Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

1. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité The French Revolution: 1775 - 1815

2. Model of Revolution • A reform stage in which people see a need for change • Civil War (usually foreign wars as well) • Radicalization of the revolution with major divisions among revolutionaries over values and class interests, leading to violence • One-man rule • Restoration

3. After studying a number of revolutions, historian Crane Brinton developed a theory to explain how and why revolutions take place. He argues that revolutions go through four stages (as compared to the human body going through a fever).

4. Symptoms Crisis Delirium Relapse (Causes) (Moderate) (Radical) (Reactionary/ Thermidorian)

5. Symptoms (Causes) • People in all social classes are upset • People believe they are held down by unacceptable restrictions • Thinkers/intellectuals criticize government • Government can’t support itself • No effective response from the government

6. Crisis (Moderate) • People make impossible demands • Government can’t suppress revolutionaries • Revolutionaries gain power, but start fighting among themselves

7. Delirium (Radical) • Radical elements gain power • A strong man emerges and takes complete control • Radicals try to eliminate all opposition • A period of terror occurs

8. Relapse (Reactionary/ Thermidorian) • Moderate groups come to power and end the revolution **What has changed?**

9. Revolutionary France (1789-1815) 1789-1799 1799-1815 Revolutionary Governments Napoleon Constitutional Monarchy (1789-1791) Republic/ Terror (1791-1794) Consul (1799-1804) Emperor (1804-1815) Directory (1794-1799) Heroic Happy Moderate Tragic

10. Beginnings of a Revolution • Three estates: Clergy, Nobility, everyone else • Growing tensions between nobility and comfy members of bourgeoisie of third estate? OR • Both bourgeoisie and nobility are highly fragmented and riddled with rivalry from within? • Ancient sword nobility vs. newer robe nobility • Descendants of oldest noble families vs service in royal administration

12. Beginnings of a Revolution • Duke of Orléans gave parlements of France right to evaluate royal decrees before becoming law • Debt from War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War • Monarch unable to reform tax system • King’s power was to be limited to protecting liberty • Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour, gets great influence over king and his image is greatly damaged • Desacralization: stripped of sacred aura of God’s anointed on earth

13. Beginnings of a Revolution • Impact of the American Revolution • Model of hope for French Revolutionaries • Expense of supporting colonies destroyed French treasury • Enlightenment • Life, Liberty, Property: John Locke • New political views: “Checks and balances” : Montesquieu • Financial Crisis • Unable to raise revenues with taxes  huge debt from borrowing money • No central bank, no paper currency, and no means of creating credit • Tried to establish new taxes by decree but unable to by judges of Parlement of Paris • 1788 - Called for Estates General (first meeting since 1614)

14. Liberté: National Assembly (1789-1791) • High hopes for guaranteed individual liberties through a constitutional monarchy • “Long Live the King” • Estates meet separately? (“What is the Third Estate? By Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes) • Third Estate, now with First and Second, declare themselves National Assembly in June 1789 and swear Tennis Court Oath • Won’t disband until written constitution for France • King calls up troops and Parisians storm the Bastille on July 14 • National Assembly replaced Estates General • Stalled king’s attempt to reassert power and National Assembly now free to work without the threat of royal military intervention • Bastille Day now a national holiday

15. Liberté: National Assembly (1789-1791) • Summer of 1789 – peasants rise up against their feudal lords which led to widespread fear of landlord retaliation (Great Fear) • This led to more intensified rebellion and on August 4, 1789, nobles give up individual feudal privileges • Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: guaranteed legal equality before the law, representative gov’t and individual freedoms

16. Liberté: National Assembly (1789-1791) • National Assembly offered little support for poor and hungry people of Paris • 7,000 Parisian women march on Versailles in October to protest high bread prices and bring royal family back to Paris • France is organized into 83 departments of equal size; monopolies, guilds, and workers associations were prohibited; and barriers to trade within France were abolished • National Assembly granted religious freedom to French Jews and Protestants

17. Liberté: Constitutional Monarchy • Louis XVI takes role of limited monarch • King is head of state but lawmaking power is in hands of National Assembly • Women’s right to seek divorce • Inherit property • Obtain financial support for illegitimate children • Not allowed to vote (Role of Olympe de Gouges) • Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette arrested for trying to flee … revolutionaries see this as a plan to gain foreign support and invade France

