Through the history of the world, the people of Earth have seen every kind of leader. We’ve seen good leaders, average leaders, and terrible leaders. Many cases in France’s history they have had many leaders go through all of these ranks. For example, Napoleon Bonaparte started out great and slowly went down hill. But never in France’s history have they seen such a terrible leader as King Louie the XVI. Louie was not exactly king material. Louie was fat, shy, gluttonous, gentle, weak minded, not particularly smart and unambitious . He was everything a king shouldn’t be. As the French king Louie made just about every mistake a king could possibly make. These mistakes lead to the French Revolution and even the beheading of King Louie. Throughout Louie’s rein one mistake stands out more than any other. The biggest mistake Louie made was when he bribed the Austrian princess Marie Antoniette at the age of fifteen . Because of Antoniette and Louie’s passion for her France underwent a horrible time period. She is the worst queen France has ever seen. Blinded by beauty, she led to Louie’s death and the uprising of the French people.
Louie upon taking his first glance at Marie was breathtaking. Marie Antoinette is depicted as an absolute beauty . But beauty is at the eye of the beholder, plus she was the queen so many portraits of her might have been fudged a bit to make the unbeautiful seem gorgeous. Marie was actually not all that attractive. She had body problems, such as a hump and other deformities. Louie, despite the look of her, was in love at first sight. In 1770 by ways of bribes and offers to the Antoinette family the two were married.
The bribe to get Marie’s hand in marriage was one of the first mistakes that Louie had faced. Louie showered Marie with jewelry and hundreds of dresses. Marie got exactly what she asked for every time she asked for it. This had a horrible affect on the economy in France. All of this buying of dresses and jewelry for the queen was depleting the French money. She was said to have dresses of gold. Some dresses even were covered in diamonds. Marie had a huge amount of dresses all different and all extravagant. There is little doubt that Marie was one of the most well dressed queens in France’s history. Not only did she need dresses, she wanted many other exotic things...
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... people on October 16, 1793 the revolutionaries put Marie Antoinette to death by guillotine . This really made Austria mad at France making them a enemy to France.
For all of these reasons and more I believe that the biggest reason for the downfall of Louis XVI and the French revolution is Marie Antoinette. There is hundreds of cases where you can go through and point to different mistakes Marie made. If it was not for this woman history would be a lot different as we know it. France may not have went through all the hell they went through in the years following. Marie Antoinette was the worst mistake Louis XVI made in his rein of France.
Bibliography
Conrad, Lindsay, Who was more detrimental to the French Revolution: Marie Antoinette or Louis XVI?, http://www.aviators.stark.k12.oh.us/Historian/Onlinepolling/france1789.htm
Fay, Bernard, Louis XVI The End of a World, (London: W.H. Allen, 1968)
Furneaux, Rupert, The Last Days of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, (New York: The John Day Company, 1971
Wikipedia encyclopedia, Affair of the Diamond Necklace, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Necklace_Affair
In 1765, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, her father, died of a stroke. He left Maria Theresa his position, and gave their eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, the throne. Because of this political, it became a requirement for Marie Antoinette to marry Louis Auguste. Her mother sent her to France and agreed on this marriage. It was hard to adjus...
Beginning in mid-1789, and lasting until late-1799, the French Revolution vastly changed the nation of France throughout its ten years. From the storming of the Bastille, the ousting of the royal family, the Reign of Terror, and all the way to the Napoleonic period, France changed vastly during this time. But, for the better part of the last 200 years, the effects that the French Revolution had on the nation, have been vigorously debated by historian and other experts. Aspects of debate have focused around how much change the revolution really caused, and the type of change, as well as whether the changes that it brought about should be looked at as positive or negative. Furthermore, many debate whether the Revolutions excesses and shortcomings can be justified by the gains that the revolution brought throughout the country. Over time, historians’ views on these questions have changed continually, leading many to question the different interpretations and theories behind the Revolutions effectiveness at shaping France and the rest of the world.
From the beginning, Beloved focuses on the import of memory and history. Sethe struggles daily with the haunting legacy of slavery, in the form of her threatening memories and also in the form of her daughter’s aggressive ghost. For Sethe, the present is mostly a struggle to beat back the past, because the memories of her daughter’s death and the experiences at Sweet Home are too painful for her to recall consciously. But Sethe’s repression is problematic, because the absence of history and memory inhibits the construction of a stable identity. Even Sethe’s hard-won freedom is threatened by her inability to confront her prior life. Paul D’s arrival gives Sethe the opportunity and the impetus to finally come to terms with her painful life history.
