THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789 1799

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

A phenomena that happened during the 18th Century.

o Britain Constitutional Monarchy.
o France Royal Absolutism (cultural/religious unity).
o Prussia, Hapsburg Empire, Russia Enlightened Despotism.
o Ottoman Empire Traditional Empire.
Names of the three royal dynasties Hohenzollern (Prussia), Romanov (Russia)
and Hapsburg (Austria).
The Royal Academy of Science, Paris in 1789, the amount of official scientific
institutions in France ballooned from 2 to 29 and, in Europe, from 5 to 65.
Characteristics of the Enlightenment:
o Reason should be the arbiter of all things rationalism.
o A new concept of man, his existence on earth and the place of the Earth in the
universe cosmology.
o Application of the methods of science to relgion and philosophy secularism.
o Scientific method mathematical analysis, experimentation, inductive
reasoning.
o No opinion is worth burning your neighbour for tolerance.
o The belief that man is intrinsically good; the belief in social progress
optimism and self confidence.
o Freedom in thought and expression; bring liberty to all man modern battle
against absolutism.
o Education of the masses.
o Legal reforms justice, kindness and charity, no torture or indiscrimination,
incarceration, due process of the law.
o Constitutionalism written constitutions (laws), listing citizens rights.
o Cosmopolitanism not restricted to how you see things; accepting people
from other countries/cultures, an open mind, opening oneself up to different
influences as a result of different cultures, nationalism in ones own country.
The Philosophes:
o Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) Progress of the Human Mind, 1794.
An expectation of universal happiness.
Every individual guided by reason could enjoy true independence.
Advocated a free and equal education, constitutionalism and equal
rights for women.
o John Locke (1632 -1704) Letter on Toleration, 1689; Two Treatises of
Government, 1690; Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693; the
Reasonableness of Christianity, 1695.
The individual must become a rational creature.
Virtue, the ideal way to live, can be learned and practiced.
Human beings possess free will and should be prepared for freedom.
Obedience should be out of conviction, not fear.
Legislators owe their power to a contract within the people.
Neither kings nor wealth are divinely ordained.
There are certain natural rights that are endowed by God to all human
beings life, liberty, property.
The doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings was nonsense.
Favoured a republic as the best form of government.

Voltaire aka Francois Marie Arouet (1712-1778) Essays on the Customs and
Spirit of Nations, 1756; Candide, 1759; Philosophical Dictionary, 1764.
Every man is guilty of all the good he didnt do.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent ihm.
It if dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Love truth and pardon error.
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue which makes a difference.
Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
The way to become boring is to say everything.
I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,
1750; Emile, 1762; The Social Contract, 1762.
Virtue exists in the state of nature but lost in society.
Man is born free yet everywhere he is in chains concept of the noble
savage.
Liberty, equality, fraternity civil liberty; these rights should be
invested in society.
Government must preserve virtue and liberty.
The right kind of political order could make people truly moral and free.
Individual moral freedom could be achieved only by learning to subject
ones individual interests to the general will.
Individuals did this by entering into a social contract not with their
rulers, but with each other this social contract was derived from
human nature, not from history, tradition or the Bible.
People would be most free and moral under a republican form of
government with direct democracy.
Rousseaus thinking had a great influence on the French Revolution.

THE SYMBOLS

Tricolour the white of the Bourbons and the red and blue of Paris.
People started referring to one another as citoyen and did away with their social
differences.
o No-one was a king or bishop, they were all citoyen.
The flag of France before the tricolour was a white flag with a gold Fleur de Lis; a
symbol of royalty. This was done away with in 1789.
Cockade red, white and blue flowers.
Revolutionary clock.

THE CAUSES
1. The Ancien Regime / old administration:
Based on the feudal system.
o The king gave land to the nobles, who allowed poor people to live on and
work the land.
o The famers paid the nobles for the privilege.
o The nobles paid the king for allowing them to own the land.
Letat cest moi the state is me. The French Kings personified themselves
with France.

o First king who said this phrase was King Louis XIV, the Sun King.
o Phrase of absolute monarchy rules without a parliament.
3 social factions:
o Clergy c. 130,000.
o Aristocracy c. 400,000.
There were two types of aristocracy those who had been born
wealthy and those who had bought their nobility business men,
merchants).
o The bourgeoisie was made up of peasants, commoners (carpenters) and
professionals (lawyers, businessmen).
Foubourg was the slums of Paris. A lot of people had emigrated to Paris.

2. The work of the Philosophes:

A collection of all known information at the time.

o Twenty-six volume encyclopaedia LEncyclopedie.
o Diderot and Dalembert edited the series they were the compilers of the
knowledge in the encyclopaedia.
o Was bought by the nobility and the higher middle class.
o In it were several articles written by philosophers that were highly
critical about how the king treated his subjects.
o The idea of doing away with absolute monarchy started creeping in.
o An indirect cause of the revolution.
o The commoners and the poor people were the ones who carried out the
revolution.
o Main issue for the bourgeoisie to want change to a meritocracy state.
In the French society, people advanced by nepotism instead of by
meritocracy.
Libelles were peddled by pamphleteers speaking of sexual depravity in high
places, especially in the reference of the Queen, but they had little to do with the
philosophes work.
The parlements and regional law courts claimed the right to block or delay the
edicts of the monarchy.
o There was no universal law in France laws varied by region and were
reinforced by religious groups or parlements (judicial boards).

3. The example of the USA:

A direct cause of the revolution.

French and American troops fought side by side with America during the 1776
American War of Independence. Britain was Frances enemy.
French soldiers left America when the war ended with new ideas that they took
with them to France.

4. The bankruptcy of the crown and the economy:

Marie Antoinette organized lavish parties and balls paid with Frances finance.
The aristocracy and the higher clergy didnt pay taxes.
Necker wanted to tax the First and Second Estate, but Louis XVI was influenced
by the Queen not to do it.
The inability of a succession of unable financial ministers who had been
promoted to the position through nepotism.
No central banks or stock exchange.

Manufacturing was backwards France only had a thousand spinning jennies and
eight mills.
Agricultural productivity was low.
Capital investment from land and trade into industry was almost non-existent.
No European bank wanted to give France a loan due to the fact that they knew
about the extent of Frances problems with money.

5. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette:

Louis XVI an affable sort and easy to get along with on a personal level, but he was
a failure at his administrative duties because he was such an introverted
character.
o Protect us, Lord, for we reign too young. Louis XVI.
o Had a condition that made arousal painful it took years for it to fix it
with an operation.
o Paid 8000 million livre to fight the American War of Independence.
The French monarchy did not want to get mixed up in the problems in Paris
despite the fact that they had a beautiful palace the Tuileries in Paris. They lived
in Versailles, a summer home outside of Paris.
Louis XVI was not really aware of what went on outside of Versailles.
o Versailles was seen as a symbol of unwavering royalty.
Marie Antoinette an Austrian princess, a Hapsburg, who was bright, extroverted
and charming; the antithesis of Louis XVI.
o The Hapsburg thought of themselves as above even the royals. It dominated
central Europe and it was the most powerful family at that time.
o She was just a teenager when she arrived.
o Their marriage symbolized the end of an ancient rivalry.
o The French public nicknamed her Madame Deficit because she kept
spending as though nothing was wrong.
o Her image was ruined by all the years of being unable to produce an heir;
the fact that she was Austrian only made people hate her more.
They had three children a boy and two girls. The Dauphin died of neglect and
abuse.
The king could warrant death in a signed letter under his seal lettres de cachet
which cannot be appealed against. 80,000 were issued during the reign of Louis
XV (Louis XVIs grandfather).
One of the main causes of the revolution.

6. The bad harvest of the summer of 1788:

The winter of 1788-1789 was very harsh and adverse there were snow storms,
hay storms, etcetera.
If a farmer couldnt produce enough food or products to sell, they resorted to
crime stealing from travellers and formed mobs.
Most of them moved to Paris to find work.
A shift from the rural areas to the urban areas was the result of the harsh
winter, vicious climate and bad harvest.
The situation in Paris was even worse:
o They lived in one-room establishments in the slums due to a lack of
adequate lodgings.
Paris was infested with the homeless and the jobless.

When the Revolution started, these people with nothing to do ended up doing
everything robbing bakeries, storming the Bastille because they had nothing
to do.

THE REVOLT OF THE NOBILITY: FEB 1787 - MAY 1789

20 August 1786: Calonne tells the King that his finances require radical
reform.
o Total revenue was 475 million livre; there was a deficit of 100 million
livre.
o Over 50 percent of the total revenue was spent putting right the debts.
Why:
o Defence costs wars and recent involvement in the American War
raised defence costs to 25% of the total.
o Inadequate revenue value of land tax was reduced by the fact that
the First and Second Estate didnt pay taxes and of regional
variations. The system was regressive and annoying.
Political situation because of the financial problems led to social disorder and a
decline in the standard of living:
o 30% population growth in an already densely populated state
landholdings became more and more fragmented and homelessness
increased.
o Prices increased three times faster than wages due to the demands
of the population on food supply.
o Recession from the late 1770s due to a collapse in wine prices triggered
secularisation of goods, and selling them at a very high cost; falling
agricultural incomes did not help.
o Bad weather/failed harvests of the late 1780s unemployment rises
by 50%, wheat prices doubled, wage earners devoted 80% of their
income to the purchase of bread.
Common belief that it was the result of a speculative pacte de
famine between the grain dealers and the government which
further irritated people.
o Lay and clerical aristocracy tried to combat falling rents and rising
expenses by establishing a virtual monopoly of official posts to the
detriment of the lesser notables and bourgeoisie.
Army morale at an all-time low:
o Defeats in the Seven Years War followed by a whole series of
embarrassing foreign policy setbacks due to the alliance with
Austria.
o System of purchase of commissions benefitted the wealthy annoblis
and worked against the old provincial gentry.
o Many members of the poor provincial nobility were in the ranks of the
revolutionaries the army was not to be trusted during 1788-89.
The revival of the Estates General:
o Attempting to solve the problem of the royal finances fell to Jacques
Necker, who disguised its seriousness in 1781.
o 1787: Calonne produces a programme including land tax to be paid by
everyone, stamp duty on all official documents and measures to
stimulate economic growth.

This was seen as an opportunity to destroy absolutism and a group of

nobles the Society of Thirty forced the modifications of the proposals
and a surrender by the king:
Agreed to place Necker as financial minister.
Agreed to an election by the General Estates, which was seen
by many as a means of blocking royal power. Had last met in
1614.

THE REVOLT OF THE LAWYERS: 5 MAY 1789 - JUNE 1789

The aristocracy wouldve been able to dominate the Estates General if it had had
the same structure as in 1614:
o Three separate assemblies, each with one conservative vote this
meant that the Third Estate (the rest of the French people) would
constantly be in a minority.
o The First Estate Clergy; The Second Estate Noblemen.
o Many nouveau riche nobles were sent to the Third Estate, causing a
rift between nobles.
o The First and Second Estate shared many privileges and voted
together against improvements such as universal taxing.
Before the elections, delegates for the Third Estate were doubled to 600 in
response to arguments like Abbe Sieyes What is the Third Estate?
o What is the Third Estate? Everything.
What has it been heretofore in the political order? Nothing.
What does it want? Something or everything.
This showed the Third Estate that it was useless fighting
between themselves.
Though the country might be run by a minority, it belonged to the
Third Estate.
o The commoners made up 97% of the population.
o There was a rift within the Third Estate itself some of them were
peasants, and some of them were nobles who found it hard to relate to
the peasants.
o Regardless of size, and though the Third Estate was larger than the First
or Second Estates, it still had one vote and was overruled.
o They had to enter through a side door and wear black robes, which
infuriated them.
It was convened at the insistence of Necker on May 5, 1789.
o Parlament of Paris reinforced the one-vote rule.
o Nothing improved.
Seeing that matters needed to be taken into their own hands, the Third Estate
broke away from the rest of the Estates on June 17, 1989 and declared itself
the National Assembly.
o This gave it control over taxation.
o Nation-wide support.
o Many members of other estates joined the cause.
The Third Estate had never sought a revolution, but a bit of liberty; if the
First and Second Estates had used the meeting of the Estates General to placate
them rather than to strengthen their own positions in the social caste, the entire
revolution might have been avoided instead, their refusal to agree to the

moderate proposals of the Third Estate only made the people resent them further
and lit the flame of revolution.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: 1789 1791

Also known as the National Constituent Assembly.

France became the first country in Europe to become a republic.
The difference between the National Assembly and the Estates General: the
National Assembly voted by head, which made a lot of difference.
Three days after splitting from the Estates General, the National Assembly
(the former Third Estate) found themselves locked out of their regular meeting
hall and met at a nearby tennis court.
o All but one member took an oath saying that the National Assembly
would be indissoluble until it had succeeded in creating a new
national constitution.
o This episode became known as the Tennis Court Oath.
o June 20, 1789.
Libert, Egalit,Fraternit liberty, equality, brotherhood became the
slogan of the National Constituent Assembly.
Main purpose to draw up a new constitution and bring down the Ancien
Regime.
Louis XVI tried to intimidate the National Assembly into submission but it
had proved too strong for him and he was forced to recognize the group.
Riots grew more ferocious in Paris, inspired by the Tennis Court Oath. Fearing
violence, Louis XVI ordered guards to surround Versailles.
Despite its progress, weaknesses would begin to show in the National
Assembly:
o The revolution was run by the bourgeoisie.
o The March of the Women and the Great Fear had not been backed by
the National Assembly they were the peoples own doings.
o Its treatment of churches lost a lot of support.

THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE

July 14, 1789.

Blaming him for the failure of the Estates General, Louis XVI fired Jacques
Necker, who was popular with the people. His termination caused riots.
This confirmed the rumour that the King was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly and that the weapons were hidden in the
Bastille.
They decided to take up arms against the king and his army the people of
Paris raided any place where food, weapons and supplies could be stored.
The Bastille was a symbol of royal tyranny. Only seven people were
imprisoned there: 5 ordinary criminals and 2 madmen.
The man guarding the Bastille had his head cut off and paraded around Paris
on a pike De Launay.
The revolutionaries had such vast numbers behind them that they were able
to take control of the situation with relative non-violence.
The assembly secured Paris and barricaded it against an attack by the king.
Necker was reinstalled as financial ministers.
Assembly members were given prime positions in the government.

The King travelled to Paris and accepted a revolutionary tricolour cockade

on his way into the Hotel de Ville to cries of Long live the nation!
Marquis de Lafayette assembled a collection of citizens into the National
Guard which was under his control.
However, nobles were not reassured by the fact that the Revolution seemed to
have blown over, but were fleeing the country.
The Bastille was torn down by the revolutionary armies, and the bricks were
sold as souvenirs.

THE GREAT FEAR

July 20 August 5, 1789.

Majority of the conflicts took place in the countryside:
o Situation was worse due to the bad harvest grain supplies were
being guarded by local militia due to rumours of armed men
swarming the countryside.
o Frightened peasants armed themselves. In some areas, manor
houses were attacked.
o Night of 4 August/August Decrees the clergy and the nobility
surrender their privileges.
Also known as the Saint Bartholomew of privilege.
Feudalism was also abolished.
King Louis XVI named as the Restorer of French liberty.

THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN

August 26, 1789.

Spoke about liberty, the right to own things and the right to take up arms
against their oppressors.
Abolished royal power and the privileges of the nobility.
Thomas Jefferson was in Paris at this time.
Every person was a Frenchman and equal.
Ended the Ancien Regime and ensured equality for the bourgeoisie.
A milestone for human rights, but:
o Womens rights and slavery were overlooked voting was allowed
only to men and blacks in the colonies were not allowed freedom.
o Protestants and Jews were persecuted despite of the Declaration of the
Rights of Man.

THE OCTOBER DAYS

The March of the Women to Versailles:

o October 5, 1789.
o Men, dressed as women, in a spontaneous demonstration for bread.
o We want the baker, the bakers wife and the bakers boy.
Refers to the King, the Queen and the Dauphin.
o Brought the monarchy to Paris.
o They were followed by the National Guard.
o When Louis XVI hesitates to follow the mob back to Paris, the women
storm it and start to massacre the guards, placing their heads on
spikes.

The royal family had no choice but to accompany the mob back to
Paris and the King and his family were imprisoned in the Tuileries.
The King was merely a figurehead for the noble classes most of the
revolutionaries were not against the King, but against nobility, due to how
limited interaction with the royal family was because of Louis XVIs shy
nature.
October 7, 1789: The Royals throw the tricolour to the ground and trample it
underfoot at a party.
After this episode, Louis XVI signs the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
o

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND THE CHURCH

The Catholic Church was one of the largest landholders in France.

o Mortmain law signing over of the lands to the church.
February 1790: the state confiscates all of the churchs land and uses it to
back up new money called the assignat.
o It financed the revolution.
o The assignat was a symbol of the economic strength.
Interest-bearing notes.
It gradually lost its worth as it was printed on paper, which was
worth nothing.
Was used to buy church land, and retired as soon as the land
was solid.
o The Pope condemned this move.
Jurying versus Non-Jurying priests:
o Jurying the priests would take an oath of allegiance to the state
instead of the Vatican and they would serve the state first. They were in
the minority.
o Non-Jurying priests who didnt take the oath to serve the state first.
o Permanently divided the Catholic population.
o Non-Juror priests were carted off to the guillotine as they were seen as
enemies of the state.
The church thus ended up being controlled by the French state.
o Government paid the salaries of the clergy and maintained the
churches. Priests were seen as civil servants.
o Reorganization of the church:
Parish priests elected by the district assemblies.
Bishops named by the department assemblies.
The Pope had no say in the appointment of the French clergy and
made them condemn the revolution and excommunicated the
Jacobin government.
France was devoutly Catholic targeting the church seemed to symbolize that
people had to choose between the church and the revolution, which upset
many people in France.
The country was divided into 83 departments, which was governed by an
elected official and an elected bishop.
Established a national church system with elected clergy the clergy had to
meet certain criteria to become elected.

THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES

King Louis XVI was unsure of how to deal with the revolutionary demands and
allowed the queen to make most of the decisions.
Feared that the Royal family would end up in a bad situation.
Outwardly, King Louis XVI pretended like he was an avid supporter of the
revolution.
In reality, he contacted the leaders of Austria, Prussia and Sweden and
asked them for their help in restoring his family to power by starting a war
with France.
Disguised as the servants of a Russian baroness, played by the Dauphins maid,
the Royal Family made their escape and made it to Varennes.
The King was then recognized and arrested on the spot.
When the royal family was taken back to Paris, they were met by a crowd of
revolutionaries in complete silence it was seen as the highest treason the
king could have done.
The abolition of the monarchy became a more real situation.
It ruined the Kings reputation in the eyes of the people and it was clear that
his days were numbered.
Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793.
Marie Antoinette was executed nine months after.
They were both convicted of treason.

THE DECLARATION OF PILLNITZ

Issued by Prussia and Austria on August 27, 1791.

Demanded that the monarchy be restored and warned against harming the
Royal Family.
Also implied that military intervention would follow if their demands were not
met.
It also served as a warning to the French revolutionaries to show that other
countries were watching their actions closely.
Helped begin the French Revolutionary Wars.

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Constitution of 1791:
o Legislative assembly the idea of a two-chamber system was rejected.
Deputies with a specified property qualification were picked
by a limited electorate only.
o Kings role the monarchy became a paid office of state.
The King could appoint ministers, but they would not have seats
in the Assembly.
The King could suspend legislation but could not dissolve the
Assembly.
New system of government established constitutional monarchy.
Legal tribunals replaced the old parelments.
Barred servants from voting the country would stay in the hands of the
middle class.
Established a poll tax.
Free trade weights and measures standardised, obstacles were abolished.
However, workers unions were also prohibited.
Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

Establishment of the assignat proved to be a disaster as the paper money

depended on the stability of the state.

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

More radical than the Constituent Assembly.

Divided into groups.
Most radical group Jacobins, named after the old Paris monastery where
they met.
o Supporters of a centralized republic wanted to abolish the monarchy.
o Led by Robespierre and Danton.
o Started as a debating dociety.
o Membership mostly middle class.
o Created a vast network of clubs.
The Jacobins were ready to ally with the san-culottes to carry the revolution
forwards.
The sans-culottes:
o Means without breeches. The French aristocracy worse breeches,
which the sans-culottes couldnt afford, and it was turned into a defining
feature.
o Most of them were small shop keepers, artisans and tradesmen.
o Shared many of their ideals of their middle-class representatives in
government.
o Depicted by other European countries as savages.
The Girondins were also a part of the Legislative assembly and they were a
breakaway from the Jacobins; they didnt want to go as far as their
counterparts did in reference to the King and what should happen to him. They
were more moderate, while the Jacobins were radical.
o The Girondins were led by Jacques-Pierre Brissot.

