French Revolution and Napoleon

Talleyrand

- French foreign minister under Napoleon, Talleyrand played politics so well that he managed to stay in office under the two following regimes. Talleyrand represented France at the Congress of Vienna.

Treaty of Fontainebleau

- Treaty in 1814 by which Napoleon was exiled to Elba and promised a stipend of 2 million francs a year (which he never received). Napoleon was also allowed to keep the title of Emperor.

Second Coalition

1798 to 1802 anti-French coalition. Austria, Russia, and Britain were in the Coalition, but Prussia did not join. After the Treaty of Luneville and the Peace of Amiens, the Second Coalition ended, and a one-year period of Europe-wide peace prevailed.

Peace of Amiens

1802 pact by which the British and French agreed not to fight. 1802 was the only year during all of the Napoleonic era when no European power was officially at war with another European power.

Third Coalition

1805 Coalition of the anti-Napoleonic powers. When Alexander I signed the Treaty of Tilsit and sided with Napoleon, this coalition came to a halt.

Peninsular War

1808-1814 war in the Iberian Peninsula, in which the Portuguese, Spanish, and British (under Wellington) fought the French, who were trying to impose the Continental System.

Congress of Vienna

1814 to 1815 conference of the European powers in which they decided how to repartition Europe after defeating Napoleon. The Congress was one of the most massive and significant treaties ever, and it created a Europe wherein the balance of power prevented a Europe-wide war for a hundred years.

Holy Alliance

1815 agreement promoted by Czar Alexander I, by which most European powers promised to uphold Christian virtues like peace and charity. Only Britain, Turkey, and the Pope refused to join the Holy Alliance. However, few took the agreement very seriously.

Josephine

A Creole (born in the New World), Josephine was married to a French officer before. After the officer died, she met Napoleon and they married in 1796. As Empress of France, she amassed an incredible fortune in jewels. In 1810, after the failed to bear an heir, Napoleon had their marriage annulled on the grounds that no parish priest had been present their wedding. Josephine died in 1814.

Tennis Court Oath

A June 20, 1789, oath sworn by members of the Third Estate who had just formed the National Assembly and were locked out of the meeting of the Estates-General. Meeting at a nearby tennis court, these members of the Third Estate pledged to remain together until they had drafted and passed a new constitution.

Committe of Public Safety

A body, chaired by Maximilien Robespierre, to which the National Convention gave dictatorial powers in April 1793 in an attempt to deal with France's wars abroad and economic problems at home. Although the committee led off its tenure with an impressive war effort and economy-salvaging initiatives, things took a turn for the worse when Robespierre began his violent Reign of Terror in late 1793.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A document, issued by the National Assembly in July 1790, that broke ties with the Catholic Church and established a national church system in France with a process for the election of regional bishops. The document angered the pope and church officials and turned many French Catholics against the revolutionaries.

Bourbon

A major European royal family that included the kings of France before the Revolution, as well as the royal family of Spain and other countries (like Naples) in Europe. After Napoleon was deposed, Louis XVIII (A Bourbon) was installed on the throne.

Estates-General

A medieval representative institution in France that had not met for 175 years before King Louis XVI reconvened it on May 5, 1789, to deal with the looming financial crisis. Consisting of three estates—the clergy, nobility, and commoners, respectively—the Estates-General was the only group that would be able to force the assorted French parlements into accepting the controller general of finance Charles de Calonne's tax decrees.

Nationalism

A modern phenomena in which people feel that a person's main loyalty should be to their state (tied up in patriotism). It is actually a fairly new idea, which first appeared at the end of the 18th century in the American and French Revolutions. During the Napoleonic era, domination by France gave rise to a nationalist movement in Germany.

Great Fear

A period in July and August 1789 during which rural peasants revolted against their feudal landlords and wreaked havoc in the French countryside.

Reign of Terror

A ten-month period of oppression and execution from late 1793 to mid-1794, organized by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety to suppress any potential enemies of the radical Revolution. The Reign of Terror ended with the fall of Robespierre, who was arrested and executed in July 1794. Robespierre's execution ushered in the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794-1795 and the establishment of the Directory as the head of France's executive government.

Limited Monarchy

Also known as constitutional monarchy, a system of government in which a king or queen reigns as head of state but with power that is limited by real power lying in a legislature and an independent court system

Treaty of Tilsit

An 1807 treaty requiring both Russia and Prussia to join the Continental System. Russian, Prussia, and Austria actually declared war on Britain following the treaty.

