W.W. Norton & Company
Skip to content
Colorblind Mode:
On
|
Off
W. W. NORTON HOME
|
HELP
|
CREDITS
Western Civilizations, 3rd Brief Edition: A W. W. Norton StudySpace
Chapters
Online Reader
Western Civilizations Tours
Glossary
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
In This Chapter
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Chapter 18
The French Revolution
Chapter Study Outline
Introduction
France and European culture
The ancien régime
Aristocrats resented monarchical inroads on freedom
Middle class resented a society of privilege that was outmoded
Peasants resented the increasing demands of the central government
The French Revolution and the West
The French Revolution: An Overview
Moderate stage: 1789-1792
Radical stage: 1792-1794
The Directory: 1794-1799
Napoléon: 1799-1815
The Coming of the Revolution
Long-term causes of the Revolution
An issue of class conflict?
A new elite blurring the boundaries between aristocracy and middle class
The three estates: membership based on status
First Estate: clergy
Second Estate: nobility
Third Estate: everyone else
Causes
Social boundaries between noble and non-noble ill defined
Fifty thousand new nobles created between 1700 and 1789
Nobility of the sword (ancient) nobility of the robe (purchased office)
From bourgeois wealth to noble wealth
Most noble wealth was proprietarytied to land
Influx of new wealth from banking, shipping, slave trade, and mining
Identified with the nobility, not the common people
Prosperous members of the Third Estate aired their frustrations in public debate
The articulation of discontent
Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu appeal to discontented nobles and middle class
Noble leaders as defenders of national political community threatened by the king and his ministers
Economic reform and the physiocrats
Simplify tax system
Free the economy from mercantilist restrictions
Government should lift controls on price of grain
French economy was ailing
General price rise created hardship for the peasantry and urban workers
Poor harvests of the 1780s
1789: 80 percent of income of the poor went to purchase bread
Reduced demand for manufactured goods, increasing unemployment
The peasantry
Owed obligations to landlord, church, and state
Direct and indirect taxation a heavy burden
The corvée
Finances
Inefficient tax system
Taxation tied to social status and varied from region to region
Paying off the debts of Louis XVI
Administration
Louis XVI was anxious to serve as an enlightened monarch
His efforts at reform undermined his own authority
Turgot and Necker as finance ministers
Marie Antoinette and the dispensation of patronage among her friends
Tensions between the central government and the provincial parlements slowed reform
Parlements defend nobility's exemption from paying taxes to pay for the Seven Years' War
General conclusions on the eve of the Revolution
Louis XVI was a weak monarch
Chaotic financial situation
Severe social tensions
The Destruction of the Old Regime
Moderate stage, June 1789-August 1792
Fiscal crisis
Calonne and Brienne proposed new taxes, a stamp duty, and direct tax on agricultural produce
Louis summons the Assembly of Notables (last called in 1626)
Aristocrats used the financial emergency to extract constitutional reforms
Insisted that any new tax scheme be approved by the Estates-General
The Estates-General
Summoned by Louis in summer 1788 (first time since 1614)
The three estates elected delegates
Delegates draw up the cahiers des doléances (list of grievances)
Delegates of the Third Estate represented the outlook of the elite
25 percent lawyers, 43 percent government officials
Strong sense of common grievance and common purpose
Areas of disagreement
Should the estates vote by estate or by individual?
Abbé Sieyès, What Is the Third Estate? (1789)
Third Estate agreed that the Estate delegates should sit together and vote as individuals
Also insisted that the Third Estate have as many delegates as the First and Second Estates combined
"Doubling the Third"
Louis opposed, then changed his position (December 1788)
June 17, 1789: the delegates of the Third Estate declared themselves to be the National Assembly
June 20, 1789: the Oath of the Tennis Court
June 27, 1789: Louis ordered all delegates to join the National Assembly
The first stages of the French Revolution
Popular revolts
Public attention to the events in Paris was high
Price of bread soared
Rumors circulated that Louis was about to stage a coup d'état
Parisian workers (sans-culottes) organized a militia of volunteers
July 14, 1789: the fall of the Bastille
Bastille as symbol of royal authority
Its fall as symbol of the people's role in revolutionary change
The Great Fear
Rumors that the king's armies were on their way
Peasants attacked and burned manor houses
Destroyed manor records
The October Days
Brought on by economic crisis
Demanded Louis return to Paris
Parisian women marched to Versailles (October 5) and demanded to be heard
The National Guard led Louis back to Paris
August 4, 1789: National Assembly abolished all forms of privilege
Church tithe, the corvée, hunting privileges, tax exemptions, and monopolies
Obliterated the remnants of feudalism
The National Assembly and the "Rights of Man"
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Written in August, issued in September
Declared natural rights
Private property
Liberty, security, and resistance to oppression
Declared freedom of speech, religious toleration, and liberty of the press to be inviolable
Equality before the law
Man and citizen
"Passive citizen": guaranteed rights under law
"Active citizens": paid taxes, could vote and hold office
Represented about half of all male citizens
They could only vote for "electors"
National Assembly
Full civil rights to Protestants and Jews
Abolished serfdom and banned slavery in France
The rights of women
Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen (1791)
Women have the same rights as men
Women and the Revolution
General participation in the Revolution
Joined clubs, demonstrations, and debates
Women as citizens
Religion and the Revolution
The most divisive issue
The Church played a major role in the countryside
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1791)
Bishops and clergy subject to the laws of the state
Salaries to be paid from public treasury
Church reforms polarized France
Many resented the privileged position of the Church
Parish church an institution of great local importance
Other reforms of the National Assembly
Sold off Church lands
Abolished guilds
Restructured local governments
France was divided into eighty-three equal departments
The defense of liberty and freedom from ancient privilege
A New Stage: Popular Revolution
The Radical Revolution, August 1792- July 1794
From moderate leaders to radical republicans
Why did the Revolution become radical?
