Download XXX/123

Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
1
Week One Content Outline
TOPIC AND OBJECTIVES
Political and Economic Revolutions—In Industry and in France

Explain how ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood influenced revolutionary France.

Trace the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Summarize European agricultural and industrial revolutions and their causes.

Chapter 20, 21
CONTENT OUTLINE
1. French Revolution
a. Causes of the French Revolution
War debts from fighting the French and Indian Wars, borrowing money to keep the
monarchy afloat, paying high interest on the debts, desire to tax the people to pay the
debts, money to support the military so that more wars could be fought, the King called
on the Estates General (clergy, nobles, peasants) to get them to agree to raise taxes or
come up with another idea to raise money. When he called the Estates General, they
thought that they would have the ability to participate in the govt. and had other ideas
about justice, social status, and economic well-being for themselves, not the state.
Social reasons = inflation, decline in real wages, poor harvests, famine, taxes, lack of
social mobility
Intellectual reasons = political alternatives to the absolute power of the monarchy,
enlighted ideas of the late 1700s were discussed (rights, democracy, etc) which had
influenced the Am. Rev by the writers of the time (Montesque and Rousseau.)
All 3 groups had a list of demands:(a) similar grievances, (b) wanted a common political
culture and political reforms, (c) did not like the state bureaucracy
****Concerned with liberty, equality, property, and the rule of law
1) Rejection of royal absolutism people still supported the King, but were unhappy with
absolute rule, they wanted more popular sovereignty. The King did not want to
support the National Assembly as a legitimate body (previously known as the 3rd
Estate);
2) Shift to reason-centered ideals in pre-revolutionary Europe
a) Rousseau, Locke, Paine, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton
b) Role of philosophes, such as Diderot and Voltaire, encyclopedias, and libraries
c) Growth of secularism and effect of deism
3) Treasury depletion the King could not keep money in the treasury, he was spending it
to keep the debt afloat and to pay for France’s wars. The only way to raise money
was through taxes.
4) Masses unable to pay taxes the largest percent of people could not pay their taxes
due to inflation and the high cost of living, plus the fact that they weren’t earning
enough to live on
Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
2
5) Military participation in the Bastille Revolt 1789 the citizens of Paris stormed the
Bastille ( the royal armory/prison), because they thought that they were going to be
threatened with repression from the King/troops. It was important because the people
saw it as an expression of the people’s power to take politics into their own hands.
They formed a citizen militia, the National Guard, and were prepared to defend their
concepts of justice and law. Seized arms to protect themselves and their interests;
the Marquis de Lafayette helped organize the National Guard; adopted the tricolor
flag (red, white, blue). Because the King did not accept the National Assembly and
the people were armed, the King was forced to yield to the desires of the people.
Govt officials fled their posts and commoners took over in the power vacuum.
6) Decline of the Ancien Régime
a) Excesses of Louis XIV lived like a King. Taxed the people too much, couldn’t
keep his govt. afloat
b) Inequality of social stratification in pre-revolutionary France 3 levels of people,
(clergy, nobles, peasants). The clergy and nobles lived very well, but 28 million
people were peasants and they were unhappy with the social stratification; many
were landless and had to beg in order to survive.
c) Privileged position of the clergy the Catholic Church had a lot of power, land and
money; the clergy was side-lined during the Revolution and had their power, land
and money taken during the Revolution.
d) Effect of Seven Years War and the French and Indian War
e) Arrogant exploitation of the masses by the French monarchy and aristocracy
many peasants were serfs tied to the land by the nobles. Those peasants that did
own their own lands were eventually pushed off of the land by the nobles
7) Example of the American Revolution
a) Declaration of Independence 1776
b) Constitutional governance 1787
c) Bill of Rights 1791
d) French diplomatic and military participation had it not been for the French the
American colonists might not have won the Am. Revolutionary War.
b. Liberté, egalité, fraternité—liberty, equality, brotherhood
1) Originator unknown
2) Attributed as guiding principles of the revolution
3) One slogan among many
c.
Estates-General of 1789 after the 3 Estates could not compromise or agree on how to
vote and figure out how to help the King raise funds, they dissolved into the National
Assembly,
d. National Assembly made up mostly of peasants from the 3rd Estate; they were not
recognized by the King, which leads to his downfall. The people wanted the Nat.
Assembly to help change how the govt functioned.
1) Forming the constitution very similar to the US Const. written in 1789 first as the
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen”; made up of various enlightenment
ideas, after some time they created their Constitution in 1791 but it created a
“Constitutional Monarchy” which means that the King was still the head of the govt
but had to abide by the Constitution (similar to the one in Eng.) it was a statement of
“faith in a progressive constitutional monarchy; the king was accountable to the
Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
3
elected parliament; it acknowledged the people’s sovereignty, the principal of private
property, gave voting rights to property owners, and all men were to be equal before
the law. All titles of nobility were abolished, civil liberties were extended to others,
religious freedoms, outlawed slavery in the colonies, no rights for women, Liberty was
a natural and unalienable right.
2) Completing the constitution
e. Storming of the Bastille 1789
f.
Rights of the people
1) Liberties Liberty was a natural and unalienable right.
2) The rights of women none existed; not granted any during or after the Revolution
g. War and counter-revolution 1790 the “counter-revolution” began due to the fact that the
govt dissolved all monestaries, stripped the church of its lands, and the clergy worked for
the state not the church; clergy had to take a loyalty oath to the state; The revolutionaries
made a huge mistake attacking the church, which led to the counter-revolution
