Chapter 7 The French Revolution

Chapter 7
The French Revolution
And Napoleon
(1789–1815)

Camille Desmoulins and French Revolution banner

The French Revolutions

Liberté, Egalité,
Fraternité

The National
Assembly later
issues the assignat
as currency to help
pay the
government’s
debts.

The French Revolution

• The French Revolution is one of the most
important events in modern history. It
was more radical than either the English
or American Revolutions, and had a far
greater impact on 19th century Europe.
The unthinkable fall of the Bourbons
resonated throughout Europe, sparking a
series of revolutions which rallied behind
liberalism and nationalism. The major
socialist revolutions of the twentieth
century in Russia, China and Cuba were
inspired the French example.

1

On the Eve of the Revolution

• What was the social structure of the old
regime?

• Why did France face economic troubles in
1789?

• Why did Louis XVI call the Estates General?

• Why did a Paris crowd storm the Bastille?

The Three Estates
• Before the revolution the French people
were divided into 3 groups: the 1st
estate consisted of the clergy, the
second estate of the nobility and the
third estate of the bourgeoisie, urban
workers, and peasants. Legally the first
two estates enjoyed many privileges,
particularly exemption from most
taxation.
• The first estate, the clergy, consisted of
rich and poor. There were very wealthy
abbots, members of the aristocracy who
lived in luxury off of wealthy church
lands, and poor parish priests, who
• The third estate, the common people, was lived much like the peasants.
by far the largest group of people in France. • The second estate, the nobility,
Everyone who was not a member of the first inherited their titles and their wealth
or second estates was a member of the
came from the land. Some members of
third. It included the wealthy merchants
whose wealth rivaled that of the nobility, the the nobility had little money, but had all
doctors and lawyers, the shopkeepers, the the privileges of noble rank. However,
urban poor, and the peasants who worked most enjoyed both privileges and
the land. Obviously, a very diverse group. wealth.

The Old Regime
1

Under the ancien regime, or old order, everyone in France
belonged to one of three classes.

FIRST SECOND THIRD
ESTATE ESTATE ESTATE

The CLERGY The NOBILITY The BOURGEOISIE and
PEASANTS
Enjoyed enormous
Owned land but had Peasants were 90 percent
wealth and privilege
little money income of French population
Owned about 10
percent of land, Hated absolutism Resented privilege of first
collected tithes, and and second estates
paid no taxes Feared losing Burdened by taxes
traditional privilege,
Many earned miserable
Provided some especially exemption
social services wages and faced hunger
from taxes and even starvation

Cartoon 1789 - Collection Banque
Nationale de Paris (Paris: Editions
Hervas, 1988)
In this cartoon from the time,
Louis is looking at the chests and
asks "where is the tax money?"
The financial minister, Necker, looks
on and says "the money was there
last time I looked." The nobles and
clergy are sneaking out the door
carrying sacks of money, saying "We
have it."
What did the nobility want? With the exception of a
few liberals, the nobility wanted greater political
influence for themselves but nothing for the third
estate. The King attempted to solve the financial crisis
by removing some of the nobles' tax exemptions.
However, the nobility saw themselves as special, with
better blood, and entitled to all of their class privileges.
The Parlement, a judicial organization controlled by
the nobility, invoked its powers to block the King's
move. He was forced reluctantly to call a meeting of
the Estates General in 1788.

1

Economic Troubles
• Economic woes added to the social unrest and heightened
tension

• For years, the French government had engaged in deficit
spending that is, a government’s spending more money than it
takes in.
• Louis XIV had left France deeply in debt. Recent wars, a
general rise in costs in the 1700s, and the lavish court were
incredibly costly. To bridge the gap between income and
expenses, the government borrowed more and more money.

• FAMINE!!! Bad harvests in the late 1780s sent food prices
soaring and brought hunger to poorer peasants and city
dwellers.

The King and Queen of France lived in luxury and splendor at the magnificent Palace of Versailles
outside of Paris. The government of France, however, was bankrupt and was facing a serious
financial crisis. The crisis came about primarily because of an inefficient and unfair tax structure,
outdated medieval bureaucratic institutions, and a drained treasury which was the result of aiding
the Americans during the American Revolution, long wars with England, and overspending.

―Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it. ‖

Playing Dress-Up Marie Antoinette spent
millions on her clothing and jewels and set
fashion trends throughout France and Europe.
This painting (top) was painted by her friend
and portraitist, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun Louis XVI taken by
angry Mob During
Why did the French common people resent
Marie Antoinette? French Revolution

1

The Meeting of the Estates General
France’s economic crisis worsened, bread riots
spread, and nobles denounced royal tyranny.

? Louis XVI summoned the Estates General.

The Third Estate declared themselves to be the
National Assembly and invited delegates from the
other two estates to help them write a constitution.

When reform-minded clergy and nobles joined
the Assembly, Louis grudgingly accepted it.

The meeting of the Estates-General May 5, 1789

Seating—

Left = radical

Center =
moderate

Right =
conservative

When the Estates General met, each estate solemnly marched into the hall at
Versailles. The third estate, dressed all in black, the nobility dressed in all their finery
and finally the clergy dressed in full regalia.
The delegates of the third estate insisted that the three orders meet together and that
the vote be taken by head, rather than by order. (Since there were far more delegates
from the third estate, this plan would give them a majority). The King refused to grant
their request. The third estate refused to budge.

The Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789) The Estates General met separately at the King's
insistence. The Third Estate established the National Assembly, but was locked out of their
regular meeting place at Versailles. They moved to the indoor tennis court. On June 20, 1789,
the Tennis Court Oath was taken. They pledged not to leave until France had a new
Constitution. The king gave in and told the First and Second Estates to join them.

October 5,1789- Paris women invaded Versailles
demanding bread…‖Let them eat cake,‖ said Marie
Antoinette. It is a fictitious quote, but the myth persists.

Women march to the palace.

The French Plague

European rulers, nobles, and
clergy (such as, from left,
Catherine the Great of Russia,
the Pope, Emperor Leopold II
of Prussia, and George III of
England) feared the revolution
in France would spread to their
countries. Many émigrés
fueled the flames with their
How does the tales of attacks by the
cartoonist portray the revolutionary government.
―plague?‖ Why were European rulers
against revolutionary ideas
coming into their countries?

