French Revolution and Napoleon Flashcards
What is the Estates-General
Definition: Legislative body made up of representatives of three estates in pre-revolutionary France
Estates:
1st Estate: Clergy [Wealth and Privileges]
2nd: Nobles [Held Government Jobs]
3rd: Majority of Population [Diverse Social Class]
Significance: The wealthy and powerful classes demanded that the king summon the Estates General, before making any changes.
The king,however, had not called the Estates General for hundreds of years fearing that the nobles would use it to recover the feudal powers that they had lost under absolute rule
Why was the king fearful to call the Estates-General
The king feared that the nobles would use it as a way to recover the feudal powers that they had lost under absolute rule.
Nobles wanted to bring the absolute monarch under the control of the nobles and guarantee their own privileges
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Bourgeoisie
Definition: Middle Class
Significance: Included prosperous bankers, merchants, dentists, doctors, lawyers, professors and manufacturers
Could buy political office and even titles
What is the Third Estate
Definition: The most diverse social class,
Ranking
Bourgeoisie: Middle Class
Rural Peasants: Landowners
Urban Workers: Apprentices, Journeymen
Servants & Street Sellers
Who is Jacques Necker
Definition: A financial expert and an advisor to Louis XVI
Significance: Urged king to abolish tariff on internal trade, reform government, and taxing the First and Second Estates; however, the nobles and high clergy quickly dismissed it
Great Fear
Definition: Rumors spreading about that the government troops seizing peasant crops
Significance: The peasants unleashed their fury on nobles who were trying to reimpose medieval acts, and so the the peasants responded to this by setting fire to old manor records and stole grain from storehouses.
National Assembly
Delegates of the Third Estates claiming to represent the people of France
Swore their famous Tennis Court Oath
“Never to separate and to meet wherever the circumstances might require until
we have established a sound and just constitution.”
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Modeled in part of the American Declaration of Independence
Were given natural rights to: liberty,property, security, and resistance to oppression
Rights
- Natural rights of citizens
- All male citizens were equal before the law
- Freedom of religion
*Many women were disapointed that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen did not grant equal citizenship to them
Reign of Terror
Definition: Time period during the French Revolution, when people in France were arrested for not supporting the revolution and many were executed
Significance: Those who did not support the Republic were executed by the Guillotine [Symbol of the Reign of Terror]
National Convention
A legislative body that was a much more radical bodies than earlier assemblies
Voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic
New Constitution
Jacobins controlled the National Convention [Member of a radical political club]
-Abolished titles of nobility
Creates the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
12 member Committee that had almost absolute power
Prepared France for war; Issued leve’e en masse (tax) that required all citizens to contribute to the war effort
The Concordat
Definition: Made peace with the Catholic Church in the Concordat of 1801
Significance: Kept the Church under state control but recognized religious freedom for Catholics
Napoleon’s Grand Empire
Created a vast French Empire, he annexed: Netherlands, Belgium, and part of Italy and Germany
Napoleon controlled much of Europe using forceful democracy, by placing friends and relatives in thrones of Europe
Spain
-He placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne
Continental System
Definition: Blockade designed by Napoleon to hurt Britain economically by closing European ports to British goods.
Significance: During their war both Britain and France seized neutral ships suspected of trading with the other side
Hundred Days
Definition: A reform initiated by the emperor, Guang Xu
Significance: New laws set out to modernize the civil service exams and encourage new industries.
Affected
- Schools
- Military
- Bureaucracy
Conservatives however soon rallied against the reform effort and the emperor was imprisoned
