THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON 1. French society was divided into three s. The first and second ones consisted of the and the, who had almost all of the land, money, and power, but didn t have to pay any s. The third one consisted of everyone else, which was about 98% of the population and included what sorts of people? 2. France was ruled at the time by Louis, who was married to, a princess from the dynasty in Austria. They spent most of their time in the palace at. 3. In 1789, France was deeply in debt. They had recently gone even further into debt because of helping whom?
4. There was also a lot of hunger because of a messed up economic system, a series of terrible s, and a shortage of. 5. When a series of financial advisors failed to solve the problem, Louis was finally convinced to call for a session of the s-general, which was a kind of, but which had not met in how long? 6. When the Third rebelled and wanted more votes, what did Louis do in an effort to suppress them? 7. They ended up meeting somewhere else and taking what became known as The Oath of the, in which they swore not to go home until they had written a new. 8. Louis then caved and let them create a new group called the National. 9. But at the same time, he had a bunch of his s sent toward Paris from the provinces, which made a lot of people paranoid that he was going to do what?
10. The National Assembly raised it s own set of troops, called the National, and one of its leaders was actually, who had been such a big help to the Americans. 11. Meanwhile, there was an angry mob of peasants in Paris known as the sans. Why were they called that? 12. The mob in Paris wanted guns and ammunition to defend itself, so it attacked an old prison called the, and the day it did so, July 14th, has since been known as Day, which is like France s version of Independence Day. 13. When word of this spread to the countryside, the p s there rose up themselves and attacked the manors of their local s. 14. Soon thereafter, the n s in the National Assembly agreed to have all of their ancient privileges abolished, and a historic document was passed called The Declaration of the s of. It was very much inspired by what other document?
15. In the National Assembly, various factions (or groups) began to develop, like the G s and the J s. This was also when the terms l and r began to be used to mean liberal or conservative because why? 16. One dramatic thing that happened around this time but that has still, incredibly, not been made into a movie was the March of the from Paris to. When they got there they surrounded it, captured the and, and made them go back to Paris with them, where from then on they lived in a kind of house arrest at the Palace. 17. Meanwhile, the Assembly was making major reforms and working on a new. There would be a c monarchy and trial by, just like in. Can you name some other things they established, reorganized, guaranteed, abolished, etc...?
18. The Assembly made some decisions, however, that made a lot of people mad -- especially the peasants in the countryside, who had already gotten what they wanted from the Revolution (freedom from their local s) and didn t like what the radicals in Paris were doing. What they especially didn t like were the attacks on the power of what? 19. Things got more complicated in June, 1791, though, when the Louis and Marie did what? 20. In spite of that, the new c was passed in September, 1791, and things might have gone okay after that, except for several things that were still making everyone suspicious and uneasy. (a) For one thing, people thought Louis and Marie were scheming against the Revolution -- and what (quite rightly) did they fear that other European countries were going to do? (b) Meanwhile, extremely radical ideas were being spread and promoted by the many n s being published in Paris. One of the most radical writers was a guy named, who was famously stabbed to death by an angry young woman while he was doing what? (c) There was also increasing anger (especially in the countryside and towns) about the attacks on the. Its l was all taken away, its p s would now be chosen by government committees, and its officials would be forced to take an to support the Revolution. All of this was officially condemned by the P.
21. But the thing that really got everyone fired up, and even more paranoid, was the decision to go to. They had been afraid of being attacked, but now they decided to attack first. What were some of the reasons for this decision? 22. It was a disaster, though, and the French army began retreating to Paris, followed by an Austrian army. There was panic and paranoia in Paris, and thousands were thrown into jail as traitors. Then what happened to them? 23. The mob also attacked the Tuileries Palace and almost got and, but they escaped to the National, where they were forced to listen all night while the decision was made to suspend the. 24. The leader of the Girondists,, then gave a series of dramatic speeches, urging his fellow Frenchmen to go out and defeat the Austrians. An army left Paris and stopped the invaders in the Battle of V. 25. Now the Revolution began to go even further. They completely abolished the and declared that, from that day on, it was now Year One of a brand new. The renamed all the s and said that each one would be divided into three decades of days each. They said there would be hours in a day, and that each one would consist of minutes.