Causes and Effects of the French
4

Revolution
Long-Term Causes Immediate Causes
Corrupt, inconsistent, and insensitive Huge government debt
leadership
Poor harvests and rising price of bread
Prosperous members of Third Estate Failure of Louis XVI to accept financial reforms
resent privileges of First and Second
Tennis Court Oath/Formation of National
estates Assembly
Spread of Enlightenment ideas The Storming of Bastille
Immediate Effects Long-Term Effects
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Napoleon gains power
the Citizen adopted Napoleonic Code established
France adopts its first written constitution
French public schools set up
Monarchy abolished
French conquests spread nationalism
Revolutionary France fights coalition of
European powers Revolutions occur in Europe and Latin
The Reign of Terror America

Storming of the
1

Bastille
On July 14, 1789, more than
800 Parisians gathered outside
the Bastille, a medieval fortress
used as a prison. They
demanded weapons believed to
be stored there.
The commander of the Bastille opened fire on the
crowd, and a battle ensued, in which many people
were killed.
The storming of the Bastille quickly became a symbol of the
French Revolution, a blow to tyranny. Today, the French still
celebrate July 14 as Bastille Day.

The Conquerors of the Bastille before the Hotel de Ville,
painted by Paul Delaroche.

―Men will not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last
priest.‖ –Denis Diderot

Parisians storm the Bastille on July 14, 1789.

French
revolutionary mob.

Sans-culotte, 1792
In Paris and other cities, working-class men and
women, called sans-culottes, pushed the revolution
into more radical action. They were called sans-
culottes, which means ―without breeches,‖ because
they wore long trousers instead of the fancy knee
breeches that upper-class men wore. By 1791,
many sans-culottes demanded a republic, or
government ruled by elected representatives instead
of a monarch.
Within the Legislative Assembly, several hostile
factions competed for power. The sans-culottes
found support among radicals in the Legislative
Assembly, especially the Jacobins. A revolutionary
political club, the Jacobins were mostly middle-
class lawyers or intellectuals. They used
pamphleteers and sympathetic newspaper editors to
advance the republican cause. Opposing the
radicals were moderate reformers and political
officials who wanted no more reforms at all.

The tricolor cockade on a tricorn
hat, the symbol of the Revolution

Citizen Sam Neill

Lafayette

When he returned to France in 1781, Lafayette was famous -- 'a hero
of two worlds'. He received many honors, was made commander of
the Paris National Guard (1781-91), and became active in politics in
France. In late 1784, he returned briefly to the United States to visit
George Washington at Mount Vernon.

• Back in France in 1788, Lafayette was called to the Assembly of
Notables to respond to the fiscal crisis.
• Lafayette proposed a meeting of the French Estates-General, where
representatives from the three traditional classes of French society —
the clergy, the nobility and the commoners — met.
• He served as vice president of the resulting body and presented a draft
of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

• Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the French (Garde
nationale) National Guard in response to violence leading up to the
French Revolution.
• During the Revolution, Lafayette attempted to maintain order, for which
he ultimately was persecuted by the Jacobins.
• In 1791, as the radical factions in the Revolution grew in power,
Lafayette tried to flee to the United States through the Dutch Republic.
He was captured by Austrians and served nearly five years in prison.
• Lafayette returned to France after Bonaparte freed him from an Austrian
prison in 1797.

• Returning to France, Lafayette tried, but
was unable to influence a more moderate
course in the French revolution. When
France was attacked by the European
coalition, Lafayette was given command
of the French Revolution Army of the
Center in 1792. As with other noblemen
who still served the Revolution, Lafayette
had cause to fear the Jacobin factions
that had taken control of French politics,
and he fled to Belgium. However, the
Austrians considered Lafayette a cause of
the anti-monarchial revolt in France and
imprisoned him (one year at Magdeburg,
and four years at Olmutz). He was freed
by Napoleon in September 1797. While he
acknowledged Bonaparte's position,
Lafayette declined to accept any role in

Lafayette the Emperor's regime and refused the
Legion d'Honor.

Lafayette
• After Napoleon, Lafayette remained active, but
continuously lost influence in French politics. For
a time he was an elected member of the Chamber
of Deputies. However, his political philosophy was
too simplistic for the complexities that faced
France. He was not destined to contribute as
much to France as he did to the United States in
those nations' respective quests for political
freedom. His significant legacy has been as a
symbol for a tradition of continuing French and
American alliances.

Lafayette
• Lafayette continued to maintain
strong ties with his associates of
the American Revolution. He made
an extensive visit to the United
States in 1824-25. He returned to
France with barrels of American
soil, which was placed around his
casket. He and his wife, Adrienne
de Noailles, are buried in Le Jardin
de Picpus cemetery, Paris.
• Since after World War I, an
American flag has been at his grave
site. It remained there, undisturbed,
during the German occupation in
World War II.

1

Section 1 Assessment

Which class made up 98 percent of the population of France in
1789?
a) the First Estate
b) the Second Estate
c) the Third Estate
d) the First and Second estates combined

Which of the following was not a cause of France’s economic
troubles?
a) deficit spending
b) bad harvests
c) overspending by Louis XIV
d) increased wages for peasant workers

2

Creating a New France

• How did popular revolts contribute to the
French Revolution?

• What moderate reforms did the National
Assembly enact?

• How did foreign reaction to the revolution help
lead to war?

2

Popular Revolts
The political crisis of 1789
coincided with the worst famine in
memory. Starving peasants
roamed the countryside or flocked
to the towns. Even people with
jobs had to spend most of their
income on bread.
In such desperate times, rumors ran wild
and set off what was later called the
―Great Fear.‖
A radical group called the Paris
Commune replaced the royalist
government of Paris. Various factions, or
small groups, competed for power.
In the countryside, peasants attacked the
homes and manors of nobles.

Foreign Reaction
2

Events in France stirred debate all over Europe.

• Supporters of the Enlightenment applauded the reforms of the
National Assembly. They saw the French experiment as the
dawn of a new age for justice and equality.

• European rulers and nobles denounced the French
Revolution.

• In 1791, the monarchs of Austria and Prussia issued the
Declaration of Pilnitz, in which they threatened to intervene to
protect the French monarchy.
• Revolutionaries in France took the threat seriously and
prepared for war.

