World War and Republican France1791-1799

AP European History – Eastview High SchoolCh21 Section 4 – World War and Republican France, 1791-99 (McKay, et al., 8th ed.)

Essential Questions

Why does the Revolution take such a drastic turn from it’s original intention (liberty & equality)?

Who are the key figures of the Second Revolution and the Terror?

What are the causes and consequences of France’s wars with the European Coalitions?

Foreign Reactions and the Beginning of War

Edmund Burke published the classic critique of the French Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France, in 1790.

Q: What was Burke’s position concerning the French Revolution?

Foreign Reactions and the Beginning of War

Mary Wollstonecraft published her rebuttal, A Vindication of the Rights of Man in the same year.

Wollstonecraft and the French woman Olympe de Gouges argued that women should be included in the liberal ideal of equality.

The Radical Shift of the Revolution In the summer and fall of 1791 the

Revolution was radicalized by several events.

a) Louis XVI’s attempt to escape Franceb) Austria and Prussia’s declaration of readiness to intervene in France under certain conditions c) The election of a new Legislative Assembly under a new constitution

Q: What is the Declaration of Pilnitz and what is it’s effect on the Revolution?

France at War with Austria & Prussia

By the summer of 1792 France was at war with Austria and Prussia and the Legislative Assembly had removed Louis XVI from the throne.

The Second Revolution (1792)1. Members of the

newly elected National Convention declared France a Republic in September 1792.

2. Revolutionaries tried to create a new revolutionary French culture.

Q: Who were the Jacobins and what is their role in the Revolution?

The Jacobins Started as a

debating club/society; they held their meetings in the library of a former Jacobin monastery in Paris.

Membership was primarily composed of middle class lawyers and merchants and they created a vast network of clubs.

The Political Spectrum of France (1790)

1790s:1790s:

MontagnarMontagnardsds

(“The (“The Mountain”)Mountain”)

JacobinJacobinss

GirondistsGirondistsMonarchíeMonarchíe

nn(Royalists)(Royalists)

The PlainThe Plain(swing (swing votes)votes)

The Execution of Louis XVI

The Convention tried and executed Louis XVI on charges of treason.

The Execution of Marie Antoinette

The Radical Phase of the Revolution

The sans culottes, or working people of Paris, exercised a strong influence on the Convention.

Q: Who were the sans culottes and what is their role in the Revolution?

Contrasting Perspectives The two paintings represent the French and English

versions of sans culottes women. Can you identify which version is French and which is English?

Total War and The Terror Military defeats prompted the

revolutionary government, led by the Committee of Public Safety, to establish a primitive sort of centrally controlled economy, with fixed prices for bread, rationing, tight control of munitions industry, and other controls.

The Committee of Public Safety was created to speed up the work of the government during the crisis; the Committee was headed by Robespierre.

Revolutionary Tribunals in Paris

Purpose was to try suspected counter-revolutionaries; led by the Committee of General Security. Responsible for the pursuit

of counter-revolutionaries, the treatment of suspects, and other internal security matters.

The Terror aimed to crush all opponents of the Revolution. About 40,000 French were executed in the Terror and 300,000 suspects were arrested.

Key Characters of the Terror

Maximilien Robespierre, a member of the “Mountain” led the Committee of Public Safety and were given essentially dictatorial powers to deal with the “national emergency.”

Key Characters of the Terror

Georges Jacques Danton, also a member of the radical “Mountain” who was a friend of the working people of Paris and an amazingly gregarious orator.

Key Characters of the Terror

Jean-Paul Marat, publisher of a popular Parisian newspaper who used his position to forward the agenda of the Committee of Public Safety.

The Death of Marat

Marat is stabbed and killed by Charlotte Corday

The painter, Jacques-Louis David helped to make Marat a martyr with this infamous painting.

The French Military & the Terror

France mobilized a huge number (800,000) of motivated soldiers by instituting a draft and encouraging patriotic sentiment.

Outnumbering their opponents by perhaps 4 to 1, France won great battlefield victories.

These wars gave rise to a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Thermidorian Reaction

The Convention, fearing the expansion of the Terror, executed Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794.

The Directory

A new executive, the five-man Directory, ruled France from 17951799, essentially as dictators.

The end of economic controls hit the poor in Paris hard, and resulted in riots that were suppressed by force.

In rural France villagers, especially women, restored a normal, structured lifestyle, based in part on the Catholic Church.

Questions for your review1. What was Edmund Burke’s position on the French Revolution?

2. Who was Wollstonecraft and what is her contribution to this history?

3. Who was de Gouges and what is her contribution to this history?

4. Who were the Jacobins and what is their role in the Revolution?

5. What is the Declaration of Pillnitz? What is the effect on the Revolution?

6. Who were the sans-culottes and what is their role in the Revolution?

7. Who were the Girondists? Who were the Mountain? What role do they play in the Revolution?

8. Which party did Robespierre and Danton belong to?

9. What is the Committee of Public Safety?

10. What were the “September Massacres”?

11. Counter-revolutionaries and ‘The Terror’...what is the impact on this history?

12. How does ‘The Terror’ finally end?

13. Which ‘Coalitions’ try to defeat France from 1794-1798?

14. What is the Thermidorian Reaction?