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France was considered the most advanced country of Europe.
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Napoleon was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
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The Old Regime, a social and political system of France, remained in place. Under this system, the people of France were divided into three large social classes called estates. 1st is owned 10% of the land in France. The 2nd was made up of rich nobles. And 3rd, about 97% of the people belonged in there.
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France's once prosperous economy was in decline. This cause alarm, particurarly among the merchants, factory owners, and bankers from the Third Estate. The bacd weather caused widespread crop failures, resulting in a severe shortage of grain.
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At the age of 16, he finished school and became a lieutenant in the artillery. When the Revolution broke out, he joined the army of the new government.
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When bankers refused to lend the government any more money, Louis XVI had to face serious problems.
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The price of bread was doubled and many people faced starvation. During these events, France's gpvernment sank depply into debt. Part of the problem was spending of Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette.
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The ckergy and the nobles had dominated the Estates-General throughout Middle Ages and expected to do so in a meeting.
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When the ideas of the Revolution reached the planters in Saint Domingue, they demanded that the National Assembly give them the same privilages as the people of France. A civil war erupted and enslaved Africans under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture seized control of the colony.
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After Marie Antoinette gave problems to Luis XIV, like poor advices since she was an enemy of France, the Second Estate had a meeting of the Estates General, which is an assembly of representatives from all three estates, to approve a new tax.
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The Third Estate voted to establish the National Assembly, which is a delegate name for the Third Estates that Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès suggested them, in effect proclaiming the end of absoulte monarchy and the beginning of representative government and this vote was the first deliberate act of revolution.
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The Three Estates delgates found themselves locked out of their meeting room. They broke down a door to an indoor tennis court, pledging to stay until they had drwan up a new constitution. They called it the Tennis Court Oath.
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On that day, a mob searching for gunpowder and arms stormed the Bastille, a Paris prison. The mob overwhelmed the guard and seized control of the building. The attackers hacked the prison commander and several guards to death, and then paraded around the streets with the dead men's head on pikes.
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Throughout the night, the noblemen made grand speeches, declaring their love of liberty and equality. They joined other members of the National Assembly in sweeping away the feudal privileges of the First and Second Estates, thus making commoners equal to the nobles and the clergy. By morning, The Old Regime died.
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Thousands of Parisian women rioted over the rising price of bread. They demanded that the National Assembly take action to provide bread. Then they turned their anger on the king and queen. They broke into the palace, killing some guards, and demanded that Louis and Marie returned to Paris. In the end, Louis agreed.
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Delegates has made significant changes in France's government and society.
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The royal family tried to escape from France, because they were in danger, to the Austrian Netherlands. As they neared the border, they were apprehended and returned to Paris under guard. Louis's attempted escape increased the influence of his radical enemies in the government and sealed his fate.
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The National Assembly completed the new constitution, which Louis reluctantly approved. The constitution created a limited constitutional monarchy. It stripped the king of much of his authority. It also created the Legislative Assembly. It had the power to create laws and to approve or reject declerations of war.
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The Legislative Assembly responded by declaring war
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Prussian forces were advancing on Paris. The Prussian commander threatened to destroy Paris if the revolutionaries harmed any member of the royal family.
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About 20,000 men and women invaded the Tuileries, the palace where the royal family is staying. The mob massacred the royal guards and imprisoned Louis, Marie, and their children.
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The citizens raided the prisons and murdered over 1,000 prisoners. Many nobles, priests and royalist sympethizers fell victim to the angry mobs in these September massacres.
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Most people involved in the governmental changes were memebers of a radical political organization, the Jacobin Club.
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The Constitution declared the king deposed, dissolved the assembly and called for the election of a new legislature. This new governing body, the National Convection, took office on that time.
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Early of this year, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain joined Prussia and Austria against France. Since the French had so many enemies, they suffered a string of defeats. To reinforce the French army, Jacobin leaders in the Convection took an extreme step.
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One Jacobin leader, called Maximilien Robespierre, slowly gained power. He and his supporters set out to build a "republic virtue" by wiping out every trace of France's past.
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The former king walked with calm dignity up the steps of the scaffold to be beheaded by a machine called guillotine.
