HISTORY OF EUROPE TIMELINE

360 BC Plato attacks Athenian democracy in the Republic.

323 BC Alexander the Great dies and his Macedonian Empire fragments.
44 BC Julius Caesar is murdered. The Roman Republic drawing to a close.
27 BC Establishment of the Roman Empire under Octavian.
AD 330 Constantine makes Constantinople into his capital, a new Rome.
395 Following the death of Theodosius I, the Empire is permanently split into eastern and western halves.
527 Justinian I is crowned emperor of Byzantium.
800 Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor.
1054 Start of the East-West Schism, which divides the Christian church for centuries.
1066 Successful Norman Invasion of England by William the Conqueror.
1095 Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade.
1340 Black Death kills a third of Europe's population.
1337 - 1453 The Hundred Years War
1453 Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.
1492 Christopher Columbus lands in the New World.
1498 Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper in Milan, as the Renaissance flourishes.
1517 Martin Luther nails his demands for Reformation to the door of the church in Wittenberg.
1648 The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War.
1789 The French Revolution.
1815 Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte the Treaty of Vienna is signed.
1860s Russia emancipates its serfs and Karl Marx completes the first volume of Das Kapital.
1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated and World War I begins.
1945 The World War II ends with Europe in ruins.
1989 -The Berlin Wall comes down and
1992 The Treaty of the European Union is signed in Maastricht

Notes on European History

KING LOUIS XVI:

He is a strange figure. He wanted to change the political,social and economic set up of France and he claimed
that he loved the people. He was touched by the humanitarian sympathies for the poor of France.BUT, he did
not have the will to go ahead with the reforms in face of resistance from classes who wished to maintain the
status quo(clergy,nobility,etc).

He once said to his resigning minister, "How happy you are! Why cannot i quit my Place?"

Now to have in France of 1789 a king who want to introduce reforms but could not find the required will is in
itself a very revolutionary setting. According to my views, THIS WAS THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF FRENCH
REVOLUTION.

The French Revolution

 The French Revolution

 Marie Antoinette
 French Revolution 101 (Breif History, summarized to almost a page)
  Marie Antoinette and "Let them eat cake"
 French Revolution (Detailed History but still comprehensive)
 French Revolution (much Detailed)
 Time line of the French Revolution (brief)

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The French Revolution

Beginning in 1789, the Revolution affected every aspect of France and much of Europe.

Marie Antoinette @
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French Revolution 101 (Breif History, summarized to almost a page)
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Marie Antoinette and "Let them eat cake"
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French Revolution (Detailed History but still comprehensive)
--
French Revolution (much Detailed)
---

Timeline of the French Revolution (brief)

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Antoinette, Marie

An Austrian princess who married the King of France and died on the Guillotine, Marie

Antoinette's whorish, greedy and air-headed reputation is based on a seam of vicious propaganda and the
popular memory of a phrase she didn't actually say. While recent books have portrayed Marie in a better light,
the old slurs still linger.

French Revolution 101

Summary: Between 1789 and 1802 France was wracked by a revolution which radically changed the
government, administration, military and culture of the nation as well as plunging Europe into a series of wars.
France went from a largely feudal state under an absolutist monarch to a republic which executed the king and
then to an empire under Napoleon Bonaparte.

When was the French Revolution?: Although historians are agreed that the French Revolution started in 1789
they are divided on the end date. A few histories stop in 1795 with the creation of the Directory, some stop in
1799 with the creation of the Consulate, while many more stop in 1802 when Napoleon Bonaparte became
Consul for Life or 1804 when he became Emperor. A rare few continue to the restoration of the monarchy in
1814. This site prefers 1802.
The French Revolution in Brief: A medium term financial crisis, caused partly by French involvement in the
American War of Independence, led to the French crown first calling an Assembly of Notables and then, in
1789, a meeting called the Estates General in order to impose new tax laws. The Estates General was
composed of three ‘Estates’: the clergy, the nobility and the rest of France. This 'third estate', informed by long
term doubts over the constitution of France and the development of a new social order of bourgeoisie, declared
itself a National Assembly and decreed the suspension of tax, taking French sovereignty into its own hands.

After a power struggle which saw the National Assembly take the Tennis Court Oath not to disband, the king
gave in and the Assembly began reforming France, scrapping the old system and drawing up a new
constitution with a legislative assembly. This continued the reforms, but it created divisions in France by
legislating against the church and declaring war on nations which supported the French king. In 1792 a second
revolution took place, as Jacobins and sansculottes forced the Assembly to replace itself with a National
Convention which abolished the monarchy, declared France a republic and in 1793 executed the king.

As the Revolutionary Wars went against France, as regions angry at attacks on the church and conscription
rebelled and as the revolution became increasingly radicalised the National Convention created a Committee
of Public Safety to run France in 1793. This instituted an era of bloody measures called The Terror, when over
16,000 people were guillotined. In 1794

the revolution again changed, this time turning against the Terror and its architect Robespierre. The Terrorists
were removed in a coup and a new constitution drawn up which created, in 1795, a new legislative system run
by a Directory of five men.

This remained in power thanks to rigging elections and purging the assemblies before being

replaced, thanks to the army and a general called Napoleon Bonaparte, by a new constitution in 1799 which
created three consuls to rule France. Bonaparte was the first consul and, while the reform of France continued,
Bonaparte managed to bring the revolutionary wars to a close and have himself declared consul for life. In
1804 he crowned himself Emperor of France; the revolution was over, the empire had begun.

Consequences of the French Revolution: There is universal agreement that the political and administrative
face of France was wholly altered: a republic based around elected – mainly bourgeois - deputies replaced a
monarchy supported by nobles while the many and varied feudal systems were replaced by new, usually
elected institutions which were applied universally across France. Culture was also affected, at least in the
short term, with the revolution permeating every creative endeavour. However, there is still debate over
whether the revolution permanently changed the social structures of France or whether they were only altered
in the short term.

Europe was also changed. The revolutionaries of 1792 began a war which extended through the Imperial
period and forced nations to marshal their resources to a greater extent than ever before. Some areas, like
Belgium and Switzerland, became client states of France with reforms similar to those of the revolution.
National identities also began coalescing like never before. The many and fast developing ideologies of the
revolution were also spread across Europe, helped by French being the continental elite’s dominant language.

Key People: - King Louis XVI: King of France when the revolution began in 1789, he was executed in 1792.

- Emmanuel Sieyès: Deputy who helped radicalise the third estate and instigated the coup which brought the
consuls to power.
- Jean-Paul Marat: Popular journalist who advocated extreme measures against traitors and hoarders.
Assassinated in 1793.

- Maximilien Robespierre: Lawyer who went from advocating an end to the death penalty to the architect of the
Terror. Executed in 1794.

- Napoleon Bonaparte: French general whose rise to power brought the revolution to an end.

Marie's "Let them eat cake"

The Myth

Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat, Marie Antoinette , Queen-consort of Louis
XVI of France, exclaimed "let them eat cake", or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche".

The Truth

She almost certainly didn't utter the words; critics of the Queen claimed she had in order to make her look
insensitive and undermine her position.

The History of the Phrase

There has been some discussion about how "brioche" doesn't translate exactly to cake, but was a different
foodstuff (quite what is also disputed), and how Marie has simply been misinterpreted, but the truth is most
historians don’t believe Marie uttered the phrase at all.

One reason for this is because variations of the phrase had been in use for decades before she is said to have
uttered it, supposed examples of precisely the callousness and detachment of the aristocracy to the needs of
the peasants that people claimed Marie had shown by supposedly uttering it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
mentions a variation in his autobiographical 'Confessions', where he relates the story of how he, on trying to
find food, remembered the words of a great princess who, upon hearing that the country peasants had no
bread, coldly said "let them eat cake/pastry". He was writing in 1766-7, before Marie came to France.
Furthermore, in a 1791 memoir Louis XVIII claims that Marie-Thérèse of Austria, wife of Louis XIV, used a
variation of the phrase ("let them eat pastry") a hundred years before.

While historians are also unsure if Marie- Thérèse really did say it – Antonio Fraser, a biographer of Marie
Antoinette, believes she did - both examples illustrate how the phrase was in use around the time and could
have been easily attributed to Marie Antoinette. There was certainly a huge industry devoted to attacking and
slandering the Queen, making all sorts of even pornographic attacks on her to sully her reputation. The 'cake'
claim was simply one assault among many, albeit the one which has survived most clearly throughout history.
The true origin of the phrase is unknown.

French Revolt. History (Detailed but still Comprehensive)

* Pre-Revolutionary France: France's history of piecemeal territorial expansion produced a jigsaw of different
laws, rights and boundaries which some felt were ripe for reform. Society was also divided - by tradition - into
three 'estates': the clergy, the nobility and everyone else.
* The Crisis of the 1780s and the Causes of the French Revolution: While historians still debate the
precise long term causes of the revolution, all are in agreement that a financial crisis in the 1780s provided the
short term trigger for revolution.

* The Estates General and the Revolution of 1789: The French Revolution began when the 'third estate'
deputies of the Estates General declared themselves a Legislative Assembly and verbally seized sovereignty
from the King while the citizens of Paris rebelled against royal control and stormed the Bastille in search of
arms.

* Recreating France 1789 – 91: Having seized control of France, the deputies of the Legislative Assembly
began reforming the nation, scrapping rights and privileges and drawing up a new constitution.

* The Republican Revolution 1792: In 1792 a second revolution took place, as Jacobins and sansculottes
forced the Assembly to replace itself with a National Convention which abolished the monarchy, declared
France a republic and in 1793 executed the king.

* Purges and Revolt 1793: In 1793 tensions in the revolution finally exploded, especially in rural areas where
conscription and laws against priests caused open and armed rebellion against the domination of the
revolution by Parisians.

* The Terror 1793 – 94: Faced with crises on all fronts, the Committee of Public Safety embarked on a bloody
policy of terror, executing their enemies – real and imagined – with no real trials in an attempt to save the
revolution. Over 16,000 were executed and over 10,000 died in prison.

* Thermidor 1794 - 95: In 1794 Robespierre and the other 'terrorists' were overthrown, leading to a backlash
against his supporters and the laws they had en-acted. A new constitution was drawn up.

* The Directory, the Consulate and the End of Revolution 1795 - 1802: From 1795 to 1802 coups and
military power played an increasing role in the rule of France, until an ambitious and highly successful young
General called Napoleon Bonaparte seized power and had himself elected Consul for Life in 1802.

French Revolution (much Detailed)

1. Pre-Revolutionary France

The Country

Pre-revolutionary France was not created as a whole but was instead a jigsaw of lands which had been
haphazardly aggregated over the preceding centuries, the different laws and institutions of each new addition
often kept intact. The latest addition was Corsica, coming into the French crown's possession in 1766. By 1789
France comprised an estimated 28 million people and was divided into provinces of vastly varying size, from
the huge Brittany to the tiny Foix. Geography varied greatly from mountainous regions to rolling plains. The
nation was also divided into 36 'generalities' for administrative purposes and these again varied in size and
shape to both each other and the provinces. There were further subdivisions for each level of the church.

Laws varied too. There were thirteen sovereign courts of appeal whose jurisdiction unevenly covered the whole
country: the Paris court covered a third of France, the Pav court just its own tiny province. Further confusion
arose with the absence of any universal law beyond that of royal decrees. Instead the precise codes and rules
varied across France, with the Paris region mainly using customary law and the south a written code. Lawyers
who specialised in handling the many different layers flourished. Each region also had its own weights and
measures, tax, customs and laws. These divisions and differences were continued at the level of every town
and village.

Rural and Urban

France was still essentially a feudal nation, with lords due a range of ancient and modern rights from their
peasants who comprised about 80% of the population. The majority of these still lived in rural contexts and
France was a predominantly agricultural nation, even though this agriculture was low in productivity, wasteful
and using out of date methods. An attempt to introduce modern techniques from Britain had not succeeded.
Inheritance laws, whereby estates were divided up between all the heirs, had left France divided into many

tiny farms; even the large estates were small when compared to other European nations. The only major
region of large-scale farming was around Paris, where the always hungry capital city provided a convenient
market. Harvests were critical but fluctuating, causing famine, high prices and riots.

The remaining twenty per cent of France lived in urban areas, although there were only eight cities with a
population in excess of 50,000 people. These were home to guilds, workshops and industry, with workers often
travelling from rural areas to urban ones in search of seasonal – or permanent – work. Death rates were high.
Ports with access to overseas trade flourished, but this capital didn't penetrate far into the rest of France.

Society

France was governed by a king who ruled thanks to the grace of God; in 1789 this was Louis XVI, crowned on
June 11th 1775. Ten thousand people worked in his main palace at Versailles, and 5% of his income was
spent supporting it. The rest of French society considered itself divided into three groups: the estates.

The First Estate were the clergy, who numbered around 130,000 people, owned a tenth of the land and were
due tithes of one tenth of everyone's income, although the practical applications varied hugely. They were
immune from tax and frequently drawn from noble families. They were all part of the Catholic Church, the only
official religion in France.

Despite strong pockets of Protestantism, over 97% of the French population considered themselves Catholic.

The Second Estate were the nobility, numbering around 120,000 people. These were formed in part from
people born into noble families, but certain highly sought after government offices also conferred noble status.
Nobles were privileged, didn't work, had special courts and tax exemptions, owned the leading positions in
court and society – almost all of Louis XIVs ministers were noble – and were even allowed a different, quicker,
method of execution.

Although some were enormously rich many were no better off than the lowest of the French middle classes,
with a strong lineage and little else besides feudal dues.

The remainder of France, over 99%, formed the Third Estate. The majority were peasants who lived in near
poverty, but around two million were the middle classes: the bourgeoisie.

These had doubled in number between the years of Louis XIV and XVI and owned around a quarter of French
land. The common development of a bourgeoisie family was for one to make a fortune in business or trade and
then plough that money into land and education for their children, who joined professions, abandoned the 'old'
business and lived their lives comfortable, but not excessive existences, passing their offices down to their own
children. One notable revolutionary, Robespierre, was a fifth generation lawyer. One key aspect of bourgeois
existence was venal offices, positions of power and wealth within the royal administration which could be
purchased and inherited: the entire legal system was comprised of purchasable offices. Demand for these was
high and the costs rose ever higher.

France and Europe

By the late 1780s France was one of the world's 'great nations'. A military reputation which had suffered during
the Seven Years War had been partly salvaged thanks to France's critical contribution in defeating Britain
during the American War of Independence and their diplomacy was highly regarded, having avoided war in
Europe during the same conflict. However, it was with culture that France dominated.

With the exception of England, the upper classes across Europe copied French architecture, furniture, fashion
and more while the main language of royal courts and the educated was French. Journals and pamphlets
produced in France were disseminated across Europe, allowing the elites of other nations to read and quickly
understand the literature of the French revolution. A backlash against this French domination had already
begun, with groups of writers arguing that national languages and cultures should be pursued instead, but this
would only bring changes in the next century.

2. The Crisis of the 1780s and the Causes of the French Revolution

The French Revolution resulted from two state crises which emerged during the 1750s – 80s, one
constitutional and one financial, with the latter providing a 'tipping point' in 1788/9, when desperate action by
government ministers backfired and unleashed a revolution against the 'Old Regime'. In addition to these there
was the growth of the bourgeoisie, a social order whose new wealth, power and opinions undermined the older
feudal social system of France. The bourgeoisie were, in general, highly critical of the pre-revolutionary regime
and acted to change it, although the exact role they played is still hotly debated among historians.

Maupeou, the Parlements and Constitutional Doubts

From the 1750s it became increasingly clear to many Frenchmen that the constitution of France, based around
an absolutist style of monarchy, was no longer working. This was partly due to failures in government, be they
the squabbling instability of the king's ministers or embarrassing defeats in wars, partly due to new
enlightenment thinking, which increasingly undermined despotic monarchs, and partly due to the bourgeoisie
seeking a voice in the administration. The ideas of 'public opinion', 'nation' and 'citizen' emerged and grew,
along with a sense that the state's authority had to be defined and legitimized in a new, broader, framework
which took more notice of the people, instead of simply reflecting the monarch's whims. People increasingly
mentioned the Estates General, a three chambered assembly which hadn't met since the seventeenth century,
as a possible solution.

