Unit 5
Conflict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century
Notes
The French Revolution (1789–1799)
- Causes: debt from wars (including help for the American Revolution), an unfair three estates system (the Third Estate paid most taxes), bad harvests and high bread prices, and Enlightenment ideas.
- 1789: the Estates-General met; the Third Estate formed the National Assembly (Tennis Court Oath). Parisians stormed the Bastille (July 14). The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed liberty and equality.
- The Civil Constitution of the Clergy put the Church under state control, dividing the country.
- Radical phase: France became a republic (1792), executed Louis XVI (1793), and under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety carried out the Reign of Terror. The levée en masse raised a mass army.
- Women marched on Versailles; Olympe de Gouges wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, but women didn't gain political rights.
- The Directory (1795–1799) was weak and corrupt.
Napoleon (1799–1815)
- Napoleon took power in a coup and crowned himself emperor (1804).
- The Napoleonic Code gave legal equality to men, protected property, and promoted careers based on merit, but limited women's rights. The Concordat of 1801 made peace with the Church.
- He conquered much of Europe, spreading revolutionary ideas and nationalism (and resentment). The Continental System tried to block British trade.
- His invasion of Russia (1812) was a disaster. He was defeated at Waterloo (1815).
The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)
Led by Metternich of Austria, it restored monarchies (legitimacy), created a balance of power, and set up the Concert of Europe to suppress revolutions. Conservatism (Edmund Burke) favored tradition and gradual change.
Other revolutions and ideas
The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) ended slavery and created an independent nation. Latin American independence followed. Romanticism emphasized emotion and nature, reacting against Enlightenment reason.
Practice
France was deep in debt, and the Third Estate bore the tax burden.
They formed the National Assembly.
Tens of thousands were executed as enemies of the revolution.
It also limited women's rights within the family.
Harsh winter and scorched-earth tactics destroyed his army.
Metternich led a conservative settlement.
She argued women deserved the same rights as men.
He criticized the French Revolution.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Describe ONE cause of the French Revolution.
Show the answer and scoring guide
France's debt from wars, combined with an unfair tax system where the Third Estate paid most taxes and the nobles and clergy were largely exempt.
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(b) Explain ONE way Napoleon kept the ideals of the Revolution and ONE way he abandoned them.
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Kept: the Napoleonic Code gave legal equality for men and careers open to talent. Abandoned: he ruled as an emperor and censored the press.
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(c) Explain ONE goal of the Congress of Vienna.
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To restore legitimate monarchies and create a balance of power so that no single country, like France, could dominate Europe again.
Check off the points you earned: