Napoleon in some cartoons

Napoleon Bonaparte´s image was reproduced many times. He was also the main figure in many cartoons in different countries. Here you have a small sample with cartoons from different periods and countries: 

On this cartoon, Napoleon plays the music, while the other countries dance after the signature of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802: 

Source: http://blog.europeana.eu/2012/08/napoleon-in-cartoons/

The following cartoon dates from 1805, after the battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz. William Pitt, the British prime minister,  and Napoleon are dividing the world between them: Pitt takes the ocean and Napoleon takes all Europe except Great Britain. This cartoon represents the difficulties each side had to defeat the other one. The British had a strong navy, but couldn´t defeat Napoleon in the continent. Napoleon had a Great Army, but the couldn´t defeat the British at sea.  

Source: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/france/coalit3.htm

On the following one, Napoleon blinds his soldiers with the smoke of military victories and makes them believe that war is the only way. His hand lies on a book with the revolutionary ideas, but he covers them from people´s view with his body: 

Source: http://www.napoleonguide.com/caric_others4.htm

The next cartoon dates from 1806, when almost all Europe was submitted to Napoleon´s armies. Napoleon is presented as shaver to most of the sovereigns of the continent. His "customers" are bleeding, due to Napoleon´s ruthlesness. Only John Bull, the personification of Great Britain, keeps out of the barber shop and refuses the Austrian Emperor´s invitation to join them. 

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/nb2/drook/napoleon.html

A Spanish cartoon of the Spanish Peninsular War: Napoleon is working for the modernization of Spain and one Spanish patriot thanks his efforts "as he deserves":  

Source: http://nuncasupieron.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/caricaturas-y-comic-relativos-la-guerra.html

The following three cartoons depict Napoleon´s fate. He is represented trapped in a bottle, in a cage and destined to die at the gallows ("at his post of honour"): 

Source: http://blog.europeana.eu/2012/08/napoleon-in-cartoons/

Napoleon´s exile to the island of Elba: his sword is broken and he holds on to the donkey´s tail. The drummers mark the solemn momen.t 

Source: http://espliego.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/napoleon/

Napoleon watching Europe from his exile in Elba: 

Source: http://espliego.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/napoleon/

 Napoleon´s rise and fall on a Prussian caricature: 

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleons_Lebenslauf_-_Aufstieg_und_Fall.jpg

Some more caricatures: 

http://www.napoleonguide.com/cartoons.htm

http://www.napoleon.org/en/special_dossier/caricatures/car-principal.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_of_Napoleon_I_of_France

http://library.brown.edu/cds/catalog/catalog.php?verb=search&task=run&colid=2&keywords1=napoleon&operand1=AND&field1=ti_all&output=record

Comparison between French and British cartoons: 

http://content.lib.washington.edu/napoleonweb/drawings.html

Russian caricatures: 

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/RussianCaricatures.htm

The Law of the Maximum

Poster announcing decrees of the National Convention

Source: http://www.marelibri.com/t/main/3306727-posters/books/AUTHOR_AZ/600?l=en

In September 1793 the National Convention, controlled by the Jacobins, passed a law to try to stop inflation, hoarding and shortage of basic products. The pressure put by the sans culottes and the Jacobin will of guaranting the right to survive of the population inspired the decision of intervening economy.  The products considered essential were the following: fresh meat, salt meat and bacon, butter, sweet oil, cattle, salt fish, wine, brandy, vinegar, cider, beer, firewood, charcoal, coal, candles, lamp oil, salt, soda, sugar, honey, white paper, hides, iron, cast iron, lead, steel, copper, hemp, linens, woolens, stuffs, canvases, the raw materials which were used for fabrics, wooden shoes, shoes, turnips and rape, soap, potash and tobacco. The National Convention also established the maximum wages that had to be paid in the production of these goods and forbade exporting these goods as long as the war continued. 

This law was an example of a well-intentioned idea which had bad results: many peasants hid their harvests to avoid selling them at lower prices and the same did merchants. Black market developed. The supply of products at low prices wasn´t assured and law could only be enforced with the threat of the guillotine. The effects of theis law could be compared to the ones the war communism policy had in Russia during the 1918-1921 Civil War. 

