European History

Following the year (1792) the war objectives of France's revolutionary administrations shifted away from the conventional French king’s conquest strategies and toward a more self-serving patriotic ideology. France seized Belgium, Germany west of the Rhine, Savoy, and Nice as it moved eastward to reach her natural frontiers of the Rhine and the Alps. These annexations were acknowledged by Austria in the Campo Formio Treaty (1797) and German princes driven from the Rhineland were compensated by gaining the area of former church wars, which put a strain on their financial resources and domestic administrations. Reversals strengthened the difficulties and responsibilities of war while upending the status of their governments at home. Apart from it, the immediate consequences did not differ significantly from those of other, more common forms of inter-dynastic conflict. There was never any chance that a revolution would break out. And court circles, in Vienna and Berlin a...

The conflict had almost as revolutionary an impact on post war Europe as it did on France. Given its effects, which paralleled the Reformation in the sixteenth century and the religious conflicts in the 17 th century the French Revolution can reasonably be considered the most significant event in the history of modern Europe up to 1914. The old political, economic, social, and diplomatic orders as well as their underlying theories were completely overthrown. Unrest and conflict expanded throughout Europe as a result of the earlier cult of things French, which dates back to the Louis era and the emergence of Enlightenment in the early 18 th century. Long before 1789, French philosophy, French literature, and French manners were generally accepted especially in Germany. The Enlightenment movement, led by men like Gotthold Lessing, advanced reason while challenging all prevailing institutions and beliefs. Similar circumstances existed in Belgium, northern Italy, and even the Great Brita...

The effects of the conflict on post war Europe were nearly as revolutionary as those on France . Until 1914, the French Revolution may justifiably be regarded as the most important event in the history of modern Europe, given its repercussions that were akin to those of the reformation in the 16th century and the religious battles in the 17th century. The foundations of the previous established order in politics, economy, social life, ideas, diplomacy, and warfare were all destroyed. The earlier cult of everything French, which stretches back to the Louis XIV era and the early 18th century Enlightenment growth, contributed to the spread of upheaval and strife across Europe. French literature, manners, and philosophy were widely embraced long before 1789, particularly in Germany. Guys such as Gotthold Lessing spearheaded the Enlightenment movement which challenged all established institutions and beliefs while advancing reason. The situation in Belgium, northern Italy and even Great B...

Second part continue from here Pichegru and the Austrians on the Rhine front negotiated an armistice on the final day of 1795. The Directory intended to use this break to march its major army over the Danube and the Black Forest to Vienna, where Moreau and Jourdan would be leading them. This was going to be the big frontal assault. Another army was to create a diversion against Austrian forces in Italy in order to support it. General Bonaparte was given command of this force. He overcame the Sardinians at the Battle of Mondovi, forcing them to sign an armistice that gave France control over Nice and Savoy. Marching ahead, on May 10, the day the Babeuf Plot was put down, Napoleon's troops routed the Austrians at Lodi and captured Milan, where he was welcomed as a liberator from Austrian domination. After a protracted battle, he managed to capture Mantua, the center of Austria, in January 1797. At the Battle of Rivoli, he also defeated a force of over 70,000 Austrians. He drove the ...

Even if the Red Terror was behind us, the White Terror of reaction was about to begin. The Convention met until October 1795, reorganized its committees, and restored control to the remaining Girondins. These last fourteen months of the Convention are called the Thermidorian reaction, because Robespierre was overthrown on Thermidor 9, in accordance with the new revolutionary calendar. It was certainly not a royalist reaction. Concurrent with the war, the revolutionary governments persisted in their current forms. But it was also a retreat from the excesses of the previous Terror, a return to moderate Jacobinism, and a dismantling of partisan rivalries and hostilities.  The Revolutionary Tribunal was abolished in May of 1795, but not before it had lost the majority of its oppressive powers and practices. As soon as the Convention gave up trying to implement the Maximum's regulations, some of the emigrants began to return to France. The Convention developed a third constitution,...

