French Revolution

1789-1815
I. Why revolution?
A. poverty and suffering
1. 1/3 in poverty
2. 25,000 prostitutes
3. marriage not an option-men not able to support women
4. no jobs
B. taxation
1. unfairly distributed
2. growing middle class
   work hard, $ to government
3. clergy and nobles, no money
C. military wasn’t strong
D. corruption within the church
1. church provided education
2. church provided medical care
3. bishops, etc. in church for money
E. no Congress or Parliament
1. Estates General
   clergy
   nobles
   commons
   a. give proposals to king
   b. E. General hadn’t met for over 100 years
    i. absolute monarchs didn’t need it
2. people had no means of peacefully questioning laws, etc.
F. Louis XVI
1. indecisive
2. convinced on time that tax was unfair
3. raise expectations, then disappoint people
   a. worst thing possible to do
II. Start of the Revolution
A. grain price increase
B. Louis calls Estates General
1. doubling of the third for commons
2. made no decision
   (E.G. accomplished nothing)
3. commons left E. General
   a. formed National Assembly
   b. called themselves representatives
4. people of Paris want to protect Assembly
   a. Paris mob goes to Bastille to get arms to protect Assembly
   b. people decides to break up mob-start shooting
   c. mob kills all the people and arm themselves
   d. army not called in
C. Louis treats National Assembly as a governing body
1. gets rid of clergy and nobles tax exemption
2. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
   a. basic freedoms
3. new constitution from Assembly
   a. no absolute monarchy
   b. improvements in church
   c. confiscate church land and put under Assembly control
   d. opponents imprisoned
4. nobles dissatisfied and left France
   a. went to other countries and told them it would spread
5. clergy unhappy
6. king unhappy
   a. leaves country—but caught
7. commons unhappy
   a. more inflation
D. 1792-1794 Convention takes over
1. set up Republic of Virtue
   a. Rousseau’s ideas
2. leader was Robespierre
   a. told people their task was to purify the earth
    no limit to purification
    i. get rid of monarchy
    ii. arts-everything to support revolution
    iii. entertainment
     a. king and queen taken out of cards
    iv. religion-dechristianization of France
     a. need new religion
     b. temples of reason
     c. contemplation of nature
3. Bourdaux and Lyon in Southern France opposed Convention
4. Convention’s “improvements” included
   a. civil war
    i. civilian populations massacred
    ii. use of terror to accept values
    iii. bring about a goof society, then result is justified
5. purification of the earth
   a. embrace values in France
   b. improve army (universal conscription)
    i. liberty, equality, and fraternity
   c. create committee of public safety
    i. seek and destroy enemies of the revolution
   d. reasonable and human way of killing
    i. Guillotine
     a. scary
     b. 22,000 killed in Paris alone
    ii. Reign of Terror
     a. scary death means
     b. peasants and laborers killed
      loyal to Bourbons
      loyal to National Assembly
      loyal to Christian faith
     c. create an artificial hysteria
     d. everyone “agrees” so must be right
   e. Robespierre has Danton and Hebert executed
    i. both supporters of revolution
   f. Robespierre gotten rid of
What to do now???
   g. Convention votes itself out of existence
E. Directory (1794-1799)
1. values of National Assembly
2. new constitution
3. five man board of directors
4. Reign of Terror ended
5. wars decrease
6. France in chaos, though
   a. horrible inflation
   b. not enough competent rulers
7. appoints 3 men (consul)-works too well
   a. Napoleon (1 of the 3)(power to deal with emergencies)
    i. deals well with Directory
    ii. solves civil war
     a. makes peace-well treated
    iii. good military commander
    iv. asks for more power to do even more
    v. reorganizes government
    vi. education developed
    vii. reconciliation with Catholic Church
     a. religious toleration
    viii. Code Napoleon
     a. all law covered
     b. very brief
    xiv. spread values to the rest of Europe
     a. develops army
     (absolute power corrupts absolutely)
    x. declares himself emperor
     a. puts relatives on thrones in other countries
     b. conquerors, not liberators
    xi. wants to secure empire-defeat England and Russia
    xii. invades Russia to Moscow
     a. 600,000 get to Moscow
     b. army does poorly in winter
     c. defeated
     d. tried again and defeated
     e. tried 3rd time
      1. lost Battle of Waterloo 1815
      2. exiled
8. government needed again
9. Bourbons only thing that worked
   a. Louis XVIII
   b. back to where they started
III. Art, literature and music of the revolution
A. David
1. paintings: The Oath of the Horatii
2. The Death of Socrates
3. Rococo Age over
   a. democratize art world
   b. free, independent view of the artist
4. associate of Robespierre
5. designed statues, etc. in neo-Classic style
B. Marat
1. journalist
2. assassinated by Charlotte Cordet, enemy of Convention
3. modern martyr
4. sent to prison after Convention
C. Beethoven
1. Viennese pianist and composer
2. tribute to ideals of Enlightenment
3. loses hearing
4. Napoleon in his mind
   a. suggests great forces and changing points
5. 9th symphony-1824
   a. added voices singing Schiller’s Ode to Joy
D. Goya
1. painter
2. earthy, human quality in early works
3. deaf
4. austere style
   a. bitter view of society
   b. vanity
   c. invents creatures
5. Napoleon into Spain in 1807
   a. chronicled fighting 1808-1814
6. famous work The Colssus
   a. giant
   b. Ferdinand VII of Spain
7. retired in 1817
   a. decorated rooms with strange paintings
   b. terrifying inner life
8. moved to France in 1824