Maximilien Robespierre: a vindication

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robespierre.jpg

Maximilien Robespierre, called The Incorruptible, was the main figure of the Jacobins and has gone down in history as the personification of the Reign of Terror. His name has always been linked to the period of extraordinary measures which included executions by guillotine of the suspected counter-revolutionaries. He was presented as a bloodthisrty dictator, responsible for uncountable atrocities. This image dates back to the Thermidorian Reaction: those who deposed the Jacobins and presented themselves as moderates and claiming for order spread a very negative vision of the Jacobins and found the perfect scapegoat in Robespierre. The winners of the French Revolution, the respectable bourgeois who got the rights they were looking for, used the Jacobin period as a threat and a symbol of chaos and injustice. But what part of this is true? Who was Robespierre and what were his main ideas?

Robespierre was born in Arras, in North Western France. His family belonged to the low bourgeoisie: his father was a lawyer and his maternal grandfather owned a brewery. When he was 11 years old, he received a grant to study in Paris, where he became a lawyer too. Back in Arras, he started working and soon became very popular, because he participated in some very famous trials, defending workers against the abuses of the privileged. He also used the trials to criticize injustice and the bad running of the structures of the Ancien Régime. When Louis XVI called the Estates General in 1788 Robespierre wrote the book of grievances of Arras shoemakers´ guild and was elected deputy of the Third Estate. Once in Versailles, he joined the Club Bréton and later the Jacobin Club in Paris. In the National Constituent Assembly and also in the Jacobin Club he participated in a lot of debates, where he exposed his ideas and expectations: 

- He opposed to the death penalty and explained that forgiving a hundred guilty people was preferable to sacrificing one innocent person.

- He defended the abolition of slavery and equal rights fot the inhabitants of the colonies

- He defended the participation of women in political clubs

- He supported universal suffrage, was against the division into active and passive citizens and believed in democracy

- He fought for the equality of rights for Jews and Protestants, defended religious tolerance and clerical marriage. He believed in God and thought that the decisions against the Church (like dechristianization) could be very negative to the Revolution. In fact, during the Jacobin Convention, he rejected the cult of Reason and proposed the alternative cult of the Supreme Being, as a way of reconciling religious beliefs with the revolutionary ideas. 

- He was against press censorship and martial law and defended freedom of speech, freedom of press,  protection of communications and freedom of association for workers.

- He considered that the right to survive was above other rights and was against punishing people who had committed crimes due to famine or because they wanted to live better. 

- He considered that people were good by nature, defended social justice, education and the fight for improving the living conditions of the poorest. 

- He was against wars of conquest and considered that the only wars worth fighting were the ones against tyrants, not against other peoples. 

- His definition of nation included all the people who had expressed their will of living together under common laws, no matter where they were born.

Could a person with these ideas be considered the monster most books of history have depicted? Why did he change his mind about some of his principles? The answer can be found in circumstances. Many revolutionaries had to make important decisions when they were confronted with the dilemma of  defending the achievements of the revolution and going on with changes or surrendering to counter-revolution. There were two opposed alternatives and they had to decide which one they preferred and what sacrifices were worth being done.  

Robespierre was not obsessed with the idea of founding a Republic, because he was aware of the risk of eliminating monarchy, but when Louis XVI tried to flee from France and his conspiracy against the Revolution was discovered, Robespierre supported the supression of the monarchy and the execution of the king (he said "It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth. The king must die so that the country can live"). He became one of the most important figures of the National Convention and when the Jacobins took the control, he was elected member of the Committee of Public Safety. His responsibility in the extraordinary measures the Committee took was shared with the other members of this organ. He detested violence, but also knew that revolutions had always been violent. Violence was very present in the 18th century and the urgency of the situation in France demanded quick and extraordinary actions. Deciding against his principles had an extraordinary cost to Robespierre´s health and during the last month of his life he was constantly sick and felt very weak, but the responsibilty of building a new and fairer society made him come back to the Convention. A conservative reaction against the policy the Jacobins were following deposed them and on the 28th July 1794 he was executed by guillotine without previous trial, together with other Jacobin leaders. The memory of their efforts was hidden by the bloody stories the winners told about them. They invented the expression Reign of Terror to define the Jacobin period and spread the ideas everybody links to Robespierre. But the Jacobin Convention and especially the Incorruptible deserve a fairer study. 

