French Revolution and Napoleon

Jean Louis David

(1748-1825) an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. He was a major painter in the late 18th-century Neoclassical reaction against the Rococo style. He won acclaim for his huge canvasses on classical themes (Oath of the Horatii). He served briefly as the art director of the French Republic and painted its leaders and martyrs (The Death of Marat). He later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. He was imprisoned after Robespierre's death, but returned following Napoleon's ascent to power and became one of Napoleon's painters.

Marie Antoinette

(1755-1793) Queen of France and member of the Hapsburg army. She was married to King Louis XVI. The people generally disliked her and they accused her of being profligate, promiscuous, and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies. She became known as Madame Deficit because of her lavish spendings during famine. She is credited with the famous quote: "Let them eat cake," although there is no evidence she actually said that. She was very social and enjoyed gambling, partying, and extravagant fashions. After the Flight to Varennes, the French monarchy was ruined and Marie and the royal family were imprisoned; she was beheaded 8 months after her husband's beheading. Imprudent and an enemy of reform, she helped provoke the popular unrest that led to the French Revolution and to the overthrow of the monarchy.

Louis XVIII

(1755-1824) king of France by title from 1795, but in fact from 1814-1824, except for the interruption of the 100 days. He fled France in 1791 to escape the Revolution. He wrote uncompromising revolutionary manifestos and declared himself king after Louis XVI's and Louis XVII's death. Between 1795 and 1814, he wandered throughout Europe, including Prussia, England, and Russia, promoting the royalist cause. When he came to power in 1814, he declared a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral parliament, religious toleration, and constitutional rights for all citizens. Most of his attempts to heal the wounds of revolution failed because of the Ultras. He was forced to disband the parliament.

Levee en masse

"mass uprising" or "mass mobilization." During the French Revolutionary Wars, it was the term for mass conscription. The Revolutionary government declared a Levee en masse, by which all Frenchmen were placed at the disposal of the army. By this means France was able to raise and maintain in the field unprecedentedly large armies. Very important in France's wars against foreign countries during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.

San-culottes

("without knee breeches") an extreme radical republican in France at the time of the Revolution. They presented themselves as members of the poorer classes or leaders of the common people, but during the Reign of Terror public functionaries and educated men also adopted the label to demonstrate their patriotism. They wore the pantaloon (long trousers), in place of the culotte (silk breeches) worn by the nobles, in order to register their protest against the nobility. They made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars. The Sans-Culottes believed in popular democracy, social and economic equality, affordable food, rejection of the free-market economy, and vigilance against counter-revolutionaries. They were suppressed by the Directory.

Francois Quesnay

(1694-1774) a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He is known for publishing the "Tableau economique" (Economic Table) in 1758, which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats (believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of "land agriculture" or "land development"). This was perhaps the first work to attempt to describe the workings of the economy in an analytical way, and as such can be viewed as one of the first important contributions to economic thought.

John Wesley

(1703-1791) an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian. He is largely credited as founding the Methodist movement, which began when he took to open-air preaching. Methodism in both forms became a highly successful evangelical movement in Britain and later in the United States. The preachers he established traveled widely to evangelise and care for people in the societies. Under his leadership, Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including the prison reform and abolitionism movements. He opposed predestination.

100 Days

the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration king Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815. This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo campaign and the Neapolitan War. He came back while the Congress of Vienna was sitting. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by British forces led by the Duke of Wellington and Prussian forces. The phrase was first used by the prefect of the Seine in his speech welcoming the king

Edmund Burke

(1729-1797) an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher, who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. He supported the American Revolution and opposed the French Revolution. He believed that government should be a cooperative relationship between rulers and subjects and that was willing to adabt to the inevitability of change. He expressed his hostility toward the French Revolution "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790); he emphasized the dangers of mob rule, fearing that the Revolution's fervour was destroying French society. He has been viewed as the founder of modern conservatism.

Jean-Paul Marat

(1743-1793) a French physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. His journalism became renowned for its fierce tone, uncompromising stance toward the new leaders and institutions of the revolution, and advocacy of basic human rights for the poorest members of society. He was a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, publishing his views in pamphlets, placards, and newspapers. Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, assassinated Marat, while Marat was taking a medicinal bath for a debilitating skin condition. In his death he became an icon to the Jacobins. He published "L'Ami du peuple" (Friend of the people), a celebrated radical newspaper.

Toussaint L' Ouverture

(1743-1803) the leader of the Haitian Revolution. His military genius and political acumen transformed an entire society of slaves into the independent black state of Haiti. Inspired by the French Revolution's ideas of the rights of man. He emancipated the slaves. He was forced by the French to resign and then deported to France, where he died.

