History Test 2 Semester 2 The Bourbon Dynasty is a royal family. They were a group of Kings and Queens who were related and ruled different countries in Europe. They were one of the most powerful royal families in Europe. One important member of the Bourbon royal family was Louis XVI. He was the last king to rule France before the French Revolution. He was married to a woman named Marie Antoinette, the princess of Austria, who was very unpopular in France. The reason the French did not like her was because France was in deep poverty, while Marie was living her best life. She is most famously known for saying the inconsiderate comment of “Let them eat cake”, while most in France were starving. After the American Revolution, France went into a depression. The government was completely broke and the nobles were in search of money; they began to look for new sources of income, such as charging for fagotage, bundles of sticks. The peasants, who were desperate for money, had to pay the price. The King, in response, wanted to begin taxing nobles. He was, however, told that if he wanted to tax nobles, he had to summon the Estates General. The estates chose representatives, sending them to Versailles with Cahiers de doleances, lists of grievances, which each estate had. There were 3 estates: First Estate - Church Second Estate - Nobility Third Estate - Everyone else, including workers, peasants, and merchants (About 97% of the population). The problem with the Estates General was that each estate had one vote, which did not seem like representation for the Third Estate when they represented nearly all of France. When they asked for more votes for their estate, their request was denied, leading them to be locked out of their meeting room. Infuriated, they marched to a nearby tennis course and took the Tennis Court Oath. The oath was that they refused to leave the tennis court until they had written a new constitution for France. They declared themselves the National Assembly, claiming to represent the entire nation, not just an estate. This was important because it was the first real act of rebellion against the royal authority. This led to a major turning point in the French Revolution, The storming of Bastille. Bastille was a prison in Paris where political prisoners were held, which are people who were put in jail by royal command without a trial. The people in France were very angry because of high bread prices, poverty, and the king. There was also tension stirring because rumors were spreading that the king was going to use the army to crush the National Assembly. The people took guns, however there was no gunpowder. Consequently, in a quest for gunpowder, the French marched into Bastille. The crowd demanded that the governor hand over the weapons and the gunpowder. He refused, and after hours of fighting, the crowd broke in, freed the prisoners, captured the governor, and killed him. Immediately after this, the National Guard was formed with Marquis de Lafayette as head. This was a military force created to protect the National Assembly and revolutionary leaders. Lafayette was chosen because he had fought in the American Revolution and had become a symbol of the revolution’s ideals. After the storming of the Bastille, rumors spread across France that the nobles and royalists were conspiring to suppress the revolution and punish the common people. There was a widespread fear that the nobility would continue to exploit the peasants, using their feudal rights and privileges. As a result of this multi-layered fear, The Great Fear, peasants in rural areas began to attack manor houses (a large estate), destroy feudal documents (legal documents), and burn down chateaux (large French country houses). In response, the Assembly declared an end to Feudal rights and issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This was one of the most important documents of the French Revolution. It laid out the basic rights and freedoms that the revolutionaries believed all citizens should have. After the declaration was published, a famous saying spread throughout France, “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” -- “Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood” (There is no mention of the King! Further expressing the revolutionary ideologies). Another famous slogan that spread throughout France was “All authority rests with the nation”. This meant that political power and government authority comes from the people as a whole, not from a king, noble, or religious figure. In all, the assembly was very accomplished and spent 2 years governing the country and drafting a constitution. Additional Accomplishments were: Nationalization of the Church - The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in France. The National Assembly decided to seize the Church lands and sell them off to help solve France’s financial crisis. Rationalization of the Church - The revolutionary government aimed to simplify, modernize, and unify France’s laws and systems, replacing the messy, unequal, and outdated structures of the old regime. Creation of a more just society Constitutional Monarchy - The Revolutionaries wanted to limit the king’s power during the revolution by creating a Constitutional Monarchy. The powers that were given to the king at this time were that he could: Appoint ministers He could delay laws being passed by up to 4 years The revolution was perceived differently by people around the world. Many French nobles fled to other countries. These people were called Emigres and would bring horror stories of what happened and warned about what could happen as a result of the Revolution. Consequently, many foreign elites were horrified by the Revolution. There were also, on the other hand, self-proclaimed lovers of liberty, who claimed to support freedom and democracy. After seeing the Revolution take off, the royal family attempted to flee, but were caught at the border. As a result, the rulers of Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz. This was a statement that other European countries would intervene to restore the power of the monarch in France. The main reason why these countries did this was as a precaution against their own people revolting. 2 years after the beginning of the revolution the constitution was completed and elections were held for a new assembly. There were still property qualifications to vote. The Jacobins were republicans and sat on the left, the Monarchists and Catholic traditionalists sat on the right, and the moderate Girondins sat in the center. By the late summer of 1792, the Prussians were approaching Paris and warned the people of Paris that they would be held accountable if anything happened to the royal family. It began to look like Paris would fall, leading the radical Jacobin Jean Paul Marat to begin a wave of violence against political prisoners and suspected enemies of the revolution known as the September Massacres. When the Prussians came in, the working class of the French came in as reinforcements and the Prussians were thrown back. The French then sang The Marseillaise, which became their national anthem. More importantly, the victory was a victory of the working class, and the victor received the spoils of war. France adopted the idea of universal manhood suffrage, meaning that all men regardless of wealth, property, or social class, had the right to vote. The moderates won a majority. An important rule is that rural