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Revolutions 1688-1815

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Louis XIV’s bedroom in Versailles. Each day officially began with a ceremony of getting him out of bed, his “rising,” and ended with a similar retiring ceremony at night. The small fence was to keep the onlookers at a safe distance, somewhat like a fence at a zoo.

hen William and Mary ascended to the British throne in 1688 it was hailed as “the Glorious Revolution” for no blood had been shed and the British had a nation with greater political freedom than any other in Europe. Their ascent to the throne was quickly followed by a Declaration of Rights which guaranteed things like trial by jury and parliamentary representation to all British citizens. John Locke, the author and philosopher who supplied much of the intellectual foundation of the glorious resolution wrote in his Second Treatise on Government: “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men…” Locke further contended that the role of government is to preserve these rights and that the power of government is a result of the individual citizens collectively agreeing to be ruled. In July of 1776 Thomas Jefferson would modify Locke’s treatment of natural rights into the following words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That

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Chapter 15 to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Ironically, during this time of expanding liberty in England and America there was a corresponding increase in kingly powers in other nations—particularly France. Louis XIV ruled for so long (1643-1715 -72 years—the longest of any recorded monarch) that his pattern of governance came to be accepted as the way things were done. In an age when the average life expectancy was somewhere between 35 and 40, His reign was so long that his successor, Louis XV, was not his son nor grandson; he was his great-grandson. In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the limited religious freedom established in France during the late 16th century. Louis XV became king at the ripe old age of five and was on the throne for the next 58 ½ years. Think of it, 130 years and your nation has had only two leaders. This incredibly long period further created a sense of royal isolation from the Louis XVI conditions of the non-noble classes. Still, the two Louis’s felt that they were acting in the national best interest by living their lives on public display, by championing a flamboyant and elegant lifestyle and creating a standard of taste and style which would be the envy of all Europe. All other kings wanted to be like France. For the rest of Europe political liberties for the masses were an afterthought at best. There were the so-called “enlightened despots” like Frederick the Great of Prussia, who improved the power, prestige and

gardens of Frederick the Great

Revolutions 161 living conditions of his subjects, but did little to extend political rights to his subjects. His home outside Berlin, Sanssouci (“no worries”) seems to reflect the great gulf between royal happiness and common misery that was the social norm for most of Europe. His gardens and music pavilion reflect the ostentation of the age. Not so in Britain where the political gains that came from the Glorious Revolution became an expectation for all politically active citizens. This was especially true of British colonists living in America. Americans wanted to have the same rights as their cousins living in England—a representative form of government, trial by jury, and the right to petition Parliament for redress of grievances. A costly war between Britain and France would thus sow the seeds for the second and third great revolutions of the age.

music pavilion of Frederick the Great

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The Seven Years’ War
When France and Britain fought over territorial and trade rights throughout both Europe, the Americas and even in India, the British victory had far reaching effects. France lost her holdings in Canada and the Ohio River Valley. But with this victory Britain was now faced with a larger territory to administer and defend. The American colonists, who expected rewards of land grants for having helped England in the “French and Indian War,” were angered to find even more taxes levied on them by Parliament. So much for a “peace dividend.” While the amount of taxation was small—smaller by far than that collected of Britons in the mother country—it was the principle these colonists found repugnant. They were not treated like other Britons, yet they were English subjects. Political protest and revolt in New England led to the posting of regular British troops in Boston and other areas of New England. The Americans even had to house the British in their own homes. The delegates of the 13 colonies held a continental congress to present a unified front to the crown. Events soon spiraled out of their control as armed rebels in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts fought a group of British regulars in April of 1775. War had come to the colonies. In an act of great political wisdom, John Adams nominated Virginia’s George Washington as commander of the soon to be formed Continental army. Congress agreed. By having a Southerner in charge, it was no longer a fight for New England alone. In a Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms Thomas Jefferson in 1775 explained the reasons for the fight:
Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. — Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. — We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death. In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

Thomas Jefferson

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1783 Bronze medal struck in France commemorating American Revolution

