The Industrial Revolution

The term 'Industrial Revolution' was first used by the French in the eighteenth
century. But the term was specifically used to eighteenth century England which
underwent a great transformation from predominantly agricultural and commercial
pursuits owing to the invention of machines. The dream of Francis Bacon of using the
knowledge of nature for human welfare thus became fulfilled in England.

Prelude to Industrialisation

By the end of the eighteenth century, Britain, the Dutch Republic and France,
possessed large accumulations of capital. Successful merchants, investors and
adventurers multiplied their assets from shipping and colonial plantations. English
and Dutch bankers made loans to industrial entrepreneurs. In England, commercial
capitalists invested in industrial production during the Napoleonic Wars.

The most outstanding fact of the European history had been the increase in
population. This grew from about 100 to 140 millions between 1650 and 1750, to 187
millions by 1800, to 274 millions by 1850. There was a significant reduction in
mortality during the eighteenth century, and that this was the primary cause of
population increase.

More then 4000 Enclosure Act pass by the British Parliament during the Agricultural
Revolution in 16th and 17th Century. According to the Act common area where the
small groups of local farmer work hand over into the hand of private landowner.

The agricultural revolution broke the cycle of endemic famine and diminishing
returns from soil exhaustion. Not only was more land cultivated, it was cultivated
more efficiently. Various innovations also took place in the history of European
agriculture. As a result of that Britain increased it farm land 30 percent and
production of wheat increased 75 percent between 1700 to 1800. In 1730 Charles
Townshend introduce the rotation of crops method and four crops cultivated in one
year in the same field.
A recent writer (G.E. Fussell : The Farmer Tools, 1500-1900 (London, 1952) has
shown that there were only seven important agricultural inventions in the seventeenth
century, eight between 1701 and 1750, thirty between 1751 and 1814, and sixteen
between 1815 and 1848

New techniques were introduced in northern Italy and the Low countries during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; England improved upon them in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. New techniques hinged on judicious rotation of crops and
the enclosure of lands. Enclosure—the consolidation of arable and common lands and
their redistribution as compact parcels of private, fenced lands—spread in eighteenth
century England. Parliamentary enclosure acts reached their peak between 1791 and
1801.

In 1733 by his invention of the flying shuttle, John Kay doubled the work which the
weaver could perform, besides improving its quality. He was followed by James
Hargreaves, whose spinning jenny in 1765 multiplied eightfold and more the
productive power of the weaver. In 1769 Richard Arkwright invented the 'water-
frame' which spun cotton thread so firmly that all-cotton cloth could now be made. He
was the founder of the English cotton industry. In 1779 Samuel Crompton built a
spinning mule. With this machine stronger and fine thread could be spun than by
hand. In 1785, an English clergyman named Edmund Cartwright invented an
improved loom—an automatic weaving—machine. Hargreaves' Jenny, Arkwright's
water-frame, Crompton's Mule and Cartwright's automatic loom brought about an
enormous expansion in the cotton trade. In 1704 Thomas Newcomer was the first to
invent a steam engine that was used for pumping water from the coal-mines. But at
deep levels it was useless. James Watts perfected the system. In 1769 he invented the
condenser and the rotary motion of the piston.

The increased use of coal and iron was another determining factor of the Industrial
Revolution. In the beginning charcoal was used for smelting iron ore. In 1809 coke
was used in the place of charcoal which led to much greater use of iron. Humphry
Davy's invention of the Safety Lamp in 1815 ushered an important development in
the mining industry. The process of making steel from iron also underwent great
improvement. Henry Bessemer announced in 1856 the process (the famous Bessemer
process) by which cast iron could be converted into steel. The Age of Steel had now
succeeded the Age of Wood and Stone.

The use of steam engine in locomotives began in 1800. By 1838, Britain had 500
miles of track and 5000 miles by 1848 and 16,000 miles by 1886. Meanwhile, steam
engine was used for maritime communication. Although there was a steamship on the
Clyde in 1812 and one on the Seine in 1822, ship development reached its perfection
afterwards. It was in 1838 that the first oceanic voyage was made by the steamships—
Sirius and the Great Western. Studies of electricity by Faraday and others led to the
perfection of telegraphic communication. In 1844 the first telegraph line was
established in America.

Causes of Industrial Production in England

In Britain there was comparative freedom from state interference, a large measure of
political stability and social mobility, a widespread knowledge of science and
technology and greater security for person and property than in Europe.

Compared with France, Britain and progressed much farther in the breakdown of
economic regulation ;

Compared with Gemany she had the advantages of a national unity and hence of an
integrated market ;

Compared with Holland, she had coal and iron in abundance.

English industrial revolution there were attributed four factors:

the change in economic policy from mercantilism to laissez faire ; ( an economic

system in which transactions between private parties are free from government
interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies)
the expansion of British commerce ; to new colonies in Asia, Africa and America
the increase in productivity owing to new machines ;

the thrift and dedication of early entrepreneurs who made available the capital.

Other Factor:
1. Britain coal supplier- The largest supplier of the coal in Europe that necessity
for industrial fuel.
2. Naval Power and Trading Power- As it was Island it always put emphasis on
naval power and trading for survival.
3. Individual Freedom and Capitalist Sprit- Unlike other European country there
was a great measure of individual and intellectual freedom.
4. Stable government
5. Superior banking system and capital for investment

The most important factor was the accumulation of capital in Britain in the second
half of the eighteenth century. The pace of economic development quickened when
capital was made available at the lower rate of interest. Interest rates fell from 7 or 8
per cent at the beginning of the century to 3 or 4 per cent in 1750. The development of
English banking was also remarkable, with 52 private banks in London and 400 in the
provinces by 1800.

The immediate cause of increasing productivity, however, was undoubtedly technical

progress: the use of power-driven machinery ; the use of coal and iron ; factory
production and improved communications.

Britain became the workshop of the world from the second half of the eighteenth
century. The Napoleonic wars strengthened its grip on the seas and weakened
France's access to raw materials. It was not till before 1830 France began the task of
modernization, and even in 1850 there was little that deserved to be called an
industrial revolution. Germany remained almost stationary until 1850.
Impact of the Industrial Revolution

The Factory System: The growth of factories led the people to move from the rural
districts to urban areas. Factories were built mostly in the regions of coal and iron.
Many new cities—Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield, at one time little
towns, became centres of factories. Manchester, in 1774, had about 40,000 people ; in
1831, about 271,000. The owners of factories were a small class of capitalists, whose
object was to exploit the labourer and to amass great fortune. The worker of the
factories had to work twelve or fourteen hours a day in sub-human conditions.
Women and children were preferred because they were cheaper and easier to manage.
Even they were employed in mines. The workers lived in miserable little houses
without proper sanitation or ventilation. The pitiable working condition of children
and women in the cotton mills, mines could not be imagined by the present
generation.

