Enlightenment, Revolution, & Napoleon: A Historical Overview
The Enlightenment
Key Figures
- Voltaire: A French Enlightenment thinker who opposed fanaticism, intolerance, and religious superstition. His works, including “Treatise on Tolerance” and “Philosophical Dictionary,” championed Enlightenment ideals.
- Rousseau: A critic of Enlightenment society, which he viewed as corrupt and corrupting. He believed humans are inherently good. His notable works include “Emile” and “The Social Contract.”
- Montesquieu: A critic of despotism, arguing against its lawlessness, reliance on terror, and advocating for the separation of powers based on the English model.
- Encyclopedia Contributors: A group of philosophers who promoted tolerance, economic modernization, and interest in science and technology. The Encyclopedia, completed in 1772, comprised 28 volumes and six supplements.
Key Concepts
- Nation: A community of people united by historical and cultural ties.
- Censitary Suffrage: The restriction of voting rights to a portion of the population enrolled in an electoral roll, often based on economic, educational, social, or marital status.
- Universal Suffrage: The right to vote for all men who meet legal requirements, such as age. In the 18th century, true universal suffrage (for all men and women) did not exist.
- National Sovereignty: Sovereignty belonging only to those with voting rights based on income or social status.
- Popular Sovereignty: Sovereignty belonging to all citizens.
The American Revolution
- Boston Tea Party: An act of protest by American colonists against the British East India Company’s tea monopoly, which harmed colonial merchants. Disguised as Indigenous people, they threw tea cargo into the sea, leading to the British government’s closure of the port and fines imposed on Massachusetts.
- Yorktown: The site of a pivotal battle in the second phase of the American Revolutionary War, where British troops were defeated.
- Constitution: A statute governing a state’s political life, created by a representative assembly embodying national sovereignty.
The French Revolution
Early Stages
- States General: An assembly representing the three estates of French society under the Ancien Régime: nobility, clergy, and the Third Estate.
- Constituent Assembly: Formed by deputies of the Third Estate during the French Revolution. It adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, abolished feudalism, expropriated church assets, ordered the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, established a new territorial organization, and drafted the French Constitution of 1791.
- National Assembly: Driven by Sieyès, the Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly and began drafting the Constitution of 1791. Sieyès also helped draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789.
The Reign of Terror
- Convention: The assembly elected by universal male suffrage after the storming of the Tuileries Palace by the sans-culottes. It drafted a new constitution.
- Guillotine: A machine for capital punishment by decapitation, created by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.
- Robespierre: A French politician known as “The Incorruptible,” a key leader of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. A Jacobin and influential member of the Committee of Public Safety, he was executed in 1794.
- The Shan (La Bastille): A Parisian fortress used as a state prison, housing political prisoners, including Voltaire.
Post-Terror
- Directory: The final stage of the French Revolution, a regime reliant on force. Popular uprisings and threats from royalists and radicals were suppressed by the army or coups.
- Consulate: The governing institution in France following the Directory’s fall after Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup.
The Napoleonic Era
. He published his famous pamphlet, What is the Third Estate?. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the National Assembly by the Third Estate. On 20 June, is one of the drafters of the Oath of the Tennis Court, declaring the Constituent Assembly and begins drafting the Constitution adopted in 1791. He also collaborated in the drafting of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789. Austerlitz: the battle took place is considered by many as the greatest military triumph of Napoleon. The conflict involved forces of the newly formed First French Empire against the armies of the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire