The document summarizes key events and reforms during the French Revolution from 1789 to 1799, including: 1) Military reforms before the Revolution focused on improving artillery equipment/logistics under Gribeauval and foreshadowing Napoleonic warfare tactics under Guibert. 2) The initial setbacks for French forces in opening engagements and the pivotal Battle of Valmy in 1792 that marked a turning point. 3) The counterrevolution in Vendée region due to religious and political causes and the shifting balance of power in engagements between royalist and revolutionary forces. 4) The levée en masse military conscription policy that drew recruits from the entire nation under central

1. The French Revolution
1789-1799
LifeLearn
18 October 2010
Session V Aux Armes, Citoyens! (Citizens, to Arms!)
I. Military Reforms before the Revolution
A. Introduction-the Marseillaise
B. Gribeauval & Guibert
1. artillery-Gribeauval
a. equipment and logistics
2. strategy & tactics-Guibert
a. foreshadows Napoleonic warfare and the levee en masse
II. Opening Engagements
A. initial setbacks
1. the leadership
a. Dumouriez & Dillon
b. slow but inexorable German advance
B. Valmy 20 September 1792
1. how did it happen?
C aftermath
1. the changed battlefield
a. Jemappes 7 November
b. the international revolution
III. Counterrevolution in the Vendée
A. causes
1. religion
2. the draft
B. course
1. initial victories
a. Thouars
2. the balance of forces shifts
a. Cholet
3. La virée de Galerne
a. Granville
b. Le Mans & Savenay
c. genocide?

2. IV. Levée en Masse
A. “the nation in arms”
1. the concept
2. difference from the original army recruitment
a. sources and rules
b. central control- Réprésentant en mission
B. national workshops
V. “Organizer of Victory”
A. Carnot
B. Flanders
1. Hondschoote
a. Houchard
b. Allied sloth French victory
c. Houchard’s fate
2. Wattignies 15-16 October 1793
a. General Jourdan-his challenges
b. the battle
c. its significance? aftermath for Jourdan?
C. Haiti
1. the Revolution comes to the New World
2. emancipationrebellionwarpoverty
VI. The Rush upon Europe
A. Poland disappears
B. the Southern Front
1. see-saw war with Spain
C Italy
1. spread revolution or plunder?
D. war at sea
1. “The Glorious First of June” –both sides claim victory
E Fleurus 26 June 1794
1. Flanders Front
2. the battle
a. first use of aircraft in war
F. the Rhineland
G. the Batavian Republic
jbp
18 September 2010