French Revolution, Napoleonic Era, and European Restoration
Revolutionary Wars
France declared war on Prussia and Austria, supported by an Austro-Prussian invasion. The execution of Louis XVI led to a coalition of European states attacking France. France conquered territories and emerged victorious, thanks to its large national army and the discipline that allowed soldiers to rise regardless of social class. Napoleon’s army was unstoppable. His dream was to make Paris the capital of the world and unite Europe in a constellation of states. In 1803, he faced a new coalition of states led by Britain, followed by others led by Austria and Prussia. By 1811, Europe lived under the influence of a social model imposed by Napoleon. France extracted the following from the revolution:
- Abolition of feudalism
- Suppression of tithing
- Sale of Church properties
- Development of illustrated civil codes
Groups supported the French against their absolute monarchies. Great Britain and Portugal escaped Napoleon’s influence, who imposed a sea blockade on Great Britain. In 1813, the Battle of Leipzig took place, where Napoleon abdicated and retired to the Isle of Elba. The Bourbons then settled in Paris. In 1815, Napoleon escaped and returned to France as Emperor (Empire of the 100 days). The European powers declared war and defeated him at Waterloo. He was exiled by the British to the island of St. Helena.
Restoration
After Napoleon’s defeat, the victors decided to return to the pre-revolutionary situation, thus initiating the French Restoration. Its features were:
- A conservative and counter-revolutionary ideology based on the principles of tradition, authority, and religion.
- A complete rearrangement of the map of Europe, held in the Congress of Vienna after Napoleon’s defeat. At this international congress, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, under the direction of Prince Metternich, applied four principles:
- Legitimacy: Legitimate monarchs returned to their thrones.
- International Responsibility: All the great powers, to which a restored France joined, were to maintain peace.
- Equilibrium: No country should have more influence than another.
- Right to Intervention: In the case of extraordinarily revolutionary attempts in some countries, intervention was allowed to prevent monarchies from falling.
Doctrinaire Liberalism
This ideology sought a balance between order and liberty. Its principles can be summarized as follows:
- Society was formed by a group of equal individuals competing with each other to meet their needs. These individuals had natural rights that the state could not and should not legislate, such as life and private property.
- Economically, it supported social groups that owed everything to personal enrichment, such as the bourgeoisie, and distrusted the nobility and church workers.
- It defended a government that represented the individual interests of those who voted or made it up.
The Government of Napoleon
Napoleon was elected consul in 1802 and emperor in 1804. The government of the republic was entrusted to an emperor, breaking the revolutionary republic and becoming a danger to monarchists and revolutionaries. During his Empire, the following occurred:
- Creation of the Bank of France and use of a single currency.
- Civil Code: Equality of all citizens before the law.
- Centralized management, organized into departments.
- Reform of public education.
- Concordat with the Catholic Church.
The Bourgeois Republic
After the coup of Thermidor, the bourgeoisie, which had led French politics during the Constituent Assembly, recovered power. In this stage, the Revolution ended, and institutions from the previous period were deleted. The Constitution of 1795 was approved. This new constitution was supported by the politics of the new revolutionary military. Among them, the most popular was Napoleon Bonaparte. The victorious Napoleon ended up staging a coup on 18 Brumaire. Bonaparte was elected consul, achieving the highest authority in the Republic.