The Industrial Revolution opened the way to a new world'. With the increase of
production in land and industry population grew rapidly. Most of the population
growth was centered in cities which assumed importance with the establishment of
factories. By 1851 half of England's population had become urban. With the rise of
the cities important changes occurred in the structure of the society. The familiar
division of landowner and peasant, merchant and artisan continued. But new classes
like industrial capitalist and wage-earning proletarians emerged. The Industrial
Revolution made capitalists the supreme masters of industry. The wage-earning
proletarian was wholly dependent. Along with the fear of unemployment the new
proletariat lived in abject poverty. Though in 1925 the workers were permitted to
form unions by the Parliament, the latter forbade them to organise strikes. Thus, a
new class of bourgeois entrepreneurs arose in opposition to a class of workers. The
former held the reins of government and had great economic power. The working
class, by contrast, had no power at all. Low in number at the outset, it grew steadily.
Everywhere it became self-conscious and formed itself into a political force.

Growth of Nationalism- The Industrial Revolution gave a great impetus to

Nationalism. Common economic interests at last gave a solid foundation to the
national aspirations of both Germans and Italians. If nationalism was intensified, so
was internationalism. The vast international trade that grew up as a result of the
Industrial Revolution led the various nations to unite into a common economic life.
The established financial groups—such as the Rothschilds, Barings, Laffittes and
Hopes— assumed a new pre-eminence in a world where capital and credit were in
great demand. Western Europe was fast becoming one commercial, industrial and
financial society.

Economic Control of Asia- The Industrial Revolution enabled the European powers to
establish economic control over Asia and Africa. Apart from providing raw materials
to the European powers, these countries became the scene of international conflict.
There were Anglo-French rivalry in Asia and Africa, Anglo- Russian rivalry in
Central Asia, Franco-Italian and Franco-German rivalry in Africa. Thus the Industrial
revolution endangered or destroyed the political independence of many countries
which became the colonies of the Western powers

Short terms impact of the Industrial Revolution

1. Growth of population in Urban Area- In 1801 only 17 % of population
leaving in the cities that increased to 54% in 1891 that lead for the urban slum.
2. Increased in the food production make people happy life and the reduce of the
working hours of the workers encourage sport event.
3. The emergence of the socialism and trade union- workers demand better
condition of the working class. Marx and Engles advocated the industrial
revolution brought capitalism
Long terms impact of the Industrial Revolution
1. Environmental problem- growth of population-air pollution-

The Social Consequences of

1. Due to the Industrialization Population Shifts to Urban center- Many cities
(like London) grew in size tremendously Some new cities (like Manchester,
England) develop. Huge Population growth (due to agricultural revolution and
 better health care) that lead big problem like sanitation, epidemic, disease
ect.
2. New Social Classes developed- The (Industrial) Middle Class usually lived very
comfortably and were fairly wealthy. However the Working Class
miserable/dangerous conditions -Working conditions On average, 14 hour days, 6
days per week Men, women and children worked.

 Working Conditions
 Living Conditions
 Urbanization
 Public Health and Life Expectancy
 Child Labor
 Working Class Families and the Role of Women
 The Emerging Middle Class
 Wealth and Income
For more detail see the bellow link
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The French Revolution

Historians and writers have explained the causes of the French Revolution according
to their own prejudices. Edmund Burke, who was a keen observer of the Revolution,
was of opinion that the Revolution was not the outcome of a genuine desire for
reform, but was the child of the conspiracy of a few literary men and philosophies.
The liberal historians like Thiers and Mignet tried to explain it either as a legitimate
protest against the tyrannies of the Old Regime or as a social protest of impoverished
classes. Jules Michelet, the great historian of the 1940's, saw the Revolution as a
spontaneous upsurge of the whole French nation against the despotism and injustice
of the Old Regime. For Michelet the people, instead of being a passive instrument in
the hands of other classes, 'is the real and living hero of the piece.' Alexis de
Tocqueville, agreeing with Mignet and Thiers that government was despotic and in
need of reform, acknowledges the importance of the writings of the Enlightenment in
helping to undermine traditional beliefs. Tocqueville argued that the old feudal
survivals and aristocratic privileges appeared to be vexatious to the middle classes
and peasants who became more conscious of their social importance. The French
Revolution was unique in contemporary Europe as what began as a revolt of the
nobility later on associated the middle and lower classes in common action against the
King and aristocracy. Chateaubriand later wrote that "the patricians began the
revolution and the plebeians completed it." In states constituted as are nearly all the
countries of Europe, there are three powers : the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the
people, and the people is powerless. Under such circumstances a revolution can break
out only as the result of a gradual process. It begins with the nobles, the clergy, the
wealthy, whom the people supports when its interests coincide with theirs in
resistance to the dominant power, that of the monarchy. Thus it was that in France the
judiciary, the nobles, the clergy, the rich, gave the original impulse to the revolution,
the people appeared on the scene only later.

The Diplomatic Revolution is a term applied to the reversal of long standing

diplomatic alliances in the wake of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle which concluded the
War of the Austrian Succession in 1748. The traditional alliances of France and
Prussia against Great Britain and Austria changed to France and Austria against Great
Britain and Prussia. In order to cement the alliance, Maria Theresa of Austria married
her daughter, Marie Antoinette, to Louis XVI, heir to the French throne. Despite hope
that this alliance would create an unbeatable power bloc in Europe, it failed to win the
Seven Years’ War (fought in Europe from 1758-1763, known in America as the
French and Indian War), as both Austria and France failed to stop the rising power of
Prussia under Frederick the Great. Furthermore, public opinion on both sides was
very sceptical of this alliance, for Austria and France had traditionally been enemies
since the Habsburg-Valois wars of the 16th century.

The Austrian alliance, including the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette is
commonly considered one of the central causes of the French Revolution. The Queen
was widely condemned for her extravagance, extreme even for a queen, and the most
quoted remark never said; when told that the peasants of France were so poor that
they could not put bread on the table, she was said to have replied, ”let them eat
cake,” Under Louis XIV and Louis XV, both of whom were prolific womanizers who
had many official mistresses during their respective reigns, public opinion often
leveled the blame for society’s ills at the King’s current ministers who, more often
than not, owed their position to the royal mistress (such as the Duc de Choiseul and
Madame de Pompadour in the 1750s)

Precursors to the French Revolution

Countless ideas from the Enlightenment contributed to the French Revolution.

Locke’s ideas of overthrowing government that does not respect the social contract, as
well as Rousseau’s ideas of the general will and the French government’s failure to
represent the general will of the people, were major factors. The Enlightenment also
stripped away at religion, especially Catholicism, directly attacking the divine right
theory that Louis XVI of France used to justify his position

Additionally, there were massive food shortages across France, there was a constant
war, anger over social inequality, and a weak queen and king. Moreover, a harsh
winter had resulted in no harvest and the lack of food, especially bread, causing
poverty, death, and destruction.

