Chapter 25 Part2

Kevin Zheng November 30th, 2007 European History 6th Period Chapter 25 Outline – Part Two D. The Reign of Terror and It’s Aftermath 1. Committee of Public Safety i. Committee of public safety was to perform the executive duties of the government ii. Major problem: secure domestic duties for the war iii. IN early June 1793 the Parisian sans-culottes invaded the Convention and secured the expulsion of the Girondist members iv. August 23 saw a levee en masse, or general military requisition of population v. During these same months the armies of the revolution also crushed many of the counterrevolutionary disturbances in the provinces 2. The Society of Revolutionary Republican Women i. Revolutionary women established their own distinct institutions to fight the internal enemies of the revolution ii. In May 1793 Pauline Leon and Claire Lacombe founded the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women iii. Olympe de Gouges wrote Declaration of Rights of Women 3. The Republic of Virtue i. They had established a republic in which civic virtue rather than aristocratic and monarchial corruption might flourish 4. Dechristianization i. Convention proclaimed a new calendar dating from the first day of the French Republic ii. The legislature then sent trusted members, known as deputies on mission, into the province to enforce dechristianization by closing churches, persecuting clergy and believers, and occasionally forcing priest to marry. This religious policy roused much opposition and deeply separated the French provinces from the revolutionary government in Paris 5. Progress of the Terror i. Maximilien Robespierre emerged as the chief figure on the Committee of Public Safety ii. The Jacobin Club provided his primary forum and base of power iii. “ If the mainspring of popular government in peace-time is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time virtue and terror: virtue,

without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.” iv. The reign of Terror manifested itself through a series of revolutionary tribunals established were to try the enemies of the republic v. The first victims were Marie Antoinette, other members of the royal family, and aristocrats, who were executed in October 1793/ vi. They were followed by Girondist politicians who had been prominent in the Legislative Assembly vii. Executions of thousands of people who had allegedly supported internal opposition to the revolution viii. In may 1794 Robespierre established the “Cult of the Supreme Being” ix. On July 27 members of the Convention. By prearrangement, shouted him down when he rose to speak. x. Robespierre was arrested that night and executed the next day xi. The Reign of Terror soon ended, having claimed as many as forty thousand victims 6. The Thermidorian Reaction: End of the Terror and Establishment of the Directory i. The tempering of the revolution, called the Thermidorian Reaction, began in July 1794. It destroyed the machinery of terror and set up a new constitutional regime. ii. The influence of generally wealthy middle-class and professional people replaced that of the sans-culottes. iii. Many people responsible for the Terror were removed from public life iv. The executive body, consisting of a five-person Directory, was elected by the upper legislative house, known as the Council of Elders E. The Napoleonic Era i. Napoleon Bonaparte was born 1769 to a poor family of lesser nobles in Corsica. ii. He went to French schools, pursued a military career and in 1785 obtained a commission as a French artillery officer iii. He strongly favored the revolution and was a fiery Jacobin iv. Recovered the port of Toulon from the British v. Austrian army in Italy and conclude on his own initiative the Treaty of Campo Formio which took Austria our of the war vi. Napoleon abandoned his army in Egypt and returned to France in October 1799 vii. Constitution of the Year VII, established himself as the First Consul viii. The establishment of the Consulate, in effect, closed the revolution in France

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2. The Consulate in France i. Napoleon also alleviated the hostility of French Catholics ii. In 1801 he concluded a concordat with Pope Pius VII iii. “Roman Catholicism is the religion of the great majority of French citizens” iv. The clergy had to swear an oath of loyalty to the state, and the Organic Articles of 1802, which were actually distinct from the concordat 3. Napoleon’s Empire i. Lord Nelson destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar just off the Spanish Coast ii. French hope of invading Britain and guaranteed British control of the sea iii. He adopted economic warfare to cut off all British trade with the European continent iv. He thus hoped to cripple British commercial and financial power 4. The Wars of Liberation i. Invaded Iberian Peninsula to force Portugal to abandon its traditional alliance with Britain ii. Army stayed in Spain to protect lines of supply and communication iii. Napoleon deposed the Bourbons and placed his brother Joseph on the Spanish Throne iv. Attacks on the privileges of the church increased public outrage The Congress of Vienna and the European Settlement 1. Once Napoleon was removed , the allies began to pursue their own separate ambitions 2. Key person = Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary 3. Even before the victorious armies had entered Paris, he achieved the Treaty of Chaumont on March 9th, 1814, providing for the restoration of the Bourbons to the French throne and the contraction of France to its 1792 Frontiers 4. Congress if Vienna assembled in September 1804 but did not conclude its work until November 1815. 5. The victors agreed that no single state should be allowed to dominate Europe 6. Alexander I wanted Russia to govern all of Poland. 7. Prussia was willing if it received all of Saxony. 8. Austria refused to surrender its share of Poland or to see Prussian power grow and Russia penetrate deeper into central Europe 9. French Foreign Minister Talleyrand suggested that the weight of France, added to that of Britain and Austria, might bring Alexander to his Senses 10.Napoleon’s escape from Elba on march 1, 1815, further restoring unity among the victors

11.Promised a liberal constitution and a peaceful foreign policy, but allies declared him an outlaw and sent their armies to crush him 12. Wellington with help from Prussians, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in Belgium on July 18th, 1815