By 1776, the fight shifted from one of restoration of rights into a war for independence from Great Britain. The writings of Thomas Paine in his pamphlets, Common Sense and The American Crisis created what John Adams called “a revolution of the mind.” Americans began to see themselves as a separate people. By July 1776, John Locke’s ideas on government had been transformed by Jefferson, Adams and Benjamin Franklin into the Declaration of Independence. Immediately after declaring independence America sought help from France against her old enemy. But Louis XVI was not anxious to enter another losing proposition against Great Britain. It wasn’t until 1777, after an American victory at Saratoga, New York, that France agreed to send troops and provide the colonists with naval support. Ben Franklin would spend the next six years in France trying to raise additional money. The French intervention helped turn the tide against Britain and four years later, 1781, a combined Franco-American force under the command of Washington and Rochambeau defeated the British in Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American revolution. Little did Louis realize that by defeating the British he had sown the seeds of his own overthrow. The revolutionaries in America had become popular—almost mythic figures in France. Returning French veterans couldn’t help but wonder if the defeat of Great Britain in the name of democracy couldn’t have the same application at home.

the Oath of the Horatii, David

The French Revolution
The desire of greater political participation on the part of French citizens was now more openly discussed. The painter David was as much a revolutionary as an artist. He spent nearly three years in Rome working on a massive painting, The Oath of the Horatii. Pictured are the sons of Horace in ancient Rome swearing their allegiance to the Roman Republic. David and others hoped that the American Revolution would spark something similar in France. Economically France was in trouble. The huge cost of sup-

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Chapter 15 porting the Americans had emptied much of the French treasury. Then came an extraordinarily bad harvest followed by an exceptionally hard winter in 1788-89. This meant little money was in circulation; income was low. Since government taxes are based on a percentage of a healthy economy the tax revenues plummeted, and the government faced a major financial crisis. How can we raise money? Young Louis XVI decided on a desperate political move, he convened a national assembly the Estates General, something that hadn’t been done for 175 years! This assembly had no direct power to make law and create policy. Rather, it served as an advisory/ legislative body at the service of the king. It was divided into three “states” or ranks based on social class. The 1st estate was the nobil-

Oath of the Tennis Court, David

ity and the king—those who wore wigs and who were above the law; the 2nd was the clergy and all church officials. The final third, more than 95% of the population, was everyone else: the middle class—shop owners, land-owners (the bourgeoisie), and the poor. People who make the laws often find ways to exclude themselves and pass the burden on to others. France was controlled by the 1st and 2nd Estates who thus paid no tax, so the burden of

Revolutions 165 rescuing France’s failing economy fell squarely on the shoulders of the people in the greatest distress, the farmers and merchants of the nation, the working people whose taxes paid for it all (the poor paid no tax at all, just like America today). Fired by the American Revolution where neither Church nor aristocracy ruled, they declared, on June 17, 1789, the 3rd Estate had the power to create a national constitution. A few days later the group went to meet and The famous Bastille no longer exists; it was torn down by the mobs, but this building gives you a good idea of its appearance. found the doors locked and guarded by soldiers—the (And, just so you know, “dungeon” means “fortified tower” in king was getting worried. No locked door has ever French. It’s a place for keeping prisoners.). stopped a meeting; the group simply moved into a nearby tennis court (the French invented tennis) and swore an oath to not disband until a new constitution was created. A few (smart) nobles and clergy joined in. David painted the moment where they swore the oath. He symbolically had the three estates embrace in the foreground of the painting. Within a few weeks the tension turned from oath-making to life-taking. On July 14, 1789 an armed mob stormed the Bastille, a royal prison and armory in the center of Paris. The dungeon had previously been for political prisoners, but by this time it housed only a few guards and some lunatics. More importantly, the Bastille was both a symbol of royal oppression and a ready supply of weapons. The taking of the Bastille was the first real and symbolic victory of the rebels. Just as we in America honor July 4, the French today honor July 14 as their independence day. The French Revolution shook the rest of Europe. Centuries of class animosity boiled over as peasants sent thousands of nobles to their deaths. Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to a constitutional monarchy and greatly reduced royal powers (he was even forced to wear a revolutionary cap in public). A Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the newly formed National Assembly (congress).

