Download Liberté [Part II] WHAP/Napp “With the king`s ability to resist

Liberté [Part II]
WHAP/Napp
“With the king’s ability to resist democratic change overcome by the Paris crowd, the
National Assembly achieved a radically restructured French society in the next two years.
It passed a new constitution that dramatically limited monarchial power and abolished the
nobility as a hereditary class. The Legislative Assembly (the new constitution’s name for
the National Assembly) seized church lands to use as collateral for a new paper currency,
and priests –who were to be elected – were put on the state payroll. At first, many
European monarchs had welcomed the weakening of the French king, but by 1791 Austria
and Prussia threatened to intervene in support of the monarchy. The Legislative Assembly
responded by declaring war. People across France responded patriotically to foreign
invasions, forming huge new volunteer armies to meet the challenge.
In this period of national crisis and foreign threat, the French Revolution entered its most
radical phase. A failed effort by the king and queen to escape from Paris and find foreign
allies cost the king any remaining popular support. As foreign armies crossed into France,
his behavior was increasingly viewed as treasonous. Rumors of counterrevolutionary plots
kept working-class neighborhoods in an uproar. In September mobs surged through the
city’s prisons, killing nearly half the prisoners. Swept along by popular passion, the newly
elected National Convention convicted Louis XVI of treason, sentencing him to death and
proclaiming France a republic. The guillotine ended the king’s life in January 1793.
Invented in the spirit of the era as a more humane way to execute the condemned, this
machine was to become the bloody symbol of the revolution. These events helped by
February 1793 to precipitate a wider war with France now confronting nearly all of
Europe’s major powers.
The National Convention – the new legislature of the new First Republic of France –
convened in September. Almost all of its members were from the middle class, and nearly
all were Jacobins – the most uncompromising democrats. Deep political differences,
however, separated moderate Jacobins – called ‘Girondists,’ after a region in southern
France –and radicals known as ‘the Mountain.’ Members of the Mountain – so named
because their seats were on the highest level in the assembly hall – were more sympathetic
than the Girondists to the demands of the Parisian working class and more impatient with
parliamentary procedure and constitutional constraints on government action. The
Mountain came to be dominated by Maximilien Robespierre, a young, little-known lawyer
from the provinces who had been influenced by Rousseau’s ideas. Faced with rebellion in
the provinces and foreign invasion, Robespierre and his allies unleashed a period of
repression called the Reign of Terror (1793–1794). During the Terror, approximately
40,000 people were executed or died in prison, and another 300,000 were imprisoned. New
actions against the clergy were also approved, including the provocative measure of forcing
priests to marry.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples
1. During the French Revolution the
2. During the Reign of Terror, the dominant
Jacobins favored the establishment of a/an
person in Committee of Public Safety was
(A) Limited monarchy under the king
(A) Abbe Sieyes
(B) Republic
(B) Georges Danton
(C) Absolute monarchy
(C) Napoleon Bonaparte
(D) Government under the Catholic Church (D) Maximillian Robespierre
Key Words/ I. France and the Rest of Europe
Questions
A. At first, European monarchs welcomed weakening of the French king
B. By 1791, Austria and Prussia threatened to intervene
C. The French government responded by declaring war
II. The Reign of Terror
A. In this period of national crisis and foreign threat, the French
Revolution entered its most radical phase (1793-1794)
B. A failed effort by the king and queen to escape from Paris and find
foreign allies cost the king any remaining popular support
1. The king’s behavior was viewed as treasonous
C. The Assembly imprisonment the king and called for the formation of a
new National Convention to be elected by the vote of all men
D. The newly elected National Convention convicted Louis XVI of treason,
sentencing him to death and proclaiming France a republic
1. The guillotine ended the king’s life in January1793
E. The National Convention consisted of members from the middle class
and nearly all were Jacobins – the most uncompromising democrats
1. Maximilien Robespierre came to dominate the convention
F. Executive power was placed in the newly formed Committee of Public
Safety which created courts to seek out and punish domestic enemies
G. The Terror cost the lives of approximately 40,000 people who either
were executed or died in prison, and another 300,000 were imprisoned
H. But after French victories eliminated immediate foreign threat,
conservatives in Convention felt secure enough to vote for arrest of
Robespierre on July 27, 1794 who was executed
I. Afterwards, a more conservative constitution was also ratified
1. It protected property and created the Directory
III. The Directory
A. The executive body known as the Directory was unable to solve problems
B. Within several years, Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant young general in
the French army, seized power
IV. Napoleon
A. Established Europe’s first popular dictatorship
B. Was a son of the revolution and sought to spread its principles by force
C. Introduced reforms to conquered – end to feudal privilege, equality of
rights, religious toleration, codified law, free trade, metric system
D. The Napoleonic Code was established; a law code and guaranteed
equality under the law for all men as well as the protection of property
E. Yet Napoleon declared himself emperor and France an empire in 1804
F. For a time, no single European state could defeat the French military
G. However, in 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia [brutal winter destroyed
French]
H. Eventually, Napoleon forced to abdicate and exiled to St. Helena, he
died in 1821
Reflections:
1. Which of the following was a cause of the
French Revolution?