areas tend to be more traditional than cities. The assembly had to meet in Paris where there were the workers who had participated in uprisings and seen that popular violence could drive political change. Even the moderate legislators who did not necessarily want such extreme change still supported the radical laws or reforms since they were afraid of the sans-culottes, who had shown that they could use violence to punish those they saw as enemies of the revolution. At the end of September of 1792, the king was arrested, and in December he was put on trial. In the end he was declared guilty, and sentenced to death through the Guillotine. Louis XVI was executed in January, 1793. When his head was shown, the crowd rushed forward to soak handkerchiefs and other items in his blood, which was believed to have miraculous healing powers. Marie Antoinette followed him later that year. Now, the republic was confronted by numerous problems: Foreign invasion - French aggression encouraged an intervention by a coalition of countries, including Britain. Domestic uprisings - There were monarchists, catholics, and those who didn’t like more government interference. Economic instability - Fighting with Europe put France into an even larger economic crisis. Lack of Leadership - The king was dead and there was no executive to replace him. In April, the Committee of Public Safety, a group of radical legislators, was given broad powers, the Levee en masse, the draft of French citizens into the military, to resolve France’s various crises. By drafting people from the whole nation, France went into a Total War. The levée en masse was more than just a military draft — it involved the entire society in supporting the French Revolution and its wars. The government created a planned economy, deciding what goods would be produced and setting price controls to manage shortages and inflation. As a symbol of equality, all citizens were required to eat the same “bread of equality,” made from a mix of all grains, regardless of wealth. These measures reflected the Revolution’s commitment to unity, sacrifice, and equality, especially during a time of crisis. More infamously, the Committee also instituted the Reign of Terror to eliminate domestic enemies of the revolution. This radicalization of the revolution also saw an effort to create a new French culture: They created a new calendar They created a new metric system They also created a dechristianization campaign The attack on churches led to the modern usage of vandalism. By July of 1794, the leader of the Committee of Public Safety was executed, marking the end of the Reign of Terror and the start of the Thermidorian Reaction. This was a conservative backlash against the radicalism of the previous era. Property qualifications were restored and wage and price controls were eliminated. There was also a White Terror, in which Jacobins and other radicals were massacred; the sans-culottes met their match--the Muscadins. There was also the constant debate over “The Jewish Question”, (what to do with the Jews in Europe?). There was a debate over emancipation on whether the Jews should have religious freedom, per the Declaration of the Rights of Man, or they should have constrictions. When the subject of emancipating the Jews came up, deference was paid to the views of the delegates who knew the Jews the best, the Alsatians. The Sephardim of Bordeaux convinced the assembly that they should be emancipated. 6 months later the constitution was adopted and Jews were emancipated--the terms were those established by a liberal nobleman. He said “Jews must be denied everything as a nation, but granted everything as individuals.” This means that Jews should not be treated differently and as a minority in France, but rather as a part of society, and Jews should be treated as equal to other French citizens. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly granted free blacks and mixed-race people the right to vote, but slavery continued in France’s Caribbean colonies, particularly in Haiti. In 1791, rumors had spread that the French had emancipated slaves, sparking an uprising led by Toussaint Louverture, an ex-slave turned revolutionary leader. Louverture fought to maintain freedom for the slaves and led successful campaigns against foreign forces and colonists who wanted to restore slavery. Ultimately, Haiti gained its freedom. At the end of 1795, a new constitution ended the Committee of Public Safety and a new, five man executive called the Directory was established. By 1799, its inability to resolve France’s financial problems and defeat its enemies once and for all had left it unpopular. Napoleon seemed like the perfect guy for the job! Napoleon Bonaparte’s family was petty nobility. They were not rich like the other nobles, but were still considered nobility. As a result, Napoleon still went to military school, just not for Cavalry, like the other nobles, but rather, for Artillery. Some keys to Napoleon’s success were: French soldiers fought with elan, spirit. He had a great eye for terrain (because of his training in artillery). Although Napoleon’s armies were not always the largest, he knew how to outmaneuver his enemies. Napoleon and his men did not bring supply trains with them to carry their food and other essentials, since that would slow them down, instead, they would get food in the place that they were in. Napoleon led a group called the coup d’etat. This meant “strike against the state”, an overthrow of the directory. The new government was in many ways a consulate with Napoleon as First Consul. Napoleons steps to power were: Amnesty - Forgiving emigres who had returned. Concordat - The church would receive honor status. Napoleonic Code - A modern legal code where men received power over their wives. Stability and Glory - Napoleon's victories meant that France was no longer fighting to defend its own borders, this gave Frenchmen a sense of Glory and Pride. In 1804 Napoleon conducted a plebiscite on the question of whether or not he should be named emperor. A majority said yes and he was anointed. In 1805 Napoleon was campaigning against Austria and preparing for an invasion of Britain. The battle of Austerlitz was the war where Napoleon crushed both Austria and Russia, allowing him to redraw the map of Europe. The HRE (Holy Roman Empire) was dissolved because of this. It was replaced by the Confederation of the Rhine, which was a group of German states organized by Napoleon. The battle of Trafalgar was a major battle against Spain. This war forced Spain under Napoleon's thumb, and he planned to use this power to invade Britain. Napoleon was unable to beat Britain militarily, so he decided to attempt to do so economically. He created The Continental System, which imposed an embargo on trade with Britain for European countries. When Napoleon was defeated in Moscow, the rest of Europe heard about it and rose against him. He was forced to surrender and Louis XVIII, Louis XVI’s brother, became king. Napoleon was sent into exile. When Napoleon went out of exile and came back to France, soldiers were sent to stop him, but instead they joined him. Louis XVIII fled, leaving Napoleon as ruler for 100 Days while the rest of Europe figured out how to respond. The British army confronted the French at Waterloo, which is now Belgium. This time the victors did not want to take chances, they sent him to a new exile in St. Helena. He stayed there until he died.