2


Which of the following was a reform of the National Assembly?
a) compensating peasants for lands seized by the Church
b) calling for taxes to be levied according to Estate
c) supporting labor unions
d) ending feudalism

Who issued the Declaration of Pilnitz?
a) the peasants of France
b) the monarchs of Austria and Prussia
c) the Second Estate
d) revolutionaries in France

On the Execution of a King

On January 21, 1793, King
Louis XVI of France was
executed by order of the
National Convention.
Reaction to this event was
both loud and varied
Marie Antoinette transported throughout Europe. The
by cart to the guillotine excerpts below present two
different views on this event.

Radical Days
3

• Why did radicals abolish the monarchy?

• How did the excesses of the Convention
lead to the Directory?

• What impact did the revolution have on
women and daily life?

The Guillotine
Although the guillotine's fame dates from its extensive
use during the Reign of Terror of the French
Revolution, the first guillotine-like instrument was
used as early as 1307. It may have been used earlier
but the first solid evidence is its use in Ireland in 1307.
It was not used much until it became the official
instrument of execution for the French revolution. It
was named for Dr. Guillotin, who proposed that such a
machine be used for official executions. It was actually
constructed by others, though his name was forever
associated with the machine.
It was adopted because it was an egalitarian and
humanitarian form of capital punishment. Previously
the form of execution depended in part on a person's
class. A noble might merit a quick blow from the
headsman's axe (the custom was to offer a tip to the
executioner to ensure a swift death), but if you were a
commoner, you might suffer the torture of a drawing
and quartering or some equally painful death.

Some have speculated that these very virtues made it easier and
more efficient to use it as an instrument to kill in large numbers.
Would Maximilien Robespierre and his followers have been so
quick to remove those citizens who failed to measure up in order to
create his perfect "republic of virtue" if it were not so efficient and
humane? It certainly would have been more difficult.
In spite of its efficiency, an execution by guillotine was still a
sickening spectacle. When the head was severed, blood poured
from the body as the heart continued to pump. When it was used
frequently (as it was during the revolution), the stench from the place
of execution was horrible. There is also some evidence to suggest
that the head retained some life for a moment after the head was
severed and so the death might not be as quick as has been
supposed.
Although the guillotine is most closely associated with
the French, the Nazis guillotined more people than were
killed during the French Revolution. Hitler considered it a
demeaning form of punishment and used it for political
executions. 20,000 had a date with Madame la Guillotine
in 1942 and 1943.
The last use of the guillotine was in 1977.
Capital punishment has been abolished in France.

The official executioner of the
French Revolution, Charles-Louis
Sanson, said on April 25, 1792:

‖Today the machine invented for
the purpose of decapitating
criminals sentenced to death will
be put to work for the first time.
Relative to the methods of
execution practiced heretofore,
this machine has several
advantages. It is less repugnant:
no man's hands will be tainted
with the blood of his fellow being,
and the worst of the ordeal for the
condemned man will be his own
fear of death, a fear more painful
to him than the stroke which
deprives him of life.‖

1789 Doctor of Death
• A medical man’s humane
gesture turns into a symbol
of terror!

• After the outbreak of the
French Revolution, a doctor
and member of the National
Assembly beseeched his
fellow revolutionaries to
outlaw inhumane forms of
execution.
• He described in detail gory
executions and advocated
a less painful method.

Dr. Joseph Gullotin became
an instant celebrity after
championing this new means
of execution, and although he
neither invented nor designed
the device, his name will be
permanently attached to it.
Soon the Guillotine will take
center stage in the drama of
the French Revolution and
fourteen thousand ―enemies of
the state‖ shall bring huge
crowds to witness their deaths
at Madame Guillotine.

―With my machine I’ll take your head off in a flash,
and you won’t even feel the slightest pain.‖

Execution of Marie
Antoinette of France on
16th October 1793

Queen Marie Antoinette
of France just before
the onset of the French
revolution- Portrait by
Alexandre Kucharsky

3

Radicals and the Convention
Radicals took control of the Assembly and called
for the election of a new legislative body called the
National Convention. They granted suffrage, or
the right to vote, to all male citizens, not just to
property owners. (Universal male suffrage)

The convention set out to erase all traces of the old
order. It voted to abolish the monarchy and declare
France a republic. The Jacobins, who controlled
the Convention, seized lands of nobles and
abolished titles of nobility.

Georges-Jacques Danton
• Georges Jacques Danton (26
October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a
leading figure in the early stages of
the French Revolution and the first
President of the Committee of Public
Safety. Danton's role in the onset of
the Revolution has been disputed;
many historians describe him as "the
chief force in the overthrow of the
monarchy and the establishment of According to a biographer,
the First French Republic―. A "Danton's height was colossal,
his make athletic, his features
moderating influence on the
strongly marked, coarse,
Jacobins, he was guillotined by the and displeasing; his voice shook
advocates of revolutionary terror after the domes of the halls".
accusations of venality and leniency He said to his executioner:
to the enemies of the Revolution. "Don't forget to show my head to
the people. It's well worth seeing."

Maximilien Robespierre
• Robespierre is one of the
best-known and most
influential figures of the
French Revolution. He
largely dominated the
Committee of Public Safety
and was instrumental in the
period of the Revolution
commonly known as the
Reign of Terror, which
ended with his arrest and
execution in 1794. Maximilien François Marie
Isidore de Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre
• Robespierre was influenced by
18th century Enlightenment
philosophes such as Jean-Jacques
Rousseau and Montesquieu, and
he was a capable articulator of the
beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie.
He was described as physically
unimposing and immaculate in
attire and personal manners. His
supporters called him "The
Incorruptible", while his adversaries
Portrait of Robespierre called him the "Tyrant" and
after his election to the
dictateur sanguinaire (bloodthirsty
Estates General, 1789
dictator).

Detail From Triumph of Marat, Boilly, 1794 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)

The Revolutionary Who Died For Royalty. Jean Paul Marat aroused hatred in
the hearts of the Paris mobs who vowed not to rest until every high-born
Frenchman was lying headless in a grave.

Charlotte Corday
• As the French Revolution wore on,
Charlotte Corday no longer believed
that a Republic would be possible. She
felt that Jean-Paul Marat, who daily
demanded more and more heads, was
in large part responsible for the
misfortunes that the French people
were undergoing. She resolved to rid
the country of him. On July 9, 1793,
Charlotte requested an appointment
with Marat at his home Marat agreed;
by stating that she had "information to
give him" and that he could even
"render a great service to France", she
managed to obtain a meeting with him.