(A) Enlightenment endorsement of absolute
monarchy
(B) The middle-class demand for greater
political representation
(C) The continued influence of the
Protestant clergy at the French court
(D) French territorial additions during the
French and Indian War
(E) The impact of revolutions in Spain and
Belgium
2. In what year did the final phase of the
French Revolution begin?
(A) 1793
(B) 1799
(C) 1804
(D) 1812
(E) 1815
3. The radical phase of the French
Revolution led to all of the following
EXCEPT
(A) The execution of the king.
(B) The introduction of the metric system of
weights and measures.
(C) An extension of the revolution to
warfare in the Low Countries, Italy, and
Germany.
(D) A full-scale attack on private property.
(E) A new calendar.
4. Which of the political groups listed below
would espouse the following statement:
“The chief goal of any constitution should be
to secure the vote for all men, regardless of
class or wealth.”
(A) Liberals
(B) Conservatives
(C) Socialists
(D) Radicals
(E) Luddites
5. Thousands of people were executed during the __________, the radical phase of the
French Revolution.
6. The final phase of the French Revolution was ushered in by the victory of __________, a
leading general who soon converted the republic to an authoritarian empire.
True or False
7. Napoleon confirmed some of the developments of the French Revolution, including
religious freedom and equality under the Napoleonic law codes. _______________
8. During the radical stage of the French Revolution, King Louis XIV was executed.
______________
Define the following terms or people:
9. Reign of Terror:
______________________________________________________________________________
10. Maximilien Robespierre:
______________________________________________________________________________
11. Napoleon Bonaparte:
______________________________________________________________________________
Spotlight: Olympe de Gouges
“Writing under the pen name Olympe de Gouges, Marie Gouze (1748-93) directly
appropriated the language of the Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen (1789). Her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen exposed the
lack of concern for the rights of women:
Article I. Woman is born free and remains equal in rights to man.
Social distinctions can be founded only on general utility…
Article XVII. The right of property is inviolable and sacred to both
sexes, jointly or separately. (Bell and Offen, pp. 105-6)
Gouges addressed this document to the French queen, Marie-Antoinette, urging her
to adopt this feminist program as her own and thus win over France to the royalist cause.
In 1793 the radical Jacobins in the Assembly, condemning Gouges for both royalism and
feminism, had her guillotined.” ~ The World’s History
Another Point of View:
“When did modern feminism begin? We usually see its origin in the political ideas of the
eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the French Revolution, which regarded all human
beings as rational creatures who enjoyed the same fundamental rights. This gave rise to
what is usually called liberal feminism or equal-rights feminism. When the French
Revolution broke out in 1789 thirty-three of the famous lists of grievances presented to the
Estates General expressed female demands. The intellectual excitement generated in
France soon provoked feminist tracts elsewhere. In England Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A
Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) and the German Theodore Gottlieb von Hippel
published On the Civil Improvement of Women (1794).
However, little came of this early flourish of feminist propaganda. The French
constitution of 1792 actually banned women from public life and the Emperor Napoleon's
Civil Code of 1804 was subsequently implemented in much of continental Europe. It
effectively denied legal rights and access to divorce to married women, placed their
properly and income in the control of their husbands, and generally confined them to a
subordinate, domestic role.” ~ Martin Pugh
Questions:
1- Who was Olympe de Gouges and why was she significant?
_______________________________________________________________________
2- Why was Olympe de Gouges executed during the Reign of Terror?
_______________________________________________________________________
3- When did modern feminism begin?
_______________________________________________________________________
4- What happened to the status of women as a result of the French Revolution?
_______________________________________________________________________