1.
1788 in France
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Events from the year 1788 in France. Monarch, Louis XVI7 June - Riots broke out in Grenoble,21 July - Assembly of Vizille, the meeting of the Estates. 8 August - Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates-General meeting in May 1789,1 January - Étienne Cabet, philosopher and utopian socialist. 6 January - Louis Marie de la Haye, Vicomte de Cormenin, jurist,18 February - Alexandre Soumet, poet. 7 March - Antoine César Becquerel, scientist,12 March - Pierre Jean David, sculptor. 22 March - Pierre Joseph Pelletier, chemist,13 April - Auguste François Chomel, pathologist. 10 May - Augustin-Jean Fresnel, physicist,1 July - Jean-Victor Poncelet, engineer and mathematician. 5 September - Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, sinologist,24 December - Alexandre Guiraud, poet and novelist. 31 December - Alphonse de Cailleux, painter and arts administrator,14 January - François Joseph Paul de Grasse, Admiral. 17 February - Maurice Quentin de La Tour, painter,12 April - Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer. 16 April - Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist,3 July - François Jacquier, Franciscan mathematician and physicist. 15 July - Jean Germain Drouais, painter,8 August - Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, Marshal of France. 8 December - Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, Admiral, Louis Antoine de Gontaut, Marshal of France. Antoine de Montazet, theologian and Archbishop of Lyon, claude-Étienne Savary, orientalist, pioneer of Egyptology and translator of the Quran
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
1794 in France
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The following lists events that happened during 1794 in the French Republic. 4 February - The French Republic abolishes slavery,26 February - Ventôse Decrees, proposed to confiscate the property of exiles and opponents of the Revolution, and redistribute it to the needy. 5 April - Execution of Georges Danton,30 April - War of the Pyrenees, Battle of Boulou, French victory against Spain and Portugal. 8 May - Antoine Lavoisier is executed by guillotine,18 May - Battle of Tourcoing, French victory over Austrian and British forces. 22 May - Battle of Tournay, Coalition forces defeated the French,1 June - Glorious First of June, French naval battle with the British. 10 June - Law of 22 Prairial enacted, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur,26 June - Battle of Fleurus, French victory against Austria. 13 July - Battle of Platzberg, French defeat Prussian forces,13 July - Battle of the Vosges, French defeat Austrian, Prussian and Saxony forces. 27 July - Thermidorian Reaction began against the excesses of the Reign of Terror, Robespierre and leaders of the Paris city government arrested. 28 July - Robespierre, Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, and others,15 September - Battle of Boxtel. 2 October - Battle of Aldenhoven, French defeat Austrian forces,17 November-20 November - War of the Pyrenees, Battle of San-Lorenzo de la Muga, French defeat Spanish forces. 22 November - Siege of Luxembourg, French siege of Austrian forces began. Hospitals pass to ownership of the state,10 January - Jean Philibert Damiron, philosopher. 13 January - Prosper Garnot, surgeon and naturalist,17 January - Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps, naturalist and palaeontologist. 25 January Garcin de Tassy, orientalist, françois-Vincent Raspail, chemist, physiologist and socialist. 2 February - Etienne Arnal, actor,9 February - Jacques-François Ancelot, dramatist. 5 March - Jacques Babinet, physicist, mathematician, and astronomer,20 March - René-Primevère Lesson, surgeon and naturalist. 4 April - Sabin Berthelot, naturalist and ethnologist,12 April - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, mathematician, soldier, and professor of engineering. 15 April - Jean Pierre Flourens, physiologist,26 April - Jean-Pierre Falret, psychiatrist
4.