The immediate spark of the French Revolution, however, was the financial crisis in
France. This problem stemmed from a number of issues. One of the most prominent
of these issues was the fact that the nobles were tax-exempt, and the nobles resisted
any attempt by Louis to tax them. In addition, France had accrued massive debt from
assisting in the American Revolution, as well as from the Seven Years War(1756-
1763). Finally, French tax collectors were corrupt. As a result, Louis called the
Estates General for assistance and advice to resolve the financial crisis.

The Estates General consisted of three estates: the first estate was made up of
clergymen, the second estate was made up of nobles, and the third estate was made up
of commoners, who represented at least 95% of the populace. The third estate, angry
over their disproportionate representation and their inability to act according to their
needs, rebelled, and declared itself the National Assembly. Three days later members
of the third estate took the Oath of the Tennis Court, swearing allegiance to the
French nation and drawing up a list of grievances (cahiers de doléances) against the
king. They aimed to democratically represent the will of the people and give the
people a constitution, and they were clearly motivated by the Glorious Revolution of
1688 in England.

The French Revolution of 1789 is one of the most important events in both French
and European history. It marks the rise of the 3rd class after centuries of paying high
tax to the King. The revolution centred around (at its peak) the weak King Louis XVI
and the immature Queen Marie Antoinette , as the public saw them, and their lavish
lifestyle hidden away at Versailles. The people of France at the time of 1789 were
being influenced by the media, which did not help the situation. The press would
make up stories of their ”Wicked Queen’s” lavish spending of public money, and her
many love affairs which made her extremely unpopular among the French public. The
6 October 1789 marks the start of the Revolution when 100s of market women (and
men dressed as women) marched on the Palace Of Versailles demanding the Queen’s
head and the King’s immediate return to Paris. The women were successful in
bringing the Royal family back to Paris, even if the queen had not been killed as
intended. The situation worsened once in Paris as the ”Reign of Terror” came to
power, and as Marie Antoinette famously said ”Now they will make proper prisoners
of us.” The terrified King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette their two young
children (11 year old Marie Therese and four year old Louis-Charles) and the King’s
sister, Madam Elizabeth, on the 6th October 1789 were forced back to Paris from
Versailles by a mob of market women. In a carriage, they traveled back to Paris
surrounded by a mob of people screaming and shouting threats against the King and
Queen. He had been in secret correspondence with rulers of Spain, Sweden and
Austria repudiating all concessions made to the Third Estate. On June 20, 1791, the
King, accompanied by Marie Antoinette and royal children set out at night for the
Austrian Netherlands. They nearly reached safely, but were stopped at Varennes and
brought back to Paris on June 25.

National Assembly 1789-1791

The members of the National Assembly came from the members of the third estate in
the Estates General. These members tended to be from the upper middle class, or
bourgeois, and were often referred to as ”Jacobins” since they frequently met in
Jacobin clubs to discuss the revolution.

The National Assembly took a number of actions to remake society. They established
social equality, and signed the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, which was a
social contract. It provided for freedom of religion, taxation of equality, legal
equality, and freedom of press and expression. They wrote a constitution that
established a constitutional monarchy with a parliament. The parliament was to be run
by the bourgeois, who were considered ”active” citizens, while the rest of the citizens
were considered ”passive” citizens and would not be allowed to take part in
government. People in government were to progress based upon merit. Finally, the
National Assembly established the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), which
clergymen would eventually be required to swear an oath to in 1791. In addition to
nationalizing church property, the Civil Constitution also abolished religious vows
and turned all Church clerics (including monks and nuns) into civil servants who
received their pay and assignments not from Rome, but from Paris.

Social Cause

Though France was the most advanced of all the continental countries, yet socially it
had some glaring defects. French society was divided into three hostile groups—the
clergy, the nobles and the Third Estate comprising comprehensive category of classes.
The clergy or first estate constituted less than two percent of the population ; but the
economic power of the Church was considerable. The clergy itself was divided into
two classes ; higher clergy and lower clergy. The higher clergy— archbishops,
bishops and abbots—often enjoyed great wealth. They had large estates and indulged
in luxury and vices without caring for their ecclesiastical duties. But the lower clergy
profited little by the privileged position of the order. Comprising two-thirds of the
order, this group furnished spiritual guidance to the mass of the people. The monastic
order was in a state of rapid decay contributing little to moral progress or to the
government treasury.

The second estate—the nobles—was divided into three sections— country nobles,
official nobility and the nobles of the court (courtiers). This irresponsible group was
united by the bond of 'privilege'. The country nobles who were in a majority, had
small incomes and exacted the utmost farthing from their tenants. Their estates tended
to diminish as a result of the laws of inheritance. The official nobility—some four
thousand in all—chiefly centered in the Parlement of Paris. Enjoying immense
prestige who could fight the monarchy openly, they were opposed to the freedom of
the press and to all reform. Much more conspicuous were the courtiers. They were
supported by a bankrupt government whose resources they consumed in idle luxury.
The classic example of the waste of the national resources was that the royal
household numbered four thousand persons.

The Third Estate was a comprehensive category including financiers, merchants,

office holders, professionals and the agricultural labourer. Many of them suffered
from numerous restrictions on them. The King monopolised salt and other necessary
commodities ; and manufacturing and trade were minutely regulated by the decrees.
But the great bulk of the Third Estate—more than 20 million—was peasants who
constituted nine tenths of the population. The peasant had to pay rent to his feudal
lord, tithes to the Church and taxes to the King. It has been estimated that a French
peasant could count on less than one-fifth of his income for the use of himself and his
family. While one-third of the French peasants owned their land outright, the larger
part possessed tiny parcels of land, quite insufficient to feed their families.

In France in 1789 the bourgeoisie owned between 20 and 30 per cent of all land. Yet
bourgeoisie had their dissatisfaction as too many offices with too little work produced
intense frustration. The anti-aristocratic creed of equal political rights and careers
open to talents arose from the depressed bourgeoisie, petty lawyers and office-
holders, whose aspirations the old order had fostered but had been unable to satisfy

Intellectual Revolt

There had been growing in Europe throughout eighteenth century, a revolutionary

spirit. This spirit, a spirit of rationalist criticism to the Church, monarchy and nobility,
was fostered particularly by the writings of French thinkers and literary men, the
philosophers. French held the foremost place in the world of thought. But this
Enlightenment was heralded by the work of such men as Locke, Hume, Gibbon,
Robertson in England ; Lessing and Kant, Goethe and Schiller in Germany, Benjamin
Franklin in America. By 1780's the philosophic tide had reached European
intellectuals, but the concrete achievements were not substancial. As Kant declared in
1784, it was the Age of Enlightenment, but not an Enlightened Age

Of the earlier rationalists the most famous was Montesquieu (1689- 1755). In his
earlier work, The Persian Letters, a satire on the French society, Montesquieu
attacked the privileged class, the corruption of the court and the folly of religious
intolerance. His famous book, The Spirit of the Laws which appeared in 1748, had a
tremendous success. He was an admirer of the British Constitution as the latter
preserved political liberty by the separation of three powers of executive, legislative
and judiciary.

