Revolutions and wars in the Western world (1776-1871)

The Atlantic Revolutions

When we refer to Atlantic revolutions we refer to a perdios where the atlantic ocean becomes the
center of travel for ideas, people, commerce…
This period demonstrates how revolutions, commerce and ideas are interconnected to the
establishment of new international relations between the different world powers. (can we talk of world
power in this period?)
Among this period of revolutions we find the American Revolution, which was one of the leading
movements in this period.
The French Revolution had a great impact on the Caribbean because what today is Haiti was a French
Colony, which was affected by the revolutionary ideas which started a revolution started by the
natives.
Other important revolutions are the ones in Latin America (what were the colonies).
In a matter of a century the situation revolving around the Atlantic ocean changed completely, taking
the Atlantic ocean as its center.
The events that took place in the matter of these few decades, ignite questions such as what are
nations? is a nation the same as a state? Are national identities the cause of independent war or the
consequence of them? Most national histories present these revolutionary movements as a natural
consequence of a national identity which wanted or needed to be expressed.
Of course, we have to take into account that this a eurocentric approach not only of this period, but to
history in general. The history of the 18th-19th century is known as the rise of the West; it is a period
where the west starts to overpass other powers which are not christian empire. What has been called
the great divergence, starts happening. This means that until this period, europe had the same kind of
power or influence as other powers with different spiritual beliefs, or geographical placement.
European powers start to look into Africa, Asia, America and start to have in mind the imposition of
certain rules…. rights?

If we want to understand the revolutions mentioned above, we first have to go further back and look
into events such as The Seven Years War (1754/56-1763). It was an international war between
european power which formed two blocks: Spain and France together with Austria and Hungary as
well as Russia and other minor powers such as Sweden, Saxony VS. Great Britain, Prussia and
Portugal. This meant that for example the French and The British were fighting in North America.
The result of this war was the victory of the British which ended up incorporating north america into
their empire. There was also a war between portugal and spain which were fighting on the borders of
Brazil, and Paraguay, Uruguay.
The third part of this war was the lower part of the Indian subcontinent (main areas of fighting
Calcutta and Madras). The native population defeated in many cases the european although there were
some commercial agreements between the western colonisers and the natives.

The British are able to expel the French from Canada, they are able to get to India at least in some
way, but in europe there wasn’t almost any change. The consequences of the Seven Years War were
mostly seen overseas which tells a lot about what kind of war we are dealing with. The fact that this
war was overseas also meant that it was more expensive. More expenses means more debts which also
means more financial crisis. The financial impact of this war had such an impact that are at the origin
of the revolutionary changes that are going to be following. It is not only about revolutionary concepts
of ideas like the Enlightenment, at the end it ot in money and in finance which we fight the necessity
component of this revolutions.

❖ The American Revolution

North America was, right after the end of the seven years war, a territory divided in 13 autonomous
colonies, which had nothing to do one with another + Canada. They were nothing close to a national
territory or identity. This meant that colonies will have little to none interaction between each other.
What we see here is there is not an already existing American colony which wanted their
independence. We can also extend this idea to european territories; they didn’t form the national
modern states we understand today. Each of these 13 colonies are not part of a national territory and
therefore identity, which we now link to the USA. Because of this, the USA today is still a federation
divided into states with borders very similar to the ones existing today.

- British Imperial Reforms:

