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History notes chapter 23 The French Revolution Napoleon
Napoleon Foreign And Domestic Policy
Napoleon ideas of the french revolution
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Napoleon was not a tyrant and his ideas helped farther the French revolution. Napoleon disagreed with the idea that everything should be set up by social rank. When he gained power in the military, he said that positions should be decided by abilities and not your social standing. This made a great impression on the people and it supported the revolutionary ideas. Napoleon was very gifted in the military and he helped strengthen the French army. The army captured new territories such has Northern Italy and the Netherlands. When the government turned into three legislatives Napoleon took the highest ranking position. After he crowned himself emperor he put new rules in place and fought for new ideas. He lowered taxes and created a budget for the government, so they wouldn’t overspend. He also wanted …show more content…
When Napoleon first moved to France he hated how everything was set up by social rank and the amount of money people made. He thought most things should be set up by one’s ability’s. So when he gained a high military power he made sure positions were decided by the people’s abilities. This wasn’t the only enlightened thought he had, “He opened a network of public schools and teacher’s colleges and even wrote some of the textbooks himself—with a little help from university scholars” (Napoleon, Kimberly Heuston). Napoleon wanted a fair education for all and thought everyone deserved one. So he decided to open a chain of schools, to help the people who didn’t already go to school. The last thing to spread the enlighten ideas was the Napoleonic code. This code made sure that all men’s rights were equal, even if they were from lower estate. It allowed freedom of religion for all men. It also put napoleons idea of jobs based on abilities into a document. These are the enlightened ideas he had help to increase France further into the French
During his rule, Napoleon called himself an emperor, but he acted like the kings before him. The French Revolution stood against the idea of one leader with all authority over one country and promoted liberty, equality, and fraternity. The French citizens did not glorify Napoleon as a king because he gave his people sovereignty over political situations. He used plebiscites or voting to spread equality, however, the majority was always in favor of Napoleon. This happened due to fear because he was the strongest man in Europe at the time. He idolized himself as a hero, saving the French people from the
Being a supporter of equivalent rights, he picked up notoriety with the French individuals. After some time, Napoleon utilized these standards to increment and set his energy.
After the Reign of Terror, Napoleon Bonaparte rose to authority. When he was in power, Napoleon only kept some of the ideas that were used in the French Revolution. For example he was for equality, but disregarded liberty. Napoleon started many wars for France, in hopes of gaining land. France did win some land, but more times than not France lost the wars, putting them into extreme war debt.
Napoleon Bonaparte had crowned himself Emperor of the Grand Empire in 1804 and believed himself to be equal to god with his own divinity. He had given émigrés that had taken a loyalty oath high positions in his government and recreated the imperial nobility. He believed that only the rich and talented deserved an education and higher paying jobs, while women and the lower class did not deserve any sort of education. Women had lost many rights they had gained in the 1790s and basically became the property of their fathers/husbands. (McKay, pp 607)
Napoleon had been influenced and guided by the revolution, but he was able to use it to his ends. One of Napoleons greatest strengths was being able to take advantage of a situation, and he certainly was able to utilize the chaos and fear of the revolution. He is forever intertwined with the French Revolution, and it with him.
Napoleon was able to grant French citizens natural rights, which was the main purpose of the Revolution, and use this to better society as a whole. For example, he used a plebiscite, vote of the people, to approve a new constitution that gave him power to rule. By getting the consent of the people to rule and to create and pursue certain actions in government, Napoleon used the governed as a ruling mechanism; he didn't ignore them. He created a system of meritocracy (what the people wanted): granting positions to those that deserved them based on qualifications, not just handing out jobs to people of higher social status giving “careers open to talent (Coffin and Stacey, 494).” Finally through his supremacy as French ruler,...
... help herself) Napoleon is a timeless example of an enlightened despot. The bible still has not fully recovered from the rationality of his church. His codified law system is still active in France and the great state of Louisiana. Mankind today clutches desperately at his social ideologies. Though a modern thinker may say the only thing that keeps Napoleon from being enlightened is lack of democracy, the writer sitting in this chair thinks that the only thing that keeps democracy from being Napoleon is enlightenment. Had Napoleon been born merely fifty years earlier he may have been a trendsetter of the enlightenment. Or he might have been a fisherman. Regardless, Napoleon was a child of the enlightenment and not a parent. He followed the ideas presented by that period with such strategy and genius, people are still writing papers about it. (By choice?)
Napoleon maintained the Revolutionary system of conscription and encouraged promotion based on ability.... ... middle of paper ... ... Broers, Michael.
