ANTH 205 Lecture 32

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French Revolution

Regalia

sceptor with hand

French hand of justice

holy hand grenade globus cruciger

"cross-bearing sphere"

Christ's dominion over world in hand of ruler

Fleur de Lis

social classes: those who fought, lead, pray

Trinity

1789

Conditions for revolution

• Financial hardship, inflation, famine
• Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, secularism, tolerance, and equality

Players:

• King Louis XVI
• Clergy (0.5% of population)
• Nobility (1.5% of population)
• Everyone else (98% of population)

Setting:

• Versailles
• Paris

May 5

Louis XVI calles Estates-General

Meeting of Clergy, Nobility, and Everyone Else

June 17

Third Estate (Everyone Else) breaks away and forms national assembly

June 20

National Assembly swears "Tennis court oath" to write French Constitution

July 14

Revolutionaries storm Bastille in Paris

Steal guns, gets ugly

August

National Assembly issues Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

October

Women's march on Versailles

Armed peasant women move King and Queen to Paris and put under House Arrest

1790

• Peasants still hungry
• France still broke
• Nobility fleeing France

1791

June

Marie and Louis flee Paris in disguise

Caught and brought back

Jacobins and others say Louis abdicated throne

September

National Assembly finishes Constitution

Establishes Constitutional Monarchy

Austria and Prussia issue Declaration of Pillnitz to restore monarchy

1792

April

France declares war on Austria (and Prussia)

September

Jacobins declare france a republic

1793

January

Louis XVI is guillotined

March

France at war with pretty much everyone

Later

Jacobins and sans-culottes fix bread prices

Steal grain from French countryside

Reign of Terror: 1793-1794

Robespierre

• Guillotined about 16K people (including Marie Antoinette in Oct. 1793)
• Guillotined on July 28th
• Committee of Public Safety collapses

Supposedly new calendar

1795

New Constitution ratified

Meanwhile: a few victories

Napoleon Bonaparte

1795-1799

established himself as a brilliant tactitian and leader

1799

Participated in coup to overthrow Directory

Drafted constitution of Year VIII (crazy calendar), making him first consul of France

Kept going with Military campaigns (esp. against Austria)

1801-02

Sigend peace treaty of Amiens with Britain

Britain declared war again in 1803 after this peace treaty failed miserably.

Napoleon Also

Lost Haiti in Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)

Reestablished slavery in French Colonies

Sold the US a bunch of land (Louisiana Purchase in 1803) for $15 M

Controversy

Napoleon faced multiple assassination attempts

• By Royalists who thought a non-royal should be in power
• Jacobins who wanted the republic

He responded by killing a bunch of people

Crowned himself Emperor of France on December 3^rd 1804 (in presence of Pope Pius VII)

• Extreme egomaniac
• No one above him

Asserted authority by continuing war with Britain, Austria, and Russia (and others)

• Conquered or allied with almost everyone else.
• Ultimately defeated Austria and kept Britain at bay.

Napoleon eventually captured and exiled to Elba (a beautiful Mediterranean island)

March on Russia

Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with 500,000 troops

Captured Moscow Russian Winter forced French to retreat

Left Russia with 27,000 troops

Return

In march 1815, Napoleon returned to Paris, and everyone supported him

Louis XVIII flees to Belgium

Allies muster ~600,000 troops to oppose him

Napoleon attacks belgium to put down opposition

Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon is absolutely, soundly defeated (according to legend, probably due to hemorrhoids)

Imprisoned and exiled to St. Helena

• Dies there on May 5, 1821

What followed

• Restoration of Monarchy Until 1871 (Third Republic established, officially ending monarchy)
• Belle Époque (1871–WWI)
  • Golden age of politics, science, fashion, technology, art, fashion, and cuisine

The Story of a Country that Likes to Eat

—and not just that, they like to eat well

A long and complicated history