The most revolutionary among the Philosophers was Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-
38). Napoleon once declared that if Rousseau had never lived there would have been
no French Revolution. The influences of his books Emile (1762) and Discourse, were
profound. His theory was that man was essentially good, but corrupted by civilization.
'Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains.' He declared that sovereign power
could not be divided or separated between a number of institutions. Henceforth he
placed sovereignty permanently and inalienably in the hands of the people as a whole

Of the intellectual circle, Voltaire was the best known and the widest read. An
exceedingly prolific writer, his main attack was directed against the Church. His oft-
repeated remark was 'Annihilate the infamous thing' (Church). In one of his works,
The Letters on the English, he pointed out that the Church and the nobility in England
were not exempt from direct taxation. He was the prince of rationalists and in his
scathing attacks on the Church and other pillars of the Old Regime he was something
of a crusader.

Physiocrats or Economists
There was another group known as Physiocrats or Economists that had great influence
and an important relation to the work of the Revolution. They were much influenced
by the writings of Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776) who is usually
regarded as the greatest protagonist of free trade. Hume in his Essays (1741-42), also
pointed out that the true wealth of a country lay in its people and in its industry and
not in its stock of precious metals. Protectionism benefitted nobody ; therefore all
restrictions ware bad. In France, the Physiocrats maintained that the true basis of all
wealth was land and agriculture. The sure way to enrich a country was to stimulate its
agricultural productivity and to follow the free trade policy. Free trade was to raise the
price of goods, higher prices would stimulate productivity, and so in the long run
there would be economic prosperity. Accordingly, physiocrats advocated the abolition
of control on the grain trade and of internal customs barriers. Next to agriculture,
trade and manufactures were secondary activities.

Weakness of the Monarchy: Financial Crisis

The government of France in the eighteenth century was a highly centralised

despotism. After Louis XIV (1643-1715), the monarchy had lost a great deal of
vigour and its ability to maintain the loyalty of their subjects. This was due in part to
the indolence and personal failings of Louis XV (1715-74) and in part, to the high-
handedness of the bureau- cracy. Louis XV was never a friend of the parlements: he
wanted to silence them once and for all. Most of the Frenchmen protested against the
policy of the King and the early 1770's saw the beginnings of a crisis of confidence in
French public life. 'We are on the verge of a crisis', wrote Diderot in April 1771,

Louis XVI on ascending the throne in 1774 was eager to bring about substantial
reforms in the administration. Unlike his predecessor he had a high sense of personal
responsibility. The old parlements were restored. Between 1774 and 1787 they never
prevented the government from raising any tax on which it was really determined.
Louis XVI's governments pursued two-fold policy. One was to support the American
rebels in their conflict with Great Britain. But the war dealt a ruinous blow to the
already overburdened finances of the state. The second policy was the avoidance of
bankruptcy. Turgot made it the keystone of his programme when he took charge of
the finances in 1774. But within two years he had fallen having antagonised
everybody by abolishing the corvee (a levy on the peasant's time for work on the
public highways) and removing restrictions on the wine and grain trades. Louis XVI
dismissed him without the opportunity to attempt further reforms. Louis next
entrusted the finances to Necker, a vain glorious Swiss banker. He had little sympathy
with the way the regime worked. He despised the parlements and advocated
provincial assemblies. By his ability to raise loans he financed the American war
without introducing new taxation. In 1-782 he published the Compte Rendu—the first
public balance sheet of the financial situation of France. But when in the same year he
tried to engross over all control of policy, the King dismissed him from office.

Calonne became the finance minister in 1786 who propose was to please all. He has
wonderful philosophy of borrowing and used to say ‘ A man who wishes to borrow
must appear to be rich, and to appear rich he must dazzle by spending freely’

Calling of the Estates-General

A special 'royal session' of the parlement was held on November 19,1787 to register
the proposals. But the King refused to take a vote and when duke D'Orleans protested
that this was illegal, the King lost his temper, crying 'That makes no difference! It is
legal because I wish it.' The duke and two councillors were exiled on the next day.
Public resentment now reached a climax. On January 4, 1788, the parlement
condemned the arrest and demanded individual liberty as a natural right. On May 3, it
published a declaration of the fundamental laws of the Kingdom : that the monarchy
was hereditary ; that the vote of taxes was a power of the Estates-General ; that the
Frenchmen could not be arrested or detained arbitrarily. The Government concluded
that the only way left was to sweep away the opposition of the parlements. On May 8,
1788 members of the parlement of Paris were exiled and two of them were arrested on
the floor of the court. The King obtained registration for six edicts prepared by
Lamoignon, the keeper of the Seals. The parlements were not abolished, but they lost
the rights of registration and remonstrance which were now transferred to a Plenary
Court, composed of princes and officers of the Crown
There was explosion of public fury at this ultimate act of despotism. In the uproar
began to be heard the cry of liberty. Many nobles resigned from public positions. The
assembly of the clergy refused to vote the government funds In such circumstances, it
was inexpedient to float a loan. The ministers of war and navy, resigned. Brienne
yielded once again. On July 5 he promised to call the Estates- General. On August 8
he suspended the Plenary Court and announced the convocation of the Estates-
General on May 1, 1789. On August 24, the Treasury being empty, Brienne tendered
his resignation. The King recalled Necker, the financial wizard. Lamoignon was
dismissed and on September 23 the parlement of Paris was reinstated. On September
25, 1788 the parlement announced that the Estates- General should be constituted, as
in 1614, in three separate orders—the Clergy, the Nobility and the Third Estate or
bourgeois, so that the Clergy and the Nobility would retain the upper hand.

The first four months of 1789 were dominated by elections to the Estates. The
elections took place against a background of intense economic hardship following a
poor harvest in 1788. By April 1789 it has been estimated that a wage-earner in Paris
needed 88 per cent of his income to buy bread alone. There were riots in Brittany and
Paris. Each electoral assembly drafted a 'notebook of grievances.' In these note books,
called cahlers, were set forth the demands of the French people for redressing their
grievances. On matters affecting political and administrative reform, there was a
general agreement among the cahiers of the three Estates. But the cahiers of the Third
Estate went much further. They demanded liberty of speech, writing and assembly,
freedom from arbitrary arrest and the abolition of age-old privileges of the Clergy and
the Nobility. Surprisingly none of the cahiers hinted at the abolition of the monarchy
or nobility.