26. Most dramatic of all, they put on trial for treason, found him guilty (of course), and sent him to the. 27. When the other European countries were outraged by this and threatening to attack, what did the Revolutionary leaders do? 28. With a war being fought on several fronts, and with open rebellion against the Revolution in many of the provinces, more and more power was put into the hands of a group called the Committee of. Once run by the Girondists and their leader,, it was taken over in July of 1792 by the J s and their leader, Maximilien. 29. One thing the Committee did well was running the war(s), and one important step was that they made the army huge by instituting a. 30. But they also carried out The Reign of, during which tens of thousands were sent to the. Louis was soon followed by, and before long former Revolutionary leaders like D were being sent, along with anyone else who had fallen out of favor or who was even just rumored to be a traitor. The winter of 1793-4 was especially terrible and is known as The Great.
31. The Committee also sent agents out into the rebellious provinces, some carrying portable s with them. But in some provinces, like Nantes, rebels and suspected rebels were not killed one by one but how? 32. Finally Robespierre went too far. Deciding that people needed some kind of religion, but not wanting to return to the old church, he came up with something called the Being, and had a big festival in His/Her/Its honor, complete with choirs singing, togas, and a fake, with himself at the top. When he followed this with a speech to the National Assembly implying that more of them needed to go to the, they finally got up the nerve to defy him. What happened to him? 33. By now everyone was worn out, and the revolution kind of died down. A new, less revolutionary constitution was passed, headed by a 5-person committee known as The. 34. What was the three-word slogan or motto of the French Revolution? 35. What particular item did a lot of people wear during the Revolution (if only so no one would think they were a traitor)?
36. How did the Revolution help Napoleon rise to power? (There are actually a couple of different things you could say here.) 37. He wasn t really French because he was born on the island of. 38. He worshipped his but was angry at his because why? 39. For a long time Napoleon hated the, but he slowly became more like them during his many years in their schools. 40. Eventually he became a lieutenant in an unit. 41. When the Revolution began, he first tried going back to, dreaming of working with a childhood hero who was now the of the island. But what happened? 42. After returning to France, he got a chance to prove himself when he figured out a plan for driving the navy out of the city of.
43. He was soon a brigadier because of that success, and because so many of the more senior, more aristocratic officers were doing what? 44. He then went to and tried unsuccessfully to hang with the cool people, but did meet and eventually marry his future empress,. 45. Meanwhile, at only 26, he became a full after an incident when he stopped a crowd of protestors by doing what? 46. After that he was sent to take over the army in, where he quickly took charge and managed to get everyone fired up. He quickly showed that he did not fight by the old rules. How would you describe the old way of fighting? 47. How did Napoleon fight instead? What kinds of things did he do as a general?
48. He also won the devotion of his men. He was the first person in a long time to actually them. He inspired them to charge across a heavily-defended bridge at the Battle of. He was fearless during battle, and even got off his horse to help set up the, which earned him the nickname The Little. 49. Napoleon continued to win victories over the Austrians in northern Italy, taking over the city of M and winning several battles near a place called R. He was also showing a talent for promoting himself, commissioning and planning heroic-looking s of himself in action, and publishing s of his own, with articles praising him, some of which were written by whom? 50. But eventually he wore out his welcome and started angering the Italians by doing things like what?
51. Finally he invaded the empire itself, got all the way to its capital, V, negotiated a himself, and returned to Paris as a hero. 52. But before long he worried that he needed more victories and glory so that people wouldn t forget about him, so he took an army of 35,000 men (along with a bunch of historians, scientists, archeologists, artists, etc.) to. At first things went well, as he crushed the ferocious Turkish warriors known as the M s at the Battle of the s. But then his navy was destroyed by the in the Battle of the Nile. Then he got stuck in a long siege of the city of Acre, where many of his men died from fighting and from the. And then he found out that was having an affair, although he made himself feel better about that by doing what? 53. Finally, when he heard about some things that were happening back in France, and realized they might give him a chance at more power, what did he do?