The politicization of the common people, especially in cities
Newspapers
Political clubs
Greater political awareness heightened by fluctuations in prices
Demands for cheaper bread
Demands for government to do something about inflation
Lack of effective national leadership
Louis XVI remained a weak and vacillating monarch
Forced to accept the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Louis urged on by Marie Antoinette, sister of Leopold II of Austria
June 20, 1791: the Flight to Varennes
Louis now a "prisoner" of the Revolution
War
All Europeans took a side in the conflict
Political societies formed outside France proclaimed their allegiance to the Revolution
The counterrevolution
The emigrés stirred up counterrevolutionary sentiment
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Attacked the revolution as a crime against the social order
The French had turned their back on history
Men and women had no natural rights
Aroused sympathy for the counterrevolutionary cause
Outside France
Austria and Prussia declared support for French monarchy (August 1791)
April 20, 1792: the National Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia
Radicals hoped the war would expose "traitors"
August 1792: Austria and Prussia close to capturing Paris
August 10, 1792: Parisians attacked the king's palace
The French Republic
More egalitarian leaders of the Third Estate: the Jacobins
Membership extended throughout France
Jacobins proclaimed themselves the voice of the people and the nation
The National Convention (September 1792)
The September Massacres
Patriotic Paris mobs convened revolutionary tribunal to try traitors
Over a thousand killed in one week
The end of the French monarchy
France declared a republic (September 21, 1792)
Louis placed on trial (December 1792)
Louis executed (January 23, 1793)
The National Convention and domestic reforms
Abolition of slavery in French colonies
Repeal of primogeniture
Confiscated property of enemies of the Revolution
Set maximum prices for grain
The revolutionary calendar
Small armies of sans-culottes attacked hoarders and profiteers
Military reforms
France faced Britain, Holland, Spain, and Austria (February 1793)
French revolutionary armies
The revolutionary government drafted all men capable of bearing arms (August 1793)
French military successes
Low Countries, Rhineland, Switzerland, parts of Spain, and Savoy
The Reign of Terror
Convention delayed adoption of constitution with male suffrage (1793)
The Committee of Public Safety (CPS)
The Twelve
New radical leaders
Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793)
Did not admire Great Britain
Opposed moderates
Edited The Friend of the People
Killed by Charlotte Corday, a royalist (summer 1793)
Georges-Jacques Danton (1759-1794)
Popular political leader
Member of the CPS
Wearied of the Terror
Sent to the guillotine (April 1794)
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794)
Trained as a lawyer
Became president of the National Convention
Member of the CPS
Enlarged the Terror
Committee faced sabotage from the political left and right
Need for absolute control
The "Mountain" allies with Parisian artisans
Rebellions: Lyons, Bordeaux, and Marseilles
CPS rounds up suspects in the countryside
September 1793-July 1794: executions as high as twenty-five to thirty thousand
Five hundred thousand incarcerated between March 1793 and August 1794
The legacy of the second French Revolution
The sans-culottes
Workers' trousers replaced breeches
The red cap of liberty
Citizen and citizeness
Festivals
Second revolution reversed trend toward decentralization
Replaced local officials with "deputies on mission"
Closed down women's political clubs
The erosion of traditional institutions
Church, guild, and parish
Replaced with patriotic organizations
Mobilization for revolution
Counterrevolutionary groups were also popular movements
From the Terror to Bonaparte: The Directory
The Ninth of Thermidor (July 27, 1794)
Robespierre kicked out of the Convention
Guillotined the following day (along with twenty-one other "conspirators")
After Thermidor
Jacobins driven into hiding
Law of maximum prices repealed
National Convention adopted new conservative constitution (1795)
Suffrage for all adult males who could read and write
Indirect elections
Citizens voted for electors, who chose the legislative body
Wealthy citizens held authority
Constitution included a bill of rights
Five men chosen by the legislative body
Could not stabilize the government
Faced discontent on the radical left and conservative right
On the left
Stopped radical movements to abolish private property
Graachus Babeuf
On the right
Elections in March 1797 returned a large number of constitutional monarchists
Could not control developments
Called Napoléon Bonaparte to their assistance
Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Recaptured Toulon from the British (1793)
Made brigadier general at age of twenty-four
Delivered the "whiff of grapeshot" that saved the Convention (1795)
Victories in the Italian campaign
Attempted to defeat Britain by attacking British forces in Egypt and the Near East
French fleet defeated by Nelson at Abukir Bay (1798)
Napoléon declared a "temporary consul" (18 Brumaire, November 9, 1799)
Napoléon and Imperial France
Did Napoléon consolidate or repudiate the Revolution?