The idea of a government – and king – operating with a series of constitutional checks and balances had
grown to be vitally important in France, and it was the 13 parlements which were considered – or at least
considered themselves - the vital check on the king. However, in 1771 the parlement of Paris refused to co-
operate with the nation's Chancellor, Maupeou, and he responded by exiling the parlement, remodelling the
system, abolishing the connected venal offices and creating a replacement disposed towards his wishes. The
provincial parlements responded angrily and met with the same fate.

Despite a campaign designed to win over the public, Maupeou never gained national support for his changes
and they were cancelled three years later when the new king, Louis XVI, responded to angry complaints by
reversing all the changes. Unfortunately the damage had been done: the parlements had been clearly shown
as weak and subject to the king's wishes, not the invulnerable moderating element they wished to be. But
what, thinkers in France asked, would act as a check on the king? The Estates General was a favourite
answer.

The Financial Crisis and the Assembly of Notables

The financial crisis which left the door open for revolution began during the American War of Independence,
when France spent over a billion livres, the equivalent of the state's entire income for a year. Almost all the
money had been obtained from loans. The problems were initially managed by Jacques Necker, a French
Protestant banker and the only non-noble in the government. His cunning publicity and accounting - his public
balance sheet, the Compte rendu au roi, made the accounts look healthy - masked the scale of the problem
from the French public, but by the chancellorship of Calonne the state was looking for new ways to tax and
meet their loan payments. Calonne came up with a package of changes which, had they been accepted, would
have been the most sweeping reforms in the French crown's history.

They included abolishing lots of taxes and replacing them with a land tax to be paid by everyone, including the
previously exempt nobles. He wanted a show of national consensus for his reforms and, rejecting the Estates
General as too unpredictable, called a hand picked Assembly of Notables which first met at Versailles on
February 22nd 1787. Less than ten were not noble and no similar assembly had been called since 1626.

Calonne had seriously miscalculated and, far from weakly accepting the proposed changes, the 144 members
of the Assembly refused to sanction them. Many were against paying new tax, many had reasons to dislike
Calonne and many genuinely believed the reason they gave for refusing: no new tax should be imposed
without the king first consulting the nation and, as they were unelected, they couldn't speak for the nation.
Discussions proved fruitless and eventually Calonne was replaced with Brienne, who tried again before
dismissing the Assembly in May.

Brienne then tried to pass his own version of Calonne's changes through the parlement of Paris, but they
refused, again citing the Estates General as the only body which could accept new taxes. Brienne exiled them
to Troyes before working on a compromise, proposing that the Estates General would meet in 1797; he even
began a consultation to work out how it should be formed and run. But for all the good will earnt more was lost
as the king and his government began forcing laws through using the arbitrary practice of lit de justice. The
king is even recorded as responding to complaints by saying "it's legal because I wish it" (Doyle, The Oxford
History of the French Revolution, 2002, p. 80), further fuelling worries over the constitution.

The growing financial crises reached its climax in 1788 as the disrupted state machinery, caught between
changes of system, couldn't bring in the required sums, a situation exacerbated as bad weather ruined the
harvest. The treasury was empty and no-one was willing to accept more loans or changes. Brienne tried to
create support by bringing the date of the Estates General forward to 1789, but it didn't work and the treasury
had to suspend all payments. France was bankrupt. One of Brienne's last actions before resigning was
persuading King Louis XVI to recall Necker, whose return was greeted with jubilation by the general public. He
recalled the Paris parlement and made it clear he was just tiding the nation over until the Estates General met.

3. The Estates General and the Revolution of 1789

The Calling of the Estates General

In late 1788 Necker announced that the meeting of the Estates General would be brought forward to January
1st 1789 (in reality, it didn't meet until May 5th of that year).

However, this edict neither defined the form the Estates General would take nor set out how it would be
chosen. Afraid that the crown would take advantage of this to 'fix' the Estates General and transform it into a
servile body, the Parlement of Paris, in approving the edict, explicitly stated that the Estates General should
take its form from the last time it was called: 1614. This meant the estates would meet in equal numbers, but
separate chambers.

Voting would be done separately, with each having a third of the vote.

Bizarrely, no one who had would called for the Estates General over the past years appears to have previously
realised what soon became obvious: the 95% of the nation who comprised the third estate could be easily
outvoted by a combination of the clergy and nobles, or 5% of the population. Recent events had set a very
different voting precedent, as a provincial assembly which had been called in 1778 and 1787 had doubled the
numbers of the third estate and another called in Dauphin had not only doubled the third estate but allowed for
voting by head (one vote per member, not estate).

A clamour soon arose demanding the doubling of third estate numbers and voting by head and the crown
received over eight hundred different petitions, mainly from the bourgeois who had woken up to their potentially
vital role in future government. Necker responded by recalling the Assembly of Notables to advise himself and
the king on the various problems. It sat from November 6th until December 17th and protected the noble's
interests by voting against doubling the third estate or voting by head. This was followed by the Estate General
being postponed by a few months. The uproar only grew.

On December 27th, in a document entitled 'Result of the King's Council of State' – the result of discussion
between Necker and the King - and contrary to the advice of the nobles the crown announced that the third
estate was indeed to be doubled. However, there was no decision on voting practices, which was left to the
Estates General itself to decide.

The Third Estate Politicizes.

The debate over the size and voting rights of the third estate brought the Estates General to the forefront of
conversation and thought, with writers and thinkers publishing a wide range of views. The most famous was
Sieyès' 'What is the Third Estate', which argued that there shouldn’t be any privileged groups in society and
that the third estate should set themselves up as a national assembly immediately after meeting, with no input
from the other estates. It was hugely influential.

Terms like 'national' and 'patriotism' began to be used ever more frequently and became associated with the
third estate. More importantly, this outburst of political thought caused a group of leaders to emerge from the
third estate, organising meetings, writing pamphlets and generally politicising the third estate across the nation.
Chief among these were the bourgeois lawyers, educated men with an interest in the many laws involved.

Choosing the Estates

To choose the Estates France was divided up into 234 constituencies, often using the old system of bailliages
and senechausse jurisdictions as a base. Each had an electoral assembly for the nobles and clergy while the
third estate was voted on by every male taxpayer over twenty five ears of age. Each sent two delegates for the
first and second estates and four for the third. In addition, every estate in every constituency was required to
draw up a list of grievances, the cahiers de doleances. Every level of French society was this involved in voting
and vocalising their many grievances against the state, drawing in people across the nation. Expectations were
high.

The election results provided the elites of France with many surprises. Over three quarters of the first estate,
the clergy, were parish priests rather than the previously dominant orders like bishops, less than half of which
made it. Their cahiers called for higher stipends and access to the highest positions in the church. The second
estate was no different, and the many courtiers and high ranking nobles who assumed they’d be automatically
returned lost out to lower level, much poorer, men. Their cahiers reflect a very divided group, with only 40%
calling for voting by order and some even calling for voting by head. The third estate, in contrast, proved to be
a relatively united group, two thirds of which were bourgeois lawyers.

From Estates General to National Assembly

The Estates General opened on May 5th. There was no guidance from the king or Necker on the key question
of how the Estates General would vote; solving this was supposed to be the first decision they took. However,
that had to wait until the very first task was finished: each estate had to verify the electoral returns of their
respective order.

The nobles did this immediately, but the third estate refused, believing that separate verification would
inevitable lead to separate voting. The clergy passed a vote which would have allowed them to verify, but they
delayed to seek a compromise with the third estate.

Discussions between all three took place over the following weeks, but time passed and patience began to run
out. People in the third estate began to talk about declaring themselves a national assembly and taking the law
into their own hands. Critically for the history of the revolution, and while the first and second estates met
behind closed doors, the third estate meeting had always been open to the public. The third estate deputies
thus knew they could count on tremendous public support for the idea of acting unilaterally as even those who
didn't attend the meetings could read all about what happened in the many journals which reported it.

On June 10th, with patience running out, Sieyès proposed that a final appeal should be sent to the nobles and
clergy asking for a common verification. If there wasn’t one then the third estate, now increasingly calling itself
the Commons, would carry on without them. The motion passed, the other orders remained silent and the third
estate resolved to carry on regardless. The revolution had begun.

On June 13th three parish priests from the first estate joined the third, and sixteen more followed in the next
few days, the first breakdown between the old divisions. On June 17th Sieyès proposed and had passed a
motion for the third estate to now call itself a National Assembly. In the heat of the moment another motion was
proposed and passed, declaring all taxes illegal, but allowing them to continue until a new system was
invented to replace them. In one quick motion the National Assembly had gone from simply challenging the
first and second estates to challenging the king and his sovereignty by making themselves responsible for the
laws on tax. Having been sidelined with grief over the death of his son the King now began to stir and the
regions around Paris were reinforced with troops. On June 19th, six days after the first defections, the entire
first estate voted to join the

National Assembly.

June 20th brought another milestone, as the National Assembly arrived to find the doors of their meeting place
locked and soldiers guarding it, with notes of a Royal Session to occur on the 22nd. This action even outraged
opponents of the National Assembly, members of which feared their dissolution was imminent. In the face of
this, the National Assembly moved to a nearby tennis court where, surrounded by crowds, they took the
famous 'Tennis Court Oath', swearing not to disperse until their business was done. On the 22nd the Royal
Session was delayed, but three noblemen joined the clergy in abandoning their own estate.

The Royal Session, when it was held, wasn't the blatant attempt to crush the National Assembly which many
had feared, but instead saw the king present an imaginative series of reforms which would have been
considered far reaching a month before. However, the king still used veiled threats and referred to the three
different estates, stressing they should obey him. The members of the National Assembly refused to leave the
session hall unless it was at bayonet point and proceeded to retake the oath. In this decisive moment, a battle
of wills between king and assembly, Louis XVI meekly agreed they could stay in the room. In addition Necker
resigned. He was persuaded to resume his position shortly afterward, but the news spread and pandemonium
broke out. More nobles left their estate and joined the assembly.

With the first and second estates now clearly wavering and the support of the army in doubt, the king ordered
the first and second estates to join the National assembly. This triggered public displays of joy and the
members of the National Assembly now felt they could settle down and write a new constitution for the nation;
more had already happened than many dared to imagine. The crown and public opinion would soon change
these expectations.

The Storming of the Bastille and the end of Royal Power.

The excited crowds, fuelled by weeks of debate and angered by rapidly rising grain prices did more than just
celebrate: on June 30th a mob of 4000 rescued mutinous soldiers from their prison. Similar displays of popular
opinion were matched by the crown bringing ever more troops into the area. National Assembly appeals to
stop reinforcing were refused.

Indeed, on July 11th Necker was sacked and more martial men brought in to run the government. Public
uproar followed. On the streets of Paris there was a sense that another battle of wills between the crown and
people had begun.

When a crowd demonstrating in the Tuileries gardens were attacked by cavalry ordered to clear the area the
longstanding predictions of military action seemed to be coming true. The population of Paris began to arm
itself in response and retaliated by attacking toll gates.

The next morning the crowds went after arms but found stacks of stored grain too; looting began in earnest. On
July 14th they attacked the military hospital of the Invalides and found cannon. This ever growing success led
the crowd to the Bastille, the great-prison fortress and dominant symbol of the old regime. At first the Bastille
refused to surrender and people were killed in fighting, but rebel soldiers arrived with the cannon from the
Invalides and forced the Bastille to submit. The great fortress was stormed and looted, the man in charge
lynched.

The storming of the Bastille demonstrated to the king that he couldn’t rely on his soldiers, some of whom had
already defected. He had no way of enforcing royal power and conceded, ordering the units around Paris to
withdraw. Royal power was at an end and sovereignty had passed to the National Assembly. Crucially for the
future of the Revolution, the people of Paris now saw themselves as the saviours and defenders of the national
Assembly. They were the guardians of the revolution.

4. Recreating France 1789 - 91

Faced with the collapse of his power, the King recalled Necker, confirmed Bailly in a new position called the
major of Paris and acknowledged Lafayette as the commander of a new citizen’s militia called the National
Guard. However, try as they might, the Guard were unable to stop savage displays of mob violence such as
the lynching of those accused of blocking the revolution. Nobles began to leave France for friendlier
surroundings. Meanwhile the National Assembly, now often styling itself as the 'Constituent Assembly' began
to redraw France, forming thirty-one separate committees to tackle all areas of public life.

The Great Fear

In the provinces the collapse of royal power triggered the formation of local militias – which usually went in
search of hoarded grain - and revolutionary committees. However, the weeks of debate about what was
happening in Versailles had already had far reaching effects on the rural population, with many refusing to pay
tithes and taxes. As violence against hoarders and feudal overlords grew a series of mass panics swept rural
France, with people afraid of noble led or funded brigands out to exact revenge. This was the 'Great Fear', and
in response to it some of the rural population decided to get their counter-attack in first, pre-emptively
assaulting the symbols of the feudal system, in particular feudal records which were burnt.

The Session of August 4th 1789 and the end of Privilege.

Partly in response to the great fear and an attempt to calm the countryside, partly in response to the request of
the cahiers and partly as sections of the Assembly, seeing their rights stripped away, determined to take others
with them, an extraordinary session of the Assembly was held on August 4th 1789. It began with one motion to
remove certain feudal rights, but by the end the whole of feudalism and all privileges had been removed,
including tithes and venal offices. Now every office would be open to the most talented, not the wealthiest. So
many motions were passed cancelling centuries old rights that it took six months to formulate all the decisions
into a working decree.

The session of August 4th succeeded in one of its aims, calming the nerves of the countryside, although
attacks continued on lords stubbornly holding onto their old regime rights in the face of the revolution. But the
session had gone far beyond anything mentioned in the cahiers, changing the structure of France to a greater
extent than anything before and removing the entire structure of government and law.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

Work soon began on writing a new constitution for France, and most wanted to begin it with a declaration of
rights similar to that used in the United States of America. On August 26th 1789 the Declaration of the Right of
Man and the Citizen was passed. It soon became the founding document of the revolution, stating that the law
was an expression of general will, not the whim of kings, that sovereignty rested with the nation, not with
monarchs and that all citizens were equal. It remains one of histories most famous documents.

The October Days

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the August decrees set off an argument about whether the king, still
nominally in charge of France, had the right to approve or veto legislation. The Assembly went against public
opinion and passed a motion giving him those choices, which didn't go down well with a capital already using
violence in the face of more grain shortages. Indeed, the king at first refused to pass the declaration and
decrees, but on October 5th and 6th a mob of 7000 people, mostly women, marched from Paris to Versailles,
forced the king to acknowledge the reforms and them forced him to travel to Paris from Versailles. The
National Assembly moved with him, taking up residence in Paris. Once again the people of Paris acted - and
saw themselves - as the saviours of the revolution with violence as their tool. More and more nobles fled the
country.

Divisions Appear: Religious Schism

During the drafting of the constitution two events occurred which began to divide the previous revolutionary
consensus. The first was the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed on July 17th 1790. By introducing a
system of election for all church officials, even bishops, and reworking the boundaries of parishes the National
Assembly openly challenged and ignored papal power. The Pope responded by calling the Constitution and
the Declaration of the Rights of Man unchristian, while many priests began to ignore the new rules. The
Assembly received many complaints and petitions.

After much debate the National Assembly decided, on December 26th 1790, to order all in the church to take
an oath of loyalty to the new constitution. This is often seen by historians as a major turning point, forcing
people to decide for the first time whether they were for or against the revolution. Around half of the entire
French clergy refused to take the oath, particularly in the south, and these became labelled 'refractories'.
Debate occurred everywhere, causing the first signs of counter-revolution as people rebelled in favour of the
old religious network. In contrast there were regions where refractories were openly prosecuted.

