The French Revolution and Napoleon

The French Revolution Begins

- In the 1770s, the Old Regime was still in place where people were divided into three estates.
1) The clergy who owned 10% of the land in France, but only paid 2% of the taxes in
France.
2) Rich nobles: 2% of the population who owned 20% of the land and paid almost no
taxes.
3) The other 97% of the people belonged to the third estate
I. The bourgeoisie, or middle class, were bankers, factory owners, merchants, etc.
They were well educated and often as wealthy as the members of the second estate. But they had to pay
high taxes and did not receive the privileges that the second estate received. Many agreed with the ideas
of the Enlightenment.
II. Urban workers were paid low wages and frequently out of work. Were
subject to unstable food prices.
III. Peasants (~80% of France) paid about half their incomes in dues to nobles,
tithes to the Church, and taxes to the King.
- By the 1780s, France’s economy was in decline. A heavy tax burden was making it difficult to
conduct business profitably. The cost of living was increasing and several poor harvests created a
shortage in bread, raising prices. The government was also in major debt because of the
extravagant spending of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the government’s decision to help
finance the American Revolution.
- Louis XVI was an indecisive, weak leader who had poor advisors around him. Marie Antoinette
was Austrian and was never really liked by the people.
- When he ran out of money, Louis XVI had to call a meeting of the Estates-General, an assembly
of representatives from all three estates, to approve a new tax. This was the first meeting in 175
years.
- During the Estates-General, each estate had one vote. This meant that in the past, the nobles and
clergy had joined together to keep their privileges.
- During the 1789 meeting, many of the members of the third estate had views shaped by the
Enlightenment. They insisted that all three estates meet together and that each delegate receive a

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 vote, giving an advantage to the third estate. The king sided with the nobles and kept the
medieval model.
- Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes made a dramatic speech to the Third Estate to encourage the delegates
to name themselves as the National Assembly and pass laws and reforms in the name of the
French people. They agreed overwhelmingly on June 17, 1789.
- Three days later, the Third Estate found itself locked out of their meeting place. They broke
down the door to an indoor tennis court and pledged to stay until they had written a new
constitution. This became known as the Tennis Court Oath.
- In Paris, rumors flew that Louis was going to use the army to dismiss the National Assembly.
People began to gather weapons to defend the city against attack. Searching for gunpowder, a
mob stormed the Bastille (Paris prison) on July 14. This became a symbolic act of the revolution.
- Wild rumors about outlaws being paid to terrorize the peasants created a Great Fear. This lead
to the peasants turning into outlaws and rioting.

Revolution Brings Reform and Change

- Aug 4, 1789, in an effort to save their skin, the noblemen swept away the privileges of the 1 st and
2nd Estates.
- The National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. “Men
are born free and equal in rights.”
- The National Assembly took over Church lands and declared that Church officials and priests
were to be elected and paid as state officials. Making the Church state controlled alarmed many
peasants.
- Seeing the reforms, Louis XVI tried to escape France, but was caught.
- In September, 1791, the National Assembly completed a new constitution. It had a constitutional
monarchy and created a Legislative Assembly to create laws and declare war.
- Had factions between radicals, moderates, and conservatives in the Legislative Assembly. Left,
right, and center.
- In April 1792, the French declared war on Austria and Prussia because they called for France to
restore Louis XVI to absolute monarch. The war did not start off well for the French, which led
to fear and riots. During the riots, the people imprisoned Louis and Marie Antoinette.
- By September 1792, the Legislative Assembly set aside the Constitution of 1791 and declared the
king deposed, disbanded the assembly, and elected a new legislature. It abolished the monarchy
and declared France a republic.

