REVOLUTION!

Before studying the American and French Revolutions, we discussed the French and Indian War, which is also known as the Seven Years' War. It was in this conflict, the British defeated the French and gained control of almost all of Canada and Florida. Spain gained the Louisiana Territory, which had been under the control of the French. As a result of this conflict, the British began to tax the American colonists in order to recoup the financial losses from the war. Taxes went on sugar, paper goods, and tea. The taxes enraged the colonists, resulting in the motto, "No taxation without representation." The famous pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, put his pen to paper and described reasons why the American colonies should break away from British control. What were some of these reasons?

To best describe the process that was the American Revolution, I leave it to the classic educational program known as Schoolhouse Rock:

What were the causes of the French Revolution? These would be helpful to know. If you do not remember, let Mel Brooks help.

Remember the governmental system the Estates General? The clergy was the First Estate, the nobility was the Second Estate, and everybody else made up the Third Estate. Emmanuel Sieyes does a great job of capturing the Third Estate in your primary source reader in his What is the Third Estate?  Each estate had one vote in the Estates General. What happened? The First and Second Estates would vote against the Third Estate to protect their interests.

Enraged, the Third Estate storms out and forms their own government, the National Assembly. Locked in an indoor Tennis Court, the treasonous Third Estate developed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen, still the backbone to the present-day French Constitution. Inspired by this document, but suggesting it did not go far enough, the Frenchwoman Olympe de Gouges penned The Declaration of the Rights of Woman to fight for female equality.

So, there is a storming of the Bastille (Date?), a women's march on Versailles to bring the royal family back to the capital city, the king and queen escaping Paris only to be captured at the border, returned to Paris, tried and convicted of treason and executed, and a Reign of Terror (Hello, Robespierre!). And this is all before Napoleon even gets a sniff of being head of the military, let alone consul or emperor. Napoleon has the reputation of strictly being a military leader; however, as we discussed, the Napoleonic Code and the acceptance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man showed that he had a pulse on the Parisian climate, as well. However, what proved to be Napoleon's downfall (Before his final Waterloo!)?

And now, I will end this blog entry with a painting by the official painter of the French Revolution and Napoleonic France. Who was this artist?