Charlotte Corday
The meeting
took place in
his bathroom;
he was in his
bathtub. It
was there that
Charlotte
killed him,
using a table
knife "with a
dark wooden
handle and a
silver ferrule,
bought for a
few sols at
the Palais-
Royal".

Jean-Paul
Marat:
Popular
journalist who
advocated
extreme
measures
against
traitors and
hoarders.
Assassinated
in the bath
in1793.

Charlotte Corday
• In the middle of the Terror, the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, "the
Friend of the People", made Charlotte Corday the heroine of the French
people. After the event, she was immediately arrested and imprisoned in the
Conciergerie. The verdict at her trial left no room for doubt : she was
condemned to death. On July 17, 1793, at about seven o'clock in the
evening, she walked up the several steps to the scaffold and was guillotined.

La
Marseill
aise
French Nationalism
―La Marseillaise‖ and a revolutionary-period drum helped rally the French
people.

3

From Convention to Directory
By early 1793, France was at war with most of Europe. Within
France, peasants and workers were in rebellion against the
government. The Convention itself was bitterly divided.

To deal with threats to France, the Convention created the
Committee of Public Safety.

The Reign of Terror lasted from about July 1793 to July 1794.
Under the guidance of Maximilien Robespierre, some 40,000
people were executed at the guillotine.

In reaction to the Reign of Terror, moderates created another
constitution, the third since 1789. The Constitution of 1795 set
up a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature.

3

Women in the Revolution

Women of all classes participated in the revolution
from the very beginning.

Many women were very disappointed when the
Declaration of the Rights of Man did not grant
equal citizenship to women, especially Olympe de
Gouges, who wrote her own that included women.

Women did gain some rights for a time; however,
these did not last long after Napoleon gained
power.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen
Olympe
de
Gouges

Declaration
of the
Rights of
Woman
and the
Female
Citizen (17
91),

The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the
Citizen

• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen is a
fundamental document of the French Revolution, defining
the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the
realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of natural
rights, the rights of Man are universal: valid at all times and
in every place, pertaining to human nature itself. Although it
establishes fundamental rights for French citizens and all
men without exception, it addresses neither the status
of women nor slavery; despite that, it is a precursor
document to international human rights instruments.

Omissions ! Just ask Olympe de Gouges
• While it set forth fundamental rights, not only for French citizens but for
"all men without exception," it did not make any statement about the status
of women, nor did it explicitly address slavery.
• Women's rights
• The Declaration recognized most rights as belonging only to men. This was despite the fact that after The March on
Versailles on 5 October1789, women presented the Women's Petition to the National Assembly in which they proposed a
decree giving women equality. In 1790 Nicolas de Condorcet and Etta Palm d’Aelders unsuccessfully called on the
National Assembly to extend civil and political rights to women. Condorcet declared that ―and he who votes against the
right of another, whatever the religion, color, or sex of that other, has henceforth adjured his own". The French Revolution
did not lead to a recognition of women’s rights and this prompted de Gouges to publish the Declaration of the Rights of
Woman and the Female Citizen in September 1791.
• The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen is modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen and is ironic in formulation and exposes the failure of the French Revolution which had been devoted to
equality It states that:
• ―This revolution will only take effect when all women become fully aware of their deplorable condition, and of the rights
they have lost in society‖.
• The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen follows the seventeen articles of the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen point for point and has been described by Camille Naish as ―almost a parody... of the
original document‖. The first article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaims that:
• ―Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility.‖
• The first article of Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen replied:
• ―Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may only be based on common
utility‖. De Gouges also draws attention to the fact that under French law women were fully punishable, yet
denied equal rights, declaring ―Women have the right to mount the scaffold, they must also have the right to
mount the speaker’s rostrum‖.
• Women were eventually given these rights with the adoption of the 1946 Constitution of the French Fourth Republic

Slavery
• The declaration did not revoke the institution of slavery, as
lobbied for by Jacques-Pierre Brissot's Les Amis des Noirs and
defended by the group of colonial planters called the Club
Massiac because they met at the Hôtel Massiac. Despite the
lack of explicit mention of slavery in the Declaration, slave
uprisings in Saint-Domingue that would later be known as the
beginning of the Haitian Revolution took inspiration from its
words, as discussed in C.L.R. James' history of the Haitian
Revolution, The Black Jacobins. Deplorable conditions for the
thousands of slaves in Saint-Domingue, the most profitable
slave colony in the world, also led to the uprisings which would
be known as the first successful slave revolt in the New World.
Slavery in the French colonies was abolished in 1794, but
reinstated by Napoleon in 1802. The colony of Saint-
Domingue (Haiti) declared its independence in 1804.

3

Changes in Daily Life

By 1799, the French Revolution had dramatically changed
France. It had dislodged the old social order, overthrown
the monarchy, and brought the Church under state control.
Many changes occurred in everyday life:

• New symbols, such as the tricolor, emerged.
• Titles were eliminated.
• Elaborate fashions were replaced by practical clothes.
• Men’s haircuts grew shorter—exposed neck.
• People developed a strong sense of national identity.
• Nationalism, a strong feeling of pride and devotion
to one’s country, spread throughout France.

What do Croissants and Bagels have in
common with the French Revolution?
• Both were invented in Austria by Bakers.
• Both were invented because of the battle in
1683 between the Ottoman Empire and
Europe over Vienna. The Bakers saved
Vienna—they heard the enemy digging
tunnels in the wee morning hours when only
bakers are up!
• Bakers created crescents—like the Muslim
flag symbol. Kipfels went to France with
Marie Antoinette and became croissants.
• And they baked stirrups (bugels) in honor of
Poland’s King John, whose cavalry won the
battle.

