I. French Revolution and Napoleon Flashcards
Austerlitz, Trafalgar, Jena, Marengo
- Napoleon defeats Austria 1805
- British naval victory over Napoleon 1805
- Napoleon beats Prussians 1806
- Austria driven out of Italy by Napoleon 1800
Edmund Burke
1790 - Reflections on the Revolution in France - an exposition of traditionalism that predicted anarchy and dictatorship as the outcome of the revolution
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
a manifesto for reforming the French system of government. Asserted that all men are free and equal, entailed universalism. The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially in the nation.
Jacobins
extreme advocates of direct democracy, republicans, ardent champions of national defence against counter-revolutionary forces.
Thomas Malthus
Essay on the Principle of Population - a growing population will exhaust resources, as opposed to the view that population growth was the wealth of nations. A constant tension between population growth and economy: can the political economy absorb population growth?
Robespierre and Danton
Robespierre: leader of the Jacobins and virtually dictator of France during the Reign of Terror. 1793-1794. Conflated the idea of internal dissent with external threats to France - all resistance became treason or counter-revolution.
Danton: a more moderate Jacobin, inspired national resistance to invasion and reaction.
The Terror
September 1793 - July 1794
Suppressing all resistance with execution, killed 57,000.
Possible because of the overthrow of all familiar established forms of government and the double threat of counter-revolution and invasion from abroad.
Identification of enemies of the nation with enemies of the Republic
Continental System
An attempt by Napoleon to seal the continent of Europe against British trade to undermine her power. A vast system of economic preference and protection in favour of France. Italy almost became an economic colony of France; Holland’s development subordinated to France’s. Only intensified British resistance, while other continents of the world remained open to her trade. 1806 - 1813.
The Vendée
The peasants in the Vendée revolted against the Reovlutionary government in 1793. Resented the harsh conditions imposed on the Roman Catholic Church and broke into revolt after the imposition of military conscription. Ended 1796, claimed 240,000 lives. Epitomises the depth of the conflict between religious tradition and the revolutionary foundation of democracy.
18 Brumaire (9 November)
Napoleon’s coup 1799, making him the First Consul of France, ending the French Revolution. Overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate
Rosseau
Jean-Jacques Rosseau (Switzerland) - one of the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. A philosopher, writer and political theorist whose treatises and novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation. Social Contract 1762 - “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” - man might recover his liberty if civil society were based on a genuine social contract - a republic based on the creation of a general will.
Adam Smith
Scottish social philosopher and political economist. Wealth of Nations 1776 - the first comprehensive system of political economy. Described an evolution from feudalism to ‘a system of perfect liberty’ with new institutions i.e. market-determined wages (not guild), free enterprise (not government-constrained) - now called ‘laissez-faire capitalism’
Touissant Louverture
Leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution. Emancipated the slaves and negotiated for the French colony to be governed, briefly, by black former slaves as a French protectorate - 1801
Louisiana Purchase
The western half of the Mississippi River basin purchased in 1803 from France by the U.S. - the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. Doubled the size of the U.S. and greatly strengthened it materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal Constitution.
Napoleonic Code
1804 codification of the law [civil code] - a synthesis between liberal, customary, and natural law theories of the Revolution and Roman law, with prominence to principles of Roman law. The main influence of 19th-century civil code of most countries of continental Europe and Latin America. Founded on the premise that for the first time in history, a purely rational law should be created, its moral justification founded in its conformity to the dictates of reason. All male citizens equal; inviolability of private property.
