS:
o Louis VIV: Built the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, the an extra extravagant
palace. Called himself the “Sun God.” Located outside of Paris, physically and
emotionally removed from the people.
o Louis VX (reigned 1715-1744) was a weak and indecisive ruler
o Louis XVI –reigned 1774-1792- and his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette were
particularly unpopular and frivolous
o The high court of Paris-the Parliament-assumed the right to approve and
disapprove the king’s decrees, further eroding royal power.
The Estates General:
 Calling the Estates General:
o By the spring of 1789, the French government faced the imminent threat of
bankruptcy
o The king called a meeting of the Estates General.
o The Three Estates:
 First Estate: The Clergy
 Catholic Church held about 20 percent of the land
 The French clergy paid not taxes. Instated they gave the
government a “free gift” of about 2 percent of their income. The
most radical revolutionaries would say: We will strangle the
last king with the guts of the last priest—French radicals
say we have to destroy church and monarch.
 Second Estate: the nobility
 Nobles comprised 2 to 4 percent of the population
 Nobles owned about 25 percent of the land
 Third Estate: Everybody else
 The third estate comprised 95 percent of the population
 It included a diverse group of peasant farmers, urban workers,
middle class shopkeepers, wealthy merchants, and successful
lawyers.
 They resented aristocratic privileges
 Tennis Court Oath:
o June 1789. Members of the first and second estates assumed that each estate
would receive one vote. This system would enable them to impose their will
on the third estate 
o Led by Abbe Sieyes, the third estate rejected this method of voting and
demanded that all three estates meet together.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes: "What is the Third Estate? [Excerpts] French clergyman and political theorist
of the 18th century.
The Third Estate embraces then all that which belongs to the nation; and all that which is not the Third
Estate, cannot be regarded as being of the nation.
What is the Third Estate?
It is the whole.
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o When the king refused, the third estate declared itself the true National
Assembly of France. Locked out of their official meeting place, the third
estate met in a nearby indoor tennis court where they took an oath not to
disband until they drafted a constitution.
o The Tennis Court Oath marked the beginning of the French Revolution
 The National Assembly…
 Created a constitutional monarchy
 Divided France into 83 departments governed by elected
officials
 Established the metric system of measurement
 Abolished internal tariffs
 Abolished guilds
 The National Assembly did not…
 Abolish private property
 Give women the right to vote.
The National Assembly:
 The Storming of the Bastille:
o Determined to reassert royal authority, Louis XVI ordered a mercenary army
of Swiss guards to march toward Paris and Versailles.
o In Paris, angry mobs were already protesting the soaring price of bread. As
tensions rose a mob stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison. the mob
freed a handful of prisoners and seized the Bastille’s supply of gunpowder
and weapons.
o The fall of the Bastille marked an important symbolic act against royal
despotism. It also pushed Paris to the forefront of the ongoing revolution.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, August 1789:
 The declaration proclaimed that all men were born and remain free and equal in
rights. These natural rights included the rights to liberty, property, security, and
resistance to oppression.
 The declaration provided for freedom of religion, freedom from arbitrary arrest,
freedom of speech, freedom of press, and the right to petition government.
 Women: Women gained increased rights to inherit property and to divorce
o Women did not gain the right to vote or hold political office
o In her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary
Wollstonecraft (pictured) argued that women are not
naturally inferior to men. The appearance of inferiority is
created by lack of education. You go girl!
 Women March on Versailles: On October 5, 1789 thousands of women
marched to Versailles demanding cheap bread and insisting that the
royal family move to Paris.
o The king quickly capitulated, and a few days later the National Assembly also
moved to Paris.
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The Civil Constitution of the Clergy- August 1790
 This act, passed by the National Assembly, did the following
o Confiscated the lands owned by the RCC (Roman Catholic Church)
o Decreed that bishops and priests would be elected by the people and paid by
the state
o Required the clergy to take an oath of loyalty to support the new
government.
o It is important to note that Pope Pius VI condemned the act and that over half
of the clergy refused to take the oath of allegiance. Alienated Catholics
proved to be persistent
opponents of the French
Rev.
The New Constitution of 1791:
The new French constitution that in
1791 established a constitutional
monarchy, or limited monarchy, with
all executive power answerable to a
legislative assembly. Under the new
constitution, King Louis XVI could only temporarily veto legislation passed by the assembly.
The constitution restricted voting in the assembly to the upper and middle classes of
French society and abolished “nobility” as a legal order.
The Legislative Assembly:
 The legislative body was highly divided.
 The political terms right, center, and left are derived from the seating arrangement.
 Conservatives who supported the king made up the right
 Moderates were in the center
 Radicals who distrusted the king and wanted the
revolution to continue sat on the left. The Left was
divided into two groups:
o Jacobins—wanted to overthrow the monarchy
and create a republic. Key Jacobin leaders
included Jean Paul Marat and Maximillien Robespierre.
o Girondists wanted to involve France in a war that would discredit the
monarchy and extend France’s revolutionary ideal across Europe. Favored
war!
France at War:
Vs. Austria and Prussia
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Leopold II of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia issued the Declaration of
Pillnitz in 1791 declaring that the restoration of absolutism in France was of
“common interest to all sovereigns of Europe”
The Legislative Assembly declared war against Austria and Prussia in April 1792,
thus beginning the war of the First Coalition.
The war began badly for the poorly equipped French armies. By the summer of
1792, Austrian and Prussian armies were advancing toward Paris.
Faced with defeat, recruits rushed to Paris. The French forces stopped the ASutroPrussian army, saving the Revoultion.
Violence broke out in Paris. Convinced that royalists would betray the Revolution,
mobs of sans-culottes executed over a thousand priests, bourgeoisie, and
aristocrats. These September Massacres marked the beginning of the second French
Revolution dominated by Radicals. Sans-culottes took control of the city
government. They were radicals.
