HY 106 Lecture 34: World War and Republican France - ch 21
World War and Republican France (1791-1799)
1. Foreign Reactions and the Beginning of War
1. France was seen as a mighty triumph of liberty over despotism and in
Great Britain, people hoped that this would lead to a fundamental
reordering of the political system
1. The system consolidated in the revolution of 1688 to 1689, placed
Parliament in the hands of the aristocracy and a few wealthy
merchants
2. Conservative leaders such as Edmund Burke (Reflections on the
Revolution in France, 1790) defend inherited privileges of English
monarchy and aristocracy, glorified the unrepresentative Parliament,
and predicted that thoroughgoing reform, like in France, would lead
only to chaos and tyranny
3. Mary Wollstonecraft was incensed by Burkeās book and wrote (A
Vindication of the Rights of Man) then developed for the first time the
logical implications of natural-law philosophy in her masterpiece, A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman
4. Wollstonecraft set high standards for women, advocated
coeducation, and marked the birth of the modern womenās
movement for equal rights (give women chance)
2. among European kings and nobility that revolution would spread resulted
in the Declaration of Pillnitz (1791), which threatened the invasion of
France by Austria and Prussia (expected to have a sobering effect on
revolutionary France w/o causing war)
3. When the National Assembly disbanded, it sought popular support be
decreeing that none of its members be eligible for election to the new
Legislative Assembly
1. The great majority of the legislators were still middle-class men but
were younger and less cautious than their predecessors (called
īJacobins,ī after the name of their political club and were
passionately committed to liberal revolution)
2. The Jacobins lumped īuseless aristocratsī and īdespotic monarchī
together and believed that if the courts o Europe were attempting to
incite war of kings against France, ten million Frenchmen would be
able to change the face of the world
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4. France declared war on Francis II, the Habsburg monarch but the
crusade went poorly at first because Prussia joined Austria in the
Austrian Netherlands and French forces broke and fled at first encounter
with armies of this First Coalition
1. It is possible that only conflict between the eastern monarchs over
the division of Poland saved France from defeat (as the road to Paris
lay wide open)
2. Military reversals and Austro-Prussian threats caused a wave of
patriotic fervor to sweep France and the Legislative Assembly
declared the country in danger
3. Volunteer armies from the provinces stream through Paris singing
(Marseillaise)
4. On August 10, 1792, on news of treason by the king and queen, a
revolutionary crowd attacked the royal palace at the Tuileries
capturing the palace, while the royal family fled to the Legislative
Assembly, which suspended the king from all his functions,
imprisoned him, and called for a new National Convention to be
elected by universal male suffrage
2. The Second Revolution
1. The fall of the monarchy marked radicalization of the Revolution (second
revolution)
1. Louisās imprisonment was followed by the September Massacres
where stories seized the city that imprisoned counter-revolutionary
aristocrats and priests were plotting with the allied invaders and half
the men and women were slaughtered
2. The new, popularly elected National Convention proclaimed France
a republic
2. The republic sought to create a new popular culture that glorified the new
order by adopting a revolutionary calendar, addressing each other with
īthouī instead of īyou,ī promoting democratic festivals (brought the entire
population together)
3. All the members of the National Convention were Jacobins and
republicans but the convention was divided into two bitterly competitive
groupsāthe Girondists, named after a department in the France, and the
Mountain, led by Robespierre and Georges Jacques Danton (called this
because members sat on uppermost benches of hall)
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Document Summary
World war and republican france (1791-1799: foreign reactions and the beginning of war, france was seen as a mighty triumph of liberty over despotism and in. Great britain, people hoped that this would lead to a fundamental reordering of the political system: the system consolidated in the revolution of 1688 to 1689, placed. Parliament in the hands of the aristocracy and a few wealthy merchants: conservative leaders such as edmund burke (reflections on the. Vindication of the rights of man) then developed for the first time the logical implications of natural-law philosophy in her masterpiece, a. Mountain, led by robespierre and georges jacques danton (called this because members sat on uppermost benches of hall: by a single vote (361 of 720), the national convention convicted louis. Xvi of treason and sentenced him to death in january 1793 (died on guillotine: the prussians had been stopped at the indecisive battle of valmy on.