Here you have one paragraph of one of Robespierre´s most important speeches, on political morality: 

In our land we want to substitute morality for egotism, integrity for formal codes of honor, principles for customs, a sense of duty for one of mere propriety, the rule of reason for the tyranny of fashion, scorn of vice for scorn of the unlucky; self-respect for insolence, grandeur of soul for vanity, love of glory for the love of money, good people in place of good society. We wish to substitute merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glamor, the charm of happiness for sensuous boredom, the greatness of man for the pettiness of the great, a people who are magnanimous, powerful, and happy, in place of a kindly, frivolous, and miserable people—which is to say all the virtues and all the miracles of the republic in place of all the vices of the monarchy. . . .

On Political Morality, 5th February 1794 

Source: http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/413/     

Satirical drawing of Robespierre executing the executioner after having guillotined everyone in France

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robespierre_ex%C3%A9cutant_le_bourreau.jpg

Most of the content of this post comes from two books in Spanish I´ve read recently: 

- McPHEE, Peter, Robespierre: una vida revolucionaria, Ed. Península, Barcelona 2012. This is an extraordinary and documented biography, written by an Australian historian. Here you have some links about this book in English and Spanish: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/12/robespierre-revolutionary-peter-mcphee-review

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1311

http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2012/11/21/actualidad/1353527310_172046.html

- GARCÍA SÁNCHEZ, Javier, Robespierre, Galaxia Gutenberg, Círculo de Lectores, Barcelona, 2012. This is a very long historical novel (more than 1,000 pages) that I still haven´t finished, but it has a very interesting post scriptum about how historians have treated Robespierre and the Jacobins and the reasons for this bad treatment. Here you have a review of this novel in Spanish: 

http://www.abc.es/cultura/cultural/20121126/abci-cultural-libros-robespierre-garcia-201211261054.html

And finally, here you have some Robespierre´s quotes: 

- The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. 

- To punish the opressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

- Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust; it is not a law at all. 

- We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.

Madame Guillotine

The guillotine at the Revolution Square, Paris

Source: http://www.herodote.net/1er_decembre_1789-evenement-17891201.php

Guillotine comes from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a French surgeon who was a deputy of the National Constituent Assembly. As the French revolutionaries decided not to abolish death penalty, Guillotin recommended a more “humanitarian” way of executing people. Since that moment, the nobles were executed with an ax or a sword and the poor people were hung at the gallows or tortured to death at the wheel. Guillotin proposed decapitating people with a device with a cross-cutting blade, which would make death faster. But Guillotin didn´t invent this device. Similar machines had been used in other places since the 12th century. 

The designers of the French device known as guillotine were three people: Laquiante, an officer of the Strasbourg criminal court, Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer, and Antoine Louis, Louis XVI´s physician and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery. They designed the guillotine drawing inspiration from other devices used in different places: the Mannaia (used in Italy), the Scottish Maiden (used in Edinburg) and the Halifax Gibbet (used in England). 

The Legislative Assembly decided to adopt the guillotine as execution method on the 23th April 1792. People called it The National Razor or Madame Guillotine. The first executed by guillotine in France was a highwayman called Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, accused from robbery and murder. He was beheaded on the 25th April 1792 at 3:30 in the afternoon at the Hôtel the Ville Square, the traditional place for public executions. A large crowd attended to his beheading to see the new method of execution and they were deceived by his quick death and shouted “Bring back our wooden gallows!” 

