History of France II:

From the Renaissance to the Revolution

Great discoveries and new ideas

After the turmoil of the Hundred Year War and the intrigues of Louis XI, the people of France were ready for change. The military campaigns of François I, in the sixteenth century, brought the Italian Renaissance to the court of the King of France. The Valois-Orléans dynasty from which François I originated had its roots in the Loire Valley, and it is there that the most spectacular achievements of the Renaissance can be found. The chateaux of Chambord, Blois, Chenonceau, and Azay le Rideau are among its finest examples, but the conspicuous corruption of the nobility combined with the conflict between François I and his formidable rival, Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman and Germanic Empire, King of Spain and Sicily and Prince of the Netherlands, put a great financial strain on the resources of the state.

This period was marked by a revolutionary new technique to disseminate ideas: the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. It was also marked by voyages of discovery and trade to the New World. In 1492, the Genoese Christopher Colombus discovered and claimed the West Indies, and then in 1498 the coast of America, on behalf of the Spanish Monarchy of Isabel and Ferdinand. In 1534, Jacques Cartier took possession of Canada, or New France, and in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh founded a colony in North Carolina.

The religious schism

This was a period of great prosperity, and of great divisions. The Holy Roman Empire was divided between Catholicism and Protestantism, which found its way into France through the writings and preaching of Jean Calvin. The wars of religion tore France apart, culminating in the massacre of 3000 Protestants in Paris on August 23, 1572. When Henri IV, a cousin of François I, acceded to the throne of France, he had to renounce his Protestant faith; one of his first acts of government was the proclamation of the Édit de Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed freedom of religion to his subjects, and re-established peace.

Absolutism and the century of enlightenment

The 17th century was marked by the consolidation of the absolute powers in the hands of the King of France. Louis XIII, who succeeded Henri IV after the latter's assassination, was only a child when he inherited the kingdom. He settled the intrigues of the nobility and the religious factions with authority, after he took over from the Regency that was set up to govern during his childhood. Upon his death in 1643, he was able to pass over a unified kingdom to his son, Louis XIV, then a child of thirteen years of age. However the new Regency faced a rebellion by the Nobility and an insurrection by the people of Paris. The court was temporarily moved to St-Germain, outside of the capital. Having subjugated the rebels, the government and the Monarchy emerged strengthened. From thereon, Louis XIV was going to rule with absolute powers. This was the time of the Sun King, the resplendent monarch who shone above his subjects. However, as a measure of security, Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles, where he had the sumptuous palace built. His strategy of moving the court had two reasons. Certainly, Versailles offered a more secure environment for the King than Paris and its populace, but by bringing the Nobility into these luxurious self-enclosed grounds, where hearsay was a form of information gathering that allowed the King to constantly know who was doing what, Louis established control over the nobles with an assertion that none of its predecessors had been able to demonstrate.

Through war and annexation, Louis XIV consolidated his kingdom. At the end of his reign, the borders of France were essentially the same as they are today. But these wars were costly, and highlighted the disparities between the nobility and the rest of the French. At this time, Europe was being propelled into an age of scientific discoveries, including gravity, the steam engine, and zoology; and so, when the King was succeeded by Louis XV in 1715, new ideas were everywhere. They were incorporated, from 1751 to 1772, into the monumental achievement that is the Encyclopaedia of Diderot and D'Alembert. This time was referred to as the Century of Enlightenment.

From the Revolution to the Napoleonic Empire

The aspirations of the various segments of French society had been repressed during the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV. They started to be heard during the reign of Louis XV, and with the accession of Louis XVI to the throne they could no longer be contained and were now openly expressed. Of diverse origins, they conflicted with one another. The nobility was anxious to recapture lost powers and privileges; the bourgeoisie, which saw itself as the economic engine of the country, wanted a more active political role; the peasantry and the proletariat, whose condition had remained essentially unchanged for centuries, were determined to move up from virtual serfdom.

The French Revolution

On July 14, 1789, insurgents in Paris stormed the Bastille, a political prison, the symbol of royal authority. The assailants were mostly looking for ammunition and wanted to confiscate the weapons of the garrison. Now France's national holiday, July 14 marked the first act of open defiance and armed confrontation. The efforts of Louis XVI to conciliate the opposing aspirations of his people were to remain fruitless.

A newly formed parliamentary body promulgated the rights of Man and the Citizen, and in 1791 the monarchy was reduced to a constitutional role. Neighboring countries, worried about the influence the revolutionary movement could have on their own subjects, readied their armies to assist the royalists of France. The struggle between monarchists and revolutionaries escalated. The King was arrested in 1792 as he was trying to leave France, the Republic proclaimed, and Louis XVI was put on trial for treason and beheaded in 1793. France sank into a regime of terror led by Robespierre. Arbitrary condemnations and executions became common and bled France of some of its brightest minds and its best human resources.

The Rise of Napoléon

The revolutionary movement gained momentum in Belgium, Switzerland and Italy where civil unrest and demonstrations took place. Faced with the threat of outside enemies and wanting to assist its neighboring peoples in liberating themselves, the Revolution entrusted the governing authority to a group of five directeurs. The Directoire thus formed gave the young general Napoléon Bonaparte the responsibility of the military campaign in Italy where his strategic genius was first displayed.

Bonaparte quickly led the armies of France to a string of battlefield victories. Ephemeral republics started to sprout in the small countries occupied by the French army. To contain the spread of revolution, the monarchies of Europe united. General Bonaparte, a brilliant military strategist, saw his popularity increased with every victory. The directoire was replaced with a three-man consulate of which he was part. Soon thereafter, Bonaparte garnered exclusive powers for himself and became the first and only consul. He was thirty.