1. French Revolution Timeline

2. National Assembly (1789-1791) Also called the Constituent Assembly
August 4th, 1789: voted to abolish feudal rights and all fiscal privileges of nobles, clergy, and provinces.
August 26th, 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
“The natural and imprescriptible rights of man to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”
Abolished tax exemptions, equal rights for all men, and office based on talent.
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen
October 5th, 1789: Women’s March on Versailles
July 1790: Civil Constitution of the Clergy

3. National Assembly ( )
1791: National Assembly completes new constitution
Established limited constitutional monarchy
Legislative Assembly
Could review powers granted to the king
Sat for two years and consisted of 745 reps chose by more or less an electoral college
Only “active citizens” could vote (men over 25 that paid taxes equivalent to 3 days unskilled labor)
“Active citizens” voted for electors (men who paid taxes = to 10 days unskilled labor)
50,000 electors chose the reps
Instituted vast bureaucracy run by elected councils and officials
Problems:
Pretty much the work of wealthy bourgeoisie
Angered clerics
Angered lower classes and peasants (rise in the cost of living)
Angered political clubs offering more radical solutions

4. Legislative Assembly October 1791: Holds first session
Most reps were men of property (lawyers)
Like the National Assembly, Louis attempted to work with the new Assembly.
August 27th, 1791: Austria and Prussia invite all of Europe to invade France and restore the monarchy
April 20th, 1792: Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
Reactionaries thought it would settle the revolution. A defeat might reinstate the old regime
Leftists hoped it would export the revolution throughout all of Europe

5. The war
Early defeats, economic strife, and fears of an Austrian invasion reignited the revolutionary spirit
August 1792: Radical Paris political groups attacked the palace and the Assembly and forced them to suspend the monarchy
Called for universal male suffrage to elect a new government
Power now in the hands of the Paris Commune
Mostly those who called themselves sans-culottes
Fall 1792: Mass executions of believed traitors and prisoners
September 1792: National Convention holds its 1st session as governing body of France
Mostly property owners, distrustful of the king
First step was to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic

6. First French Republic Two Most Important Factions Girondins
Represented the provinces
feared the radical mobs
Leaned towards keeping the king alive
The Mountain
Represented Paris, power from the radical sections of the city
Won out when the National Convention tried the king and found him guilty – he was sentenced to death
January 21, 1793: Louis XVI executed
Served only to exacerbate the factional disputes between the Girondins and the Mountain
Paris Commune put pressure on the National Convention towards more radical positions

7. Domestic & Foreign Crisis
June 1793: Paris Commune invades the National Convention and begins arresting and executing leading Girondins
Power now falls to the Mountain
Counter-revolutionary sentiment in by peasants (Vendee Rebellion)
Marseilles and Lyons joined
Early 1793: After the regicide of Louis XVI, most of Europe aligns against France in an informal coalition
National Convention gives broad powers to an executive committee, the Committee of Public Safety
Georges Danton & Maximilian Robespierre are 2 of the 12 prominent members
1st order of business for the Committee is to prepare France to defend itself

8. A Nation in Arms
August 23, 1793: The Committee decrees a universal mobilization of the nation.
In only a year the French revolutionary gov’t had an army of over a million
The largest Europe had ever seen
It begins pushing the allied forces back across the Rhine
The making of modern nationalism occurs at this point in the French Revolution
Why do you think the French revolutionary army was so successful?

9. The Committee and the reign of terror
Why would the new war lead the revolutionary government to engage in something like the reign of terror?
Courts are convened to try “enemies of the revolution.”
Royalists
Girondins
Thousands of peasants
Olympe de Gouges (oh-LAMP duh GOOZH)
Most executions took place in the Vendee, Lyons, and Marseilles
All places where open revolt against the National Convention had been taking place.
The radical revolution also affected women adversely
Society for Revolutionary Republican Women

10. Reaction and the Directory
July 28, 1794: Robespierre is executed
What has the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety accomplished?
Created a nation in arms
Preserved the Revolution
Prevented it from being destroyed by foreign invasion
Saved the Revolution from counter-revolution
Thermidorean Reaction
National Convention beings to quell the power of the Committee
Jacobin Clubs were shut down
Churched were allowed to reopen
Laissez-faire policies instituted
August 1795: New constitution reflecting the more conservative values of the reaction

11. Constitution of 1795 National Legislative Assembly (bicameral):
Council of 500 (Lower House)
Initiate legislation
Council of Elders (upper house of 250)
Ratified or vetoed legislation
More stringent property qualifications put on voting
Electors
All males over 21 who paid taxes
The Directory
Five directors elected by the Council of Elders from a list compiled by the Council of the 500
The aristocratic nature of the new constitution caused insurrections in Paris
The Directory used the military to put down the Parisian mobs under the generalship of Napoleon Bonaparte

12. The Age of Napoleon
Which aspects of the French Revolution did Napoleon preserve, and which did he destroy?
Freedom
Equality
Fraternity
1799: Coup that brought an end to the Directory
Power now rested in the hands of three consuls, much like the Roman Triumvirates.
Though “the decision of the First Consul shall suffice.”
1802: Napoleon named consul for life
1804: Napoleon crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I, return France to a monarchy.

13. Domestic Policies of Napoleon
The Catholic Church
Concordat: an agreement or treaty, especially one between the Vatican and a secular government relating to matters of mutual interest.
1801: Napoleon signs a concordat with Pope Pius VII
Church can depose French bishops; France could nominate bishops
Church could hold processions and reopen seminaries
Pope agreed not to raise the issue of confiscated Church lands
All clergy would be paid by the state
Catholics and Protestants
Catholicism is not reestablished as the religion of the state

14. Domestic Policies of Napoleon
Laws in France
Never a uniform set of laws
Attempts were made during the Revolution, but never lasted because of the political turmoil
Napoleon and the Law
Civil Code: known as the Code Napoleon, preserved most of the gains from the Revolution
Recognized the principle of equality before the law
The right of individuals to choose their professions
Religious toleration
Abolition of serfdom and feudalism
Property rights were protected
Outlawed strikes and unions

15. Domestic Policies of Napoleon
Napoleon and the Law
Undid most of the gains of equality of gender from the Revolution
Put almost of the power back into the hands of the father, seen as the head of the household.
Specifically divorce
Bureaucracy
Kept the department system, but replaced the elected assemblies with appointed prefects
Responsible for supervising all aspects of the local governments
Tax collection became more efficient
No tax exemptions for any reason (birth, status, or special arrangement)
Crated a new aristocracy based on merit and service to the state