Tema 2: French Revolution and Napoleonic Era Flashcards
What were the causes of the French Revolution?
- Economic crisis: bad harvest, increase in food prices.
- Financial crisis: increase in the State debt due to constant wars (Seven years and money waste at the court.)
- Discontent of bourgeois.
- Influence of Enlightenment: all the subjects were free before the law.
- Sieyès’ Pamphlet: “What is the Third State”
What demanded the Third Estate to the Estates-General?
The double representation
Voting per head
Why the Third Estate demanded the double representation?
Because they were the 98% of population
What said the “Cahiers de doléance”?
- All the taxes should be paid by each one of the Estates
- One single law for the whole Kingdom
- Abolition of taxes on trade inside France.
What did the king with the Estates-General?
He closed it
Date of the Tennis Court Oath
20th June 1789
Date of the Estates-General
5th May 1789
What formed the people that was in the Tennis Court?
The National Assembly
What said the National Assembly?
They declared the legitimate representatives of the nation and promised to stay there until France had a Constitution.
Date of the National Assembly’s Constitution
9th July 1789
Date of the Storming of the Bastille
14th July 1789
What happened during the storming of the Bastille?
The people of Paris attacked the Prison of the Bastille, symbol of absolutism.
Date of the Great Fear
20th July-6th August 1789
What happened during the Great Fear?
Many peasants attacked castles and manors and destroyed the property titles of the lands in the countryside.
Which decrees were approved in August 1789?
- The abolition of Feudalism
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Date of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
26th August 1789
What was abolished along with feudalism?
Manorial rights, the tithe, servitude, and estates
What said the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?
Inalienable rights, equality before the law, national sovereignty, separation of powers, etc.
Date of the Women’s March to Versailles
5th-6th October 1789
What happened in the Women’s March to Versailles?
A demonstration of thousands of women headed to Versailles to protest against the high prices of the staples. Once there, the people demanded that the royal family returned to Paris and signed the Declaration.
Why the king signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen?
Because he was afraid of the reaction of the citizens.
Where the National Assembly was settled down after the Women’s March?
In Paris
What were the main decisions of the National Constituent Assembly
- Nationalization of the properties of the clergy
- Civil Constitution of the Clergy
- Suppression of religious orders and hereditary nobility.
- Abolition of guilds
- Abolition of torture.
Who were “les émigres”?
They were the conservative members of the assembly who emigrated from France to save themselves from the Revolution.
What said the 1791 Constitution?
- Constitutional Monarchy (monarch’s power was limited).
- Division of powers.
- Census suffrage: active citizens, with right to vote, and passive citizens, without right to vote.
- Veto power for the king.
Date of the Flight to Varennes
20th June 1791
Why Louis XVI tried to flee to Austria?
Because he didn´t like what the Constituent Assembly was doing
Where Louis XVI was caught?
In Varennes
Date of approval of the Constitution of 1791
30th September 1791
Who were the Feuillants?
They were the people that were in favor of a constitutional monarchy
Who were the Girondist?
They were the people that were in favor of a moderate republic.
Who were the Jacobins?
They were the people that were in favor of a radical republic.
Who were the Sans-Culottes?
They were the groups of workers who supported the most radical reforms and wore pantaloons.
Why did the Sans-Culottes storm the Tuleries Palace?
Because Louis XVI was conspiring against the assembly.
How did Louis XVI conspire against the assembly?
The king used his veto power to stop the reforms.
The king contacted other absolute monarchs to recover his power and end the revolution.
When was war declared against Austria?
In april 1792
When was the Louis XVI conspiracy discovered?
10th August 1792
What happened in the Storming to the Tuleries Palace?
The people arrested the royal family and suspended the King’s power.
Who was in charge of the government in the Democratic Republic?
Provisional executive council
What is the new assembly elected in 1792?
The Convention
When is the Convention elected?
19th September 1792
What are the September Massacres?
Fearing a foreign invasion of France, more than 1,000 monarchists and suspected counter-revolutionaries were executed
How the Reign of Terror began?