Marie Louise

Austrian archduchess, who Napoleon married after annulling his marriage with Josephine. Marie Louise was 18 at the time, and in 1811, she gave birth to a son, referred to as the "King of Rome".

Clemens von Metternich

Austrian statesman and diplomat who represented Austria at the Congress of Vienna. Metternich, Austria's foreign minister from 1809 to 1848, was an arch-conservative and worked hard to create stability in Europe and preserve the power of the old regime,

Admiral Horatio Nelson

Brilliant British naval commander who won crucial victories against the French. These included the Battle of Aboukir (The Battle of the Nile) in 1798 and Trafalgar in 1805. Although he won the battle, Nelson was killed at Trafalgar. Privately, Nelson (a married man) was involved in an affair with a married woman, creating some of the leading gossip in England during the Napoleonic period.

Duke of Wellington

British commander who, along with Blucher, took primary credit for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Earlier, Wellington had also led the British forces supporting the Spanish guerillas in the Peninsular War. Wellington later entered British politics and served as Prime Minister.

Castlereagh

British delegate to the Congress of Vienna.

Joachim Murat

Cavalry general who was one of Napoleon's best marshals. Murat led the invasion of Spain, and later became the King of Naples from 1808 to 1815.

Austerlitz

December 2, 1805 battle, in which Napoleon's army defeated the Russian and Austrian armies. The Russian army limped back to Poland while the Austrians surrendered their Italian territory of Venetia to the French.

Consulate

French government from 1799 to 1804, set up by Napoleon and Sieyes after their overthrow of the Directory. Napoleon was First Consul. Set up as an oligarchy, Napoleon ended up becoming the sole dictator of the regime. In 1804, he replaced the consulate with the Empire.

Francisco de Goya

Great Spanish artist whose works largely reflect the historical environment of his time, portraying the horror caused by Napoleon's invasion of Spain.

First Coalition

Grouping of European states against Revolutionary France that lasted from 1792 to 1797. Ended after Napoleon defeated Austria in his Italian campaign, which rocketed him to popularity in France.

Berlin Decree

In 1806, Napoleon announced the Continental System with this decree.

Waterloo -

June 18, 1815 battle in which Napoleon was finally defeated by the British (under Wellington) and the Prussians (under Blucher). Napoleon had a chance to attack the British forces before the Prussians were there to join in the battle, but he made the crucial mistake of waiting for the muddy ground to dry before attacking.

Hundred Days

March 20, 1815 to July 8, 1815. During this period, Napoleon returned from exile in Elba and tried to return to power. He was finally defeated at Waterloo and sent to Saint Helena, where he died.

Grand Duchy of Warsaw

Name Napoleon gave to the Polish state he created in 1807, and which lasted until 1815. Though technically independent, it was in reality under Napoleon's control. Czar Alexander I of Russia was seriously upset by the recreation of the Polish state, since he wanted the territory badly.

Continental System

Napoleon's plan to stop all shipping of British goods into Europe. Announced by the Berlin Decree of 1806, the Continental System resulted in a British blockade of all European shipping, and ended up hurting France more than Britain. By trying to spread the Continental System into Spain, Napoleon and France had to endure the constant harassment of the disastrous Peninsular War.

Napoleonic Code

Napoleon's system of laws, particularly the civil code, which he first announced in 1804. The code remains a basis of European continental law to this day. It differs from Anglo-American "Common Law" tradition practiced in most of the US in several ways; for instance, it is less concerned with protecting alleged criminals' legal rights.

Leipzig

October 1813 battle (the Battle of Nations) in which Napoleon's army of raw recruits was defeated by a four-nation alliance. Leipzig was the largest battle in terms of numbers of soldiers up to that time.

Trafalgar

October 21, 1805 naval battle off the coast of Spain, in which Napoleon's navy of 33 French and Spanish ships was decimated by the British fleet of 27 ships. Admiral Horatio Nelson commanded the British fleet, and lost his life in the battle. The battle firmly established Britain's naval supremacy for the rest of the 19th century.

Treaty of Chaumont

On March 9, 1814, the four powers that defeated Napoleon (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia) all agreed to ally for 20 years, promising to fight together to stop France if it ever got too powerful again.

