The French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte

The French revolution (1789-1799) was a turning point in the history of modern Europe that started in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s. By the late 18^th century France was in crisis due to the despotic rule of King Louis XVI of the Bourbon dynasty. During this period the people of France revolted against absolute monarchy and the feudal nature of French nobility. The ideals of equality before the law and Enlightenment inspired a change in the French society. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy and replaced it with a republic. The Revolution eventually culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon Bonaparte.

The causes of the French Revolution  were a series of bad harvests coupled with Louis XVI costly wars, rising social and economic inequality, political ideals inspired by enlightenment, economic mismanagement and droughts and overtaxed peasants. The ‘Ancien Regime’ or the French social and political system of the Bourbon dynasty ruled over France in the 18^th century. The social and political structure of the French society was characterized by feudalism and absolutism. In 1774 Louis XVI ascended the throne of France in the middle of a financial crisis in which France was suffering from budget deficit and bankruptcy due to France’s costly involvement in the Seven Years war and later the American Revolutionary War. The king proposed reforms to deal with the poor economic condition of France but the clergy and the nobles did not want to lose any of their privileges.

The Estates General was composed of the clergy, nobility and the common people. The clergy and the nobility which comprised of the first and the second Estates did not pay any taxes whereas the third Estate which comprised of peasants and ordinary citizens had to bear the brunt of taxes. The rule of King Louis XVI was absolute since he believed in the divine rights of kings. The king convened a meeting of the Estates General in Versailles on 5^th May 1789 but the nobles and the clergy were not in favor of any reforms. The Third Estate met at the Tennis Court in June 1789 and wanted popular sovereignty in France leading up to the overthrow of Louis XVI beginning with the storming of the Bastille prison on 14^th July 1789 till the execution of Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette by the revolutionaries in 1792. The people of France formed a National Constituent Assembly and abolished privileges and feudalism in France. Also the tithe (a 10% tax for the church) gathered by the clergy was also abolished.

On 26^th August 1789 the Assembly published the Declaration of the rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Revolution caused a massive shift of power from the Roman Catholic Church to the state. Under the Ancien Regime the Church had been the largest landowner in the country owning about 10% of the land. The growing resentment of the people of France towards the Church led to a decline in religion in France. The first French Republic was proclaimed on 10^th August 1792. This period signalled the end of monarchy, the establishment of the National convention and the Reign of Terror and the subsequent rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in France. In 1792 and 1793 Paris was plagued by discontent due to food shortages which led to the Reign of terror in France. The Reign of terror (1793-1794) was a period of massacres and numerous public executions which took place as a response to anticlerical resentment in France initiated by Maximilian Robespierre. He was ultimately executed by the revolutionaries. Meanwhile, France was engaged in the French Revolutionary wars with Britain and other European powers. In this scene, Napoleon Bonaparte, a statesman and military leader rose to prominence in France in 1799. He became the emperor of the first French Republic in 1804 after seizing political power in a 1799 coup’d’etat. Napoleon conquered every European state and he was unchallenged in the battlefield. However, his military successes suffered a reversal and he was forced to abdicate. He went on exile in Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. On February 26, 1815 he returned to France once again and gathered forces against a coalition of Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia. However, in June 1815 the French were crushed by the British at the battle of Waterloo. In October 1815, Napoleon was once again exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died on May 5, 1821.