WAR AGAINST PRUSSIA AND AUSTRIA

Brissot rallied the Legislative Assembly into declaring war on Austria and
Prussia following the Declaration of Pillnitz.
However, Prussia had anticipated this and allied itself with other countries thus,
France faced a coalition, and not just one country.
Prussia and Austria were already prepared and their troops were waiting at
the borders of France.
The French army was unprepared and defeated sorely in battle.
o Half of the officer corps had emigrated due to being nobility.
o New recruits were untrained.
o Ill-equipped.
This failure undermined the Legislative Assembly.
Brissot was removed from command.
Although a group of Girodins marched in protest that he be reinstated, the
demand was ignored.

THE BRUNSWICK MANIFESTO

July 25, 1972.

Threatened to level Paris if the Royal Family was harmed.

Did not help the kings cause at all.

It was intended to intimidate the French, but it served only to kick the public
up into a fury and created fear and anger towards the Allies.
Triggered the storming of the Tuileries.

THE STORMING OF THE TUILERIES

August 10, 1792.

Anti-monarchy Jacobins rallied together with the sans-culottes and stormed
the Tuileries.
They massacred the Swiss guards guarding the palace.
The King and his family tried to escape, but they were apprehended and
arrested for treason.
A month after the storming of the Tuileries, the hysterical sans-culottes,
spurred on by talks of counterrevolutionary methods, massacred 1,000
political prisoners.
o The sans-culottes proved that no government body really had
control.
Easily swayed and prone to violence.
The Girondins hoped to rally them to their cause but found that
they were more radical than had been expected.
Made up of poor workers and peasants who still had no rights,
despite all the promises made by the constitution their cry soon
changed from liberty to equality.
Government was dominated by the far-richer bourgeoisie.

FAILURE OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

Had accomplished all the things they said the Revolution would accomplish.
Had not organized an army capable of standing against the Prussian and
Austrian forces.
Had not calmed its own internal feuds.
It was far too unsteady to go to war, and it did which resulted in a defeat
that shook the stability of the government.
The Girondins and Brissot wanted a constitutional monarchy enough to go
to war for it.
The Jacobins and the more radical parties just wanted to take control.

THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES

Sparked off by rumours that the anti-revolutionary political prisoners

(clergy/aristocracy) were plotting to break out and attack from the rear the
armies defending France while the Prussians attacked from the front.
Buveurs de Sang (drinkers of blood) over 1000 killed.
Discredited the Revolution among its remaining sympathizers abroad.
Whole families who had been jailed for aristocracy were killed, but even
commoners, elder citizens, women and children were killed.
The Paris Commune had been overthrown and was now being headed by
transitional authorities; for a while, it was the government in Paris and it:
o Adopted universal suffrage.
o Armed the civilian population.

o Abolished all other remaining nobleman privileges.

o Sold the properties of emigrated nobles.
Other than that, the Paris Commune was lethally crushing down on political
opponents by repressing all counter-revolutionary activities.
Most of the religious orders were dissolved by August 15, 1972.
News that the Duke of Brunswick had invaded France sent the people into a
frenzy:
o Paris did not have adequate food stocks to last a siege.
o There were rumours that the people who opposed the Revolution
would support the First Coalition.
o The Brunswick Manifesto was still fresh in everyones minds and
kicked off a wave of fresh hysteria.
After the Parisians learned that the fortress at Verdun had fallen, the
Convention ordered the alarms to be fired, adding to the sense of panic.
An army of 60,000 was to be sent at the Champs de Mars.
The first killing of the September massacres was a group of non-Jurying
priests that were being transported to the national prison for counterrevolutionaries.
Trials took place, but criminals were still executed wildly.
The Princess de Lamballe was also killed, and her head was paraded on a
stick outside the Queens windows.
Led to the temporary de-Christianisation of France.

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

The idea of a constitutional monarchy was pushed aside for a National

Convention of delegates to oversee the country.
The monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792.
The Girondins had support in the provinces; the Jacobins controlled Paris
through their links with the 48 Sectional Assemblies.
The Jacobin coup detat took place on August 10, 1792.
The Jacobins were divided into two political groups the Plain, whose votes
changed, and the Montagnards, who were extreme revolutionaries.
o Montagnards:
Power base in Paris.
Main support from the sans-culottes.
Would adopt extreme measures to achieve their goal.
Saw Paris as the centre of the Revolution and had a more
centralized approach to government.
o Girondins:
Power base in the provinces.
Feared the influence of the sans-culotte and the dominance of
Paris in national politics.
Supported more national government centralization.
The Jacobins sat on the left the term leftist (the source of extreme ideas)
comes from this.
The Montagnards sat on the uppermost seats of the convention, where they could
be seen by everyone, while the Plain sat on the lower portion.
The Republic of France was founded.

Switched its policies to a tone of war:

o Edict of Fraternity November 19, 1792.
o Declaration of French natural frontiers as extending to the Rhine,
Alps and Pyrenees January 31, 1793.
o Declaration of war on Britain, Spain and the United Provinces
February 1, 1793.
Led to the formation of the Committee of Public Safety.
Laws passed by the National Convention:
o Law of General Maximum September 5, 1793.
Limited prices of grain and other essentials to one third above
the 1790 prices and wages to half of 1790 figures.
Brainchild of Robespierre.
Prices would be strictly enforced.
Hoarders would be routed out and punished.
Food supplies would be secured to the army they were the
first preference.
o Law of Suspects September 17, 1793.
So widely drawn that almost anyone not expressing
enthusiastic support of the republic could be placed under
arrest.

THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI

January 21, 1973.

First victim of the Reign of Terror.
Executed in the Revolutionary Square by the guillotine.
Hastened by the discovery of some letters in a secret cupboard in the
Tuileries which cried out for help from Frances enemy, Prussia.
National Convention voted 387 to 334 to execute the King.
He was called by his French name and surname Louis Capet.
Royal blood was seen as impure impure blood doesnt soil our land.
It was a warning for the other crowned heads of Europe matter for
reflection for the crowned juggler.

ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL THE CRISES

Setting up the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris to try suspected counterrevolutionaries.

o Representatives on missions were sent to the provinces/the army
and had wide powers to oversee conscription.
o Watch committees were set up to keep an eye on foreigners and
suspects.
o Sanctioned the trial and execution of rebels and emigrants should
they ever return to France.
They printed more assignats to pay for the war the assignat would later help
the Jacobins achieve their dictatorship as it fell to 22% of its value.
Concentrated the Conventions power into the hands of the Committees of
Public Safety and General Security reluctantly agreed to by the Girondins.
The Committee of Public Safety was created to oversee/speed up the work
of the government.
o Controlled the Revolutionary Tribunals.

Created to combat Dumouriezs defection to Austria, the Vendeeregion revolutions and the fear that Revolutionary France would be
brought down from within.
o Nine members.
o 300,000 arrested.
o 16,000 50,000 executed.
The Committee of General Security was responsible for the pursuit of
counter-revolutionaries, the treatment of suspects and other internal
security matters.
o

THE JACOBINS COUP

The Committee of Public Safety proved weak and ineffective and enraged
the sans-culottes.
They stormed the National Convention and accused the Girondins of
representing the monarchy.
Robespierre took this as the opportunity to banish the Girondins and install
the Jacobins in power.
The sans-culottes were angry that the Girondins expected them to bolster
the failing war effort, and that the National Convention did not represent
them, but the big thinkers and the bourgeoisie.
The Jacobins and the sans-culottes became the new French government.
Another new constitution appeared in June, 1793.
o Introduced the Law of Maximum.
In the beginning, Robespierre began on a productive note; he could relate to
the sans-culottes and his approach to the economy proved effective, if only in the
short run.
Lazare Carnot was appointed head of the French war effort and set about
conscription throughout France, known as Levee en masse.
o 500,000 soldiers.
o Conscription could not be avoided.
o Army based on merit, and not birth.
Carnot succeeded in pushing the invading forces back to the French borders.
o Victory at Fleurus on June 26, 1794.
o Opened the way to the reoccupation of Belgium.
o Happened only due to Carnots reorganization of the army.
The murder of Marat, on July 13, 1794, by Charlotte Corday in his bathtub
increased the political influence of the Jacobins.

THE REIGN OF TERROR

The government against internal opposition was bloody, long and brutal.
To keep the support of the sans-culottes, economic controls were applied in
the form of the Law of Maximum and food rationing.
De-Christianisation - the Church became a symbol of counter-revolution and
was a particular target of the atheist Hbertists. Religion itself was
associated with the Ancien Regime and superstitious practices.
o The De-Christianisation programme was very popular with the sansculottes, who wanted to seize some of the riches of the church.

Clergy persecuted, church property seized.

A new Republican calendar was adopted.
Reason: religion has no place in a rational, materialistic
republic.
Abolished Sunday and religious holidays.
Months named after seasonal features.
Ten day week instead of a 7-day week.
The yearly calendar started on September 22, 1794 the date
of the creation of the Republic.
Symbolic divorce of the Church from the State by the
Convention.
The public exercise of religion was banned.
o The Paris Commune encouraged this and supported the destruction
of religious and royal statues, the ban on clerical dress and
encouraged the clergy to give up their vocation.
o The Cathedral of Notre Dame was changed inno the Temple of
Reason an atheist temple.
o Robespierre attempted to introduce a Cult of the Supreme Being,
but this made him clash heavily with the Hbertists due to their
support for social equality.
o The programme:
Alienated most of the population, especially in the rural areas.
Robespierre never supported it he persuaded the
Convention to reaffirm the idea of religious tolerance.
Purging of the enemies of the people.
o A total of over 20,000 people were executed in this period in a process
accelerated by legislation which reduced the need for evidence or
trial.
o The employment of roving Jacobin representatives en mission with
wide powers added to the number law of suspect.
o
The Revolutionary tribunal of Paris alone executed 2,639 victims in 15
months.
The nation-wide total of victims was over 20,000.
Social classes executed:
o Clergy 7%.
o Nobility 8%.
o Peasants and Farmers 25%.
o Middle Class 28%.
o Working Class 31%.
The revolution was eating its own children.
In September, Robespierre began accusing anyone who didnt believe the
same as he did of being a counter-revolutionary.
o Even Danton saw that Robespierre was getting out of control, but
when he tried to point it out to him, he lost his life. April 1794.
Robespierres attempt to protect the Revolution eventually led to a
weakening on all fronts during the Terror, Robespierre lost many of his
supporters and burned bridges with allies, resulting in the situation where he
was alone, against everyone.
The need for terror was over; now, the commoners just wished for peace.
Robespierres reasons were that he was protecting the public from foreign
invaders but they had already been staved off, and there was no justification.
o
o

The final straw was Robespierres move towards a Republic of Virtue to

replace Christianity. He was arrested after that, on July 27, 1794.

THE VENDEE REVOLT, 1793

Lots of problems came from Machecoul, the capital of the Vendee Region.
Lon was razed to the ground.
Vendee revolt was crushed in 1793.
Reasons:
o The need for 300,000 French troops for the war effort from Vendee
alone.
o Rural peasantry still highly taxed.
o Resentment of the civil constitution of the clergy.
o Peasants had failed to benefit from the sale of church lands.
o When the Vendeeins rose up in revolt, they attacked local government
officials, national guardsmen (soldiers of the revolution) and jurying
priests.

THE THERMIDORIAN REACTION, 1794

The action taken by the opponents of Robespierre within the Convention.

Robespierre was posing a threat even to his friends.
His very method of government turned against him and the politicians rose
up against him in revolte.
Nearly 400 Robespierrists were executed along with him.
July 26 Robespierre gives a speech illustrating new plans and
conspiracies. Robespierre said that there were people even in the Convention
plotting to bring down the Revolution and the convention. This sowed the
seeds of doubt in the Convention.
o He alienated members of the Committees of Public Safety and General
Security; many felt threatened by his implications.
July 27 the Convention arrests Robespierre. Many try to physically assault
him, and he is shot in the jaw.
July 28 Robespierre tried and guillotined.
Curtailed the power for the Committee for Public Safety.
Closed the Jacobin clubs.
Churches were reopened.
1795 freedom of worship for all cults were granted.
Economic restrictions were lifted in favour of laissez-faire (let it be/liberty)
policies.
o Prices skyrocketed, but the revolt was easily crushed due to the lack
of a strong leader.
August 1795: a new constitution is written.
o More conservative Republicanism.

THE NEW DIRECTORY

Paris Commune outlawed.

The Law of Suspect (22 Prarial) was revoked.
People who were involved in the original terror were now attacked white
terror as white was the colour of the Bourbons.

Significantly more conservative and entrenched in the values of the

moderate middle-class the Jacobins and the sans-culottes were forced to
go into hiding underground.
Attempts to establish a new constitution proved difficult; the clergy (most of
them loyal to the monarchy) began to return from exile and the Comte de
Provence announced himself the next ruler of France.
A new constitution was drafted on August 22, 1795.
o Ushered in a period of governmental restructuring upper house,
Council of Ancients, 250 members; lower house, Council of Five hundred,
500 members.
Passed a law saying that two-thirds of the members of the first
new legislature had to have served in the National Convention
to minimize influence from the left.
o Directory a five-member council which held no power of its own but
could appoint people to fill in other positions in the government.
o Annual elections.
The Directory had to:
o Remove Jacobin influence and prevent royalists from reclaiming the
throne.
o Based on the United States form of government checks and
balances.
New governments priorities became its downfall.
Political instability:
o April, 1795 Inflation leads to bread riots.
o May 20, 1795 Revolt of Prarial (Year III).
o October, 1795 Vendee and Brittany revolted; suppressed by military.
o May, 1796 first communist/commoners revolt; Gracchus Babeuf
and the Conspiracy of Equals.
Met secretly to plot to bring back the 1793 government, but
were executed and guillotined.
1795 elections worried the Directory as a number of moderate royalists won.
Napoleon and the French army:
o Due to the 1793 Constitution, the French Army had grown in number
and strength they had gone on from the victory against Austria and
Prussia and moved into foreign countries, annexing land.
o Napoleon Bonaparte won a series of victories for himself abroad and
amassed wealth and support as he moved through Europe.
o The war effort was encouraged by the Directory, particularly because
a large, victorious French army would lower unemployment rates in
France and guaranteed steady pay-checks.

THE ELECTIONS AND COUP OF 1797

Jacobin and royalist influences were, once again, leaking into the republic.
They could not call off the elections, as they had to adhere to the
constitution of 1795.
However, when the results showed Jacobin and royalist results, the Directory:
o Annulled the election results.
o Removed a majority of new deputies.
o Removed two members of the Directory itself one of them Lazare
Carnot to make sure that the Directory would remain moderate.
The New Directory was powerful and conservative.

Initiated new financial policies.

Cracked down on radicalism.
in the Directory was destroyed due to the liberal use of power:
When the left tried to play on the peoples sympathies at their anger
over the military draft being reinstated, the Directory annulled onethird of the election results.
o
Inflation continued and became more drastic people started to
wonder whether a royal return to power wouldnt have been more
adequate.
The French army also took a beating:
o Faced war against Britain, the Ottoman Empire, Austria and Russia.
o Napoleon defeated in Egypt, but deserted and returned to France.
o
o
Faith
o

COUP DE BRUMAIRE

Failing war efforts make people more suspicious of the Directory.

Abbe Sieyes elected to power in the Directory.
o Intended to use powers to protect the French government from future
instability and disturbances.
o Enlisted Napoleon to help him topple the government.
November 9, 1799 Napoleon marches his troops into the meeting hall
and disperses the two legislative councils, placing himself in power as first
consul.
Reasons:
o The armys distance from home moved them to develop their own
philosophies and loyalties, and none of them were towards the
Directory and the French Republic.
o Napoleon earned the respect and the trust of his soldiers; they were
very loyal to him and followed him in whatever he did, and he did it by
splitting the spoils of the winning campaigns with them.
o Sieyes saw that the people would fare better underneath Napoleons
rule rather than underneath the government and finagled his way into
position for this purpose.

THE NAPOLEONIC ERA, 1795 1815

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Born in Corsica, an island which had only become French the year before he was born
(1769).
Cultural heritage more Italian than French.
Numerous family lower-class bourgeoisie.
Father was a failed lawyer who didnt have enough work to sustain his family.
Received a military education at the military academies of Brienne and Paris trained
and finally graduated as a brigadier general.
o Brienne 11/12 years old.
o Paris 16 years old.
Ignored by colleagues from wealthy families.
Most of his battlefield qualities show here.
Supported the French Revolution, was affiliated within the Jacobin club and saw
the chance to advance his career.

1793: lifted British siege of Toulon.

o Toulon located on the sea-ward side.
o Method bring up the cannonballs and order them to be heated so that,
apart from exploding, they would set fire to the ships.
1796: strengthens position by the Whiff of Grapeshot episode in Paris.
o Political introduction to Napoleon.
o Promoted to general and put in charge of an army.
Found a beleaguered army; transformed the French soldiers into a winning
army who could defeat the Austrian forces.
o Inspired his soldiers.
o Always at the forefront of battles.
Treaty of Amiens peace treaty between France and Britain, which lasted until
1803.
1804: Napoleon crowns himself Emperor.
o Crowned himself, embarrassing the Pope.
o Ushered in a new era of reforms.
o Todays French laws are based on the Codec Napoleon.
Robespierres downfall threatened to cut Napoleons career short spent a
month in prison after the Thermidor events.
Under new government, career takes off.
Two wives Josephine de Beauharnais (divorced because she didnt give him a
male heir; French noblewoman) and Marie Louise (gave him a male heir; Austrian
princess whose marriage to Napoleon cemented the friendship with the Austrians).
Right connections friendship with Robespierres brother and skilful use of artillery in
Toulon; wedding to Barras (member of the Directory) ex-mistress Josephine de
Beauharnais (October 1796).
Image conscious published battle reports; good actor who could appeal to the
deepest loyalties of his soldiers.
Great military ability inherited a professional officer corps from the revolution.
Ruthlessness helped to propel him forwards.

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

1796 1797: conquered most of northern Italy for France and developed a
taste for governing.
Most of the anti-French coalition had dissolved and only Austria and Britain
remained at war with France.
Convinced the Directory to let him attack Austrias position in Northern Italy.
o Outnumbered 38,000 French soldiers versus 38,000 Austrian soldiers
+ 25,000 Piedmontese allies.
Plan: Isolate the Austrians from the Piedmontese and destroy separately.
Struck first at Piedmont crushed their army within two weeks with lightning
attacks (spreads forces out, pushing the enemy to do the same, concentrates them
at a point and attacks).
o Piedmont surrenders on April 26.
o Paid his troops with silver and gold taken from Piedmont.
Pursued the Austrians west they had fortified a bridge at Lodi with cannons
and battalions. Bonaparte ordered a frontal assault on the bridge.
o Made it halfway across the bridge before it collapsed.
o Forced the retreat of the Austrians.
o Bonaparte won the respect and devotion of his men.

Chased the Austrians continuously and won victories in Castiglione, Bassano

and Arcole.
Ruled in Italy and suppressed religious order, abolished serfdom and limited noble
privilege.
By April 7, 1797, he was within 75 miles of Vienna the Austrian Emperor
surrendered and Bonaparte himself negotiated the terms.

THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN

1798-99.
France still at war with Great Britain Napoleon hoped to disrupt Britains
trade routes to India and establish French dominance in trading in the east.
Eluded a British fleet and landed in Malta.
Landed in Egypt with 35,000 soldiers on July 1, 1798.
o Captured Alexandria.
o July 3: leads soldiers to Cairo and to battle.
They were met by the fiercest warriors in the East, the Mamelukes, who charged at
Napoleons cannons and arms with sabres and horses.
o Napoleon organized his men into five giant squares and held fire until
the Mamelukes were within fifty paces of their ranks.
o Battle of the Pyramids won in an hour.
Marched his men into Cairo, where Horatio Nelson catches the French fleet
around the Egyptian coast and blows it to pieces.
o The Battle of the Nile is won by the English, leaving Bonaparte and his
35,000 soldiers were stranded in Cairo.
Won a battle against the Turks in Aboukir, but it did not raise the morale of
the soldiers.
He abandoned his troops in Egypt and returned to France, receiving a heros
welcome.

NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL

Sieyes was looking for a man to link the army and the political system, a man
who was a popular war hero, to help lead the country.
An unelected Senate would choose the legislators and two consuls.
o February 1800.
o Napoleon got Sieyes to agree to one of the consuls being in office for four
years and to have power over the appointment of officials and the
initiation of legislation.
o Restructured police, department, local government and criminal court
systems so that he could control them.
Worked to centralize government agencies created the Bank of France to
improve financial situation.

