Term
| Assembly of Notables (1787) |
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Definition
| Because of an impasse in organizing state finances, King Louis XVI called an"Assembly of Notables" outflank the parlements (courts) that had refused to allow government borrowing. The Assembly concluded that the government had no right to demand new taxes, and that an Estates General (last called 1614) must be called again. |
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Term
| The Directory (1795-1799) |
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Definition
| In Place of the Committee of Public Safety the new government was led by a "Directory."This was a five man executive body with the aim of avoiding dictatorship and excessive democracy. Thus began a four-year period lacking a strong government and a series of coup d'etats. The leaders were not strongly ideological, but they did not want to turn the clock back to monarchy either. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Grand Empire consisted of an enlarged France and dependent states conquered by Napoleon. |
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Term
| Battle of Trafalgar (1805) |
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Definition
| In October 1805 a British fleet under Lord Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson died from wounds soon after learning of his victory. |
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Term
| Fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789) |
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Definition
| There were rising bread prices throughout 1788-89, and there were riots already in the spring of 1789. The population of Paris had been politicized and organized during the process of e elections to the Estates General, and sections had continued to meet after elections. On July 14th, a Paris mob stormed the Bastille. The Bastille was not used very often as prison by 1789 and the attack was to find weapons for revolutionary militias growing up in Paris. Troops at the Bastille fired into crowd, killing 98, and so the crowd stormed the fortress and killed the garrison. |
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Term
| Renunciation of Noble Privileges (August 4, 1789) |
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Definition
| In July 1789 there was a massive peasant revolts throughout France. The National Assembly was forced to abolish "feudal" dues, and on August 4th 1789 there was a sort of carnival of self-sacrifice amongst the nobility and the rich bourgeoisie in which all feudal dues, rights and tithes were given up. The peasants supposed to pay compensation, but this requirement was abolished under the radical revolution of 1793. |
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Term
| Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) |
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Definition
| The Declaration of the Rights of Man still forms the prologue of French Constitution, and at the time it was printed in 1000s of leaflets and distributed around France to provided propaganda for the Revolution. Its various articles constitute a compendium of the main themes of Enlightenment political thinking, and it espoused ideals of equality before the law, due process, natural rights, freedom of religion, free speech,and the separation of powers. |
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Term
| March to Versaille (-6, 1789) |
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Definition
| In October, there was a March by the "Poor Women of Paris" to insist that the King and Government move to Paris, which they did. From now on the government functioned under threat of mob violence. |
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Term
| Flight to Varennes (June 20, 1791) |
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Definition
| The purpose of the National Constituent Assembly was to draw up a new constitution, which it did by mid 1791. The Constitution of 1791 was a politically moderate document that attempted to establish a Constitutional Monarchy. King Louis XVI,finding himself with less and less political power tried to flee France on June 20, 1791,but was stopped at Varennes and brought back June 24 a virtual prisoner. The attitude of the King made the constitutional monarchy of the 1791 Constitution impossible to work, since there was no strong executive provided for apart from the King's ministers. |
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Term
| Slave Revolt in St. Domingue (Haiti)(August, 1791) |
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Definition
| In the Caribbean, slaves in France's colony of St. Domingue on Hispaniola took revolutionary principles to heart and, led by Toussant L'Overture, rebelled. By 1804, the rebels were able to establish an independent state called Haiti. |
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Term
| Legislative Assembly (October, 1791) |
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Definition
| The Legislative Assembly took over government on October 1 1791. With the King unwilling to cooperate, it prove ineffective, and party conflict dominated its proceedings.. This eventually led to a radicalization of the Revolution. |
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Term
| France Declared a Republic (September, 1792) |
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Definition
| Although other European states were not unhappy to see France weakened. But they did not want revolution to spread. On August 27, 1791, in the Declaration of Pillnitz, Austria and Prussia threatened invasion if the King was hurt. This was beginning of a long period of war which forms a background to everything for the next 30 or so years. In retaliation to Declaration of Pillnitz, the French Deputies (in Assembly) declared war on Austria, 20thApr 1792. The French armies were soon retreating, which caused radicalization at Home. In August and September, 1792, there were mass riots in Paris, and the Legislative Assembly was forced to call for new elections to a National Convention, which was to create more radical constitution. The Convention first met September 21 1792 and declared France a Republic as its first act |
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Term
| Louis XIV executed (January 1793) |
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Definition
| Radicals in the national convention discovered letters to Austria in which Louis XIV had supported France's enemies. The King was tried for treason as "Citizen Capet." The vote to condemn was: 28 were absent, 321 voted for other penalties, 13 for death with a respite, 361 for immediate execution. The majority to execute was thus one vote. No one thought Louis was innocent. |
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Term
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Definition
| The population of Paris remained unhappy after the death of king. In May/June 1793,there was a new insurrection, and the radicals known as "the Mountain" seized control in the Convention. They appointed a "Committee of Public Safety" in June 1793, a body that was to rule France for the next year. Under the leadership of Maximilian Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety functioned as a ruthless but effective government. Its policy of "terror" was designed to suppress opposition to the Revolution. After the murder of a prominent radical Marat, killed by Charlotte Corday on July 13 1793, the height of the Terror lasted from Fall 1793 to July 1794. First Marie-Antoinette and the Royal Family and aristocrats were executed. In 1794 the Terror moved to the provinces and included peasants and sans-cullottes. Finally by Spring 1794 even republicans like Danton faced the Guillotine. |
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Term
| Thermidorian Reaction (1794) |
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Definition
| The Reign of Terror was genuinely terrifying, and even radical politicians feared for their own heads when Robespierre made a threatening speech on July 26th, 1794. Before he could act, he himself was arrested and condemned to the Guillotine by the Convention on 9th of Thermidor (July 27th 1794). By this stage the government had created a new calendar, and since the end of Robespierre's power came in the new month of Thermidor, the name of that month was attached to the entire moderate rejection of the terror. |
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Term
| The Italian Campaign (1796-1797) |
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Definition
| Although the Directory was not a strong domestic government, the army created by the Committee of Public Safety had great success. New generals had been brought to the fore as the old officer class went into exile. One of most successful Generals was Napoleon, whose first triumph was in defending Toulon in 1793. In 1796, he used his prominence to secure command of the French Army in Italy and succeeded in defeating Austrian forces. |
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Term
| Treaty of Campo-Formio (1797) |
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Definition
Napoleon personally negotiated the Treaty of Campo-Formio (1797) which ended the war against Austria begun in 1792. England was now the only state fighting France, while French domination in Italy and Germany was established.
