The French Revolution (1774–1815)

Intellectual (Enlightenment ideas questioning absolute monarchy), economic (state debt and 1788 bread crisis), and social (unequal Estates system).

France's old assembly of the three legal Estates (clergy, nobility, everyone else), summoned by Louis XVI in May 1789 for the first time since 1614.

Each Estate got one vote, so the clergy and nobility could always outvote the Third Estate two-to-one, despite the Third Estate representing about 97% of the population.

The Third Estate's deputies, now calling themselves the National Assembly, swore not to disband until France had a written constitution.

It showed ordinary Parisians could shape events by force, not just deputies through debate — and became a symbol of the fall of royal tyranny.

Liberty, equality before the law, and that sovereignty belongs to the nation, not the king by divine right.

A constitutional monarchy — Louis XVI kept his throne but shared power with an elected Legislative Assembly, with voting limited by wealth.

Louis XVI was caught fleeing France in disguise; his apparent betrayal destroyed trust in constitutional monarchy and fuelled republican sentiment.

A Paris crowd stormed the Tuileries palace on 10 August 1792; the monarchy was suspended and France was declared a republic on 21 September 1792.

A radical lawyer-deputy who dominated the Committee of Public Safety and led the Terror (1793–94), arguing terror was 'virtue' defending the Republic.

The swing away from Robespierre's Terror after his overthrow and execution (27–28 July 1794) toward more moderate, less repressive rule.

Defenders: it saved the Republic from invasion and civil war. Critics: it spiralled beyond military necessity into eliminating political rivals.

A French victory over the Prussians that stopped the invasion of France and saved the young Republic — it boosted revolutionary morale at a critical moment.

The government of France from 1795–1799, led by five Directors under the Constitution of Year III; weakened by economic crisis, corruption, and reliance on army-backed coups.

Economic crisis (collapsed assignat, high bread prices) and repeated reliance on rigged elections/coups (e.g. Fructidor 1797), which destroyed public trust and proved the regime needed the army to survive.

Sieyès and Napoleon staged a coup that abolished the Directory and created the Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul holding the real power.

First Consul (1799) → Consul for Life (1802) → Emperor of the French (2 December 1804) — a steady concentration of personal power.

A unified national law code guaranteeing equality before the law and secure property rights for men, replacing France's old patchwork of regional laws — but it subordinated wives to husbands legally.

An agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII recognizing Catholicism as the religion of the majority of French citizens, without making it the official state religion; priests were paid by and loyal to the state.

1792: civil divorce legalized, equal inheritance introduced. 1804: wives made legally subordinate to husbands, divorce restricted — a clear reversal of earlier gains.

Napoleon's blockade (from 1806) against British trade, meant to boost French industry — but it also disrupted French trade, causing shortages and unemployment in French ports.

His fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile (1798), but skilled propaganda kept his reputation as a hero intact back in France, helping fuel his rise to power.

Officials Napoleon appointed to run each département directly on his orders, replacing revolutionary local elections — this centralized administration made government efficient but less democratic.

Some argue Napoleon betrayed revolutionary ideals of liberty and representative government by seizing personal power. Others argue he preserved core gains — legal equality, end of feudal privilege — by giving France much-needed stability.

A unified legal code imposed across Napoleon's territories guaranteeing legal equality and abolishing feudal privilege, though it gave women no political rights.

Ghetto walls were torn down in cities like Rome and Venice, and Jews gained legal equality for the first time.

Napoleon's economic blockade banning European trade with Britain, meant to cripple the British economy without invasion.

Smuggling made it unenforceable; it damaged allied economies (including Italy's and Russia's), breeding resentment and directly triggering the 1812 Russian invasion.

Around 600,000 invaded; fewer than 100,000 made it back after the retreat.

Scorched-earth retreat — the Russians burned crops and villages and avoided a decisive battle, denying Napoleon supplies and a quick victory.

A costly but indecisive battle; it failed to destroy the Russian army, and Napoleon went on to occupy an abandoned, burning Moscow.

The 'Battle of the Nations,' where the Sixth Coalition decisively defeated Napoleon, leading to his 1814 abdication and exile to Elba.

The period from March to June 1815 when Napoleon escaped exile on Elba, returned to France, and rebuilt an army before final defeat at Waterloo.

Wellington's coalition army held out against Napoleon until Blücher's Prussian forces arrived, tipping the battle decisively against France.

Political: centralised administration and unified law replaced fragmented states, but with no real independence. Economic: roads and standardised currency helped trade, but heavy taxation and conscription drained resources.

Because his own choices (Continental System, invading Russia) directly provoked stronger coalitions — so his mistakes and his enemies' strength are deeply intertwined, not separate causes.