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The Convection oredered a draft of 300,000 French citizens between the ages of 18-40. A year later, they had up to 800,000 French.
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Robespierre became leader of the Committee of Public Safety. The next year, he governed France virtually as a dictator, and the period of his rule becsme known as the Reign of Terror.
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Early that year, Georges Danton found himself in danger because of Robespierre ideas. His friends at the National Convection, afraid to defend him, joined in condemning him
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The National Convection demanded Robespierre his arrest and execution. The Reign of Terror ended on the 28th, when Robespierre went to the guillotine.
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Moderate leaders in the National Convection drafted a new plan of government. It placed power firmly in the hands of the upper middle class and called for a two-house legislature and an exectuive body of five men, known as the Directory.
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The executed king's son, Louis XVII died in prison.
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When royalist rebels marched on the National Convection, a government official told Napoleon to defend the delegates. Within minutes, the attackers fled in panic and confusion. Napoleon became the hero of the hour and was hailed throughout Paris as the savior of the French Republic..
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Britain, Austria, and Russia joined forces with one goal in mind, to drive Napoleon from power.
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Napoleon took action because the Directory had lost control of the political situation and the confidence of the French people. Troops under Napoleon's command surrounded the national legislature and drove out most of his members. Napoleon took the Directory's place and took the title of first consul and assumed the powers of a dictator. A sudden seizure of power like Napoleon's is known as a coup, or coup d'État.
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A plebiscite was held to approve a new constitution. People voted in favor of a constitution and this gave all real power to Napoleon.
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Europe was at peace for the first time in ten years. Napoleon was free to focus his energies on restoring order in France.
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Napoleon walked down the long aisle of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to be crowned emperor. He took the crown of the Pope and placed it on his own head. With this gesture, Napoleon signaled that he was more powerful than the Church.
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After the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon issued a proclamation expressing his pride in his truths.
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In his drive for a European Empire, Napoleon lost only the Battle of Trafalgar. This naval defeat was more important than all of his victories on land. The battle took place off the southwest coast of Spain.
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Napoleon setup a blockade to prevent old trade and communication between Great Britain and other European nation. He call this policy The Continental System because it was suppose to make continental Europe more self-sufficient.
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The French Empire was huge but unstable. Napoleon was able to mantain it at its greates extent, but only for five years through 1812.
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Napoleon made a second costly mistake. In an effort to get Portugal to accept the Continental System, he sent and invasion force through Spain, but the Spanish peope protested this action. In response Napoleon removed the Spanish king and put his own brother, Joseph, on the throne.
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Marie Louis, the grand msiss of Marie Antoniette, gave birth to a son Napoleon II, whom Napoleon named king of Rome.
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The only areas of Europe free from Napoleon's control were: Britain, Portugal, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire.
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The U.S congress declared war on Britain. Even though this war lasted two years, it was only a minor incovenience to Britain in its struggle with Napoleon.
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Napoleon and his Gran Army, of more than 420,000 soldiers marched into Russia. As Napoleon advanced, Alexander pulled back his truths, refusing to be lured into an unequal battle.
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The two armies finally clashed in the Battle of Borodino. After several hours of indecesive fighting, the russians fell back, allowing Napoleon to move on Moscow.
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He faced the allied armies of the European powers outside the German city of Leipzie. The allied forces easily defeated his inexperienced army and French resistance crumbled quickly.
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The allied armies were pushing steadily toward Paris. A few months later, king Frederick William III of Prussia and Czar Alexander I of Russia led their troops into a triumphant parade through the French capital.
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Napoleon wanted to fight on, but his generals refused, he accepted the terms of surrender and gave up his throne.
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The rulers of Europe were very nervous about the legacy of the French Revolution. Late this year, Czar Alexander I, Emperor Francis I of Austria, and king Frederick William III of Prussia signed an agreement the Holy Alliance where they pledge to base their relations with other nations on Christian principles in order to combat the forces of revolution.
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France was deeply divided politically.
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Napoleon needed to try to regain power. He escape from Elba and landed in France.
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Napoleon attacked the village of waterloo in Belgium.
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Napoleon died of a stomach ailment, perhaps cancer, in Saint Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic.