Third Estate

One of the three estates in the Estates-General, consisting of the commoners of France, whether rich merchants or poor peasants. Despite the fact that it constituted the vast majority of the French population, the Third Estate had just one vote in the Estates-General—the same vote that the much smaller First Estate (clergy) and Second Estate (nobility) each had. Frustrated with its political impotence, the Third Estate broke from the Estates-General on June 17, 1789, and declared itself the National Assembly.

Louis XVI

The French king from 1774 to 1792 who was deposed during the French Revolution and executed in 1793. He inherited the debt problem left by his grandfather, Louis XV, and added to the crisis himself through heavy spending during France's involvement in the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783. Because this massive debt overwhelmed all of his financial consultants, Louis XVI was forced to give in to the demands of the Parlement of Paris and convene the Estates-General—an action that led directly to the outbreak of the Revolution. Louis XVI was deposed in 1792 and executed a year later.

National Convention

The body that replaced the Legislative Assembly following a successful election in 1792. As one of its first actions, the convention declared the French monarchy abolished on September 21, 1792, and on the following day declared France a republic. Though originally dominated by moderates, the convention became controlled by radical Jacobins in 1793.

Monarchy

The form of government, common to most European countries at the time of the French Revolution, in which one king or queen, from a designated royal dynasty, holds control over policy and has the final say on all such matters. In France, the Bourbon family held the monarchy, with Louis XVI as king at the time of the Revolution.

Francis II

The last Holy Roman Emperor, losing this title when Napoleon dissolved the fairly decrepit Holy Roman Empire and formed the Confederation of the Rhine. In 1806, Francis II proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria. A Hapsburg, Francis died in 1835.

bourgeoisie

The middle and upper classes of French society who, as members of the Third Estate, wanted an end to the principle of privilege that governed French society in the late 1700s. They represented the moderate voices during the French Revolution and were represented by delegates in both the Estates-General and the National Assembly.

National Assembly

The name given to the Third Estate after it separated from the Estates-General in 1789. As a body, the National Assembly claimed to legitimately represent the French population. The assembly dissolved in 1791 so that new elections could take place under the new constitution.

Gironidins

The name given to the moderates in the National Convention. The Girondins controlled the legislative assembly until 1793, when, with the war going poorly and food shortages hurting French peasants, the Jacobins ousted them from power.

The Directory

The new executive branch established by the constitution written during the moderate Thermidorian Reaction of 1794-1795. The Directory was appointed by the legislative assembly. However, after 1797 election results proved unfavorable to elements in the Directory, it orchestrated an overthrow of the assembly and maintained dubious control over France until it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799.

Marie Antoinette

The wife of King Louis XVI and, in the French commoners' eyes, the primary symbol of the French royalty's extravagance and excess. When Marie-Antoinette was executed in 1793, she was dressed in a plain dress, common to the poorest in French society.

sans culottes

Urban workers and peasants, whose name—literally, "without culottes," the knee-breeches that the privileged wore—signified their wish to distinguish themselves from the high classes. The mob mentality of the sans-culottes constituted the most radical element of the Revolution.

Flight to Varennes

this happened during the night of 20/21 June 1791 was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution at the head of loyal troops under royalist officers concentrated at Montmédy near the frontier. Their escape only led them as far as the small town of Varennes, where they were arrested after having been recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould. The incident was a turning point after which popular hostility towards the French monarchy as an institution, as well as towards the king and queen as individuals, became much more pronounced. The king's attempted flight provoked the charges of treason which ultimately led to his execution in 1793.

Maximilien Robespierre

A brilliant political tactician and leader of the radical Jacobins in the National Assembly. As chairman of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre pursued a planned economy and vigorous mobilization for war. He grew increasingly paranoid about counterrevolutionary opposition, however, and during the Reign of Terror of 1793-1794 attempted to silence all enemies of the Revolution in an effort to save France from invasion. After the moderates regained power and the Thermidorian Reaction was under way, they had Robespierre executed on July 28, 1794.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A document, issued by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789, that granted sovereignty to all French people. The declaration, which drew from the ideas of some of the Enlightenment's greatest thinkers, asserted that liberty is a "natural" and "imprescriptible" right of man and that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights."

Napoleon Bonaparte

A general in the French army and leader of the 1799 coup that overthrew the Directory. Napoleon's accession marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of Napoleonic France and Europe.

Bastille

A large armory and state prison in the center of Paris that a mob of sans-culottes sacked on July 14, 1789, giving the masses arms for insurrection. The storming of the Bastille had little practical consequence, but it was an enormous symbolic act against the ancien régime, inspired the revolutionaries, and is still celebrated today as the French holiday Bastille Day.