1791
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As of the start of 1791, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 12 – Holy Roman troops reenter Liège, heralding the end of the Liège Revolution, january 25 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. February 21 – The United States opens diplomatic relations with Portugal, march 2 – In France, Abolition of guilds is enacted. A mechanical semaphore line for rapid long-distance communication is demonstrated by Claude Chappe in Paris, march 4 – Vermont is admitted as the 14th U. S. state. March 13 – Thomas Paines chief work Rights of Man is published in London, march – In France, the National Constituent Assembly accepts the recommendation of its Commission of Weights and Measures that the nation should adopt the metric system. April 21 – The first of forty boundary stones delineating the borders of the new District of Columbia in the United States is laid at Jones Point Light, in Alexandria, Virginia. May 3 – The Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth proclaims the Constitution of May 3,1791, june 20 – Flight to Varennes, The French Royal Family is captured when they try to flee in disguise. June 21 – Foundation date of the Ordnance Survey in Great Britain, july 8 – Composer Joseph Haydn is awarded an honorary doctorate of music at the University of Oxford. July 14 – The Priestley Riots against Dissenters break out in Birmingham, july 17 – The Champ de Mars Massacre occurs during the French Revolution. August 4 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, august 6 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is finished. August 21 – Haitian Revolution, A slave rebellion breaks out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, august 26 – John Fitch is granted a patent for the steamboat in the United States. August 27 – Battle of Tellicherry off the south-west coast of India, september 6 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts opera seria La clemenza di Tito premières at the Estates Theatre in Prague to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. September 13 – Louis XVI of France accepts the final version of the completed constitution, september 25 – Mission Santa Cruz is founded by Father Fermín Lasuén, becoming the 12th mission in the California mission chain. September 28 – Promulgation of the law on Jewish emancipation in France, september 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts singspiel opera The Magic Flute premières at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. October – The Legislative Assembly convenes, october 9 – Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is founded by Father Fermín Lasuén, becoming the 13th mission in the California mission chain. October 28 – Publication of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, december 4 – The first issue of The Observer, the worlds first Sunday newspaper, is published in London. December 5 – Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies aged 35 at his home in Vienna, perhaps of acute rheumatic fever, december 15 – Ratification by the states of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution is completed, creating the United States Bill of Rights. Two additional amendments remain pending, and one of these is finally ratified in 1992, the first American ship reaches Japan
5.
History of France
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The first written records for the history of France appear in the Iron Age. The Gauls, the largest and best attested group, were Celtic people speaking what is known as the Gaulish language, over the course of the 1st millennium BC the Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians established colonies on the Mediterranean coast and the offshore islands. Afterwards a Gallo-Roman culture emerged and Gaul was increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire, in the later stages of the Roman Empire, Gaul was subject to barbarian raids and migration, most importantly by the Germanic Franks. The Frankish king Clovis I united most of Gaul under his rule in the late 5th century, Frankish power reached its fullest extent under Charlemagne. The war formally began in 1337 following Philip VIs attempt to seize the Duchy of Aquitaine from its holder, Edward III of England. Despite early Plantagenet victories, including the capture and ransom of John II of France, among the notable figures of the war was Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who led French forces against the English, establishing herself as a national heroine. The war ended with a Valois victory in 1453, victory in the Hundred Years War had the effect of strengthening French nationalism and vastly increasing the power and reach of the French monarchy. During the period known as the Ancien Régime, France transformed into an absolute monarchy. During the next centuries, France experienced the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, Henry, King of Navarre, scion of the Bourbon family, would be victorious in the conflict and establish the French Bourbon dynasty. A burgeoning worldwide colonial empire was established in the 16th century, French political power reached a zenith under the rule of Louis XIV, The Sun King, builder of Versailles Palace. In the late 18th century the monarchy and associated institutions were overthrown in the French Revolution, the country was governed for a period as a Republic, until the French Empire was declared by Napoleon Bonaparte. France was one of the Triple Entente powers in World War I, fighting alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, the United States and smaller allies against Germany and the Central Powers. France was one of the Allied Powers in World War II, the Third Republic was dismantled, and most of the country was controlled directly by Germany while the south was controlled until 1942 by the collaborationist Vichy government. Living conditions were harsh as Germany drained away food and manpower, Charles de Gaulle led the Free France movement that one-by-one took over the colonial empire, and coordinated the wartime Resistance. Following liberation in summer 1944, a Fourth Republic was established, France slowly recovered economically, and enjoyed a baby boom that reversed its very low fertility rate. Long wars in Indochina and Algeria drained French resources and ended in political defeat, in the wake of the Algerian Crisis of 1958, Charles de Gaulle set up the French Fifth Republic. Into the 1960s decolonization saw most of the French colonial empire become independent, while smaller parts were incorporated into the French state as overseas departments, since World War II France has been a permanent member in the UN Security Council and NATO. It played a role in the unification process after 1945 that led to the European Union
6.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
7.