But his flaws do not negate all the good that he did. Napoleon’s Civil Code is still in use today. I won’t get into specifics on the Napoleonic Code, but they obviously did a lot of good for France and, by extension, the entire world. Napoleon transformed a frantic France, still reeling from the aftermath of the French Revolution, into a thriving country. I think it is safe to say that France was a collectively better place during the Napoleonic Era than it had been in the time directly before it. He gave the people the freedom to choose their own religion in a society that had, for so long, been told what to do and what to worship by the
There are theories that Napoleon’s men shot the nose off the Sphinx. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica and trained as a military officer. He became a commander fighting in Italy. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and made himself the leader. Five years later, he crowned himself Emperor.
One of Napoleon’s first areas of concern was in the strengthening of the French government. He created a strong centralized government and pretty much got rid of the hundreds of localized law codes that had existed during under the control of the monarchy. He also created an army of government officials. He had the entire country linked under a rational administration. He also was able to get an easy supply of taxes and soldiers under his new and improved French government. Before he could get very far, however, he had to gain public favor and shape the public opinion. To do this he used reforms of propaganda and thus caused people to think that they were getting the better end of the deal, but were actually, subconsciously giving Napoleon their approval for his actions. Among some of the methods he used for propaganda included getting all of the printers and book sellers to swear an oath to Napoleon and all newspapers fell under state control, so Napoleon gained access to almost everything that the citizens of France were able to read. Many of the gains from the French Revolution were kept, such as equality before the law, and careers open to talent. Some anti-revolution actions that Napoleon took included repressing liberty, restoring absolutism, and ending political liberty. He believed that allowing political freedom would end with a state of anarchy. He believed that he could solve these problems by acting in favor of the people’s interests as an enlightened desp...
Napoleon was out to build an empire, but force, and to aggrandize him-self and France. The people of France, for a while, accepted this ego boost and went along with it (until the deaths started happening). In the USA people wanted to build the USA as a country, but mostly by occupying and developing what they considered empty or under used land (the land that Napoleon conquered,was with people and highly used for farms). While both wanted to annex more land, their view of the land and those people's were widely different. On March 21, 1804, Napoleon instituted the Napoleonic Code, otherwise known as the French Civil Code, parts of which are still used around the world today.
Certain individuals approved of Napoleon's reign as the saviour of France. He finished and completed the Revolution by fulfilling the ideals the people of France demanded. A person such as one belonging to the bourgeoisie, or even a peasant would be very satisfied with the way Napoleon ruled over the country. He gave them equality, freedom, justice, and many rights. Such things never existed during the reign of the monarchs before Napoleon stepped in. A banker too would be very affirmative on how Napoleon had truly helped France in its economic problems. He made the franc the most stable currency in Europe, and the banker had witnessed that, as probably one of the bankers of the Bank of France. Another type of individual that agrees that Napoleon isn't the destroyer of the ideals of the Revolution would be his soldiers and generals. He had fought alongside with his men in many battles. Through inspiration, he gained their loyalty, to "follow him to the stars" if he asked them to. Such inspiration would never be gained if he never respected them, if he never treated them fairly. And then, the "Legion of Honour", which awarded to some certain citizens for their civil and military achievements.
Napoleon Bonaparte was an interesting ruler in that he was compromised of attributes of both a tyrant and a hero. Napoleon had a strong following throughout his reign and even during his two exiles. He was the emperor of France between 1799 and 1815, following the fall of the Directory. Despite the efforts of the French Revolution to rid the country of an autocratic ruler, Bonaparte came to power as Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I in 1804. He claimed that he preserved the goals of the Revolution, which can be easily argued as his rule became more dictatorial as it progressed. Despite his departure from some of the gains of the Revolution, he overall was a hero for the French people. Through his military ventures, political changes and social reform, Napoleon proved himself as a hero. This is not to say that there were aspects of his reign that were tyrannical, but he was overall beneficial for France.
Throughout Napoleon’s reign, he advocated the secularization of religious education in schools, signifying a major shift in church-state relations in France. Napoleon Bonaparte worked diligently to raise the standards of the educational system, to make it more appealing than religious schools. For the duration of his reign over 30 lycées were established which provided educational opportunities beyond secondary schools and replaced écoles centrales (public secondary schools that were religiously centered). He placed a lycée in every court district which were supported by the state, and provided one third of scholarships to sons of military and government figures, and two thirds of scholarships went to the “best and the brightest.” Lycées were a six-year study, building on the work of the secondary schools.