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Unit Five
Western Civilization
ABSOLUTISM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION2
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
1. GROWTH OF THE NATION-STATE: How has the rise of the Nation as a political,
economic, social and cultural institution influenced world events?
2. WARFARE: How has the nature of War and Peace impacted world history?
3. SOCIAL ADVANCEMENTS: How has the growth and evolution of Social Classes
influenced world civilization
4. THE ARTS: How do the Arts reflect the evolution of Western culture?
5. HISTORIOGRAPHY: How has the time influenced the changing views of History?
OVERVIEW:
The French Revolution is one of the most written about events in world history. From the beginning the French Revolution has captured the minds of many a student of western civilization. This is largely due to the events and personalities of the revolution. But it also is due to its importance. It has become the social revolution of western civilization, the prototypical revolution; the revolution all others use as a comparison. Its great principles, expressed in it slogan, “liberty, equality and fraternity” continue to dominate our political, economic and social conversations to this date.
Most historians have divided the revolution into three time periods. The first lasted from 1789 to 1792. It was the first stage and is often called the liberal or moderate stage of the French Revolution. It begins with the calling of the Estates General, includes the storming of the Bastille and takes in many of the most famous events like the “Tennis Court Oath.” Included in this first stage would be the causes of the French Revolution and we shall explore those causes. A number of historians have referred to it as the Constitutional Monarchy stage because of the apparent willingness of Louis XVI to work with the revolutionary forces. The second stage is often called the radical or violent phase. The most common name for this stage is “The Terror.” Some historians have called it the Jacobean Commonwealth because the major political group, the Jacobins, dominated this period as they pushed for their political agenda. This stage goes from 1792 to 1795. The third stage also has been given many names. It starts with the removal and death of Robespierre in 1795 and ends with the rise of Napoleon. Some have called it the Directory stage from of the governmental structure that controlled France from 1795 to 1799..
But this unit contains more than the events of the immediate revolution. The role of Louis XIV and the monarchy are very integral to this unit. Louis is considered one of the best examples of a divine right or absolutist king. In this capacity he marks the end of the system of kingship we have been investigating since our discussions of Hugh Capet as a Germanic Monarch. Therefore we shall take some time to see what made Louis such a great example of this absolutist style of monarchy. The Baroque art period is contemporary to Louis’s reign. Louis saw this style as glorifying his person and reign. In the minds of many art critics the Baroque era is the period of the Absolutist kings. We will identify key elements of the style and the student will be expected to identify the style in paintings, sculpture and buildings.
The Enlightenment heralds the revolution and by most accounts was considered a major cause of the revolution. It is important to this unit because it contains many potentially democratic ideas, which influenced the French Revolution. The thinking of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Locke, to mention just a few, would come to influence this time period, and the revolutions to follow.
Finally Napoleon, his rise and fall, will also be a part of this unit. Some historians have included it as a fourth stage to the French Revolution, some historians as a separate part of the period. Whatever we decide on this issue, we will look at how and why he came to power, some of his key battles, and his legacy.
Here are some content questions to consider:
CONTENT QUESTIONS:
1. How did the Baroque art period reflect the world of Louis XIV?
2. Was Louis XIV an absolutist monarch?
3. What were the major characteristics and thinkers of the Enlightenment?
4. What were the major causes of the French Revolution?
5. What were the goals and the results of the three stages of the French Revolution?
6. What accounts for the rise of Napoleon?
7. Was Napoleon a child of the Revolution or an opportunist?
KEY TERMS:
Divine Right of Kings Bastille
Baroque Declaration of the Rights of Man
Estates General Girondins
Reign of Terror Robespierre
Napoleon Code Napoleon
Continental System Louis XIV
Waterloo Jacobins
Enlightenment Louis XVI
Directory Tennis Court Oath
Battle of Trafalgar J. S. Bach
“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” Colbert
Versailles Inductive method
Philosophes First, Second, and Third Estates
National Assembly Great Fear of 1789
“Night of August 4” Constitution of 1791
Olympe de Gourges Brunswick Manifesto
Sans-culottes Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Constitution of 1793 “Thermidorian Reaction”
Constitution of 1795 Coup d’etat Brumaire
Code Napoleon Concordat of 1801
Peninsula War Confederation of the Rhine
”Orders of Council” 1807 Hundred Days
Mercantilism “Cogito ergo sum”
Voltaire Rousseau
Locke Montesquieu
Reign of Terror Committee of Public Safety
Third Estate Declaration of Rights of Woman
Plebiscite Egyptian Campaign
Tromp L’ oeil Chiaroscuro
Encyclopedia” Sun King
War of the Spanish Succession Ancient Regime
Alphonse Aulard Constitutional Monarchy
Jacobin Commonwealth Levee en Mass
Universal Manhood suffrage Thermidorian Reaction
Austerlitz Italian Campaign
Deism Frederick William I
Historiography Rococo
TIME LINE:
1609 Galileo begins his telescope observations
1643 Louis XIV becomes king at the age of five
1643 Cardinal Mazarin is chief minister to king
1661 Louis declares himself first minister
1661 Louis begins rebuilding Palace of Versailles
1662 Jean Baptiste Colbert serves as Louis, finance minister
1685 Edict of Nantes revoked
1687 Newton publishes Principia Mathematica
1690 Locke's greatest work, Two Treatises of Government
1702-1715 War of the Spanish Succession
1715 Louis XIV dies
1748 Montesquieu publishes Spirit of the Laws
1751-80 Diderot put together the Encyclopedia
1769 Napoleon Bonaparte is born on the island of Corsica
1774 Louis XVI becomes King of France
1784 Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment
1789, January Abbe Sieyes publishes What Is the Third Estate?