The British had to put an end to the policy of salutary neglect: We are not able to put taxes on the new
land because the cost of putting these taxes overseas, is larger than not doing taxes at all (the cost
would be larger that the income). As long as the sovereignty of England is recognized, England
accepted this situation.
After the large Debt left because of the war of the seven years, England decided that the colonies had
to start paying taxes. They would in a way be contributing to their own defense and administration.
The Standing Army proved to be a problem because it could be interpreted as a possible source of
despotism and tyranny and to impose to the local population certain values or decisions. It was also
expensive to maintain. Questions such “Why an army now?” started to arise between the locals of the
colonies.
The same goes for the different taxes introduced in the 60s. Until that moment the policy of salutary
neglect kept the locals from paying taxes. From this moment on the government decides that the
colonies will have to pay taxes for Sugar, for Stamp, for Revenue Act-Townshend Acts.
The turning point is when the economic and taxation policies started to gain political meaning: No
taxation without representation. This sentence means that if there is representation, there won’t be
opposition to the payment of Taxes. What is a stake here is not the actual fight for independence but a
fight to become more integrated into the British empire. Independence is not looked as at a solution;
the solution is representation of the British Parliament.
Of course, the British parliament refused. When they received these complains they had an answer
ready: Virtual Representation. This means that everyone is represented even if they don’t have a vote.
In reality, most people in england had no representation because they could not vote. In theory they
were still represented.
Conflict started to appear. 1773, Correspondence Committees. Groups of people from the colonies
started to communicate with each other, and start creating connections and more importantly creating
the illusion of the sharing of a common problem.
1773: Tea Act and Boston Tea Party.
1774: Coercive Acts/ Intolerable Acts. There is an image which represents a native women about to
be raped by and englishmen and being fed tea forcefully by another. This represents how the
americans “felt” like they were being raped by the English and forced their cultural values and ideals.

Approximately one third of the americans stayed loyal to the colonies. This meant that not only was it
an international conflict with the British, but a national problem in the colony itself.
In the Fall of 1774, the First Continental Congress took place.
In April of 1775, Lexington and Concord were found to be collecting arms. This constitutes the first
real battle with violence. “The brave milicia men which died in the defense of the nation and in a way
started a fight for independence”.
War and Revolution. At the same time, congresses were forming in the provinces. These local
meetings started to create new political systems. This first revolutionary political transformation took
place at a regional scale. It was each of the colonies deciding for themselves the longing for
sovereignty. This sovereign states started to create revolutionary republican constitution which broke
away from the english power. Constitution aimed at each of the states not at them as a unity.
If we don’t built a common army, we shall not defeat the british

They realised that if they wanted to win the war they needed to create a Continental Army, 14 June
1775. They knew that by themselves it would be almost impossible to win the war which is why the
tried to turn the conflict into an international one. They approaches England’s enemies like the
French, Dutch and Spanish, in order to acquire support like ammunition. These other powers helped
them because they found them like a way to hurt the English Empire. This war was an international
war; a number of european powers intervened, supporting the colonies not because they were
particularly aligned with the revolutionary ideals defended, but rather because they viewed the
conflict as an internal problem for England.
The Peace of Paris put an end to this conflict and declared the colonies independent. Consequently the
4 of July of 1776, the Declaration of Independence took place (written by Thomas Jefferson). This
document made very big statements like “all man are made equal”. We need to take into account that
the same Jefferson which wrote a revolutionary document, he himself was owner of slaves.

So far, these states had ruled themselves with the help of the Articles of the Confederacy. They were a
confederation. The difference between a confederation and a federation needs to remain clear. In the
confederation the states could at anytime decide to break away from this alliance. After the
independence is obtained, remains the conflict of what to do next. They were very small, tiny colonies
which feared what would happen if they didn’t continue allying. This context is the one present when
one of the most important congresses in the history of the USA took place. We find two positions:
Federalists vs Anti-Federalists. The federalist looked at the question as a matter of survival, they
argued that they needed a stronger government to promote the happiness and progress internally
which would create a system of liberty.
Most people, however, opposed federalists. Mainly because they were afraid of the possibility of
losing sovereignty. This topic was mainly discussed in the streets, through the people. (loyalists).

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote The Federalist Papers, and released them in
the state of New York, where the majority of the population was anti-federalist.
The Federal Constitution was established in 1788 after which was necessary to establish rights and
policies. The two houses of the American legislative power (upper and lower house), would not be
representing the same thing as England’s models. The Upper house would represent the territories, the
states. The lower house, the house of representatives (of commons in england), would represent the
people. Really small states like Rhode Island or Connecticut decided that the only way they would
agree to this Federal State, was if they were represented equally as all the other states. The system was
created so both houses are supervised one by the other. The latest example of this is President
Trump’s Impeachment. The impeachment is done by the Senate. However it only passes to the senate
if the house of representatives approves it.
Bill of rights, 1791. The Ten Amendments (the first ten amendments). We have a document, two
centuries old, that still is respected and governs and dictated a modern contemporary states.
Division of power; made so that all the states, specially those that were small sized, would be content
and feel secure---every state would have the same representation. The representation of the people,
was in the lower house, in the house of representatives. This was the way to get all states to agree to
the constitution. This is actually the way that todays USA’s system works.

