French Revolution Flashcards
5 causes of French Revolution
- Financial Issues: Who pays?
- Weak Leaders: who rules?
- Enlightenment Ideas: Who teaches?
- Storming the Bastille
- War for independence in America
Financial Issues: Who pays? (4)
- broken up into 3 estates
- first estate: clergy
- second estate: nobles
- third estate: (1) bourgeoisie, wealthy, (2) urban lower class, workers of the city, (3) peasant farmers, largest group in 3rd estate
First Estate (4)
- clergy
- highest officials of the catholic church
- wealthiest of 3 estates
- hated enlightenment ideas
Second Estate (2)
- nobles that owned 20% of the land and held highest government office
- mixed feelings about enlightenment ideas
Third Estate (7)
- divided into 3 groups: (1) bourgeoisie, wealthy, (2) urban lower class, workers of the city, (3) peasant farmers, largest group in 3rd estate
- politically the same, economically different
- embraced enlightenment ideas
- had no power to influence government
- 1/2 their income went to income taxes
- owed “corvee”: worked part of the year on a government project instead of getting paid
Weak Leaders: who rules? (8)
-Louis XVI + Marie Antionette ^deeply in debt from fighting great britain ^Marie Antionette spent excessively ^suggested a tax on nobles -Nobles refused to pay taxes ^food shortages+overcrowding -king called a meeting of the estates general ^1st time in over 100 years
Enlightenment Ideas: Who teaches? (8)
-Rousseau and Voltaire Ideas take hold
-Third Estate, heavily taxed, wanted change
^seized power as the National Assembly
^led by a clergyman named Abbe Sieyes
^outnumbered first and second estate
^voted to end absolute monarchy 576-1
^voted to have new constitution
^voted for more representative government
Storming the Bastille (7)
-July 14, 1789
-mobs forming in paris
^over high cost of bread, high taxes, and wasteful spending
-mobs wanted Bastille’s supply of gunpowder for defense against the king
-bastille becomes symbol of the act of revolution
-bastille day = 4th of july
-us response= neutrality
War for independence in America
us constitution signed
Signed contract w Pope Pius
political and personal gain, not religious
Policy known as continental system (6)
-blockade of great britain
-attempt to paralyze Great Britain’s trade
-why blockade failed
^smugglers
^Czar Alexander (of Prussia) continued to sell grain to britain
^britain captured, searched, and taxed french ships
Peninsula war (5)
- france vs spain
- louis XVI wants his brother to be king of spain
- Guerilla warfare thwarted Napoleon’s efforts
- British helps spanish
- Spanish nationalism grows to defeat napoleon
Napoleon used propaganda
proud that napoleon was style but little substance
Russian campaign (8)
-czar alexander refused to stop selling grain to britain
-czar alexander pulls back- uses scorched earth policy
^left napoleon’s army without any resources
-grand alliance forms: sweden, britain, prussia, & austria
-Battle of nations (leipzig)
^beginning of the end for napoleon
-generals refuse to fight and napoleon sent into exile to elba by alexander I
Escapes Elba (6)
-the hundred days: napoleon’s last big for powers
^forces Louis XVIII to flee
^”the devil himself has escaped”
-grand alliance assembles against napoleon
-last battle of waterloo
^defeated by british army led by the duke of wellington
Napoleon sent to st. helena
lived 5.5 more years in lonely exile
Congress of Vienna (2)
- members and representatives, five major powers: Austria, Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, France
- Klemens von Metternich of Austria created congress of vienna
Goals of Congress of Vienna (4)
- establish lasting peace and stability in Europe
- prevent future French aggression
- restore balance of power
- restore royal families to throne
Actions Taken by Congress of Vienna (4)
-deprive France of all territory conquered by Napoleon, without reparations
-affirmed principal of legitimacy
^france was restored under Louis XVIII
^spain was restored under ferdinand VII
Legacy of Congress of Vienna (6)
-short term: ^conservatives regain control of government ^triggered revolts in colonies -long term: ^peace in Europe for almost 40 years ^France weakened ^sparked the growth of nationalism ^Britain and Prussia become world powers
National Assembly makes changes (7)
-adopts: A declaration of rights of man and the citizen ^monarchy is limited ^peasant revolt in the countryside ^catholic church changed *lost land *lost political independence *government now controls the church
Split in national assembly (6)
-left side: radicals ^hated the king, wanted more change ^jacobin were the most violent -middle: moderates called centrists -right: conservative ^wanted to bring back the old regime
Influences outside national assembly (3)
-émigrés: nobles who fled but plotted against revolution
-sans-culottes: without knee breeches
^parisian workers and shopkeepers who wanted great change
Jacobin’s Robespierre (9)
-rules with Marat
-reign of terror
-committee on public safety
^decided who was an enemy of the republic
^had marie antionette executed first
-thermidorian reaction
^new constitution limited voting rights
^robepierre executed
-the directory is new government
Marat (3)
- friend of Robespierre and the Jacobin
- newspaper editor of “the friend of the people”
- murdered by a young Royalist-Charolette Corday: “I killed one to save thousands”