Neoclassical

A late 18th and early 19th century style in painting and artwork that emphasized an idealized version of classical (Greek and Roman) art. An example is the work of the French painter David.

Jacques-Louis David

A leading French artist of the Napoleonic Period, David painted in the Neoclassical style. He painted many pictures that glorified the French Revolution, and later, Napoleon.

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

A liberal member of the clergy, supporter of the Third Estate, and author of the fiery 1789 pamphlet "What Is the Third Estate?" Sieyès was one of the primary leaders of the Third Estate's effort at political and economic reform in France.

Marquis de Lafayette

A liberal nobleman who led French forces assisting in the American Revolution. The common people of France revered Lafayette as an idealistic man who was dedicated to liberty and the principles of the Revolution. Although Lafayette organized the National Guard of armed citizens to protect the Revolution from attack by the king, he balked as the Revolution became more radical.

Declaration of Pillnitz

An August 27, 1791, warning from Prussia and Austria announcing that they would intervene militarily in France if any harm came to King Louis XVI, who had just been captured trying to escape with his family from Paris. The declaration prompted then-Legislative Assembly leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot to declare war on Austria and Prussia.

Louis XVIII

Bourbon king of France who held the throne after the fall of Napoleon in 1814 to 1824, with a brief interruption when he fled the country during the Hundred Days of 1815.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Brilliant French artillery commander, general, first consul, and finally emperor. Napoleon, born on the isle of Corsica, worked his way up through the ranks of military officers and seized control of the French government. He then built a massive empire that encompassed the majority of Europe. He married Josephine and later divorced her to marry Marie Louise. After a disastrous Russian campaign, Napoleon was defeated at the battle of Leipzig and exiled to Elba in 1814. In 1815, he tried to return to power in the period known as the Hundred Days. After being defeated at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. His rule, both in the passions and political and social measures it introduced, and in the ideological and nationalist enmity it inspired, transformed Europe.

Alexander I

Czar and Emperor of Russia from 1801 to 1825. For a time he allied with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit, but ultimately he was a member of the alliance that defeated Napoleon.

War of 1812 -

During the Napoleonic Wars, the British made a policy of stopping US ships from landing in European ports. Also, the British abused their dominance of the sea to board American ships and "impress" sailors (force them into British navy service). Ultimately, these conflicts led to the War of 1812, which began in 1812 and ended in 1814, and which neither side decisively won.

Toussaint l'Ouverture

Haitian revolutionary, who led a slave revolt in Haiti during the French Revolution. Toussaint's government was initially sanctioned by the French, but as Toussaint proved too uncontrollable and independently minded, Napoleon ordered an invasion of the island in 1802 and captured Toussaint.

Constitution of 1791

The new French constitution that in 1791 established a constitutional monarchy, or limited monarchy, with all executive power answerable to a legislative assembly. Under the new constitution, King Louis XVI could only temporarily veto legislation passed by the assembly. The constitution restricted voting in the assembly to the upper and middle classes of French society and abolished "nobility" as a legal order.

Tuileries

The palace in Paris in which King Louis XVI and his family were placed under house arrest after they were forcibly taken from their court at Versailles. The point of removing the royal family to Paris was to allow the people to keep a close watch on their actions.

Thermidorian Reaction

The post-Reign of Terror period ushered in by the execution of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794 and the reassertion of moderate power over the French Revolution. The Thermidorian Reaction brought the Revolution's focus back to the first stage of moderate changes designed to benefit the business classes of French society.

Jacobins

The radical wing of representatives in the National Convention, named for their secret meeting place in the Jacobin Club, in an abandoned Paris monastery. Led by Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins called for democratic solutions to France's problems and spoke for the urban poor and French peasantry. The Jacobins took control of the convention, and France itself, from 1793 to 1794. As Robespierre became increasingly concerned with counterrevolutionary threats, he instituted a brutal period of public executions known as the Reign of Terror.

Versailles

The royal palace built by King Louis XIV a few miles outside of Paris. Known for its extraordinary splendor, extravagance, and immense size, Versailles was the home of the king, queen, and all members of the royal family, along with high government officials and select nobles. On October 5, 1789, a mob of angry and hungry French women marched on Versailles, bringing the royal family back to Paris to deal with the food shortage.