One of the biggest issue that aroused in this period was the issue of slavery. Smaller states in the
south (NC,SC) were afraid that states that didn’t rely on slavery, wouldn’t approve of it and make
rules to abolish it. In fact they only entered the union after they were assured that slavery wouldn’t be
abolished.

Another dilemma made an appearance: Would slaves count as citizens and populations? Should they
be counted in terms of representation? Here is when another debate started, which was a paradoxical
discussion, because the slave owner states are arguing that slaves should be counted as people. It was
a question of power. On the other hand, states that didn’t have slaves, would support that slaves
should not be counted as people for the purpose of representation.
This problem was solved by a compromise; a slave would be counted as ⅗ of a person (a white). This
means that out of a 100.000 slaves only 60.000 would be represented.
In the end this conflict was just a conflict of representation and therefore a question of power.

Contrary to the expectation you would have regarding a territory whose foundations lie on freedom
and justice, slavery will not just not disappear but it will grow. The spread, however, takes a particular
shape. In 1790, slaves were both in the north and in the south (although they were much more
important economically speaking in the south). In the 1850 slavery grows but we can sense three
elements; firstly, the disappearance of slavery in the northern states, the increase of slavery in the
already existing southern states, and the incorporations of new states. Some of these new states (the
northern ones) didn’t assume slavery but the southern incorporations did. These was consequence,
again, of an agreement; as the territory expanded the northern states would not incorporate slavery,
and the southern states (what is known as the deep south) would have slaves. “Progress as we
understand, when we try to give meaning to these revolutions, doesn’t always catch up to our
expectations. A country that created the most advance democracy in which almost all white men
could vote, was also based on a portion of this population being slaves”. In this republic, in this
democracy it was legal to own people. One of the most important revolutionary ideas that these
revolutions introduced was the right to own property but what happens when this property is a
women, a slave…? A market based on the right to own property and free labour, is in a way a state
based on slavery?

But why did the northern states accept that the southern states based their economy on slavery? It was
very hard to maintain----civil war.

The French Revolution

Causes of the French Revolutions
There is no consensus, there is no definitive answer. There are, of course, a number of interpretations
and a number of issues that have to be taken into consideration not only for the analysis of the French
Revolution but for the sake of understanding the whole of history.
As with everything in life, we are dealing with a complex context in which a number of elements
participate.
Imperial Rivalry: The French Monarchy was, financially speaking, was very affected by the war costs
first in the seven years war and then in the war in the American Revolution. This lead to a very
difficult economic situation which derived in a financial and economic crisis. The costs of the army
and pretty much of everything were becoming an increasingly important problem. The king hired a
number of financial experts that made an analysis of the economic situation and came up with the
same solution: France needed a change in the way they were performing taxation the state needed
more taxes and more revenue if the bankruptcy of the state was going to be solved. This meant that
those sectors of French society which were exempt of paying taxes, were those that had privileges and
were favoured by the crown because of a specific social order. In the same way, the Aristocracy didn't
pay taxes but were able to collect taxes; the church didn’t pay taxes for the land they owned. If the
solution was to make these sectors of society to pay taxes, this was going to be a problem. The king of
France couldn’t force these sectors to pay taxes, but rather find an agreement. Although the French
monarchy is referred to as an absolute monarchy we see that this wasn’t the case at all. To no one’s
surprise, the Aristocracy and the church are going to oppose the decision of the king. We see that a
financial problem turns into a political crisis.
The persistence of certain elements of feudalism and privileged created conflict between the french
aristocracy and the rest of the population. Between the church and the aristocracy they owned 40% of
the French land. 4% of French population were the owners of almost half the land and most of the
wealth of the French territory. This excludes not only the peasants but the bourgeoisie, doctors,
lawyers… There was a particularly hard moment in the central decades of the 18th century in which it
didn’t rain enough and the result was that there were a number of failures in the harvest and the food
became scarce and very expensive. The state in France had always had economic problem; it was not
the first time this happened but in this case the conditions gave way to a revolution. The solution was
a revolution. A revolution that would eventually lead to the execution of the King of France in a
public square in the middle of Paris.
Of course, we cannot understand the French revolution if we don’t considerate the intellectual
conditions it took place in; mainly the enlightenment. It is right there, it is happening at the same time.
“Can a book initiate a revolution?”.