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Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Louis tried sneaking out of the country at about the same time his father-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, invaded France to prevent anti-royalist sentiment from spilling beyond France’s borders. Almost to the Austrian border and safety, Louis was discovered and brought back to Paris; he was sent to the guillotine in 1793. A short time later his wife Marie Antoinette was also sent to the guillotine. No w c a m e r e venge. One of the chief instigators of violence against the nobility was a man named Jean-Paul Marat. His pamphlets led to the execution of many so-called enemies of the revolution. He was actually a bit of a recluse—doing most of his writing while seated in a bathtub, yes, in a bathtub—to ease a painful skin condition. One day, a woman named Charlotte Corday asked to speak with him in his “office.” She was related to a minor noble who had been sent to the guillotine by Marat. Presenting him with a letter of introduction, she quickly stabbed him to death. When news of his murder became public, David was summoned to the scene of the crime to memorialize this martyr. His painting is a perfect example of the new Classical style—finely drawn, and no ornamentation. You can even see the knife at the bottom of the painting, and read the letter in his hand. The revolution would last ten years, from 1789 to 1799. It would light the fires of Europe as nation after nation would rise against an oppressive nobility and demand freedom. Have you read The Scarlet Pimpernel or Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities? Both are famous stories of life at this time. The French Revolution was an attempt to completely reconfigure France—politically, socially, scientifically, and religiously. No longer would there be a noble class. Some zealous revolutionaries even lopped off the heads of the statues of the kings of

Death of Marat, David

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Israel on the façade of Notre Dame Cathedral! A new social rank was formed: everyone was now a citizen. This word carried no title, no honor, no prestige; all men were equal. The national assembly adopted a tricolor flag (blue and white were the traditional French colors; red was added for the blood spilled during the revolution. The assembly next declared (1793) that France was officially an atheist nation and that the new state church (yes, it does sound contradictory) was the Cult of Reason. Notre Dame in Paris was renamed the Temple of Reason. The people didn’t take to this very well, and so the Cult of Reason was soon replaced by the Cult of the Supreme Being—it wasn’t atheist, just a sort of generic deism. Eventually people returned to their Catholicism, but the distrust of the clergy remained. France would never again be a “religious” nation. The assembly devised a new approach of measurement, stripping away royal and religiously based models. Time was measured starting with the revolution. So instead of 1789 it was known as Year I (always with Roman numerals). Each year consisted of twelve months composed of three ten-day weeks (the tenth day was one of rest). Originally days were to consist of ten hours of ten 100-second minutes, but that part was too much for clock-makers to bear. Instead of January, February, March, etc. the new months were named things like Themidor (a hot month), Floreal (when the flowers started blooming), and Pluviose (the rainy season). Other forms of measurement changed. On the 18th of Germinal in Year III (ok, it was April 7, 1795 for us non-revolutionaries) France adopted a new decimal based system with the gram as the basic unit of weight. Liquid also used this method, a cubic centimeter of water weighed one gram, a liter of water would equal a kilogram. The metric system was born. Centimeters replaced inches, kilometers miles, etc. Here then is a vestige of the French Revolution that has been adopted the world over (except for the English-speaking world, where we still cling to the old, royally-based English system which has no logic at all—a yard is the distance from the king’s nose (Henry I) to his outstretched thumb, or an inch being the width of a man’s thumb. This was eventually replaced by a much more accurate unit of length: three grains of barley placed end to end!)

The head of another member of the aristocracy

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The US is virtually alone in a metric world.