RADICAL
The National Convention 1792-1795:
 The Execution of the King
o The National Convention (NC) was newly elected and abolished the
monarchy and declared France to be a republic
o The National Convention then had to decide the king’s fate. The Girondists
favored imprisonment while the Jacobins…you guessed it.. .off with your
head!
o The
o The NC passed a resolution condemning the king to death. It was passed by
one vote.
o Supported by the sans culottes, the Jacobins branded the Girondins as
counterrevolutionaries and ousted them from the National Convention.
Reign of Terror
 Faced with foreign invaders and the threat of domestic rebellion, the National
Convention established the Committee of Public Safety (CPS) to defend France and
safeguard the Revolution.
 Led by Robespierre, the CPS exercised dictatorial power as it carried out the Reign
of Terror.
 He executed the queen, his chief rivals and thousands of enemies of the state.
 He was a fanatic.
 Fearing for their lives and longing for stability, the National Convention reasserted
its authority by executing Robespierre.
 Robespierre’s death ended the radical phase of the Revolution.
The Directory: 1795-1799
 The Directory became the ruling body in 1795
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It consisted of a two-house legislature and an executive body of five men known as
the Directory—proved to be corrupt and unpopular.
Public discontent and the Directory’s ineffective governing led
to its downfall. On November 9, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte
overthrew the Directory and seized power. He was a talented
young general.
The First Consul:
 NB took command of the new government. He held all the
power and made all decisions.
 He censored the press and suppressed all political opposition
 Despite the loss of individual liberties, France enjoyed security, stability, and
prosperity.
 Napoleon’s popularity continued to rise as he restored order.
 Napoleonic Code: his legal experts consolidated hundreds of local law codes into a
uniform legal code that is still the basis of French law.
o The new code guaranteed many achievements of the French Rev. including
equality before the law, freedom of religions, and the abolition of privilege
and the protection of property rights.
o The code increased the authority of husbands within the family. Women and
children were legally2 dependent on the husband or father. Women could
not buy or sell property without the consent of their husband.
 The Concordat of 1801: Napoleon understood the importance of ending the
strained relationship between the French government and the RCC.
o Granted the RCC special status as the religion of the majority of Frenchmen.
The pope regained the right to confirm church dignitaries, appointed by the
French governed, depose French bishops, and reopen religious seminaries.
o In return, the RCC recognized the French government and accepted the loss
of Church property confiscated during the revolution.
 Supported by a grateful nation, Napoleon would eventually declare himself emperor
on 12/2/1804.
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Napoleon’s Empire
 Between 1805 and 1807, Napoleon defeated Austria, Prussia, and Russia in a series
of brilliant military victories.
 NB’s victories made him a military genius.
 By 1808 French rule extended from the North Sea to Spain and included most of
Italy.
The Reorganization of Germany:
 Napoleon’s victories enabled him to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. HE
consolidated previously independent German states into a French dominated
Confederation of the Rhine (named for the Rhine River)
 Posing as a champion of the Revolution, NB abolished feudalism and granted
peasants freedom from manorial duties.
 It is important to note that NB sparked a wave of German nationalism that fueled
resistance to his rule. People who at first welcomed the French as liberators now felt
that they were being exploited by foreign invaders. NB inadvertently accelerated the
cause for German unification.
The Fall of Napoleon:
 Aura of Invincibility
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o He was considered the greatest military mind. He was overly ambitious and
this caused disastrous mistakes that led to his downfall.
Continental System
o In 1806, NB closed all European ports to British ships and goods. NB hoped
that his Continental System would create a depression in Britain while
promoting French prosperity.
Guerrilla Warfare in Spain
o In 1808 Napoleon deposed Spain’s Bourbon rulers and installed his brother
Joseph. Outraged the Spanish
o Guerrilla fighters ambushed French troops and the French lost over 300,000
men.
Invasion of Russia (never a good idea)
o The Continental System prevented Russia from exporting grain to Great
Britain. When Tsar Alexander I refused to stop this trade, NB invaded Russia.
o His army marched to Moscow. Alexander refused to surrender and forced NB
to retreat. Cold weather, disease, and Russian attacks destroyed his army.
A Weakened State:
o NB’s enemies took advantage of his weakness. Britain, Russia, Prussia, and
Austria formed a Grand Alliance and defeated NB a the Battle of Nations at
in October 1813.
o He was forced to abdicate in 1814 when the enemies entered Paris. He was
exiled. He escaped and rounded up an army, only to be defeated at the Battle
of Waterloo in June 1815. He was once again exiled and lived alone in exile
until he died in 1821
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In Contrast to the American Revolution
Read pages 504-507 and complete the chart
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
VOCAB
Vocabulary
Old Regime
Versailles
Louis XVI
Definition
SIMILARITIES
FRENCH REVOLUTION
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Estates General
Tennis Court Oath
Abbe Sieyes
National Assembly
Storming of the
Bastille
Mary
Wollstonecraft
Jacobins
Girondists
San-culottes
National
Convention
Reign of Terror
Directory
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Napoleon
Napoleonic Code
Concordat of 1801
Continental System
Battle of Waterloo
Questions:
1. How did the French Revolution challenge the Old Regime?
a. Was it successful? Explain
2. What impact did the French Revolution have on women? On the clergy?
3. How can you make the argument that Napoleon was an “enlightened despot”?
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4. My college professor told me that the French Revolution was the most
important even in European history since the Birth of Christ. Bold statement
Dr. Pitrarcha… Why do you think she said this?
5. If it didn’t come up in one of your previous answers, what impact did the
French Revolution have on Europe? More particularly, on Germany?
Create a timeline of important events that occurred during and after the
French Revolution.