Groups Form

The French Revolution didn't have political parties in the way we do now, for instance the common American
groups of Democrat and Republican, but during the 1790s groups with shared ideas began to form and argue
with each other. This commonly occurred as people met in clubs to discuss, debate and petition the Assembly.
One such, arguably the most famous, were the Jacobins, people named after the old Jacobin convent were
they first met. In addition to clubs newspapers flourished, with reader numbers trebling.

Divisions Appear: The Flight of the King

On June 20 1791 the King tried to flee France, leaving behind a letter damning the revolution. He was caught
at Varennes the next day and brought back to Paris, which he would never again leave. This is arguably the
second great turning point in the Revolution, for the king had condemned it and all that had been done in the
public's name. One question was raised above all else: how could he stay in charge of the France he had
attacked and tried to flee? A series of mob attacks on royal symbols followed.

The National Assembly, confused and unsure of how to act, declared that the king had been kidnapped, but
news of his attempted flight spread across France, raising the spectre of Austrian armies coming to help him.
Memberships of political clubs rose as people flocked to discuss what should be done, especially among the
Jacobins who argued for his deposition.

When a revolt broke out in Paris, petitioning against the king, the National Guard was called in; they crushed
the revolt in the 'Massacre of the Champ de Mars'. In contrast, a group called the Feuillants argued for another
try at building a constitution around the king.

The Constitution of 1791 and a New France

On September 1791 the new constitution was ready and put to the king; he accepted on the 13th. In two years
the Constituent Assembly had wholly changed the structure of life in France, going further than the cahiers had
ever suggested and wiping away the ancient regime. However, the constitution, especially its reforms of
religious life, had created fault lines down which the people of France could split, meaning millions now had
doubts over a revolution which had begin with immense popularity.

* The king was renamed 'King of the French'. He could not propose laws and had a veto which only blocked
legislation for a maximum of three years. He could appoint ministers, but the legislature could remove them.

* Royal income was decided by a vote in the legislature.

* The legislature was one single assembly of 745 members which lasted for two years at a time.

* Each seat was voted for by active citizens, a new class which was established in a decree of October 1789.
These were men over 25 who paid tax equivalent to three days labour, approximately 4.3 million people.
However, these just elected a second group of citizens, who paid the equivalent of ten days labour in tax,
roughly 45,000 people. These then met in a further assembly to elect the legislative deputies, but only men
who owned land and paid 54 days worth of tax could be selecyed. Even at the time this looked at odds with the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and caused controversy.

* All venal offices were gone; instead all public offices were to be elected, even parish priests.

* The old legal system was swept away and replaced by a new system based around elected Justices of the
Peace.

* All the old administrative divisions of France were removed and replaced by 83 roughly equal departments
which were subdivided into districts and communes, all run by elected councils. Government was now
dependant upon thousands of elected officials.

* Cities were divided into sections, each with their own assembly. Paris had 48.

* Jews and Protestants were given the same rights as Catholics and allowed to stand for election, although the
motion allowing Jews was only narrowly passed.

* Tithes, vestry frees and pluralism were banned; instead the clergy were to be paid a salary from the national
coffers.

* All local militias were brought under the umbrella of the National Guard. A national uniform was introduced
and only active citizens were allowed to join.

* On June 19th 1890 nobility and all associated titles and awards were banned.

* Most old taxes were abolished, to be replaced with a new land tax, as well as taxes on movable items and
profits. There were to be no exceptions. While the old taxes were supposed to be collected as the new system
was put in place, many refused to pay.

* Church lands were nationalised, mainly as a way to help pay off the huge debts which the revolutionary
government had both inherited from the old regime and run up itself (compensation payments to the holders of
venal offices alone ran to 800 million livres).

Much was sold off, mainly to the bourgeoisie.

* Assignats, which quickly became a source of paper money, were issued based on the church lands.
* Monasteries and convents were abolished.

5. The Republican Revolution 1792

The Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly first sat on October 1st 1791. With the clerics and nobles of the National Assembly
almost all gone the new legislature was dominated by bourgeois lawyers who had risen to local political
prominence during the early days of the revolution. The Assembly faced two immediate problems. The first
was the widespread refusal of the refractory priests to conform: around half had refused to take the oath, a
figure which in the Vendee area of France rose to nine in every ten.

The second were the actions of the émigrés, the nobles who had fled France and were agitating for action
against the new order by Europe’s monarchs. There was widespread concern in France that the émigrés would
return at the head of foreign armies, a fear only enforced by the Declaration of Pullnitz on August 24th 1791 by
Austria and Prussia. This stated that the fate of the King of France was a matter of shared interest among
European monarchs.

The king wasn't initially a problem; he had begun integrating back into the new regime after his flight. This was
largely due to the members of the Feuillant club who hoped to build a stable France around the monarch and
worked with him on speeches and decisions. The Feuillants were initially successful, their numbers swelling far
more than the rival Jacobins as the Assembly’s new delegates arrived in Paris. However, the Feuillants held
their meetings behind closed doors, in sharp contrast to the republican leaning Jacobins who welcomed the
public in. Reputations could be made and lost in public debate and the ambitious orators of the era joined the
Jacobins. After a while Feuillant numbers declined.

The 'honeymoon' period between the king and Legislative Assembly didn’t last long. After debate began in the
Jacobin club the Assembly passed a decree against the émigrés, stating that all Frenchmen abroad were
suspected of plotting against the nation and that they should return by January 1st 1792 or be tried for capital
crimes. In addition all their revenues were seized. However, on November 11th 1791 the king refused to pass
the decree. He had the right to do this, using the veto he’d been given under the terms of the new constitution
and he issued a statement drafted by Feuillants arguing for persuasion instead of threats to the émigrés. This
only deepened suspicions that the king secretly supported the émigrés and Austrian 'intervention'.

Further problems arose over a decree aimed at the refractories. On November 29th it was ruled that all non-
jurors had to take a new civic oath. Those who refused were to be denied the pension they'd been given after
refusing the previous oath, creating a class of 'double refractories'. The King vetoed this on December 19th.

The Path to War

The king rescued some of the goodwill he had lost over émigrés and refractories when he passed a call to
threaten the electors of Trier and Mainz with war if they didn't expel the émigrés from their lands. The king liked
the idea of war because it might cause successful Austrian armies to march in and rescue him, while the
Assembly wanted war to crush the émigrés and their power bases. Indeed, large sections of French society
were in favour of war. Many hoped to break the unpopular alliance with Austria and ‘teach them a lesson’,
others wanted a war to deter foreign interference in French affairs. Military leaders hoped it would bring new
life to an army decimated by the many absences in its officer corps caused by them fleeing abroad; some
hoped a military dictatorship might follow. Some Assembly members wanted a war so they could identify and
punish traitors, in particular counter revolutionaries and refractories. Hopes were high that war would unite
France.

As the nation readied itself for war the electors of Mainz and Trier caved in and expelled the émigrés. For the
Jacobins and their most vocal pro-war members, in particular Brissot – who described an alliance of old regime
monarchs ready to crush the revolution – this wasn’t enough. So many had decided that war was the right way
forward that the king was heavily petitioned to threaten war with Austria unless they publicly declared peace
with France. The king, still hoping for a war which would aid him, agreed and on April 20th 1792 Louis XVI
announced that France was at war with Austria. He promised a defensive war, not one of conquest or
domination, but of free peoples against aggressive enemies. Europe wide conflict followed.

The Sansculottes

The Revolutionary War would radicalise the revolution, but for the first few weeks France and the Legislative
Assembly seemed united. It was during this period that the Guillotine, the greatest physical symbol of the
revolution, was first used. However the war swiftly began to go wrong and initial defeats led everyone to blame
everyone else. Paranoid and reactionary laws were passed, such as on May 18th when all foreigners in Paris
were put under surveillance. No one was allowed to leave the city without written permission. The king also
began vetoing more legislation and sacking ministers who criticised him, including Brissot and a group called
the Girondins.

These events further inflamed the sectional assemblies of Paris who were already frantic over food shortages.
On June 20th between ten and twenty thousand armed protestors marched to the Tuileries in protest, declaring
that they were 'sans culottes', ordinary patriots without noble clothing. They marched right into the kings
chambers and filed past him for two hours making demands. The king refused them all.

The Fall of the King

While the march of the sansculottes failed in the short term, there power had been obvious and Paris sections
began working together to form a Republican revolt, some making a petition for the king's immediate
deposition. Alarmed courtiers began openly carrying arms; both sides were readying themselves for a further
confrontation. In addition, National Guardsman from across the nation were now arriving to take part in a
parade on the Champ de Mars. Many were drafted in to support the Jacobins, the sectional assembly and their
republican ideas. There was talk across Paris of storming the king’s rooms and declaring a republic.

On July 28th news reached Paris that the Duke of Brunswick had issued a statement threatening Paris with
'forever memorable vengeance' if the King was harmed, an act which caused the Legislative Assembly to arm
all of Paris' citizens, not just the 'active' ones who formed the National Guard. They also agreed to discuss the
issue of deposing the king on June 9th. In reality the Assembly was losing control of Paris and the movement,
which Brissot and his fellows had hoped would force the king to reinstate them, had developed a massive
momentum for removing the king entirely.

When the 9th came the central committee of the Paris sections seized power, declaring itself an
insurrectionary commune and ordering all the National Guard to march to the Tuileries.

They did. There they arrived to find that the king had fled to the Legislative Assembly, but they also found the
palace guard, around 2000 National Guardsman and 900 Swiss guards. The National Guardsman immediately
switched and joined their fellows on the commune’s side, but the Swiss opened fire, were attacked and
massacred. The royal palace thus fell and with it the last vestiges of royal power. Crowds across Paris
attacked royal symbols.

The Legislative Assembly responded by declaring the monarchy suspended until a National Convention (which
would replace the legislative assembly) had met to decide the future, restoring the ministers and making a
sectional politician called Danton Minister of Justice.

Power Struggle and the September Massacres

In practice the Insurrectionary Commune had taken power from the Legislative Assembly and they now
followed a threefold agenda: revenge on those who has aided the king, action against refractory priests and
action against Lafayette who they blamed for the Champs de Mars massacre and suspected of seeking power;
he fled to Prussia. Suspicions, arrests and paranoia were rampant. On August 1st a tribunal was set up to try
those suspected of political crimes and it was soon sending people to the guillotine but the commune grew
frustrated with the perceived lack of speed.

Danton ordered a search of all Parisian dwellings for hidden weapons and suspects leading to 3000 more
arrests. The Assembly passed a decree giving all those who had not taken an oath a fortnight to leave France
or face deportation, while sansculottes began arresting clergymen.

Meanwhile the Assembly tried to nullify the commune by calling new sectional elections, but this outraged the
sections’ supporters and the commune refused to disband. Marat, a bloodthirsty writer whose solution to most
problems was massacre, now rose to prominence as his works struck a cord.

On September 2nd news reached the capital that the last major fortress before Paris had fallen to the
Prussians. The response was at first spontaneous attacks on prisoners whom people were afraid would be
freed from prison and leave a counter-revolution at the head of Prussian armies. This developed over the
afternoon as the commune took control to organise a massacre of half the prisoners in Paris via hastily
convened ad hoc courts. Political and common criminals alike died, perhaps over 1500.

The National Convention

The National Convention was called on August 10th 1792 and was to be elected by universal manhood
suffrage. It was to have 749 deputies and elections were held on August 27th and, crucially for the result,
September 2nd. Only one in four of the electorate actually voted and less than half of the Legislative Assembly
were returned. Brissot and the Girondins were voted in, as were Danton, Marat and Robespierre and members
of the Paris commune. Like its predecessors the Convention was dominated by bourgeois lawyers, many of
which were anti-king and pro-republic. There were fewer nobles and clergy than ever before.

The Abolition and Execution of the King

On September 21st 1792 the Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic; when the
country later introduced the revolutionary calendar, this was day 1. This soon led to a debate about what to do
with the king. Many Girondins wanted to keep him as a prisoner, perhaps to be used as a bargaining tool in the
wars, although many Jacobins suspected the Girondins of wanting the option to restore the monarchy. Another
group, at whose core was the commune and Parisian deputies and who became known as the Montagnards,
wanted him executed. Indeed, they argued that a trial was unnecessary as the king had already been tried by
the French people.
A motion by Petion was passed to try the king before the Convention itself, and the former King Louis XVI was
indicted in December 1st, with the trial beginning on December 26th.

There was only ever going to be one verdict and on January 15th 1793 693 out of 749 deputies voted him
guilty. Any other result would have brought the sansculottes out again. An appeal took place, gaining 310 votes
against execution but 380 votes for and Louis was executed by guillotine on January 21st 1793. The old
regime was wholly and irreversibly ended, while France's enemies across Europe became more firmly set on
their course.

6. Purges and Revolt 1793

The Convention Divided

The National Convention, sat as it was in Paris, was still very much at the whim of the Paris Commune and the
Parisian sanculottes, who had already demonstrated the power they could wield if organised effectively. The
National Convention itself had originally been an idea of the Paris Commune and the first few months were
dominated by argument between the Montagnards, the Parisian faction in the Convention, and the Girondins,
who largely came from the provinces.

These sat to the left and right of the Convention and everyone in the middle, not affiliated with either faction,
became known as the Plain. The Girondins railed against the perpetrators of the September massacres and
believed the Montagnards wanted to use the people of Paris to gain further powers, while some Montagnards,
in particular Marat, openly called for a dictator to lead France. There were suspicions he meant Robespierre.
Soon every issue in the Convention was coloured by their clashes.

As the wars began to turn once again against France groups in Paris began to agitate for the creation of a
tribunal to try traitors, and by traitors they meant Girondins. One was created by the Convention, who in the
same session agreed to send deputies on mission to all departments to 'explain' and organise emergencies
measures for war. This was followed by attacks on Girondin printers and an attempt at a full scale uprising
aimed at persuading the Convention to arrest general, ministers and deputies of dubious reputation and again
they meant largely Girondins. While the commune and National Convention refused to take part in the purge
and it failed, it created both a precedent and a clear method for cleansing the Convention.

The Provinces Rebel

On February 24th the Convention ordered a levy of 300,000 men to help with the wars. This was to be raised
through volunteers primarily and conscription if needed. Recruitment went well in the southeast, east and near
Paris, near the armies of France's enemies, but it caused violent resistance in several areas, especially the
Vendée.

Here locals were angered by their men going away to fight for a war they hadn’t supported on the command of
a revolutionary government with which they were increasingly growing at odds, especially when it came to
refractory priests and the bourgeois buying church land. They were also angry that the bourgeois office holders
were exempt because of those offices and that the National Guard, all bourgeois, didn’t have to go as they
formed the local defences. Resentment which had built up over the years exploded.

Other areas rose, but these were at first initially put down. In the Vendée however, peasant mobs stormed
towns, resisted armies and began to organise. By March 13th there were 10,000, many involved in a guerrilla
war. The king became a rallying point, royal symbols were adopted and rebels soon proudly proclaimed
themselves as catholic and royalist. As the rebels took town after town their numbers swelled to perhaps
45,000. An entire region inside France was now at war.

Marseilles was the first city to rebel. Local Jacobins had formed their own Revolutionary Tribunal, pushed
through forced loans, disarmament and generally alienated the majority. When a Montagnard deputy arrived
and supported the local Jacobins sections of Marseille copied the Paris example, formed a commune and
expelled the Jacobins. Lyons followed, as did other citied. Unlike the mainly peasant rebels of the Vendée,
these cities had their Montagnard leaders overthrow by a mixture of bourgeois and urbanites, rebelling against
the dictatorial and radical elements now ruling the revolution in Paris.

