·
Ancien Regime
o
France before Revolution
o
Estates
§ 1st
Estate-Clergy
·
Church is tremendously influential and is wealthy
·
Connected to political system
·
Except for free gift, the Church did little to alleviate
France’s financial issues
§ 2nd
Estate-Nobility
·
Lords
o
Holdover of feudal system
o
Tax exemptions; were supposed to pay but refused, thinking it
below them
§ 3rd
Estate-Bourgeoisie & Peasants
·
Carried tax burden
·
Bourgeoisie
o
Greater in number
o
Wealthier than 2nd Estate, but didn’t share in rights
& privileges
o
Best bet was to marry off children to impoverished aristocrats
o
Bourgeoisie values are different from those of the aristocracy
§ Hard
work gets you what you have-make it happen
§ Aristocracy
born with silver spoon
§ New
sensibility in the 18th century
o
Bourgeoisie angry they are denied rights-their hard work is
taxed but they get no return
§ Irrational
§ Frustrated
& disdainful of 2nd estate
·
Peasants fear starvation & are consistently oppressed
o
Peasants, not serfs
·
People have wealth they can’t enjoy & hide away; something
wrong with system
·
People have to know wat they are missing o revolt
·
Peasants of France were free; owned property
o
No private property-all eminent domain
§ Aristocracy
still had rights:
·
Hunting rights
·
Banalities
·
Manorial fees
·
Church tithes
·
Holdovers of middle ages
§ Struggling
aristocrats would go back to ledgers from middle ages-doesn’t make sense for
hem o still have privileges
o
Peasants mostly subsisted on bread, the price of which
fluctuated based on conditions
o
Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette did not have a great marriage
§ People
hated Marie Antoinette
§ Louis
was not assertive & didn’t want to be king
§ Unaware
of actual conditions in kingdom
o
Collone, de Brienne & Necker were the financial ministers
leading up to the revolution
§ Collone
tried to get around parlements; resigned in disgrace
§ de
Brienne tried to take control
§ Necker
tried to tell king how bad the finances were while attempting to show public
the financial system was good
o
Summer 1788 a group of notables suggested calling the Estates
Generale
§ Held
in same way as 200 years ago
§ Unfair
distribution of delegates
§ Each
estate gets only 1 vote
§ King
sides with aristocrats instead of 3rd estate
·
Lost support of delegates & the people
·
3rd estate forms national assembly
·
French National Assembly
o
Constituent assembly met to put together a constitution
o
Blocked from assembly hall by king’s guards
o
Wen to an indoor tennis court-June 20, 1789
o
Wherever the group met, the assembly would be in session
o
Tennis Court Oath gives them a form of sovereignty
o
People tart to pick up that they are in defiance of the king
& speaking for them
§ In
defiance of the ancien regime
o
Deep sense of unease in Paris
§ Hot,
oppressive summer, rising prices, & people are politically unnerved
§ Rumor
that king has troops to send into city to crack down on the city & national
assembly
§ People
are fearful
§ Decide
to storm Bastille, an armory, for weapons-July 14th, 1789
§ Start
of French Revolution
§ National
Assembly told about the storming of the Bastille, but decided not to make any
sort of statement, thus condoning it
o
Violence spilled throughout France
o
Members of National Assembly concerned revolution was going too
far
o
National Assembly put forth series of reforms on August 4th
§ Abolished
feudalism
·
No manorial obligations or rights
§ Legal
equality
§ Reforms
made in principal, not in practice; impossible to enforce changes
o
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen-August 26, 1789
§ National
Assembly
§ Espouses
Enlightenment ideas & principles of new order
§ “Men
are born and remain free and equal in rights”
·
Liberty
·
Property
·
Security
·
Resistance to oppression
§ Law
is an expression of the general will; thus, all people are equal before it
§ The
people are sovereign
§ “Liberty,
equality, fraternity”
§ Basis
of new constitution
§ Makes
no mention of a monarch
o
Violence proves bad for economy
o
March on Versailles-October 1789
§ Women
who work on docks, fish ladies, decide to confront king about the price of
bread
§ March
to Versailles to demand lower bread prices
§ Demand
king and queen be presented to them; storm palace
§ Louis
& Marie presented to crowd & forced to go to Paris; put up in Tuileries
o
Society of Friends of the Constitution
§ Planning
constitution
§ Debated
what role the monarch should play
§ Begin
meeting in the abandoned Jacobin monastery
§ Maximillian
Robespierre became prominent
o
People beginning to discuss idea of republicanism
o
Radical stirrings even before constitution has been finished