54. After a dramatic night of making up with, he got involved in a plot to get the to dissolve itself and form a new government, partly with help from his, Lucien. It was kind of messy but it did eventually happen and Napoleon was named one of three new s. It wasn t long before he had himself declared First. 55. But soon, of course, he needed more victories and glory, so he and his army made a daring crossing of the s and whooped the s again, this time at the Battle of Meringo. His official paintings made his crossing look like this, but in reality it probably looked more like this. 56. But hey, whatever. More victory, more glory. Again he returns to Paris a hero, and soon he has himself officially named First for, which makes him, as they said in the movie, a in all but name.
57. Now he began to actually rule France. He did a lot of good things, like building lots of stuff, reorganizing the system, creating a central, giving deserving people a fancy medal called the of, making nice with the church, and perhaps most importantly, creating the Napoleonic of laws, much of which is still used today in France and elsewhere. All this made him look like a defender of the, and many even called him the of France. 58. But he also ruled with and hand. He believed in equality, but not in. He believed in government for the people, but not the people. He did not allow free s, he shut down n s, and he had a network of s and a secret, run by this truly evil-looking guy, Joseph Fouchet.
59. In 1804, Napoleon had himself crowned by none other than the. 60. What he really wanted to do next was invade, but their prevented him from getting across the. But that didn t stop them from being scared of him and imagining how he might try to do it. He was also the subject of many British s and of scary stories and nursery rhymes told to British. 61. But in the end, he gave it up and headed back into Europe to fight the Russians, the Prussians, and of course, the good ol Austrians, whom he defeated easily, leaving him free to march into the city of.
62. His navy suffered another defeat by the British at a place called, led by the same guy who had destroyed his fleet in Egypt, Admiral, who died in the battle. 63. Napoleon was still the boss on land, though, and he proved it with his brilliant, judo-like victory against the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of (his all-time fave!). Then he kicked the Prussians butts and paraded his army through the streets of. 64. He started an economic blockade against and marched into Poland for a showdown with Czar I of Russia. The Czar was no match for him, though, and soon they made a treaty. 65. At 38 years old, Napoleon now dominated Europe and ruled over some million people.
66. But then he made Big Mistake #1. He crossed the Pyrenees Mountains and invaded. This led to a horrific war, complete with warfare, torture, and atrocities by both sides. 67. He paused for a while, divorced, married a 19 year-old princess from (from the dynasty, of course), had a son, and got all fat, lazy, and domestic for a while. 68. But then it was time for Big Mistake #2 -- a real doozy. Mad at Czar for not participating in the blockade/boycott of England, he took a huge army of over 600,000 men and invaded. The enemy kept retreating, forcing him to march further, until finally turning and facing him in the brutal battle of B. Napoleon sort of won, and then marched into the city of. But what happened then? And what are the two main theories about how it happened?
69. Napoleon and his army were now forced to retreat, battling exhaustion, starvation, the attacks of the C s, and the brutal Russian. Do you remember any of the numbers about how many men Napoleon lost by the time it was all over? 70. He finally left the remains of his army behind to go back to. 71. But his enemies were closing in for the kill. He was captured, saw his wife and son for the last time, and was sent into exile on the island of. He played emperor there for a while and made some improvements, but soon grew bored and restless.
72. Then, in a dramatic period known as The Hundred Days, he escaped from and tried to make a comeback. Louis the th fled. An army was sent to capture Napoleon, but what did it do instead? 73. The Allies immediately prepared to fight again, and Napoleon hurried to attack the British first, before the Prussians could arrive to help. The Brits were led by the Duke of, and they defeated Napoleon at the Battle of -- with a little help from the Prussians, who arrived just in time to help finish the job. 74. Forced to surrender again, Napoleon was sent this time to the remote South Atlantic island of St., where he spent the last six years of his life eating, sleeping, and writing his s.