On August 1792 the guillotine was moved to the Tuileries Palace and executions took place at the Carrousel Square.  The first executed were people who had committed violent crimes, but during the Reign of Terror many suspects of being counter-revolutionary were sentenced to die on the guillotine. That´s why this device has been always related to this historical period. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were among the most illustrious sentenced to death. But also Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, and most of the leaders of the revolution, such as Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre or Saint-Just died guillotined. The amount of people executed in Paris until July 1794 was 2,639 (1,515 of them between June and July 1794). Other regions in France were more severe: for example the Revolutionary Tribunal in Nantes (in the Vendée Region) ordered the execution of 8,000 people in three months. In France there were around 17,000 executed (16, 594). Eight per cent of them were nobles, 6% were members of the clergy, 14% belonged to the bourgeoisie and around 70% were workers or peasants, accused of escaping conscription, hoarding, desertion from the army or rebellion. 

The guillotine continued to be the execution method in France until 1981, when death penalty was abolished. The last public execution took place in 1939 and the last person executed by guillotine died in 1977. 

Political groups during the French Revolution

Meeting at the Jacobin Club, 1789

Source: http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/moderneurope/robespierres-transformation-and-the-french-revolution/xir192454/

Political parties didn´t exist when the French Revolution started, but the need for solving practical problems while the National Assembly was trying to transform France gave birth to different political groups. Political discussions also went on in political clubs, where deputies met after the sessions in the Assembly. At the beginning of the Revolution most of the revolutionaries where monarchists and expected that the reforms could establish a constitutional monarchy in France. Differences appeared when the debates focused on the idea of citizenship and limitation of some rights. 

The first political club created after the beginning of the Revolution was the Club Breton. (Breton Club). When the National Constituent Assembly moved to Paris, this club changed  its name to Society of the Friends of the Constitution, also known as the Jacobin Club, because its members rented part of the old monastery of the Jacobins to celebrate their meetings. Most of the deputies of the Assembly joined it. Other moderate deputies created the Club de 1789, which met at the Royal Palace. 

The members of the Jacobin Club belonged mainly to the bourgeoisie: they were lawyers, doctors, teachers, merchants, writers, artists... and most of them were monarchists. After Louis XVI´s failed attemp of flight from France, there was a schism in the Jacobin Club: 

- the most moderate members left the Jacobin Club and created the Club des Feuillants. They met at the former monastery of the Feuillants and they continued to support monarchy. 

- most of the members of the Jacobin Club opted for removing monarchy and proclaiming a republic. The name of the club changed to Club of the Jacobins, the Friends of Liberty and Equality. This club became more popular and most of its members defended a democratic system. 

There was another political club founded in 1790: the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, also called the Cordeliers Club, because they met in a former Franciscan convent. They were more radical than the Jacobin Club, accepted working men and women and some of their most prominent members were Danton, Marat, Desmoulins and Hébert.

When Louis XVI was deposed, the Jacobin Club divided into two branches: the Girondists and the Jacobins. Both branches belonged to the same club, but they defended different opinions in the National Convention:

- The Girondists controlled the Convention until July 1793. They received this name because some of their most relevant deputies came from the region around Bordeaux, the Gironde. They represented the commercial bourgeoisie, defended freedom and private property and wanted to export the revolution. Some of their leaders were Brissot, Vergniaud and Ducos. 

- The Jacobins and the members of the Club of the Cordeliers formed a group called the Montagnards (the Mountain: they were called in this way because they sat at the top seats of the Convention).  They defended equality over freedom and wanted to consolidate the revolution in France. They got the support of the sans culottes and controlled the National Convention from July 1793 to July 1794. Their main leaders were Danton, Marat, Couthon, Robespierre and Saint Just. During the Reign of Terror many of the members of the Cordeliers were guillotined. The same happened with the Jacobins after the Thermidorian reaction. 

Here you have a very interesting scheme in French I´ve just found about this topic: 

Source: http://www.moncahier.info/quatrieme/naissancefrancenouvelle.html

The political division between right and left also comes from the French Revolution. In the National Assembly the defenders of the Ancien Régime sat to the right of the king and the supporters of the revolution to his left. In the opening session of the Legislative Assembly in October 1791, the innovators sat on the left,  the moderates in the centre and the defenders of the Constitution (Feuillants or monarchists) on the right. 