In a way in its paradoxical because the people that are supposedly being freed, are rejecting this
freedom. Maybe because what we understand today this freedom in a society of peasants in the France
of the 18th century, makes no sense. How can you talk to someone about freedom without assuring
their basic rights first?

Cahiers de doléances (books of grievances).

This new way by which a traditional institution that hadn't met for about 150 years in which the
representatives of French society but in states (representation based in states), i going to be
transformed into a modern understanding of representation. Again we are going to find an issue with
representation. The problem was that certain privileges were going to represent a problem to
aristocracy. Proposals that were made mostly by the elites, were in theory open to everyone. This is a
tradition way of understanding a crisis and how to solve it. The book of grievances will be the origin
of a wider debate in general.
Members of the third states include also the bourgeoisie not only peasants. Many members of the
bourgeoisie actually didn’t support the revolution and many members of the nobility, in contrast,
actually supported the revolution. In order to have a global an true image of the revolution we need to
take this into account.

Another debate was “what is the third state?” (Sièyes).

The word nation enters the picture which is a revolutionary aspect. A nation was understood in
cultural terms but until this moment didn’t have a political meaning.
The church, the aristocracy, the king….need to listen.

The national Assembly is going to be created and many of the members of the third state decided they
needed to take action and refused to participate in the official assembly (Tennis court Oath the 20th of
June). They decided to create the national assembly in order for their rights to be represented. This
national Assembly was open to anyone who wanted to join it, not necessary members of the third
state. However the king didn't support this new assembly. This is not a revolution in violent terms or
didn’t immediately lead to the revolution. What they wanted was to keep the assembly open until a
new constitution (monarchic) was written. (They did for two years). While this new constitution was
being written the storming of the bastille took place (symbol of despotism as well as a enormous
storage site for weapons).

If the tennis court oath was led by the members of the third state general, the leaders of the bastille
were the common people of the city of paris. We have a new actor here. Up to the moment it was the
elites participating. Suddenly the common people of Paris start intervening. The common people are
going to be important not only in terms of pushing the events but also going to push away the line of
thought that “the common people should not be trusted, a true democracy is a threat to stability, to
social order”.

There was a great panic created in the rural areas. Such a crisis was created that the national assembly
started to create new measures to try and control it. Here we have another turning point; the national
assembly, that had just been formed by a number of deputes, decided that it could pass legislation as
something as important as the abolition of feudalism. This was, legally speaking, controversial and
not clear if it was legal. Of course this created a lot of controversy.
What made the national assembly think they had the right to abolish this feudalism?
They thought they were the true representation.

In these two years in which the constitution is being written we have a series of events in which we
find the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen (26 August 1789). A man and a citizen was
not the same, what was the difference? Normally economic wealth and education go together; if you
have an interest in participation; if you have education you are interested in what is going on.
Freedom; you needed to be independent and have individual freedom (this is also why women were
excluded from the decisions). This “man” refers to those male persons who only have civil rights; it
also includes women. Those with political rights, those who can vote and those who can be elected are
those who do not follow the orders of someone else, who are free in an individual manner.

March to Versailles (October 1789): Women of Paris where the main actors. The markets found
themselves in lack of food which provoked a huge inflation, so they thought that the Royal Family
should be aware of this. The main point of the March was to bring the king to the markets so that he
had to comply with his obligation of protecting the civilians.
The catholic church. Most members of the national assembly believed that the catholic church needed
to be reformed in terms of their accumulation of wealth and their huge social influence.
The nation is the true owner of the land of france; the property of the state should be used by all. If we
think this we can take property from the church and obtain money from it. We obtain income by
ceasing property of the church and selling it (there is still a financial crisis going on). But who is
going to buy it? If people buy this properties then they would support the revolution as they would
have no interest in the revolution being reversed, as they would lose the land and the money used to
buy the land.