Flight to Varennes
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They escaped only as far as the small town of Varennes, where they were arrested after having been recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould. The incident was a point after which popular hostility towards the French monarchy as an institution, as well as towards the king and queen as individuals. The kings attempted flight provoked charges of treason that ultimately led to his execution in 1793, the failure of the escape plans was due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations, and poor judgments. Much was due to the Kings indecision, he postponed the schedule. Furthermore, he misjudged popular support for the traditional monarchy and he thought that only radicals in Paris were promoting a revolution that the people as a whole rejected. He believed, mistakenly, that he was beloved by the rural peasants, the kings flight was traumatic for France, inciting a wave of emotions that ranged from anxiety to violence and panic. Everyone was aware that foreign intervention was imminent, republicanism, from being merely a subject of coffeehouse debate, suddenly became the dominant ideal of revolutionary leaders. Henceforth, the king seems to have become emotionally paralyzed, leaving most important decisions to the politically untrained queen, from the autumn of 1791 on, the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the dubious prospects of foreign intervention. Prompted by Marie Antoinette, Louis rejected the advice of the moderate constitutionalists, led by Antoine Barnave, to implement the Constitution of 1791. At Montmédy General François Claude de Bouillé, the marquis de Bouillé, had concentrated a force of 10,000 regulars of the old royal army who were considered to still be loyal to the monarchy. De Bouillé himself had shown energy in suppressing a mutiny in Nancy in 1790. The troops under his command included two Swiss and four German mercenary regiments who were perceived as being reliable in a time of general political unrest than their French counterparts. The long-term political objectives of the couple and their closest advisors remain unclear. Prodded by the queen, Louis committed himself and his family to an attempt of escape from the capital to the eastern frontier on 21 June 1791. The escape was planned by the queens favourite, the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen and the Baron de Breteuil. Fersen had urged the use of two light carriages that could have made the 200-mile journey to Montmédy relatively quickly. This would have involved the splitting up of the family, however, thus Louis and Marie-Antoinette decided on the use of a heavy. Detachments of cavalry posted along the route had been withdrawn or neutralized by suspicious crowds before the large
8.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
9.
Varennes-en-Argonne
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Varennes-en-Argonne or simply Varennes is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Varennes-en-Argonne lies on the river Aire to the northeast of Sainte-Menehould and it was the scene of the Flight to Varennes, In June 1791 Louis XVI, with his immediate family, made a dash for the nearest friendly border, that of the Austrian Netherlands in modern Belgium. But in Varennes Louis and his family were arrested, by Citizen Drouet, the local postmaster, once more Frances king, queen, and dauphin returned to the Tuileries in humiliating captivity, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were subsequently executed on the guillotine. Located in the Zone rouge, Varennes was completely destroyed during the First World War but was reconstructed afterwards, the Pennsylvania Memorial, a monument for volunteers from 28th Division Pennsylvania in the First World War, was erected in Varennes during the Interwar period. Arboretum de Varennes-en-Argonne Communes of the Meuse department
10.
Champ de Mars Massacre
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The Champ de Mars Massacre took place on 17 July 1791 in Paris in the midst of the French Revolution. The event is named after the site of the massacre, the Champ de Mars, two days before, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that the king, Louis XVI, would remain king under a constitutional monarchy. This decision came after King Louis XVI and his family had tried to flee France in the Flight to Varennes the month before. Later that day, leaders of the republicans in France rallied against this decision, jacques Pierre Brissot, editor and main writer of Le Patriote français and president of the Comité des Recherches of Paris, drew up a petition demanding the removal of the king. A crowd of 50,000 people gathered at the Champ de Mars on July 17 to sign the petition, jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor of Paris, used this incident to declare martial law. The Marquis de Lafayette and the National Guard, which was under his command, were able to disperse the crowd, later in the afternoon, the crowd, led by Danton and Camille Desmoulins, returned in even greater numbers. The larger crowd was more determined than the first. Lafayette again tried to disperse it, in retaliation, the crowd threw stones at the National Guard. After firing unsuccessful warning shots, the National Guard opened fire directly on the crowd, the exact numbers of dead and wounded are unknown, estimates range from a dozen to fifty dead. When Louis XVI and his family fled to Varennes, it set off political turmoil, earlier, information had been received by the assembly that there was potentially a plan for the king to flee. The idea that Louis planned on fleeing the Tuileries palace began in early 1791 and was one of the causes of the Day of Daggers on 28 February 1791. The escape event was not subtly planned, and enough suspicions were aroused in those working in the palace that the information trickled down to newspapers. The Marquis de Lafayette promised on his own life such a thing was not true. Lafayette and the Assembly created a lie that the king had been kidnapped, ultimately the king and his family were brought back and the assembly decided that he needed to be a part of the government if he agreed to consent to the constitution. At the time of the massacre, divisions within the Third Estate had already began to grow, many workers were already angered by the closing of various workshops, which took away jobs, leaving some unemployed. Higher skilled journeymen were also angered due to a lack of increase in wages since the beginning of the Revolution, the attempted flight of the King only increased the tensions between groups. The massacre was the result of various factions reacting to the decree by the Constituent Assembly in different ways. The Cordeliers Club, a populist group, chose to create a petition for a protest and this was originally backed by the Jacobins, though support was withdrawn at Robespierres suggestion
11.