Consolidating authority, 1799-1804
Napoléon rose from obscurity to become the savior of France
Was able to master his plans in every detail
Assumed title of First Consul and governed in the name of the Republic (1799)
New constitution
Universal male suffrage
Two legislative bodies
The plebisciteput questions directly to popular vote
Bypassed politicians and legislative bodies
Asked the legislature to proclaim him consul for life (1802)
The reorganization of the state
Abolition of privileges
"Careers open to talent"
Generally fair system of taxation
Halted the inflationary spiral
Replaced local elected officials with centrally appointed prefects and subprefects
Law, education, and a new elite
The Napoleonic Code (1804)
Uniformity and individualism
Abolition of all feudal privileges
Property rights
Paternal authority and the subordination of women and children
Equality before the law
Outlawed arbitrary arrest and imprisonment
Rationalized the educational system
Established lycées (high schools) to train civil servants
Brought military and technical schools under state control
Founded a national university to supervise the entire system
Benefited the new elites (businessmen, bankers, and merchants)
Other issues
Made allies without regard to their political past or affiliations
Readmitted the emigrés
The Concordat of 1801
Ended hostility between France and the Church
Pope had the right to depose bishops and discipline the clergy
Church lands expropriated by the Revolution would not return to the Church
Married the ambitious Josephine de Beauharnais
Napoléon crowns himself Napoléon I at Notre Dame (December 1801)
In Europe as in France: Napoléon's empire
Collapse of the First CoalitionAustria, Prussia, Britain (1795), revived in 1798
Russia and Austria withdrew (1801)
The new empire
Series of small republics from Austria's empire and old German kingdoms
France's revolutionary "gift" of independence to all European patriots
Military buffers and system of client states
The Confederation of the Rhine
Napoléon introduced his reforms throughout the new empire
Administrative modernization
Careers open to talent
Reorganization of public works and education
New taxes collected to support the new state
Liberty and law
Eliminated feudal and Church courts
Created a single legal system
Civil rights granted to Protestants and Jews
New electoral districts
Government emanated from Paris and Napoléon
The legacy
Accumulated useful knowledge
An image for posterityArc de Triomphe
A mixed blessingliberator or upstart emperor?
The Return to War and Napoléon's Defeat, 1806-1815
The Continental System
Blockade of British goods from the Continent (1806)
Napoléon's first serious mistake
British developed trade with South America
Europe divided into economic camps
Napoléon's ambition
Remaking Europe as new Roman Empire, ruled from Paris
Republican Roman idealsart, architecture, clothing
Made his brothers and sisters monarchs of newly created kingdoms
Divorced Josephine (1809), married Marie Louise, daughter of Francis I (Habsburg)
Continuing war
France against Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, and Britain
Napoléon on the battlefield
Personally led his men
Shock attacks
The Grande Armee
Battle of Austerlitz (December 1805)
Prussian army humiliated at Jena (1806)
French defeat at Trafalgar (1805)
The invasion of Spain (1808)
Invasion aimed at conquest of Portugal
Napoléon installed his brother on the Spanish throne
Guerrilla warfare
The Russian campaign (1812)
Ended in disaster
Russians drew the French further into Russia
Napoléon ordered his troops to retreat (October 19, 1812)
The Russian winter
Renewed attacks by Prussia, Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Britain
Wars of liberation
The Battle of Nations (October 1813)
Tsar Alexander I and Frederick William III enter Paris (March 31, 1814)
Napoléon's abdication
Exile at Elba
The Bourbon Restoration of Louis XVIII (brother of Louis XVI)
The Last One Hundred Days
The battle of Waterloo (June 15-18, 1815)
Exile on Saint Helena
Liberty, Politics, and Slavery: The Haitian Revolution
The Caribbean sugar trade and slavery
Delegation from Saint-Domingue asks to be seated by the Assembly
The Assembly refused
Mulatto rebellion in Saint-Domingue (August 1791)
Slave rebellionBritish and Spanish invade
The success of the rebellion
France makes free men of color citizens
1793: promised freedom to slaves who would join the French
Toussaint L'Ouverture
Victorious over French planters, the British, and Spanish
Sets up a constitution (1801)
Swore allegiance to France
Slavery abolished
Reorganizes the military
Christianity established as state religion
Napoléon sends twenty thousand troops to bring the island under control (January 1802)
Toussaint is captured and brought to France (dies in 1803)
The war becomes a French nightmare, the army collapses (December 1803)
Haiti declares its independence (1804)
Set an example to non-Europeans and enslaved peoples
Contributed to the British decision to abolish slavery in 1838
Conclusion
The French Revolution and popular movements
Liberty, equality, and nation
Europe polarized