The national Assembly takes a new decision that is going to be, again, a point of revolution; it is
going to create money. This is what you do when you have no access to the currency that is used;
silver, gold….
But this paper money is backed by the money kept in the bank...but it is not real, it doesn’t have an
intrinsic value as it is just a piece of paper. This was a solution for the financial crisis, at least
momentarily. Of course, when you use too much amount of money you have...inflation. Prices go up;
we solved a problem in the short term but very soon we are going to another problem; the food that
the women in Paris were complaining about it is actually going to become even more expensive.
The clergy is going to be part of the counter revolution; those who follow the reaction against
revolution. We have here a political conflict between the church and the state that is going to become
important. The church is going to be divided.
- August 1789; Abolition of the tithe
- 2 November 1789: the property of the Church declared “at the disposal of the nation”:
Assignats.
- February 1790: dissolution of all religious orders.
- 12 July 1790: dissolution of all religious orders.
- December 1789: freedom of practice for protestants.
- January 1790: equal rights for Jews.

This conspiracy thinking became a very powerful weapon of those people that opposed the revolution.
Many people opposed the revolution because they thought that it was the work of the devil; they were
convinced by members of the church, by priests...religion, god...was the most important thing in their
daily life and the thought of this being at risk made them join those who wanted to fight the
revolution.

A few more things happened before the constitution for a monarchy was decided at the end of
september of 1791. In february of 1790 the Creation of Départements took place.
The process of writing a constitution was also the process of building a state where the military and
the different aspects had to be taken into account. One of the characteristics of a modern state is to
bring order to the state. For example dividing france into provinces homogenized the territories and
would be the way by which the state would implement and manage the administration. To this day,
the provinces and territories by which france is ruled and administered, where those decided in this
period.
Another important date was June 1791 when the king and the queen tried to flee from France, a
way to oppose the revolution. All this revolutionary process was opposed from the very beginning by
the king. The king decided that he wanted to escape from France, go to Austria, and to create a big
army from the help of Austria and Prussia and come back to France and regain his power back of
France.
When he was caught and captured, this was a turning point for the revolution. This doesn’t mean that
the king is going to be automatically deposed rather than the king appears as someone that rather go to
the austrians that defend and be with his people. The Austrians were not interested in creating a war
but they had to do something as from their point of view the king was being held hostage. This is why
the created a Declaration in which they said they would intervene if the king wasn’t given freedom
(Declaration of Pillnitz). But this was just a paper, not a real threat, yet it will be used as a strategy to
spread fear by those who wanted more than a constitutional monarchy.
Finally, the 30 of September of 1791 the Constitution was released. The National Assembly had been
formed to create a constitution and once this constitution has been written, the assembly turns itself
into one of the powers that rules and manages the revolution.
In April 20 1792 the War against the First Coalition took place. We need to keep in mind this was a
period full of war in Europe. Inside of France there were two approaches to this particular war: one
that perceived the war as a way to expand the revolution and another who opposed the revolution and
thought the smart decision was to consolidate the revolution inside of France.
The city of Paris went into a general insurrection were the popular classes assaulted the palace when
the assembly was meeting in order to claim for resolutions against the counter revolutionaries and
european powers conspiring.
The 10th of August 1792 the Dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. Things went out of control;
there was no assembly, war was going on, the king had non effective advisors, people saw potential
traitors, conspirators, suspects everywhere...in this situation members of the working classes of paris
“the mob”, assaulted prisons were a lot of suspects were held, and they killed them all. Hundreds of
people were killed in this people, the guard left, there was no authority, these people were murdered.
This was what is known as the September Massacres and to many people was the proof that common
people could not be trusted and should not have representation as they were beats. For others
however, the mob was absolutely right and if action was not taken then the war was going to be lost
“this is a war and we have to fight it with any element that we can find.” In this context the assembly
that had been dissolved decided to create a new formation; a new convention that should again go
further in the measures that had been taken. This was a new face to the revolution.
To many revolutionaries there was a big problem: What to do now, what to do with the king, how to
win the war, what to do with the constitution, should a new constitution be written; a constitution for
the republic. This is where the real clash and the real conflict between the two factions of the jacobin
party (Girondins (Brissot) VS Montagnards/Jacobins (Robespierre)) started to rise.