THE SECOND ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

France and Austria were still at war Napoleon pushed for peace, but it was refused.
In the spring of 1800, he took his soldiers (40,000 field artillery) in a march over
the Alps.
June 14, 1800: Faces the Austrians at Marengo 6,000 French casualties but
twice as many Austrians. A victory for the French.

This led to a peace treaty between Austria and France the Treaty of Lunville
which was followed by the Treaty of Amiens the following year.

THE CONCORDAT OF 1801

Wanted to repair the relationship with the Catholic Church that had suffered after
the confiscation of Church Property and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
o True purpose was to use the Church to prop up his regime.
July 15, 1801: Pope Pius VII signs a Concordat with Napoleon.
o The Church officially recognized the French Republic and gave back the
property it had accumulated during the Revolution.
o Catholicism was declared the most French religion and became the
religion of the Republic, though Napoleon tolerated other religions as well.
Eventually, Pope Pius VII renounced the Concordat and Napoleon had him
brought to France and placed under house arrest.
Weakened the royalist cause by getting the Catholics on his side.

CONSUL FOR LIFE

May 1802.
With his personal standing enhanced by military victories, he conducted
purges of the legislature, the army officer corps and surviving Jacobins.
Converted his office into life tenure and changed the constitution so that he
would have near dictatorial powers over the electoral and legislative system.
Created lycees based on the French military system which were to serve as
secondary schools.
o Initially enrolled only the most talented students they had to pay
tuition.
o Financial help available for poorer students.

VIOLATION OF THE TREATY OF AMIENS

The British backed a Royalist plot to reinstate a Bourbon prince on the French
throne.
Napoleons forces captured Louis de Bourbon-Conde on March 15,1804 and he
was executed.

THE CODE NAPOLEON

Created one law code for France.

To reform the French legal code to reflect the principles of the French
Revolution.
Napoleon was an enlightened despot the best kind of rule was dictatorship by
a ruler who knew what was best for the people.
Surrounded himself with skilled advisors to rule better for the people.
Wherever it was implemented, the Code Napoleon swept away feudal property
relations.
Criminals were punished extremely harshly.
Labour unions banned.
French women had little control over their property after they were married.

THE ULM-AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN, 1805

Napoleon was planning to cross the English Channel to attack Britain with 2000
ships and 200,000 soldiers.
Ordered his soldiers to march into England.
Austria and Russia had joined Britain in an attempt to destroy him.
September 10: Austria attacks French-controlled Bavaria.
o Russian soldiers joined them France outnumbered two to one.
o Planned to defeat Napoleon through the use of sheer force; however,
Napoleon noticed that their forces were widely-dispersed and that he
could attack the Austrians before the Russians arrived if he moved
quickly.
In less than six weeks, French soldiers reach the Danube and take the
Austrians by surprise.
o Force them to surrender by surrounding them and isolating the general
Karl Mack.
27,000 men surrendered at the battlefield near Ulm nearly the whole of Macks
army!
October 21: Battle of Trafalgar.
o British Admiral Horatio Nelson catches a French/Spanish fleet and
destroys it at the cost of his own life.
o Leaves Napoleon without a fleet.
November 14: Napoleon marches into Vienna triumphantly the emperor had
fled, leaving the city to him.
The Grand Army is in danger.
o Winter had settled in, and the soldiers were unprepared for the cold.
o Surrounded by enemy territory.
o Russians on the way to help the Austrians.
o Troops have dwindling supplies and numbers.
November 22: Russian and Austrian forces unite against the French forces
90,000 Russian/Austrians against 75,000 Frenchmen.
Chose the battlefield of Austerlitz, near a hill named the Pratzen Heights.
o Would have given him ordinary success, but Napoleon wanted a decisive
victory.
o Sacrificed his position at the Heights to get the Russians to attack his
right flank kept a thin line of soldiers there and ordered them to
abandon the Heights.
o Enemy soldiers occupied it immediately 70,000 Russian soldiers led
by Tsar Alexander I.
Tsar Alexander wanted to attack immediately (which was what Napoleon wanted)
he could not believe that Napoleon had not been conquered.
o His General, Mikhail Kutuzov, told him to wait, but he ignored his orders.
o Saw Napoleon as weak and scared an easy win.
The day was foggy Pratzen Heights was left unsecured as the Tsar ordered
his soldiers down to attack Napoleons right flank.
o However, Napoleon had called for reinforcements from Vienna and they
had arrived in time the right flank was stronger than the Tsar expected.
He put two divisions of French soldiers (17,000) at the bottom of Pratzen
Heights and as the mist cleared, the French soldiers were revealed they had
gotten close enough to attack the troops without the Tsars men realizing.
By 9.30, the French controlled the Heights, and demolished the centre of the
allies army. The battle was over by 5.00.

Tsar Alexander and his army had retreated.

The Austrians asked for peace.
Austerlitz became Napoleons greatest campaign.

THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM, 1806

November 1806.
Issued in Berlin.
Forbade any French ally/conquest from trading with Great Britain.
Great Britain responded by blocking French trade even that of allies and
neutrals and using the Royal Navy to close French ports.
Napoleons Milan Decree, 1807, declared all neutral shipping using British
ports/tariffs as British and demanded that they were seized.
The plan was to destroy Britain by ruining its trade, however Britain still had
supremacy on the seas so the only way they could enforce the Continental
System was on land.
o Believed that he could cause an economic collapse in Britain and that he
could invade when it was weak.

THE PRUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, 1806-1807

The Prussians challenged Napoleon, who made short work of them.

October 1806: Defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Jena and Auerstadt.
o Captured 140,000 prisoners.
o Left 25,000 dead/wounded.
o Prussian army entirely crushed.
October 27: Marched through Berlin to the Revolutionary war tune Marseillles.
As 1806 ended, he was still at war with Russia and Great Britain.
Marched into Poland to defeat Russia in Warsaw, he received news of a surprise
Russian attack and struck back at Eylau, 130 miles away from the Russian border,
and then in Friedland.
o 70,000 soldiers injured or killed.
o Russian army in ruin.
June 25, 1807: Tilset peace treaty. Napoleon and Alexander meet on a raft in
the centre of the Nieman river.
o Alexander said, Sir, I hate the English as much as you do. Napoleon took
that as a sign of peace.
o Asked for no Russian territory. In return, Russia joined the Continental
Blockade and refused to trade with Great Britain.

THE PENINSULAR WAR, 1808-1813

Portugal defied the Continental Blockade.

Napoleon sends General Jerot to march over the Pyrenees.
November 30: French troops enter Lisbon and close British trading ports.
o The aggressive action made Spain question the alliance with France.
Napoleon installed his brother Joseph as the king of Spain and sent 118,000
soldiers into Spain to ensure his rule.
o Wanted to bend Spain to his rule made it a part of the French empire.
o Spain was far behind the rest of the European nations: old-fashioned, illiterate,
ruled by the clergy.

Did not understand that the Spanish loved their country as much as he loved
France and it would prove his downfall.
May 2: Spaniards rise against French rule and kill 150 French soldiers.
o Thousands of Spaniards killed in retaliation.
Sparks off a savage and brutal war that ends with no decisive victory.
Napoleon stays in Spain for five years and is unable to break the will of the
Spanish people.
English troops land in Portugal with a welcome.
August 30, 1808: English troops defeat French troops at battle of Cintra.
o Two months earlier, the 18,000 French troops were forced to surrender.
Napoleon is outraged at this defeat and leads a new army into Madrid.
December 4, 1808: Napoleon arrives in Madrid and turns his attention to the
English troops however, he is forced to leave them behind as Austrias
preparations for war call him away. He leaves his marshals in charge.
February 20, 1809: General Lannes captures Saragossa one of the last French
victories.
Wellingtons combined forces of Portugal, Spanish and English soldiers
drove the French soldiers out of the Peninsula.
January 19, 1812: Wellington beat the French at Ciudad Rodrigo.
July, 1812: Defeated General Marmont at Arapiles.
1813: Drove back the remaining French troops over the Pyrenees and into
France.
The French suffered 300,000 casualties over the length of this six year campaign.
1814: French morale at its lowest Napoleon losing power.
o

THE AUSTRIAN WAR, 1809

Inspired by the Spanish success.

A campaign to liberate neighbouring countries from French rule.
April 8, 1809: Austrians invade Bavaria, in the Confederation of the Rhine, with
the hopes of inspiring revolution.
Bavaria rallies around Napoleon as it had benefitted from the last defeat of
Austria.
Napoleon batters the Austrians and forces them back to the border.
May 13: Napoleon recaptures Vienna.
Emperor Francis I still refuses to sign a peace treaty until the Austrian army is
crushed.
May 22: Napoleon attacks the Austrians on Lobau Island, west of Vienna.
o Although outnumbered, the French push Austrian troops back to the
village of Essling with heavy losses.
o Austrian troops upstream cut loose a floating flour mill that smashes
Napoleons bridges. He goes to reassure them, and orders a retreat to
Lobau by rowboat.
o Gave command to General Lannes, who was shot by a cannonball
shortly afterwards. Despite amputation almost immediately, Lannes dies in
9 days: Napoleon had lost one of his best commanders and wept openly at
his death.
o July 4: Napoleon rebuilds bridges and moves his troops over the river
again.
o July 6: 155,000 Austrian troops fight the largest French army (173,000)
with heavy losses on both sides.

October 1809: Francis I signs a peace treaty with Napoleon three

million Austrians become subjects of Napoleon.

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, 1812

Tsar Alexander I refused to be a part of the Continental Blockade any longer as

the ban on trading with Britain was ruining Russian economy.
June 24, 1812: Napoleon invades Russia against his advisors wishes with
600,000 men.
Russia did not openly fight they retreated, and burned the countryside
behind them, leaving nothing for Napoleons men.
o The Cossacks where left behind to attack Napoleons flanks and rears and
gallop off.
The heat of the Russian summer dropped five thousand soldiers a day from
exhaustion and sickness.
September 8: The Russians and the French fight at the village of Borodino for
Moscow.
o Heavy losses on both sides.
o Showed little of Napoleons old strategy.
o Russians withdrew, so Napoleon claimed victory.
September 14: Napoleon enters Moscow and finds it burning. He could not stay
in Moscow, as there was nothing there.
Wrote to the Tsar proposing negotiations, and received no answer.
Napoleon ordered a retreat.
October 19: March out of the Kremlin.
The Russian winter arrived early and froze most of the remaining soldiers to
death.
o Food ran out, and soldiers quarrelled for the food.
o The Cossacks and Russian peasants attacked the straggling French army,
which fell to pieces under the assault on all sides.
Napoleon feared capture and carried poison in a little black bag around his neck.
Headed back to Paris on rumours of a coup developing.

FROM LTZEN TO ELBA, 1813-1814

Russia, Britain, Prussia and Sweden united against Napoleon after his defeat
in Russia.
Managed to produce another army and rallied France for one last campaign in central
Europe.
o Battered the Allies at the battle of Ltzen on May 2, 1813.
o The two sides signed the Armistice of Pleiswitz later.
Both the Allies and Napoleon turned on the indecisive Austria to get the
country to fight for them.
o Met Metternich, Austrias ambassador, with disdain.
o Metternich said that Austria would join the war if Napoleon returned the
territories he had taken Napoleon refused to do so, saying that he had not
been lost, and promised to beat them. Metternich pointed out that his troops
were old men and boys, and that Napoleon had lost.
August 12, 1813: Austria declares war on France and joins the Allies.
o Agreed not to fight an army if Napoleon was in command, but to thrash his
generals.
Dealt Napoleon a defeat at Liepzig.

Napoleon defeated the Allies at Hanau, though his troops were in retreat all over
Europe.
November 13: Holland is freed from French rule.
December 30: Austrians inhabit Switzerland, right on the borders of France.
1814: Napoleon is in Paris when he learns that the Allies invaded France and
fought off their armies with his old brilliance, though defeat was a certainty he had
just 85,000 Frenchmen against 350,000 Allies.
January 25: Napoleon says goodbye to his wife and son.
March 31, 1814: the Allies march down the Champs Elyses and Napoleons
attempts to rally his soldiers for a battle in Paris are dashed when his marshals
refuse to fight.
April 12, 1814: Napoleon renounces his throne and is exiled to Elba.

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN, 1815

The Allies restored a Bourbon king to the throne Louis XVIII.

o Grew unpopular for his weak and uncharismatic character.
o Royalists threatened to take all the wins of the revolution away.
o Economy floundering.
o The king is unpopular and France is in turmoil.
February 26, 1815: Napoleon escapes from Elba with a handful of soldiers and
manages to avoid the British fleet.
Six days after landing ashore, Napoleon confronts a regiment of infantrymen
from the Kings army sent to stop him, and manages to win them over.
Napoleon is in Paris two weeks later and Louis XVIII has fled. News reaches the
Allies.
The Allies had been at odds in the Congress of Vienna, but now they united
once more to win over the tyrant Napoleon.
Napoleon raises an army and marches towards Waterloo, where the Duke of
Wellington is waiting for him.
o 68,000 men under Wellingtons command plus 72,000 Prussian soldiers led by
Marshal Bleucher von Wahlstatt.
June 16: Wahlstatt beaten by Napoleon in Ligny and hesitant to send them after
Napoleon again.
Wellington demands Wahlstatts soldiers, but Wahlstatt is many miles away from
the battlefield and Napoleons troops are there to intercept him unlikely that he
will reach the battlefield in time.
June 18: Wellington adopts a strong defensive position and waits for the attack.
o It never comes, as Napoleon is waiting for the ground to dry so he can use
his cannon he has lost his confidence.
At 11.30, Napoleon opens fire.
o Ordered no elaborate manoeuvres just a frontal attack.
o Planned to attack Wellington first, then Bleucher.
o Attacked with cannon, but Wellingtons men had taken cover.
o Napoleons soldiers charged the British drive them back.
Napoleon receives word that the Prussian army is reaching the battlefield the
time to break Wellington is almost up.
o The French charge over and over again, while the British patiently wait.
o Marshal Ney, who led the charge, went ahead without infantry and was
defeated.
English centre on the verge of collapse.

Wellington hoped for night or the Prussians, as one more attack would break
them.
Napoleon sends forwards his bravest soldiers the Imperial Guard.
o The Duke orders an attack on the guards four hundred fall, but they
keep going, then, the Guards hesitate and retreat.
Bleucher arrives all hope for the French is lost.
Napoleon escapes and leaves his army behind.
June 22, 1815: Napoleon abdicates his throne and is exiled to St. Helena.
o

THE CONGRESS

OF

VIENNA, 1815 1830

BACKGROUND

Intended to maintain peace and stability.

The leaders of Europe learned that once change got started, it got out of
control.
o The French Revolution had been a bloody reign of terror, and they did
not want to repeat history.
Two options:
o Tolerate the revolution and attract support for the government by
making moderate reforms best shown in Britain.
o Crush the revolution before it even started.
Wanted a new balance of power within Europe to stem the threat of
imperialism.
Included France (Talleyrand) so as not to bring up feeling of revenge in the
French, which could lead to conflict.
Ensured no wars for forty years.
Condemned the slave trade as being inconsistent with human rights.
All decisions made by Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia.

METTERNICH

Austrian representative.
Very reactionary politician.
Wanted to bring history to a stop.
Metternich system turning history back to the Ancien Regime.
Saw revolution as a problem to be tackled on a broad European front:
o Was not a native Austrian he had been born in the Rhineland and
considered himself European, which gave him such a wide view of
European affairs.
o Believed that he faced a huge conspiracy with close links between
leaders of other countries.
o The situation of the Austrian Empire was in such dire straits that it would
disintegrate should revolution break out. Keeping it intact was very
much linked to keeping peace in Europe.
Believed that:

The best form of government was monarchy based upon a wellestablished claim to the throne the divine right of kings/hereditary
rulers with the hope that they would be wise rulers with good advisors.
Cornerstone of the Vienna Settlement.
o States should have the right to intervene if they felt threatened by
revolution revolution was a contagious disease which easily spread
across frontiers.
System:
o Direct intervention to stop revolutionary threats.
o Indirect intervention using the Congress system:
Congress system the powers continue to work co-operatively
to battle revolutions in Europe, though they could not agree on
the idea of co-operation.
o

THE SETTLEMENT

Needed to reconstruct the states system of Europe, and involved a wide

range of deals and compromises between the Allies.
Restoration of legitimate rulers and states:
o Metternich and Talleyrand were the chief advocators of restoration.
There were few alternatives; the examples of republics were not
encouraging.
o Principle of legitimacy was applied in France, Spain, Piedmont, Tuscany,
Modena and the Papal States.
o Murat was allowed to stay the King of Naples only when he was
captured and shot that the Bourbons were restored.
o Could not always be applied because:
Not practical due to vast landmass Germany had over 300
states, which became 39 states loosely linked as the German
Confederation, with the Austrian Empire dominating the Diet.
Conflicted with other objectives when the international
security or self interest of the powers involved were threatened,
alternative measures were found.
Rewards and retributions:
o Penalties were imposed upon France, especially after the Hundred Days
of Napoleon happened France was asked to pay an indemnity of 700
million and be occupied for 3-5 years and lost all of its gained territory.
o Territorial adjustments with the spoils taken from France:
Russia kept Finland and Bessarabia.
Sweden was given Norway.
The Tsar was given the greater part of Poland.
Prussia lost a lot of Polish territory, but received 40% of Saxony,
the Duchy of Westphalia and Swedish Pomerania, as well as most
of the new Rhineland.
Austria lost the Austrian Netherlands, but received Lombardy
and Venetia (Northern Italy), Illyria and Dalmatia (east cost of the
Adriatic) and the Bavarian Tyrol.
Britain received a number of potential naval bases and staging posts
for trade Heliogoland (North Sea), Malta, the Ionian Islands,
Ceylon and Cape Colony.
Peace in Europe:

o
o

A buffer of states created a barrier around France Belgium and

Holland in the North, Nice and Genoa in the North West, the Swiss
Confederation to the West and the Rhineland.
European balance of power retained by cutting back Prussian gains.
Russia was the most likely danger as she was the strongest,
militarily, out of the three Allies, and had been given considerable
territorial advantages.
Austria, Britain and France made a secret alliance in case war
was renewed.

ASSESSMENT

The Vienna Settlement came into a lot of criticism in the later years.
o Forty Years Peace:
No major war until 1854 contributed to the Vienna Settlement as it
left no great grievance outstanding.
Powers were also distracted from aggressive diplomacy by
internal
revolutionary
threats
and
post-war
economic
exhaustion.
The work of internationalists such as Metternich.
o Bartering the happiness of millions:
Diplomats in Vienna ignored the growing opposition to
absolutist monarchy.
However, neither the nationalists nor the liberals had any clearly
explained programme.
No alternative for much of what the diplomats did independent
Belgium would not have likely survived; northern Italy was either going
to be ruled by Austria or France.
Some concessions were made to the gains of the revolution
Germany was less divided; all of the German rulers were supposed
to establish constitutions.
The short-sighted repressive policies of European rulers led to
revolutions, not the Vienna Settlement.

THE CONGRESS SYSTEM

The war had been won by co-operation and the powers realized that it would be
only sensible that they should keep the peace by continuing to work cooperatively.
Metternich saw the co-operative route as a means of combating revolution.
o Article VI and the Quadruple Alliance:
Napoleons near success in the Hundred Days proved the need
to make some permanent arrangements to guard the Vienna
settlement.
The Quadruple Alliance of Austria, Russia, Britain and Prussia
should continue to exclude the Bonaparte dynasty from France.
Congresses would be held so that the Allies could discuss the
greatest comment interest and measures necessary for the
peace and prosperity of the people and for peace in Europe.
o The Holy Alliance:
The Tsar, beneath the influence of the German religious mystic
Baroness von Krudener, produced this document to act as a personal
pact between the European rulers.

Main signatories were Prussia, Austria and Russia, and it was

signed by all rulers except the King of Britain, the Sultan and the
Pope.
Had very vague intentions, though it was meant to be a renewal of
the old Christian unity of Europe.

THE CONGRESS OF AIX LA CHAPELLE, 1818

Revolutions in some European states and the continuing revolutions in South

America needed to be discussed.
A rift grew between the European powers over the purpose of the congresses.
Settled the issues of payment of the indemnity and withdrawal of the army
of occupation from France.
France admitted to the congresses on an equal basis.
Tsar seeking to convert the system into an alliance against revolution
wanted troops to be sent to South America to crush revolution in the Spanish
colonies.
o Talked about raising an international army.
o Castlereagh, British foreign minister, warned fellow diplomats
against the move.

