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The
French Revolution and Napoleon. Reading Guide
READ
PAGES 160-164:
1.
Describe how the inequalities of the Old Regime and social class
structure of France set the
stage for revolution.
2.
Describe other background causes of revolution: the attitude of
intellectuals, the issue of
monarchy, the financial crisis.
READ
PAGES 164-168:
3.
Identify and explain revolutionary actions taken in 1789: the Tennis
Court Oath, the storming
of the Bastille, the August 4th Decrees, among others.
4.
Discuss the factors leading to the fall of the Constitutional Monarchy.
5.
Describe the end of Louis XVI.
READ
PAGES 168-170:
6.
Describe and assess the successes and failures of the Reign of Terror.
7.
Discuss the impact of the Second Revolution on French armies.
8.
Describe the factors that brought about the Thermidorean Reaction; assess the failure of the Directory.
READ
PAGES 170-178:
9.
Explain the factors behind Napoleon's rise to power.
10. List some of Napoleon's military successes and evaluate the factors leading to his ultimate defeat in 1815.
11. Read the summary on page 178. So what's the big deal about the French Revolution
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Approved by the National Assembly of
France, August 26, 1789
The
representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly,
believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the
sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have
determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and
sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before
all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their
rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as
those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and
purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and,
lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon
simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the
constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National
Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the
Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:
Articles:
1.
Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social
distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2.
The aim of all political association is the preservation of the
natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property,
security, and resistance to oppression.
3.
The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.
No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed
directly from the nation.
4.
Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no
one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits
except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of
the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
5.
Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society.
Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced
to do anything not provided for by law.
6.
Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a
right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its
foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All
citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all
dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their
abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7.
No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the
cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting,
transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall
be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall
submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8.
The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and
obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally
inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the
offense.
9.
As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been
declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not
essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed
by law.
10.
No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including
his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public
order established by law.
11.
The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most
precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and
print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as
shall be defined by law.
12.
The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires
public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of
all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13.
A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the
public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably
distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14.
All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by
their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant
this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode
of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15.
Society has the right to require of every public agent an account
of his administration.
16.
A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor
the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17.
Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be
deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall
clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been
previously and equitably indemnified.
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Declaration
of the Rights of Women Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges, a butcher's daughter, proved to be one of the most outspoken and articulate women revolutionaries. In 1791 she wrote the following declaration, directly challenging the inferiority presumed of women by the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Her attempts to push this idea lead to her being charged with treason during the rule of the National Convention. She was quickly arrested, tried, and on November 3, 1793, executed by the guillotine.
Woman, wake up; the tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the whole universe; discover your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudice, fanaticism, superstition, and lies. The flame of truth has dispersed all the clouds of folly and usurpation. Enslaved man has multiplied his strength and needs recourse to yours to break his chains. Having become free, he has become unjust to his companion. Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be blind? What advantage have you received from the Revolution? A more pronounced scorn, a more marked disdain. In the centuries of corruption you ruled only over the weakness of men. The reclamation of your patrimony, based on the wise decrees of nature-what have you to dread from such a fine undertaking? The bon mot of the legislator of the marriage of Cana? Do you fear that our French legislators, correctors of that morality, long ensnared by political practices now out of date, will only say again to you: women, what is there in common between you and us? Everything, you will have to answer. If they persist in their weakness in putting this non sequitur in contradiction to their principles, courageously oppose the force of reason to the empty pretentions of superiority; unite yourselves beneath the standards of philosophy; deploy all the energy of your character, and you will soon see these haughty men, not groveling at your feet as servile adorers, but proud to share with you the treasures of the Supreme Being. Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your power to free yourselves; you have only to want to....
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"What
is the Third Estate?” Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes
Question: The Abbe Sieyes presents three arguments to answer his question, “what is the Third Estate?” How does he justify his answer, “it is everything?”
What is necessary that a nation should subsist and prosper? Individual effort and public functions. All individual efforts may be included in for classes:
1. Since the earth and the waters furnish crude products for the needs of man, the first class, in logical sequence, will be that of all families which devote themselves to agricultural labor.
2. Between the first sale of products and their consumption or use, a new manipulation, more or less repeated, adds to these products a second value [a manufacturing or induastrial class]. Such are the efforts of the second class.
3. Between production and consumption…these are the merchants and …who are charged with distribution, in the last analysis, either at wholesale or at retail. This species of utility characterizes the third class.
4. Outside of these three classes of productive and useful citizens, who are occupied with real objects of consumption and use, there is also need [for those who provide services]…the professions and the less esteemed services of domestics.
Such are the efforts that sustain society. Who puts them forth? The Third Estate.
Public functions may be classified equally well, in the present state of affairs, under four recognized heads; the sword, the robe, the church and the [administration of government]…everywhere the Third Estate attends to nineteen-twentieths of them… laden with all the burdens that the privileged classes refuse to carry.
Superior places would be infinitely better filled [by the Third Estate]; that …privileged persons have come to usurp all the lucrative and honorable posts, it is a hateful injustice to the rank and file of citizens and at the same a treason to the public.
Who then shall dare to say that the Third Estate has not within itself all that is necessary for the formation of a complete nation? …Therefore, what is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything, but an everything free and flourishing. Nothing can succeed without it, everything would be infinitely better without the others.
Over
What is a nation? A body of associates, living under a common law, and represented by the same legislature, etc.
Is it not evident that the noble order has privileges and expenditures which it dares to call its rights, but which are apart from the rights of the great body of citizens? It departs there from the common law. So its civil rights make of it an isolated people in the midst of the great nation.
In regard to its political rights, these also it exercises apart. It has its special representatives, which are not charged with securing the interests of the people. The body of its deputies sit apart; and when it is assembled in the same hall with the deputies of simple citizens, it is none the less true that its representation is essentially distinct and separate: it is a stranger to the nation, in the first place, by its origin, since its commission is not derived from the people; then by its object, which consists of defending not the general, but the particular interest.
The Third Estate embraces then all that which belongs to the nation; and all that which is not the Third Estate, cannot be regarded as being of the nation.
What is the Third Estate?
It is the whole.
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Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke, a leading British politician during the time of the
French Revolution, was the most influential foreign critic of the French
Revolution.
Directions: Read the brief passage below and respond to these
three questions: ..
While it is easy to give freedom and to create a government,
according to Burke, why is it so hard to create a free government? What
opposite characteristics must a free government unite?
What problem does Burke see in a government that is a democracy?
In what direction does he seem to predict the French Revolution will
go?
To make a
government requires no great prudence. Settle the seat of power; teach
obedience: and the work is done. To give Freedom is still more easy. It is not
necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free
government; that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and
restraint in one consistent work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a
sagacious, powerful, and combining mind. This I do not find in those who take
the lead in the National Assembly. Perhaps they are not so miserably deficient
as they appear. I rather believe it. It would put them below the
common level of
human understanding. But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at
an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will
be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the
instruments, not the guides, of the people. If any of them should happen
to propose a scheme of liberty,
soberly limited,
and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his
competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular. Suspicions will
be raised of his fidelity to his cause. Moderation will be stigmatized as the
virtue of cowards; " and compromise as the prudence of traitors; until, in
hopes of preserving the credit which may enable him to temper, and moderate, on
some occasions, the popular leader is obliged to become active in propagating
doctrines, and establishing powers, that will afterwards ' defeat any sober
purpose at which he ultimately might have aimed…
The improvements of the National Assembly
are superficial, their errors fundamental.
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