On June 17, the Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly of France and
provisionally authorised tax collection. They were supported on June 19 by a majority
vote of the Clergy. On June 20, the Assembly, finding itself locked out of its hall,
repaired to the royal Tennis Court, where it took a solemn oath not to disperse until it
had given France a constitution. The 'Tennis Court Oath' was the actual beginning of
the French Revolution for in it the representatives of the Third Estate were going
against the orders of the King. Unfortunately for the Crown, it chose the wrong
course. On June 23, the King held a 'royal session' of the Estates-General in which he
announced a programme of reforms. But he coupled it with an order that the Three
Estates should remain separate. But it was too late to make the old constitution.

On the morning of July 14 the search for arms and gunpowder led the crowds to an
arsenal where they removed 30,000 muskets and then across the city to the Bastille.
The old fortress for state prisoners was said to be another arms depot. The Governor
of Bastille, after a vain effort of resistance, surrendered. He was murdered in the
confusion of the surrender. 'This is a revolt' said Louis on hearing the news. 'Sire',
answered Liancourt, 'it is not a revolt, it is a revolution.'

Work of the National Assembly, June 17, 1789-September 30, 1791

The first major accomplishment of the National Assembly had been the destruction of
the old order in the 'August Days'. Its second was the assertion of the principles on
which the new order was to be built—the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen'. This Declaration reflected the influence of the natural-law school of
philosophy, represented by Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau. The Declaration of
Rights is remarkable that it neatly balances a statement of universal principles and
human rights. The Seventeen articles of the declaration asserted that men are free and
equal, that the people are sovereign, and that law is an expression of the popular will.
All those liberties of the person, free speech, free assembly, which had been worked
out in England and America, were asserted. Equality in the Declaration meant
equality before the law and in eligilibity for office. According to a French historian,
the Declaration was a 'death certificate of the Old Regime'. There were marked
similarities to the American Declaration of Independence (1776). The Declaration has
been an indisputable factor in the political and social evolution of modern Europe.

The Assembly then worked out a Constitution which was finally adopted in
September 1791. Owing to this part of its work the National Assembly is also known
as the Constituent Assembly. France was to be governed by a King and a parliament
known as the Legislative Assembly. The Constitution provided a clear separation of
powers among executive, legislative and judicial authorities. The King was now
described as the 'King of the French'. He was allowed a three year suspensive veto,
but not over constitutional or fiscal legislation. He could declare war and make peace
with the consent of the Legislative Assembly and was further empowered to appoint
ministers, ambassadors and military officers. But the King had no power to dissolve
the Assembly ; ministers would be answerable, not to himself but to the Assembly.

The real power was to the entrusted to the Legislative Assembly. It was to consist of a
single chamber of 745 members and was to be elected for two years by a system of
indirect representation based upon a limited franchise.

In November 1789 the Assembly decreed the confiscation of the landed estates held
by the Church, and against this property as security it issued paper money called
assignats. The assignat was a salutary shot in the arm and saved the Assembly from
its temporary difficulties. But after 1790 assignats suffered steady depreciation and a
serious inflation of prices occurred.

In February 1790 monasteries and convents were suppressed. In July a Civil

Constitution of the Clergy was enacted. This document attempted to redress many of
the lower clergy's grievances : they were now assured of decent salaries. The
ecclesiastical map was redrawn on more rational lines. The number of bishops was
reduced from 139 to 83. Bishops and priests were to be elected by the people and paid
by the State. The Catholic Church was, in effect, made a department of the State. The
Assembly refused to submit the Civil Constitution, before it became enforced, for the
sanction of the Pope.

The National Convention, which met on September 21,1792 replaced the monarchy
with a republic. The Convention was composed of three main groups. The majority
was formed by the great mass of independent deputies, known as the 'Marsh' of Plain.
They were not committed to any particular faction. The second group was the so-
called Girondins, led by Vergniaud, Brissot, Gensonnet and Guadet. They were now
the conservative element who wanted to break the power of the Commune and
establish a stable government. Against them were ranged the Jacobins or Mountain,
headed by Robespierre, Marat and Danton. Assured of the support of the
Commune and mob of Paris, they wished to deprive the Girondins of their supremacy
in Convention. After debating the issue of the king's fate for over a month, the
Convention voted 361 to 321 for the death penalty. Louis XVI was guillotined on
January 21, 1793. On October 16, 1793 Marie Antoinette was guillotined.

The Directory (October 1795-November 1799)

The last fourteen months of the Convention are known as the Thermidorian
Reaction whose main concern was to dismantle the Terror. The new leaders who
emerged in the Convention were Sieyes, Tallion, Freron and Barras. On August 1,
1794, four days after Robespierre's death, the Law of Prairial, defining suspects, was
repealed. On August 5, prisoners seized under this law were released. On August 10,
the Revolutional Tribunal was reorganised. It was decided that power should no
longer be concentrated in the hands of a few men. On August 24, 16 committees were
set up, 12 of them with executive powers ; much of the work of the two Committees
of Public Safety and General Security was transferred to these committees. In Paris,
the Commune was abolished and soon replaced by Commissioners appointed by the
Convention. The period of the Directory proved to be one of confusion and political
instability. In part, this was due to the nature of the constitution itself. By providing
for annul elections (of one-third of the Councils and one in five of the Directors) it
offered a constant invitation to disorder. Moreover, the new rules lacked popular
support. By their political expediency and electoral provisions, they had estranged not
only royalists and Jacobins, but also the moderate bourgeois. From these weaknesses
they never recovered.

The Directors had to grapple the financial problem in the initial stage. The assignats
were of little value. In April, 1796 mandats were issued in place of assignats, but soon
fell to one percent of their face value. Prices rocketed further. While the new rich
displayed their wealth with apparent unconcern, poverty was 'as its lowest depths'.
It was against this background that Babeuf launched his 'Conspiracy of the Equals',
the first attempt in history to establish a communist society. He believed that a just
regime was impossible so long as the protection of private property continued to
dominate politics. In the winter of 1795-96, Babeuf conspired with a group of former
Jacobins, club-men and terrorists to overthrow the Directory by force. On the eve of
the insurrection, the leaders of the plot were arrested and the plot came to nothing. A
year later Babeuf and some of his principal associates were brought to trial and
executed. The execution of Babeuf made him the last famous martyr of the White
Terror.