IT’S A METRIC WORLD In 1670 a vicar in central France proposed a new system of measurement. For his constant he chose the diameter of the earth, and used the length of one minute of the earth’s arc as its base (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters). The next step came from a committee which recommended a different length, equal to one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the North Pole, a quarter of the globe. It’s roughly 39 inches. The genius came next: all other units were to be created by using fractions of that base number, by simply moving the decimal left or right in multiples of ten. A centimeter was 1/100 of the meter, a millimeter was 1/1000, etc. If we went larger a kilometer was 1,000 meters. It was logical, extremely easy to grasp, and it didn’t rely on the old conventions of measurements from the days of kings, where a yard was the distance from the king’s nose to his outstretched thumb, or an inch being the length between his first and second knuckles. The French Revolution pushed this proposal, and in 1790 it was adopted. Using the Greek metron the committee named the metre (we spell it meter) as the standard unit. Since a meter

is only a few inches more than our yard English speaking countries didn’t give the new French measurements much attention—it was just the French doing their thing. The next step was to use the meter as a basis for weight and volume. The committee measured out one cubic centimeter (1/100 of a meter) of water; this became the basis for volume, 1000 of these being a liter (slightly more than a quart). The weight of that amount of water became a gram, the basic unit of weight. A kilo is 1000 grams 2.2 pounds) so (about 84 kilos. a 185lb man weighs The temperature scale was also changed to be based on water—when water froze it was 0°; when water boiled it was 100°. Somehow that’s much more logical than 32° and 212°. (And even that is dependant upon elevation. Water at our elevation boils at about 203°.) One of the oddest science stories you’ll ever read is how we arrived at 32° and 212° as the base units in the Fahrenheit system. This new system was so easy to grasp that

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it wasn’t difficult for all countries conquered by Napoleon (Europe and northern Africa) to adopt it. Like today’s euro, it made it easier to move goods between countries. By 1840 most of the western world used the metric system; it was especially popular with scientists. American scientists also joined, but not the public, and although Congress tried to convert the masses it didn’t succeed. In 1968, realizing that most of the earth was using the metric system, Congress again tried to implement it. They proposed a 10 year conversion period and immediately road signs began posting distances in both miles and kilometers. But because it was only a suggestion, not a law, the public refused to budge. Worse, the Big Three auto manufacturers also refused, claiming the costs of retooling would be prohibitive. By 1980 the attempt had failed. In 1992 Congress made all product labels carry both English and metric amounts. It was necessary for American products to sell in a world market where everyone expected to read the label in metric amounts. But at home Americans wouldn’t budge, so today we in America are still about the only spot on earth which isn’t metric.

Here’s a thermometer that will work in Rome or Rexburg. Ask a European if it will be hot today and he might respond, “Yes, in the 30’s.”

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The Rise of Bonaparte
Before the French Revolution the only way a military man could achieve a high rank was to be of noble birth (a member of the 2nd Estate). The Revolution changed all of that. In the later part of the 1790s a young major from the island of Corsica was stationed in Paris. He was promoted to general after firing cannons into a French mob protesting the cruelty of the new regime. Next he was sent to Italy to fight against an Austrian army. He planned his strategy carefully, going so far as to personally aim some of the cannons. Cannon sighting was a job usually reserved for enlisted men, but following the victory, his troops began to admiringly refer to Napoleon Bonaparte as “the little corporal” because he acted like a common soldier. Success followed success and soon Napoleon was gaining great influence among the Directory (the new governing body). He was a “gifted” writer (he knew how to stretch the truth) and recognized the power of image in self-promotion. He boldly took an army to Egypt with the hopes of destroying British trade routes to India and gaining the wealth of

Napoleon, David

Napoleon’s coronation, David

Revolutions 171 an interesting stone. It had three inscriptions on it: ancient Greek, Demotic (a sort of ancient Egyptian script), and hieroglyphics. At this time nobody on earth knew how to read either Demotic or hieroglyphic, so the stone became an object of intense scrutiny. A young French mathematician and linguist, Jean-Francois Champollion, worked 14 years to decode the languages. The Rosetta Stone was the major breakthrough in beginning to understand all things ancient Egyptian. While the Egyptian expedition was a military and financial disaster, Bonaparte managed to convince the French it was a triumph, and returned home a national hero. His reward was to be placed as one of three leaders of the Directory, the new head of government. In 1799, he was “elected” First Consul—a sort of Roman title (although some would say he simply seized power in a military coup and was then elected). By 1803 Napoleon, who was continually winning victories and declared to the people “I am the revolution” (and sounding very much like Louis XIV’s “I am the State”), decided that what was needed was a new focus of power. The following year he invited the Pope to Notre Dame for a coronation. But the Revolution was not about to have a king, and Napoleon was too smart to use that word. Instead he became an emperor—the old Roman title. When time for the crowning came, rather than kneel while the Pope placed it on his head, Napoleon simply took the crown from the pope and crowned both himself and Josephine, thereby indicating he would not be subservient to any Pope or church. The artist David, who by now was enamored of Bonaparte, had become the official portraitist/propagandist of Napoleon. His enormous canvas of the coronation shows a man who had out-Louised any