Battle of Tellicherry
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The Battle of Tellicherry was a naval action fought off the Indian port of Tellicherry between British and French warships on 18 November 1791 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. When a French convoy from Mahé passed the British port of Tellicherry in November 1791, as the British force under Captain Sir Richard Strachan approached the convoy, the escorting frigate Résolue opened fire. A general action followed, with Strachan succeeding in forcing the French ship to surrender within twenty minutes, all of the French vessels were searched and subsequently returned to Mahé, the local French authorities reacting furiously at what they perceived as a violation of their neutral position. Messages were sent back to France reporting the action from Commodore Saint-Félix, although under normal circumstances the battle might have provoked a diplomatic incident, the upheavals of the ongoing French Revolution meant that the despatches had little effect. For the next two years the war continued as British forces and their allies drove the Mysore armies back towards the capital of Seringapatam, the Mysorean forces were supplied through Mangalore by French ships. The squadron consisted of Cornwallis in HMS Minerva, Captain Sir Richard Strachan in HMS Phoenix, the French operated a squadron of their own on the coast, led by Commodore Saint-Félix and consisting of two frigates based at Mahé, a small French port 7 miles south of Tellicherry. In November 1791, a French convoy sailed from Mahé on the journey to Mangalore. The convoy included two merchant vessels and the frigate Résolue, a 36-gun warship under Captain Callamand. As Smith halted the merchant ships and sent boats to inspect them, Strachan did the same to Résolue, hailing the French captain, Strachan was unsurprised at the French reaction, and returned fire immediately, the proximity of the ships preventing any manoeuvres. Within twenty minutes the combat was decided, the French captain hauling down his colours with his ship battered, the French ship carried significantly weaker cannon than Phoenix, with 6 and 12 pounder guns to the 9 and 18 pounders aboard the British squadron. In addition, Résolue was heavily outnumbered, no other French warships were in the area while the British had three large frigates within sight, French losses eventually totalled 25 men killed and 60 wounded, Strachan suffering just six killed and 11 wounded in return. With the enemy subdued, Strachan ordered a search of the captured vessels. The French officer however refused, insisting that he and his ship were treated as prisoners of war. Cornwallis ordered the merchant ships released to continue their journey and for the frigate to be towed back to Mahé, provision was subsequently made at Mahé by Strachan for the wounded French sailors. Soon afterwards Saint-Félix arrived at Mahé in his frigate Cybèle and reacted furiously at the discovery one of his neutral ships had been attacked and captured by the British. One account reported that Saint-Félix actually ordered his crew to fire on Cornwallis, the British shadowed the French for several days, openly stopping and searching French merchant ships but without provoking a response from Saint-Félix. Résolue and Phoenix were subsequently detached by their commanders, Cornwallis, news of the encounter was conveyed back to France, but the country was at this time in one of the most turbulent eras of the ongoing Revolution and little notice was taken of events in India. In Britain, the Admiralty approved of Cornwallis actions, suggesting that the French were deliberately using the guise of trade to support Mysore against Britain, the action had no effect on the ongoing war in India, which was now centred on the inland city of Seringapatam
12.