Pre-1789 French Revolution Timeline
A series of social and political tensions build within France, before being
unleashed by a financial crisis in the 1780s.
1789 – 91
The Estates General is called, but instead of bowing to the king it takes
radical action, declaring itself a Legislative Assembly and seizing
sovereignty. It starts tearing down the old regime and creating a new France.
1792
A second revolution occurs, as Jacobins and sans culottes force the creation
of a French Republic. The Legislative Assembly is replaced by the new
National Convention.
1793 – 4 The Reign of Terror
With foreign enemies attacking from outside France and violent opposition
occurring within, the ruling Committee of Public Safety put into practice
government by terror. Their rule is short, but bloody.
1795 – 1799
The Directory is created and put in charge of France, as the nation’s
fortunes wax and wane.
1800 – 1802
A young General called Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power, ending the
Revolution and consolidating some of its reforms. First Empire

3

In reaction to the Reign of Terror, moderates set up the
a) Convention.
b) Directory.
c) National Assembly.
d) ―Great Fear.‖

Which of the following was true of women in the French Revolution?
a) The rights of women increased under Napoleon.
b) Women were granted equal citizenship under the
Declaration of the Rights of Man.
c) Peasant women were confined to the home and did not
participate at all.
d) Women of all classes participated from the very beginning.

Napoleon Crossing Mont Saint
Bernard, Jacques-Louis David,
1801

Imprisoned after moderates turned
against the Reign of Terror, David
barely escaped with his life. When
Napoleon rose to power, David
deftly switched his political
allegiance to the new Emperor of
France and became one of
Bonaparte’s chief portraitists. Notice
the names carved into the rocks.
David included these names of
great past rulers to show
Napoleon’s level of greatness.
David’s depictions of Napoleon
helped cement him as a strong and
heroic leader.

Napoleon
Crossing the
Alps on the
back
of Marengo
(1800),
by Jacques-
Louis David

4

The Age of Napoleon Begins
• How did Napoleon rise to power?

• How were revolutionary reforms changed under Napoleon?

• How did Napoleon build an empire in Europe?

Unfinished portrait of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David and Napoleon’s
signature

4

The Rise of
Napoleon
1769 Born on island of Corsica
1793 Helps capture Toulon from British; promoted to
brigadier general
1795 Crushes rebels opposed to the National
Convention with a ―whiff of grapeshot‖
1796–1797 Becomes commander in chief of the army of
Italy; wins victories against Austria
1798–1799 Loses to the British in Egypt and Syria
1799 Overthrows Directory and becomes First
Consul of France
1804 Crowns himself emperor of France

4

France Under Napoleon
Napoleon consolidated his power by
strengthening the central government.
Order, security, and efficiency replaced
liberty, equality, and fraternity as the
slogans of the new regime.
Napoleon instituted a number of reforms to restore
economic prosperity.
Public schools were opened—lycee
Napoleon developed a new law code, the Napoleonic
Code, which embodied Enlightenment principles.
Napoleon undid some of the reforms of the French
Revolution:
• Women lost most of their newly gained rights.
• Male heads of household regained complete authority
over their wives and children.

4

Building an Empire
As Napoleon created a vast French empire,
he redrew the map of Europe.
• He annexed, or added outright, some areas to France.
• He abolished the Holy Roman Empire.
• He cut Prussia in half.
Napoleon controlled much of Europe through forceful
diplomacy.
• He put friends and relatives on the thrones of
Europe. (Nepotism)
• He forced alliances on many European powers.
Britain alone remained outside Napoleon’s empire.

Napoleon in Egypt
The Egyptian Campaign (1798–1801)
was Napoleon Bonaparte's unsuccessful
campaign in Egypt and Syria to protect
French trade interests and undermine
Britain's access to India. Despite several
victories and an expedition into Syria,
Napoleon and his Armée d'Orient were
eventually forced to withdraw by local hostility, British naval
power, Turkish elite new infantry units and politics in Paris.

In addition to its significance in the wider French Revolutionary Wars, the campaign
had a powerful impact on the Ottoman Empire in general and the Arab world in
particular. The invasion demonstrated the military, technological, and organizational
superiority of the Western European powers to the Middle East, leading to profound
social changes in the region. The invasion introduced Western inventions, such
as the printing press, and ideas, such as incipient nationalism, to the Middle
East, eventually leading to the establishment of Egyptian independence and
modernization under Muhammad Ali Pasha in the first half of the 19th century and
eventually the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance.

The Egyptian Campaign

The Battle of the Pyramids, July 21,
1798, painted by Louis-Francois Lejeune.
How did Napoleon hide the fact that the
Egyptian campaign was a disaster?

The Rosetta
Stone
• The Rosetta Stone is a block of black basalt bearing
inscriptions that eventually supplied the key to the
decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script. The
stone was found accidentally in August 1799 by a
group of soldiers in Napoleon's army while they were
conducting engineering works at Fort Julien, near
Rosetta (Arabic: Rashid), approximately 56 km (35 mi)
northeast of Alexandria. Under the Treaty of
Capitulation, signed in 1801, the stone was ceded to
the British military authorities and taken to England
for preservation in the British Museum. Its
inscriptions, which record a decree issued in 196 B.C.
under Ptolemy V Epiphanes, are written in two
The Rosetta Stone
languages, Egyptian and Greek. The Egyptian version is is a multilingual stele,
written twice, once in hieroglyphics and once in demotic, That allowed linguists to
begin the process of
a cursive development of the hieroglyphic script. hieroglyph decipherment.

The Third of May, 1808, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, 1814One
of the consequences of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s rise was
that France soon found itself at war with the rest of Europe. Francisco
Goya saw firsthand the impact of these wars. Born in northern Spain, he
rose to become the official painter of the Spanish court. When Napoleon
invaded Spain and deposed its king, Goya chronicled the horrors of the
resulting guerrilla warfare.

4

Napoleon’s Power in Europe, 1812

The First French Empire
The First French Empire, commonly known as the French
Empire, the Napoleonic Empire or simply as The Empire,
covers the period of the domination of France and of much
of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France.
Constitutionally, it refers to the period of 1804 to 1814, from
the Consulate to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the
history of the French state, with a coda in the Hundred Days of
1815.
The First French Empire stands distinct from its imitator and
would-be successor the Second French Empire of Napoleon III
(1852-1870).
Bonaparte's march to empire began with the Constitution of the
year X (August 1802). Having become "First Consul", he
attracted more power and gravitated towards imperial status,
gathering support on the way for his internal rebuilding of
France and its institutions. He gradually dampened opposition
and Republican enthusiasm, using exile, systematic
bureaucratic oppression and constitutional means. The decision
of the Senate on May 18, 1804, giving him the title of emperor,
was the counterblast to the dread he had excited.