THE CONGRESS OF TROPPAU, SILESIA, 1820

Revolts broke out in Spain, Portugal and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Line is clearly drawn between the attitudes of Metternich and Castlereagh.
o State Paper of 5 May 1820:
Castlereagh saw the congresses as prevention of the restoration of
the Bonaparte dynasty in France and to protect the Vienna
Settlement not to be sympathetic with revolution.
Feared that intervention could upset the balance of power in
Europe.
Revolutions were internal matters to be dealt with by the
governments of the states concerned.
o Troppau Protocol:
Metternichs view summed up by agreement of Russia, Prussia
and Austria that they would intervene in the affairs of any state
in Europe where events seemed to threaten the interests of any
other state.
An alliance against revolution.
Castlereagh sent an observer to Troppau and protested the
agreement as misuse of the Congress.

THE CONGRESS OF LAIBACH, 1820

It was agreed that Austria should suppress the revolution in the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies.
The Holy Aliance powers claimed the power to support any established
government against internal revolt.
The British spokesman objected the more moderate intentions of the
Quadruple Alliance had been ruined by the Holy Alliance.

THE CONGRESS OF VERONA, 1822

The Greek War of Independence was ongoing; the Tsar sympathised with this
rebellion as the Turks were Russias old enemy.
New foreign secretary , George Canning.
o More liberal than Castlereagh.
o Had a greater understanding of the needs of British trade.
o Brilliant speaker, whereas Castlereagh was a poor speaker.
Sent the Duke of Wellington to the Congress of Verona to object to the French
intervention with 100,000 troops in Spain.

A WHOLESOME STATE

Canning:
o Guaranteed the independence of the newly-created states in the
Spanish-American colonies.
Since the 1830, large areas of South America were being freed
from Spanish rule.
In 1823, it was rumoured that the European powers were prepared
to support the re-establishment of Spanish rule.
Britain had a growing trade relationship with these new states.
December 1824: Canning officially recognized the independence
of the new states and gave a speech which suggested
sympathy for the liberal cause.
Facts of geography guaranteed the independence of the new
states regardless.
Monroe Doctrine in 1823 made it clear that any European
intervention would be opposed by the United States.
o Actively supported Portugal liberal group against their opponent.
1824: King John of Portugal asks for British help to restore him to
his throne.
He had already granted a constitution and wished to maintain it
the liberals were on his side, and the opponents were his wife and
his brother Miguel.
Britain had a long-established relationship with Portugal and
Canning contributed naval assistance and the king was restored
to the throne.
o Brought about a diplomatic agreement in Greece to achieve selfgovernment, which led to splitting up the Holy Alliance powers.
Brought Britain, Russia and France together with the Treaty of
London in 1827 and they persuaded Turkey to grant Greece selfgovernment.
Had split up the ties between the Holy Alliance, which would later
bring about the Russo-Turkish war and independence for Greece.
Strengthened British trade interests in these regions and used the Royal Navy.

AFTER 1830

Another revolution in France triggered off revolutions in Belgium, Poland

and Italy, although they were unsuccessful.
Left possibility open for further revolutions.
o Division between the powers Austria, Prussia and Russia side together;
France and Britain side together.

Connection between revolutions was being made international

Metternich blamed a conspiracy.
Metternich was too inflexible.
o

THE

REVOLUTIONS OF

1848, 1848

ITALY

Not united.
Metternich said that it was a geographical expression it counted for
nothing.
Divided into eight states:
o Lombardy (under direct Austrian rule).
o Venetia (under direct Austrian rule).
o Parma (duchy ruled by duke).
o Modena (duchy ruled by duke).
o Tuscany (duchy ruled by duke).
o The Papal States Umbria, the Marches, Romagna and the Patrimony
(ruled by the Pope).
o The Kingdom of Naples/the Two Sicilies Southern Italy and Sicily
(ruled by Spanish Bourbon dynasty).
o The Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia Northern Italy. The only
independent state within the Italian peninsula (ruled by the House of
Savoy).
Foreign rulers of Italy all despotic (did not rule through a parliament with no
formal constitution).
Even King Charles Albert of Piedmont ruled without parliament though a
revolt in 1848 forced him to grant a constitution.
Italian patriots fought for liberty Giuseppe Mazzini started the Young Italy
movement precisely for that reason.
Austria appeared to be the main obstacle in the way of Italian unification but the
Italians themselves did not agree about what type of nation and rule they
wanted.
o Some wanted King Charles Albert to assume the title of King of Italy.
o Others wanted the Pope to become president of a united Italy.
o Mazzini wanted to establish a republic and drive out all foreign rulers.
1846: Pius IX became Pope carried out several reforms in the Papal States;
earned him the nickname of the Liberal Pope.
January 1848: great riots in Milan, the capital of Lombardy.
o Tobacco Riots.
o Started out over a quarrel concerning tobacco, which was considered to be
a luxury good to be bought and sold only by Austrians.
Rebellion in Sicily King Ferdinand (King Bomba) forced to grant a
constitution.
Other riots in Parma, Modena and Tuscany constitutions granted.
March 1848: Revolts broke out in Vienna and other parts of the Austrian
Empire.
o Most of the Austrian troops in Lombardy and Venetia were called back
home.
City of Venice declared completely independent from the rest of the Italy
became the Republic of St. Mark.

April 1848: King Charles Albert of Piedmont declares war on Austria.

July 1848: Piedmontese forces defeated by the Austrians at Custozza.
Austrian forces re-occupied Venetia and Lombardy.
Italian revolutionaries led by Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi attack
Rome and force the Pope to flee to Gaeta.
Rome declared a republic, but soon after, the Pope gets help from France and
is restored to the throne.
March 1849: King Charles Albert of Piedmont raises a new army and again
launch an attack against the Austrians.
o Defeated at Novara.
o Abdicates in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.
First attempt at Italian unity failed due to lack of unity among the Italian
insurgents.

FRANCE

King Louis XVIII succeeded by Charles X.

o Disregarded the French Constitution laws and the Code Napoleon.
o Forced to abdicate in 1830 as he was an absolute monarch.
o Had his ten year old grandson to succeed him, which was unacceptable,
so a relative was put in his place Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans.
Louis Philippe imitated the middle-class way of life, and became known as the
Citizen King.
o Took this step to find favour among the people, though he only appealed
to the middle class/bourgeoisie.
o Despised by the aristocracy (saw him as denigrating the monarchy) and
the lower class (didnt associate with the commoners).
Foreign policy was bad:
o 1840: First setback supported Mehmet Ali in his revolt against the
Sultan.
England, Austria, Prussia and Russia agreed to help the Sultan
Louis Philippe sided with Mehmet Ali, who lost.
o 1846:
A
conflict
in
Switzerland
between
the
Northern
Protestants/Southern Catholics.
England supports Protestants.
Louis Philippe supports Catholics, who lose.
o In the same year, Louis Philippe arranges a double-marriage between
the Queen of Spain and a French Duke, the Spanish Queens sister and
his son.
England protests against the marriage and Louis Philippe lost
Englands support.
They were two powerful arch-rivals of Britain.
Had to suffer opposition at home:
o Socialists of Louis Blanc wanted him to set up National Workshops to
keep unemployment in check.
o Legitimists favoured the Bourbon dynasty.
o Republicans wanted a republican government.
o Bonapartists still favoured the Napoleonic family.
o Very radical Liberals who continued what the Jacobins started.
February 1848: Members of the French opposition hold a banquet to protest
against Louis Philippes corrupt minister Francois Guizot (reactionary,
conservative, dictatorial)

o Reform Banquet prohibited.

February 22, 1848: Riots break out in Paris and the National Guard demand
reforms.
o Louis Philippe replaced Guizot by Louis Thiers.
o Parisian workmen wanted reforms other than a change of ministers
and the riots continued.
o Guards fired upon protesters outside Guizots hotel 35 killed, and the
officer of the guards. Guizot escaped.
All of Paris in revolt.
February 24, 1848: Citizen King forced to abdicate and flee to England.

GERMANY

Confederation of many German states led by different rulers the

Confederation of the Rhine.
Established during the Congress of Vienna.
Strongest German state was Prussia, ruled over by King Frederick William IV
of the Hohenzollern dynasty.
Most south German states under the influence of Austria.
March 1848: revolt in Berlin, capital of Prussia, and in Hesse-Cassel.
o Rebels demand a constitution and a liberal government.
o Frederick William IV agreed to abolish feudal rights and grant a
constitution.
May 1848: assembly composed of delegates from most of the German states
within the confederation of the Rhine, including Austria, met at Frankfurt.
o Frankfurt Parliament.
o Discussed possibility of German unity
o Some delegates wanted a federal republic.
o Some wanted a German empire under Prussian Hohenzollern rule.
Austria stood to lose with a united Germany its aim was to absorb a lot of
German states.
o Some wanted to include Austria within the new union but it was decided to
exclude the Austrian Empire because of the many non-Germans within
it.
Finally agreed that a federal empire should be formed with a hereditary emperor.
o Prussian king chosen as emperor but he feared Austrian hostilities and
declined.
Frankfurt Parliament had no military power to enforce its decisions and
therefore had failed completely to unite Germany by peaceful ways.
1850: Prussian delegates met an Austrian delegation at Olmuts where the
Prussians were forced to restore the Confederation of 1815 and to abandon
any attempts aimed towards German unity
Olmuts Austria humiliates Prussia and remains the dominant power in
Europe.

AUSTRIAN EMPIRE

Revolts in European countries caused by desire for national unity, except in

France.
o Italy wanted to overthrow Austrian domination and unite all of Italy as
one nation.

Austrian Empire consisted of Austria (Germanic people), Hungary, southern

Poland, parts of Northern Italy and other lands.
As soon as news of Louise Phillipes fall reached Austria, there were violent risings
in Vienna.
o March 1848: people march through the streets of Vienna, protesting the
despotic rule of Prince Metternich.
o Metternich forced to flee to England.
Constitution set up except for Hungary.
o Czechs from Bohemia hold a meeting in Prague and demand a
constitution of their own.
o Refused, so they rise up in revolt which is crushed by Austrian General
Windishgratz.
March 1848: Hungary in revolt under leadership of Louis Kossuth, a
journalist and a lawyer.
o A diet (assembly of representatives of the people) is formed and passes the
March Laws.
Abolishes serfdom.
Established a Hungarian constitution declaring Hungary
independent of Austria.
Kossuth declared head of the new Hungarian state.
September 1848: Jealous of Hungarys independence, the Slavs attack.
o The Croatian army was lead by Count Jellacic but it was driven back.
More riots break out in Vienna and Emperor Ferdinand and the Hapsburg
Royal family have to flee to Innsbruck.
Vienna falls to the Austrian rebels who are tired of their despotic form of
government and want a liberal one.
Having crushed the Czech revolt in Bohemia, General Windischgratz turns his
forces on Vienna.
October 1848: Windischgratzs foces joined by those of Count Jellacic.
o City falls after heavy bombardment revolt in Vienna utterly crushed.
Prince Felix Schwarzenberg made chancellor and head of the government.
March Constitution abolished.
Emperor Ferdinand abdicates in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph.
January 1849: General Windischgratz lanched a second attack on Hungary
and managed to occupy Budapest.
o The Magyars, underneath General Gorgei, drive them out.
Hungary reaffirmed as being separate from Austria and under the leadership
of Louis Kossuth.
Austrians ask for Russian help and Tsar Nicholas I more than willing to send an
army against Hungary from the east, while Austria against attacked from the
west.
August 1849: the Magyars attacked from the west and are heavily defeated
at the village of Vilagos by Russian forces.
Kossuth fled to Turkey, then England, and to the USA, while the short-lived
Hungarian Republic came to an end.
1848 revolts throughout the Austrian Empire failed mainly because of lack of
unity among the rebels and through foreign intervention from Russia.

THE ITALIAN UNIFICATION, 1848

Victor Emmanuel II succeeds his father Charles Albert as King of Piedmont and
Sardinia in 1849.
1852: Count Camillo Cavour becomes prime minister of the Kingdom of
Piedmont.
o Piedmont alone was too weak to defeat the Austrians and expel them
from Italy.
o Strengthened Piedmont by improving its trade, agriculture and its
armed forces.
o Unlike Giuseppe Mazzini, he realized that without foreign help, Italy could
never be united.
1855: Cavour sent a small army to help England and France during the Crimean
War, hoping to receive help when Piedmont would need it later on.
1858: Cavour invites Napoleon III to visit Piedmont.
o Attempt on the French Emperors life before: an Italian patriot named
Orsini tried to assassinate the Emperor while he was on his way to the
Paris Opera.
June 1858: Cavour met Napoleon III at Plombieres and concluded a pact which
stipulated three clauses:
o Victor Emmanuel IIs daughter to marry a cousin of Napoleon III.
o France to help Piedmont drive the Austrians out of Northern Italy.
o Piedmont was to obtain Lombardy and Venetia from the Austrians while
France would be given Savoy and Nice
1859: Cavour mobilises the Piedmontese troops.
o In retaliation, Austrian forces invade Piedmont in April.
o June: Austrians defeated by the joint French and Piedmontese forces
at Magenta and Solferino.
Napoleon III changes his mind and concluded a secret truce with the Austrians
at Villafranca in 1859.
o Truce stipulated that Lombardy should be given to Piedmont and
Venetia should remain underneath Austrian rule.
When Cavour hears about the Villafranca Truce that he resigns from Prime
Minister and refuses to honour the Pact of Plombieres which dealt with the
handing over of Savoy and Nice to France.
1860: Cavour back in power and comes to an agreement with Napoleon III by
which Savoy and Nice would be given to France in exchange for help in
annexing the duchies of Parma, Modena and Tuscany..
1860: Rebellion in Sicily.
o Giuseppe Garibaldi gathers an army of 1000 at Genoa where they set
sail for Sicily.
May 11, 1869: Garibaldi and his thousand red shirts landed at Marsala in
Sicily and defeated the Neopolitan royal forces at Calatafimi.
Palermo attacked.
By the end of June 1860, Garibaldi controls all of Sicily.
Napoleon III greatly alarmed at Garibaldis success and proposed England to
stop Garibaldi from crossing over to Southern Italy.
o The British, instead, kept the Messina Straits open for Garibaldi and his
men.
August 1860: Neopolitan forces of King Francis II are defeated at Gaeta.
o Garibaldi moves on to Naples and enters in triumph.
o Defeat King Francis II one more time at the River Volurno.
Cavour worries that Garibaldi will march on Rome and come into trouble with
the French garrison, ruining all attempts at unification.

He persuades Victor Emmanuel II to send an army towards Naples and stop

Garibaldi from marching on Rome.
o Victor Emmanuel II leads a Piedmontese army across Romagna and
the Marches and defeats Papal guards at Castelfidardo.
o These states and Umbria were annexed to Piedmont after a plebiscite.
The end of 1860: Victor Emmanuel meets Garibaldi at Teano where Garibaldi
hands over all of his conquests and retires to the island of Caprera.
February 1861: the first Italian Parliament meets at Turin.
o Victor Emmanuel proclaimed King of Italy.
June 6, 1861: Cavour dies with only Venetia and Rome left to be annexed.
o Venetia would be given to Italy by Bismarck as recognition for Italys
help in the Austro-Prussian war.
o Rome was joined to the rest of Italy in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian
War when the French garrison in Rome is finally withdrawn.
o

THE EASTERN QUESTION, 1815 1913

OVERVIEW

Problems created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire in European regions.

Shifted the balance of power in Europe.
Powers were determined not to allow rivals take advantage at the expense of others.
Some Powers tried to preserve Ottoman Empire as long as possible.
Intents of the individual powers involved.
Stages:
o A. Greek War of Independence (1821-1832).
o B. The Syrian Question/Mehmet Ali Crises (1 st stage 1832-33; 2nd stage 183941).
o C. The Crimean War (1853-56).
o D. The Russo-Turkish War (1877-78).
o E. The Balkan Wars (1912-13).

TURKEY AND THE EASTERN QUESTION, 1815-41

Ottoman Empire is still feudal in structure and the Sultans authority depends
on provincial governors who grow more unreliable the farther they get from the
capital.
A power in decline threatened by Russia and Austria.
Population of European provinces is mainly Orthodox Christian (second-class status
under the law of Islam) which places it under some Russian protection.
Territory is difficult to control; by European standards, it is economically
undeveloped and backwards.
Subjects include:
o Greeks maritime/commercial interest; literate.
o Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgars) racially like Russians.
o Rumans non-Slavs with Latin-based language.
o Albanians Muslim.
Weaknesses:
o Russian pressure to expand control and achieve a port in the
Mediterranean for trading purposes.

o
o
o
o

Austrian jealousy of Russian influence of Russian Danube, which is

threatening freedom of Austrian trade.
Austrian fear of threat to their power by Russian expansion and of
effects of Serb/Rumanian independence on Austrian subjects of same race.
British anxiety to support Turkey against Russian encroachment as it
is affecting British interests in Mediterranean.
French rivalry with Britain for influence in Mediterranean.

THE GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, 1821-32

Great Powers sought to discourage rebellion in Europe and the Ottoman

Empire.
Showed the rebels in the Balkans little support and took steps to ensure that
they would never reach their goal, though this failed Greek became the first
genuinely independent successor-states of the Ottoman Empire.
The rebellion of 1821 was planned and acted out by the secret society Filike
Eteria (League of Friends) a group of wealthy Greek merchants in Odessa
and its aim was to liberate all Balkan Christians.
Took advantage of the Ottoman Empires distraction in Ali Pashas rebellion in
Albania.
Hoped that the Russians would help despite the Ambassadors claim that there
would be no aid from Russia.
March 1821: 4,500 men led by Alexander Ypsilantis march across the River
Pruth into Moldavia.
o Goal was to link up with Milosh Obrenovich, the Serbian leader, and
Theodoro Vladimirescu, a Wallachian rebel, to spark off a revolution.
Rebellion proved a disaster:
o Theodoro Vladimirescu executed for intriguing with the Turks.
o Defeated at Dragatsani.
o Ypsilantis incarcerated in a dungeon.
o Support was only in Morea among traditionally independent Greek
Orthodox klefts, kapi and armatoli brigands/outlaws; militia men of
rich landowners; militia men of the Turks.
A number had served in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.
Bishop of Patras raises the standard of the revolt and it spreads.
Inspired by ideas of national independence from the Russo-Turkish war of
1768-24, the French Revolution and the work of Greek philosophes, who
wanted to revive classical Greek language and literature.
May 12: Tsar Alexander persuades Francis II of Austria and Frederick William
III of Prussia to join him in issuing a strong condemnation.
o Britain and France were convinced that the Ottoman Empire would act as
an effective barrier against Russian expansion, told the Porte (Turkish
government) expected the rebellion to be quickly suppressed.
o News of Greek and Turkish massacres do not change views.
Reports of the massacres and the execution of Gregorias, Orthodox Patriarch of
Constantinople, persuades Russia to deliver an ultimatum to the Porte
demanding protection for the Orthodox subjects
Support for the rebels is wide in the rest of Europe funds are collected,
volunteers dispatched, which helps the rebellion to survive.
The Ottomans were unsuccessful in staving the revolution as they had to
fight simultaneous wars against the Greek rebels, the forces of Ali Pasha,
Druz rebels and the Persians, not to mention keeping forces on the Russian
frontier.

o Could not stop the rebellion.

o Failed to impose an effective naval blockade on Morea.
1824: Ottomans call on Mehmet Ali Pasha (ruler of Egypt) for assistance.
February: Ibrahim Pasha, his son, lands with a powerful force in Morea with the
aim of the complete extinction of the Greek cause in Morea.
The Great Powers continue not to intervene.
o August 1822: Congress of the Holy Alliance Greek question is not
discussed.
o June 1824: Representatives of the states collect in St. Petersburg to
consider the proposal that Greece be split into three parts Wester,
Eastern and Morea.
Russia loses patience with this approach their trade in the Mediterranean had
suffered and they were fighting against the Ottomans in another war over the
Treaty of Bucharest in 1812.
7 October 1826: Sultan Mahmud II concedes to the Russians demand in reference to
the Caucasus and the Principalities (Treaty of Bucharest dispute).
March 17, 1826: Russia dispatches another ultimatum to the Porte, threatening
war if the dispute is not solved.
This makes the British alter course, as they feared the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire.
July 6, 1827: Concluded the Treaty of London with France and Britain, which
provided for the creation of an autonomous vassal state, mediation and the
imposition of the armistice.
o If the Porte rejected mediation, the Powers would be allowed to take
steps to connect with the rebels.
o If both sides refused an armistice, the Powers would be allowed to
separate the fighters without hostile means.
October 20, 1827: Accidental destruction of Turkish and Egyptian fleet at
Navarino Bay.
o Strengthened the position of the Greek rebels.
o Attitude of the Porte hardened.
o The Straits were closed, which stopped trade entirely.
o The Convention of Ackerman (1826) was denied this dealt with Russian
interest in Moldavia, Wallachia, Serbia and the Caucasus.
o Ended Mehmet Alis participation in the war.
August 9, 1828: Mehmet Ali signs a convention with the Allies that allowed for
an evacuation of all the Egyptian forces in Morea.
o Relief for the Greek rebels.
April 1826: Missolonghi is taken by the Turks.
August 1826: Athens is taken by the Turks.
May 1827: Disastrous defeat for the Greek rebels at Analatos, near Athens.
November 31, 1827: Sultan Mahmud II repudiated the Convention of
Ackerman.
December 20, 1827: He declares a jihad (holy war) against Russia.
o Closes the Straits.
Regardless of fierce resistance, the Ottomans could not withstand the Russian
assault:
o June 27, 1829: Erzerum falls.
o August 19, 1829: Adrianople falls fortress town protecting the European
approaches to Constantinople.
September 2: Ottomans are forced to call an armistice.
September 14, 1829: The Treaty of Adrianople is signed. Russia gains:

Eastern Armenia, territory at the mouth of the Danube and Georgia.

