Andrew Treulich

November 23, 2014

Chapter 21- The Revolution in Politics, 1775-1815

I. Background to Revolution
A. Legal Orders and Social Change
1. France was divided legally into three estates: the clergy, nobility, and everybody
else.
2. Throughout the time there had been growing tensions between the nobility and the
bourgeoisie (Upper Middle Class).
3. Both aristocratic and bourgeois notables were frustrated by a bureaucratic
monarchy.
B. The Crisis of Political Legitimacy
1. A century of political and fiscal struggle in France preceded the Revolution.
2. The Parlement of Paris prevented the imposition of new taxes in France after the
War of the Austrian Succession.
3. Rene de Maupeou led a royal backlash against the French Parlements.
4. Desacralization of the French monarchy occurred due to Scandalous pamphlets.
5. The number of French institutions (including parlements) regained the power they
had lost under Louis XIV.
C. The Impact of the American Revolution
1. The American Revolution impacted the state of France greatly. The French
expenses to support the colonists had bankrupted the French Crown.
2. The Seven Years War originally increased the debt of the British, so they taxed
their American colonies, which ultimately led to the Revolution.
3. The European people were fascinated by the ideas by the political lessons of the
Revolutionary War.
4. The American Revolutionary War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of
Paris in 1783.
D. Financial Crisis
1. Louis XV and his ministers were forced to raise taxes due to the financial woes
from the Revolutionary and Seven Years Wars.
2. By the 1780s, fully 50 percent of Frances annual budgets went for interest
payments on the debt.
3. France was too weak to survive a declaration of bankruptcy.
4. France could not print money to cover their debt because they did not have a
national bank.
5. The French king was unable to gain support for a new general tax, thus they could
not attempt to eliminate their debts.
II. Revolution in Metropole and Colony, 1789-1791

A. The Formation of the National Assembly

1. The National Assembly was created following the Estates General (Louis XV).
2. The Third Estate left the meeting of the Estates General and declared itself the
National Assembly.
3. Oath of the Tennis Court; to pledge to not disband until they had written a new
constitution.
4.Almost all male commoners twenty-five years of age and older had the right to
vote.
B. The Revolt of the Poor and the Oppressed
1. Grain was the basis of diet of ordinary people in the eighteenth century.
2. Harvest failure and high bread prices led to an economic depression (demand for
manufactured goods collapsed).
3. French peasants began to rise in insurrection against their lords.
4. The French peasantry achieved an unprecedented victory in the early days of
revolutionary upheaval.
C. A Limited Monarchy
1. National Assembly; issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
2. National Assembly abolished French nobility and pushed forward with creation of
constitutional monarchy.
3. National Assembly granted religious freedom for Jews and Protestants.
4. Radical reformations by National Assembly.

D. Revolutionary Aspirations in Saint-Domingue

1. Slaves made up vast majority of population in Saint-Domingue.
2. The free population was divided by color and wealth.
3. The turmoil of the 1780s challenged the status quo.
4. The National Assembly sided with white planters, and gave each colony the right
to draft its own constitution.
III. World War and Republican France, 1791-1799
A. Foreign Reactions and the Beginning of War
1. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) argued for society in France to set high
standards for women.
2. June 1971, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were arrested and returned to Paris
after being caught trying to flee France.

3. Jacobin club: well-educated middle-class men made up majority of National

Convention.
4. Jacobins prevented potential rising monarchs and aristocrats.
B. The Second Revolution
1. In 9/1792, the National Convention proclaimed France a republic.
2. The Jacobin club of Paris was divided into two groups: Girondists (home to several
southwestern leaders of France) and the Mountain (led by Robespierre and George
Jacques Danton).
3.Division emerged after the Convention convicted Louis XVI of treason (Girondists
accepted guilt but did not want to put him to death) and the Mountain wished for his
death
4. Louis XVI was executed by the use of a guillotine on January 21, 1793.
5. On February 1793, the National Convention, already at war with Austria and
Prussia, declared war on Britain, Holland, and Spain as well lasted until 1815.
6.The Mountain organized an uprising against the Girondists that forced the
Convention to arrest all the thirty-one Girondist deputies for treason on June 2.
From there on, all the power was passed to the Mountain.

