The Radical Revolution

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The Radical Revolution

• In September 1792, the newly elected National
  Convention began its sessions.
  
• 2/3 of its deputies were under 45 and almost all
  gained political experience as a result of the
  Revolution
  
• Almost all distrusted the king
• The conventions step was to abolish the monarchy
  and establish a republic.
  
• On January 2, 1793 the king was executed and the
  destruction of the old regime was complete In
  Paris, the local government known as the Commune,
  whose leaders came from the working class,
  favored radical change and put constant pressure
  on the convention.
• The National Convention did not rule France.
  Peasants in the west and people in the provinces
  refused to accept the authority of the
  convention.
• In 1793, a military alliance of the major powers
  of Europe including Austria, Britain, and Prussia
  attacked France in late spring.

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A Nation In Arms

• The convention gave broad powers to the Committee
  of Public Safety, headed by Maximilian
  Robespierre.
  
• From 1793 to 1794, the Committee took control of
  France
  
• In less than a year, the Republics army had
  grown to 1,619,000, the largest army ever seen in
  European history. It pushed the allies across the
  Rhine and even conquered the Austrian
  Netherlands.
• The new French army was the creation of a
  peoples government its wars were now peoples
  wars.
  
• In peoples wars, warfare increased in ferocity
  and lack of restraint.

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Reign Of Terror

• To meet the domestic crisis the National
  Convention and the Committee of Public Safety
  launched the Reign of Terror
  
• Revolutionary courts were instituted to protect
  the Republic from its internal enemies
  
• In the course of nine months, 16,000 were
  officially killed under the blade of the
  guillotine.
  
• The Committee of Public Safety said that the
  bloodletting was only temporary. Once the war and
  the domestic emergency were over, they would have
  a republic of virtue in which the Rights of Man
  would be fully implemented.
• Revolutionary armies were set up to bring
  recalcitrant cities and districts back under
  control of the National Convention.
  
• The Committee of Public Safety made an example
  of the city of Lyons, which defied the authority
  of the National Convention.
  
• By April 1794, some 1,880 citizens of Lyons had
  been executed.
  
• When the guillotine proved to slow, cannon fire
  was used to blow condemned me into open graves.

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Dechristianization

• The National Convention also pursued a policy of
  dechristianization. A new calendar was made. It
  was not based on the birth of Christ but rather
  on September 22, 1792, the first day of the
  Republic.
• Theyre were also 10 days in a week. This was to
  prevent people from knowing what day of the week
  Sunday was.
  
• Norte Dame Cathedral was designated the Temple of
  Reason.

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Equality And Slavery

• Club called Friends of the Blacks advocated the
  abolition of slavery
  
• French colonies in West Indies opposed this idea
• National convention came to power and slavery
  issue rethought
  
• Slavery abolished in colonies by government
• Black slaves in Saint Domingue revolted against
  French plantation owners led by Toussaint
  LOuverture
  
• 100,000 black slaves seized control of all
  Hispaniola
  
• Western part of Hispaniola (Haiti) announced its
  freedom
  
• Haiti was the first independent state in Latin
  America
  

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Reaction the Directory

• Robespierre executed on July 28, 1794
• More moderate middle-class leaders took control
• -Reign of Terror stopped
• -National Convention reduced power of the
  Committee of Public Safety
  
• -Churches reopened for public worship
• New constitution created on August 1795
• The Directory (5 directors) were executive
  authority
  
• Government of Directory faced political enemies
  from both sides
  
• -leftcontinuing economic problems
• -rightroyalists wanting to restore monarchy
• This led Directory to increasingly rely on
  military to maintain power
  
• Led to coup détat in 1799 where popular military
  general Napoleon Bonaparte seized power

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The Age of Napoleon

• Born in 1769 in Corsica and when he was young, he
  was sent to France to study in a military school
  
• He was a lieutenant when Revolution broke out
• By age 25 he was a brigadier general
• 2 years later he commanded French armies in
  Italy? came back as a conquering hero
  
• After disastrous expedition to Egypt, Napoleon
  returned to Paris, where he participated in the
  coup that gave him control of France at age 30.
  