A guarantee of free passage through the Straits for all merchant ships
in peacetime.
o A virtual protectorate over Moldavia and Wallachia.
o An autonomous Greek state to be ruled by a hereditary prince.
The Powers decided that a Greek state should be strong and independent.
o An independent Greek state could be much more resistant to Russian
interference.
o Civil war between the rebels and the proclamation of a republic in 1827
showed the need for a more stable government.
At the London conference in February 1830, they persuaded the Russians to
agree to the creation of an independent state. The first king of Greece was
Crown Prince Otto of Bavaria.
o
o

THE FIRST MEHMET ALI CRISIS, 1832-33

Mehmet Ali wanted to expand his territory in Egypt, and he had come out of the
Greek War with little to show for it.
o Had been promised Syria in 1827 (as a reward for sending troops to help
the Ottoman Empire, though he sent no troops).
o Had the support of the French.
o Bad feelings between Egypt and Syria for the Pasha of Syrias refusal
to return Egyptian refugees.
1832: Invades Syria with a European-trained army and navy.
o Coupled with Ibrahim Pashas ability, the weakness of the Turkish army
was made clear very soon.
o In May, he wins Acre.
o In June, he wins Damascus.
o In December, a win at Konieh leaves Constantinople for the taking.
Mahmud II pleads for help from Russia.
Tsar Nicholas I sends ships and 6000 troops, though the Egyptians were
bought underneath Anglo-French pressure to make peace.
Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi:
o Lasted eight years.
o Reaffirmed the Treaty of Adrianople.
o Russia and Turkey would support each other in the event of an attack.
o If Russia was attacked, Turkey would close the Straits to foreign
warships.
1833: Austria and Russia meet at Munchengratz to patch up their differences.
o With the peace between Austria and Russia, popular British opinion is
that Russia is preparing for the partition of the Ottoman Empire
which would threaten British-Indian trading relationships.

THE SECOND MEHMET ALI CRISIS, 1839-40

April 1839: counter-attack by Turkish troops leads to an Egyptian attack and a

victory at Nizib.
The Sultan is succeeded by a sixteen-year-old boy, Abdul Medjid this led to
the desertion of the whole Turkish fleet to Mehmet Ali.
Mehmet Ali demanded hereditary possession of Egypt and Syria.
o Had the support of the French, especially when Thiers became prime
minister.

The Ottoman Empire was supported by the British, who wanted the Pasha
evicted because of their potential threat to routes to India they also feared
that the Sultan would become permanently weakened.
Russia also sought to divide Britain and France.
London Convention of 1840 was signed by the Powers and offered the Pasha
only southern Syria for his lifetime and Egypt as a hereditary holding.
France was isolated and humiliated and Thiers fell from office, to be replaced
by the moderate Guizot.
Mehmet Ali rejected the offer although:
o A revolt in Lebanon against Egyptian rule became a guerrilla war.
o September-November 1840: Beirut and Acre were bombarded and
captured by the British, which forced Ibrahim Pasha to withdraw.
Results:
o The Egyptians withdrew from Syria and returned the Turkish fleet.
o Mehmet Ali gained Egypt, although Egypt would decline into one of
the weakest positions in the Empire.
o 1841: The Straits Convention Russia lost her privileged position and
the Straits were to be closed to all warships while the Ottoman Empire
was at peace.

THE CRIMEAN WAR, 1854-56

The Turkish Empire was in decay, which left most of its provinces up for grabs
North Africa and the Balkans were rebelling against the Sultan.
1852: Tsar Nicholas I of Russia suggested that the Balkans should become
independent under Russian influence, and that England could take over
Greece and
Crete.
This would provide Russia with a base in the
Mediterranean.
Britain refused, and Russia had to resort to other means to find a port in the
Mediterranean.
A dispute rose between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox
Church over the Holy Places in the Palestine:
o Russia and Tsar Nicholas protected the Greek Orthodox Church, while
Napoleon III gave Frances full support to the Roman Catholic Church.
1853: Tsar Nicholas I demands that the Sultan of Turkey hand over the Holy
Places to the Orthodox Church and recognize the Tsar as protector of all
Christians in the Turkish Empire.
o The Sultan, advised by the British, refused.
Russian troops invade Moldavia and Wallachia.
o Austria sends the Vienna Note, a compromise that is rejected by
Turkey.
October 1853: Turkey declares war on Russia, although the Turkish fleet is
sank at Sinope.
Britain and France send their naval fleets to the Black Sea and issue war on
Russia.
January 1854: Allied fleets reach the Black Sea and delivers
Turkish/British/French troops at Varna.
o Austria demands the evacuation of Moldavia and Wallachia.
o Russia feared a conflict with Austria and withdrew its troops from both
provinces.
Allies prepare to advance and capture Sebastopol, Russias principal naval
base in the Black Sea.

o They were driven back.

Disease and shipwrecks plagued the allied soldiers, but they were victorious at
the Battle of the River Alma (September).
October: The Russians are defeated at Balaclava.
o Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about this The Charge of the Light Brigade.
November: Allies are victorious at Inkerman.
January 1855: Count Camillo Cavour sends a Piedmontese army to help the
Allies.
o English nurse Florence Nightingale revolutionized hospitals in Scutari.
March 1855: Tsar Nicholas I dies and was succeeded by Alexander II who
wanted to reform Russia internally and tried to bring hostilities to an end.
August 1855: Allied forces defeat the Russians at the Battle of the River
Chernaya.
September 8: Sebastopol falls.
Tsar Alexander II prepared to accept what terms he could get from the allies.
March 30, 1855: The Treaty of Paris is signed and ends the Crimean War.
Terms:
o Turkey was admitted to the Concert of Europe.
o Russia abandons its claims to protect Christians in the Turkish Empire.
o Black Sea is declared neutral and merchant shipping of all nations
allowed in its waters. No country could establish naval bases or keep
warships there.
o Moldavia and Wallachia were freed from Russian control and came
under Turkish rule.
o The river Danube was opened to ships of all nations.
o Serbia declared independent.
Achieved little in results:
o Turkish Empire was prolonged though doomed to fail.
o Neutrality of the Black Sea would be violated by Russia during the
Franco-Prussian War.
o Napoleon III and France gained honour and prestige which is lost for
later blunders.
o Russia embarked on a programme of reforms.
o Piedmont gained representation during the Treaty of Paris where it
could voice the grievances of Italians against Austria.

THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR, 1877-78

Treaty of Paris had failed to provide permanent settlement to problems in the

Balkans.
o Russia had violated the neutrality of the Black Sea as France could not
enforce the treaty in 1870.
o 1861: Moldavia and Wallachia united themselves under the name of
Rumania.
o Turkish Sultan broke his promise to treat Christian subjects in his
Empire well.
1875: Peasants of Bosnia-Herzegovina, oppressed by taxes, revolt against the
Sultan.
May 1876: Rebellion in Bulgaria suppressed by Turkey.
o 12,000 Christians are killed.
o Became known as the Bulgarian Massacres.

June 1876: Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Turkey, but are soon
defeated.
Russia offers help to the Slav race within the Turkish Empire.
To prevent war, a conference of the European powers was summoned at
Constantinople.
o Turkish Sultan promised to treat better his Christian subjects, though
this was a short-kept promise.
April 1877: Russia declares war on Turkey.
o Joined by Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Rumania.
Russian advanced checked at Plevna.
Russia attacks and captures Kars and Enzerum in Armenia; Plevna was captured
in January 1878.
Turks ask for peace negotiations and the Russians forced them to agree to
the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano.
March 1878: Treaty of San Stefano:
o Large independent Bulgaria to be established under temporary
Russian control.
o Serbia and Montenegro to be enlarged.
o Rumania declared independent gave South Bessarabia to Russia;
received Dobruja.
o Russia was to receive Kars, Batum and Ardhan.
o Turkey had to pay a war indemnity and support a Russian army of
occupation for two years.
England and other nations protest against clauses of this treaty, and
threatens war on Russia if treaty is not revised.
July 1878: Conference presided over by German Chancellor Prince Otto von
Bismarck.
o Treaty of San Stefano is replaced by the Treaty of Berlin.
Treaty of Berlin:
o Bulgaria was reduced by two-thirds the size proposed by the former
treaty.
o Gains obtained by Serbia and Montenegro in the former treaty are
reduced.
o Bosnia-Herzegovina occupied by Austria.
o Greece promised territory which is received in 1881 received Thessaly.
Treaty of Berlin failed to guarantee peace in the Balkans because it left many
Balkan states dissatisfied.
o Led to growing rivalry between Austria and Russia.

THE BALKAN WARS, 1912-13

1911: Turkish Empire in complete decay.

o 1908: Young Turks Revolution continues to bury Sultans decadent
refime.
o Young Turks Liberal Party demands constitution. They are
supported by the army, so the Sultan grants their wish and a
parliament is formed.
1911: Italy occupies Tripoli, last remaining Turkish territory in North Africa.
1912: Turkish oppression in Macedonia provides the Balkan States with an
opportunity to wage war on Turkey.
o Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro drop their rivalries and form
the Balkan League against Turkey.

October 1912: Balkan League demands reforms in Macedonia.

o The Turks refuse, so war is declared.
Turkish armed forces suffer heavy defeats despite being reorganized reinforced
and equipped by Germans.
Troops from Montenegro invade Albania, the Serbs invade Macedonia and
occupy Monastir.
The Bulgarians drove back Turkish forces and captured the important city of
Adrianople.
With the fall of Adrianople, the Turks were forced to make peace to save
Constantinople.
May 1913: Peace conference held in England signs the Treaty of London.
o Turkey loses all European territories except Constantinople and an area
around it.
Balkan League wants to divide Albania and Macedonia among them, though
Austria claims that it should be an independent state to offset Serbias
expansionist aims.
o Serbia could not agree with Bulgaria over division of Macedonia.
June 1913: Bulgaria declares war on former allies Serbia and Greece and starts
a Second Balkan War.
o Bulgaria is defeated by a combination of Serbs, Greeks and Rumanians.
Turkey sees an opportunity to regain territory it lost in the Treaty of London.
o Attacks Bulgaria and recaptures Adrianople.
Bulgaria forced to surrender and compelled to sign the Treaty of Bucharest in
1913. Due to treaty:
o Serbia secured Northern and Central Macedonia.
o Greece assigned Southern Macedonia and Salonika.
o Adrianople reconfirmed as a Turkish possession.
Results:
o Turkish Empire weakened even more than before through loss of
territory by the Treaty of London.
o Bulgaria seeks revenge on its former allies of the Balkan League and joins
Austria and Turkey during World War I.
o Serbia becomes a stronger state, powerful to challenge Austrian
domination of the Serbs in Bosnia.
o Austria considers Serbia as a threat to its Empire and the intensifying
antagonism between Serbia and Austria, and the murder of Austrian
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo, causes the First
World War in 1914.

GERMAN UNIFICATION, 1815 1871

The Frankfort Parliament of May 1848 had failed to unite Germany.

German nationalists were alarmed at the growing power of France and the
unification of Italy Germany was ready to be united but it lacked a strong
statesman to lead the process.
Customs Union Zollverein (1834) only form of union between German states;
paid no taxes on trade/imports/exports on any goods bought/imported/exported
from another German state.
1858: Frederick William IV of Prussia goes insane and his brother Wilhelm is
elected regent (substitute king).
1861: Frederick William IV dies. His brother becomes William I of Prussia.

An able ruler.
Aimed to make Prussia a stronger state by carrying out reforms and
strengthening the army.
o Wanted to add 49 new regiments in the army, but it cost a considerable
amount of money to do so. When the budget was presented in the
Prussian Assembly, the Liberals refused to support it.
o William I on the verge of abdication; calls in a Prussian Junker
(landowner) Prince Otto Von Bismarck to help him with his reforms.
Bismarck; great statesman; held a lot of influence within the
assembly. He wanted the Prussian state to grow into a German
nation.
The great questions of the day will not be decided by
speeches and resolutions of majorities but by blood and iron.
quote on how to achieve German unification.
Aimed at destroying the Austrian Hapsburg supremacy in Germany and
replacing it with Hohenzollern rule.
Trusted all military preparations in the hands of two strategies
Field Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke + General Count
Albrecht Von Roon.
Wanted to obtain strong allies in order to wage war on Austria.
Realpolitik ideals.
The Iron Chancellor because of his disciplinary manner &
dictatorial rule.
1863: the Poles rebel against the Tsar of Russian; England + France ready to
help the Poles, Bismarck supports the Tsar instead and closes the Prussian
border to prevent aid from reaching the Poles. Polish Revolution crushed.
Russia first important ally.
o
o

QUOTES

BY BISMARCK

The less people know about how laws and sausages are made, the better they will
sleep at night. - on realpolitik; dont explain, just lead.
Never believe in anything until it has been officially denied.
I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made. after German
unification. It was the Second Reich and lasted from 1871-1918.
A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals
one. Prophetic after dealing with a huge blow at the end of WW1, Hitler and the
Nazis rose to power and dealt a huge blow back.
Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans will provoke the next war. Prophetic
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo sparked
WW1.

STEP 1: THE DANISH WAR & THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION

(1864)

Prussia vs. Denmark.

Concluded by the Peace of Vienna.
Schleswig-Holstein not a part of Denmark, but a protectorate of Denmark.

Bismarck wanted an excuse to start a war against Austria, and this gave him
that excuse.
There was a substantial Danish population in Schleswig, Holstein was mainly
German population and a member of German Confederation.
1851: Prussia supports the German Duke of Augustenberg as ruler of the
two duchies. However, at a conference of the great powers in London in 1852, the
Danish king was declared ruler of the two duchies.
1863: King Christian of Denmark assumes kingship and annexes Schleswig
to Denmark Germans protest.
o Bismarck invites Austria to help Prussia wage war against Denmark.
Austria agrees.
1864: Austro-Prussian forces defeat Danish forces.
o Denmark forced to sign Treaty of Vienna which states that Schleswig and
Holstein are handed over to Austria and Prussia.
August 1865: Convention of Gastein agreement between Prussia and
Austria where Prussia gets Schleswig and Austria gets Holstein. This results
in the Austrians in Holstein being completely surrounded by Prussian
territory.
October 1865: Bismarck meets Napoleon III at Biarritz and persuades him to
remain neutral in case of war between Austria and Prussia by promising him
land though nothing is written down, thus rendering the promise unofficial.
o Bismarck asks the Italians to help against Austria, promising Venetia
as a reward he plays upon the Italians anti-Austrian feeling.
By concluding pacts between Russia, France and Italy, Bismarck isolates Austria
completely in Europe.

STEP 2: THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN

WAR OR THE SEVEN WEEKS WAR

(1866)

Bismarck finds the excuse to wage war on Austria: Austria wants that both
duchies would be governed by the Duke of Austenberg, which Bismarck sees
as a violation of the convention of Gastein.
Prussian troops march into Holstein Austrians do not retaliate.
Bismarck abolishes the German Confederation and introduces a new one
which excludes Austria.
Austria appeals to the German Confederation against Prussia and was
supported by a majority of the German states, which leads to a decleration of
war by Austria on Prussia June 1866.
o Austrian forces ill-equipped Prussians armed with modern
rifles/guns.
o Prussians occupy Frankfort, defeat Austrians at Sadowa after seven
weeks.
o The Italians had kept large Austrian forces engaged in North Italy.
August 1866: Bismarck signs the Treaty of Prague which stipulates that
Schleswig & Holstein should be annexed to Prussia and Venetia should be
given to Italy.
o North German Confederation of German States formed under the
leadership of Prussia.
o Within there was to be a parliament elected by the people, and a council
of German delegates, in which Prussia held 17 out of 43 seats.

President of the Confederation was the King of Prussia; Chancellor was

Bismarck himself.
Future German nation modelled upon military despotism of Prussia, not liberal
democracy.
o

THE

DUAL MONARCHY OR

HOW

AUSGLEICH (COMPROMISE )

After Austrias defeat in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hapsburg Emperor

Francis Joseph realized the weaknesses of his empire if others revolts like
those in 1848-49 happened, he would be in no condition to control them.
Magyars of Hungary still insisted for equal rights with the Austrians.
1867: Francis Joseph declared Hungary a kingdom with himself as king, placing
Hungary on an absolute equality with Austria in the empire
ausgleich/compromise.
The Austrian Empire becomes the Austro-Hungarian Empire/Dual Monarchy.

THE GERMAN STATES WERE UNIFIED

1862
Prussia catalyst for unification of Germany.

1865
Schleswig

1866
Holstein
Hanover
Hessee Cassel

1867
Mecklenburg
Oldenburg
Thuringia
Saxony

1870
Bavaria
Wurtenburg
Baden

1871 ( AFTER

TREATY OF FRANKFURT )
Alsace & Lorraine

STEP 3: THE

FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

(1870-71)

France is alarmed at Prussias rapid growth into a military state.

At the end of the Austro-Prussian war, Napoleon III demands that Bismarck
honour the territorial promises made to him before the war.
o He wanted a stretch of territory west of the Rhine, plus the Palatinate
belonging to Bavaria.
Bismarck refuses Napoleon III threatens war against France.
Napoleon adds Belgium and Luxemberg to the list of demands. Bismarck again
refuses and keeps a copy of the demands in writing.
He shows this to England and antagonizes Napoleon III with the British.
Napoleon IIIs aggression turns the Southern German states in favour of
Prussia before they had inclined to regard France as a protector against
Prussian aggression.
1870: Spanish throne becomes vacant due to a coup detat carried out by
the military. European royal families submitted their candidates for the
Spanish throne.
o The Spanish government offered the throne to Leopold, a Hohenzollern
prince a relative of William I of Prussia and Bismarck persuaded him to
take it, knowing full well Napoleon IIIs reaction to France being
encircled by Hohenzollern-controlled territory.
Napoleon III immediately protests and sends French Ambassador Benedetti
to demand from William I a withdrawal of the Hohenzollern candidature.
o He meets with William I at Ems, famous German spa.
o William I agrees to withdraw Prussian candidature, but Benedetti
wanted an assurance that the Hohenzollern candidature for the Spanish
throne would never again be renewed.
o William I informed Benedetti that he could not promise that and
considered the matter closed. He sends a telegram to Bismarck, who
alters the wording to make it appear that William I had insulted
Benedetti by deliberately refusing to see him again when he requested.
He publishes the Ems telegram and the list of demands for territory made by
Napoleon III. France sees these as a grave insult and war is declared in July
1870.
4th August 1870: German forces invade Alsace two days later a French army
under Marshal MacMahon is defeated at Worth.
6th August 1870: The main French army under Marshal Bazaine defeated at
Spicheren and eventually retreats to Metz, where it is completely surrounded
by a large Prussian army.
o MacMahons forces, although defeated, marched to Metz to relieve
Marshal Bazaines army, but were surrounded by the enemy at Sedan.
o The French were decisively defeated at Sedan where Napoleon III
surrendered and was taken prisoner on 3rd September 1870.
News of the defeat at Sedan reaches Paris Napoleon III deposed; Empress
Eugenie and her son flee to England, where they are eventually joined by
Napoleon III himself.
France declared a republic third time in history with the Republican leader
Leon Gambetta proclaimed Minister of the Interior while Liberal politician

Louis Adolphe Theirs seeks to persuade other European powers to help

France.
October 1870: The fall of Metz huge Prussian forces turn on Paris for a final
assaul.
7th Ocobter 1870: Leon Gambetta escapes from a besieged Paris in a balloon to
try to organize resistance from the provinces.
28th January 1871: Paris starving; capitulates after every item of food cats,
rats included was eaten.
May 1871: Treaty of Frankfort France handed over Alsace and Lorraine to
Germany, pay an enormous sum of two million pounds as war indemnity and
bear a German army of occupation in Paris until full reparations had been
paid.
Ten days before the fall of Paris in January 1871, William I of Prussia is proclaimed
Kaiser/Emperor of newly established German Empire.