Rosetta stone, brought back from Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. It was the key to understanding hieroglyphics.

the Ottomans. He failed on both accounts, but he took a large number of scholars, artists, and others along with him to Egypt and virtually created what became Egyptology. While expanding their fort near the town of Rosetta, some of his troops uncovered

Popular history (probably myth) says it was Napoleon’s troops who used a cannon to shoot off the nose of the sphinx.

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Chapter 15 of the previous Louises. Napoleon next looked to expand his influence into North America. First he had his brother declared king of Spain. Then he transferred Spain’s Louisiana territory to France. Napoleon thought that he could use this territory for trade and agriculture for France’s Caribbean holdings, but a revolt in Haiti changed that. Add to that the power of the British navy and its domination of the Atlantic and Napoleon soon realized his future lay in Europe. Desperately in need of money and seeing no way he could defend his American lands, he finally he agreed to sell the Louisiana territory (named for Louis XV) to the United States. It was the former minister to France, Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded in doubling our nation’s territory with this purchase.

THE ROCOCO
Prior to the Revolution the nobility of France, and by extension the nobles of most of the rest of Europe, adopted a rather extreme form of baroque that came to be known as Rococo. The new style was a bit lighter, less formal, and less ponderous than the Baroque, but it was still over-the-top. All spaces were to be ornamented; more was better. The style soon spread to Southern Germany and Austria. The painting, sculpture, architecture, and music of this period is highly ornamented and theatrical; like whipped cream it’s lighter but more trivial in content. The power of the baroque is gone. Above all the rococo was designed to entertain the viewer or listener, but these were of the nobility alone. This was an age which moved quickly toward revolution for it The Rococo period is best seen in the architectural interiors of churches and palaces of showed the silliness and the period. Here’s a church interior in Munich. We’d say it was a bit overdone, but for waste of the upper classes. that day and age it was perfect.

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A NEW EMPIRE; A NEW STYLE
Napoleon wanted Paris to become a new Rome. His conquest of Italy put him in contact with the grandeur of ancient Rome, a style he loved and quickly adopted. Thus the architecture of Neo-Classical France resembled Rome, with post-and-lintel buildings, all of white marble, triumphal arches, Greek orders and imperial eagles. The triumphal arches in Paris (one big, one smaller) were recreations of a Roman power symbol. The clean lines of classicism removed the ostentation of both the Baroque and its garish step-child, the Rococo. This style represented the complete shift of view of the time, for if the baroque was to be equated with kings, then the Neo-Classic was to be seen as a victory of the people, the common man. The Neo-Classical style in architecture quickly gained popularity throughout the west not only due to Napoleon’s influence, but also as an outgrowth of the excavation of the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. This search for things ancient, the rediscovered worlds of Greece and Rome and their governments, were also adopted by the early architects of the new American republic. Thomas Jefferson sought to reflect republican and democratic values through architecture. He even copied Rome’s Pantheon for the central building of his new University of Virginia. This “old is new” mania spread to fashion as well. Look at the difference in the dresses of Louis XV’s Madame de Pompadour compared with David’s painting of the Napoleonic Madame Recamier. Frilliness has been

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Pantheon style at University of Virginia

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Chapter 15 replaced by sort of a Roman toga look, and simplicity is paramount. Enjoying the movie star status of our day, everything Madame Recamier did or wore was immediately copied by all. But she didn’t like this portrait because David left her hair a light brown when in fact it was coal black. Like any monarch Napoleon wanted to expand his empire, and for years it seemed he would ultimately conquer all of Europe, and even into

