THE FRENCH AND NAPOLEONIC REVOLUTIONS AND THEIR GLOBAL IMPACT, 17891825

1
CHAPTER 19

• THE FRENCH AND NAPOLEONIC REVOLUTIONS AND THEIR
  GLOBAL IMPACT, 1789-1825

2
Revolutionary Cycle

• The great upheaval that the French nation
  experienced in the late eighteenth century
  clearly exhibits all of the phases of a familiar
  revolutionary cycle.

3
Moderate Aims

• When the French Revolution began, its leaders had
  relatively moderate aims.
• They overthrew a bankrupt and obsolete Old
  Regime.
• Attempted to organize a constitutional monarchy
  that would secure individual rights.

4
Collapse of the New Regime

• Under pressures generated by a foolhardy war with
  Austria and Prussia.
• Also pressured by ill-considered domestic
  reforms.
• This caused the new regime to collapse.

5
Radical Jacobins

• The revolutionary movement then passed to a
  radical faction, the Jacobins.
• They applied drastic remedies and systematic
  terror to promote an egalitarian social agenda.

6
Jacobin Fall

• Wanted to established a republic and overcome its
  domestic and foreign enemies.
• As Jacobin violence attained its objectives, it
  became both unnecessary and unpopular among
  middle-class Frenchmen.

7
Conservative Reaction

• A conservative reaction ended the radical Jacobin
  phase.
• The succeeding government was known as the
  Directory.
• It continued to be antiroyalist, but it pursued
  antidemocratic policies.

8
The Directory

• Paid scant attention to popular opinion.
• Relied heavily on force to retain its power.
• Sseemed incapable to providing peace and security
  to France.

9
Napoleon Bonaparte

• A popular and successful general.
• Exploited widespread dissatisfaction with the
  Directory.
• Seized power and brought the revolution to an
  end.

10
New Systems

• Some of the revolutions most noteworthy
  achievements were incorporated in Napoleon's new
  social and political system.

11
Napoleons Influences

• Reconstructed France
• Spread the values of the French Revolution across
  much of the European continent.

12
Continental Nationalist Repercussions

• The spread of values had important repercussions
  despite the fall of the empire.
• Inadvertently, Napoleon's conquests helped ignite
  nationalist movements in Europe, most notably in
  Germany.

13
Transatlantic Repercussions

• The impact of his foreign policies and military
  adventures even reverberated across the Atlantic.
  
• For example, his overthrow of the Spanish Bourbon
  monarchy in 1808 encouraged widespread revolts
  against Spanish rule in Latin America.

14
Napoleon Defeated

• Defeated by a coalition of powers in 1814.
• Napoleon suffered exile briefly on the island of
  Elba.
• The victorious allies met at Vienna to
  restructure Europe.

15
Return to Power

• Napoleon escaped from Elba.
• Returned briefly to power in 1815.
• Did not derail negotiations.
• Resulted in a settlement that compares favorably
  to the Versailles settlement that followed World
  War I.

16
Vienna Settlement of 1815

• Was not disrupted by any wars between major
  powers until the Crimean War of the 1850s.
• No European-wide upheavals (on the scale of the
  Napoleonic wars) developed until World War I
  broke out in 1914.

17
YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND

• The outbreak of the revolution and its subsequent
  phases.
• Napoleon's career and his impact upon Europe and
  the Americas.

18
YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND

• The social consequences of the Latin American
  revolutions that occurred in the first quarter of
  the nineteenth century.
• The peace settlement negotiated during 1814 and
  1815 as well as efforts to reinforce a stable
  international order.