The Committee of Public Safety

As 1793 progressed the Montagnards pushed more and more of their proposals through the convention, many
emergency measures dealing with the wars. This included the creation of a new committee to provide quicker
and more effective legislative control. The old system, a series of ministers each backed up by a committee
was considered too unwieldy. On January 25th 1793 a twenty-five man Committee of Public Safety was
created, although when it first met on April 7th it had been cut down to nine men, each having to renew their
appointment each month. Danton was a member, but Robespierre turned down an invitation. The Committee
aimed "to implement the laws and controls necessary to strike 'Terror' into the hearts of counter-
revolutionaries." (Peter McPhee, The French Revolution, Oxford, 2002, p. 117-8)

The Purging of the Girondins

The Montagnards did not have things all their own way. The Girondins managed to get Marat impeached and
tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal, although he was found not guilty, and a mob of 8000 Parisian
demonstrators forced the introduction of a maximum price for grain. In addition power began to swing back to
the Girondins as Montagnards deputies left the Convention to travel across France and implement war laws.
This, coupled with Girondin threats to move the Convention away from Paris and bring in provincial armies to
counter the sanculottes finally convinced the Montagnards that the Girondins had to be purged.

A first attempt failed, partly over divisions about whether to dissolve the whole commune or just arrest a series
of deputies which had been named by the sections over previous weeks and partly because not enough of a
crowd gathered. A second attempt was made on June 2nd and this time the sansculottes came out in force,
persuading the National Convention to escalate a commune petition for arrest up to the Committee of Public
Safety. No deputy was able to flee thanks to thousands of National Guardsman and protestors around the
Convention and thirty deputies were arrested, including the Girondins. The Montagnards now dominated the
Convention.

The purge was followed by the Committee of Public Safety making a concerted attempt to undermine the
commune, which included the drafting of a new constitution, largely by Robespierre. There was again a one
chamber legislature elected by manhood suffrage, and this would elect an executive council. It also included a
long statement of rights, including the right to resist oppression by insurrection.

The Federalist Revolt

Following the purge of the Girondins Bordeaux, home to many of them, rose in revolt. This was not counter-
revolutionary like in the Vendée, but mainly against the radical path the revolution was now taking, similar to
the rebellion in Marseille and Lyons, towns which had begun raising armies to defend themselves. Other cities
and sections across France soon followed, with local communes and committees of public safety taking power
from Jacobin and Montagnard leaders. There was even talk that the Convention had been abandoned by the
Paris Commune. As with the Vendée, however, the revolts were informed by strong local traditions.

However, the rebellions were still very divided and one major problem which hamstring them came directly
from their local outlook: the armies were reluctant to march on Paris to set the Convention free of the
sansculottes, they wanted to stay in the local area. The army of Marseille never passed beyond Avignon. In
Paris these revolts were seen as one large uprising, the Federalist revolt, and it was to be dealt with harshly.

The Constitution is Suspended

The constitution was passed in a national vote and a motion was proposed in the Convention to close itself
down and adopt the constitution. However, on June 13th Marat had been assassinated by Charlotte Corday,
who had come down from rebellious Caen. It had now occurred to the Montagnards and the Committee of
Public Safety that harsher action was needed to defeat the many crises facing France and on July 26th
Robespierre accepted a nomination to the Committee. He blocked the introduction of the constitution, feeling
that it guaranteed rights which were not conducive to winning the wars and crushing the revolts which faced
France. The constitution would remain suspended and the Committee of Public Safety would stay in charge.
Laws were passed making hoarding an offence punishable by death.

7. The Terror 1793 - 94

France in Turmoil

In July 1793 the revolution was at its lowest ebb. Enemy forces were advancing over French soil, British ships
hovered near French ports hoping to link up with rebels, the Vendée was a large region of open rebellion and
there were many Federalist revolts. Parisians were worried that Charlotte Corday, assassin of Marat, was only
one of thousands of provincial rebels operating in the capital. Meanwhile power struggles had begun in many
Paris sections between sansculottes and their enemies.

It got worse before it got better. While many of the Federalist revolts were collapsing under both local
pressures - food shortages, fear of reprisals, reluctant to march far – and the actions of Convention Deputies
sent on mission, on August 27th 1793 Toulon accepted an offer of protection from a British fleet which had
been sailing off shore, declaring themselves in favour of the infant Louis VII and welcoming the British to port.

The Terror Begins

While the Committee of Public Safety wasn't an executive government – on August 1st 1793 the Convention
refused a motion calling for it to become the provisional government – it was the closest France had and, over
the next year, it marshalled the nation's resources to meet and defeat the many crises. It also presided over
the bloodiest period of the revolution: The Terror.

Marat may have been killed, but people were still forwarding his ideas, chiefly that only the extreme use of the
guillotine against traitors, suspects and counter revolutionaries would solver the country's problems; they felt
terror was needed. The Convention deputies were increasingly heeding these calls. There were complaints
about a 'spirit of moderation' in the Convention and another series of price increases were quickly blamed on
'endormers', or 'dozer' (as in sleeping) deputies.

On September 4th 1793 a demonstration for more wages and bread was quickly turned to the advantage of
those calling for terror, and they returned on the 5th to march to the Convention. Chaumette, backed by
thousands of sansculottes, declared that the Convention should tackle the shortages by a strict implementation
of the laws.
The Convention agreed, and in addition voted to finally organise the revolutionary armies people had agitated
for over previous months to march against the hoarders and unpatriotic members of the countryside, although
they turned down Chaumette’s request for the armies to be accompanied by guillotines on wheel for even
swifter justice. In addition Danton argued that arms production should be increased until every patriot had a
musket, and that the Revolutionary Tribunal should be divided so as to make it quicker. The sansculottes had
once again forced their wishes onto and through the Convention; terror was now in force.

Execution

Over the following weeks radical action was taken. On September 17th a Law of Suspects was introduced
allowing for the arrest of anyone whose conduct suggested they were supporters of tyranny or federalism, a
law which could be easily twisted to affect just about everyone in the nation. There were also laws against
nobles who had been anything less than zealous in their support for the revolution. A maximum was set for a
wide range of food and goods and the Revolutionary Armies formed and set out to search for traitors and crush
revolt. Even speech was affected, with 'citizen' becoming the popular way of referring to others; not using
citizen was a cause for suspicion.

Indeed, the laws passed during the Terror went beyond simply tackling the various crises. The Bocquier Law of
December 19th 1793 provided a system of compulsory and free state education for all children aged 6 – 13,
albeit with a curriculum stressing patriotism. Homeless children also became a state responsibility, and people
born out of wedlock were given full inheritance rights. A universal system of metric weights and measurements
was introduced on August 1 1793, while an attempt to end poverty was made by using ‘suspects’ property to
aid the poor.

However, it is the executions for which the Terror is so infamous, and these began with the execution of a
faction called the enrages, who were soon followed by the former queen, Marie Antoinette, on October 17th
and many of the Girondins on October 31st. Around 16,000 people (not including deaths in the Vendée, see
below) went to the guillotine in the next nine months as the Terror lived up to its name, and around the same
again also died as a result, usually in prison.

In Lyons, which surrendered at the end of 1793, the Committee of Public Safety decided to set an example and
there were so many to be guillotined that on December 4th-8th 1793 people were executed en masse by
cannon fire. Whole areas of the town were destroyed and 1880 killed. In Toulon, which was recaptured on
December 17th thanks to one Captain Bonaparte and his artillery, 800 were shot and nearly 300 guillotined.
Marseilles and Bordeaux, which also capitulated, escaped relatively lightly with only hundreds executed.

The Repression of the Vendée

The Committee of Public Safety's counter-offensive took the terror deep into the heart of the Vendée.
Government forces also began winning battles, forcing a retreat which killed around 10,000 and 'the whites'
began to melt away. However, the final defeat of the Vendée's army at Savenay was not the end, because a
repression followed which ravaged the area, burnt swathes of land and slaughtered around a quarter of a
million rebels. In Nantes the deputy on mission, Carrier, ordered the 'guilty' to be tied up on barges which were
then sunk in the river. These were the noyades and they killed at least 1800 people.

The Nature of the Terror

Carrier's actions were typical of autumn 1793, when deputies on mission took the initiative in spreading the
Terror using revolutionary armies, which may have grown to 40,000 strong. These were normally recruited
from the local area they were to operate in, and were usually comprised of artisans from the cities. Their local
knowledge was essential in seeking out hoarders and traitors, usually from the countryside.

Around half a million people may have been imprisoned across France, and 10,000 may have died in prison
without trial. There were also lynchings. However, this early phase of the terror was not, as legend recalls,
aimed at nobles, who made up only 9% of the victims; clergy were 7%. Most executions occurred in Federalist
areas after the army had regained control and some loyal areas escaped largely unscathed.

Dechristianization

During the Terror deputies on mission began attacking the symbols of Catholicism: smashing images,
vandalising buildings and burning vestments. On October 7th, in Rheims, the sacred oil of Clovis which was
used to anoint French kings was smashed. When a revolutionary calendar was introduced, making a break
with the Christian calendar by starting on September 22nd 1792 (this new calendar had twelve thirty day
months with three ten day weeks) the deputies increased their dechristianization, especially in regions where
rebellion had been put down. The Paris Commune made dechristianization an official policy and attacks began
in Paris on religious symbols: Saint was even removed from street names.

The Committee of Public Safety grew concerned about the counter-productive effects, especially Robespierre
who believed that faith was vital to order. He spoke out and even got the Convention to restate their
commitment to religious freedom, but it was too late. Dechristianization flourished across the nation, churches
closed and 20,000 priests were pressured into renouncing their position.

The Law of 14 Frimaire

On December 4th 1793 a law was passed, taking as its name the date in the Revolutionary Calendar: 14
Frimaire. This law was designed to give the Committee of Public Safety even more control over the whole of
France by providing a structured 'chain of authority' under the revolutionary government and to keep everything
highly centralised. The Committee was now the supreme executive and no body further down the chain was
supposed to alter the decrees in any way, including the deputies on mission who began to be sidelined as local
district and commune bodies took over the job of applying the law. All unofficial bodies were shut down,
including provincial revolutionary armies. Even the departmental organisation was bypassed for everything bar
tax and public works.

In effect, the law of 14 Frimaire aimed to institute a uniform administration with no resistance, the opposite of
that to the constitution of 1791. It marked the end of the first phase of the terror, a 'chaotic' regime, and an end
to the campaigning of the revolutionary armies who first came under central control and were then closed on
March 27th 1794. Meanwhile factional infighting in Paris saw more groups go to the guillotine and sansculotte
power began to wane, partly as a result of exhaustion, partly because of the success of their measures (there
was little left to agitate for) and partly as a purging of the Paris Commune took hold.

The Republic of Virtue

By the spring and summer of 1794 Robespierre, who had argued against dechristianization, had tried to save
Marie Antoinette from the guillotine and who had vacillated over the future began to form a vision of how the
republic should be run. He wanted a 'cleansing' of the country and committee and he outlined his idea for a
republic of virtue while denouncing those he deemed non virtuous, many of whom, including Danton, went to
the Guillotine. So began a new phase in the Terror, where people could be executed for what they might do,
not had done, or simply because they failed to meet Robespierre's new moral standard.
The Republic of Virtue was characterised by power being concentrated at the Centre, around Robespierre.
This included the closing of all provincial courts for conspiracy and counter-revolutionary charges, which were
to be held at the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris instead. Parisian jails soon filled with suspects and the
process was speeded up to cope, partly by scrapping witnesses and defence. Furthermore, the only
punishment it could give out was death. As with the Law of Suspects, almost anyone could be found guilty for
anything under these new criteria.

Executions, which had tailed off, now rose sharply again. 1515 people were executed in Paris in June and July
1794, 38% of which were nobles, 28% clergy and 50% bourgeoisie. The Terror was now almost class based
rather than against counter-revolutionaries. In addition the Paris Commune was altered to become docile to the
Committee of Public Safety and proscribed wage levels were introduced. These were unpopular, but the Paris
sections were now too centralised to oppose it.

Dechristianization was reversed as Robespierre, still convinced that faith was important, introduced the Cult of
the Supreme Being on May 7th 1794. This was a series of republican themed celebrations to be held on the
rest days of the new calendar, a new civic religion.

8. Thermidor 1794 - 95

The Fall of Robespierre

By the middle of 1794 people were beginning to turn against Robespierre, more convinced than ever that he
had designs on a dictatorship. Indeed, he seemed to be the heart and mouth of the Committee of Public
Safety, which was beginning to fragment between pro and anti Robespierre factions. Alarm grew over the laws
of Prairial 22nd, which extended the definition of what was illegal to include simply 'impairing purity' and the
anti-Robespierre forces in the Convention began to coalesce. People were also growing tired of the Terror,
longing for safety.

Robespierre even appears to have been aware of the forces growing against him, and on July 26th 1794 he
appeared before the National Convention and gave a speech which blamed and threatened members from just
about every committee in Paris and argued that they must be purged and the impurities crushed. To
Robespierre's enemies this was a turning point, a realisation that they had to act first or be killed. Fortunately
for them Robespierre had overestimated the strength of his support and on July 27th a motion was passed in
the Convention to arrest him and his supporters. It passed. A call went out to the Paris Commune to save him,
but a combination of factors had weakened it – the Terror had broken its power, the call was too sudden for
people to react and members were alienated by Robespierre's wage maximums – and it failed. On July 30th
1794 Robespierre was executed; 80 others followed him in the next 24 hours.

The White Terror

There followed in 1795 a year of revenge and reprisals against the agents of the terror, the terrorists, including
‘Muscadin’ mobs attacking anything pro-Jacobin, including plays and newspaper. Across the nation the
combination of a harsh, hungry winter and the relative freedom of the post-terror era led to a confused and
chaotic movement, the ‘White Terror’, a campaign of revenge against those who had taken part in the terror.
This didn’t use the guillotine but relied on lynch mobs and there were massacres of terrorist suspects who had
been taken into prison.

The End of Terror and the Fall of the Jacobins

The fall of Robespierre was followed by a swift change in the style of government. A motion was passed
forcing a quarter of all committee members to retire each month and stopping them from being immediately re-
elected, preventing one person from dominating a position for too long. The law of Prairial 1st was removed
and a motion was even proposed to close the Revolutionary Tribunal, although it failed to pass.

Furthermore many powers were taken away from the Committee of Public Safety and given back to different
committees. Suspects began to be released, with 3500 given liberty before the end of August. The maximum
was abolished and new deputies on mission were sent out to oversee the end of the terror in the provinces.
Many of the Jacobin reforms, including those on the poor and education, were also swept away. The Terror
thus came to a close in time for the second anniversary of the Republic, which was celebrated with relief.

Physical clashes soon arose between groups of well dressed anti-sansculottes called the Gilded Youth and
previous supporters of the terror, while verbal clashes began between the ‘Thermidorian’ deputies (those who
had ousted Robespierre) and Jacobins, who now became associated with the Terror and dictatorship. Indeed,
popular support turned against the Jacobins and on November 12th 1794 the Convention ordered the Jacobin
club shut. Former terrorists now faced imprisonment – Carrier, the butcher of Nantes, was investigated and
executed - while surviving Girondins were reinstated as members of the Convention. Federalists and émigrés
were allowed to return.

The Cult of the Supreme Being ended and churches were allowed to reopen. However, the convention formally
separated church and state and consequently 'cults' had to pay for themselves. While some saw this as more
dechristianisation, it was widely recognised as a step back to religious freedom. This was done partly to
appease the Vendee, which was heavily bloodied but still angry and insurgent; the Convention now tried to
stop the rebellion by offering amnesties for anyone handing in arms and giving into to demands, such as no
conscription laws and the return of land.

This period also saw one of the last attempts by Parisians to influence the Convention. It started when bread
supplies fell low in March 1795 and royalists emerged from their long silence to proclaim the republic a failure.
Others began to talk of the Terror's controlled economy, and a new uprising was planned demanding bread
and the constitution of 1793. There were attempts to march on the convention, but there wasn't the same level
of organisations which had allowed the sansculottes to dictate the revolution in 1792 and 93. Even so, on April
1st 1795 10,000 people marched on the convention but this time they were cleared by the National Guard.