Third Anglo-Mysore War
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The Third Anglo–Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the East India Company and its allies, including the Maratha Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Anglo–Mysore Wars, Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali before him, had previously fought twice with the forces of the British East India Company. The First Anglo-Mysore War, fought in the 1760s, had ended inconclusively, British failure to support Mysore in conflicts with the Maratha Empire and other actions supportive of Mysores enemies led Hyder to develop a dislike for the British. This war also ended somewhat inconclusively in 1784 with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore and he refused to free British prisoners taken during the war, one of the conditions of the treaty. British General Charles, 2nd Earl Cornwallis became the Governor-General of India, in 1788 the company gained control of the Circar of Guntur, the southernmost of the Northern Circars, which the company had acquired under earlier agreements with the Nizam. In exchange, the company provided the Nizam with two battalions of company troops, both of these acts placed British troops closer to Mysore, but also guaranteed the Nizam would support the British in the event of conflict. The kingdom of Travancore had been a target of Tipu for acquisition or conquest since the end of the previous war, in 1789 Tipu Sultan sent forces onto the Malabar Coast to put down a rebellion. Many people fled to Travancore and Cochin, a state paying tribute to Tipu, Cornwallis, observing this build-up, reiterated to Campbells successor, John Holland, that an attack on Travancore should be considered a declaration of war, and met with a strong British response. On 29 December 1789, Tipu marched 14,000 troops from Coimbatore, the first phase was an embarrassing defeat for Tipu, when the defenders inflicted severe losses on the Tipus forces and drove them back. While the Mysorean forces and their allies regrouped, Governor Holland, much to Cornwallis dismay, Cornwallis was on the brink of going to Madras to take command when he received word that Hollands replacement, General William Medows was about to arrive. Medows forcibly removed Holland, and set about planning operations against Tipu while building up troops at Trichinopoly and it was May before Medows was prepared to march. In the meantime, Tipu had renewed his attack on Travancore, the plan of attack developed by Medows called for a two-pronged attack, with the main thrust against the Coimbatore district and a diversionary thrust into Mysore from the northeast. Cornwallis was unhappy with this plan, due in part to the lateness of the season, however, he was willing to give Medows the opportunity for independent command. Medows moved out of Trichinopoly in late May, hampered by weather and equipment problems, his progress was slow. He met little resistance, as Tipu had withdrawn his forces to the Mysore highlands. On 21 July Medows entered Coimbatore unopposed, after having some of the smaller fortifications in the district by either abandonment or the immediate surrender of the garrison. Further strong points in the fell, with Palghat and Dindigul requiring significant action to capture. The attack from Bengal, and a third from Bombay, were late in getting started when Tipu made his counterattack, on 2 September, Tipu left Srirangapatnam at the head of a 40, 000-man army
13.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
14.
Kingdom of Mysore
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The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom in southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a state of the Vijayanagara Empire. With the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire, the kingdom became independent, the kingdom reached the height of its military power and dominion in the latter half of the 18th century under the de facto ruler Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. During this time, it came into conflict with the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Kingdom of Travancore, success in the first two Anglo-Mysore wars was followed by defeat in the third and fourth. Following Tipus death in the war of 1799, large parts of his kingdom were annexed by the British. The British restored the Wodeyars to their throne by way of a subsidiary alliance, the Wodeyars continued to rule the state until Indian independence in 1947, when Mysore acceded to the Union of India. Even as a state, Mysore came to be counted among the more developed and urbanized regions of India. This period also saw Mysore emerge as one of the important centers of art, the Mysore kings were not only accomplished exponents of the fine arts and men of letters, they were enthusiastic patrons as well, and their legacies continue to influence music and art even today. According to traditional accounts, the kingdom originated as a state based in the modern city of Mysore and was founded by two brothers, Yaduraya and Krishnaraya. Their origins are mired in legend and are still a matter of debate, while some historians posit a northern origin at Dwaraka, Yaduraya is said to have married Chikkadevarasi, the local princess and assumed the feudal title Wodeyar, which the ensuing dynasty retained. The kings who followed ruled as vassals of the Vijayanagara empire until the decline of the latter in 1565, by this time, the kingdom had expanded to thirty-three villages protected by a force of 300 soldiers. Raja Wodeyar Is reign also saw expansion with the annexation of Channapatna to the north from Jaggadeva Raya – a development which made Mysore a regional political factor to reckon with. This was in marked contrast to the chiefs of Tamil country who continued to pay off Chandragiri well into the 1630s. The invasion of the Keladi Nayakas of Malnad was also dealt with successfully and this period was followed by one of complex geo-political changes, when in the 1670s, the Marathas and the Mughals pressed into the Deccan. Chikka Devaraja, the most notable of Mysores early kings, who ruled during much of period, managed to not only survive the exigencies. He achieved this by forging alliances with the Marathas and the Mughals. The kingdom soon grew to include Salem and Bangalore to the east, Hassan to the west, Chikkamagaluru and Tumkur to the north, the conflict brought mixed results with Mysore annexing Periyapatna but suffering a reversal at Palupare. According to historians Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Sethu Madhava Rao, Mysore was now formally a tributary of the Mughal empire, mughul records claim a regular tribute was paid by Mysore
