Term
|
Definition
| consisted of the clergy and about 130,000 people. Church owned approx. 10% of the land. Clergy were exempt from taille, France’s chief tax, although the church had agreed to pay a “voluntary” contribution to the state every five years. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the nobility, composed no more than 350,000 people who nevertheless owned 25 to 30 percent of the land. Nobility held leading positions in the government, military, law courts, and higher church officers. Much heavy industry in France was controlled by the nobles. Common to all were tax exemptions, especially from the taille. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Dating back to the Middle Ages this was a body representing the three estates which could be called into session by the king. It had not met since Marie de Medici called it in 1614. It had first met in 1302 when Philip IV (the Fair) had called it during the struggle against Pope Boniface VIII. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| statements of local grievances. |
|
|
Term
| Abbe Sieyes & What is the Third Estate |
|
Definition
Pamphlet written by Abbe Sieyes in January 1789
• Declared nobility to a useless caste that should be abolished
• Only 3rd Estate necessary and identical with nation – therefore should be sovereign
• Through these writing of Sieyes ideas of Rousseau's Social Contract entered revolution
• Also added to fear between classes even before meeting of Estates General |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| After being shut out of their meeting room in Versailles, the self-declared National Assembly moved to the nearest large room that would accomodate them - indoor Tennis Court - and took an oath that they would remain in session until a new constitution had been written for France. |
|
|
Term
| The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789: |
|
Definition
| medieval prison/fortress and much hated symbol of the Old Regime in Paris. Poor harvests and shortage of bread plus fact that King seen as assembling troops outside of Paris led to urban unrest. Bastille stormed by angry crowd of Parisians - not just by rabble but many merchants, soldiers and women involved(French banker, Laborde funded the attack). A few prisoners released and some weapons taken. Several soldiers in the garrison killed and warden summarily executed and head displayed on pike. It was not intended to do so but resulted in saving of National Assembly at Versailles. King flustered by event and decided to accept the situation in Paris. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| After Bastille the situation in rural France went from bad to worse. There was a "fear"/rumour that bands of "brigands" sponsored by the nobility/king were coming - led to panic in August. Angry/fearful peasants stormed country homes of the nobility/manorial symbols. There was a general agrarian insurrection as peasants destroyed manorial records and burned property of propertied nobility. In some instances members of the nobility or their staff were killed. Led to many leaving not just the countryside but also the country. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Small group of bourgeois in National Assembly met in attempt to settle the agrarian problems that were on-going. They chose an evening session when they knew many of the nobility would not be present. A few liberal nobility were there to support them in renouncing the banalites, hunting rights and other feudal holdovers. They virtually ended, in one night, serfdom and the feudal system and reached a compromise on eminent property rights - giving compensation to formers owners . It was an important step in the demands of the people. |
|
|
Term
| The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: |
|
Definition
| : Issued on August 26, 1789. It affirmed the principles of the new state: rule of law; equal individual citizenship, collective sovereignty of the people. "Men born and remain free and equal in rights" (LIBERTY, PROPERTY, SECURITY AND RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSION). Became catechism of the revolution. Printed and disseminated in large numbers. Translated into many other languages. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
French woman of some prominence as a writer for the theater and one of several who argued for equality of rights for women too.