• Never did a harder master ordain more imperiously, nor
understand better how to command obedience. "This was
because," as Goethe said, "under his orders men were sure
of accomplishing their ends. That is why they rallied round
him, as one to inspire them with that kind of certainty."

• No head of the state gave expression more imperiously than
this Corsican to the popular passions of the French of that day:
abhorrence for the emigrant nobility, fear of the ancien régime, dislike
of foreigners, hatred of England, an appetite for conquest evoked by
revolutionary propaganda, and the love of glory.
• In this Napoleon was a soldier of the people: because of this he judged
and ruled his contemporaries. Having seen their actions in the stormy
hours of the French Revolution, he despised them and looked upon
them as incapable of disinterested conduct, conceited, and obsessed
by the notion of equality. Hence his colossal egoism, his habitual
disregard of others, his jealous passion for power, his impatience of all
contradiction, his vain untruthful boasting, his unbridled self-sufficiency
and lack of moderation - passions which were gradually to cloud his
clear faculty of reasoning.

• His genius, assisted by the impoverishment of two generations, was like the oak
which admits beneath its shade none but the smallest of saplings. With the
exception of Talleyrand, after 1808 he would have about him only mediocre
people, without initiative, prostrate at the feet of the giant: his tribe of paltry,
rapacious and embarrassing Corsicans; his admirably subservient generals; his
selfish ministers, docile agents, apprehensive of the future, who for fourteen long
years felt a prognostication of defeat and discounted the inevitable catastrophe.

• So First Empire France had no internal
history outside the plans and
transformations to which Napoleon
subjected the institutions of the Consulate,
and outside the after-effects of his wars.
Well knowing that his fortunes rested on the
delighted acquiescence of France,
Napoleon expected to continue indefinitely
fashioning public opinion according to his
pleasure.

4


Which of the following never became a part of Napoleon’s empire?
a) Prussia
b) the Holy Roman Empire
c) Britain
d) Spain

Which of the following was an immediate cause of the French
Revolution?
a) the storming of the Bastille
b) the Reign of Terror
c) the establishment of the Napoleonic Code
d) Napoleon’s rise to power

Cool interactive map!
http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/wh_modern05/secured/resources/applic
ations/ebook/index.jsp

http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/wh_modern05/s
ecured/resources/applications/ebook/index.jsp

http://www.
classzone.
com/cz/bo
oks/wh_m
odern05/s
ecured/res
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ebook/swf/
animations
/whs05_02
3_674.htm
l

5

The End of an Era

• What challenges threatened Napoleon’s
empire?

• What events led to Napoleon’s
downfall?

• What were the goals of the Congress of
Vienna?

5

Challenges to Napoleon’s Empire
The impact of nationalism
Many Europeans who had welcomed the ideas of the French
Revolution nevertheless saw Napoleon and his armies as foreign
oppressors.
Resistance in Spain
Napoleon had replaced the king of Spain with his own brother, but
many Spaniards remained loyal to their former king. Spanish patriots
conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the French.
War with Austria
Spanish resistance encouraged Austria to resume hostilities against the
French.
Defeat in Russia
Nearly all of Napoleon’s 400,000 troops sent on a campaign in Russia
died, most from hunger and the cold of the Russian winter.

Downfall of Napoleon
5

1812—Napoleon’s forces were defeated in Russia.

Russia, Britain, Austria, and Prussia form a new alliance
against a weakened France.

1813—Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Nations
in Leipzig.

1814—Napoleon abdicated, or stepped down from power, and was
exiled to Elba, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
―Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba‖—palindrome.  RACECAR

1815—Napoleon escaped his exile and returned to France. 100 Days
.
Combined British and Prussian forces defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
Napoleon was forced to abdicate again, and was this time exiled to St.
Helena, an island in the South Atlantic.
1821—Napoleon died in exile.

Napoleon Falls
From Power

A defeated
Napoleon after his
abdication on April
6, 1814, in a
painting by Paul
Delaroche.

―Able was I ere I
Saw Elba‖-- a
palindrome

Napoleon saw himself an Imperial Caesar
with a Roman Republic

In middle age, Fortune turned,
and probably stomach cancer

Napoleon’s Grand Army is demolished by A young, dashing Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcole
the Russian Winter

As shown in this painting, the
Russian winter took its toll on
Napoleon’s army. @ 500,000
died. Philippe Paul de Ségur, an
aide to Napoleon, describes the
grim scene as the remnants of the
Grande Armee returned home.

What were the
effects
of this disaster
in Russia?

―In Napoleon’s wake [was] a mob of tattered ghosts draped in . . . odd
pieces of carpet, or greatcoats burned full of holes, their feet wrapped in all
sorts of rags. . . . [We] stared in horror as those skeletons of soldiers went
by, their gaunt, gray faces covered with disfiguring beards, without weapons
. . . with lowered heads, eyes on the ground, in absolute silence.‖
—Memoirs of Philippe Paul de Ségur

Admiral Horatio Nelson

Lord Nelson

Nelson statue
at Trafalgar Square

The Duke of Wellington
defeats Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo

Sherry Filet de Bœuf en Croûte
(Beef Wellington)

Beef Wellington is named after Arthur Wellesy, First
Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon's army at
Waterloo. The original dish probably called for a simple
flour and water crust to prevent the meat from
browning. The foie gras and Truffles are a Continental
addition.
They were worn and popularized by Arthur Wellesley,
1st Duke of Wellington. This novel "Wellington" boot
then became a fashionable style emulated by the
British aristocracy in the early 19th century.