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French legislative election, 1791
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French legislative elections were held in September 1791 to elect the Legislative Assembly and was the first ever French election. However, only paying taxes were allowed to vote. The factions were only vaguely affiliated to an organized program, the Feuillants did, however, support a constitutional monarchy, the Girondists a moderate republican policy and the Cordeliers a radical democratic constitution, supported by the lower classes. These factions preceded the later dominant factions, the Jacobin, the Girondists and the Marais party, consisting mainly of moderates
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French Constitution of 1791
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The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality. The National Assembly began the process of drafting a constitution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, adopted on 27 August 1789 eventually became the preamble of the constitution adopted on 3 September 1791. The Declaration offered sweeping generalizations about rights, liberty, and sovereignty, a twelve-member Constitutional Committee was convened on 14 July 1789. Its task was to do much of the drafting of the articles of the constitution and it included originally two members from the First Estate, two from the Second, and four from the Third. Many proposals for redefining the French state were floated, particularly in the days after the sessions of 4–5 August 1789. The main controversies early on surrounded the issues of what level of power to be granted to the king of France and their greatest controversy faced by this new committee surrounded the issue of citizenship. Would every subject of the French Crown be given equal rights, as the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen seemed to promise, the October Days intervened and rendered the question much more complicated. In the end, a distinction was held between active citizens which had rights, and passive citizens, who had only civil rights. This conclusion was intolerable to such radical deputies as Maximilien Robespierre, a second body, the Committee of Revisions, was struck September 1790, and included Antoine Barnave, Adrien Duport, and Charles de Lameth. Because the National Assembly was both a legislature and a convention, it was not always clear when its decrees were constitutional articles or mere statutes. It was the job of this committee to sort it out, after very long negotiations, the constitution was reluctantly accepted by King Louis XVI in September 1791. Redefining the organization of the French government, citizenship and the limits to the powers of government and it abolished many “institutions which were injurious to liberty and equality of rights”. The National Assembly asserted its legal presence in French government by establishing its permanence in the Constitution, the Assemblys belief in a sovereign nation and in equal representation can be seen in the constitutional separation of powers. The National Assembly was the body, the king and royal ministers made up the executive branch. By the same token, representative democracy weakened the executive authority. The constitution was not egalitarian by todays standards and it distinguished between the propertied active citizens and the poorer passive citizens. Women lacked rights to such as education, freedom to speak, write, print
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Legislative Assembly (France)
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The Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to 20 September 1792 during the years of the French Revolution. It provided the focus of debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention. The National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on 30 September 1791, upon Robespierres motion it had decreed that none of its members would be eligible to the next legislature. The Legislative Assembly entrenched the perceived left-right political spectrum that is commonly used today. The elections of 1791, held by franchise, brought in a legislature that desired to carry the Revolution further. Prominent in the legislature were the Jacobin Club and its affiliated societies throughout France, the Legislative Assembly first met on 1 October 1791. It consisted of 745 members, mostly from the middle class, the members were generally young, and since none had sat in the previous Assembly, they largely lacked national political experience. They tended to be people who had made their name through successful political careers in local politics and they were staunch constitutional monarchists, firm in their defence of the King against the popular agitation. The leftists were of 136 Jacobins and Cordeliers and its most famous leaders were Jacques Pierre Brissot, the philosopher Condorcet, and Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud. The Left drew its inspiration from the radical tendency of the Enlightenment, regarded the émigré nobles as traitors. They were suspicious of Louis XVI, some of them favoring a general European war, the remainder of the House,345 deputies, generally belonged to no definite party. They were called the Marsh or the Plain and they were committed to the ideals of the Revolution, hence generally inclined to side with the Left but would also occasionally back proposals from the Right. The kings ministers, named by him and excluded from the Assembly, are described