Main decisions and debates of the National Constituent Assembly

Salle du Manège, building where the National Constituent Assembly met since October 1789

Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Salle_du_Man%C3%A8ge_1.jpg

Yesterday we studied some of the decisions made by the National Constituent Assembly and how they ended with the Ancien Régime. The deputies of the National Assembly made many other important decisions and they also discussed a lot of topics. They wanted to change France´s society and many of them were influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment. Discussions continued outside the Assembly, in political clubs, where different opinions were expressed and defined the positions in the debates. Most of the deputies were monarchists, but Louis XVI´s attitude made them change their mind and become republicans in 1791. 

Here you have some other decisions made by the National Constituent Assembly: 

- Equality of rights for Jews and Protestants. 

- Freedom of press 

- Issue of the assignat, a sort of paper money supported by the nationalized properties of the clergy.

- New administrative division of France: departments (provinces), districts, cantons and communes (municipalities). 

- All the civil servants had to be elected, including judges. The king could only appoint the heads of the Army. 

- Freedom of trade and industry: elimination of guilds, interior customs and tolls

- Prohibition of workers´associations (Le Chapelier Law, which was in force in France until 1884). 

- Suppression of contemplative religious orders: only the ones dedicated to education and charity could continue to exist

- Abolition of the titles of nobility. 

- Civil marriage and divorce

- Abolition of birthright in heritage

- Equality of rights for the sons of the slaves in the colonies. But they didn´t abolish slavery. 

- Equality of punishments for all the citizens, including death penalty for the most serious crimes. The guillotine, invented by Doctor Louis Guillotin, was established as a more "humanitarian" way of executing criminals. There were deputies who opposed death penalty, but they were a minority.

But there were other discusions in the Assembly, such as the right to hunt or allowing the members of the clergy to get married (not approved), censorship and control of the post... Some of the most intense debates were the following: 

- Who had to have the right to vote? This was a very important debate, because it gave the definition of citizen: only those men who were more than 25 years old and paid taxes equal to three days of work were considered active citizens. Around two thirds of the adult men in France got the right to vote. This decision deceived the poorest 

- Should the people who protested for their hard living conditions be punished? Some deputies defended that the right to surivive was above other rights and, as long as people couldn´t afford surviving with dignity, they shouldn´t be punished for trying to get a better life. 

- What to do with the king when he was caught trying to flee from France and join the counter-revolutionaries?

These discusions made the differences of opinion among the revolutionaries evident and led to the appearance of the first political groups in France. 

There is not good information about the National Constituent Assembly in English on the Internet. If you want to learn more about this topic, here you have some links in French: 

http://www.cosmovisions.com/ChronoRevolutionConstituante.htm

http://revolution.1789.free.fr/page-4.htm

http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/ehm/Assembl%C3%A9es_constituantes/182724#2915452

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembl%C3%A9e_constituante_de_1789#Les_r.C3.A9formes

I´ve also extracted information to write this post from the following book:

McPHEE, Peter, Robespierre. Una vida revolucionaria, Ed. Península, Barcelona, 2012

The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Source: http://libriaurei.net/2012/09/26/the-declaration-of-the-rights-of-man-and-the-citizen/

This is the text the French revolutionariesof the National Constituent Assembly approved on the 26th August 1789. It reflects many of the ideas of political liberalism developed by the enlightened philosophers. Can you find these ideas?

The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

Articles:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.

7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.

8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.

9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed by law.

10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.

11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.

12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.

13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.

14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.

15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.

16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.

17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.

