French History

Page 3 of 3 - His grandson, Louis XVI ascended to the throne. He had earlier married Marie Antoinette, his famous wife, who was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria. The first international event to affect his reign was the conflict that began in the Thirteen British Colonies. It was to France's great delight to see the American colonies rebel from the British crown. The time for payback to England for her past victories over France had arrived. Throughout the war, France sent large amounts of munitions, supplies, weapons, and money to aid the American colonies in their struggle with England. In mid-1778, France declared war on Britain and mobilized its forces. The aid France provided to the American colonies, arguably saved them from re-conquest by England. The French fleet proved of the greatest assistance to the Americans. In 1781, it was the French fleet that bottled up General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, preventing his escape or aid from the British fleet. On October 19th, Cornwallis surrendered his 7,000 troops to the Americans. Spain and the Netherlands also joined in the struggle against Britain. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, granting the American colonies independence from England. France was on friendly terms with the new American nation as well as having the satisfaction of seeing England humbled.

That was the one bright moment in Louis XVI's reign. As the 1780s rolled on, trouble began to brew in France. The eve of arguably the most earth-shaking event in history had dawned. The aristocrats continued playing their power cards during the 1780s, hindering the Louis XVI and the already weakening government. By 1789, things had worsened, food shortages and crop failures had only aggravated the already mounting tension. Fiscal woes also weighed down the government, the financing of the American revolution had proved quite costly. And so it was in May of 1789, that the Estates-General was convened. The Estates-General was divided into three separate States: the Nobility represented the First, the Clergy the Second, and the rest of the people, the Third. With King Louis XVI too slow to take any action, the Third Estate "rebelled" after being refused the right to sit with the other Estates. The Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly. Louis gave in and the Estates were united. Fearful of the National Assembly, Louis XVI began to bring troops into Paris for security. In response, the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille on July 14. The tension in France continued mounting. A National Guard was formed by the citizens to protect the Assembly. Nobles and clergy found themselves and their lands attacked by mobs of peasants. By August, the National Assembly had assumed full power in France. Within months, thousands of the nobility fled France in fear of their lives. In 1791, a new Constitution was established. The National Assembly then dissolved and the Legislative Assembly was born.

In June of 1791, Louis and his family attempted to flee Paris. They did not make it far, and were soon placed under arrest. The monarchs of Europe sat at the edges of their seats, watching breathlessly the events taking place in France. The Legislative Assembly was not particularly successful in the administration of France, but it did manage to declare war on Austria and Prussia in the spring of 1792. A series of revolts and uprisings then shook France and Paris. Louis XVI lost the title of King and his Swiss Guards were slaughtered. In the fall of 1792, the Legislative Assembly dissolved and the National Convention convened. The National Convention was the most radical of the governments by far, and in early 1793, sentenced Louis XVI to death. He was guillotined on January 21st. The Battles of 1792 and 1793 had largely fallen in France's favor. The invasion forces of Prussia and Austria had been turned back.

However, the wars took a turn for the worse as the monarchs formally organized the First Coalition and pushed the Republican armies back into France. Rebellions arose and France degenerated into a state composed of mob rule rather than that of an organized government. In the Fall of 1793, the Reign of Terror began. Thousands of people were arrested, imprisoned, or executed in a ruthless purge throughout France. In 1795, the First Coalition began to fall apart and the National Convention disbanded in turn leading to the creation of the Directory.

It was during the reign of the Directory that a young Corsican general began his glorious rise to fame and power: Napoleon Bonaparte. After breaking up a threatening royalist mob in Paris, the Corsican foreigner was given command of the Army of Italy. With this ragged band of thirty thousand demoralized Frenchmen, Napoleon changed history forever. In 1796, he set off across the Alps and into Italy with his army. By 1797, the Sardinian and Austrian armies had been annihilated, the whole of northern Italy under French control, and Napoleon was within sixty miles of Vienna. The Peace of Campo Formio effectively ended the Second Coalition against the Republic.

Hailed as the hero of France, Napoleon returned the most popular man in France. The Directory ,concerned with his popularity, quickly agreed to a secondary mission to Egypt. With 40,000 men and a small fleet, General Bonaparte and the Army of the Orient were sent across the Mediterranean to Egypt in 1798. Here, as in Italy, Napoleon triumphed on over a dozen fields of battle, scattering his opponents to the wind. The Mamelukes were broken and routed, their corrupted administration replaced by a Republican administration similar to that of France. Napoleon struck off into Syria in 1799 and scored several victories against large Ottoman armies. However, at Acre he was forced to withdraw after suffering reverses made possible by the British fleet's intervention. It was the same British fleet that had annihilated the French fleet in Aboukir Bay earlier.

Fresh wars broke out against France while Napoleon was away. Invasion threatened the Republic yet again. Corruption riddled the current administration. After decisively crushing an Ottoman invasion of Egypt at Aboukir, Napoleon found himself without any opposition. Hearing of the French reverses in Europe and the weakness of the Directory, Napoleon returned to France in 1799.

Before the eighteenth century drew to a close, the young Bonaparte was the most powerful man in France. He had created the Consulate after his coup de'etat removing the Directory from power. As First Consul, he gradually centralized the powers of the Constitution on himself. The early nineteenth century found France an imperial police state with Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of the French and half of Europe under his direct authority. The Age of Napoleon had begun.

Source: Cossacks Heaven

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