Olympe de Gouges

(1748-1793) a French playwright and political activist whose feminist and abolitionist writings reached a large audience. As political tension rose, she became an outspoken advocate for improving the living conditions of slave. In her pamphlets, she demanded that French women be given the same rights as French men. In her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen" she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. She was involved in political causes and took up social causes that ranged from better roads to divorce, maternity hospitals, and the rights of orphaned children. She was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror for attacking the regime of the Revolutionary government and for her close relation with the Girondists.

Eighteen Brumaire

(1799) A coup that brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France, and ended the French Revolution. The coup d'etat overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. Napoleon created a coup within a coup to gain power.

Maximilien Robespierre

(1758-1794) a French lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly, and the Jacobin Club, and advocated against the death and for the abolition of slavery and supported equality of rights, universal suffrage and the establishment of a republic. He became popular for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms. In 1793, Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the National Convention; the convention abolished the monarchy, declared France a republic, and put the king on trial for treason, all measures Robespierre supported. He was a member of the left-wing bourgeoisie. In the latter months of 1793, he came to dominate the Committee of Public Safety and led the Reign of Terror, but in 1794 he was overthrown and beheaded during the Thermidorian Reaction.

Danton

(1759-1794) a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. He is often credited as the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic. He directed the war against foreign European nations who wished to destroy the Revolution. He was a moderating influence on the Jacobins and was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency to the enemies of the Revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769-1821) French general, first consul (1799-1804), and emperor of the French (1804-1815). He was emperor of France from 1804 to 1815. He implemented the Napoleonic Code throughout Europe and conquered most of Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution during the Napoleonic Wars. He was very successful militarily and is often considered one of the greatest military leaders. He was very successful until his disastrous invasion of Russia, which destroyed the Grand Army. His institution of the Napoleonic Code throughout Europe increased legal equality and established jury systems. He revolutionized military training and organization, reorganized educations, and established long-lived Concordat of 1801 with the papacy. He abdicated in 1814 but briefly returned in 1815 during the Hundred Days.

Women's March on Versailles

(1789) More than 8,000 Parisian market women march to Versailles and present their demands, which include more affordable bread, the price of which was very high and was scarce, to the National Assembly and the king. They besieged the king in the Palace of Versailles, which was 16 miles away from Paris, and pressed their demands on the king. The crowd forced the king, his family, and the assembly to return to Paris. This event effectively weakened the power of the monarchy and was a major event in the Revolution.

National Assembly

(1789-1791) the revolutionary assembly formed by representatives of the Third Estate. It later became known as the National Constituent Assembly. It was formed because the Third Estate was not given equal representation in the Estates-General; though they were given twice as many members, they were told that they were going to vote by Estate, which negated their numbers. After the members of the National Assembly were locked out of their meeting place, they took the Tennis Court Oath, which said that the deputies would continue to meet until a new constitution was made. The National Assembly drafted and instituted the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," which guaranteed equal and inalienable rights for all citizens of France. The National Assembly was very important in sparking the French Revolution by condoning the violence of the storming of the Bastille.

Committee of Public Safety

(1793-1795) created in 1793, it formed the de facto executive of government and gained dictatorial powers in France during the Reign of Terror (1793-94), a stage of the French Revolution, in which 20,000 people were killed. It was composed of 12 members and was given supervisory powers over military, judicial, and legislative efforts. Led by Robespierre, the power of the committee peaked. Following Robespierre's death, a reactionary period, in which the Committee's influence diminished, occurred.

Thermidorian Reaction

(1794) the parliamentary revolt which resulted in the fall of Maximilien Robespierre and the collapse of revolutionary fervour and the Reign of Terror in France. The people had become tired of the excessive killings of the Reign of Terror. The National Convention decreed his arrest. Robespierre was beheaded, followed by a brief "White Terror" against the Jacobins. The emptying of prisons, the weakening of the Committee of Public Safety, and the purging of the Jacobins followed the coup. The Thermidorian Reaction moved France in a more moderate direction, led to the institution of the Directory, and eventually to Napoleon's ascent.

The Directory

(1795-1799) the French Revolutionary government set up by the constitution of the Year III, which lasted four years. It included a bicameral legislature known as the Corps Legislatif. The Council of Ancients chose five directors, each of whom had to be 40 years of age or over. A Director had to be at least 40 years old and to have formerly served as a deputy or minister; a new one was chosen each year, on rotation. The Directors chose government ministers, ambassadors, army generals, tax collectors, and other officials. It was a fatal experiment in a weak executive branch. Under the Directory's leadership, a system of centralized schools was created and the French economy recovered from the Great Terror. The Directory was replaced by Napoleon in 1799 after he staged a coup d etat.