Madame Recamier, David

Madame de Pompadour, Boucher

Russia. He saw himself in the center of a new world empire. But two pieces of his overall plan refused to fall into place. Spain was not easily conquered, and the war there ended in a long-lasting entanglement from which the French army never fully recovered. Resistance was strong, and is brutally depicted in highly political paintings by Goya. Russia was the second piece of the Napoleonic pie which refused to be eaten. In fact, his invasion of Russia marked the beginning of his end. In 1812 he entered Russia with an army of 600,000. After months of marching, the Grande Army and the Russians finally came to blows at Borodino, just outside Moscow. The battle was inconclusive, ending with a Russian retreat and Napoleon’s dwindling army finally entered Moscow. But it was a hollow victory. In a pre-planned move the Russians began systematically burning the city, so Napoleon and his smaller force turned toward France. A horror followed. Harsh winter weather, sporadic attacks by roving bands

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of Cossacks, and almost no food at all did to Napoleon’s army what no enemy had been able to do before. Of the 600,000 who marched into Russia, the red-stained mud and snow bore brutal testament of the magnitude of the disaster. Only about 90,000 soldiers retuned to France. With his bitter Russian defeat Napoleon abdicated and was sent into exile on Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean, just south of France. Representatives of European nations quickly gathered in Vienna to determine the shape of Post-Napoleonic Europe. The empire was carved up, nations reconfigured and alliances formed. But there was no leadership. Seeing his empire collapse was one thing, but seeing a body without a head, even disunity among the victors, made Napoleon realize the new rulers were hollow, and he decided to return. He left Elba, landed in southern France, and began a march toward Paris. All along the route his old forces rallied to his side; it was like the good old days. He decided to risk everything on a single attack against a combined English-Prussian force gathered north of France in Belgium, near the town of Waterloo. You know the rest. Napoleon lost, and was

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Chapter 15 finally exiled to perhaps the most remote place on Earth, the tiny island of St. Helena, located hundreds of miles west of Africa, far from anything. In Napoleon’s day it was one of the most isolated islands in the world. Within a few short years the former master of Europe, the personification of the Revolution, was dead. He had failed to live up to his ideals; the lust for power ruined him. He died saying, “they wanted me to be another Washington.” (Washington was known throughout Europe as the man who was offered a kingship and turned it down. No one in Europe could believe such a person could exist.) These two revolutions would change the course of history. The American Revolution—Divinely inspired—had achieved its goal and its people were now free. The French Revolution would completely reshape the minds and values of Europe for it gave hope to the common man, a hope unimaginable before this time.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, David

Aftermath
The French revolution brought about several major changes: • The removal of religion. No longer would there be a “state” religion, nor would religion have the power it had held for the past 1,500 years. In fact, it proved the death knell for religion; from this point on religion in Europe would, in spite of the religious revival in America, slowly but surely fade in importance. In its place came philosophy, as Man, still seeking the ultimate answers, tried to explain the world around him through the ideas of other men. Since God had muddled things, allowing wars and untold human suffering, He must be dismissed and in His place Science and Reason, especially the latter. The moral code of the Bible would be replaced with the moral code of the current political leader, and it would change as leaders changed. • The codification of laws. The law would now apply to all men. Previously the upper classes were exempt, as was the king and the church. Both Greece and Rome had used common law but by 1800 the common man was allowed a say in creating laws, something previously unbelievable. • End of kings. From this point on the world would refuse the notion of kings as some divinely inspired individual,

Washington and his favorite Arab Stallion.

Revolutions 177 selected by God. As mentioned above, religion was no longer important; thus any individual claiming to be your king by Divine Right was rejected. Governors, mayors and presidents would be the new leaders. • Removal of social rank Prior to the French revolution the genteel elements of society wore titles such as duke, squire, marquis, earl, baron, etc. and were all addressed as “My lord.” Napoleon’s world introduced a completely new word: citizen. Gone were all titles and in their place one, single term, implying all men were equal. Today’s Mr. or Mrs. has the same effect. • The metric system: a simple, logical system used by virtually all of today’s world, except America. These changes formed the base of our present world.

Our government buildings are white marble, done in the Greek style, because America copied Napoleon’s style

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