Napoleon’s Desperate Housewives
• Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796, when he was twenty-
six; she was a thirty-two-year old widow whose first husband had been
executed during the Revolution. Until she met Bonaparte, she had been known
as 'Rose', a name which he disliked. He called her 'Joséphine' instead, and
she went by this name henceforth. Bonaparte often sent her love letters while
on his campaigns. He formally adopted her son Eugène and cousin Stéphanie,
and arranged dynastic marriages for them. Joséphine had her daughter
Hortense marry Napoleon's brother, Louis.
• Joséphine had lovers, including a Hussar lieutenant, Hippolyte Charles, during
Napoleon's Italian campaign. Napoleon learnt the full extent of her affair with
Charles while in Egypt, and a letter he wrote to his brother Joseph regarding
the subject was intercepted by the British. The letter appeared in the London
and Paris presses, much to Napoleon's embarrassment. Napoleon had his
own affairs, too: during the Egyptian campaign he took Pauline Bellisle Foures,
the wife of a junior officer, as his mistress. She became known as Cleopatra
after the Ancient Egyptian ruler.
Napoleon ultimately chose divorce so he could remarry in hopes of an
heir. In March 1810, he married by proxy Marie Louise Archduchess
of Austria, and a great niece of Marie Antoinette; thus he had
married into the German royal family. They remained married until his
death, though she did not join him in exile on Elba and thereafter never
saw her husband again.
The couple had one child, Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles (1811–
1832), known from birth as the King of Rome. He became Napoleon
II in 1814 and reigned for only two weeks. He was awarded the title of
the Duke of Reichstadt in 1818 and died of tuberculosis aged 21, with
no children.

Marie-Louise, Empress
of France with
Her son Napoleon II by
Baron François Gérard

Empress Marie-Louise and the
King of Rome, by Joseph
Franque, 1812. Marie Louise,
Duchess of
Parma with Napoleon II Napoléon-François-Charles-Joseph Bonaparte,
King of Rome, called Napoléon II

―Napoleon on
St. Helena‖ by
Charles
Auguste
Steuben

Death Mask of Napoleon

Napoleon’s Tomb
The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is that of
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).
Napoleon was initially interred on Saint Helena,
but King Louis-Philippe arranged for his remains
to be brought to St Jerome's Chapel in Paris in
1840, in what became known as the
retour des cendres.
A renovation of Les Invalides took
many years, but in 1861 Napoleon
was moved to the most prominent
Location under the dome at Les Invalides.

The sarcophagus is the tomb of Napoleon
Bonaparte. He is buried in his favorite
uniform and he rests in successive coffins
- Inside Napoleon is buried in 7 coffins.
The first coffin is tin, the second
mahogany, the third and fourth lead, the
fifth ebony, and the sixth oak. These are
within a sarcophagus made of red
quartzite and resting on a green granite
base. His 8 famous victories are inscribed
on the floor around the tomb. He is
guarded by 12 statues. Nearby, under a
statue of Napoleon in his royal robes,
lies his son, Napoleon II.

Legacy of Napoleon
5

1. The Napoleonic Code consolidated many changes of the revolution.

2. Napoleon turned France into a centralized state with a constitution.

3. Elections were held with expanded, though limited, suffrage.

4. Many more citizens had rights to property and access to education.

5. French citizens lost many rights promised to them during the Convention.

6. On the world stage, Napoleon’s conquests spread the ideas of the revolution and
nationalism.

7. Napoleon failed to make Europe into a French empire, but Continental System will
almost work…

8. The abolition of the Holy Roman Empire would eventually contribute to the creation
of a new Germany.

9. Napoleon’s decision to sell France’s Louisiana Territory to America doubled the
size of the United States and ushered in an age of American expansion.

Napoleon’s Legacy

Napoleon died in 1821, but his legend lived on in France
and around the world. His contemporaries as well as
historians today have long debated his legacy.
Was he ―the revolution on horseback,‖ as he claimed?
Or was he a traitor to the revolution?

No one, however, questions Napoleon’s impact on France and on Europe.
The Napoleonic Code consolidated many changes of the revolution.

The France of Napoleon was a centralized state with a constitution.

Elections were held with expanded, though limited, suffrage.

Many more citizens had rights to property and access to education than
under the old regime.

Still, French citizens lost many rights promised so fervently by republicans
during the Convention.

What Were the Goals of the
Congress of Vienna?
The chief goal of the Congress was to create a lasting peace
by establishing a balance of power and protecting the system
of monarchy.

To achieve this goal, the peacemakers did the following:
• They redrew the map of Europe. To contain French
ambition, they ringed France with strong countries.
• They promoted the principle of legitimacy, restoring
hereditary monarchies that the French Revolution or
Napoleon had unseated.
• To protect the new order, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and
Great Britain extended their wartime alliance into the
postwar era.

Leaders Meet at the Congress of Vienna

To turn back the clock to 1792, the
architects of the peace promoted the
principle of legitimacy, restoring
hereditary monarchies that the
French Revolution or Napoleon had
unseated. Even before the Congress
began, they had put Louis XVIII on
the French throne.

Later, they restored ―legitimate‖
monarchs in Portugal, Spain, and
the Italian states.

Louis XVIII

Europe After the Congress of Vienna,
5

1815

5


The alliance that formed to defeat Napoleon was made up of
a) Britain, Switzerland, and Prussia
b) Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria
c) Britain, Italy, Poland, and Austria
d) Russia, Prussia, and Italy

Which of the following was an action taken by the peacemakers at the
Congress of Vienna?
a) They restored hereditary monarchs to their thrones.
b) They set up representative governments in France and
Austria.
c) They helped France regain some of its lost power.
d) They dissolved the alliance that had defeated Napoleon.

• Napoleon has
become a worldwide
cultural icon who
symbolizes military
genius and political
power. Since his
death, many towns,
streets, ships, and
even cartoon
characters have
been named after
him. He has been
portrayed in
hundreds of films
and discussed in
hundreds of
thousands of books
and articles.

In the cartoon shown here, the figure on the left represents
the British, and the other figure represents Napoleon. What
are the figures carving, and why?

During the Napoleonic Wars he was taken seriously
by some in the British press as a dangerous tyrant,
poised to invade. A nursery rhyme warned children
that Bonaparte ravenously ate naughty people; the
'bogeyman'. become a cliché in popular culture. He is
often portrayed wearing a comically large bicorne and
a hand-in-waistcoat gesture—a reference to the 1812
paintings by Jacques-Louis David.
The British Tory press sometimes depicted Napoleon
as much smaller than average height and this image
persists. Confusion about his height also results from
the difference between the French pouce and British
inch—2.71 and 2.54 cm respectively; he was 5 ft 7 in
tall, average height for the period, sometimes quoted
as 5 ft 6 in.

• In 1908 psychologist Alfred Adler cited
Napoleon to describe an inferiority complex
where short people adopt an
overaggressive behavior to compensate for
lack of height; this inspired the term
Napoleon complex. The stock character of
Napoleon is a comically short "petty tyrant"
and this has become a cliché in popular
culture. He is often portrayed wearing a
comically large bicorn and a hand-in-
waistcoat gesture—a reference to the 1812
painting by Jacques-Louis David.