20 September 1792: National Convention

● Abolition of the Monarchy: Republic
● Girondins (Brissot) vs Montagnard/Jacobins (Robespierre)
● 21 January 1793: Execution of Louis XVI

The execution of the King was more than just the assassination in itself; the king was the father for
may people, a paternal figure that took care of them. It is difficult to fully understand how the king
was embedded into a system that gave sense and protection to many people. To many the execution of
the king was an almost apocalyptic event.
Those who were brothers in the revolutions started to fight each other; the leaders of each party
considered each other threats and enemies to the revolution. Brissot’s group was or has been
considered to be moderate in terms of what happened later, but to identify them as moderate is rather
misleading as they were true republicans.
The committee of public safety was formed in the 6th of april 1793 and discussed every decision as a
group. It started to lead the most radical face of the revolution while the national …. was in the
writings of a new constitution. The revolutionaries decided to change the calendar and the days of the
new era started in september, when the republic was proclaimed. They changed the names of the
months and the days of the week passed to be 10 rather than 7.
This was to affect the cultural and daily aspects of people’s lives.
One of the most important aspects defended on the constitution (jacoban constitution) was that
suffrage was universal to any male (Universal male suffrage). The constitution included a right that
hadn't been included before; the right to resist and rebel to the authorities.
The republic
The republic gave way to a number of loss and measures that continued in France. First, it was
necessary to implement laws like the Law of the Maximum: Intervention in the economy. We have
to understand this in a context of measures that had not been taken in such a way bt were also a way
to deal with the economy, This law established a number of decisions that worked to create a system
in which the inflation that had been created by the very measures of the revolution, was going to be
controlled through establishing a maximum price and would prevent people from starving etc.
Definitive abolition of feudalism,
Decrees of religious freedom and public education; the church should not involve themselves in
this part of people’s lives.
Abolition of slavery in the French colonies; slave rebellion in St. Domingue. The revolutionary
ideas also spread to the colonies. What today is Haiti was the most profitable colony in the world, it
grew sugar in its plantation but was under a slave society; all society was dependent on the work of
thousand of slaves brought from Africa. A rebellion of the slaves in the island took place. It was
necessary for the republic to survive to continue to obtain the revenue produced by the slaves in the
colonies which was why it could be abolished.
More problems for the French came with the revolt in the Vendée; civil war. There were a number of
situations that were making the winning of the war very difficult.
Every citizens needs to fight in the war; civic conception of the nation. Civic virtue needs to go to the
actual battlefield. The levée en masse was the only way France could face an actual war because at
this point after the execution of the king every neighbour of france was at war with the republic. This
was also considered to be the best kind of army; citizens fighting for their own liberty which would
make the, neyyer soldiers. This made them able to not only face the british, spanish, austrian
armies...but actually win the war.
The terror will eventually come to an end when Robespierre and his allies were executed by new
revolutionary leaders (some which were actually Robespierre fellow members in the safety
committee). In real practice the war in the vendée was not actually going to be stopped. The war
against powers will actually expand and this is the moment when the republic will not only fight but
actually start to gain territories.

The Thermidorian Reaction (1795-1799)

Constitution of the year III (1795). This new constitution will create a new execution formed by new
people and it is going to be called the directory and gain the power will be shared in order to avoid the
concentration of power.
Universal male suffrage was replaced by limited suffrage based on property in order to limit and
moderate the political revolution that consider the intervention of people on politics a problem; only
those with an education and truly independent and prepared to participate in pubñic life were going to
be given the right to vote.
Of course, war will not go away. Actually a new coalition will be crated. March 1798: War of the
Second Coalition.
The French republic had obtained a number of very important victories in Italy and it became the
stage where many fights took place. The italian states fought against the revolution but there were
also people found that were sympathetic of the revolution which led to the winning of some battles
and led to the creation of some republics (sister republics). in all these territories the french
revolutionaries would help the local revolutionaries to create a republic and were meant to be
satellites of france but would remain independent. They would in a way be the realization of Brissot's
dream; incorporation of the system and ideal of the revolution spread to other countries.
It is important to understand the one of the biggest challenges faced by the french army was the british
navy which was also why the were so interested in having spain as allies.