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 o Most of the members involved in this political change were radicals known as the
Jacobins.
- Because Louis XVI was now just an ordinary citizen, he was tried for treason and sentenced to
death by guillotine.
o The Jacobins earned themselves many enemies inside France because of their role in
executing the king.
- By early 1793, Maximilien Robespierre slowly gained power. He encouraged radical changes
such as changing the calendar to get rid of Sundays to separate from the Church. He was a firm
believer in reason over customs.
- In July 1793, Robespierre became the leader of the Committee of Public Safety, charged with the
task of protecting the state from its enemies. He governed like a dictator, creating a Reign of
Terror. Many other “enemies of the revolution” were killed for being less radical than him.
Thousands of people were sent to the guillotine.
- By July 1794, some members of the National Convention turned on Robespierre and had him
executed.
- In 1795, moderate leaders drafted a new constitution that place power in the hands of the upper
middle class. It called for a two house legislature and an executive committee of five men called
the Directory. These five men were moderates, rather than revolutionaries; this gave France some
stability.

Napoleon Forges an Empire

- Napoleon was born in Corsica in 1769. At age 16, he graduated from military school and became
a lieutenant in the artillery.
- In October 1795, he came to national prominence when he defended the National Convention
from royalist attackers.
- In 1796, the Directory appointed Napoleon to lead an army against Austria, winning a series of
remarkable victories. He was also able to hide his poor performances in India from the media.
- By 1799, the Directory was losing power. Napoleon was able to assert himself into a position of
power in a move known as a coup d’etat.
- In 1800, Napoleon issued a plebiscite (vote of the people) to approve a new constitution. This
gave Napoleon absolute power. While ruling, he issued the following to restore order in France.
o He created an efficient tax system to get the economy on solid footing

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 o He dismissed corrupt officials and set up schools called lycees that gave government jobs
to people based on merit, rather than family connections.
o He restored the position of the Church in France, signing a concordat with Pope Pius VII
o He set up his Napoleonic Code to create a uniform set of laws in the country, even
though some of them limited the liberties fought for during the revolution.
- Although he wanted to restore French power in the Americas, the damage was done with the
slave revolts in Haiti. Therefore, he decided to cut his losses in the Americas and sold Louisiana
to the U.S. This gave the British a rising rival in the Americas.
- Instead, Napoleon focused on conquering Europe. He annexed Austrian Netherlands and parts of
Italy, as well as set up puppet governments in Spain, Italy, and Germany.
- Despite his military successes in Europe, Napoleon lost a naval battle to the British at Trafalgar.
This ensured the supremacy of the British navy and made Napoleon give up his plans to invade
England.
- Napoleon’s European Empire was unstable and only lasted at its greatest extent for 5 years.

Napoleon’s Empire Collapses

- In 1806, Napoleon set up what he called the Continental System which was a blockade (the
forcible closing of ports). He did this to try to weaken the British economy. All it really did was
force the British to implement their own blockade, which worked better because England had the
stronger navy.
- In an effort to get Portugal to accept the Continental System, Napoleon sent an invasion force
through Spain. The Spanish people protested this. Therefore, Napoleon removed the Spanish
king and put his brother in charge. This worried the Spanish, so they started to fight back.
- Peninsular War was a six year period in which Spanish peasants would attack in guerrilla warfare
style. This cost the French about 300,000 men.
- In 1812, Napoleon decided to invade Russia. He took more than 420,000 soldiers. Alexander I
pulled back his troops and used the scorched-earth policy. This involved burning grain fields and
slaughtering livestock so as to leave nothing for the enemy to eat. Alexander applied this concept
to the holy city of Moscow.
- The army also got caught in the brutal Russian winter, so by the time they retreated to France,
there were only 10,000 soldiers left.
- Napoleon’s European enemies were quick to take advantage of his weakness, all declaring war on
him. Although he was able to raise another army, they were untrained and inexperienced. They

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 were easily defeated at Leipzig in October 1813. The other countries marched on Paris by April
1814. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba off the Italian coast.
- Louis XVI’s brother Louis XVIII took the throne, but quickly became unpopular amongst the
French.
- Napoleon learned of Louis XVIII’s troubles and escaped Elba. He returned to Paris to welcome
arms. Thousands of volunteers joined his army and he became emperor.
- The other European powers joined their armies together and fought Napoleon at the Battle of
Waterloo in Belgium. This defeat ended Napoleon’s last bid for power, called the Hundred
Days. Afterwards, he was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.