• The King of
Brobdingnag
and Gulliver
• Britain's King
George III
examines a tiny
Napoleon
Bonaparte
through a
spyglass. The
cartoon shows
Britain's
contempt for
France and its
leader. - Printed
26 June, 1803.
•

Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich
• Prince Klemens Wenzel von
Metternich was a German-
Austrian politician and statesman. He was
one of the most important diplomats of his
era.[2] He was a major figure in the
negotiations before and during the Congress
of Vienna and is considered both a paragon
of foreign-policy management and a major
figure in the development of
diplomatic praxis. He was the archetypal
practitioner of 19th-century
diplomatic realism, being deeply rooted in
the postulates of the balance of power.
After World War I, some historians
suggested that one of the main reasons for
his opposition to giving power to the people
was his apprehension that it would
eventually lead to the political dominance of
German nationalism.

Concert of Europe
• The Concert of Europe, also known as the Congress System after
the Congress of Vienna, was the balance of power that existed
in Europe between the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) until the
• outbreak of the First World War (1914), albeit with major alterations after
the revolutions of 1848. Its founding powers were Austria,
Prussia, Russian Empire and the United Kingdom, the members of
the Quadruple Alliance responsible for the downfall of the First French
Empire. In time France was established as a fifth member of the
concert. At first, the leading personalities of the system were British foreign
secretary Lord Castlereagh, Austrian chancellor Klemens von
Metternich and Russian tsar Alexander I.
• The age of the Concert is sometimes known as the Age of Metternich, due
to the influence of the Austrian chancellor's conservatism and the dominance
of Austria within the German Confederation, or as the European
Restoration, because of the reactionary efforts of the Congress of Vienna
to restore Europe to its state before the French Revolution. The rise
of nationalism, the unification of Germany and the Risorgimento in Italy, and
the Eastern Question were among the factors which brought an end to the
Concert's effectiveness.

Concert of Europe
As the Napoleonic Wars wound down, the victors
gathered in Austria to make peace at the Congress of
Vienna. The Holy Alliance had two major tasks before it:
to make peace with France, and to restore order and
stability to the continent.

• As its host, the charm and communication skills that Prince Metternich possessed
gave him much personal influence. The ease and versatility with which he handled
intricate diplomatic issues elicited admiration. The Holy Alliance had intended to
make its major decisions behind closed doors; but he counseled compromise and
mutual concessions, and under pressure from Talleyrand, included France in the
negotiations. The Duchy of Warsaw, a Napoleonic creation from the Peace of
Tilsit, formed an important part of the discussions in order to resolve the
Congress's top-priority issue, namely the division of Poland. The Austrian
Netherlands (what is now Belgium) were surrendered by Austria to the newly-
independent Kingdom of the Netherlands. Austria received the Italian provinces
of Lombardy and Venetia as its settlement. Metternich was the architect of what
he hoped would be an enduring European peace. For the next 30 years he
would dominate foreign policy in Europe. In the view of some historians, the
self-styled "coachman of Europe" had brought modern world history into
being.

http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/wh_modern05/secured/resources/applicati
ons/ebook/swf/animations/whs05_023_666.html

National anthems--
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ea44njRTw&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfNLYgXVXFU&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ4GQ5ZPME Robert

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g&feature=related with
words

• US
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb_yVxDyB9s&feature=related

• UK
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN9EC3Gy6Nk&feature=related

Louis Braille
• Louis Braille is the inventor of the braille code. He was born on January 4, 1809, in
Coupvray, France. At the age of 3, while playing in his father's shop, Louis injured
his eye on a sharp tool. Despite the best care available at the time, infection set in
and soon spread to the other eye, leaving him completely blind.
• Barely 16, Braille, then a student at the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris in
1825, spent every waking moment outside class poking holes in paper, trying to
come up with a more efficient way to represent print letters and numbers tactually.
Until then, he and his fellow blind students read by tracing raised print letters with
their fingers. It was painfully slow and few blind students mastered the technique.
Writing required memorization of the shapes of letters and then an attempt to
reproduce them on paper, without being able to see or read the results.

Louis got his inspiration to use embossed dots to represent letters after he
watched Charles Barbier, a retired artillery officer in Napoleon's army,
demonstrate a note-taking system he invented of embossed dots to represent
sounds (most of the soldiers were illiterate) that would allow notes to be
passed among the ranks without striking a light, which might alert the enemy
to their position.
The army was not
impressed, so Barbier
brought his system to the
school for the blind. Louis
immediately recognized its
merits and spent the next
three years improving upon
Barbier's idea.

• By 1924, Louis had in place the code that bears his name and is used
today in almost every country in the world, adapted to almost every
known language from Albanian to Zulu. Louis Braille died on January 6,
1852 at the age of 43, having lived a successful life as teacher,
musician, researcher, and inventor. In 2009, the world celebrated
Braille's Bicentennial.

Braille

• In 1821, Charles Barbier, a former Captain in the French Army, visited the school.
Barbier shared his invention called "night writing", a code of 12 raised dots and a
number of dashes that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield
without having to speak. The code was too difficult , finishing at age 15, in 1824.
Inspired by the wooden dice his father gave to him, his system used only six dots
and corresponded to letters, whereas Barbier's used 12. The six-dot system allowed
the recognition of letters with a single fingertip apprehending all the dots at once,
requiring no movement or repositioning which slowed recognition in systems
requiring more dots. These dots consisted of patterns in order to keep the system
easy to learn. The Braille system also offered numerous benefits over Haüy's raised
letter method, the most notable being the ability to both read and write an alphabet.
Another very notable benefit is that because they were dots just slightly raised, there
was a significant difference in make up.
• Braille later extended his system to include notation for mathematics and music. In
1829, he published the first book in Braille, entitled Method of Writing Words, Music,
and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them. In
1839 he published details of a method he had developed for communication with
sighted people, using patterns of dots to approximate the shape of printed symbols.
With his friend Pierre Foucault, he went on to develop a machine to speed up the
somewhat cumbersome system.

Timeline of the French Revolution

Chapter 7 The French Revolution

Chapter 7 The French Revolution

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