1 Prairial and the End of Parisian Power

As 1795 continued the hunger in Paris got worse and the remnants of the sanculottes again agitated for a new
uprising which was planned for May 21th: 1 Prairial. A crowd gathered, marched on the convention and
murdered a deputy was called Feraud who was trying to get inside. The mob then got into the convention,
where they made many demands including, as before, bread and the constitution of 1793, but also the release
of prisoners and a new Paris Commune. The surviving Montagnard deputies, 'the Crest', decided to come out
in support of the crowd.

The National Guard arrived and threw the mob out of the Convention. Two large armed groups now stood
across from each other, but neither opened fire and, when the National Convention agreed to accept a petition
from the marchers, the mob accepted and dispersed. The Convention promptly ignored all the votes passed
while the mob was active and arrested the Crest, who were condemned to death. The Convention then
ordered the National Guard to surround the three sections which had supported the mob and work their way
through the populace, removing all arms. They also demanded Feraud's killers, who where handed over and
executed. The sansculottes were finished as a popular force.

By now it had agreed that the Constitution of 1793, linked to Robespierre and mobs, would have to be totally
reworked. Some, who had hoped for a return to monarchy, had their hopes dashed as the child Louis XII died
and the adult next in line proclaimed himself Louis XVIII, but stated he wanted a return to the three orders and
the Estates General. This was not acceptable; a new constitution would have to be drawn up.

9. The Directory, the Consulate and the End of Revolution 1795 - 1802

The Constitution of Year III

With the Terror over, the French Revolutionary wars once again going in France's favour and the stranglehold
of the Parisians on the revolution broken, the National Convention began to devise a new constitution. Chief in
their aims was the need for stability. The resulting constitution was approved on April 22nd and was once
again begun with a declaration of rights, but this time a list of duties was also added.

All male taxpayers over 21 were 'citizens' who could vote, but in practice the deputies were chosen by
assemblies in which only citizens who owned or rented property and who paid a set sum of tax each year could
sit. The nation would thus be governed by those who had a stake in it. This created an electorate of roughly a
million, of which 30,000 could sit in the resulting assemblies. Elections would take place yearly, returning a
third of the required deputies each time.

The legislature was bicameral, being comprised of two councils. The 'lower' Council of Five Hundred proposed
all legislation but did not vote, while the 'upper' Council of Elders, which was composed of married or widowed
men over forty, could only pass or reject legislation, not propose it. Executive power lay with five Directors,
which were chosen by the Elders from a list provided by the 500. One retired each year by lot, and none could
be chosen from the Councils. The aim here was a series of checks and balances on power. However, the
Convention also decided that two-thirds of the first set of council deputies had to be members of the National
Convention.

The Vendémiaire Uprising

The two-thirds law disappointed many, further fuelling a public displeasure at the Convention which had been
growing as food once again became scarce. Only one section in Paris was in favour of the law and this led to
the planning of an insurrection. The Convention responded by summoning troops to Paris, which further
inflamed support for the insurrection as people feared that the constitution would be forced onto them by the
army.

On October 4th 1795 seven sections declared themselves insurrectionary and ordered their units of National
Guard to gather ready for action, and on the 5th over 20,000 insurgents marched on the Convention. They
were stopped by 6000 troops guarding vital bridges; they had been placed their by a deputy called Barras and
a General called Napoleon Bonaparte. A stand off developed but violence soon ensued and the insurgents,
who had been very effectively disarmed in the preceding months, were forced to retreat with hundreds killed.
This failure marked the last time Parisians attempted to take charge, a turning point in the Revolution.

Royalists and Jacobins

The Councils soon took their seats and the first five Directors were Barras, who had helped save the
constitution, Carnot, a military organiser who had once been on the Committee of Public Safety, Reubell,
Letourneur and La Revelliére-Lépeaux. Over the next few years the Directors maintained a policy of vacillating
between Jacobin and Royalist sides to try and negate both. When Jacobins were in the ascendant the
Directors closed their clubs and rounded up terrorists and when the royalists were rising their newspapers
were curbed, Jacobins papers funded and sansculottes released to cause trouble. The Jacobins still tried to
force their ideas through by planning uprisings, while the monarchists looked to the elections to gain power.
For their part, the new government grew increasingly dependant on the army to maintain itself.

Meanwhile sectional assemblies were abolished, to be replaced with a new, centrally controlled body. The
sectionally controlled National Guard also went, replaced with a new and centrally controlled Parisian Guard.
During this period a journalist called Babeuf began calling for the abolition of private property, common
ownership and the equal distribution of goods; this is believed to the first instance of full communism being
advocated.

The Fructidor Coup

The first elections to take place under the new regime occurred in year V of the revolutionary calendar. The
people of France voted against the former Convention deputies (few were re-elected), against the Jacobins,
(almost none were returned) and against the Directory, returning new men with no experience instead of those
the Directors favoured. 182 of the deputies were now royalist. Meanwhile Letourneur left the Directory and
Barthélemy took his place.

The results worried both the Directors and the nation’s generals, both concerned that the royalists were
growing greatly in power. On the night of September 3-4th the ‘Triumvirs’, as Barras, Reubell and La
Revelliére-Lépeaux were increasingly known, ordered troops to seize Parisian strong points and surround the
council rooms. They arrested Carnot, Barthélemy and 53 council deputies, plus other prominent royalists.
Propaganda was sent out stating that there had been a royalist plot. The Fructidor Coup against the
monarchists was this swift and bloodless. Two new Directors were appointed, but the council positions were
left vacant.

The Directory

From this point on the 'Second Directory' rigged and annulled elections to keep their power, which they now
began to use. They signed the peace of Campo Formio with Austria, leaving France at war with just Britain,
against whom an invasion was planned before Napoleon Bonaparte led a force to invade Egypt and threaten
British interests in Suez and India. Tax and debts were revamped, with a 'two-thirds' bankruptcy and the
reintroduction of indirect taxes on, among other things, tobacco and windows. Laws against émigrés returned,
as did refractory laws, with refusals being deported.

The elections of 1797 were rigged at every level to minimise royalist gains and support the Directory. Only 47
out of 96 departmental results were not altered by a scrutinizing process. This was the coup of Floréal and it
tightened the Director's grip over the councils. However, they were to weaken their support when their actions,
and the behaviour of France in international politics, led to a renewal of war and the return of conscription.

The Coup of Prairial

By the start of 1799, with war, conscription and action against refractory priests dividing the nation, confidence
in the Directory was bring about the much desired peace and stability was gone. Now Sieyès, who had turned
down the chance to be one of the original Directors, replaced Reubell, convinced he could effect change. Once
again it became obvious the Directory would rig the elections, but their grip on the councils was waning and on
June 6th the Five Hundred summoned the Directory and subjected them to an attack over its poor was record.
Sieyès was new and without blame, but the other Directors didn't know how to respond.

The Five Hundred declared a permanent session until the Directory replied; they also declared that one
Director, Treilhard, had risen to the post illegally and ousted him. Gohier replaced Treilhard and immediately
sided with Sieyès, as Barras, always the opportunist, also did. This was followed by the Coup of Prairial where
the Five Hundred, continuing their attack on the Directory, forced the remaining two Directors out. The councils
had, for the first time, purged the Directory, not the other way round, pushing three out of their jobs.

The Coup of Brumaire and the End of the Directory

The Coup of Prairial had been masterfully orchestrated by Sieyès, who was now able to dominate the
Directory, concentrating power almost wholly in his hands. However he was not satisfied and when a Jacobin
resurgence had been put down and confidence in the military once again grew he decided to take advantage
and force a change in the government by use of military power. His first choice of general, the tame Jourdan,
had recently died. His second, the Director Moreau, wasn't keen. His third, Napoleon Bonaparte, arrived back
in Paris on October 16th.

Bonaparte was greeted with crowds celebrating his success: he was their undefeated and triumphant general
and he met with Sieyès soon after. Neither liked the other, but they agreed on an alliance to force constitutional
change. On November 9th Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother and president of the Five Hundred, managed
to have the meeting placed of the councils switched from Paris to the old royal palace at Saint-Cloud, under
the pretext of freeing the councils from the – now absent – influence of Parisians. Napoleon was put in charge
of the troops.

The next stage occurred when the entire Directory, motivated by Sieyès, resigned, aiming to force the councils
to create a provisional government. Things didn’t goquite as planned and the next day, Brumaire 18th,
Napoleon’s demand to the council for constitutional change was greeted frostily; there were even calls to
outlaw him. At one stage he was scratched, and the wound bled. Lucien announced to the troops outside that
a Jacobin had tried to assassinate his brother, and they followed orders to clear the meeting halls of the
council. Later that day a quorum was reassembled to vote, and now things did go as planned: the legislature
was suspended for six weeks while a committee of deputies revised the constitution. The provisional
government was to be three consuls: Ducos, Sieyés and Bonaparte. The era of the Directory was over.

The Consulate

The new constitution was hurriedly written under the eye of Napoleon. Citizens would now vote for a tenth of
themselves to form a communal list, which in turn selected a tenth to form a departmental list. A further tenth
was then chosen for a national list. From these a new institution, a senate whose powers were not defined,
would choose the deputies. The legislature remained bicameral, with a lower hundred member Tribunate which
discussed legislation and an upper three hundred member Legislative Body which could only vote. Draft laws
now came from the government via a council of state, a throw back to the old monarchical system.

Sieyés had originally wanted a system with two consuls, one for internal and external matters, selected by a
lifetime ‘Grand Elector’ with no other powers; he had wanted Bonaparte in this role. However Napoleon
disagreed and the constitution reflected his wishes: three consuls, with the first having most authority. He was
to be first consul. The constitution was finished on December 15th and voted in late December 1799 to early
January 1800. It passed.
Napoleon Bonaparte's Rise to Power and the End of Revolution Bonaparte now turned his attention to the
wars, beginning a campaign which ended with the defeat of the alliance ranged against him. The Treaty of
Lunéville was signed in France’s favour with Austria while Napoleon began creating satellite kingdoms. Even
Britain came to the negotiating table for peace. Bonaparte thus brought the French Revolutionary wars to a
close with triumph for France. While this peace was not to last for long, by then the Revolution was over.

Having at first sent out conciliatory signals to royalists he then declared his refusal to invite the king back,
purged Jacobins survivors and then began rebuilding the republic. He created a Bank of France to manage
state debt and produced a balanced budget in 1802. Law and order were reinforced by the creations of special
prefects in each department, the use of the army and special courts which cut into the crime epidemic in
France. He also began the creation of a uniform series of laws, the Civil Code which although not finished until
1804 were around in a draft format in 1801. Having finished the wars which had divided so much of France he
also ended the schism with the Catholic Church by re-establishing the Church of France and signing a
concordat with the Pope.

In 1802 Bonaparte purged – bloodlessly - the Tribunate and other bodies after they and the senate and its
president – Sieyès – had begun to criticise him and refuse to pass laws. Public support for him was now
overwhelming and with his position secure he made more reforms, including making himself consul for life.
Within two years he would crown himself Emperor of France. The Revolution was over and empire would soon
begin.

French Revolution Timeline

1. Pre-1789
A series of social and political tensions build within France, before being unleashed by a financial crisis in the
1780s.

2. 1789 – 91
The Estates General is called, but instead of bowing to the king it takes radical action, declaring itself a
Legislative Assembly and seizing sovereignty. It starts tearing down the old regime and creating a new France.

3. 1792
A second revolution occurs, as Jacobins and sansculottes force the creation of a French Republic. The
Legislative Assembly is replaced by the new National Convention.

4. 1793 – 4
With foreign enemies attacking from outside France and violent opposition occurring within, the ruling
Committee of Public Safety put into practice government by terror. Their rule is short but bloody.

5. 1795 – 1799
The Directory is created and put in charge of France, as the nation’s fortunes wax and wane.

6. 1800 – 1802

A young General called Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power, ending the Revolution and consolidating some of
its reforms.
Timeline of the Crusades: Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Crusades 1245 - 1300