BISMARCKS KULTURKAMPF : ANTI -CATHOLIC PROGRAMME

Tried to diminish the Catholic Churchs culture in Germany and integrate

atheism.
Took education/marriage out of the hands of the clergy civil marriages only
recognized.
Aiming towards establishing a state based on materials instead of religion
secular state.
Jesuits expelled from Germany.
Education of German priests would be under supervision of the government.
Never really carried out as a law.

KAISER WILHELM II (1888-1918)

Just 29 when he came to the throne.

Young, ambitious, full of himself.
Did not get on with Bismarck Bismarck resigns in 1890.
Wants to colonize, but Bismarck tells him to stop Bismarck feels that this
would lead to war.
One of the main causes of World War I.
Queen Victoria was his grandmother.

DROPPING

THE PILOT

(1890)

Bismarcks resignation.
Cartoon in Punch magazine.
Other ministers following Kaiser Wilhelm were puppets in his hands.
In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm I died and was succeeded by his son, Frederick III
who died after being emperor for three months. He was succeeded by his son,
William II, an ambitious young man of 29. Strong differences of opinion
developed between the new, young Emperor and the old Chancellor during the
next two years.
Bismarcks power nearly at an end.

1890: A strike by the workers of the Ruhr coalfields. Bismarck wants to adopt
his usual policy of repression to crush these strikes. William II disagrees both on
this issue and on various other matters of home & foreign policy.
When Bismarck handed in his resignation from Chancellor, Kaiser Wilhelm II
immediately accepted it. During his reign, William II was to adopt a completely
different kind of policy from Bismarcks policy of checks and balances.
The resignation of the Iron Chancellor is epitomized best in Punchs most famous
political cartoon Dropping the Pilot.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, 1905-1917

March 1917: The people of Petrograd riot for food. Soldiers join in it
becomes a revolution.
Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and a socialist government led by Alexander
Kerensky tries to introduce democratic reforms whilst keeping the war going.
Vladimir Lenin, leader of the extremist Bolshevik party, returns from exile to
organize workers soviets (council) and to advocate peace with Germany
however, he is forced to flee to Finland.
He overthrows the government with the help of Leon Trotsky and accepts
Germanys harsh peace terms.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia gave up huge expanses of her land, but
Lenin was prepared to do so to get complete power.

THE STRUCTURE OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Royal family and nobility.

Church and clergy.
Army.
Middle classes.
Peasants.

RUSSIA

IN

1855-1908

TSAR NICHOLAS 1 (1825-1855)

TSAR

Autocracy led in a despotic/dictatorial manner.

Orthodoxy highly-conservative person, doesnt want change.
Nationalism.
ALEXANDER II (R. 1855-1881)
tsar liberator tsar who tried to pass liberties to alleviate the serfs.
Pulled Russia out of the Crimean War Russia comes out as a loser.
Emancipation of the Russian serfs (1861-1863).
He was assassinated bombs were thrown at his carriage as he travelled to St.
Petersburg.
Several secret anarchist societies prevailed in his time Nihilists was one of
them. Nihilists, latin for nothing. Assassinated by them.
TSAR ALEXANDER III (R. 1881-1894)

Oppressive measures.
Reactionary/highly conservative.
Slavophile in favour of the slav races.

Russification programme tried to convey exporting Russian culture/religion

etc to influence foreigners.
Anti-Semitic Jews forced to migrate to the excluded part of Russian territory.

CRIMEAN WAR

(1854-1856)

Russia claimed protectorship over the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman

Empire.
Russia vs Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, Piedmont-Sardinia.
Charge of the Light Brigade.
Florence Nightingale;
o Lady with the Lamp.
o Stopped in Malta and recruited nurses with her.
o Tended to the wounded and transformed nursing.
o Built a hospital at Scutari.
o Decorated by Queen Victoria.
Treaty of Paris 1856:
o Ended the Crimean war.
o The Black Sea is a neutral sea no naval forces to be kept there.
o All major powers agreed to respect the political integrity of the
Ottoman Empire.
o Russia lost; France & England benefitted.
The industrial revolution meant the influx of large amounts of workers into
towns from the countryside proletariat class.
The Socialists had started gaining a lot of support in Russia.
o One of its aims was the overthrow of the corrupt Tsarist regime.
Nicholas II was more preoccupied in continuing to uphold Russian prestige
through militarism.
1858: Gained the Far Eastern Amur province.
1860: Takeover of Maritime province; building of Vladivostok.
1898: Russians occupy Port Arthur & Manchuria (1900), come into conflict with
the Imperialist ambitions of Japan.
1904: Japan demands withdrawal of Russian forces from Manchuria. War is
declared February 1904.

RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR (1904-1905)

Japanese forces were far superior to the Russian troops.

8 February 1904: Japanese succeed in capturing Port Arthur and destroying
the Russian fleet there.
January 1905: Japanese troops invaded the Korean peninsula and advanced to
Mukden in Manchuria were they inflicted huge losses on the Russians.
o The Russian Far Eastern Fleet shattered by Admiral Togo.
May 1905: Russian Baltic Fleet destroyed at the battle of Tsushima.
After this, the Russian position was hopeless and the Tsar accepted an offer by
Theodore Roosevelt to mediate.
The Russo-Japanese War had been one long disaster for the Russians.
Russia and Japan conclude peace terms by the Treaty of Portsmouth (New
Hampshire, USA).
TREATY OF PORTSMOUTH
1. Russia had to give up Port Arthur in favour to Japan.

2. Japan gained the southern half of Sakhalin Island.

3. Russia had to recognize Japanese influence in Korea.
4. Both powers agreed to withdraw from Manchuria, but Russia was allowed to
retain Northern Manchuria.
News of humiliating defeat Russia suffered encouraged revolutionary
movements.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1905

CAUSES
1. The Russians humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese war.
2. Early 20th century Russian Social Hierarchy: we work for them while they shoot
at us (army), eat on our behalf (middle class), pray on our behalf (Russian Orthodox
Church) and dispose of our money (Tsar/nobility.
3. First stages of industrialization huge shift from rural-urban areas.
4. Weak economy failure of Russian rubles.
5. Extensive foreign investments & influence- building the Trans-Siberian
railroad economic benefits only in a few regions.
6. The Battleship Potemkin Mutiny June 1905.
7. Rapid growth of unhappy working class.
8. Repression.
9. Majority of workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
10. Minister of Interior assassination.
BLOODY SUNDAY

Loss of Port Arthur to the Japanese and the rising cost of living proved to be a
breaking point for the discontented working class.
January 22, 1905: Father Gapon leads 150,000 people to the Winter Palace to
present a peaceful petition.
o Petition asked for basic human rights.
o They carried pictures of saints.
o Peaceful protest.
The guards fired on the crowd more than one hundred killed, many wounded.
The faith in the people in the Tsar was lost; up till now, they had seen
themselves as children of the Tsar, but after Bloody Sunday, they turned
against him.
JANUARY -AUGUST 1905

Three million workers on strike.

Revolts sprang up all over Russia.
Liberals clamoured for a constituent assembly.
All-Russian Peasants Union.
A Duma (representative assembly) with advisory power elected only
peasants/rich people could vote.
Violent peasant revolts land taken from landowners.
Workers unhappy at lack of vote in the Duma.
SEPTEMBER -OCTOBER 1905

Strike from September 20 October 30.

Soviets set up to direct strikes.
Whole country paralysed.
October Manifesto promised: freedom of speech/assembly/press/worship;
freedom from arrest; legislative power to the duma; universal suffrage.
Russia becomes a constitutional monarchy.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1905
Bureau of Peasants Union disbands.
Most people happy with the October Manifesto.
Leon Trotsky, Chairman of St. Petersburg soviet, arrested.
RESULTS

WHY

Tsars October Manifesto suggesting reforms.

The opening of the Duma.
The Russian Constitution of 1906:
o Known as the Fundamental Laws.
o April 23 1906.
o The autocracy of the Tsar was declared.
o The Tsar was supreme over the law, church and Duma.
o Confirmed the basic human rights granted by the October Manifesto but
made them subordinate to the supremacy of the law.
o The condition of the people remained mostly unchanged.
Jewish refugees come to America in 1906; they were used as scapegoats for
troubles caused around them; they were viewed as strangers.
The path to the October Revolution of 1917 was opened.
DID THE 1905 REVOLUTION FAIL TO OVERTHROW TSARDOM?
Political parties were divided and all against one another.
Masses not properly led by political powers.
Political powers did not secure wholehearted support from the masses
because they did not reflect the wishes of the masses.
Revolts too localized.
The Tsar retained support of the bureaucracy, the nobility, the army, thus he
was able to suppress the strikes.
The October Manifesto melted away opposition to the government.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917

After 1917, Russia becomes the USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1989, it becomes Russia again.
The white/blue/red of the Romanovs are used today.
Red of the communist flag radicalism, extremeism.
Sickle/hammer; sickle farmers/rural workers; hammer industrial/urban
workers.
Star Mother Russia.

PRE REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA

Only true autocracy/absolute monarchy left in Europe.

No type of representative political institution.
Nicholas II becomes Tsar in 1894.
o Believed he was the absolute ruler anointed by God (outdated idea).
Russo-Japanese war defeat led to political instability.
Conditions deteriorated; revolutions became possible esp. with Lenins
involvement.
Russian revolution of 1905:
o Rapid growth of discontented working class.
o Vast majority of workers in St. Petersburg & Moscow.

Little help from the countryside; impoverished peasants populist

movement of the 1870s and later had done little to improve their lot:
No individual land ownership.
Rural famine.
Conservative Continues 1905-1917:
o Tsar paid no attention to the dum,a; it was harassed & pol. Parties were
suppressed. Only token land reforms passed.
o Nicholas II was a weak man; he became increasingly remote as a ruler.
o Numerous soviets (councils of workers + soldiers) thus began to appear.
Alexandra Feddorovna was the power behind the throne:
o More blankly committed to autocracy than her husband.
o Under the influence of Rasputin.
o Origins of Rasputins power.
o Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to discredit the monarchy.
Two revolutions in 1917: the March Revolution (March 8) and the November
Revolution (November 7).
o

CAUSES FOR THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917

The great losses Russia suffered during World War 1.

The great poverty, hunger and adverse social conditions throughout Russian society.
Rasputin was all but leading the country when Nicholas II was at the front during the
First World War.
News of great losses and disappointing results from the front led to a further
alienation between the Tar and People.
Shortage of ammunition and other supplies.
Infrequent transportation, high land losses, desertions and casualty rates.
The war was paid by borrowing money and printing money, instead of taxes, and led
to the inflation of the Russian rubles.
The loss of Ukraine main wheat-growing industry in the war.
Awful transportation was unable to deliver food to all the starving Russians.
The Tsarinas German ancestary.
Horrible living conditions.
The Structure of Russian Society.
The constant repression.
The despotic rule of the Romanovs.
Constant wars with various powers and expansion in Asia.
The Great War soldiers were ineffective, trained badly, leadership was corrupt,
inability of the Tsar revealed.
Prices rose to astronomical heights during the Great War.
Shortage of food, transportation, labourers as many had been transferred to the
army.
The remaining workers had lots of strikes.

THE MARCH REVOLUTION

Origins: food riots/strikes.

Duma declared itself a provisional government (March 12).
Tsar ordered soldiers to intervene but they joined the rebellion.
Tsar abdicated March 17 1917.

Menshevik leader Alexander Kerensky headed the provisional government with Prince
Lvov.
o Popular revolution.
o Kerensky fvoured gradual social reform/saw the war effort as #1 priority.
o Keeping Russia in WW1 was his undoing.
Kornilov Affair:
o Attempted to overthrow the Provisional Government w/ military takeover.
o To prevent the takeover, Kerensky freed many Bolshevik leaders from prison
and supplied arms to many revolutionaries.
The Petrograd Soviet:
o Leftists in St. Petersburg formed the Petrograd Soviet , which they claimed
was the legit. Government.
o Germany was aware of the Russ. Situation and began to concentrate on the
Western front.
o Germany even played a role in returning Lenin to Russia so he could start a
revolution.
Having been granted safe passage, Lenin returned in April 1917.
Creating chaos/trouble in Russia would be beneficial for the Germans,
which was why they returned Lenin.
Soviet political ideology:
o More radical and revolutionary nature than provisional govt.
o Influenced most by Marxists/Communist ideals/socialism.
o Emulated western socialism.
o Two factions: Mensheviks moderate Karensky. Bolsheviks radical Lenin.
Founder of Bolshevism (Russian Communism) Vladimir Lenin:
o Early Years
Anti-Tsarist.
Involved in several anarchist terrorist organizations.
Wanted person.
Exiled to Siberia in 1897.
o Commited to class struggle and revolution.
o Moved to London in 1902 & befriended Leon Trotsky.
Vanguard (soldiers marching in front at war) required to lead the rev. Thus rev from
above. This splits the Social Democrats Workers Party into Mensh. & Bolsh.
o Lenin had in mind middle-class intelligentsia for the vanguard (elite/chosen
ones)
Amnesty granted to all political prisoners in March 1917.
Lenin arrives in Petrograd:
o Tremendously charismatic personality.
o Good at oratory.
o Peace, land bread.
o All power to the Soviets.
o Preached that the war was a capitalist/imperialist war that offered no rewards
for the peasants/worker; he also felt that the war was over with the Tsars
abdication.
o Bolshevik party membership exploded; their power was consolidated.
o Lenin formed the military-revolutionary council in May 1917; he urged the
Petrograd Sov. Ti oass Army Order #1:
Gave control of the army to common soldiers; discipline thus collapsed
and Kerensky was undermined.
Soldiers revolt against their superiors.

THE NOVEMBER REVOLUTION

Nov 6, 1917.
Ideological aspect of rev. w/ coup itself planed by Trotsky who had gained confidence
of the army Red Miracle.
Lenin consolidated his power in Jan 1918 when he disbanded the Constituent
Assembly (replacement of Provisional Govt.)
Bolsheviks had not gained majority in elections Russ. Democracy terminated.
Council of Peoples Commissions (Representatives) was created.

All private property abolished and divided amongst peasants.

Largest industrial enterprises nationalized.
Political police organized CHEKA (a spy organization to spy on individuals).
Revolutionary army created with Trotsky in charge Red Army.
Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party in March 1918.
Lenins 1st task was to get Russia out of the war so he could concentrate on internal
reform.
The treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated with the Germans giving them much Russian
territory/population/resources.
Civil War followed: 1917-1922.
o Reds vs Whites.
Complete breakdown of Russian economy & society.
INTERPRETING THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Official Marxist interpretation:
o Class struggle between workers vs employers.
o Importance of a permanent international revolution (starts at one place and it
spreads).
Function of Russian history and culture rev. happens because of previous
history/culture of oppression by tsars.
Imposed rev. on an unwilling victim.
A social revolution.

THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR

Lenins most pressing problem after the November Revolution was to deal with his
opponents, who had mounted a full-scale civil war.
These opponents were called the Whites while Lenins forces were called the
Reds.
Lenins army was able to win this war by 1920-21.

REASONS FOR THE BOLSHEVIK /RED VICTORY

The Reds occupied the strategic centres of the nation; the Whites were on the
fringes.
The White opposition was ideologically fragmented, including Mensheviks, Tsarists,
Reformists the war time coalition proved to be incompatible.
Trotsky had increased the efficiency of the Red Army, introducing strict military
discipline (deserters, ex, were shot) and making use of Tsarist officers and their
military experience.
Lenin made use of the Revolutionary Terror CHEKA to keep the citizens in line.
o They were responsible for killing the Tsar and his family, including the
youngest daughter Anastasia, in 1918.

Overall there was a period of strict governmental/economic control known as war

communism (when widescale contribution to the war effort was made by all people).
Foreign intervention (eight nations France esp aided the Whites) promoted a
sense of nationalism that aided the Reds. Lenin used this as a propaganda device
the intervention of the wester nations was based on ideological grounds (a fear of
communism by the Catholic Church. Karl Marx, Religion is the opium of the people.)
and practical ones (Lenins refusal to pay the tsars debts). This period is often
identified as the beginning of the Cold War.
By 1921, the Civil War was over, but the Soviet land and economy were devastated,
leading Lenin into a program of economic reform (New Economic Policy) NEP.
He also renamed his nation USSR.

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY/NATIONAL ECONOMIC PROGRAM

The USSR faced serious economical issues w/ the conclusion of the wars.
Western nations refused to help/trade with them and Lenin was at 1 st determined to
apple his Marxist principles, which failed.
Lenin relented in Mar. 1921 and introduced NEP:
o
An attempted to rebuild agriculture and industry through a free market
system it was a pragmatic measure. Lenin could not take on the peasants. It
did cause a rift within the Communist Party, but many dissidents (people who
disagreed) were shipped off to Siberia.
o This NEP did work; Lenin was presumably ready to return to his Marxist
principles.
o However, his health deteriorated following a 1922 strike and Lenin died in
1924.
o This created a power vacuum and a struggle between Trotsky and Stalin.

LEON TROTSKY

Intellectual; head of the Red Army.

Favoured the doctrine of World Revolution:
o Felt that the USSR could not survive as the sole Communist state.
o The USSR must therefore seek to export revolution.
o As a doctrine comm. he opposed the NEP.
Killed by Stalin.

JOSEF STALIN

Favoured Socialism in One Country.

o The USSR should strengthen itself and lead the comm. world by example.
As a pragmatist, he supported the NEP.
Experienced as a bureaucrat; he became the Partys General Secretary in 1922. Here,
he appointed many apparatchiks (people who are loyal to you because you gave
them their job; form of nepotism; close acquaintances having key roles in the party).
The allies were crucial to Stalins rise.
Their struggle lasted until 1928 when Stalins complex systems of alliances and
ability with realpolitik allowed him to succeed.
Even Lenins doubts couldnt deter Stalin, and many involved in the party hierarchy
paid more attention to one another than to Stalin.
In the end prevailed over all of them and Trotsky was forced into exile and eventually
murdered in Mexico City in 1940.

Stalin went on to condemn all deviation from the party line & proclaimed himself
Vozhd (father[ly] leader).
o This rev. from above saw the emergence of totalitarianism in the USSR.
o His style of leadership was that of an office dictator; very different from
Mussolinis charismatic style Stalin relied on his apparatchiks.
o He also created the Cult of Lenin and worked to connect himself to the fallen
leader.
Stalin and the Five Year Plans.
o The Dec. 1927 Party Congress saw the end of the NEP.
o The 5 Yr Plans were Stalins own vision they were intended to reorganize
Soviet industry/agriculture and to overhaul the economy and catch up with
the West.
Unrealistic production quotas were set and tremendous sacrifices and
ruthless methods were used to reach them.
In agriculture, collectivization (a collection of farms belonging to the
state) was implemented with the state taking the proceeds from the
collective farms.
Peasant opposition was crushed/starved.
After some protest, the Kulaks (farmer communities) were
liquidated/starved in order to feed the urban workers (Famine
Terror).
By WW2 the peasants were largely regimented.
o Industrial/urban growth was also stunning, but to achieve it, significant
investment was needed with a decline in consumption:
As people sacrificed, the standard living conditions declined.
The plans did not emphasize consumer goods preference was given
to the mega projects.
Workers were praised as heroes of Soviet labour dealing with long
hours and horrid conditions.
Living conditions also deteriorated; overcrowding, food and housing
shortages.
Women who had gained status following the revolution again lost their
freedom the Zhenotdel (system that gave certain
benefits/opportunities to females) was abolished.
Stalin was able to do this, unlike Lenin, because the govt was firmly in place; all
threats had been eliminated/reduced through state terror/propaganda.
o Stalin combined communism and dictatorship in this time, setting the tone for
future communist leaders.
o By 1941, the USSR was among the 3 economic powers.
Stalins paranoia still wouldnt rest - the Great Purges:
o They started in 1934 when Stalins deputy Sergei Kirov was murdered by
Stalin.
o Stalin ordered the NKVD (secret police) to crack down on potential opposition
this soon penetrated all levels of Sov. society.
o Anyone perceived as a thread was forced to confess in public trials then
executed/shipped to a gulag.
o Millions disappeared during this time the party leadership/army official corps
were especially affected.