18. Liberté: Constitutional Monarchy (1791-1792) • Austria and Prussia ready to go to war to protect French monarchs • Legislative Assembly made up of younger, less cautious members (Jacobin club) than the National Assembly • French Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria in 1792 • Revolutionaries storm the royal palace at Tuileries in August 1792 and Louis XVI flees to Assembly • Assembly suspends him of his duties … monarchy in France is dead

19. Egalité: The Republic and National Convention (1792-1795) • Popularly elected National Convention claims France a Republic and writes a constitution that is never put into effect • Girondists and the Mountain • Convict Louis XVI of treason and execute him • Declared war with Britain, Holland and Spain (already at war with Austria and Prussia; First Coalition) • Committee of Public Safety, led by Robespierre installed as government in April 1973 • Established courts to prosecute dissidents, rebels, traitors, sans-culottes • Dictatorial power to deal with national emergencies • Reign of Terror (1793-1794): Aim was to save Republic

20. Egalité: The Republic and National Convention (1792-1795) • Rebellions against Paris gov’t arose in 1793 in western and central France and seemed like gov’t would be defeated • Able to hold off advances from Prussians and Austrians due to all-out military mobilization that increased nationalism and held onto Haiti (promised to free slaves who fought for France) • Political conflicts within France intensified, Robespierre ordered execution of his critics • Moderates went after Robespierre, “9 Thermidor” • End of radical stage of Revolution

21. Egalité: The Directory (1795-1799) • National Convention abolished economic controls and economy collapsed: Thermidorian Reaction • Working poor hit hard but revolutionary spirit was gone, turned to religion • Five-man committee and indirectly elected legislative assembly set up • Large armies reduced unemployment at home and lived off the places they conquered • People at home did not support war and food rationing • Napoleon staged a coup d’ etat in 1799 and established a strong dictatorship to replace a weak one

22. Fraternité: The Consulate and the Empire (1799-1814) • Napoleon Bonaparte • Corsican noble who rose through the ranks as officer and general in military • Glorious victories in Italy and a failed campaign in Egypt but came home before it was well-known • First consul of the Republic • Napoleonic Code: codification of civil and criminal laws • Equality of all male citizens and security of wealth and private property • Appealed to middle-class

23. Fraternité: The Consulate and the Empire (1799-1814) • Streamlined bureaucracy, creating equality of opportunity and granted amnesty to 100K nobles who emigrated during Revolution • French Catholics could practice religion freely but NB and his gov’t could nominate bishops and pay clergy • Concordat of 1801 • Very repressive: newspapers censored and secret police established

24. Fraternité: The Consulate and the Empire (1799-1814) • Expansion in Europe • Won Austria’s Italian and German holdings in 1801, defeated Austria and Russia at Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 (Third coalition collapses), and Prussia at Jena in 1806  established Confederation of the Rhine  “protector” • Defeated by England at Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 • New World Success? • Sold Louisiana to US in 1803 • He reestablished slavery in colonies which led to L’Ouverture to draft own constitution and gave him power in colony • He is arrested and killed but his followers defeat France and Haiti is founded

25. Fraternité: The Consulate and the Empire (1799-1814) • Grand Empire • France, dependent satellite kingdoms, independent state of Austria, Prussia, and Russia • Abolished feudalism and serfdom but created high taxes and revolts starting popping up • Spain in 1808 • Still at war with Britain • Helped Spain fight for independence • Continental System was a blockade to benefit France but a counter-blockade destroyed French economy • Fall of the Grand Empire • Blamed Alexander I of Russia for troubles and invaded during winter • Forced to retreat and his army was decimated • Treaty of Chaumont signed by Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia broke Napoleon in 1814

26. Fraternité: The Restored Bourbon Monarchy (1814-1815) • Napoleon exiled in 1814 and Bourbons restored as constitutional monarchy • Monarchy weak and rumors of political unrest brings Napoleon back to power for 100 days • Defeated at battle of Waterloo by European powers and sent into exile again

27. A reform stage in which people see a need for change • Civil War (usually foreign wars as well) • Radicalization of the revolution with major divisions among revolutionaries over values and class interests, leading to violence • One-man rule • Restoration How does this model fit both English and French Revolution?