• Coup of 1799, new form of Republiccalled
  ConsulateNapoleon (1st consul) controlled entire
  executive authority of government
  
• Had overwhelming influence over legislature,
  appointed members of administrative bureaucracy,
  commanded army, and conducted foreign affairs
  
• 1802Napoleon made consul for life
• 1804returned France to monarchy and crowned
  himself Emperor Napoleon I

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Domestic Policies

• One of Napoleons first policies was to fix
  things between the Catholic church and the
  government
  
• Napoleon arranged a concordat with the pope.
  Which said the Catholicism was the religion of
  France, and that the pope would not question
  about the land taken.
• As a result they were no longer enemies
• Napoleons most noted achievement was his
  codification of the laws. Before the Revolution
  France had over 300 legal systems. During it the
  people tried to make a single code system but it
  was up to Napoleon to complete it in the Civil
  Code
• It recognized that all people were equal before
  the law, and abolished serfdom and feudalism, and
  religious toleration. Property rights were
  protected and interests of employers were as well
  by outlawing trade unions and strikes

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Domestic Policies Cont.

• Also the Civil Code changed things. It made men
  and women less equal then before. Women could
  still divorce but it was harder, and all of their
  property when they were married was under the
  control of the man. Also when in lawsuits women
  were treated like minors.
• Napoleon created a powerful bureaucracy. Early on
  the government showed that it didnt care whether
  the expertise of an official was acquired in
  royal or revolutionary bureaucracies.
• Promotion was now based on the ability of a
  person not on rank or birth.
  
• He both destroyed and persevered aspects of the
  Revolution. Liberty was replaced by an initially
  good tyranny that grew unlimited as the demands
  of war overwhelmed Napoleon and the French. And
  the careers open to talent were preserved.

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Napoleons Empire and The European Response

• He became consul in 1799, while France was at war
  with the 2nd coalition (Russia, Great Britain,
  and Austria). He made a peace treaty in 1802, but
  Britain (later joined by Russia, Austria, and
  Prussia) and France were at war again by 1803.
• Britain and all of them became the 3rd coalition
  and the battles lasted from 1805 1807. However,
  Napoleons Grand Army defeated them all, giving
  him the opportunity to create a new European order

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The Grand Empire

• From 1807 1812 Napoleon was the master of
  Europe
  
• Composed of 3 parts
• the French Empire- was the inner core of the
  Grand Empire, was from the Rhine in the east and
  included the western half of Italy
  
• Dependent States- were kingdoms under Napoleons
  relatives Spain, Netherlands, kingdom of Italy,
  Swiss Republic, Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and
  Confederation of the Rhine
• Allied states- those defeated by Napoleon and
  forced to fight against Britain (Russia, Austria,
  Prussia, and Sweden)
  
• Napoleon sought acceptance of certain principles,
  including legal equality, religious toleration,
  and economic freedom
  
• In the inner core and dependent states he tried
  to destroy the old order. Nobility and clergy in
  these areas lost all special privileges.

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The Fall of Napoleon

• Napoleons fall came with the invasion of Russia
• Napoleon took 600,000 troops into Russia
• Only 40,000 of the original 600,000 returned to
  Poland in 1813
  
• In March of 1814 Napoleon was sent to exile on
  the island of Elba
  
• He then escaped Elba and reentered France
• When troops were sent to capture him, he told
  them he was their emperor no one fired a shot at
  him
  
• Napoleon decided to strike first at his enemies
• In what is today Belgium, Napoleon met the
  combined forces of the British and Prussian
  armies under the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon
  suffered a bloody defeat and was once again
  exiled
• This time he was sent to the small forsaken
  island of Saint Helena

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Conclusion

• Everywhere in Europe at the beginning of the 18th
  century the old order remained strong
  
• Monarchs continued to seek expansion of their
  bureaucracies to raise taxes
  
• Five great powers existed, two of them being
  France and England, and embattled in the eastern
  and western hemispheres
  
• The Seven Years War can legitimately be
  considered the first World War
  
• British victories allowed Great Britain to rise
  as the worlds greatest naval and colonial power
  
• With the Revolutionary era came great
  transformations
  
• The liberal and national political ideals that
  gave rise due to the Revolution dominated the
  political landscape for well over a century

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• THE END