Napoleon Bonaparte: He was one of the general of the French army and that led the expedition to
egypt. He had obtained several important victories and had political aspirations. When he was sent to
Egypt and because of this, the expedition of egypt became one of the most important phases of the
revolution. In the battles of alexandria the french and the british fought a war that had been going
away from western europe, the french were initially successful and sent campaigns to syria and
palestine (it wasn’t a success).

The constitution of the Year VIII (1799): Consulate with Napoleon as First Consul.
The idea that he model of the french in the past was the roman republic was becoming a very
important aesthetic of the republic which is why if you go to WDC u will find they reproduce roman
and greek temples.
Napoleon starts his very fast career in which he is going to become a leader. He is going to find the
support of every citizen tired of war which is going to be given by someone able to enforce this
stability. The idea of ending the revolution is going to be present on Napoleon’s rise to power. He is
not going to abolish the republic, just become the first general of the revolution. Concordat with the
Catholic Church, 1801. One of the ways he wants to obtain peace and order is by reaching an
agreement with the church which was becoming one of the most important members of the counter
revolution (the ideological leader of the counterrevolution). An end to this conflict was needed an an
agreement was made in which the church admitted quite a lot of measures taken by the
revolutionaries. The church will accept not to challenge the property bought by people that was before
their land.
Constitution of the Year X (1802): First Consul for life; he becomes a permanent executive leader.
After 10 years of continuous war against almost every european country, napoleon achieved a treaty
of peace (short lived, of course). War against the Second Coalition, 1798-1802. Peace of Amiens
The slave revolution is St.Domingue was also very important and was part of the battlefield between
the FRench and their european enemies. They realised the only way to obtain the slaves support was
to abolish slavery. This did not end the problems and a new republic was proclaimed: 1804:
Independence of Haiti. This was also the first Black republic in the world and it will become an
event with impact in the next decades. Everyone around the caribbean will fear that slaves will rebel
like in st.Domingue and will obtain independence and become so relevant.

EMPIRE
Is the abolition of feudalism, aristocracy and the church’s privileges, going to be betrayed by the
aristocracy of the empire, the agreements with the church etc?
Constitution of the Year XII(1804). King of Italy, 1805.
Napoleon also created museums, universities, promoted scientific research and all this modernity
promised by the revolution.
Will be some kind of authoritarian regime that actually is becoming the most important empire in the
world. Is becoming the most important nation in the history of the modern world. He provided wealth
and a lot of benefits for France. We need to consider this in a wider context as he will be a model for
another type of political regime. Yes, prosperity, liberties etc were granted and real, yet public
discussion and the freedom of the press was censored by the authorities. He put in prison or exiled his
enemies but never in a very violent way.

Wars of the Third and fourth coalition 1803-1807

Battles: Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstedt, Friedland.
Treaty of Tilsit, 1807.
The empire will be annexing a lot of territories but will actually be creating a net of territories
technically independent but militarily and actually dependent on France. For many europeans
Napoleon wasn't a dictator rather he was the best option possible because for example he established
the civil code. For many nations napoleon became an agent of emancipation. The polish kingdom,
Most of what today in the western part of ukraine had been literally eliminated from the map by
europeans.
napoleon presented himself as a liberator of nations. He was an agent of liberations for many of them.
Napoleon made an agreement with russia. This victories and great military success of Napoleon be
none the less incomplete because the british were still at fight with the french. The british controlled
the seas and it was impossible to cross the seas. Napoleon adopts the continental system by which
declares economic war against the british. The continental system meant that the trade with britain
was going to stop completely and since he controlled almost all of europe he wanted to dispose the
british from a very important factor; trade.
The beginning of the war in the iberian peninsula. Spain was an allie but portugal was the actual real
allie. Napoleon agrees with the king of spain and with godoy to invade together portugal and once
portugal is conquered it will be divided between the two powers. Of course the armies that entered
spain took control of the spanish crown and territories. and the crown endep up in the hand s on
napoleon’s brother. This is the beginning of the Guerra de la independencia or Peninsular war.
Wagram. With this agreement in which he married an austrian princess he managed to avoid a
possible austrian independence and turn them into allies.
Treaty of Schonbrunn.