h. National Convention
1) Execution of King Louis XVI he and his family tried to escape to join royalist forces,
put to death 1793
2) Reign of Terror occurs because the political factions were fighting for control over the
govt.; after the king is executed the Jacobins and the Girondins tried to wrestle
control of the govt.; Robespierre rose to power using the division to assume
leadership of the “committee of public safety” He got the National Convention to yield
control to him and he practically became a dictator of France. He used his power to
execute his political adversaries, from 1793-1794; it was a period of total state
repression. People turned their enemies in to stand trial in kangaroo courts and were
beheaded with the guillotine…He thought that the people should bend to the will of
the state; he tried to regulate the economy, mobilize the military and create a
punative system of justice; anyone who spoke out agains the new govt could be
killed by the state. Don’t worry after putting 40,000 people to death – he was
executed as well for being branded a traitor to the cause. He saved France from
internal collapse and foreign occupation, but used terror to do it. Democracy doesn’t
work if the people feel threatened.
i.
The French Directory—First bicameral legislature
Monarch until 1792
Republic from 1792 forward
Regin of Terror 1793-1794
Thermidorian popular revolution had failed
Directory --- a new govt by committee; tried to be a middle of the road govt; had it’s own
problems: war in Europe was expensive and unpopular; military defeats and the
corruption of the Directory undermined it’s ability to control the country.
2. Rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte
a. Napoleon seizes power (1799) he joined with the conspiracy to pull down the Directory
after he had helped keep it in power while he was in the military trying to protect France;
this makes him a hero at home
b. First Consul he secured his position by eliminating his enemies on the Left and weaking
those on the Right; he guaranteed security and undermined the aristocracy ; he set up
courts and laws that kept law and order and the civil war for control over France ended;
Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
4
he reestablished relations with the Pope and the Catholic Church, he was militarily
successful and that gave him the political edge he needed to take over the country. He
got his power from the military and then asked for the vote that made him First Consul for
life.
c.
Napoleonic wars He was constantly at war with other countries; for 11 years France was
at war with other European nations (Austria, Prussia, Spain, England, Italy, Holland,
Sweden, Russia)
d. First Empire he pretended to follow the constitution but was really a dictator; he
proclaimed himself emperor in 1804
e. The loss in Russia in 1812 he invaded Russia thinking that he could win another war
against them as he had done in 1807; BIG MISTAKE; he lost 400,000 men trying to fight
in the winter.
f.
Waterloo (1815) returned from his exile on the island of Elba to reclaim the throne; he
had been forced out in 1814, in 1815 he failed to retake France and was defeated, and
now exiled to St. Helena until he died in 1821
g. Exile and death
h. Napoleon’s reshaping of the European geopolitical order
1) Code Napoleon a new code of laws begun during the revolution, there were
economic reforms, trade and the development of commerce, regulated contracts,
protected private property and equality before the law, new civil laws about family
policy, women were subordinate and had no rights,
2) Consolidation of conglomerate states into several distinct national entities
3) Failure to spread the republican ideals of the revolution the French armies tried to to
extended the revolution’s reforms and legal codes, as well as brought with them civil
equality and religious tolerance.
4) Emergence of Great Britain as a superpower The British was able to blockade the
French and cut off their commerce in the Atlantic in response the French trying to cut
off British trade at European ports; the British did not suffer from the high tariffs the
French put on the British goods and France suffered more than England.
3. Industrial and agricultural revolutions
a. Agricultural revolution
1) Enclosure when the people divided up the common lands and “enclosed” them; this
was a change in common lands; this leads to a change in who has the lands and who
does not
2) Mechanization animals used to pull plows,
3) Crop rotation rotate crops to keep the land fertile; 4 crop rotation to keep the land in
productive use all year long
4) Breeding experiments in cross breeding, management of herds, fattening = an
increase in the production of goods created by animals
5) Drainage and reclamation meadow floating: flood the low lands near the river and
prevent the ground from freezing and it would eventually produce an early grass
crop to feed the animals
b. Breakdown of traditional agriculturally based economies and the rise of unchecked urban
growth
Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
5
1) City growth cites grew rapidly due to the fact that the people were being pushed off
the land and needed jobs to support their families; they moved to cities to take work
in factories; cities grew rapidly and caused many social issues such as:
a) Sanitation and pollution
b) Lack of infrastructure
c) Slums
d) Crime
e) Alcoholism
f)
Prostitution
g) Epidemics disease
2) Decline of subsistence farming
a) Declining prices because of greater efficiency in farming fewer people growing
more food
b) Lure of greater economic opportunity in the cities
c) Mechanization of farming equipment
3) Breakdown of medieval guilds
a) Development of modern retail stores late 1800s
b) Increase of factory-made goods
c) Beginnings of labor organization
4) Exploitation of women and children
a) Child labor
b) Economic necessity for all family members to work
c) Surplus of labor adversely affected poverty rates
d) Changing economic and social roles of women
c.
Industrial revolution
1) Proliferation of mechanization
a) Harper’s Ferry, Virginia—assembly line manufacturer
b) Cotton gin
c) Harnessing of steam power
d) Expansion of textile and steel industries
2) Effects of rail transport on Western economies and everyday life
a) Efficient delivery and travel timetables
b) Linkage of diverse geographical areas
c) Military application
d) Develop new economic platforms and markets
e) Invention of the tourism industry and continental travel
f)
Tool for territorial expansion
3) Exploitation of labor
Content Outline
HIS/114 Version 2
a) Labor redivision reduced the need for specialized skills.
b) Economic discrepancy between management and the working classes
6