o
Decided to seize church lands
§ Revolution
had hurt economy
§ New
French currency, assignat, backed by church property
o
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy-July 1790
§ Clergy
forced to sign pledge allegiance to the coming constitution of France
§ This
would make them secularized, but clergy conflicted because they are supposed to
be subordinate to Rome
§ Causes
major problem for Revolution moving forward
§ Half
the clergy signed, half refused
·
Constitutional clergy signed
·
Refractory clergy refused to sign, becoming
counter-revolutionaries
§ Pope
repudiated the document and decided it shouldn’t be signed; considered clear
evidence the Revolution was godless
§ People
forced to choose between faith and Revolution
§ Catholicism
becomes associated with counter-revolution
o
Flight to Varennes-June 1791
§ King
and Queen attempted to flee country
§ Caught
§ Undermines
king’s authority and the authority of new constitution
·
Legislative Assembly
o
Constitution finalized September 1791
o
Legislative Assembly becomes 1st Revolutionary
government
§ Limited
constitutional monarchy
§ Based
on the English model
§ Assemblymen
who had pushed to include the king were dislike by these who were against him
§ Expanded
political enfranchisement to upper middle classes
·
Active citizens
o
could vote and hold office
o
Supposed to make decisions
o
Income & land ownership
·
Passive citizens
o
Could not vote or hold office
o
Middle & lower middle class, peasants
·
Not everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, which is against Revolutionary
ideals
§ King
has veto power
§ Jacobins
believed it did not adequately represent the Declaration of the Rights of Man
& Citizen
§ Not
considered democratic by modern standards, but at the time was the most
democratic government to ever exist
·
Merit-based system
o
Political, religious, & philosophical divisions in France
o
Everyone in Europe is paying attention to events in France;
either for the revolution or against it
o
Leopold II was Emperor of Austria
§ Did
not want to get involved in France’s affairs
§ Declaration
of Pillnitz-August 27, 1791
·
Austria would get involved only if every other country agreed to
o
Legislative Assembly believes Prussians & Austrians are
thinking about declaring war
§ April
20th, 1792-Declare war on Prussia & Austria
§ War
goes badly
§ Troops
begin to close in on Paris, leading to hysteria
§ People
look for new leaders
o
Leopold’s successor Francis issued Brunswick Manifest in 1792
§ States
if any harm comes to King & Queen, Austria will destroy Paris
o
August 1792-Second French Revolution
·
National Convention
o
War with Austria & Prussia going terribly
o
Birth of the first French Republic
o
People question what they’re doing and there are struggles over what
should be done
o
Assembly Hall
§ Reform
minded liberals on left, conservatives on right
§ Republicans
·
Jacobins
o
Girondist
§ Wanted
to distinguish between active & passive system
§ Wanted
broader system but didn’t want to exclude peasants
o
The Mountain
§ Far left
§ Wanted
everyone to be able to vote & participate in government
§ Very
self-righteous
§ Take control
of the revolution
§ Most
radical elements in France
§ Claimed
to be responding to sans culottes
o
National convention being put together
§ New
constitution written & immediately suspended, plunging France into an
emergency republic
o
Churches shut down
o
Society is completely secular
o
Change how people speak; change calendar-new months, days of the
week; wanted people to forget Sunday
o
National Convention tries to figure out what to do without a king
§ King
must go, for he will always be a counter-revolutionary rallying point; if he
dies, his symbolism dies with him
§ 1 vote
decides; 361 who voted for are now regicides
o
King executed January 7th, 1793
o
1st Coalition put together
§ Prussia
§ Austria
§ Britain
§ Spain
§ Dutch
§ All of
Europe is opposed to the French Revolution
o
Committee of Public safety
§ 12
members elected each month by the convention
§ Led by
Maximillian Robespierre & Georges Jacques Danton
·
Both brilliant speakers & lawyers before the revolution
·
Robespierre opposed capital punishment as a lawyer
§ Robespierre
claimed that capital punishment being carried out was virtue with terror for
the good of all mankind; truly committed to his ideals
o
Jean Paul Marat
§ Most
responsible for beheadings
§ Newspaper-“Friend
of the People”
·
Journalist
§ Violent
imagery roused people and created an enemy to blame; people fall prey to
rhetoric
§ Killed
by Charlotte Corday; becomes martyr for cause
o
Moving into Reign of Terror
§ 20 to