With the September Massacres
Date of the battle of Valmy
20th September 1792
What happened in the battle of Valmy?
The French revolutionary army stopped the attempt of invasion by defeating the Prussian army.
When was the first French Republic proclaimed?
21th September 1792
What was the purpose of the Convention?
Writing a new Constitution with Universal Suffrage
Date of the Girondist Convention
September 1792-June 1793
What were the problems of the Girondist Convention?
- Royalist rebellion in the Vendée region.
- Trial of Louis XVI. He was accused of treason and sentenced to die executed by the guillotine.
- Food shortages
What is the revolt of Vendée?
A peasant, anti-revolutionary, monarchist and Catholic insurrection in the Vendée region caused by famine and an uprising in Brittany
Who led the Jacobins?
Robespierre
Why are the Girondins losing influence?
By accumulation of defeats
Date of the Committee of Public Safety
April 1793
Date of the Death of Louis XVI
21st January 1793
To whom did power pass after the Girondists?
To the Jacobins
What decisions did the Jacobins make to help the poor?
- Total abolition of the feudal system
- Distribution of large estates
- Establishment of a minimum wage
- Equalization of fortunes by means of taxes
- Exemplary punishments for speculators and hoarders.
- Law of the general maximum
- Free and compulsory primary education
- New Constitution
- Cult of Reason
- Revolutionary calendar.
Date of the 1793 Constitution
24th June 1793
What happened in the Reign of Terror?
Liberties and Constitutional gurantees were suspended and the Suspect Law was established.
How many people died during the Reign of Terror?
16.000 “counter-revolucionaries”, including Danton and Desmoulins
What invention was responsible for the execution of all the counter-revolutionary people?
The guillotine
Date of the Suspect Law
27th September 1793
What is the Thermidorian reaction?
It is when a group of deputies from the Plains staged a coup d’état and ordered the arrest of the Jacobins and their leaders were executed.
Who led the group that carried out the coup d’état against the Jacobins?
Fouché, Tallien y Barras
Date of the directory
1795-1799
Date of the death of Marie Antoinette
16th October 1793
What regime did the Constitution of 1795 establish?
- Directory
- 2 chambers
- Universal suffrage
Who were the members of the Directory?
La Reveillère, Carnot, Le Tourneur, Rebwell and Barras
What were the two chambers?
Council of Five Hundred and Council of Elders
What were the problems of the Directory?
- Failed coups d’État of the Absolutist
- Popular protests
- War against European monarchies
- Inflation (Economic crisis)
- Corruption of Barras
When was the Napoleon’s coupe d’État?
18th Brumaire 1799
What happened in the Napoleon’s coupe d’État?
With the excuse of a threat of Jacobin revolt, Bonaparte was put in charge of the deputies’ security. Three of the directors resigned and the deputies, intimidated by the troops, voted to dissolve the Directory and form a new three-member government: the Consulate.
What did the Consulate?
- New Constitution
- Restablishment of Public Order
- Concordate with the Pope
- Administrative reforms (Bank of France)
- Napoleonic code
When was Napoleon crowned emperor?
2nd December 1804
Examples of territories conquered during the Convention Wars
Savoy, Nice, Belgium and the Rhineland
Examples of territories conquered by Napoleon
Bavarian Republic, Cisalpine Republic, Ligurian Republic, Illyrian Provinces
Examples of states controlled by Napoleon
Spain, Naples and Italy
What did Napoleon do in the states controlled by him?
Placed members of his family as governors
States that Napoleon failed to subdue
Great Britain and Portugal
What is Continental Blockade against Great Britain
Is the prohibition for European states to maintain commercial relations with Great Britain.
Why Napoleon instaured the Continental Blockade against Great Britain?
Because it was impossible to defeat Great Britain at sea.
Date of the Continental Blockade against Great Britain
1806
How did Napoleon punish Portugal for breaking the blockade?
Conquering Portugal
Why Napoleón couldn’t conquer Russia?