THE COLD WAR ERA, 1945 1991

INTRODUCTION

No actual fighting took place.

The battle was waged with propaganda and espionage.
The world ended up split into two big blocs the Eastern Bloc and the Western
Bloc.
o Whatever the Blocs did was viewed as negative and aggressive in
reference to the other bloc.
The death of Stalin in 1953 had icy relations between the East and the West
thawing.
The goals of the Blocs were very simple.
o Eastern bloc and the Soviets: to spread communism.
o Western bloc: to contain communism, and eventually defeat it.
A lot of proxy wars test wars were fought.
The East and West both tried to win the hearts and minds of the people of the
Third World.

CAUSES

Communist versus Capitalist difference in principle contributed a lot to

bringing about the Cold War.
Stalins foreign policies:
o Stalins aim: to take advantage of the situation to strengthen Russian
influence in Europe.
This involved acquiring as much territory as he could Germany,
Finland, Poland, and Romania.
o He was very successful, which alarmed the West; they viewed it as
aggression.
o His motives remain unclear:
Theory 1: Stalin was continuing the expansion policies of the Tsar.
Theory 2: Stalin was trying to spread communism over as much of
the world as possible now that socialism in one country had been
successful.
Theory 3: Stalin created a wide buffer to protect Russia from further
invasions from the capitalist West.
He was suspicious that Britain and the USA were still keen to
destroy communism.
Stalin had not been informed of the atomic bomb until it had
been used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The British had taken a while to open up the second front
against Germany in France, which seemed to be deliberate
to tire the Russians out.
The West had the atomic bomb; Stalin did not.
American and British politicians were hostile to the soviet government:
o Had been so since 1917.
o Harry S. Truman did not get along with Stalin Roosevelt had trusted
him, Truman did not.
o Churchill wanted to take Berlin before the Russians did.
Iron Curtain speech shows Churchills views towards Russia: it
is not to be trusted, it is not an ally.

Some considered his criticism and suspicions a tad too

much.
Very difficult to arraign blame on one side or the other as the war can be
interpreted both with the views of the West and the views of the East.

YALTA, FEBRUARY 1945

First conference on how to fight against Nazi Germany.

Held in the Crimea.
The war was not yet over fighting was still going on.
The Big Three Churchill, Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt met at Yalta.
o Stalin and Roosevelt got along very well, establishing a rapport between
the USSR and the US.
Eventually, it was decided that:
o Germany would be split up into four big sectors among the winners
of World War II US, Britain, France and USSR.
Berlin would be split up in the same way, despite being in
strictly Russian territory.
o Nazi war-criminals would be brought to trial.
o A Polish Provisional Government of National Unity pledged to the holding
of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible.
Stalin also demanded that Poland, which had a USSR-controlled
communist government, be given all territory in Germany east
of the Rivers Oder and Neisse.
Churchill and Roosevelt refused, however, allowing Russia to
keep the stretch of Eastern Poland that it had already occupied.
Non-communist politicians from London were also allowed to join
the communist government in Poland.
o Free elections were opened up to the Eastern world, and the West
was going to help them by helping the countries maintain the law, hold
elections, carry out emergency relief measures The Declaration of
Liberated Europe.
o A committee was set up to look into reparations to be paid, by
Germany, to those countries that had been damaged during the war.
o The United Nations Organization was set up.
o The USSR would join the fight in the Pacific against the Japanese in
order for Sakahalin Island and some territory in Manchuria.
o The USSR was also invited to join the United Nations.
This was primarily because Roosevelt needed help in the
Pacific against the Japanese and all but gave in to Stalins
demands so that the USSR would help the US in battle.
Although it appeared successful, there were tensions arising due to the
situation of Poland and the issue of reparations.
Roosevelt and Churchill were criticized for giving away too much to Stalin.

POTSDAM, JULY 1945

Cooling off in relations between the USA, the USSR and Great Britain.

Roosevelt had died before the Potsdam Conference, to be replaced by

Harry S. Truman, his vice president.
Truman was inaugurated as president in the plane that Roosevelt
had died on, and had no clue of what had gone on at Yalta.
o Churchill had lost the elections and his title as Prime Minister, replaced by
Clement Atlee though he was at the conference.
o Only Stalin remained the same, but in March, 1945, he had arrested some
non-communist Polish leaders, which annoyed the West.
It annoyed them so much that the British Joint Planning Party had
started planning Operation Unthinkable which would have led the
West into a war against the Soviet Union.
The war had ended.
o No agreement had been reached about what should happen to Germany
other than what had been decided at Yalta.
Truman and Churchill were annoyed because Germany east of the OderNeisse line had been occupied by Russian troops.
o Run by a Polish pro-communist government.
o 5 million Germans had been expelled from their homes.
o Had not been agreed to at Yalta.
Truman neglected to inform Stalin of the Atomic Bomb.
o The Atomic Bomb gave the USA the military might that they had been
lacking before.
o Thus, Truman no longer needed Stalins help his goal at Potsdam
was to find out at what point Stalin chose to enter the war in the Pacific.
He did not want Stalin to help in the war in the Pacific.
Germany was divided as had been agreed in the Yalta conference.
o It was also reduced in size by 25% as the German border was pushed back
to the Oder-Neisse line.
o All its shipyards and air factories were to be destroyed to lower the warpotential of Germany.
o

CHURCHILLS IRON CURTAIN SPEECH AND THE AFTERMATH

March 1946.
Held at Fulton University, Missouri.
Was a response to the spread of communism in the East.
o By this time, pro-communist governments had been established
over much of the East, including Romania and Hungary.
o The Russians were fixing the elections; although they allowed free
elections, when the communists got less than twenty percent of the vote,
they saw that the majority of the cabinet was communist.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended
across the continent. Behind that line lay the ancient capitals of central and
eastern Europe. Sir Winston Churchill.
o This clearly described the current situation they were facing.
Most of the Western world still regarded Russia as an ally and Churchill was
criticized for being too hard on them.
Churchill urged the Western world not to trust the Soviets, as he did, because he
feared that they would turn on them he called for a western alliance
which would challenge the communist world.

He believed that the Russians wanted to expand their territory and to

export communism to the West.
Stalin used this speech as an excuse to denounce Churchill as wanting to start
up a war as a warmonger.
Despite the Fulton speech, Russia continued to dominate Eastern Europe.
o Although elections were held, they were rigged to allow only
communist governments; non-communist members were expelled from
the party, to be eventually arrested or executed.
This led to the dissolving of all other political parties.
o By the end of 1947, every state under Russian control (except
Czechoslovakia) had a communist government.
o People could not rebel out of fear of the secret police and Russian troops.
Germany was treated as a belonging of the Russians, not as a Russian zone
they allowed only the communist party and drained it of vital resources.
Churchill had agreed with Stalin that Eastern Europe should be a Russian sphere
of influence in 1944 because:
o Communism could bring progress to countries whose economies were not
strong enough.
o The states in that part of the world had never really had capitalist
governments anyway.
o To Russia, friendly governments were essential in the neighbouring states
for self-defence.
o

THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Closely associated with the Marshall Plan.

Born from events in Greece:
o
Civil war communists trying to overthrow the monarchy in Greece.
o Britain restores the monarchy, but cannot hold the front against the
communists, who are receiving help from the Eastern bloc; they appeal to
the USA and Truman.
o The US should support free peoples throughout the world who
were resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside
pressures. We must assist free peoples to work out their own
destinies in their own way. Truman.
Greece received arms and other supplies communists defeated by 1949.
Turkey also received help when it appeared under threat.
This doctrine showed that the US was committed to containing the
spread of communism.

THE MARSHALL PLAN

Extension of the Truman Doctrine.

European Recovery Program offered financial and economic help
wherever it was needed.
Aim: to promote the recovery of Europe.
Idea of ex-general Secretary of State George Marshall.
The US should provide aid to all European nations that need it.

Our policy is not directed against any country or doctrine, but against hunger,
poverty, desperation and chaos. George Marshall.
With the Marshall Plan, communism was less likely to succeed in the West
by helping Europe, American exports were guaranteed to be called upon.
By September, 16 nations had a plan for using American aid.
130,000 million dollars of Marshal Aid given to Western Europe over the
course of four years.
It was offered to the Russians and to Eastern Europe as well, but they were
rejected.
o The Russians knew that there was more to the Marshall Plan than met the
eye.
o The Russian Foreign Minister called it Dollar Imperialism an
American device for gaining control of Europe.

THE COMINFORM

Communist Information Bureau.

Set up by Stalin.
Created to tighten Stalins control on the satellite states around Russia.
o Communism was required to be Russian-style communism.
o Eastern Europe was supposed to be industrialized, collectivised,
centralised.
o States expected to trade with members of Cominform and nobody
else.
Molotov Plan the Soviet Marshall Aid, offering Russian help to states.
Comecon Council of Mutual Economic Assistance set up to co-ordinate
economic policies.

COMMUNIST TAKEOVER IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Great blow to the Western bloc as Czechoslovakia was the only remaining
democratic state in Eastern Europe.
o A coalition government freely elected in 1946.
38% communist vote; third of cabinet belonged to them.
o They hoped that Czechoslovakia would be the bridge between east
and west.
Elections were to be held in May 1948 crises;
o Communists feared they would lose the vote as they had been
blamed for Czech refusal of Marshall Aid, which would have helped it
through the food shortages.
They were in control of the unions and police and used them in an armed
coup to take over.
All non-communist ministers resign.
Elections were still held, but the list of candidates only had communists on
it.
The UN and Western Bloc protested, but there was nothing to prove
Russian involvement.
Iron curtain is complete.

THE BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT

Arose due to disagreements of treatment of Germany.

o At Yalta, it had been decided to split Germany and Berlin up into four
sections.
o The Western powers set about to helping Germany through economic
and political recovery; Stalin treated the Russian zone as a satellite
and drained away its resources to give to Russia.
o The three Western zones were merged together to form one big zone
it was markedly more advanced economically than the povertystricken Russian zone.
o A constitution for self-government in West Germany was drawn up as
the Russians had no wish towards the re-unification of Germany.
The prospect of a strong independent West Germany alarmed
the Russians.
o June 1948, the west introduces a new currency and end price control
and rationing.
The Russians were already irritated that there was a capitalist
centre in Russian territory.
Embarrassed at the prosperity of West Berlin in contrast to the
Russian zone.
Found the idea of two different currencies hard to swallow.
All road, rail and canal links between West Berlin and West Germany
closed.
The aim of the Eastern bloc was to make the west withdraw from West
Berlin by reducing it to starvation point.
However, the West thought that it would only lead to an attack by the
Russians on West Germany.
Operation Vittles was launched.
o The west flew supplies into West Berlin, assuming that the Russians
would not shoot down the transport planes.
o 2 million tons of supplies were airlifted to the city.
o 200,000 flights performed before the Soviet Union lifts the blockage.
o Easter Parade of April 11, 1948 1,389 flights sent into Berlin.
o The United States, Great Britain and France become Germanys
protectors.
Result was a win for the west provided great psychological boost.
Relationships with Russia worsened.
The birth of the NATO as the west tried to co-ordinate its defences against
Russia.

FORMATION OF NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Berlin Blockade showed the Wests military shortfalls and frightened them
into uniting together against Russian forces.
Military collaboration if one country in the NATO is attacked, the rest
are drawn into a war against its attackers on the countrys behalf.
Defence forces of the west were placed under a joint NATO Command
Organization which would co-ordinate the defences.

Sixteen countries United States, Canada, Belgium, Britain, Denmark,

France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Greece,
Turkey, West Germany, Spain.

ARMS RACE

1949: the Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb.

Now there were two superpowers with nuclear abilities US and USSR.
o ICBM inter-continental ballistic missile travels between continents
without stopping.
Fired from top secret silos.
o SLBM submarine launched ballistic missile.
Also dropped from planes.
Superpower: country with nuclear capabilities.

GERMANY DIVIDED

No hope of a reunited Germany.

The west set up the German Federal Republic.
o Elections were held; Konrad Adenauer is first Federal Chancellor.
The Russians call their zone German Democratic Republic.
Germany remains divided up until 1980s; hope for united Germany is lost.

FALL OF CHINA

In June, Chiang Kai-Shek, Chinas leader, defeated by Mao Tsetung.

o Flees to Taiwan.
October 1 Mao proclaims the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).
Two months later, he travels to Moscow.
o Negotiates the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual
Assistance.

KOREA BEFORE THE WAR

Divided into two at the 38th parallel by agreement between the USA and the
USSR.
o Military reasons they wanted to organize the surrender of Japanese
troops occupying the island.
o Not intended to be permanent political division.
o The United Nations wanted free elections since the Americancontrolled south had two-thirds of the population, they believed the
communist north would be outvoted.
o Became part of the Cold War rivalry.
South: elections held, supervised by the UN.
o Syngman Rhee is president.
o Seoul is the capital.
o Republic of Korea.
North: communist.
o The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
o Kim Il-Sung as leader.

o Pyongyang is the Capital.

Troops withdraw in 1949.
The Koreans were bitter at the division between north and south however, both
leaders claimed to be the true ruler of Korea.
North invades South without warning in June 1950.

THE START

North Korea invades South Korea without warning on June 25, 1950.
Most leaders in the US were surprised by the attack.
o American troops stationed in South Korea since World War II had just
recently completed their withdrawal.
o The US was, thus, not prepared to fight however, the decision to
fight was quickly made.
Truman decided that the US would take a stand against communist
aggression in Korea.
The United Nations Security Council was in favour of using force in Korea.

ROLE OF THE US

President Truman was convinced that the attack on South Korea was a
Russian plan to advance communism.
o Believed it was essential for the West to take a stand.
o American troops in Japan ordered to South Korea before the UN had
decided what to do.
o Asked the UN to approve the use of force to stop the North Korean.
o Ordered American naval/air forces to support Korean ground troops.

ROLE OF THE UN

War sanctioned by the United Nations.

Supported use of force in Korea.
Troops sent to Korea where to be a United Nations force.
The war was referred to as a UN police action.
The UN Security Council called on North Korea to remove her troops
when this was ignored, asked its members to send troops to South Korea.
Decision made in the absence of the Russian delegation they were
boycotting meetings in protests against the UN refusal to allow Maos
new Chinese regime to be represented.
o Otherwise, they could have vetoed the decision.
o All troops under MacArthurs command.

COMBAT

By September, communist troops had overrun the whole of South Korea

except the port of Pusan.
UN enforcements poured into Pusan.
15 September: American marines land at Inchon, near Seoul.
o Two hundred miles behind enemy lines.

Amphibious landing.
MacArthurs sneaky attack worked beautifully.
The September 1950 invasion was a key victory for UN troops.
Other generals had wanted to go a quieter route, but MacArthur
overruled them.
Offensives from Inchon and Pusan resulted in destruction/surrender of
huge numbers of North Korean troops.
By October 1950, South Korea is back in UN hands.
The original UN objective had been completed but instead of calling for a
ceasefire, Truman ordered an invasion of North Korea to try and eliminate
communism.
By the end of October, Pyongyang and two thirds of North Korea were
theirs; they had also reached the Yalu River, the border between China and
North Korea.
o The Chinese feared an invasion of Manchuria.
o The Americans had also placed a fleet between Taiwan and the mainland
to protect Chiang.
In November, 300, 000 Chinese troops calling themselves volunteers
launched a massive counter-attack.
By mid-January 1951, they had recaptured North Korea and crossed the
38th parallel to capture Seoul.
o The UN forces retreated to Seoul the longest fallback in US military
history.
o
o
o
o

GENERAL MACARTHUR FIRED!

General MacArthur was shocked at the strength of the Chinese troops; he

felt that they should attack Manchuria with atomic bombs.
Truman felt this would cause a large-scale war which the US was trying to
avoid thus, he disagreed.
MacArthur challenged his authority and was fired.
Many Americans were outraged at the firing of MacArthur.
He was replaced by Omar Bradley, a World War II veteran.
Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway stopped the Chinese onslaught and pushed
them back to the 38th parallel without using atomic weapons.

WAR ENDS IN KOREA

June: the UN clears the North Korean troops out of Seoul and fortify the
frontier.
July: peace talks begin.
One major obstacle was the location of the boundary between South and
North Korea.
Battles such as Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge continued, inflicting
heavy casualties on both.
October: peace talks stall over prisoners of war.
Negotiators in Panmunjom continue to argue over the details of a peace
treaty throughout 1952.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who promised to end the war, is elected in 1952.

Fighting remained deadly throughout the peace talks.

o UN forces lost 57,000 men.
o Communists lost 100,000 men.
o This was just during the last two months of the war.
An armistice agreement was finally reached on July 27, 1953.
o The frontier between the Koreas should be roughly along the 38th
parallel.
o The Korean War left the map of Korea looking as it had in the 1950s.

RESULTS

For Korea:
o The country was devastated.
o Four million Korean civilians and soldiers had been killed.
o Five million were homeless.
o The division seemed permanent both sides were suspicious of the
other.
Constant ceasefire violations.
For the US:
o Could take satisfaction from having contained communism.
For the UN:
o Exerted its authority.
o Reversed an act of aggression something that the League of Nations
had never done.
For the Communist World:
o Denounced the UN as a capitalist tool.
o China was a world power.
o American relations with China, as well as Russia, were strained.
Both sides tried to build up alliances.
SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization) set up.
o Only three states joined Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines;
disappointment for America.
Too complicated to name a winner.
Lesson: if you go to war, go to win.

THE DEATH OF STALIN

March 1953.
Starting point of the thaw.
Malenkov, Bulganin and Khrushchev new leaders; wanted to improve relations
with USA.
o This was because both the US and Russia had developed the hydrogen
bomb, and were matched upon strength. International tensions had to
be released if they were to avoid a war.

MASSIVE RETALIATION

On January 12, 1955, US Secretary of State John Dulles announces the

doctrine of Massive Retaliation.

Threatens full scale nuclear attacks on the Soviet Union in response to

Communist attacks anywhere in the world.
Due to the Wests increasing fear of Soviet strength.

KHRUSHCHEVS SECRET SPEECH

February 14, 1956.

Khrushchev denounces the policies of Stalin.
Peaceful co-existence with the West was not only possible, but essential.
o ... there were only two ways either peaceful co-existence or the most
destructive war in history. There is no third way.
Khrushchev did not give up the idea of a communist-dominated world it
would just happen when the western powers appreciated the superiority of
the communist economic system.
Hoped to win neutral states over to communism by lavish economic aid.
Rejects the Leninist idea of the inevitability of war and calls for a doctrine of
peaceful coexistence between capitalist and communist systems.
Called the secret speech because it wasnt put out into the media for the time
being.

1958 SOVIET DEMANDS

The West should:

o Recognize German Democratic Republic.
o Withdraw troops from West Berlin.
o Hand their access routes over to the East German government.
Khrushchev promised that he would hand East Berlin over to the GDR East
Germany but the West refused and Khrushchev backed down.

THE KITCHEN DEBATE

1959.
Debate in a kitchen display at a tradefair.
Between Nixon and Khrushchev.
Both men agreed that the USA and the Soviet Union should be more open
with each other.
Arguments over countrys industrial accomplishments.
Khrushchev did not trust Nixon to translate his role in the debate in English
and broadcast it.
Three major television networks broadcast the debate in America on July
25.
o Soviets protest, as both debates were to be published
simultaneously.
o Threatened to hold back the tape.
o America argued that the news would lose its immediacy.
o Soviet broadcast on July 27.
Nixon gained popularity after this.

THE SPACE RACE

On October 4th, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made
satellite to orbit the Earth.
1958: The US creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA and thus begins the space race.
Both ideological and technological.

CASTRO TAKES POWER IN CUBA

January 1st 1959: leftist forces under Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgenio
Batista.
Castro nationalizes the sugar industry and signs trade agreements with
the Soviet Union.
He lets the Americans keep their naval base.
The next year, Castro seizes assets on the island.
Good relationship between Cuba and Russia when the Americans stopped
buying Cuban sugar, the Russians bought it instead, thus saving their
economy.

THE U-2 AFFAIR

May 1st 1960, an American high-altitude U-2 spy plane is shot down on a
mission over the Soviet Union.
o It was on a covert surveillance mission.
o Thinking that the pilot had died in the crash, the US says that it is a
weather-research plane.
The Soviets announce the capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the US
recants earlier assertions that the plane was on a weather research mission.
o The plane was largely intact; incriminating evidence in the form of
surveillance footage and photographs were found and presented.
Embarrassment Eisenhower forced to admit the truth about the mission
and the U-2 program, though he refused to apologize to Khrushchev.
o Marked deterioration in relations with Russia.
This caused the Paris summit to collapse when Khrushchev stormed out of
negotiations.
Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison, plus seven years of hard
labour following an infamous show trail.
o Served less than two years and was released in 1962 in exchange for
Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

BAY OF PIGS

1961.
US organized invasion force of 1,400 Cuban exiles is defeated by Castros
government forces on Cubas south coast at the Bay of Pigs.
The CIA was deeply involved.
The Cuban armed forces defeated the Cuban exiles in three days of
fighting.

