HIST 233   The French Revolution: Old Regime, Revolution, and Napoleonic Empire, 1770-1815 (EU)

An overview of one of the most tumultuous periods in modern European history. France experienced a range of different governments, from absolute monarchy, to the Reign of Terror, to the Napoleonic Empire, a progression that was accompanied by an expansion of the existing war (from 1792 on) into a massive European-wide war. There were serious claims for citizenship and equality from working class men, from women of all classes, and from enslaved and free people of color in France’s colonial empire; there were disturbing acts of violence committed by crowds as well as by the government itself. Designed to introduce students to the major events and personalities and the political evolution of the state during this time, as well as to discuss some of the important historiographical arguments. (EU)