Source: http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html

Women´s role in the French Revolution

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Women%27s_March_on_Versailles01.jpg

After the first decisions of the National Constituent Assembly during the summer of 1789, there was a fear for a reaction of the former privileged and the prices of basic products continued to be very high. On the 5th October 1789 a women´s protest for the high cost of living in Paris marketplaces became a political protest  related to the revolutionary atmosphere in France. A group of around 6,000-10,000 people, commanded by women, ransacked the city armory, went to Versailles and once there they besieged the Royal Palace and asked for a meeting with the king. This event was called the Women´s March on Versailles. The deputies of the National Constituent Assembly received the protesters and intervened to get an interview of a committee of women with Louis XVI. The king received the women and promised to give them food. Part of the protesters came back to Paris, but another group continued in Versailles and on the 6th October at dawn some people stormed the palace. One of the protesters was killed by the royal guard and there were moments of extraordinary tension. The Marquis of Lafayette, head of the National Guard (Garde Nationale), convinced the crowd to keep calm and adviced the king to go back to Paris, as the protesters demanded. So the royal family and many of the members of the National Constituent Assembly went to Paris, escorted by a crowd of around 60,000 people. The royal family settled down at Tuileries Palace and the National Constituent Assembly started its meetings at a former riding school, la Salle du Manège. These events made Louis XVI aware of the fact that he was not an absolute monarch anymore and he was obliged to obey the people, although he tried to stop the decisions of the Assembly and later he looked for help to subvert revolution. 

The Women´s March on Versailles shows that not only men were revolutionary. Although few women were politicized, many of them started being aware of their awful living conditions and decided to take part in the revolution to improve their lives. Some of them demanded equal rights to men, such as Théroigne de Méricourt, Claire Lacombe or Olympe de Gouges, the writer of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791. 

Books of Grievances

Source: http://www.emersonkent.com/history_dictionary/cahiers_de_doleances.htm

The Books of Grievances (Cahiers de Doléances) were documents written everywhere in France before the opening of the Estates General in May 1789. Louis XVI ordered to write them to know the opinion of  his subjects and to have some guidelines for the debates in the meeting of the estates. These books are an extraordinary source of information, because they collected the concerns and demands of the different estates. In general they reflected the criticism to the structrures of the Ancien Régime and the desire for change. The most interesting books of grievances were the ones written by members of the Third Estate, but also the books written by the nobles contained demands for reform and surprisingly they were aware of the necessity of a tax reform, including the contribution of the privileged to the State finances. 

Here you have more information about the Books of Grievances: 

http://cliojournal.wikispaces.com/The+Cahiers+de+Doleances+of+1789

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahiers_de_dol%C3%A9ances

http://www.emersonkent.com/history_dictionary/cahiers_de_doleances.htm

On the following links you will be able to read books of grievances of the different estates: 

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/cahiers.html

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/cahiers3.html

Presentation about the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era

This is the presentation we´ll use to study one of my favourite periods of History. Use it to complete your notes if you need it. See you next Friday!

12th December 2011

http://www.enriquedans.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/examen.jpg

Today in Social Sciences we have done the exam about the French Revolution and the Enlightened Reformism oof Charles III

The exam has 5 exercises; the first one was match some names with the correct definition or what this person did.

The second exercise was about Charles III’s reign and what happened during his rulling period.

The third exercise was about described the beginning of the French Revolution and what happened in the summer of 1789. (Great Fear)

In the fourth exercise you have to describe two of three options. The options were:

-         Tell all you know about Napoleon Bonaparte, how he arrived the power and how his empire finished.

-         Tell all you know about the Jacobins Convention, how they arrived to power and what changes they made.

-         What happened in Spain during the Peninsular War.

I have chosen the first and the second options.

The fifth exercise was about concepts. You have to choose five of I think there were 8 concepts and you have to define them.

I think the exam was not too difficult but it was very long! 
We have to give the notebooks to Paqui next Thursday

Presentation about Spain during the French Revolution

This is the PowerPoint presentation we´re going to use to learn what happened in Spain during the French Revolution. That period coincided with Charles IV´s reign and the Peninsular War. We´ll learn how the European events influenced the evolution of the Spanish policy and how what happened in Spain had an important effect in the end of the Napoleonic Empire. As usual, you can use this presentation to review the contents or complete your notes and exercises. 