The operation was badly planned and executed; loss for the US and
capitalism.
Launched from Guatemala in ships and planes provided by the invaders
surrender on April 20 after 3 days of fighting.
Kennedy takes full responsibility for the disaster.
Later, Castro announces that he is a Marxist and that Cuba is a socialist
country.

BERLIN WALL

What they wanted:

o West:
Prevent USSR from gaining control of West Germany.
See a united democratic Germany.
o East:
Maintain control over East Germany.
Make the West recognize it as an independent state.
Stop the flood of refugees especially the skilled and the
professional ones that were much needed in East Germany.
2.5 million East Germans fled to the West; their loss
threatened to destroy the economic viability of East
Germany.
1961.
June Vienna summit.
o Khrushchev pressured new American president John F Kennedy.
Demanded withdrawal of Western forces from West Berlin;
Kennedy refused.
July Western powers reject Khrushchevs Vienna demands.
July 23 flow of refugees from East to West reach 1000 a day.
July 25 Kennedy repeats support for West Berlin and announces increase
in arms spending.
Built to stop East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.
Walter Ulbricht: Nobody intends to build a wall.
o Walter Ulbricht East German leader who built the wall.
o Building project called Operation Rose and was entrusted to Erich
Honecker, who would succeed Ulbricht as head of state.
Officially referred to as the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall.
o This implied that West Germany had not been completely denazified.
o Wall of Shame West Berlin government because it constricted
the freedom of movement.
Symbolized the Iron Curtain.
5,000 people tried to escape; death toll between 100 and 200.
The idea of the wall came from Khrushchev.
Construction started at midnight the day before Saturday 12th August.
o 40,000 East German soldiers and police to seal off all but 13
crossing points to West Berlin with barbed wire.
o 33-22 August: barbed wire barrier stretches all around Berlin,
encircling all of West Berlin apart from access points.
Against the Four Power Agreement reached in Paris on 20
June, 1949.

Included 45,000 concrete blocks, 259 dog runs and 302 watch
towers.
o Death strip no mans land between the inner and outer segments
of the wall.
o Few bits of the wall left.
August 19, 1961: First life claimed as man falls to his death trying to climb
down from his top-floor apartment in East Berlin to the pavement below in
West Berlin.
August 24, 1961: First killing by border guards Guenter Litfin shot dead
as he swam across the River Spree.
August 17, 1962: 18-year-old Peter Fechter bleeds to death in no mans
land after being shot trying to escape.
o Western camera men record for nearly an hour before his body is
taken away.
June 26, 1963: US President John Kennedy visits West Berlin.
o Rides in an open top limousine through West Berlin.
o Delivers a speech at the Bradenburg Gate Ich bin ein Berliner
as a show of solidarity.
Results:
o Berlin divided free access ended between East and West.
o Families split, though many attempted to escape to the West.
o Kennedy accepted the Soviet action refused to use US troops to
pull down the wall to avoid war.
Looked weak, but the West turned it into propaganda if
Communism was so attractive, why was a wall needed?
o Khrushchev lost face by failing to remove the West from Berlin.
o

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Brought Cuba into the Cold War forefront; the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Russia supplied Cuba with arms during the summer and announced it
publically in May 1962.
o July 1962 Cuba had the best army in Latin America.
Kennedy warned the USSR that, while arms were tolerated, he would not allow
Cuba to be turned into an offensive military base by whatever means might be
necessary. The USSR announces that it has no intention to put military missiles
on Cuba.
On 22 October, Kennedy declared that U-2 spy planes had photographed
Russian missile bases being built in Cuba and announces the blockade.
o Some were nearly finished and would be ready to launch in seven days.
o He alerted American troops and blockaded Cuba to prevent her from
receiving arms from passing Russian ships.
o Demanded that Russia withdraw the missiles.
23 October: Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev, who does not admit
the presence of nuclear missiles on Cuba, saying that Soviet ships will not
observe the blockade.
24 October: Soviet ships approach the 500-mile blockade zone and turn
back at 10:23 a.m. However, intensive aerial photography reveals that work on
the missile bases in Cuba is still proceeding rapidly.

26 October: Khrushchev sends a letter to Kennedy explaining that the missiles

were purely defensive and admits the presence of the missiles. He says that he
will withdraw the missiles if America promises not to attack Cuba.
27 October: Khrushchev sends a second letter, and says that he will remove
the missiles from Cuba if the USA removes the missiles from Turkey.
Kennedy does not accept. An American U2 plane is also shot down over
Cuba, and the pilot is killed.
o Kennedy does not attack as his advisors tell him to.
o He accepts the terms suggested by Khrushchev on 26 October and says
that if the Soviet Union does not withdraw, an attack will follow.
28 October: Khrushchev agrees to remove the missiles. In return, Kennedy
agreed not to invade Cuba.
Results:
o Cuba remained communist and highly armed.
o Kennedy came out of the crisis with a greatly-improved reputation;
Khrushchev was successful in keeping Cuba as an ally in Uncle Sams
backyard.
o Had an effect on anti-Communism opinion; critics of containment saw
how weak their case for invading Cuba had been it would surely
culminate in nuclear war.
Other Latin-American states grew suspicious of Cuba and expelled her
from the Organisation of American States, making her more dependent on
Russia.
The Americans had fully expected confrontation from the Soviet Union.

GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

North Vietnamese patrol boats fire on the USS Mattox on the Gulf of
Tonkin on August 2, 1964.
o South Vietnam was seen as another Korea.
o Johnson thought it could be saved from communism.
August 7: the US Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution granting
president Johnson authority to send US troops to South Vietnam.
Gave Johnson permission to use force in Vietnam without it being a
declaration of war.

THE VIETNAM WAR

Pre-Second World War, Vietnam had been a French colony, and was
occupied by the Japanese during the war.
The Viet Minh were a strong Japanese resistance movement, led by
Communist Ho Chi Minh, who inspired the Vietnamese people to fight for an
independent Vietnam.
o By the time the Second World War was over, the Viet Minh were ready
to take over the whole country.
1945: The French return to Vietnam, wanting to rule it again.
1946: War breaks out between the French and the Viet Minh.

By keeping quiet about wanting a Communist Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh

garnered the sympathy of the US and the whole battle was seen as
a fight against the colonial French rule.
1949: The Communists win in China and provide help to Ho Chi Minh now
the Americans saw the Vietnamese as puppets of the Chinese
Communists, and feared a Communist plan to dominate all of south-east
Asia.
o They poured $500 million a year in the French war effort and helped
them set up a non-Communist government in South Vietnam.
1954: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu.
o Peace talks split the country in two Communist North and nonCommunist South.
Plan was to hold national elections in both North and South, though the
Americans prevented the elections from taking place because they
feared the Communists would win.
o Anti-Communist government in South Vietnam was corrupt and hated
by the Vietnamese peasants.
Ruling classes were landowners who had little respect for the
peasants they ruled and did not share their Buddhist religion.
Ho Chi Minh starts a guerrilla war against the government in the South.
o The Viet Cong (experienced guerrilla soldiers from north and south) wage
a war of terrorism and sabotage against the South Vietnamese
government.
The North Vietnamese entered South Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
The USA knew it would not be able to persuade the UN to send an army
(like Korea) as the Soviet Union would veto the move instead, they sent
money, military equipment and advisers, although it made little difference.
o The Viet Cong were effective guerrilla fighters and soon controlled
vast areas of South Vietnam by 1965, the South Vietnam
government was about to collapse.
1965: The USA decides to get directly involved in the fighting and started
sending its own troops.
Why did the USA lose the Vietnam war?
o Guerrilla warfare Americans had no real answer to this kind of
warfare; it was a war that they could not win, as the Vietnamese had
copied the strategies of Mao Tse-tungs Red Army.
Try to wear down the enemy.
The enemy attacks, we retreat.
The enemy camps, we raid.
The enemy tires, we attack.
The enemy retreats, we pursue.
Attack scattered, isolated enemy forces first; attack concentrated,
strong enemy forces later.
Take country areas first.
The main aim is to wipe out the enemys army, not to capture or
hold their positions.
Fight no battle you are not sure of winning.
Keep moving.
Build up your strength with captured weapons. Win enemy soldiers
to your side.
o

Impossible to win a battle against a guerrilla army because there is

no certainty of where it is it attacked and disappeared into the jungle.
o The Viet Cong had the support of many of the peasants on whose
land they were fighting, and could freely move around the country
sheltered by villagers.
o Sapped the morale of the American troops constant ambushes
made the soldiers nervous and desperate.
American casualties rose, which led the Americans to begin
huge bombing raids which killed, not only North Vietnamese,
but many of the South Vietnamese they were trying to protect.
The bombing raids were expensive.
o Viet Cong losses in military equipment, raw materials and vehicles
were offset by increased aid from China and the Soviet Union.
Showed ingenuity in coping with the bombing moved
factories and industries, stored arms in caves and
underground, and the Vietnamese people themselves worked
full-time keeping transport routes open.
o The Americans were sending in raw, untrained recruits against
seasoned, committed soldiers.
Many of them had just left school.
Soldiers were more likely to die in their first month.
Just as a soldier gained experience, they were sent home this led
to a rookie army, constantly rotating inexperienced men
against fighters on their home ground.
America needed the support of the American public, but it was difficult to
keep it:
o Thousands of television, radio and newspaper reporters and
photographers sent back images of the fight, reports of the fighting;
televisions showed prisoners being tortured or women and children
watching their house set on fire.
o Vietnam was a media war, and American support was wavering by
1967.
Anti-war protests all over the country.
Students taunted the American president Lyndon B Johnson
by asking Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?
His successor, Robert Kennedy, won because he campaigned
against the war.
From 1965-1967, American troops followed a policy known as search and
destroy.
o In order to flush out Viet Cong, they were supposed to identify
subversives (supporters of the Viet Cong) and destroy them and their
base area (villages).
Theory: If we kill enough Viet Cong, we will win the war.
Theory 2: If the villages are scared, they will move to officially
government-controlled areas anyone that didnt is a Viet Cong
suspect.
o Americans no longer believed in the idea of innocent civilians.
o They sent back reports on body count how many Viet Cong killed,
although most of them were civilians.
o

March 1968: a unit of young American soldiers (Charlie Company) started a

search and destroy mission in the Quang Ngia region of South Vietnam;
they had been told that there was a Viet Cong headquarters and 200 Viet
Cong guerrillas in the My Lai area.
o Orders were to destroy all houses, dwellings and livestock.
o Most of them were under the impression that they had been ordered
to kill everyone they found in the village.
16 March: Charlie Company arrive at My Lai early in the morning:
o In the next four hours, 300-400 innocent civilians are killed.
o No Viet Cong were found in the villages and only three weapons were
recovered.
The army treated the massacre as a success:
o Commanding officers report said that 20 non-combatants had been
killed by accident; all the dead were recorded as Viet Cong.
o Men involved were praised.
o Most soldiers knew the truth but just took it to be an inevitable part of
the war.
A year later, a letter arrived in the offices of 30 politicians and government
officials in Washington it was written by Ronald Ridenhour, an American
soldier who had served in Vietnam and who knew the soldiers involved in
the My Lai massacre.
o He had evidence of something dark and bloody occurring in My Lai,
listed all the stories he had found, and asked congress to
investigate.
Life magazine published pictures of the massacre at My Lai, taken by an
official army photographer.
Triggered an investigation which ended in a trial for mass murder of
Lieutenant William Calley.
o An officer in Charlie Company.
o Had personally shot dead many of the people in the irrigation ditch
in My Lai (they used to herd them into an irrigation ditch and mow them
down with machine guns).
September 1969: Calley is formally charged with murdering 109 people.
o Others were also charged, although these charges were too much for
the army and they projected all responsibility onto Calley.
o Denied giving him orders.
o Senior officers were acquitted.
March 1971: Calley is found guilty of the murder of 22 civilians.
August: sentenced to 20 years hard labour, though he is released in
November 1974.
The My Lai massacre shocked the American public.
As criticism against President Johnson mounted, he announced he was
stopping the bombing of North Vietnam and was not going to run again
as President.
1969: the question was not whether America would get out of Vietnam,
but how to do it without it seeming like a defeat.
o Policy of Vietnamization, by Nixon, was the answer.
1973: Americans entered peace talks with Ho Chi Minh and agreed a
cease-fire which allowed the last American soldiers to leave.

Cease-fire was meaningless, as the Viet Cong continued their

assault against South Vietnam, and the Vietnamese army were
unable to stop them without American help.
April, 1975: Saigon falls to the Communists.
Effects of the Vietnam War on the policy of containment:
o Had failed militarily Americans vast military strength could not
stem the spread of Communism.
o Had failed politically the USA failed to stop South Vietnam from
going Communist, and the bombings of Laos and Cambodia helped
the Communist forces in those countries to win support.
By 1975, Cambodia and Laos both had Communist
governments. Rather than slowing down the spread of
Communism, American intervention had increased it.
o Propaganda disaster the atrocities committed by American
soldiers and the use of chemical weapons damaged Americas
reputation; the whole campaign which was shown as a noble crusade
pre-Vietnam was shown to be flawed as the Americans were in
favour of a government who did not have the support of the
people.
The failure affected the USAs policies towards Communist states:
o Americans tried to improve their relations with China and ended
their block on Chinas membership of the UN.
o Entered into a period of understanding with the Soviet Union.
o In the 1970s, both the USSR and China got on better with the USA
than they did with one another.
o America abstained from involving itself in a war which it could not
overwhelmingly win.
o

THE TET OFFENSIVE

Vietcong guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army troops launch attacks

across South Vietnam on January 30.
o Start of the lunar year Tet; most important Vietnamese holiday.
Aim: to strike military and civilian command and dissolve the Saigon
government to end the war.
Saigon: Guerillas battle Marines at the US embassy.
o Communists did not seek to take over the entire city, just key
locations.
March: Johnson orders a halt to the US bombing of North Vietnam and
offers peace talks.

PRAGUE SPRING

January 5 1968: reformer Alexander Dubreck comes to power as general

secretary of the Communist party in Czechoslovakia.
o Pledged reforms and democrazation.
Communist party would no longer dictate policy.
Industry decentralized into factories run by councils.
Wider powers for trade unions.

Expansion of trade with the West.

Freedom to travel abroad.
Freedom of speech and press.
Movement swept across the country.
Dubreck promised that Czechoslovakia would remain within the Warsaw
Pact and still be a Russian ally.
Soviet and Warsaw leaders send 150,000 troops in assault.
Czech government decided not to resist invasion.
Dubreck arrested; hard communist lines restored.

VIETNAMIZATION

Richard Nixon elected President, defeating Hubert Humphrey.

June 8, 1969: Nixon announces Vietnamization plan, designed to withdraw
US ground forces from Vietna and turn control of the war over to South
Vietnam forces.
o Also promised to train, equip and expand South Vietnam forces.

SALT - STRATEGIC ARMS LIMITATION TALK MEETINGS

November 17, 1969: SALT talks begin in Helsinki, rural Finland.

Involved US and USSR on the issue of armament control.
SALT I successful, placed limits on both submarine-launched and
intercontinental nuclear missile numbers.
o Signed in Moscow on May 26, 1972.
o Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in attendance.
o Ratified.
SALT II unsuccessful, limited manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons.
o Continuation of SALT II.
o Never formally ratified due to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
o Agreement reached in Vienna on June 18, 1979.

NIXON VISITS CHINA

Nixon becomes the first US president to visit China.

Important step in normalizing relationships between the US and China.
Meeting with Mao Tsetung on February 21, 1972.
Changed the balance of power with the Soviet Union.
The two countries issue a communiqu.

VIETNAM WAR PARIS ACCORDS AGREEMENT

January 27, 1973 South Vietnam, North Vietnam, the US and the
Vietcong sign the Paris peace treaty establishing an in-place cease-fire.
o The US agrees to halt all military activity and withdraw its troops
within 60 days.
o North Vietnamese agree to a ceasefire and the release of all
American prisoners of war.
o Vietnam still divided.

Saigon falls in April 1975.

CAMBODIA

Khmer Rouge (Communists) takes power in Cambodia on April 6th, 1975.

Cambodias educated and urban population forced into the countryside as
part of a state experiment in agrarian communism.
Cambodia renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
Under the regime of Pol Pot, as many as 3 million Cambodians die from 1975
to 1979.
Pol Pot was an admirer of Chinese Communism.

AFGHANISTAN

December 25: 100,000 Soviet troops invade Afghanistan as communist

Babrak Kanmal seized control of the government.
US backed Muslim guerrilla fighters who waged a costly war against the
Soviet for nearly a decade before Soviet troops finally withdraw in 1988.
The Soviet Vietnam.
o Caused the Soviet Unions a lot of damage to its international
standing and military morale.

SOLIDASNOSH

Solidarity.
August 14, 1980: Lech Walesa leads a massive strike at the Lenin shipyards
in Gdansk, Poland.
The strikes spread to other cities and form the nucleus of the Solidarity
movement.
The communist government conceded to workers demands on August
31, and recognized their right to form unions and strike.
First non-communist-party-controlled trade union.
Walesa was later elected as president of Poland.
Cause of strikes was food shortages and industrial unrest.
Solidarity insisted on the firing of corrupt party officials responsible for the
countrys economic failure; did not demand an end to press censorship or
free elections.
The Russian military to be considered as they were a satellite state of Russia
at this point.
Had about 13 million members compared to the communist 3 million.

THE STAR WARS PROJECT

March 23, 1983: Reagan outlines his Strategic Defence Initiatives Star
Wars.
o Space-based shield that would use lasers and other advanced
technology yo destroy attacking missiles far above the Earths
surface.
o Called Star Wars for George Lucas film.

Criticised as unrealistic and unscientific hence the moniker of

Star Wars.
Soviets accuse the US of violating the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
Soviets forced to spend heavily to match the program, causing near
economic collapse.
o

GORBACHEV COMES TO POWER

March 11, 1985: Gorbachev comes to power in the Soviet Union.

Most dynamic and gifted leader following Khrushchev.
Ushers in an era of reform:
o Foreign affairs initiatives on permanent relaxation of international
tensions, arms control, relations with China.
o Perestroika invisible economic and structural reform.
Small-scale private enterprises restaurants, car repairs,
etcetera were allowed.
Workers co-operatives up to fifty workers.
Wanted to provide competition for the slow services offered
by the state in the hopes of stimulating a rapid improvement.
Alternative employment as patterns of employment changed.
Quality control emphasized.
o Glasnost openness policy transparency; allowed greater
expression and criticism of Soviet policies.
o Human rights criticism of actions of the government allowed;
freedom of the press; law introduced to prevent dissidents from being
sent to mental institutions; several dissidents released.
o Cultural matters Anti-Stalinist films, novels, are shown; Osip
Mandelstams works are prepared for publication.
Government wanted to use the media to highlight the
inefficiency and corruption it wanted to remove.
o Political changes Gorbachev announced moves towards democracy.

INTERMEDIATE RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES TREATY

December 8, 1989: Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF treaty.

Mandated the removal of more than 2,600 medium-range nuclear missiles
from Europe and eliminated the entire class of Soviet SS-20 and US cruise and
pershing missiles.
Signed in Washington D.C.
Both nations were allowed to inspect the others military installations.

THE BERLIN WALL FALLS

June 12, 1987: Ronald Reagan demands Mister Gorbachev, tear down
this Wall.
Protests against East German government become bolder.
Gorbachev denounces the Brezhnev Doctrin, which pledged to use Soviet
force to protect its interests in Eastern Europe.

On September 10, 1989, Hungary opened its border with Austria, allowing
East Germans to flee to the West.
October 7, 1989: Gorbachev visits East German for 40th Anniversary and is
hailed by calls of Gorby, Gorby!
October 18, 1989: East German leader Erich Honecker (The Wall will stand
in 50, even 100 years) resigns on health grounds amid growing protests.
November 4, 1989: half a million demonstrate for democracy.
After massive public demonstration in East German and Eastern Europe, the
Berlin Wall falls on November 9, 1989.

GERMAN REUNIFICATION

September 12, 1990: the US, the USSR, Great Britain, France and the two
Germanies meet in Moscow to end Allied occupation rights in Germany.
On October 3, East and West Germany united as the Federal Republic of
Germany.