1789, January King summons Estates General
1789, May First session of Estates General
1789, June Riots in Paris
1789, June 17 Third Estate assumes title of National Assembly
1789, June 20 “Tennis Court” Oath
1789, July 14 Fall of Bastille
1789, August 4 National Assembly declares an end to Feudalism
1789, August 27 National Assembly adopts Declaration of the Rights Man and the Citizen
1789, October 5 Parisians march on Versailles and force king to Paris
1789, November 2 Assembly votes to expropriate Church property
1790, July 12 Assembly passes Civil Constitution of the Clergy
1791, March 10 Pope Pius VI condemns some of the acts of the revolution
1791, June 14 Le Chapelier Law prohibits labor unions and strikes
1791, June 20 King flees to Varennes
1791, September 18 Jews are emancipated and granted full citizenship
1791, September 30 National Assembly adjourns
1791, October 1 Legislative Assembly meets
1792, February 7 Austria and Prussia declare against France
1792, April 20 France declares war on Austria
1792, July 25 Brunswick Manifesto warns Parisians not to disobey Louis XVI
1792, August 10 Palace of Tuilereies is invaded. Louis suspended and imprisoned
1792, September 20 France defeats Prussia at the battle of Valmy
1792, September 22 Convention decrees abolition of the Monarchy
1793, January 21 Louis XVI executed
1793, April 6 Committee of Public Safety created
1793-1794 Reign of Terror
1793, October 16 Queen Marie Antoinette executed
1794, February 4 Slavery is abolished in French colonies
1794, July 27 Robespiere arrested and then guillotined
1795-1799 Directory
1796 Napoleon takes charge of the Army of Italy
1798 Napoleon lands his army in Egypt
1799 Napoleon's coup d'etat Brumaire
1802 Plebiscite declares Napoleon First Consul for life
1804 Napoleon becomes Emperor
1806-1812 Napoleon's Empire at its height
1812 Napoleon invades Russia
1814 Napoleon exiled to Elba
1815 Battle of Waterloo
1821 Napoleon dies on St. Helena
SOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:
A. Bibliography:
Anchor, Robert. The Enlightenment Tradition. (1967).
Brinton, Crane. Anatomy of Revolution. (1957).
Erickson, Carolly. To the Scaffold: the Life of Marie Antoinette. (1991).
Forrest, Alan. The French Revolution. (1992).
Furet, F. and M. Ouzouf. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (tr. A. Goldhammer, 1989).
Godechot, J. The Taking of the Bastille. Trans. Jean Stewart. (1970).
Gough, H. The Terror in the French Revolution. (1998).
Graham, Ruth. "Loaves and Liberty: Women in the French Revolution," in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, ed. Bridenthan and Koonz. (1979).
Hardman, John. Louis XVI. (1993).
Hibbert, Christopher. The Days of the French Revolution. (1981).
Hill, Christopher. The Century of Revolution. (1980).
Hobsbawm, E.J. The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848. (1962).
Jones, P. The Peasantry in the French Revolution. (1988).
Jones, P.M. The French Revolution in Social and Political Perspective. (1996)
Kennedy, Emmet. Cultural History of the French Revolution. (1989).
Landes, J. Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution. (1988).
Lefebvre, Georges. The Coming of the French Revolution. (1947).
Lewis, G. The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate. (1993)
Loomis, Stanley. Paris in the Terror. (1964).
Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled. (1958).
Porter, Roy The Enlightenment. (2001).
Rude, George. Revolutionary Europe: 1783-1815. (1966).
Schama, Simon. Citizens. (1989).
Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. (1997).
Schroeder, P. The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848. (1994).
Stewart, J. H. ed. A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution. (1951).
Thompson, J. M. The French Revolution. (2nd Ed, 1966).
Yalom, Marilyn. Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory. (1993).
B. Web Sites:
The French Revolution - www.lkwdpl.org/lhs/ french revolution/
French Revolution – http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/ancien_regime.html
Many documents - http://history.hanover.edu/modern/frenchrv.htm
French Revolution – http://userwww.port.ac.uk/andressd/frlinks.htm
Napoleon - http://userwww.port.ac.uk/andressd/frlinks.htm
Napoleon - http://napoleonic-literature.com/AgeOfNapoleon/Bibliography/BibMenu.html
Robespierre and the French Rev - http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/french/french.html
The Terror - http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/rev892.html
The Enlightenment - http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/enlightenment.html
The Enlightenment - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook10.html
Web Gallery of Art- Baroque –
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/b/bernini/gianlore/biograph.html