The French Revolutionary Calendar

Source: http://shtukoviny.ru/calendar/info.html

As we studied yesterday, the Jacobin Convention adopted a new calendar in October 1793. The French revolutionaries changed the names of months, divided them into décades and gave name to all the days of the year. The twelve months of the year had 30 days. The five/six lasting days were called complementary or sansculottide days, reserved for holidays. The Revolutionary Calendar was in force until the 1st January 1806, when Napoleon Bonaparte decided to abolish it and come back to the Gregorian calendar, the one we use in the Western world nowadays. If you want to read more about this curious calendar, here you have some interesting links: 

- A little bit of history about the calendar: 

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0922revolutionary-calendar/

- The names of the days: 

http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/calendar/THE%20NAMES%20OF%20THE%20DAYS%20OF%20THE%20REPUBLICAN%20CALENDAR.pdf

- Converter: first you have to choose the century (21th) in the civil era and after this the current day, month and year and you will have the date in the French Revolutionary calendar: 

http://stevemorse.org/jcal/french.html

Interactive activities about the French Revolution

Here you have the result of some days of work. Click on the picture below to start reviewing the contents we have already studied:

Enjoy and learn!

Presentation about the French Revolution

Here you have the PowerPoint presentation we are using to study this unit. Use it if you need to complete some exercises and take advantage of it to review the pictures. See you on Monday.

2011-2012 Challenges. Number 9

Source: http://boisdejustice.com/History/History.html

This week´s research will be dedicated to the guillotine, the execution device that started being used in France during the French Revolution. Here you have the questions:

QUESTION 1

Where does the name "guillotine" come from? What is the relation between this execution device and the man who gave name to it?

QUESTION 2

Who were the inventors of the guillotine? From what previous execution devices did they draw inspiration?

QUESTION 3

What were the execution methods used in France before the Revolution? Were there differences between the different estates?

QUESTION 4

Who was the first person to be executed by guillotine in France? What was his crime?

Execution of Queen Marie Antoinette, 16th October 1793

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ex%C3%A9cution_de_Marie_Antoinette_le_16_octobre_1793.jpg 

QUESTION 5

During the Reign of Terror some illustrious people were executed by the guillotine. One of them is considered to be the father of modern chemistry. Who was this scientist? What were his main contributions to science?

QUESTION 6

The rights of women were not recognized during the French Revolution, but some of them were guillotined for their participation in politics. Two of the most important fighters for the rights of women of that time were executed during the Reign of Terror due to their relationship with the Girondists. One of them was the writer of the Declaration of Rights of  Woman and the Female Citizen. The other one pronounced this sentence before her head was placed on the block to be executed: "Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!". Who were these two women?

2011-2012 Challenges. Number 8

This week´s challenge will make you discover some interesting facts about Charles III´s reign and the origins of the French Revolution: 

Charles III of Spain

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Charles_III_of_Spain.jpg

QUESTION 1

The colonization of new lands was one of the reforms made during Charles III´s rule. Charles III decided to repopulate some sparsely populated regions of Spain, such as Sierra Morena and the Guadalquivir Valley. He wanted to enlarge the cultivated areas and end with banditry. New settlements were created and the consequences of this repopulation are still evident in these places even today. Write at least three of these new towns and explain where the new colonists came from. 

QUESTION 2

The person in charge of this settlement project was one of the most important Spanish enlightened thinkers. Who was this person? Why did he lose his post in 1775? Why was he in France in the first moments of the French Revolution?

QUESTION 3

As we have studied today, France was going through a big economic crisis in the years before the Revolution. Some Louis XVI´s ministers proposed reforms to collect more taxes and reduce the increasing deficit. Who were these ministers and why weren´t their projects put into practice?

QUESTION 4

Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI´s wife, was partly responsible for the dismissal of one of the ministers who proposed  a reform of the economic system of the Ancien Régime. He was also an important economist and he´s considered to be one of the precursors of economic liberalism. Who was this minister?

Queen Marie Antoinette of France

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marie167.jpg

QUESTION 5

Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI´s wife, belonged to an important dynasty. Which one?

QUESTION 6

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette got married in 1770, but they didn´t consummate their marriage until 1777. Why? 

QUESTION 7

Why did Marie Antoinette become so unpopular in France? How was she called by the people?