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The French Revolution
established both a new political order and a new social
order. -
Third Estate boldly declared that it was the National
Assembly and would draft a constitution.
Three days later, on June 20, its deputies
arrived at their meeting place, only to
find the doors had been locked. They
then moved to a nearby indoor tennis
court and swore that they would continue
meeting until they had a new constitution. -
The
declaration proclaimed that all men were free and equal before the law, that appointment to public office should be based on talent, and that no group should be exempt
from taxation. Freedom of speech and of
the press were affirmed. -
The new Constitution of 1791 set up a
limited monarchy. There was still a king,
but a Legislative Assembly would make
the laws. -
By August of 1792, the monarchy was over. Rallied
by the newly appointed minister of justice, Georges Danton, the
sans-culottes attacked the palace, and the royal family had to seek
protection from the Legislative Assembly. -
In September 1792, the newly elected National Convention
began meeting, the National Convention’s first major step on September 21 was to abolish the
monarchy and establish a republic, the French Republic. -
Two women founded the Society for Revolutionary Republican Women in Paris. Most members were working-class women who asserted that they were ready to defend the republic. Most men, however, believed that women should not participate in either politics or the military.
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Citizens had enthusiastically
formed political clubs of varying social and
political views. Many deputies belonged to
these clubs.In early 1793, the Mountain convinced the Convention to pass a decree condemning Louis XVI to death. On January 21, the king was beheaded on the guillotine. Revolutionaries had adopted this machine because it killed quickly and they believed, humanely. -
For roughly a year during 1793 and 1794, the Committee of Public Safety took control of the government. To defend France from domestic threats, the Committee adopted policies that became known as the
Reign of Terror. -
In less than a year, the new French government had raised a huge army—by September 1794, it had over a million soldiers. It was the largest army ever seen in Europe,and it pushed the invaders back across the Rhine.
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By the summer of 1794, the French had largely defeated their foreign foes. There was less need for the Reign of Terror, but it
continued nonetheless.After the death of Robespierre, the Jacobins lost power and more moderate middle-class leaders took control. The Reign of Terror came to a halt. In August
1794, the Law of 22 Prairial was repealed
and the release of prisoners began. -
Napoleon Bonaparte dominated French and European history
from 1799 to 1815. During his reign Napoleon built and lost an
empire and also spread ideas about nationalism in Europe. -
In 1801 Napoleon came to an agreement with the pope, which recognized Catholicism as the religion of a majority of the French people. In return, the pope would not ask for the return of the church lands
seized in the revolution. -
In 1802 Napoleon was made consul for life. Two years later, he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I.Napoleon brought stability to France and established a single law code that recognized the
equality of all citizens before the law. -
Napoleon was never able to conquer Great Britain because of its sea power, which made it almost invulnerable. Napoleon hoped to invade Britain, but the British defeated the combined French Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805. This battle ended Napoleon’s plans for invasion.
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From 1807 to 1812, Napoleon was the
master of Europe. His Grand Empire was
composed of three major parts: the French
Empire, dependent states, and allied states.
The French Empire was the inner core of
the Grand Empire. It consisted of an
enlarged France extending to the Rhine in
the east and including the western half of
Italy north of Rome. -
After major losses in Russia and Austria, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.
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The new king had little support, and the French people
were not ready to surrender the glory of empire. Nor was
Napoleon ready to give up. At Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, Napoleon met a combined British and Prussian army under the Duke of Wellington and suffered a bloody defeat. This time, the
victorious allies exiled him to St. Helena, a small island in
the south Atlantic. Napoleon remained in exile until his
death in 1821, but his memory haunted French political
life for many decades. -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was an important
spokesman for the civil rights movement in the United
States in the 1960s. The purpose of the civil rights
movement was to gain equal rights for African
Americans.