40,000 executed by guillotine
§ No
trials
§ National
Razor/Great Equalizer
o
Convention not really in control
o
1st major modern conscription-levee en masse
§ Mid-1795,
war turns around; soldiers become successful in the field against the Coalition
o
Tricolor and new national anthem adopted
o
October 1793-Marie Antoinette executed
o
Danton executed; people start to worry about end of Emergency
Republic
o
First coalition fighting against France
o
France still had colonies
§ Finances
coming from Saint Domingue’s sugar plantations
§ Robespierre
sees having slaves hypocritical; liberates them
·
Bad in the long run economically
o
Robespierre tried to rectify religious schism by creating cult of
supreme being
§ Further
alienates Catholics
o
In 1794 the convention began turning against Robespierre
§ Guillotined;
death marked symbolic end of Reign of Terror
o
Thermodorian Reaction-more moderate, conservative government emerges
§ New
constitution drafted
·
The Directory
o
New government
o
People voted for electors
§ Try to
diffuse power
§ 2 house
legislator
·
Council of 500
·
Council of Ancients
·
Chose executive branch
o
5 directors
o
Power diffused
o
Hard to make decisions; inefficient
§ Brought
back active & passive citizens
§ Favored
upper & middle classes
§ Income
& property ownership determined citizens
o
Count of Provence referring to himself as Louis XVIII; wants to
return to France & punish those involved with the revolution
o
Military had battlefield advantages
§ Defeat first
coalition
§ Acquire
Belgium, Netherlands, & Italy
§ Generals
governing & acting independent of Directory; Directory dependent on
military support
o
Religious, philosophical, & political divisions remain
o
Monarchists becoming part of government
o
Elections held in 1797 lead to many monarchists being voted into
power
o
Sept. 1797 republicans launch Coup d’etat of Fructidor
§ Used
military to declare elections void; act in anti-Republican manner
o
Economic problems that started revolution in the first place still
have not been addressed
o
2nd coalition put together to attack
§ Faction
of conservatives talk of suing for peace
§ Generals
necessary to keep expansionist foreign policies
·
Society during French Revolution
o
Bad harvests, high grain prices lead to hungry peasants
o
Unfair tax burden on 3rd Estate
o
Role of women in revolution
§ 1789-Women’’s
march on Versailles to persuade Louis XVI to accept Declaration of Rights of
Man & Citizen & to demand bread
·
Olympia DeGouges Declaration
of Rights of Woman and Citizen
§ Mob
marches on Bastille July 1789
§ Great
Fear leads to abolishment of feudalism in August 1789
§ Sans
Culottes adopt pants; style of dress changes
§ Committee
of Public Safety dechristianizes calendar
§ Divorce
laws loosened
§ Equal
inheritance among children, including girls
§ National
Convention votes to make primary education free
§ Emigres
(nobility) flee
§ Thermidore
·
Middle class fight back looking for protection of property
·
Napoleon & His Empire
o
People want one person in charge
o
Napoleon Bonaparte was born into an aristocratic family in
Corsica around the time it was acquired by France
o
Quickly moved up ranks of French military
o
Intelligent, well-spoken, but also crude; enlightened
o
Troops very loyal to him
o
Coup of Brumoire-1799
§ Napoleon
dissolved directory; military takeover
o
The Consulate
§ New
constitution
§ 3
consuls, but Napoleon has all the power
§ Everything
predicated around Napoleon
o
New constitution drafted & reforms instituted
§ Bureaucratic
machinery for government
§ Wide
suffrage
§ Financial
problems solved
§ Feudalism
abolished
§ Religious
split settled
·
1801-Concordat with the church
o
Rome appointed clergy
o
Evolution recognized
§ Religious
tolerance enacted
§ Napoleonic
Code brought legal equality
·
Women can inherit property
o
Conservative elements and far left disliked Napoleon
o
Became emperor in 1804
o
Decides to fix the rest of Europe he must conquer it
o
Battle of Jena-Auerstädt-1806
§ Napoleon
crushed Prussians
§ Holy
Roman Empire dismantled
§ 300
German states consolidated into Confederation of the Rhine
o
Northern Italian states become kingdom of Naples
o
Middle of Italy becomes Kingdom of Rome
o
Southern Italy becomes Kingdom of Naples
o
Grand Duchy of Warsaw is a puppet state
o
Prussia & Austria forced to answer to Napoleon
o
Spain taken over
§ Bourbons
overthrown
§ Brother
put on throne
§ Catholic
Spanish resented Napoleon
o
British outside French control
§ Strong
navy
o
French would conquer an area, establish a satellite government,
and impose reforms
§ Released
serfs
§ Napoleonic
codes
§ Finances
§ Seen
as liberator initially
o
Russia is a concern