Did Beloved’s death come out of love or selfish pride? In preventing her child from going into slavery, Sethe, too, protected herself; she prevented herself from re-entering captivity. In examining Sethe’s character we can see that her motivations derive from her deep love towards her children, and from the lack of love for herself. Sethe’s children are her only good quality. Her children are a part of her and in killing one she kills ...
In order to gain the power he desired as an absolute monarch, Louis used a few key techniques that were very successful. His first and most necessary step to get all control was to take all of the nobles’ power, and make it so they were completely under his control. He first did this by taking the nobles’ positions of power, and either getting rid of them by doing it himself, or giving the jobs to loyal middleclass or some nobles who were completely loyal and under his control. Louis had very simple reasoning for doing this, which was that if the nobles had any power or control, they would have a better chance of overthrowing him, and that since there can only be so much total power, the more they had, the less ...
This piece of writing gave more and deeper understanding how other facts have effects on our life as procrastinators. In this research, I came to very important information. This new idea I never imagined that was connected to my behavior as a procrastinator which was "Procrastination is a psychological phenomenon that extends broadly in society. Ferrari, O’Callahan, and Newbegin (2005) reported that 61% of the population display some form of procrastination, of which 20% do so in a chronic manner (e.g., routinely late for deadlines and postponing impor-tant tasks daily or weekly)" (Mun ̃oz-Olano, J. F., & Hurtado-Parrado, C. 2). As I mentioned before procrastination is not the same as laziness. Procrastination has to be with our psychological
...from slavery as well as the misery slavery itself causes her. Ultimately, Sethe makes a choice to let go of the past as she releases Beloved's hand and thus moves on to the future. In the very last segment of the novel, the narrator notes that finally "they forgot [Beloved]. Like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep" (290). Sethe no longer represses history but actually lets it go. As a result, Beloved becomes nothing more than "an unpleasant dream," suggesting that she does not exist as a real person, but rather has no substance as a mere fantasy or hallucination which has no value to the community or to Sethe, Denver, or Paul D. Sethe moves on with her life as she has already faced the past, tried to make amends for her mistakes, and finally realizes her own value in life.
The dangerous aspect of Sethe's love is first established with the comments of Paul D regarding her attachment to Denver. At page 54, when Sethe refuses to hear Paul D criticize Denver, he thinks: "Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous( )" he deems Sethe's attachment dangerous because he believes that when "( ) they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack ( )" having such a strong love will prevent her from going on with her life. Paul D's remarks indicate that evidently the loved one of a slave is taken away. Mothers are separated from their children, husbands from their wives and whole families are destroyed; slaves are not given the right to claim their loved ones. Having experienced such atrocities, Paul D realizes that the deep love Sethe bears for her daughter will onl...
In our lives today, dogs and cats are exceedingly valuable. They help calm people with anxiety, assist the sick and disordered, and aid the depressed. Although, thousands of years ago, dogs were domesticated by humans and put to useful tasks, such as, hunting, herding and guarding. Cats, however, were tamed for only one thing and that was to catch rodents. There might not be a lot about how they came to be, but hopefully that will change. Without cats and dogs in our lives things would be more challenging for most.
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The French citizens were correct in overthrowing the French monarchy because King Louis XVI was a poor leader. One of the qualities that made King Louis XVI a poor leader was that he was not interested in ruling the country. According to the World History Textbook, “He was easily bored with affairs of state and much preferred to spend his time in physical activities.” (Beck Roger, Black Linda, Krieger, Larry, Naylor Phillip, Shabaka Dahia, 653) It is obvious that King Louis XVI was more interested in personal enjoyment then the livelihood of his country. He would rather be noble having fun rather than being a leader making decisions for his country. When King Louis XVI was removed from power, he was given what he wanted, the escape from the affairs of state. Another example why King L...
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Jean Plaidy and John Russell are both Historians who opposed the idea of Marie Antoinette having any responsibility in the invoking nor the starting of the French Revolution. Plaidy and Russell both state that the Dauphin’s only duty to France and her people was to simply bore the country an heir to continue the reign of the Bourbon Dynasty. Thus, the Dauphine’s duties were not to foresee the country’s affairs, organise and implement laws nor take part in government relations, accordingly, Marie Antoinette was not responsible for the French Revolution because firstly, she eventually bore the country and heir and fulfilled her duties and secondly, the country’s affairs such as the laws and how the government operated were never her responsibilities,
LGBT rights have changed in many ways throughout the years. The idea of being a part of the LGBT community has been around for a long time. People who are LGBT go through many rough patches during life. Many of their rights have been taken away, because many people don’t agree with it. They face abuse, discrimination, threats, and many other things. The LGBT community should be treated with respect like any other person, but that’s not what they always get.