In foreign affairs, the Directory assumed a greater role. By the beginning of 1796,
France's active enemies were Austria, Britain and Sardinia. The Convention had made
peace with Holland, Spain and Prussia. Peace had also been made with Portugal, with
the German states of Saxony and the two Hesses, with the Italian states of Naples,
Parma and the Papacy

On the last day of 1795 France had signed an armistice with the Austrians on the
Rhine front. Using this respite, the Directory planned a decisive frontal attack against
Vienna, under the leadership of Moreau and Jourdan. To aid it, another army, put in
the charge of General Bonaparte, was to create a diversion against Austrian power in
Italy. By the battle of Mondovi, he defeated the Sardinians and forced them to make
an armistice by which they gave up Nice and Savoy to France. Bonaparte's army
defeated the Austrians at Lodi on May 10, 1796 and took Milan. By January 1797 he
had succeeded in taking the Central Austrian stronghold of Mantua, and in routing a
strong Austrian army at the Battle of Rivoli. When Napoleon pressed on to Vienna,
the Austrians called for a truce (April 1797).

Peace was delayed for six months. But when Napoleon advanced to the Danube,
Austria signed the peace of Campo Formio on October 17, 1797. By this treaty
Austria recognised the French annexation of Belgium as well as the creation of a
Cisalpine Republic in northern Italy, surrendered the Ionian islands off Greece, but
kept Venice and all her territory in Italy and the Adriatic. Under secret treaties, the
Austrian Emperor promised to cede to France large districts of the Rhineland, and in
return was promised to cede to France large districts of the Rhineland, and in return
was promised part of Bavaria and the ecclesiastical state of Salzburg.

At home the Directory faced its first political crisis with the elections of April 1797.
The elections were a royalist triumph. Almost all of the onethird new deputies were
royalists, and the Elders elected a royalist Director, Barthelemy. On September 4,
1797 (18th Fructidor), the majority of the Directory called the Trumvirate (Barras, La
Revelliere and Reubell) struck at the royalist majority with the help of Bonaparte's
lieutenant, Augereau. The Triumvirate expelled the newly elected members from the
assemblies and put under arrest Barthelemy and Pichegru, while Carnot escaped.
Henceforth the victorious Directors armed themselves with new powers and relied
more on armed force.

The Legislative Councils blamed the Directory for French reverses and the elections
of April 1799, increased the number of opposition deputies. By the so-called Coup of
Prairial (June 28 1799), the Councils deposed one Director and forced the resignation
of two others. The new Directors were Sieyes, Barras, Ducos, Moulin and Gohier.
Meanwhile, the royalist danger continued. Jacobinism raised its head again and the
country was restless. There was further talk of the 'need to revise the constitution and
to provide stable government by strengthening the executive. It was in this
atmosphere that Sieyes planned a more decisive coup d'etat.

The Girondists and The Jacobins

The Girondist – They so called because they from the district of Gironde of which
many of their leader come. They were man of high intellectual calibers. They were
moderates. They stood for a Republican form of Government. Their views was that if
a was declared there was very possibility of monarch being discredited and a republic
set up in the country. Thus French declared was against Austria in 1792 where she
got defeated.
When Republic was proclaimed in France the Girondiste who were stronger in power
determined to punished the leader of Paris Commune. They succeeded in dissolving
the Commune. However they were faced challenged from the Jacobine.
The Jacobines- they were cruel, corrupts and uneducated however they were practical
and alert politicians who were prepared to run great risks. According to them all the
power and right resided in the people and the law and government must give away
from them. It was business of the people to watch their rulers, supervise their
conducts zealously and always remind them that they were only their agents. It was
the duty of the government to obey the people, no matter what its commands were.

Popular movement were the highest expression of law. Even if there was violence and
murder, they were still the action of the sovereign.

During the times of the French Constitutional Monarchy two prominent radical
groups fought for power: the Girondins and the Jacobins. Of the two groups, though
both were radical, the Girondins were less radical and became arising power in
1791. During this time the group hoped to pass legislation allowing all blacks equal
freedoms (The United States was a little behind on this..). The group also wanted to
go to war with Austria in 1792 in hopes of showing power over the king. As a result
of all of these new found politics of the Girondins, the Jacobins began to
counter react in opposition to the Girondins.

An example of the different political views of the two groups is found with the
reactions to the September Massacres. The massacre was instigated by Georges-
Jacques Danton, a revolutionary leader. Danton gave a speech on September 2nd 1792
in which he said, “When the tocsin sounds, it will not be a signal of alarm, but the
signal to charge against the enemies of our country… To defeat them, gentlemen, we
need boldness, and again boldness, and always boldness; and France will then be
saved.” In reality Danton was probably speaking of boldness needed in fighting the
war but most French citizens took it as boldness needed in fighting within France to
those who were viewed as “traitors” and killing occurred all over the streets. By
September 7th over 1,000 people had been massacred. Girdonins urged citizens to
stop the violence while Jacobins encouraged the bloodshed. The gap between
Girdonins and Jacobins grew more and more with the Jacobins becoming the more
powerful force.

When the king was put on trial for treason the Girondins fought for the king to be
exempted from execution while the Jacobins argued that the king should be executed
in order to assure the revolution’s success. The Jacobins were successful. As a result,
they were a monopolizing power and in the National Convention the Jacobins arrested
and killed 22 Girondins. They had won the battle between the two groups. The main
leader of the Jacobins was Jean-Paul Marat. Parisians loved him and cheered him in
the streets. His reign ended though when Charlotte Corday snuck into his bath,
stabbed him, and Marat was named a martyr of the revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), also known as Napoleon I, was a French military

leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on
the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during
the French Revolution (1789-1799). After seizing political power in France in a
1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a
skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions
of European nations and expanded his empire. By 1793 he had been converted to
Jacobin ideas, and achieved some distinction in the recapture of Toulon (1793) and
the defence of the Convention (1795). In 1796 he was appointed commander-in-
chief of Italy where he laid the foundation of his imperishable military fame. His
Italian campaign lasted a year from April 1796 to April 1797. He was a military
genius and used the new tactics evolved for the mass armies that had been created by
the Revolution. With amazing speed and brilliant tactics, Napoleon occupied every
fort in northern Italy. When he threatened Vienna, Austria sued for peace. By the
Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797) Austria gave up Belgium to France and
abandoned to her the left bank of the Nile. His Egyptian venture to crush the power
of England did not prove to be successful and he had to return back to France at an
opportune moment. He was a masterful opportunist and seized political power in
1799. However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon
abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba. In 1815, he
briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at
the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island
of Saint Helena, where he died at 51.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean
island of Corsica. He was the second of eight surviving children born to Carlo
Buonaparte (1746-1785), a lawyer, and Letizia Romalino Buonaparte (1750-1836).
Although his parents were members of the minor Corsican nobility, the family was
not wealthy. The year before Napoleon’s birth, France acquired Corsica from the
city-state of Genoa, Italy. Napoleon later adopted a French spelling of his last name.