§ Meets
with Alexander I
§ Treaty
of Tilsit-1807
·
Society under Napoleon
o
Napoleonic Civil code
§ Religious
liberty & protection of property
§ Legion
of Honor
§ Inheritance
goes to all children
§ Divorce
law which favors males
§ Napoleon
censors to limit criticism
§ Women’s
rights curtailed to reinforce their traditional role
§ Code
Napoleon required division of property among all children
·
peasants began to limit births
·
Continental System
o
Napoleon refused to allow Britain to trade with Europe; hoped it
would destroy British economy
o
British continued trading with colonies, especially South
America, & economy continued to grow
o
Berlin Decree-1806-no British goods on the continent of Europe
o
Order of Council-1806-any ship trading with Europe had to be
inspected by Britain
o
Milan Decree-1807-any neutral ship that stopped at a British
ship couldn’t trade with Europe
§ Frustrated
United States, leading to the War of 1812
o
Continental system failure
§ British
economy still grew
§ Industrial
revolution took place
§ Britain
imported grain from other parts of the world, starving Russia & Eastern
Europe of their market
§ Harmed
European economy
o
Alexander I violated continental system at the end of 1810 &
resumed trade with Britain; Napoleon saw this as a violation of the Treaty of
Tilsit
·
Confederation of the Rhine
o
German states of the Holy Roman Empire combined into 39 states
an organized into loose confederation
·
German Romanticism
o
German intellectuals; response to what Germans saw as a
French-dominated Enlightenment
o
Writers, philosophers, & poets
o
Germans began seeing themselves as Germans
o
Modern Nationalism results from the French revolution
o
German thinkers wanted to create their own distinct ideas &
philosophies
o
Herder
§ Examined
nature of people who could accomplish great things
§ Ideas on the Philosophy of the History
of Mankind
§ Volk-what
made a people what they were
·
Language
·
Spirit/soul of people; connected to geographic surroundings
§ Germans
are a single people
§ Different
volks must not be mixed
o
Germans want to create own German state
o
Academic resistance
o
Fichte
§ Thinker
& economist
§ Inspired
by French Revolution
§ Embraced
radicalized version of Herder’s ideas
·
People operate in own moral universe
§ German
volk is greater than other volks
o
Germans had to industrialize to create a German state
o
Prussia had to reform its military
·
Congress of Vienna
o
Louis XVIII will be an absolute monarch
§ France
still has legal equality, Napoleonic code, concordat, no return to feudalism,
government merit-based
o
1st Treaty of Paris-May 30th, 1814
§ France
·
Maintain borders of 1792
o
Some territory acquired, such as Avignon
·
No reparations
·
Napoleon will be exiled & sent to Elba to live under house
arrest
§ Tensions
between major powers
·
Russians effuse to discuss Mediterranean & Turks
·
British refuse to discuss freedom of the seas & colonial
powers
§ Austrian
principal minister Metternich has greatest impact
·
Goals:
o
Restore the liberties of Europe
§ Rights
of sovereign nations, rights of monarchs, & rights of lords
o
Maintain a balance of power
o
Preserve peace
§ British
have lots of pull
·
Lord Castlereagh is chief minister
o
Acted independently
§ Russia
represented by Czar
§ Prussia
represented by Karl von Hardenberg, the foreign minister, and the king
§ Distinction
between great powers & secondary powers
·
Small states
·
Spain & France
·
Papal states
§ France
originally wasn’t supposed to be in negotiations; Talleyrand negotiated for
them to be represented as great power
§ Dutch
republic re-established
·
Given control of Austrian Netherlands
§ Sardinia
given territory, including Genoa
§ Lombardy-Venetia
given to Habsburgs
·
Milan & Venice
§ Papal
states returned
·
Disappeared wen Napoleon created Kingdom of Rome
·
Papacy restored
§ Germans
wanted to create a Germany, but blocked because they didn’t have a plan
·
German Confederation-Bund
§ Polish-Saxon
Question
·
Russia wanted all of Poland; suggested Frederick William III
take Saxony
·
Move angered Austria & Britain
·
Talleyrand discovered it
o
French, Austrians & British threatened to go to war
·
Russia got a chunk of Poland
o
Alexander I king
o
Constitution with enlightened rights
·
Prussia got half of Poland & half of Saxony
o
Napoleon escaped Elba & made a final stand
o
2nd Treaty of Paris
§ France
·
Territorial modifications
·
700,000,000 Francs in reparations
o
Not meant to cripple France
·
Army of occupation imposed
o
Multinational Congress force
o
Louis XVIII asked for troops to be removed after several years
·
Louis XVIII came back
·
Napoleon exiled to St. Helena