Because the extreme cold and the Scorched-Earth tactics
What happened in the Battle of Leipzig?
Napoleon was defeated by the coalition formed by Russia, Austria and Sweden, and he was banished to the Island of Elba
Date of the Battle of Leipzig
16-19 October 1813
Who replaced Napoleon?
Louis XVIII
What is the 100-day Empire?
This is when Napoleon returned to the throne of France.
Date of the 100-day Empire
20th March 1815-22th June
What happened in the Battle of Waterloo?
Napoleon tried to conquered the Low Countries because the seventh coalition was there, but he was defeated by a coalition of British, Dutch and Prussians, led by the Duke of Wellington
Where was Napoleon banished after the Battle of Waterloo?
To Santa Helena
What is the legacy of the French Revolution?
- It served as a precedent for all subsequent social revolutions, from the Russian revolutions of 1917 to the labor and trade union movements.
- The ideas of the revolution will be essential ideas in today’s society. These ideas will be applied in the different Constitutions, such as the Spanish Constitution of 1812 or the American Constitution.
- These ideas also affected the social level through the use of reason
Who were the ministers of Charles IV?
The count of Aranda and the count of Floridablanca
Who was Manuel de Godoy?
The minister of Charles IV and the father of his 14 children
Why Godoy signed an alliance with France?
To combat Great Britain
What happened at Trafalgar?
France and Spain were defeated by the Great Britanin’s army
What happened at Trafalgar?
France and Spain were defeated by the Great Britanin’s army
Date of the Battle of Trafalgar
21st October 1805
What happened when the French troops started to entering to Spain?
They occupied strategic cities
Date of the Mutiny of Aranjuez
18th March 1808
What happened in the Aranjuez Riot?
The people, led by Ferdinand, stormed the Royal Palace. Godoy was arrested and Charles IV abdicated in his son Ferdinand
Date of the Beggining of the Independence War
2nd May 1808
What happened 2nd May 1808?
The royal family were going out the Royal Palace escorted by the French, so, the citizens think that the French were abducting the kings and a revolt started.
Date of the Abdications of Bayonne
5th May 1808
What happened in the Abdications of Bayonne?
Ferdinand gave the crown to his father and he gave it to Napoleon, that gave it to his brother Joseph
What happened in the First Stage of the Spanish War of Independence?
- The Spanish army wasn’t prepared to fight France
- Victory in Bailén
Date of Victory in Bailén
19th July 1808
Where the Napoleon troops retired?
To the Ebro valley
What happened in the Second Stage
- Napoleon occupied all Spain except Cádiz
- Guerrilla
Date of the First Stage of the Spanish War of Independence
May-November 1808
Date of the Second Stage of the Spanish War of Independence
November 1808-July 1812
What is the Guerrilla tactic?
It is a constant harassment by the enemy, which is superior in numbers and better equipped.
Examples of groups of Guerrilla
El Empecinado and Espoz y Mina
What was the objetive of the Guerrilla?
Discouraging the enemy, in this case the French
Date of the Third Stage of the Spanish War of Independence
July 1812-December 1813
What happened in the Third Stage of the Spanish War of Independence?
- Napoleon retired his troops to the Russian Campaign
- The British invaded Spain to defeat Napoleon
What were the Francophiles?
They are the people that support the French Ideas
Examples of Francophiles
De Moratín y Valdés
Who controlled the rebel government?
The Supreme Central Board
Date of the La Pepa
19th March 1812
What established The Constitution of 1812?
- National Sovereignity
- Division of powers
- Wide declaration of rights
- Indirect universal male suffrage
- The Catholicism such as the only religion allowed in Spain
- Veto power for the king
Date of the Treaty of Valençay
8th December 1813
What is the Treaty of Valençay?
It is the treaty in which Napoleon returned the crown of Spain to Ferdinand VII and promised to withdraw French troops from Spain on the condition of respecting the Francophiles.
What were the consequences of the Peninsular War?
- Abandoned agriculture
- Cities and industries destroyed
- Almost a million people killed in the war.
- The return of absolutism