As a boy, Napoleon attended school in mainland France, where he learned the French
language, and went on to graduate from a French military academy in 1785. He
then became a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army. The
French Revolution began in 1789, and within three years revolutionaries had
overthrown the monarchy and proclaimed a French republic. During the early years of
the revolution, Napoleon was largely on leave from the military and home in Corsica,
where he became affiliated with the Jacobins, a pro-democracy political group. In
1793, following a clash with the nationalist Corsican governor, Pasquale Paoli (1725-
1807), the Bonaparte family fled their native island for mainland France, where
Napoleon returned to military duty.

In France, Napoleon became associated with Augustin Robespierre (1763-1794), the

brother of revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), a Jacobin who
was a key force behind the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), a period of violence
against enemies of the revolution. During this time, Napoleon was promoted to the
rank of brigadier general in the army. However, after Robespierre fell from power
and was guillotined (along with Augustin) in July 1794, Napoleon was briefly put
under house arrest for his ties to the brothers.

In 1795, Napoleon helped suppress a royalist insurrection against the revolutionary

government in Paris and was promoted to major general.

In 1798 Bonaparte had departed on an expedition to Egypt designed to cut off the
British from India. After capturing Malta and Alexandria, he marched against Syria.
Then followed his reverses which was crowned by the destruction of his fleet by
Nelson at Aboukir Bay in the Battle of the Nile (August 1798). By May 1799 he
withdrew to Egypt with heavy losses. The campaign produced a second coalition
against France, which included Turkey and Russia as well as Britain. The war of the
second coalition proved to be disastrous to France. Her armies were defeated by the
Austrian Archduke Charles in Germany and Switzerland and driven from Italy by the
Russian general, Suvorov. Meanwhile, the Belgian provinces were in revolt.

Napoleon who knew what was happening in France, made a dash for France. Eluding
Nelson's patrols, he reached France in October 1799. He knew his moment had come.
Sieyes and his fellow-conspirators, Fouche and Talleyrand, turned to Napoleon,
the man of the hour. Sieyes thought that he could handle Napoleon once the coup was
over. So on 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) Bonaparte and his soldiers
dismissed the Directors and the legislative councils. A small number of overawed
representatives, in collusion with Sieyes, voted for constitutional revision. To carry
out this programme, full authority was vested in a provisional consulate of three—
Sieyes, Roger-Ducos and Bonaparte. Napoleon as First consul, wielded undivided
executive authority and the other two consuls were made little more than rubber
stamps. It was end of the bourgeois Republic and marked a further step towards the
establishment of the military despotism.

The executive consisted of three Consuls who were appointed for ten years and
were re-eligible. Napoleon, as first consul had the right to promulgate laws and full
executive authority, appoint and dismiss all officials, civil and military, both in Paris
and the provinces. The second and third Consuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, had
advisory functions only. Under the existing constitution, Bonaparte enjoyed but a
ten-year term as First Consul and he had to share the honour with two colleagues.
Such a position could hardly fulfill his ambition. Bonaparte was a masterful
opportunist guided by intuition into forces at work. After he had achieved new glories
for France by crushing the Second Coalition, Napoleon used a plebiscite in 1802 to
force his plan on the government. He became Life Consul, able to nominate most
senators, to declare war and make treaties, and to designate his successor.

Napoleon’s Rise to Power

Since 1792, France’s revolutionary government had been engaged in military
conflicts with various European nations. In 1796, Napoleon commanded a French
army that defeated the larger armies of Austria, one of his country’s primary rivals, in
a series of battles in Italy. In 1797, France and Austria signed the Treaty of
Campo Formio, resulting in territorial gains for the French.

The following year, the Directory, the five-person group that had governed France
since 1795, offered to let Napoleon lead an invasion of England. Napoleon
determined that France’s naval forces were not yet ready to go up against the superior
British Royal Navy. Instead, he proposed an invasion of Egypt in an effort to wipe out
British trade routes with India. Napoleon’s troops scored a victory against Egypt’s
military rulers, the Mamluks, at the Battle of the Pyramids in July 1798; soon,
however, his forces were stranded after his naval fleet was nearly decimated by the
British at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. In early 1799, Napoleon’s army
launched an invasion of Ottoman-ruled Syria, which ended with the failed siege of
Acre, located in modern-day Israel. That summer, with the political situation in
France marked by uncertainty, the ever-ambitious and cunning Napoleon opted to
abandon his army in Egypt and return to France.

The Coup of 18 Brumaire

In November 1799, in an event known as the coup of 18 Brumaire (the second

month of French Revolution ), Napoleon was part of a group that successfully
overthrew the French Directory. The Directory was replaced with a three-member
Consulate, and Napoleon became first consul, making him France’s leading political
figure. In June 1800, at the Battle of Marengo, Napoleon’s forces defeated one of
France’s perennial enemies, the Austrians, and drove them out of Italy. The
victory helped cement Napoleon’s power as first consul. Additionally, with the Treaty
of Amiens in 1802, the war-weary British agreed to peace with the French (although
the peace would only last for a year).

Napoleon worked to restore stability to post-revolutionary France. He centralized the

government; instituted reforms in such areas as banking and education; supported
science and the arts; and sought to improve relations between his regime and the pope
(who represented France’s main religion, Catholicism), which had suffered during
the revolution. One of his most significant accomplishments was the Napoleonic
Code, which streamlined the French legal system and continues to form the
foundation of French civil law to this day.

In 1802, a constitutional amendment made Napoleon first consul for life. Two years
later, in 1804, he crowned himself emperor of France in a lavish ceremony at the
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. On December 2, 1804, in the presence of Pope
Pius VII, Napoleon placed the crown upon his head. 'I found the crown of
France lying on the ground,' Napoleon once said, 'and I picked it up with my
sword.'

Napoleon’s Marriages and Children

In 1796, Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), a stylish widow

six years his senior who had two teenage children. More than a decade later, in 1809,
after Napoleon had no offspring of his own with Josephine, he had their marriage
annulled so he could find a new wife and produce an heir. In 1810, he wed Marie
Louise (1791-1847), the daughter of the emperor of Austria. The following year,
she gave birth to their son, Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811-1832),
who became known as Napoleon II and was given the title king of Rome. In
addition to his son with Marie Louise, Napoleon had several illegitimate children.

The Reign of Napoleon I

The Consulate 1799-1804

Napoleon seized control and initially installed an enlightened despotism known as the
Consulate. During this time, Napoleon instituted a number of important Enlightened
reforms. The most important of these is his Napoleonic Code, which provided
freedom of religion, a uniform law codes, social and legal equality, property
rights, and end feudal dues. He also implemented a state-wide compulsory
education, known as the University of France. In 1801 he ended dechristianization.
Napoleon declared himself French Emperor and became a military dictator. Napoleon
was undefeated against his three main continental enemies, defeating Austria,
Russia, and Prussia multiple times. During his tenure, he took control of large
amounts of mainland Europe. However, Napoleon failed to subdue England, and was
defeated in his attempt to crush the English Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar by
Admiral Nelson. As a result, Napoleon employed the Continental System, a
method of economic warfare. He prohibited trade with the British by blockading
all coasts of Europe from English export. Unfortunately for Napoleon, this failed,
as the British still were able to smuggle goods into Europe, and were also able to trade
with their colonies, Asia, and the United States. Napoleon eliminated the Holy
Roman Empire, and in 1806 consolidated it into 40 states and named it the
Confederation of the Rhine.