July 11, 1244

Khorezmian Turkish horsemen launch an attack on Jerusalem. Khwarezmia is at this time a state located
around the Aral Salt Flats near the Caspian Sea.
August 23, 1244
falls to the Khorzmian horsemen who had begun attacking the city the previous month. Large numbers of the
city's inhabitants are slaughtered.
October 17, 1244
Battle of LaForbie: A large army of Crusaders is utterly destroyed by Muslims near Gaza. Egyptian forces are
commanded by Baibars, a Mamluk soldier who would later lead a revolt against the Egyptian Sultan and take
control of the region.
1245
King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) declares his intent to launch a Crusade against the Muslims in the Middle
East. By this point the Crusade against the Cathars in southern France is basically over and his relative
Alphonse was in charge in Toulouse.
1247
Traditional date for the death of Robin Hood.
1247
Egypt captures Jerusalem from the Khorezmians.
1248
Muslim control of Spain is reduced to the Kingdom of Granada which survives for over two more centuries.
1248 - 1254
The Seventh Crusade is led by King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis). The Great Khan even sends
representatives to Louis to let him know that he is willing to help in the conquest of the Holy Land and the
restoration of Jerusalem to Christian control - in reality, though, the Mongols were negotiating with both sides
and had no intention of helping anyone. In this, his first of two Crusades, Louis would end up capturing the
Egyptian city of Damietta, but it was given up as ransom when he himself was captured during the battle for
Cairo.
November 23, 1248
Ferdinand III of Castile captures Seville, Spain. Muslim control of Spain is reduced to the Kingdom of Granada
which would survive for over two more centuries.
June 06, 1249
King Louis IX of France reaches and occupies the Egyptian city of Damietta. Louis focuses first and foremost
on Egypt rather than sites in Syria because he hopes that this will provide a solid base from which to attack the
rest of the Holy Land.
November 1249
King Louis IX of France begins to march his troops from Damietta to Cairo.
February 08, 1250
Battle of al-Mansurah: Crusaders led by King Louis IX of France move from Damietta to Cairo along the Nile
River until they meet Emir Fakr-ed-din at the head of a army of 70,000 at Ashmoun Canal by the town of al-
Mansurah. This is the same spot where the Fifth Crusade had met defeat. After a standoff of six weeks, a local
Coptic Christian shows the Crusaders a way to cross the canal and in a surprise attack they route the
Egyptians still in their encampment. Unfortunately, the French choose to follow the fleeing Egyptians to al-
Mansurah despite the lack of reinforcements and they suffer heavy casualties in the process. Robert of Artois
(brother of Louis IX) and William of Salisbury (leading an English force) are both killed along with most of the
Knights Templar who had followed them.
April 06, 1250
Battle of Fariskur: King Louis IX is captured along with his army and ransomed in exchange for the surrender
of Damietta - the only real achievement of the Crusade. Louis is lucky to be released at all because the
difficulty with caring for the large numbers of prisoners led to the Egyptians executing many of them. This is the
final battle in the Seventh Crusade.
May 1250
Turanshah, the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt in a dynasty founded by Saladin, is murdered and replaced by his
Mamluk slave-general Aibek, founder the Mamluk Dynasty. King Louis IX would actually form an alliance with
the Mamluks shortly after this. The word "Mamluk" literally means "one who is owned," or "slave," a reference
to the fact that the Mamluks started out as slaves.
1251
The last of the Egyptian-based dynasties, the Mamluk dynasty, took over the caliphate until 1517 when Egypt
fell under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
1251
The "Crusade of the Shepherds" is launched.
1251
The last of the Egyptian-based dynasties, the Mamluk dynasty, takes over the caliphate until 1517 when Egypt
falls under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
1252
The Teutonic Knights capture the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda from local pagans. Lithuania would be access to
the Baltic Sea until the 20th century.
1253
Pagan leader Mindaugas of Lithuania agrees to convert to Christianity.
1253
Friar William of Rubruck visits the court of the Great Mongol Khan Mongke, creating a detailed description of
Mongol customs and beliefs before their conversion to Islam.
November 03, 1254
Death of John III Ducas Vatatzes, Byzantine emperor (Empire of Nicaea). He is succeeded by Theodore II
Lascaris.
1255
The Teutonic Knights build their stronghold of Königsberg.
May 1255
The last Cathar stronghold - an isolated fort at Quéribus - is captured.
January 1256
Hulagu, son of the Great Khan, wipes out the Assassins of Persia.
1258
Birth of Osman, founder of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. His father was Etrogrul, commander of a tribe of
Oghuz Turks near the Sea of Marmara.
February 10, 1258
The Abbasid period ends with the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols. The Mongols had tried and failed to
take Baghdad in 1245. Now, after a series of devastating floods, the city's defenses had been weakened, and
Hülegü, grandson of Genghis Khan, leads the victorious invasion - one which kills an estimated 800,000
citizens of the city. Thus begins a long period of economic, political, and cultural decline in Iraq that is only
overcome in the sixteenth century.
August 1258
Death of Theodore II Lascaris, Byzantine emperor (Empire of Nicaea). He is succeeded by John IV Lascaris,
just eight years old. Michael Palaeologus is made regent and later he makes himself co-emperor as Michael
VIII.
1259
The Great Khan dies.
1259
Battle of Pelagonia: Greek forces defeat the Latins of Achaea.
1260
Battle of Durbe: Lithuanians defeat the Livonian Teutonic Knights
September 03, 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut: The Mamluks of Egypt defeat the invading Mongols, thus preventing
any further Mongol advance into Egypt and North Africa.
October 23, 1260
Baibars, a Mamluk leader, is named Sultan of Egypt.
July 25, 1261
Michael VIII Palaeologus (1224 - 1282) finally drives the Latin rulers out of Constantinople and reestablishes
Eastern Orthodox rule after 50 years. To solidify his own position he has John IV Lascaris, last of the Lascaris
line and his co-emperor, blinded and thus rendered ineligible to become emperor.
1263
Mindaugas, first and only Christian king of Lithuania, is assassinated by his pagan cousin Treniota.
1265
Dante Dante Alighieri is born.
1265
Baibars, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, captures Caesarea and Haifa.
February 26, 1266
The Battle of Benevento takes place.
1267 K
ublai Kahn establishes the city of Beijing.
1267
King Louis IX of France, disturbed by the many gains of the Mamluks in Egypt, calls for a new Crusade.
1268
Baibars, Sultan of Egypt, captures the city of Jaffa.
May 18, 1268
The Mamluks of Egypt under the command of Sultan Baibars take the city of Antioch and kill most of its
inhabitants. The physical destruction of the city is so extensive that it would never again play an important
strategic or commercial role in the region, eventually being overtaken by the port city of Alexandretta
(Iskenderun).
August 23, 1268
The Battle of Tagliacozzo occurs.
1269
The Almohad (al-Muwahhidun) Dynasty falls. Taking the name "the Unitarians," this was a group of Berber
Muslims which had supplanted the Almoravid (al-Murabitun) Dynasty in 1147 and was inspired by the
teachings of reformist Berber scholar Ibn Tumart.
June 30, 1270
King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) leads the Eighth Crusade (his second Crusade) as an attack against
Tunisia.
August 25, 1270
King Louis IX of France dies in Tunisia while on the Eighth Crusade, his second Crusade. He is reluctantly
replaced by his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily.
1271
Marco Polo sets off to visit the court of Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan).
1271 - 1272
King Edward I of England launches the Ninth Crusade against Mamluk sultan Baibers. Edward had travelled to
Tunis to join Louis IX but arrived too late, so continued into the Holy Land on his own.
1271
Thomas Agni of Cosenza becomes the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
April 08, 1271
Mamluk sultan Baibars conquers the Krak des Chevaliers, headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Syria.
November 21, 1272
Edward returns home to England when he hears that his father Henry III has died.
October 1273
Death of Baldwin II, the last emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Baldwin's reign had effectively
ended when Michael VIII Palaeologus recaptured Constantinople in 1261, but European leaders continued to
recognize his claim. Once he dies, however, the Latin Empire of Constantinople also ceases to exist.
1274
Mongols, led by Kublai Khan, attempted to invade Japan.
May 07, 1274
In France the Second Council of Lyons opens.
May 18, 1274
The Second Council of Lyon issues its Crusade decree, Constitutiones Pro Zelo Fidei. At this same Council
Michael VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor, agreed to a unification of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman
Churches.
July 01, 1277
Baibars, Sultan of Egypt, dies.
September 1277
With the arrival of the Vicar of Charles of Anjou in Acre, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is split.
1279
Syrian leader Qalawun succeeds Baibars as Sultan of Egypt.
1280 Eyeglasses are invented and later improved upon in the late medieval period.
1281
Qalawun, Sultan of Egypt, defeats a Mongol army near Homs.
1283 - 1302
A Crusade against Sicilians and Aragonese is launched.
1284
The Teutonic Knights complete their conquest of Prussia, eliminating the local Prussian population as an
independent ethnic group. The Prussians would be assimilated by the Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians while
the Prussian name would be adopted by the Germans for themselves.
1285
French forces launch a Crusade against Aragon.
June 04, 1286 The Kingdom of Jerusalem is reunited under the rule of King Henry II of Cyprus.
April 26, 1289
Mamluks from Egypt capture the city of Tripoli.
1290
Margaret, Maid of Norway, dies and leaves a struggle for the throne of Scotland - 13 people claim title of King.
1290
Qalawun, Sultan of Egypt, dies and is succeeded by his son, Al-Ashraf Khalil.
May 18, 1291
Acre, the last territory in Palestine taken by the first Crusaders, falls to invading Muslim forces. Around 60,000
Christians are believed to have perished. This is the end of a Christian military presence in the Near East and
the task of spreading Christianity is left to friars who preach among the people.
July 1291
The Mamluks capture Beirut and Sidon.
August 1291 Crusaders are forced to evacuate their fortresses at Tortosa and Chateau Pelerin.
1292
Birth of John VI Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor who would allow Turkish military forces to first cross into
Europe in order to get their aid against a rival for the Byzantine throne.
1295
Mongol leader Ghazan Khan converts to Islam, ending the line of Tantric Buddhist rulers.
1296
Edward I of England deposes John Balliol from the Scottish throne, taking control of Scotland.
1297
At the Battle of Cambuskenneth, Scottish patriot William Wallace defeats an English army.
1298
The longbow revolutionizes warfare at the Battle of Falkirk.
1299
The city of Venice signs a peace treaty with the Turks.
1299 - 1326
Reign of Othman, founder of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. He defeats the Seljuks.
1300
The last Muslims in Sicily are forcibly converted to Christianity. Although Sicily had been reconquered by the
Normans in 1098, Muslims had been allowed to continue to practice their faith and even formed important
elements of various Sicilian military forces.

The Western View

The expansion of Islam and the Arab empire through the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century caused a note of
distress to the clergy of Christianity. The conquest of areas in the Christian Byzantium empire helped to spur
anger and resentment against Muslims. With an ever increasing population in the western world and the papal
state’s need for power and territory the Crusades was the end result. There were a series of campaigns
against Islam and against heretics and troublemakers in Europe itself.

They were led by kings, princes, knights and papal legates as well as by shepherds and hermits. Frequently,
they were under the control of the Church but in some instances they were not. The Church also offered many
incentives to encourage men to take the Cross and conquer the Muslims. There were altogether seven
crusades that were launched to conquer or regain land from the Arabs. However, while the Crusades began as
a move to conquer the Muslims, they became a battle within the Christian faith itself. Many of the Europeans
lost their values and religious beliefs and thus the Crusades became a time of re-identifying their faith.

The First Crusade in 1096 was sprung from Pope Urban II’s sermon in 1095. This was the only crusade that
the westerners successfully won. Future Crusades lacked disorganization and while many battles were won by
the western world, the eventual outcome had the Arabs at the head. However, with thousands of dead from all
faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, who was the real victor?

The Eastern View

"Regard the Franj! Behold with what obstinacy they fight for their religion, while we, the Muslims, show no
enthusiasm for waging holy war."-Salah Al-Din.*

To those of the Eastern world, the invasion of the Frankish people was not one of enlightenment. It was
instead an attempt to conquer a land that was for centuries in the hands of eastern civilizations ranging from
Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, and many more people of different ethnic descent. To the Muslims and the non-
Muslims of the east, the Crusades was a war of a barbarous nature that needed to be repelled. It was a war
against their faith and their customs. However, the decline of the Arab civilization soon after coming out
victorious in the Crusades suggests that there were deeper issues in the conflict between the west and east.
While the Crusades opened up new horizons and new trading areas for the west, the eastern world’s
establishments began to decline and deteriorate and the lands they conquered became lost in the political
power struggle between the Arabs.

Describe the social structure of France during the Old Regime?

France was a divine-right monarchy, in which the king's will was law.The society was organised into three
classes called Estates.This traditional political and social system of France is know as the Old Regime.

Social Structure of France:

First Estate.
consisted of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church
totaled less than 1 percent of population
still retained many privileges they had during Middle Ages
were exempted from taxes
could be tried only in Church courts
Church owned about a tenth of all French land
received enormous revenues from rents,taxes, and fees
most of this wealth was concentrated in higher clergy---archbishops,bishops,and abbots
some of these men had become lazy,worldly, and neglectful of their spiritual duties
they were targets of men like Voltaire, who aroused educated people against the Church
the lower clergy, made up of the parish priests,were poorly paid and overlooked

Second Estate.
consisted of nobles
totaled less than 2 percent of the population
many of them had specia; privileges that were carry-overs from medieval times
were exempted from the heaviest royal taxes
collected feudal dues of various kinds from the peasants
held the highest positiions in the army and government
as a class they were thoughtless,irresponsible,and extravagent.

Third Estate

all other people of France belonged to the Third Estate

totaled 97 percent of the population

Subdivision of Third Estate.

Bourgeeoisie were at the top

they were city-dwelling middle class
made up of merchants,manufacturers,doctors, and lawyers
many were people of wealth and education

below bourgeoise were the manual woekers-laborers and artisans-of the cities
recieved low wages
lived in poor, crowded quarters

At the bottom of the social scale and poorest of all were the serfas and the peasants
they paid the heaviest taxes and Church tithes
worked long and hard, lived in ignorance
only state taxes alone deprived them of half of their yearly income

Conclusion:

In the world of late 1700's, the three Estates of the Old regime represented a social structure that was outdated
and unrealistic.
Those who benifited from it resisted even minor changes in the system.
Those who opposed it grew increasingly bitter
change came suddenly and violently in 1789.

Why did discontent grow in France beginning about the mid-1700's?

Inequality in the social system and inefficiency in government exited in France for a lond time.Beginning about
the mid-1700's, however,discontent began to grow. There were two chief causes: bourgeoisie unrest and
financial difficulties.

Bourgeoisie Unrest:
One might expect that opposition to the social system of France would arise first among the oppressed
peasants, who bore heavy burdens, but this was not. rather, it began among the prosperous bourgeoisie.

middle class had become the most important economic group in France.
it owned nearly all of the productive wealth other than land.
it dominated trade,manufacturing, and banking.

Political grievances:
but the bourgeoisie did not have political power equal to their economic power
under the Old Regime they had no power at all
they resented the fact that they were socially inferior to the nobles or priests
Carnot (a bourgeoisie leader) said " the Old Regime drove us to revolution by giving us good education without
opening any opportunities for our talents."

Mercantilism:
Another cause of bourgeoisie discontent was mercantilism. When the Commercial Revolution was
beginning,businessmen had welcomed mercantilist ideas and practices.By the mid-1700's, however, these
ideas and practices were less popular. The bourgeoisie now disliked mercantilist regulations governing
wages,prices, and forgein trade.They also resented special monopolies granted to favored companies, and
government interference with merchant's freedom to buy in foreign countries.

Thinkers' Influence on Bourgeoisie:

A middles class such as the French bourgeoisie is not usually revolutionary. But the bourgeoisie were
influenced by such thinkers as Voltaire,Rousseau,and Montesquieu
The skeptical attitude of these writers toward privileged classes and traditional authority found an especially
warm welcome among the French

American Revolution's Influence on Bourgeoisie:

Another strong influence was the American Revolution.Its success had a profound effect on the thinking of the
French middles class.The Declaration of Independence, with its ideas about the equality of man and his right to
control his own government, became a vivid inspiration.

France's Severe Economic Trouble:

France was in severe economic trouble in the mid-1700's.

wars of Louis XIV had left a huge debt.
the debt increased more by French assistance to the United States during the Revolutionary War.
the extravagant French court at Versailles cost vast sums of money.

France's debt was not as large as that of Great Britain. The trouble was that, even with heavy taxes,
government revenues were always too low to meet expenses.Louis XV borroed more and more from the
bankers( bourgeoisie). Warned that his actions endangered France, the king remarked cynically, "It will last my
time," and "After me, the deluge."

The French Revolution (1789-99) violently transformed France from a monarchical state with a rigid social
hierarchy into a modern nation in which the social structure was loosened and power passed increasingly to
the middle classes.

CAUSES

There is considerable controversy over the causes of the Revolution. Marxist scholars emphasize material
factors: as the population increased, food supplies grew short; land had become divided into such small
parcels that most Frenchmen lived close to the subsistence level; and after 1776 agricultural recession forced
property owners to exploit their sources of revenue. Marxists also maintain that commercial prosperity had
stimulated the growth of a monied middle class that threatened the position of the established landed
aristocracy.
Other social historians emphasize the importance of the growing discrepancy between reality and the legally
defined social structure, which distinguished men by hereditary or acquired rank and recognized corporate
rather than individual rights. They also emphasize, however, the complexity of French society and question the
importance of capitalism.

Political historians usually regard the weakness of the monarchy as a crucial factor. Nominally, the benevolent
Louis XVI (r. 1774-92) was the absolute ruler of a united country. Actually, so many rights, or privileges, were
retained by provinces, towns, corporate bodies, the clergy, and the nobility that the king had little freedom of
action. Moreover, since offices in the legal and administrative system--and the noble rank that went with them--
could be purchased and bequeathed as property, a new aristocracy of ennobled officials had developed.
These men were able to monopolize profitable employment, to frustrate royal reforms, and to prevent the
monarchy from raising taxes to meet the ever-increasing costs of government and of war. Some writers
contrast the arbitrariness of the old regime with the desire, stimulated by the Enlightenment and the example of
America, for reforms and more participation in government; curiously, few historians have attached much
importance to the gradual growth of national consciousness.

The expense of the French participation in the American Revolution made fiscal reform or increased taxation
imperative after 1783. Since no further revenue could be raised from a peasantry already overburdened by
taxes and manorial dues, the royal ministers -- particularly Charles Alexandre de Calonne -- attempted to tax
all landowners regardless of privileges. When this plan met with resistance in the law courts and provincial
assemblies, the ministers tried to replace those bodies with more representative ones. In 1788 this led to the
Aristocratic Revolt, a wave of defiance of "despotism" that compelled the ministers to agree to convene the
States-General for the first time since 1614.

THE COURSE OF THE REVOLUTION

The Revolution of 1789

The first phase of the Revolution was marked by moral and physical violence. The States-General met in 1789
in Versailles but were paralyzed by the refusal of the Third Estate (the Commons) to meet separately as a
distinct, inferior body. On June 17 the Commons took the crucial revolutionary step of declaring their assembly
to be the National Assembly, thereby destroying the States-General. This first assertion of the sovereign
authority of the nation soon inspired a popular rising in Paris, marked by the storming of the Bastille on July 14.
Concurrently, urban and rural revolts occurred throughout France. Suspicions generated by the political crisis
had aggravated the discontent aroused by the failure of the 1788 harvest and an exceptionally severe winter.
The peasants pillaged and burned the chateaus of the aristocracy--an episode known as the Grande Peur
("Great Fear")--destroying the records of their manorial dues.