Primary Source: The Treaty of Campio Formio |
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Term
| Expedition to Egypt and Syria (1799) |
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Definition
| In an effort to deal a blow to English trade with Asia, Napoleon led and expedition to Egypt, with further expansion to India envisaged. The expedition was not successful, but Napoleon -- leaving behind thousands of French troups -- avoided blame and slipped back to France in 1799. Because it was accompanied by a scientific entourage, quite apart from its military aspect, this expedition laid the basis of Egyptology. |
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Term
| Napoleon's coup d'etat (1799) |
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Definition
| On November 9, 1799, Napoleon stage a coup d'etat in which he dismissed the Directory. The Coup did not go very well: when Napoleon addressed the assembly he was shouted down and got apoplectic with anger. He was saved by his brother Lucien, who brought in the army and shooed away the deputies. Napoleon now became the First of become one of three consuls, and the period of his rule from 1799 to 1804 is called the Consulate. |
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Term
| Concordat with Catholic Church (1801) |
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Definition
| Napoleon was not personally religious, but he tried to put an end to religious conflict in France. In 1801 he signed the Concordat with Pope Pius VII that gave Catholics freedom of worship. It stated that Catholicism was the "Religion of most Frenchmen," but not the state religion. In return, the Church allowed the state to name bishops, to pay priests while the Church gave up its claims on property. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended the hostilities between France and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. |
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Term
| The Civil Code/Napoleonic Code (1804) |
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Definition
| The Civil Code of 1804( or Napoleonic Code) reflected many Enlightenment ideals.It granted the middle class equality, safeguarded property rights, abolished all privileges of birth, and established the principle that state officials were to be chosen by merit. It also, gave men legal control over their wives, and forbade labor unions. It set the tone of all later French life as legally egalitarian, socially bourgeois, and administratively bureaucratic. |
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Term
| Napoleon crowned emperor (1804) |
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Definition
| Napoleon used fears of a comeback by the Bourbon dynasty, which would imperil the property gained by many during the Revolution, to get him self crowned Emperor. After new imperial constitution was approved by plebiscite, the Pope came to the coronation. Napoleon,however, crowned himself. he went on to create a new nobility in the Legion of Honor. In 1809, he put aside his wife Josephine, and married the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise as a more fitting wife for an emperor. |
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Term
| Battle of Austerlitz (1805) |
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Definition
| In 1805, Napoleon faced the "Third Coalition" of Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Russia. He lost naval dominance to Britain at the Battle Trafalgar (1805), but established his power in continental Europe at the battler of Austerlitz (Dec 2, 1805.) |
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Term
| Documents upon the Peace of Tilsit (1807) |
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Definition
| After Napoleon's victories at Austerlitz in 1805, and Jena in 1806 Jena, in which Napolean defeated a Prussian army that was (supposedly best army in Europe, Tsar Alexander I signed the Treaty of Tilsit (1807). By this Treaty, Russia agreed to become part of the "Continental System", and French territorial gains were confirmed. |
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Term
| Documents upon the Continental System (1807) |
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Definition
| The "Continental System" was an effort by Napoleon to destroy Britain's dominance of trade. It was instituted in 1806 by the Berlin Decrees, and Napoleon claimed he was liberating Europe from the English (a Nation of Shop keepers). Britain's trade with America and the East meant it could survive, and when the system began hurting the European states involved, it caused a backlash against French overlordship. |
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Term
| Invasion of Russia (1812) |
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Definition
| In 1810 Russians withdrew from the Continental system. and resumed contact with Britain.In 1812 Napoleon attempts to march on Moscow, as his major continental opponent. He was defeated by the cold, the snow, and lack of supplies. His method previously had been for the army to live off the land, but after the Russians adopted a scorched earth policy there was nothing to eat. When he Moscow was captured, the Tsar just withdrew eastwards.In 1812/13, Napoleon was forced to retreat from Moscow. About 100,000 of 600,000 men he began with survived. |
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Term
| Napoleon exiled to Elba (1814) |
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Definition
| After Napoleon's disaster in Russia, the opposition became effective. The "Fourth Coalition" was composed of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. Prussia in particular, after its defeat at Jena, had reorganized and modernized its army and by 1813 had 270,000 under arms. Portraying the war as a "German War of Liberation," France was defeated at the "Battle of the Nations" in 1813 (at Leipzig) and the Allies took Paris in March 1814. Napoleon abdicated and was sent into exile on the island of Elba off the coast of Italy, which he was allowed to rule as monarch. |
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Term
| Battle of Waterloo (1815) |
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Definition
| In 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba, and in a period known as the Hundred Days marched through France collecting a new army. This was met by British and Prussian troops at the Battle of Waterloo (in Belgium) 1815. Napoleon was defeated again, and this time sent to exile on St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. |
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