From 1803 to 1815, France was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, a series of major
conflicts with various coalitions of European nations. In 1803, partly as a means to
raise funds for future wars, Napoleon sold France’s Louisiana Territory in North
America to the newly independent United States for $15 million, a transaction that
later became known as the Louisiana Purchase.

In October 1805, the British wiped out Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.
However, in December of that same year, Napoleon achieved what is considered to be
one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Austerlitz, in which his army defeated
the Austrians and Russians. The victory resulted in the dissolution of the Holy
Roman Empire and the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine.

Beginning in 1806, Napoleon sought to wage large-scale economic warfare against

Britain with the establishment of the so-called Continental System of European port
blockades against British trade. In 1807, following Napoleon’s defeat of the Russians
at Friedland in Prussia, Alexander I (1777-1825) was forced to sign a peace
settlement, the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1809, the French defeated the Austrians at the
Battle of Wagram, resulting in further gains for Napoleon.
During these years, Napoleon re-established a French aristocracy (eliminated in
the French Revolution) and began handing out titles of nobility to his loyal friends
and family as his empire continued to expand across much of western and central
continental Europe.

After Alexander I of Russia withdrew from the Continental System, Napoleon

invaded Russia in 1812. For the first time, Napoleon failed, as the Russian army
employed scorched earth tactics to defeat Napoleon’s army. However, Napoleon
quickly raised a new army, but this army was crushed by the Quadruple Alliance of
England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia at the Battle of Nations/Leipzig in 1813.
Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, but he managed to escape and return in
1815 in a period known as the Hundred Days. The Quadruple Alliance again crushed
his new army at the Battle of Waterloo, led by the great British General Wolsey
(Duke of Wellington). Napoleon was then exiled to the island of Saint Helena where
he died in 1821.

The Law Codes

The codification of French law was perhaps the most enduring of Napoleon's
achievements. 'My real glory', said Napoleon at St. Helena, 'is not my having own
forty battles. What will never be effaced, what will endure for ever, is my civil code.'
One of the greatest evils of the ancient regime was the lack of a uniform code of law.
The work had been begun by Colbert and d' Aguesseau. Although five drafts had been
prepared by the revolutionary committees, none of them had been put into execution.
Napoleon gave France a common law, laid out simply in seven codes. The first and
most important was the Civil Code (1804), called the 'Code Napoleon'. This
monumental achievement was the work of a commission of jurists: yet all its plans
had been supervised by Napoleon himself, who was present at thirty-five out of the
eighty-seven sittings devoted to the Civil Code. The Code struck a happy balance
between the rival claims of Roman and Customary law.

The Civil Code affected especially the laws of the family, marriage and divorce, the
status of women, paternal authority and property. The authority of the father over his
wife, his children, and the property of the family was strengthened. Under the new
code wives were subjected to husbands, divorce was made more difficult, and
property up to a quarter of the whole could be given away from the family. There
was to be equal division of property among all legitimate heirs. The Civil Code
guaranteed individual liberty, equality before the law, freedom from arrest without
due process as well as the right to choose one's work. It confirmed the abolition of
feudalism in all its aspects. The Civil Code—a combination of fruitful innovation and
ancient usage—exercises a strong influence throughout Europe. 'Not since the
Institutes of Justinian has any compendium of law been so widely copied.'

Napoleon’s Downfall and First Abdication

In 1810, Russia withdrew from the Continental System. In retaliation, Napoleon

led a massive army into Russia in the summer of 1812. Rather than engaging the
French in a full-scale battle, the Russians adopted a strategy of retreating whenever
Napoleon’s forces attempted to attack. As a result, Napoleon’s troops trekked deeper
into Russia despite being ill-prepared for an extended campaign. In September, both
sides suffered heavy casualties in the indecisive Battle of Borodino. Napoleon’s
forces marched on to Moscow, only to discover almost the entire population
evacuated. Retreating Russians set fires across the city in an effort to deprive enemy
troops of supplies. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon,
faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving, exhausted
army out of Moscow. During the disastrous retreat, his army suffered continual
harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. Of Napoleon’s
600,000 troops who began the campaign, only an estimated 100,000 made it out of
Russia.

At the same time as the catastrophic Russian invasion, French forces were engaged in
the Peninsular War (1808-1814), which resulted in the Spanish and Portuguese,
with assistance from the British, driving the French from the Iberian Peninsula. This
loss was followed in 1813 by the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of
Nations, in which Napoleon’s forces were defeated by a coalition that included
Austrian, Prussian, Russian and Swedish troops. Napoleon then retreated to France,
and in March 1814 coalition forces captured Paris.
On April 6, 1814, Napoleon, then in his mid-40s, was forced to abdicate the throne.
With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, he was exiled to Elba, a Mediterranean island off
the coast of Italy. He was given sovereignty over the small island, while his wife and
son went to Austria.

Hundred Days Campaign and Battle of Waterloo

On February 26, 1815, after less than a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba and
sailed to the French mainland with a group of more than 1,000 supporters. On March
20, he returned to Paris, where he was welcomed by cheering crowds. The new king,
Louis XVIII (1755-1824), fled, and Napoleon began what came to be known as his
Hundred Days campaign.

Upon Napoleon’s return to France, a coalition of allies–the Austrians, British,

Prussians and Russians–who considered the French emperor an enemy began to
prepare for war. Napoleon raised a new army and planned to strike pre-emptively,
defeating the allied forces one by one before they could launch a united attack against
him.

In June 1815, his forces invaded Belgium, where British and Prussian troops were
stationed. On June 16, Napoleon’s troops defeated the Prussians at the Battle of
Ligny. However, two days later, on June 18, at the Battle of Waterloo near
Brussels, the French were crushed by the British, with assistance from the Prussians.
On June 22, 1815, Napoleon was once again forced to abdicate.

Napoleon’s Final Years

In October 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote, British-held island of Saint
Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean. He died there on May 5, 1821, at age 51, most
likely from stomach cancer. (During his time in power, Napoleon often posed for
paintings with his hand in his vest, leading to some speculation after his death that he
had been plagued by stomach pain for years.) Napoleon was buried on the island
despite his request to be laid to rest “on the banks of the Seine, among the French
people I have loved so much.” In 1840, his remains were returned to France and
entombed in a crypt at Les Invalides in Paris, where other French military leaders are
interred.