Napoleonic Code

(1804) French civil code enacted in 1804 by Napoleon. It has been the main influence in the 19th century civil codes of most countries of continental Europe and Latin America. The code forbade privileges by birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing feudal laws. The code divided civil law into categories of property and family. The Code made the authority of men over their families stronger, deprived women of any individual rights, and reduced the rights of illegitimate children. It strongly influenced the countries that Napoleon conquered.

Congress of Vienna

(1814-1815) an assembly that reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. It began five months after Napoleon's first abdication and it completed its "Final Act" in 1815, shortly before the Waterloo campaign and final defeat of Napoleon. The Congress resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establishing the boundaries of France, the Netherlands, the states of the Rhine, the various Italian territories and the creation of spheres of influence through which Austria, Britain, France, and Russia brokered local and regional problems. It restored national monarchies and attempted to restore the status quo. It served as a model for later organizations such as the United Nations. The final settlement formed the framework of European politics until the outbreak of World War 1.

Enrages

(French: Madman) a loose amalgam of radicals, led by Jacques Roux, and Varlet, a postal official, active during the French Revolution. Politically they stood to the left of the Jacobins. They believed that liberty for all meant more than just constitutional rights. Rouz, one of their leaders, once said that "liberty is no more than an empty shell when one class is allowed condemn another to starvation and no measures taken against them." Their demands included: Price controls on grain, the assignat, a type of monetary instrument used during the French Revolution, repression of counterrevolutionary activity, and a progressive income tax. They believed in government assistance to the poor. They were supported by the sans-culottes, the radical left wing partisans of the lower classes. Robespierre attempted to repress them. They pressured Jacobins into taking emergency and terroristic measures to protect the Revolution.

Battle of Waterloo

(June 18, 1815) fought in Waterloo, Belgium. In 1815, Napoleon returned from exile and gained control of France once again, but the other countries that opposed him gathered their forces on the French border and prepared to attack; Napoleon chose to strike first. The Seventh Coalition, led by the Duke of Wellington, defeated the Imperial French Army, which was led by Napoleon. Wellington's forces resisted several attacks by the French until the Prussians came and broke the right flank of the French. The Battle marked the end of Napoleon's rule of France and the end of his 100-day return from exile. Louis XVIII was installed as King and Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died.

Battle of Leipzig

(Oct. 16-19, 1813) a battle fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden (320,000 troops) against the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte (185,000 troops) at Leipzig, Saxony. After the disastrous Russian campaign, Napoleon launched an offensive to attack Germany in 1813, but failed to capture Berlin. He was forced to withdraw to Leipzig, where the Allied armies attacked him. The largest battle in Europe prior to World War I. Napoleon was decisively defeated, resulting in the destruction of French power in Germany and Poland, forcing him to retreat to France and eventually leading to his abdication and relocation to Elba in 1814. Also called Battle of the Nations.

The Old Regime

(the ancien regime) the monarchic, aristocratic, social and political system established in the Kingdom of France from the 15th to the 18th centuries under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The laws of this order had been acquired through civil wars, laws, and internal conflicts, but remained very confusing. The Old Regime was ended by the French Revolution. France remained a country of systemic irregularities, judicial, political, administrative, and legal, despite the centralization of French Kings. Under this oreder, all rights and statutes flowed from the social institutions, divided into three orders: clergy, nobility, and others (the Third Estate).

Third Estate

In France under the Old Regime, the Estates-General was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the Estates. The Third Estate represented the great majority of the people and its deputies' transformation of themselves into a National Assembly in June 1789 marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The Third Estate was composed of the bourgeoisie and the peasants and opposed the king.

Grand Army

Napoleon renamed the army he had assembled on the French coast of the English Channel for the proposed invasion of Britain. The Grand Army spread the power of France and won multiple victories against Napoleon's enemies. It reached its largest size in 1812 when Napoleon invaded Russia. After only 37,000 of the troops returned from the disastrous campaign, the Grand Army was finished and Napoleon's power declined.

St. Helena

a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic. After his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled to St. Helena in order to ensure that he could never return. He dictated his memoirs at St. Helena and eventually died there in 1821.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

a German prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He began performing at the age of 5. He learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. He composed over 600 works that included, sonatas, symphonies, masses, concertos, and operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures. Unlike any other composer in musical history, he wrote in all the musical genres of his day and excelled in every one. His taste, his command of form, and his range of expression have made him seem the most universal of all composers; yet, it may also be said that his music was written to accommodate the specific tastes of particular audiences.

The Bastille

a fortress in Paris that was the site of torture and was a sign of feudal rule. After the people found their inside man, Jacques Necker was removed, a crowd stormed it on July 14, 1789, and was later demolished and replaced. The prison only contained seven inmates at the time but was a symbol of the abuses of the monarchy. The people had formed the National Guard, sporting the tricolour, which became the colors of France. The storming of the Bastille led to even more violence. The governor of the Bastille was beheaded.