• Wrote The Rights of Women |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| thousands of Parisian women marched to the kings house to demand bread for their starving kids. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
December 1789 – paper currency issued by Constituent Assembly
• Confiscated church property and issued this paper money based on land
• Initially could just by land with it through later used as a general currency
• Supposed to help ease difficulties of peasants but all sorts of problems with it – over issued plus easily forged |
|
|
Term
| Civil Constitution of the Clergy: |
|
Definition
• Established by National Assembly in dealing with issue of Church
• Clergy to be elected by 50,000 electors
• Protestants, Jews, agnostics could take part
• Number of diocese reduced from 130 to 83 and were to be coterminous with the new departments
• No papal approval of appointments necessary
• State has to pay salaries > abuses like pluralism ended
• Significance – many didn’t approve and became counterrevolutionaries > big division
• Left Catholic laity terrified and puzzled
• Many peasantry devoutly catholic and found this aspect difficult to accept |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| takes place in 1791. the king louis 16 sneak out of paris and flee the border and are planning to leave and go east to Austria. Gets stopped and police gets alerted. |
|
|
Term
| August 1792-Storming of Tuileries Palace & End of Monarchy |
|
Definition
| Radical Parisian political groups, declaring themselves an insurrectionary commune, organized a mob attack on the Royal palace and Legislative Assembly and took the king captive and forced the Legislative Assembly to suspend the monarchy and call for a national convention, chosen on the basis of universal male suffrage, to decide on the future form of government. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| ordinary patriots without fine clothes. |
|
|
Term
| National Convention and its social composition: |
|
Definition
• Met Sept 20, 1792
• Would sit for 3 years
• Initially charged with responsibility of writing new constitution
• Proclaimed 1792 was Year One of new French Republic
• Declared that it would give assistance to all Europeans who wanted to recover their liberty – exporting revolution – therefore even more a threat to political status quo on continent |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mostly from SW France - valley of Gironde, these were moderate bourgeois Jacobins who for a short while were the dominant faction within the Jacobin movement. They were the group that proposed an eventual international revolution. They included individuals such as Condorcet, Brissot and Roland and his wife. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• In National Convention these members (sitting in highest seats) representatives of the city of Paris
• Challenged leadership of Girondins (representatives of great provincial cities)
• Became extremist political faction within Jacobins
• Developed idea of expediency of a revolutionary war- would force the revolution to gel in defense of goals and country
• Led the Terror under Robespierre’s direction
• Mountain and Terror would end will fall of Robespierre |
|
|
Term
| Committee of Public Safety: |
|
Definition
Convention granted wide powers to 12 member group from Convention à re-elected every month
• Robespierre influential member along with St. Just, Couthon, Carnot
• Helped set up Reign of Terror |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Jacobin leader of Convention during the Terror
• Lawyer, educated on scholarship
• Controversial figure: bloodthirsty, fanatical dictator and demagogue or idealist, visionary, and ardent patriot?
• Had been representative of 3rd Estate during Constituent Assembly
• Argued for universal suffrage and against capital punishment
• Pro democracy and against war
• Became montagnard (one of the Mountain) in Convention
• 1793-1794 determined to bring about a democratic republic of good citizens and honest men
• Referred to as “incorruptible” – concerned with promoting virtue |
|
|
Term
| Levee en masse/a nation in arms: |
|
Definition
• To win war Committee of Public Safety proclaimed this to rally all able-body men to cause of protecting revolution
• Recruited scientists to work on amaments (eg LaGrange and LaMarck) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| to repress counterrevolutionary activity the Convention set up Co. of Public Safety which established this Reign of Terror. Revolutionary courts were set up as an alternative to lynch law of September Massacres. However, due process was hardly observed in these and many went to the guillotine in Paris and in the provinces. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Movement started by the Herbertists - throught traditional religion was counterrevolutionary so devised program to substitute with new cult. Included a new Revolutionary Calendar. Introduced "Cult of Reason"(1793) and climaxed with ceremony in Notre Dame with "Reason" being impersonated by an actress. Robespierre frowned on Cult of Reason and preferred Cult of Supreme Being. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a group of French men and women, mostly white, which were abolitionists The association was created on February 19, 1788, and was led by Jacques-Pierre Brissot, with advice from Thomas Clarkson who headed the abolitionist movement in the Kingdom of Great Britain. At the beginning of 1789, it had 141 members. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| was a leader of the Haitian Revolution |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Reaction to end of Terror. Because of the success of the French army (now 800,000 strong) many in France no longer willing to put up with Terror atmosphere - no longer a national emergency. Also, Robespierre and the Committee had antagonized all significant parties in France. Working Class radicals no longer supported him. His elimination of Danton caused Convention to distrust him. The Convention obtained "outlawing" of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor(July 27) 1794. He was guillotined the next day. The Thermidorean reaction lasted for several months thereafter. The Terror subsided, Jacobin clubs were closed and the powers of the Committee were reduced. There was a period of Middle Class moderate ascendancy. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| After the Thermidorean Reaction members of the Convention wrote a new constitution. Went into effect at end of 1795. Set up a Directory and a Bicameral legislature. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Lasted from 1795-1799
• First formally constituted French Republic
• Narrow social base
• Depended on military conquest
• Power in 5 Directors assisted by Council of 500 + 250 on Council of Ancients
• Chaotic provinical administration (revolt in Vendee and defeats by second coalition) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| background biography: Italian: Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), was a military and political leader of France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon I, whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Coup necessary to overcome the opposition. Nov 9, 1799 the legislature was driven from its chambers and the Consulate was declared. |
|
|