Remaining part is from here third part>> The three institutional foundations of Robespierre's revolutionary tyranny were the Jacobin Club, the Commune, and the Convention Committees. However, this does not fully explain his strange power unless one also considers the wider elements of revolutionary fervor and patriotic enthusiasm, the restless insecurity and anxiety that pervaded the atmosphere, and the constant blackmailing power of the ferocious and excited Paris mob that forced every political leader to outbid his colleagues in denouncing treachery and providing evidence of his own unsullied purpose. The overthrow of all known established institutions of governance, coupled with the dual threat of domestic counterrevolution and foreign invasion, allowed for the Reign of Terror. That it spread so widely and persisted for so long was caused by a number of factors, chief among them the influence of bras-nits, canaille, and enrages, or, to put it another way, proletarian vi...

Remaining part continue from here>>> The Commune served as the 2nd revolution's medium, with Paris serving as its center. Local and municipal groups served a variety of functions, mostly army and administrative. The four hundred and seven representatives from various Parisian areas who had been chosen as deputies to the Estates general assembled at the Hotel de Ville in June of 1789 to establish an unofficial municipal administration. Similar municipal bodies were formed in different & other towns as a result of local uprisings. Local communal councils had been established in all cities and villages by December of 1789. Committees for local revolutionary monitoring frequently emerged. Established upon the collapse of the Bastille, the National Guard was mostly composed of middle-class recruits and was further divided into local units under regional federations. Mainly in Paris the capital city of France, this mass of local bodies had a tendency to merge into small insu...

It was the spring of 1792, France experienced both war and revolution simultaneously. The ramifications for France were significant. In short, they were the restoration of the monarchy, the Robespierre dictatorship, the Reign of Terror, and General Bonaparte's ascent to power. The effects were extensive for Europe as well. The French monarchy was the first to fall victim to the war. On September 21, 1792, the day following the battle of Valmy, in which the revolutionary army under the command of two generals, Dumouriez and Kellermann, decisively defeated the Prussians, the newly elected legislature known as the Convention convened. The next day, it declared to the end of the monarchy and set Sept 22 as the date of the Republic's first year. Following Jemappes' additional victory on November 6, which led to the French taking control of Brussels, the newly formed Republic became more self-assured and made the decision to put the King on trial. He was put to death on January...

Two causes, more than any other, exacerbated the already unstable state of the monarchy in 1790. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which sought to turn the Church into a department of state, was the primary source of one severe dispute; the other was the impact of the emigres, or the increasing number of people who left France and encouraged other countries to use force to put an end to the revolution. The shift from revolution to war was brought about by the religious division and the problems with international relations. In the end, this elevated the French Revolution to a significant moment in both French and European history. Oddly enough, there wasn't much opposition to the initial detrimental adjustments made to the Church's position. The Gallican Church willingly renounced its corporate existence, its ability to levy taxes, and its autonomy on August 4, 1789. In February 1790, some monastic orders were disbanded with the approval of the Assembly's senior clergy...

Thus, if one may use that phrase to describe a nation that in reality had neither an American constitution nor a British one, there existed an underlying constitutional crisis in France in 1789. In reality, this ostensibly absolute monarchy was unable to enact the reforms that were most urgently required. There was a constitutional crisis layered with a financial crisis when it was forced to acknowledge its total insolvency as well. However, beneath these was a much more dire problem that added an extra explosive component to the entire scenario. It was the nation's much-underappreciated economic crisis brought on by protracted inflation. France had taken in at least half of the precious metals sent into Europe between 1726 and 1780, and over the eighteenth century, her population had grown from about 18 to 25 million. Prices necessarily increased as a result of the greater use of metallic currency, the growth of credit facilities, the larger population's increased demand for p...

It is paradoxical that in 1789, no powerful individuals or groups in France desired revolution. Like wars, revolutions can start for reasons other than popular desire. They take place as a result of people's desires for other things that, under certain conditions, put them at risk of revolution or conflict. Over the majority of the eighteenth century, what has been referred to as " the revolutionary spirit " had been building throughout Europe. This ethos, one of absolutist monarchy, privileged nobility, and rationalist critique against established forces such as the Roman Catholic Church, was especially encouraged by the writings of a unique group of French intellectuals and writers known as the philosophes. Men like Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, and Rousseau became well-known and influential European leaders as a result of the widespread reading of their writings throughout the continent. However, there is a hazy and distant link between their theories and the 1789 re...