Girondins

a label applied to a loose grouping of republican politicians, some of them originally from the department of the Gironde, who played a leading role in the Legislative Assembly from October 1791 to Septemeber 1792 during the French Revolution. Lawyers, intellectuals, and journalists, the Girondins attracted a following of businessmen, merchants, industrialists, and financiers. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. They came into conflict with the Mountain, a radical faction within the Jacobin club, and this conflict eventually led to the fall of the Girondists and their mass execution, the beginning of the Reign of Terror. Thomas Paine, the author of "Common Sense" was an ally.

Émigré

a person who has migrated out, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. During the French Revolution, many nobles fled following the events of the Great Fear. Many fled fearing their safety during the French Revolution due to the Reign of Terror. French refugees, former members of the nobility, Catholic royalist sympathizers, or anti-republicans, who were expelled by the Law of Suspects of 1793

Tennis Court Oath

a pledge signed by the members of the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General. So, fearing an imminent royal coup, they went to the king's tennis court and signed an oath, which said, "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established." The oath asserted that political authority derived from the people and their representatives, not from the king. Their solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the nobility and the clergy to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly.

Seven Year's War

a war fought between the major powers of Europe, especially the French and British. The war arose out of the attempt of the Austrian Hapsburgs to win back the rich province of Silesia, which had been wrested from them by Frederick the Great of Prussia during the War of the Austrian Succession. It was fought in theaters ranging from India to North America. Britain and Prussia formed an alliance against France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, and eventually Spain. The conflict was ended with the Treaty of Paris. The national debts of all of the countries increased, including France, which would end up being unable to pay it back. France ceded their territories in Canada; their territories east of the Mississippi; the Caribbean islands of Grenada, Dominca, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines. Britain returned a few minor possessions.

Concordat 1801

an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII that defined the status of the Roman Catholic Church in France and ended the breach caused by the church reforms and confiscations enacted during the French Revolution. It solidified the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status. First Consul (Napoleon) was given the right to nominate bishops; the bishoprics and parishes were redistributed; and the erection of seminaries was allowed. Important because it restored Catholic power following the revolution's anti-Catholic actions. It was denounced by the French government in 1905. The Church gave up all of its land that had been taken during the Revolution.

Jacobins

members of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary, far-left political movement that had been the most famous and influential club of the French Revolution. They are known for their extreme egalitarianism and violence. They led the government from 1793 to 1794. There were thousands of members throughout France. After Robespierre's death, the club was closed. The Jacobins are known for their support of the Reign of Terror. Jacobin Club is also known as the Society of the Friends of the Constitution.

Bourbons

the French ruling dynasty. The Bourbons first came to power when Henry IV won the War of the Three Henrys. Louis XIV was a Bourbon, put France into heavy debt and built Versailles. They ruled until Louis XIV was beheaded during the French Revolution, came back in 1815, and then returned definitively in 1815. In France, the Bourbons were finally overthrown in 1848. Spain and Luxembourg still have Bourbon monarchs.

De-Christianization

the goal of the campaign was the destruction of Catholic religious practice and of the religion itself. In 18th century France, 95% of the people were Catholic. During the Revolution, Church lands were confiscated, iconography was destroyed, including church statues, church crosses were destroyed, new institutions, including the Cult of Reason, were established, and a law was passed in 1793 making hiding a Church leader punishable by death. Priests were forced to swear an oath to the country, but most did not.

Republic of Letters

the long-distance intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th century in Europe. It fostered communication among the philosophes. Women were excluded. It was very important in the spread of ideas during the Enlightenment.

The Terror

the period of the French Revolution from September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794 when French people were beheaded for not being revolutionary enough. Caught up in civil and foreign war, the Revolutionary government decided to make "Terror" the order of the day (September 5 decree) and to take harsh measures against those suspected of being enemies of the revolution (nobles, priests, hoarders). A wave of executions followed. Conflict between the Girondins and the Jacobins. 17,000 people were executed by Guillotine. The Reign of Terror ended with Robespierre's death after the Thermidorian Reaction. Effect: many abroad opposed the Revolution and it soon convinced the French people that the revolution had gone too far. Marie Antoinette's death occurred during this period.

Bourgeoisie

the wealthy stratum of the middle class and people of non-noble birth. Led the French Revolution (Need more info)

Politiques

those in a position of power who put the success and well-being of their state above all else. King Henry IV was an example of a politique because he reconverted to Catholicism to unite France. Elizabeth I is also an example because she reinstituted Anglicanism, but did not punish people for their private beliefs.