French Revolution And Napoleon By: DeStiny Harding-fItch
What Were The Causes Of The French Revolution?
Inequality in society was caused by a social and political structure called the Old Order. Under the Old Order, the King was placed on top, and then under him were three social groups, or estates. During the revolution Louis XVI was the King. He was shy and indecisive, but he wasn't cruel. His wife, Marie-Antoinette, on the other hand, liked to live in luxury while the common people wore rags. The rest of the French society was broken down into the three estates. These social groups varied in how much work or taxes they contributed to France. The First Estate was made up of the Roman Catholic clergy. This was about 1% of the population. The clergy didn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else. They had several privileges since Middle Ages. The clergy is the wealthiest of the Three Estates, so many resented them.
The second Estate was made up of the nobility. They were less than 2% of the population. The nobility controlled much of the country's wealth, but still had to pay few taxes. the third estate is divided into two other groups, and is made up of about 97% of the population. At the top was the bourgeoise, which was lawyers, and doctors, etc. in the middle were the erosions and city workers, called sansculottes. At the bottom, are the peasants. They work the hardest, and pay the most. They are the most upset about things not being equal. Another cause was poor leadership from Louiis XVI.
Napoleon Is A Hero
Napolean, in my eyes was a hero. He had a plan, a goal, and he didn't stop at anything to achieve it. He wanted to establish a more equal and fair government system. By making the Bank of France Napoleon stable the French economy wherever the previous leaders of France had unsuccessful and created the French pay the best currency altogether of Europe. The Education reforms that Napoleon introduced in 1802 known as lycees allowed this equality to occur and increased the manner of learning for all of the voters. the intense rift with the Roman church was recovered once The compact was introduced by Napoleon. Napoleon wasn't solely an excellent leader, he additionally was a military genius. Napoleon won several battles to expand France and was invariably welcome back to France as a hero.
Through Napoleans works, he gave his a people a way of national identity. Nationalism allowed the state of France to try and place confidence in. due to the Napoleanic code, every state was granted a constitution, that provided a universal male equality and a parliament containing a bill of rights. The code additionally gave male French voters freedom from arrest while not due process of law, equality of taxation and therefore the right to decide on one's work. Napoleon established a way, known as the Legion of Honor, within which he might reward voters for his or her services and loyalty. Napolean ought to be comsidered a hero for all of his major contributions he created.
The World's Reaction
One of the biggest impacts that Napoleon had was that he caused a major backlash against his ideas and against the prospect that a single country could dominate Europe. Another reaction to Napoleon was the move towards more conservative governments in most of Europe. The leaders of the European countries were worried that the ideas of the French Revolution would spread to their own countries. Therefore, they enacted laws and set up systems that made it harder for liberal ideas to take hold in Europe. This led to such things as the failed revolution in Germany in 1848. Another major impact that Napoleon had came about when people actually followed his ideas. Perhaps the most important of these was nationalism. Napoleon relied on and promoted the idea that French people should feel proud of their country and should feel connected to it. He used this nationalism to help create his huge and dedicated military force.
This influenced people in other countries, leading to the rise of nationalism in those countries. The forces of nationalism helped to bring about, for example, the later unifications of Italy and Germany. Napoleon also introduced the idea of liberalism and the laws of the Napoleonic Code to many European countries. The ideas of liberalism inspired many people to want to change their countries' systems (for example, in the German revolution mentioned above). The Napoleonic Code improved the legal systems of many European countries. He did indirectly impact the Americas in important ways. When his armies conquered Spain and Portugal, they disrupted those countries’ ability to rule their colonies in Central and South America. This helped cause the wars of liberation in those areas in the 1800s. In addition, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States, thus making the US much larger and eventually much more powerful. The nationalism that Napoleon fostered also had its impact in other countries of the world, eventually leading many colonized countries to rebel against their colonial rulers.
Napoleon did not affect Europe and the world in the ways that he probably intended. Even so, he did have a significant impact on Europe and on the world as a whole.