Download Liberté [Part II] WHAP/Napp Do Now: “Over the next two years, the

Liberté [Part II]
WHAP/Napp
Do Now:
“Over the next two years, the National Assembly drew up a constitution, which called for
a constitutional monarchy; did away with the titles and privileges of nobility and clergy;
introduced uniform government across the country; disestablished the Roman clergy and
confiscated the property of the Church; and convened a new Legislative Assembly, for
which about one-half of adult, male Frenchmen were entitled to vote, essentially by a
property qualification. Except for the radical – and polarizing – anticlerical position, the
actions of the Revolution thus far seemed quite similar to those of England and America.
They were consistent with the optimistic and activist worldview of the philosophes.
In June 1791 Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette attempted to flee France but
were apprehended and, thereafter, held as virtual prisoners in the royal palace. Shocked
and frightened, thousands of aristocrats emigrated to neighboring countries that were
more respectful of monarchy and aristocracy. News of the abolition of feudal privilege and
of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy filled the nobility and clergy across Europe with
dread. Leopold II, the Habsburg emperor and brother of Marie-Antoinette, entered into
discussions with other rulers to consider war against the new French government. In April
1792, the French National Assembly declared war on the Austrian monarchy, and for the
next twenty-three years, France would be at war with several of the major countries of
Europe. The war went poorly and mobs stormed the royal palace attempting to kill the
king and beginning the ‘Second French Revolution.’ The Assembly disbanded and called
for a new National Convention – to be elected by universal male suffrage – to draw up a
new constitution. Amid mob violence, the new Convention met in September 1792. Its
leaders were Jacobins, members of a nationwide network of political clubs named
(ironically) for a former convent in Paris where they had first met. By 361 to 359 votes, the
Convention voted to execute the king in January 1793. The ‘Second Revolution’ was well
underway.
To govern in the midst of the combined international and civil warfare, the Convention
created a Committee of Public Safety, which launched a Reign of Terror against ‘counterrevolutionaries.’ It executed about 40,000 people between mid-1793 and mid-1794. At
Nantes, in the Vendée region of western France, the center of the royalist counterrevolution, the Committee intentionally drowned 2000 people. To wage war abroad it
instituted a levée en masse, or national military draft, which raised an unprecedented army
of 800,000 men, and mobilized the economic resources of France to support it.
The Committee also introduced a new calendar, counting Year 1 from the founding of the
French Republic in 1793, giving new names to the months, and dividing each month into
three weeks of ten days each. The most important leader of the Committee was Maximilien
Robespierre and the guillotine, its most important instrument.” ~ The World’s History
1- Describe the actions of the National Assembly.
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2- Why was France at war?
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3- How did the Reign of Terror affect France? __________________________________
I. France and the Rest of Europe
A. At first, European monarchs welcomed the weakening of the French king
B. By 1791, Austria and Prussia threatened to intervene in support of the monarchy
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. As foreign armies crossed into France, king’s behavior was viewed as
treasonous
C. The Assembly suspended the king, ordered his imprisonment, and called for the
formation of a new National Convention to be elected by the vote of all men
D. Rumors of counterrevolutionary plots kept the working-class in an uproar
E. The newly elected National Convention convicted Louis XVI of treason,
sentencing him to death and proclaiming France a republic
F. The guillotine ended the king’s life in January1793
G. The National Convention consisted of members from the middle class and nearly
all of these members were Jacobins – the most uncompromising democrats
H. Maximilien Robespierre came to dominate the convention
I. Executive power was placed in the hands of the newly formed Committee of
Public Safety which created courts to seek out and punish domestic enemies
J. The Reign of Terror cost the lives of approximately 40,000 people who either were
executed or died in prison, and another 300,000 were imprisoned
K. But after French victories eliminated immediate foreign threat, conservatives in
Convention felt secure enough to vote for arrest of Robespierre on July 27, 1794
L. After death of Robespierre, a more conservative constitution was also ratified
1. It protected property and created new executive authority, the Directory
III. The Directory
A. But 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. Napoleon established Europe’s first popular dictatorship
B. Napoleon was a son of the revolution and sought to spread its principles by force
of arms
C. Napoleon introduced reforms of the Revolution to the nations he conquered –
reforms such as an end to feudal privilege, equality of rights, religious toleration,
codified law, free trade, and the use of the metric system
D. The Napoleonic Code was established; it was 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. And from Napoleon’s assumption of power until his fall, 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
1- How did the reaction of European monarchs change throughout the Revolution?
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2- How did the French government respond to Austria and Prussia?
________________________________________________________________________
3- What was the most radical phase of the French Revolution?
________________________________________________________________________
4- Why did the French king and queen lose any remaining support?
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5- How were the leaders of the new National Convention chosen?
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6- Define counterrevolutionary.
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7- What did the new government find the king guilty of; what was the king’s sentence?
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8- Who were the Jacobins and why were they significant?
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9- Who was Maximilien Robespierre?
________________________________________________________________________
10- What was the Committee of Public Safety?
________________________________________________________________________
11- What were the effects of the Reign of Terror?
________________________________________________________________________
12- Why was Robespierre arrested on July 27, 1794?
________________________________________________________________________
13- What happened to Robespierre after his arrest?
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14- What was the Directory?
________________________________________________________________________
15- Why was the Directory replaced?
________________________________________________________________________
16- Who was Napoleon?
________________________________________________________________________
17- What reforms did Napoleon bring to the lands he conquered?
________________________________________________________________________
18- What did Napoleon declare himself in 1804?
________________________________________________________________________
19- How did France’s invasion of Russia affect French soldiers?
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20- What eventually happened to Napoleon?
________________________________________________________________________
21- Thinking Question – How was the American Revolution similar to the French
Revolution?
________________________________________________________________________
22- Thinking Question – How as the American Revolution fundamentally different from
the French Revolution?
________________________________________________________________________
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?
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