The National Assembly established a new legal structure by abolishing privileges, venality, and "feudal"
obligations (August 4); formulating a Declaration of Rights (August 26); and specifying basic constitutional
principles that left the king as the chief executive officer but deprived him of any legislative power except a
suspensive veto. Louis's reluctance to sanction these decrees led to a second Parisian uprising, the so-called
March of the Women. On October 5 a mob marched to Versailles and forced the king, who had to be protected
by the revolutionary national guard under the marquis de Lafayette, to capitulate. Louis and his queen, Marie
Antoinette, were moved immediately to Paris, followed by the Assembly. France thus became a constitutional
monarchy, and legal distinctions between Frenchmen disappeared; but the king was practically a prisoner, and
many people were permanently alienated by the pretensions of the Assembly and the prevailing disorder.

The Reconstruction of France

In 1789-91, a comparatively peaceful period, the National Assembly did much to modernize France. Despite
the Declaration of Rights, the reformed franchise still excluded the poor; but the public maintained its faith in
freedom and unity, as shown in the first Festival of Federation, a celebration of national unity on July 14, 1790.
Bankruptcy was averted by the confiscation of ecclesiastical land, and the church and law courts were
reconstructed to conform with a rational and uniform system of local government by elected councils.
Dissension nevertheless developed as several drastic changes, such as the reorganization of the church by
the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), followed in rapid succession. In 1791 the call for a clerical oath of
loyalty crystallized the conflict between the new sovereignty and traditional loyalties and split the whole
country.

When King Louis tried to escape from Paris (the flight to Varennes, June 20, 1791), civil war seemed imminent.
The Assembly, however, retained control. A Parisian crowd, which had assembled to demand a republic, was
dispersed by force on July 17, and Louis was reinstated after he had accepted the completed Constitution of
1791. The Revolution was then believed to be over, and the National Assembly was dissolved on September
30. In reality, however, religious and social strife had shattered the unity of the Third Estate.

The Revolution of 1792

In 1791-92 the hard-won constitution collapsed. On Apr. 20, 1792, the new Legislative Assembly declared war
on Austria, which it believed to be instigating counterrevolutionary agitation and thus launched the French
Revolutionary Wars. Louis, who looked to Austria for succor, vetoed emergency measures, and Austrian and
Prussian forces invaded France. Insurrection broke out in Paris. On August 10 the palace was stormed, and
Louis was imprisoned by a new revolutionary Commune of Paris. The Legislative Assembly, reduced to a
"patriotic" rump, could only dispute the Commune's pretensions and order the election by manhood suffrage of
a National Convention. Meanwhile, the invaders took Verdun, and alleged counterrevolutionaries were
massacred in the prisons of Paris.

Foundation of the Republic

Born of this second revolution and briefly favored by military victory, the National Convention horrified Europe
by establishing a republic (Sept. 22, 1792), inaugurating a policy of revolutionary war, and sending the king to
the guillotine on Jan. 21, 1793. It also appalled France by its own furious disputes. A militant minority, the
Montagnards, who spoke for Paris and the left-wing club called the Jacobins, demanded vigorous revolutionary
measures. Their opponents, the Girondist leaders of the amorphous majority, looked to the provinces and
hoped to consolidate the Revolution. In the spring of 1793, as the military and economic situation deteriorated
and a savage royalist rising began in the Vendee region of western France, the Montagnards gained ground.
Emergency bodies such as the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal were then
established, but unified leadership was lacking until the Parisian insurrection of June 2 compelled the
Convention to expel the Girondists and accept Montagnard control.

The Reign of Terror, 1793-94

The Montagnard Convention then had to contend with invasion, royalist civil war, and widespread provincial
revolts against "the dictatorship of Paris." Initially, Georges Danton tried to placate the provinces, and the
democratic Constitution of 1793 was approved by plebiscite and celebrated at a Festival of Unity (August 10).
After July, however, Maximilien Robespierre's influence prevailed, and armies were sent to subdue rebellious
cities. When the city of Toulon voluntarily surrendered to the British, a demonstration in Paris compelled the
National Convention to establish (September 5) the repressive regime known as the Terror. A fearful time
ensued: the Committee of Public Safety strove to organize the economy and the war effort; the Revolutionary
Tribunal sent state prisoners, including the Girondists, to the guillotine; and agents of the Convention known as
Representatives of the People enforced bloody repression throughout France. A campaign of
dechristianization, marked by a new Revolutionary Calendar computed from Sept. 22, 1792 (1 Vendemiaire,
Year I), led to the closing of all churches on 3 Frimaire, Year II (Nov. 23, 1793).

From December 1793, when republican armies began to prevail, both at home and abroad, the Terror became
identified with ruthless but centralized revolutionary government. Because dissidence was now classified as
counterrevolutionary, moderate Montagnards such as Danton and extremists such as Jacques Rene Hebert, a
leader of dechristianization, were guillotined early in 1794. The centralization of repression also brought
innumerable victims before the Revolutionary Tribunal, whose work was expedited by the draconian Law of 22
Prairial (June 10). As a result of Robespierre's insistence on associating Terror with Virtue, his efforts to make
the republic a morally united patriotic community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Finally, after a
decisive military victory over the Austrians at Fleurus (June 26), Robespierre was overthrown by a conspiracy
of certain members of the National Convention on 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794). After trying in vain to raise
Paris, the Robespierrist deputies and most members of the Commune were guillotined the next day, July 28.

The Thermidorian Reaction

During the ensuing period (1794-95) of the Thermidorian Reaction, government was so weakened that anarchy
and runaway inflation almost overwhelmed the republic. In the southeast the royalists conducted a "white
terror," and in Paris gangs of draft-dodgers, called la jeunesse doree ("gilded youth"), persecuted the patriots.
Twice, in Germinal and Prairial (April and May, 1795), there were desperate risings demanding "Bread and the
Constitution of 1793." Without the Montagnards and Jacobins, however, whose club was closed in November
1794, the sansculottes ("those without kneebreeches," the name given to extreme republicans) could achieve
nothing, and the Convention broke the popular movement permanently with the aid of the army. The death
(1795) of the imprisoned dauphin (titular King Louis XVII) and an unsuccessful royalist landing in Brittany also
checked the reaction toward monarchy, enabling the Convention to complete the Constitution of 1795. This
liberal settlement was approved by plebiscite, and it took effect after a reactionary rising in Vendemiaire (Oct.
5, 1795) had been suppressed by General Napoleon Bonaparte (the future Emperor Napoleon I) with what he
described as "a whiff of grapeshot."

The Directory, 1795-99

The Constitution of 1795 established an executive Directory, two assemblies, and a property owners'
franchise. Many provisions, including the initial derivation of two-thirds of the deputies from the Convention,
guarded the republic against any reversion to either democratic Terror or monarchy. The only attempt to renew
violent revolution, Francois Babeuf's communistic Conspiracy of Equals (May 1796), was easily thwarted; but
executive weakness and the annual election of one-third of the deputies made stability unattainable.

In 1797 the directors purged the parliament ruthlessly, branding many deputies as royalists and sentencing
them to the penal colony of French Guiana (called "the dry guillotine"). This coup d'etat of Fructidor
(September 1797) was a devastating blow to all moderates. Thereafter, although administration improved and
French power increased in Europe, coups against conservative or radical revivals occurred annually until 1799,
when the Abbe Sieyes, determined to strengthen central authority, enlisted the aid of Bonaparte to effect the
coup d'etat of Brumaire (November 9-10).
The Consulate, 1799-1804

The Constitution of 1799 established the Consulate with Bonaparte as First Consul. He used his power to
effect a remarkable reorganization of France, most notably reestablishing centralized control and restoring
Catholicism by the Concordat of 1801. Constitutional controls and republican institutions were nonetheless
steadily eroded until the creation of the First Empire (1804-15) ended the revolutionary period.

CONSEQUENCES

The most concrete results of the French Revolution were probably achieved in 1789-91, when land was freed
from customary burdens and the old corporate society was destroyed. This "abolition of feudalism" promoted
individualism and egalitarianism but probably retarded the growth of a capitalist economy. Although only
prosperous peasants were able to purchase land confiscated from the church and the emigrant nobility, France
became increasingly a land of peasant proprietors. The bourgeoisie that acquired social predominance during
the Directory and the Consulate was primarily composed of officials and landed proprietors, and although the
war enabled some speculators and contractors to make fortunes, it delayed economic development. The great
reforms of 1789-91 nevertheless established an enduring administrative and legal system, and much of the
revolutionaries' work in humanizing the law itself was subsequently incorporated in the Napoleonic Code.

Politically, the revolution was more significant than successful. Since 1789 the French government has been
either parliamentary and constitutional or based on the plebiscitary system that Napoleon inherited and
developed. Between 1789 and 1799, however, democracy failed. Frequent elections bred apathy, and filling
offices by nomination became commonplace even before Napoleon made it systematic. The Jacobins'
fraternal--and Jacobin-controlled--community expired in 1794, the direct democracy of the sansculottes was
crushed in 1795, and the republic perished in 1804; but as ideals they continued to inspire and embitter French
politics and keep right and left, church and state, far apart.

The Revolution nevertheless freed the state from the trammels of its medieval past, releasing such
unprecedented power that the revolutionaries could defy, and Napoleon conquer, the rest of Europe.
Moreover, that power acknowledged no restraint: in 1793 unity was imposed on the nation by the Terror.
Europe and the world have ever since been learning what infringements of liberty can issue from the concepts
of national sovereignty and the will of the people.

Was Napoleon Bonaparte the Saviour or the Destroyer of the Ideals of the French Revolution?:

With all the glory and the splendour that some countries may have experienced, never has history seen how
only only one man, Napoleon, brought up his country, France, from its most tormented status, to the very
pinnacle of its height in just a few years time. He was a military hero who won splendid land-based battles,
which allowed him to dominate most of the European continent. He was a man with ambition, great self-control
and calculation, a great strategist, a genius; whatever it was, he was simply the best. But, even though how
great this person was, something about how he governed France still floats among people's minds. Did he
abuse his power? Did Napoleon defeat the purpose of the ideals of the French Revolution? After all of his
success in his military campaigns, did he gratify the people's needs regarding their ideals on the French
Revolution? This is one of the many controversies that we have to deal with when studying Napoleon and the
French Revolution. In this essay, I will discuss my opinion on whether or not was he a destroyer of the ideals of
the French Revolution.
Certain individuals approved of Napoleon's reign as the saviour of France. He finished and completed the
Revolution by fulfilling the ideals the people of France demanded. A person such as one belonging to the
bourgeoisie, or even a peasant would be very satisfied with the way Napoleon ruled over the country. He gave
them equality, freedom, justice, and many rights. Such things never existed during the reign of the monarchs
before Napoleon stepped in. A banker too would be very affirmative on how Napoleon had truly helped France
in its economic problems. He made the franc the most stable currency in Europe, and the banker had
witnessed that, as probably one of the bankers of the Bank of France. Another type of individual that agrees
that Napoleon isn't the destroyer of the ideals of the Revolution would be his soldiers and generals. He had
fought alongside with his men in many battles. Through inspiration, he gained their loyalty, to "follow him to the
stars" if he asked them to. Such inspiration would never be gained if he never respected them, if he never
treated them fairly. And then, the "Legion of Honour", which awarded to some certain citizens for their civil and
military achievements. People like Jacques Louis David, the Pope, a lawyer, or even a student from a lycee
would support the fact that Napoleon didn't destroy the ideals of the French Revolution.

On the contrary, many individuals blamed Napoleon for betraying the ideals of the French Revolution. They
believed that he destroyed it by denying the French people the equality that they have waged the Revolution
for. One big issue was how the women were treated during his reign. That was one of the few examples that
the critics are criticizing Napoleon on. An individual such as Robespierre or Danton would have cut off
Napoleon's head, if we assume Napoleon was active during the Reign of Terror. The Sans-culottes would be
outraged by the fact that Napoleon was in agreement with Pope Pius VII to restore the Catholic religion and
make it as France's main religion. A republican would be against Napoleon for sure because his main idea was
to get rid of the monarchy. So as with the Jacobins, they would absolutely be against Napoleon's being the
Emperor of France.

The French Revolution belongs to one of the most significant chapters in the book of the World's history. The
revolution altered the Frenchmen's' lives from being oppressed to being free, from inequality to being equal,
and from being disjointed to being unified. Napoleon strengthened these ideals even more when he reigned.
However, critics argue over the fact that Napoleon is the destroyer of these ideals. Hereon, I will prove that
Napoleon is the saviour of France.

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity - this is the Revolution's battle cry, and of course, the main ideals of why they
waged the revolution. It is evident that this was what the people wanted. And Napoleon gave it to them. He
upheld the ideals of the French revolution. He satisfied their hunger for liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Liberty:

Perhaps one of the most important and lasting contributions that Napoleon gave to the French people was the
Civil Code or most widely known as the Napoleonic Code. This was written at a time in history when
discrimination was rampant. It was then that Napoleon decided to liberate and offer Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity to the Jews, Protestants, and other religions as well. He also opened the churches that were closed
for years. In this part of the essay, I will talk most about how and why he promoted freedom of religion.

Napoleon Bonaparte was never that deeply religious. He showed that to everybody during his coronation as
the Emperor of France: he took the crown from Pope Pius VII and placed it on his own head. That was a clear
indication that religion had nothing to do with Napoleon's coronation. He wanted to prove that France chose
him. But there was a contradiction to this when he allowed freedom of religion all over France. Why is this? Is
he that religious? We've just seen how he clearly showed to everybody that religion has nothing to do with him
being an Emperor. But, if we dig a little bit deeper, we can actually see that Napoleon didn't just think of himself
when he made such laws. He wanted not only the Frenchmen to be happy, but also the Jews and other races.
After he signed the Concordat, "churches of France reopened in April 1802, and the population of France
rejoiced in this rejuvenation of Sunday services." (Century of Change, p. 57.) What about Judaism and other
religions? Why did he allow that in France? It does not make sense, because he had nothing political to gain.
However, these unanswered questions were soon revealed in a private conversation Napoleon had with his
physician, Barry O'Meara, during his exile in St. Helena. The doctor asked why he was supporting the Jews.
And I quote from Napoleon,

"My primary desire was to liberate the Jews and make them full citizens. I wanted to confer upon them all the
legal rights of equality, liberty and fraternity as was enjoyed by the Catholics and Protestants. It is my wish that
the Jews be treated like brothers as if we were all part of Judaism. As an added benefit, I thought that this
would bring to France many riches because the Jews are numerous and they would come in large numbers to
our country where they would enjoy more privileges than in any other nation. Without the events of 1814, most
of the Jews of Europe would have come to France where equality, fraternity and liberty awaited them and
where they can serve the country like everyone else." (Napoleonic Scholarship: The Journal of the
International Napoleonic Society, Volume 1, Number 2, December 1998.)

That conversation Napoleon had with his physician alone proved undoubtedly that he actually promoted
equality, liberty, and fraternity for France and for everybody.
The Napoleonic Code perhaps is one of the most astounding and significant achievements that Napoleon
accomplished. It was through the Code that he promoted and strengthened the ideals of the Revolution.
Determined to unify France into a strong modern nation, he pushed for a single set of written laws that applied
to everyone. He made it clear, logical, and easily understood by everyone. This new code of laws applied
equally to all French citizens regardless of what position they were in the society. It recognized that all men
were equal in the eyes of the law. Not only were they equal before the law, but also, they were equal in
taxation. Every single citizen had to pay the exact amount of tax that everybody paid. This was another
example of equality among the people of France. However, there are always contradictions as to how
Napoleon promoted equality among all people.

