French Revolution Stages and Napoleonic Era

Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)

Political Parties

• Girondins
• Jacobins
• Sans-culottes

Opposition to New Government

• The royal family.
• Nobles who fled the revolution lived abroad as émigrés.
• Church officials wanted church lands, rights, and privileges restored.
• European monarchs feared the revolution would spread to their own countries.

Growing Radicalism

Reasons:

• Unsatisfied expectations.
• Outbreak of war (France was invaded by Austrian and Prussian troops).

Results:

• Popular insurrection.
• The Commune took control of Paris.
• Voters began electing representatives for a new Convention which would write a republican constitution for France.

Convention (1792–1795)

Actions and Conflicts

• Established the Republic.
• Abolished the monarchy and executed the King.
• Faced domestic opposition: Girondins vs. Jacobins.
• Faced opposition from abroad.

Change in Political Leadership

• Jacobins took power.
• Emergence of a government to deal with the external and internal challenges of the revolution.

Key Acts

• The Committee of Public Safety.
• Maximum price on certain goods.
• Reign of Terror.

Results

• Military successes.
• The Terror spiraled, consuming Jacobin leaders.
• Robespierre was executed.

Directory (1795–1799)

• The middle class was in control.
• The government ignored public opinion and managed to stay in power thanks to military successes and support.
• Finally, a general, Napoleon, rose to power.

Legacies of the French Revolution

• A revolutionary model.
• A new social system.
• Created the modern nation-state.

Napoleonic Period (1799–1815)

Napoleon's Rise to Power

• To save the revolution, he seized political control from the Directory.
• Napoleon quickly set up a dictatorship.

The Consulate (1799–1804)

• Restored order in France.
• Napoleon supported the ideas of the revolution.
• The Napoleonic Code.
• Centralized government and tax system.
• Established the Bank of France.
• Reconciliation with the Catholic Church.
• System of public schools.

Empire (1804–1815)

• Napoleon dominated Europe.
• The French Empire grew rapidly but fell apart more quickly.

Fall of Napoleon

Resulted from the interactions of these events:

• His inability to conquer Britain.
• Continental System against British goods.
• Peninsular War with Spain.
• Invasion of Russia.

Defeat

Napoleon's army was finally defeated in the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).

Legacy

For:

• Napoleon's power made conquered people more conscious of their own national loyalty (nationalism).
• The Code Napoleon swept away feudal property relations, and many states adopted constitutions.

Against:

• Oppressed conquered peoples and caused war across Europe.