by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica as mostly persons of little mark. For a detailed description of the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly and related events, see The Legislative Assembly, the 27 August 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz already threatened France with attack by its neighbors. King Louis XVI favored war hoping to exploit a military defeat to restore his absolute power and this led in April 1792 to the first of the French Revolutionary Wars. Louis vetoed the decree as a matter of conscience, Louis XVI formed a series of cabinets, veering at times as far left as the Girondins. However, by the summer of 1792, amid war and insurrection, it had become clear that the monarchy, on 11 July 1792, the Assembly formally declared the Nation in danger because of the dire military situation. On 9 August 1792, a new revolutionary Commune took possession of Hôtel de Ville, and early on the morning of 10 August, the insurgents assailed the Tuileries, Louis and his family sought asylum with the Legislative Assembly
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Jean Vatout
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Jean Vatout was a French poet and historian. He was the tenth member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in January 1848 and he died, aged 57, at Claremont, England. Works by or about Jean Vatout at Internet Archive
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Odilon Barrot
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Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician who was briefly head of the council of ministers under Prince Louis Napoleon in 1848–49. Barrot was born at Villefort, Lozère and he belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrots earliest recollections were of the October insurrection of 1795 and he was sent to the military school of Saint-Cyr, but later moved to the Lycee Napoleon to study law and was called to the Parisian bar in 1811. He married the granddaughter of the liberal politician Guillaume-Xavier Labbey de Pompières and he was placed in the office of the conventionel Jean Mailhe, who was advocate before the council of state and the court of cassation and was proscribed at the second restoration. Barrot eventually succeeded him in both positions and his dissatisfaction with the government of the restoration was shown in his conduct of some political trials. For his opposition in 1820 to a law by any person might be arrested and detained on a warrant signed by three ministers, he was summoned before a court of assize, but acquitted. Although intimate with Lafayette and others, he took no share in their schemes for the overthrow of the government, but in 1827 he joined the association known as Aide-toi, le ciel taidera. He presided over the banquet given by the society to the 221 deputies who had signed the address of March 1830 to Charles X, after the ordinances of the 26 July 1830, he joined the National Guard and took an active part in the revolution. He supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy against the extreme Republicans, on his return he was nominated prefect of the Seine département. Louis Philippes government was far from satisfying his desires for reform and he was returned to the chamber of deputies for the department of Eure in 1831. Subsequently, in pleading before the court of cassation on behalf of one of the rioters, in 1846 Barrot made a tour in the Near East, returning in time to take part a second time in the preliminaries of revolution. He organized banquets of the disaffected in the cities of France. He did not foresee the strength of the outbreak for which his eloquence had prepared the way and he tried to support the regency of the duchess in the chamber on 24 February, only to find that the time was past for half-measures. After the Revolution of 1848, Barrot acquiesced in the republic, in the December 1848 election for President of the republic, Napoleon won with 5,434,266 votes to 1,448,107 for Cavaignac. Napoleon took his oath on 20 December 1848 a day ahead of schedule, and appointed a ministry that included Barrot, Barrot was Minister of Justice and president of the council of ministers when Napoleon was absent. Following national elections, the Constituent Assembly was replaced by the Legislative Assembly, on 2 June 1849 a new ministry was announced, again headed by Barrot. It included de Tocqueville as Minister of Foreign Affairs and this ministry was dissolved by Napoleon on 31 October 1849. The new ministry did not have a president when Napoleon was absent, a biographer said that Barrot had hoped to extract Liberal measures, but was dismissed as soon as he had served the presidents purpose of avoiding open conflict
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Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
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Count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte was a French admiral. Aged fifteen, he joined the navy as a midshipman and served in Morocco, the Baltic Sea, noted for his strategic skills, he was called to Paris in 1775 to help the Secretary of State prepare the order to reorganise the Navy. In 1778, as a Squadron Commander, he took part in the Battle of Ouessant on the Saint-Esprit, during one month, he captured thirteen ships. During the American Revolutionary War, Picquet de la Motte distinguished himself as a member of Admiral dEstaings squadron in Martinique, during the Battle of Grenada, eustatius which the British had captured in February 1781. Picquet de la Motte captured 26 British ships, along with Rodneys plunder in the amount of 5 million sterling, soon afterwards he was promoted to Lieutenant General of the Naval Armies. Picquet de la Motte died in 1791, after years of service. Four vessels of the French Navy have been named in his honour, the Paris Métro station La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement of Paris was also named after him. Lastly, there is a street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris named after him, French ship La Motte-Picquet Franco-American alliance