Equality:

Equality - 'did Napoleon practice this fully during his reign?' critics might ask. What are the things that
Napoleon didn't do in regard to equality? Most people would say that he didn't protect the rights of women.
However, during Napoleon's time, man's concept on women was that they should be protected. And one way
of protecting them was not to give them too many responsibilities. Government involvement entails many
responsibilities. That is why women were kept from getting involved. To them, the women were tailored to be
homemakers and as such, should be sheltered from the dangers and problems that they might face if they
were in the outside world. If we just dig a little bit deeper, it is not that Napoleon didn't think about women, but it
is that he cared about them.

Fraternity:

Again, critics ask, 'what about fraternity?' Fraternity is brotherhood among men. They help each other out for
the good of one thing - and in Napoleon's case, it was for the good of France. Fraternity was well shown during
Napoleon's reign especially in his Grand Armee. These soldiers united together to defend France, to please
France, to give glory and magnificence to France. These soldiers didn't have to be in Napoleon's army. They
could have been businessmen, lawyers, merchants, and all the rest. They were never forced to join the Armee.
As one article in the Napoleonic code says, there is freedom to choose one's work. But what drove these
people to be involved in Napoleon's Grand Armee? One of Napoleon's soldiers quoted, "Faithful to our oath,
we have not abandoned your eagles, and we are now without a country!... Sire, I beg of you, give us back our
weapons..." - Jose Fernando (http://napoleonseries.org, 1995) Yes it was, brotherhood. It was for the love of
France. Such brotherhood was what made France a stronger and unified country. What else did make France
a stronger nation? It's the brotherhood of the people of France. Everybody's helping out. Everybody's
cooperating. Never in Napoleon's reign did the people revolt. They helped each other instead. All of these
things happened when Napoleon stepped on the throne.

Conclusion:

For this brilliant and ambitious man, who directed the destinies of France and Europe for some fifteen years,
emerged as a historical "hero," not a person doing only good, but also a person that altered the course of
history. No other figure, other than Caesar, Alexander the Great or Jesus Christ, has been the subject of more
biographies than Napoleon. There would be others like him, but none so successful and none so respected
historically. He gave France liberty by giving the Frenchmen rights, freedoms, and privileges that they asked
for. He gave France equality by giving the Frenchmen the right to be taxed equally and the right to be equal
before the eyes of the law. He gave France fraternity by unifying Her, by fighting for Her, and by helping each
other, for the best of France.

Napoleon's reign ended the French Revolution. He completed it by practicing its ideals, and giving it
administrative structure. His career was like that of a meteor, briefly lighting the night sky of France's history.
Napoleon Bonaparte is undoubtedly the saviour of France.

"There was an eye to see in this man (Napoleon), and a soul to dare and do. He rose naturally to be King. All
men saw that he was such." - Thomas Carlyle

Paper-2 (2000)

8. Write only the correct answers in the Answer Book. Don’t reproduce the questions.

(1) The treaty signed between the Allied forces and Austria was:

(a) The Treaty of Versailles (b) The treaty of St.Germain (c) The Treaty of Neuilly.

(2) Who was appointed as Chairman of Revolutionary War Council by Lenin in 1918.

(a) Stalin (b) Trotsky (c) Kerensky

(3) The Fort of Verdun is situated in:

(a) Belgium (b) Germany. (c) France

(4) The Battle of Somme was ,fought. in:

(a)1914 . (b) 1915 (c) 1916

(5) Foch was a:

(a) French Commander (b) German Minister (c) Russian Politician

(6) The Treaty of Trianon was signed in:

(a) 1919 (b) 1920 (c) 1921

(7) Clemenceau became the Prime Minister of France in:

(a) 1917 (b) 1918 (c) 1919

(8) Pichon was a:

(a} British Commander (b) Italian War Minister (c) French Foreign Minister

(9) Great Game, now forever discredited". These words were spoken at Paris Conference by:

(a) Clemenceau (b) Wilson (c) Orlando

(10) The Weimar Republic fell in:

(a) 1931 (b) 1933 (c) 1935

(11) The ship ‘Athenia’ sunk by German Torpedo. in. 1939 belonged to:

(a) France (b) Italy (c) Britain

(12) Blitzkrieg was :

(a) AnItalian War Operation (b) French war tactics (c) German War technique

(13) The Bold Proposal that Britain and France should become ~.one country was put-forward in 1940 by:

(a) Churchill (b) Petain (c) Paul Reynaud

(14) The judicial Organ of the League of Nations was called:

(a) International Court of Justice (b) United International Court of Justice (c) Permanent International Court of
Justice

(15) Graf Spree was a small battle-ship used by:

(a) Italy (b) Japan (c) Germany

(16) The author of the book "Europe in the Twentieth Century" is:
(a) D. Thompson (b) Agatha Ramm (c)Stuart. T. Miller

(17) "Russian Peoples.’ worst misfortune was his (Lenin’s) birth; their next worse- his death" This was stated
by:

(a) De Gaulle: (b) Churchill (c) Wilson

(18) Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii On:

(a) 7th December 1941 (b) 17th December 1941 (c) 27th December 194I

(19) Yalta Conference took place in:

(a) January 1945 (c) March 1945 (b) February 1945

(20) Greece joined NATO in: -

(a) 1951 (b) 1952 (c) 1953

Paper 1 (2000)

(A) Identify the following in short statements:

(1) Old Regime.

France before the French Revolution was a divine-right monarchy, in which the king's will was law.The society
was organised into three classes called Estates. This traditional political and social system of France is known
as the Old Regime.

(2) Josephine.

Joséphine de Beauharnais (23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus
the first Empress of the French.

(3) Waterloo.

The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his
Hundred Days' return from exile.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part
of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Napoleon
was defeated by combined armies of the Seventh Coalition.

(4) Pan-Slavisrn.
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus
was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire,
Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice.

(5) Mazzini.

Giuseppe Mazzini (22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872), the "Soul of Italy,"[1] was an Italian patriot, philosopher
and politician. His efforts helped bring about the modern Italian state[2] in place of the several separate states,
many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century.

(6) The Young Turks.

The Young Turks (Turkish: Jön Türkler (plural), from French: Les Jeunes Turcs), inspired by the Young Italy
(Giovine Italia), were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman
Empire. The movement was against the monarchy of Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the
short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution. They established the second constitutional era in 1908 with what would
become known as the Young Turk Revolution.

(B) Fill in the Blanks:

(7) Cordelier Club in France was led by ______

Georges Danton

(8) Robes Pierre died in ______

28 July,1794

(9) ______ was the Foreign Secretary of England in 1815.

Castlereagh

(10) The Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi was signed between Turkey and ______

Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1833, following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829.

(11) The first volume of Das Kapital was published in ______

1867

(12) Bismarck resigned in _______

March 1890
(C) Who made the following statements?

(13) "Men must be led by an iron hand in a velvet glove".

Napoleon

(14) "I have called a new world into existence to reduce the balance of the old".

George Canning

(15) "We shall finish the Piedmontese affairs as we did the Neapolitan".

Camillo Benso di Cavour

(16) "Out of mud (of Crimea) Italy will be made".

Camillo Benso di Cavour

(17) "Many paths led to my goal. I had to try all of them one after the other, the most dangerous at the end".

Bismarck

(D) Name the authors of the following books:

(18) An intellectual History of Modern Europe.

Marvin Perry

(19) The Age of Reason

Thomas "Tom" Paine

(20) The World Crisis.

Winston S Churchill

Paper-2,( 2001)

COMPULSORY QUESTION

8. Write only the correct answer in the Answer Book. Do not reproduce the questions.

(1) Wilson’s Fourteen Points were announced in:

(a) 1917
(b) 1918
(c) 1919
(d) None of these

(2) The treaty of Neuilly was made by the victorious powers with:
(a) Austria
(b) Hungary
(c) Bulgaria
(d) None of these

(3) Locarno Pact was signed in:

(a) 1925
(b) 1927
(c) 1930
(d) None of these

(4) The other name of the Kellogg Pact was:

(a) Pact of Berlin
(b) Pact of Paris
(c) Pact of Vienna
(d) None of these

(5) The Headquarters of the League of Nations stationed at:

(a) Paris
(b) Geneva
(c) Hague
(d) None of these

(6) “The Cadets” emerged as a strong political group in:

(a) Russia
(b) Germany
(c) Italy
(d) None of these

(7) On death, Lenin was replaced by:

(a) Trotsky
(b) Kerensky
(c) Stalin
(d) None of these

(8) Albania was annexed by Italy in:

(a) 1930
(b) 1935
(c) 1939
(d) None of these

(9) About whom Mussolini once boasted “mare Nostrum”:

(a) The Mediterranean Sea
(b) The Italian Army
(c) The Fascist Party
(d) None of these

(10) Germany annexed Austria in:

(a) 1932
(b) 1934
(c) 1937
(d) None of these

(11) The formation of the Berlin – Rome – Tokyo Axis was called “a great political triangle”. By whom?
(a) Hitler
(b) Mussolini
(c) Someone else

(12) The French Foreign Policy between the two World Wars mainly circled round the:
(a) German phobia
(b) Russian fear
(c) Italian danger
(d) None of these

(13) In 1940, the battle of Oran was fought between:

(a) England and France
(b) England and Italy
(c) England and Germany
(d) None of these

(14) The hero of the battle of El Alamein was:

(a) Gen. Eisenhower
(b) Gen. Montgomery
(c) Gen. Alexander
(d) None of these

(15) The author(s) of the Book “Europe Since Napoleon” is/are:

(a) E. H. Carr
(b) A. J. P. Taylor
(c) D. Thompson
(d) Derry and Jarman
(e) None of these

(16) The aircraft carrier “Courageous” sunk by the Germans, belonged to:
(a) France
(b) England
(c) Russia
(d) None of these

(17) The Atlantic Charter was issued on:

(a) August: 14, 1940
(b) August: 14, 1941
(c) August: 14, 1942
(d) None of these
(18) The Headquarters of the UNO are placed at:
(a) Hague
(b) Washington
(c) New York
(d) None of these

(19) The Marshall Plan was adopted in:

(a) 1645
(b) 1946
(c) 1947
(d) None of these

(20) Burma got independence from England in:

(a) September 1947
(b) January 1948
(c) March 1948
(d) None of these

aper-2, (2002)

COMPULSORY QUESTION

8. Write only the correct answer in the Answer Book. Do not reproduce the questions.

(1) What was the duration of the First World War?

(a) 1914 - 1917
(b) 1914 - 1918
(c) 1914 - 1919
(d) None of these

(2) At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919

(a) Clemenceau was the representative of France
(b) Wilson was the representative of UK
(c) Lloyd George was the representative of USA
(d) None of these

(3) The Treaty between the Allies and Turkey after the World War was called:
(a) The Treaty of Versailles
(b) The Treaty of Lausanne
(c) The Treaty of St. Germain
(d) None of these

(4) Great Britain declared war against Germany in 1939 because Germany had attacked:
(a) France
(b) Poland
(c) Austria
(d) None of these
(5) The Marshall Plan was announced in:
(a) June, 1947
(b) April, 1947
(c) September, 1945
(d) None of these

(6) The Social Democratic Party in Russia came to be divided into following tow Sections. Which of these was
headed by Lenin?
(a) Bolsheviks
(b) Mensheviks
(c) None of these

(7) Under Lenin, who raised the Red Army in Russia and was appointed as Commander of War?
(a) Stalin
(b) Trotsky
(c) Kerensky
(d) None of these

(8) Which British Prime Minister confronted problems after the Suez Crisis of 1956:
(a) Anthony Eden
(b) Harold Macanillan
(c) Clement Attlee
(d) None of these

(9) Mustafa Kamal Ataturk was President of Turkey for:

(a) Eight years
(b) Twelve years
(c) Sixteen years
(d) None of these( the correct answer is 15 years)

(10) Fascism rose in Italy:

(a) Before World War I
(b) During World War I
(c) After World War I
(d) None of these

(11) What is the name of the book written by Hitler while he was in prison giving an account of his life and
political ideas?

Mein Kampf

(12) What was the year when Germany withdrew from the League of Nations?
(a) 1933
(b) 1935
(c) 1936
(d) None of these

(13) In which of the following year the Second World War started?
(a) 1938
(b) 1939
(c) 1940
(d) None of these

(14) In which of the following year the Second World War came to an end?
(a) 1944
(b) 1945
(c) 1946
(d) None of these

(15) The Atlantic Charter of 1941 was drawn up between the leaders of which of the following countries?
(a) UK – France
(b) UK – USSR
(c) UK – USA
(d) None of these

(16) The Unites States of America entered the Second World War in:
(a) 1941
(b) 1942
(c) 1939
(d) None of these

(17) Name the first Three Secretary Generals of the United Nations.

1,Gladwyn Jebb
2,Trygve Lie
3,Dag Hammarskjöld

(18) Black Hand was

(a) Another name for Gestapo
(b) Marshal Joffre
(c) An off-shoot of Ku-Klux-Klan
(d) None of theseas (Black Hand was a military secret society founded in the Kingdom of Serbia on May 9,
1901.)

(19) “Tiger of France” was the epithet given to:

(a) Clemenceau
(b) Marshall Joffre
(c) de – Gaulle
(d) None of these

(20) Name the “Big Four” leaders who attended the Munich Conference held in 1938.
Chamberlain
Hitler
Mussolini
Daladier
Paper-1, (2003)

COMPULSORY QUESTION

8. Write only the correct answer in the Answer Book. Do not reproduce the questions.

(1) In __________ Napoleon was made emperor by the French.

(a) 1904
(b) 1806
(c) 1815
(d) 1789
(e) None of these ( the correct answer is 1804)

(2) Napoleon fled from:

(a) St. Helena
(b) Conscica
(c) Elba
(d) None of these

(3) The congress of Verona was summoned in:

(a) 1842
(b) 1862
(c) 1822
(d) None of these

(4) Talleyrand was __________ diplomat.

(a) British
(b) French
(c) Austrian
(d) Russian
(e) None of these

(5) The concordat and the codes remind of:

(a) Napoleon
(b) Bismarck
(c) Garibaldi
(d) None of these

(6) In the plebiscite of 1802 Napoleon was made first council for:
(a) Ten years
(b) Five years
(c) Life
(d) None of these

(7) Metternich become Chief Minister of ___________ in 1809.

(a) Prussia
(b) France
(c) Austria
(d) None of these

(8) Carlsbad decrees of 1819 related mainly to the activities of:

(a) Factory owners and Labourers
(b) Teachers and students
(c) Landlords and Peasants
(d) None of these

(9) Zollverein was a:

(a) Labour Union
(b) Customs Union
(c) Students Union
(d) None of these

(10) Victor Emmanuel was a freedom fighter and leader of:

(a) Germany
(b) Austria
(c) Italy
(d) None of these

(11) Bulgaria was reduced in size by the:

(a) Treaty of Berlin
(b) Treaty of San Stefano
(c) Treaty of Vesona
(d) None of these

(12) Duma is the name of the Parliament of:

(a) France
(b) Denmark
(c) Russia
(d) None of these

(13) Austro-German Alliance was primarily against:

(a) France
(b) Prussia
(c) Russia
(d) None of these

(14) Triple Alliance 1882 comprised Germany Italy and:

(a) Austria
(b) France
(c) Turkey
(d) None of these

(15) Triple Entente comprised Great Britain, Russia and:

(a) France
(b) Germany
(c) Turkey
(d) None of these
(16) In the Battle of Trafalgar _______ was the admiral of British fleet.
(a) Duke of Wellington
(b) Nelson
(c) Edward
(d) None of these

(17) Piedmont played pivotal role in the unification of:

(a) Germany
(b) Serbia
(c) Russia
(d) None of these ( The correct answer is Italy)

(18) The acquisition of Lombardy was the first step in the unification of
(a) Italy
(b) Germany
(c) Russia
(d) None of these

(19) In the Congress of Vienna all European States except the following:
(a) Austria
(b) Russia
(c) Turkey
(d) None of these

(20) ________ was known as the sickman of Europe

(a) Italy
(b) Turkey
(c) Russia
(d) Greece
(e) None of these