C. Total War and Terror

1. Robespierre and his coworkers established a planned economy (set prices for
foods and goods throughout France).
2. The Reign of Terror (1793-1794) used revolutionary terror to solidify the
homefront.
3. Some forty-thousand French men and women were executed or died in prison.
4. Reign of Terror believed to be used as a political weapon against all who might
oppose the revolutionary government.
D. Revolution in Saint-Domingue
1. Slaves held a series of meetings in order to plan a mass insurrection (nighttime).
2. February 4, 1794, the Convention ratified the abolition of slavery and extended it
to all French territories.
3. The French were able to gradually regain control of Saint-Domingue.
E. The Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory, 1794-1799
1. The success of the French armies allowed Robespierre and the Committee of
Public Safety to relax with emergency economic controls in France, but they
extended the political Reign of Terror.
2. Robespierre was executed due to his extension of the Reign of Terror (convicted for
conspiracy).

3. Constitution of 1795: supported military expansion and would guarantee their

economic position and political supremacy.
Page 714-715 Outline:
1. Declaration of Rights of Man was a revolutionary call for legal equality and
individual freedom.
2. Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizens was formed by the
National Assembly for the same reason the Declaration of Rights of Man was
formed.
3. The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizens was a solid
attempt in France to increase the rights of women and an attempt to have equal
rights for both men and women.

IV. The Napoleonic Era, 1799-1815

A. Napoleons Rule of France
1. Napoleon had realized the need to put an end to the ongoing civil conflicts in
France in order to create unity, and to consolidate his rule.
2. Napoleon was born in Corsica, Italy, Napoleon became a lieutenant for the French
artillery in 1785.
3. Napoleon overthrew the Directory on November 9, 1799. Was named first Consul
of Republic and wrote new constitution in December 1799.
4. Civil Code of 1804- equality of all male citizens before the law and absolute
security of wealth and private property.
5. Napoleon treated the RCC well by allowing French Catholics to practice their
religion freely.
6. Womens rights wasnt shown in France; Free speech and freedom of the press
were violated in France under Napoleon countless times.
B. Napoleons Expansion in Europe
1. Napoleon decisively defeated the Austrians, and signed multiple peace treaties with
countries like Britain and Austria.
2. Napoleon went to war with Britain in hopes for blockading Britains trade
throughout Europe. Austria, Russia, and Sweden joined with Britain to form the
Third Coalition against France.
3. Napoleon and his army easily defeated his opponents and successfully enforced his
economic blockade against British goods.
C. The War of Haitian Independence
1. Toussaint LOuverture began to attempt to make Saint-Domingue independent
from Frances control.
2. Napoleons constitution of 1799 opened the way for a re-establishment of slavery,
but Saint-Domingue counteracted with their form of a constitution. They abolished

slavery, and Napoleon viewed it as a seditious act, so he sent his General to crush
the new regime.
3. LOuverture cooperated with France and turned over his army over to France,
where he was later arrested and deported to France (with his family).
4. Jean Jacques Dessalines united the resistance under his command and declared the
independence of Saint-Domingue (changed the name to Haitai).
D. The Grand Empire and Its End
1. Napoleon by 1810 controlled mass amounts of European lands. He was able to
become allied states with Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
2. Revolts in Spain occurred when the Catholics, monarchists, and patriots did not
want Spain to become a French satellite with a Bonaparte as its king.
3. Napoleon invaded Russia beginning in June 1812 (a force of 600,000).
4. Starvation and the Russian army cut Napoleons army to pieces (370,000 died and
200,000 had been taken prisoner).
5. Napoleons allies agreed to restore the Bourbon Dynasty, in which the new
monarch, Louis XVII (r. 1814-1824) took the throne.
6. Napoleon was arrested following the battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. An era
had ended.