...French Revolution and Napoleonic Era Essay By: Danny Buck October 31, 2014 Mr. Murphy French Revolution and Napoleonic Era Essay In this essay I am going to attempt to explain how certain ideas and ideals affected the French Revolution and its participants. The world had already under gone political changes by the time that the French Revolution came along. The United States had declared its independence from Great Britain and had fought a war of independence. Great Britain has been governed mostly by parliament since the 1700’s. As I understand it, parliament has grown stronger over the years and the monarchy has grown weaker. It was now France’s turn at independence and democracy. However that did not happen for a while. Their first step was getting rid of the monarchy. Liberty Liberty means being free and not being bound by the old ways and the old ideas. By the time of the French Revolution, the people were ready for liberty. Many philosophers for years had written about liberty and other ideas that rejected the feudal system and keeping people in bondage. The Age of Enlightenment had come to Europe and the old systems of power and faith were changing. Since the 1650’s philosophers had been writing about new ideas and new ways of thinking and the people of France finally embraced those ideas near the end of the eighteenth century. The French people were suffering in poverty and they realized the power of the monarchy was keeping them that way and that...
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...The French Revolution is considered to be one of the greatest victories of the 18th century. The lower and middle classes united, and together overthrew their aristocratic oppressors to achieve an ideal place of liberty, equality, and community. Or so it would seem. The years following the defeat of the royal family and their court were a time where fear and terror ruled. Despite the initial goals of liberty, equality, and community for all, these promises were broken during what is now known as the Reign of Terror. The abuse, murder, and unease of this time were contradictory to what the Revolution was supposed to advocate. The French Revolution was a movement designed to liberate the common people from the oppression of aristocratic classes....
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...The French Revolution: The French Revolution was a time for spreading out and finding freedom for the French. It was a way for the French to recreate their government to give some kind of equality for their people. Though for woman in that time period it was still a struggle for equal rights during the rest of country’s upheaval. The French Revolution was caused by a downfall in the royal family, having to do with serious financial issues. King Louis XVI call in the French Estates General in 1788, to help with the financial crisis the country was going through (Doyle). The Estate General was divided into three estates: First Estate representing the upper class, the Second Estate representing middle class, and the Third Estate representing the lower class. There was one vote for each estate, and in the past the Second Estate and the First Estate had joined together to defeat any proposals for reform from the Third Estate. The Third Estate was determined that would not be so in the current assembly and pushed for the vote of each representative to be counted as a separate vote. They were not able to agree on a voting method. Leading the Third Estate and the lower half Second Estate to break away from the Estates General, forming the National Assembly on June 17, 1789 (Doyle). King Louis XVI admitted defeat on June 27, first appeasing then confrontational ordered his nobles, and the upper half Second Estate to join the National Assembly effectively ending the Estates General...
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...3. Did the Atlantic Revolutions fulfill or betray the goals of those who made them? Consider this question in both short and long-term perspectives. Although the Atlantic Revolutions helped gain some semblance of independence, it strayed away from the initial goals the regions had wanted. Although North America managed to gain freedom from British rule, its colonies were still constructed the same. Social transformation did not occur, even though many citizens thought that they were creating a “new order for the ages” within the society. This conservative movement achieved the existing liberties of the colonies instead of making new ones. The French Revolution focused their efforts to create a new society of social equality and remove the presence of monarchy. And although the country became a republic and passed universal male suffrage, it was never implemented any further. The gender roles of during the French Revolution were not fully supported by the male population, even though women sought to become more active in the major events of the revolution....
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...allowing for peaceful and steady changes of government. The foundations of modern-day democracy can be found in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the popularity of enlightenment ideals and the rise of an intellectual community that gave way to a growing criticism of absolute governments. All across Europe and even the Americas, dissatisfaction with the government grew as increased taxes and isolation from the ruling classes led to poverty, and ultimately revolts and disturbances targeted towards the absolute monarchies. In Switzerland and the Austrian Netherlands, urban radicals rejected the authority of Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. The American Revolution began with the colonial elite dissatisfaction with the government in London, while Britain and France had a succession of absolutist leaders who refused to share governing rights. The abuse and misuse of power by absolute monarchs inexorably led to the rise of modern democracy, as evident in the gradual decrease of monarchal power in Britain, and the French and American revolutions. The rise of democracy in Britain was a gradual change in power spanning multiple centuries and royal families. The ideals of democracy can be traced back to the Magna Carta, a charter that notorious absolute monarch King John of England was forced to sign in 1215, which introduced rights such as habeas corpus and the right for nobles to be...
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...University of Phoenix Material French Revolution and Napoleonic Era Worksheet 1. Essay Explain, in 1,050 to 1,400 words, how the following ideas and ideals influenced the events and motivated the participants in the French Revolution: • Liberty • Equality • Brotherhood • Hubris • Fiscal irresponsibility • Democracy • Technology Please see bottom of paper for essay 2. Napoleonic Timeline For each date and location, identify the significant event that occurred and write a single-sentence description of the event. |August 15, 1769 |Napoleon Bonaparte is born in Ajaccio, Corsica. | |Ajaccio, Corsica | | |July 4, 1776 |The 13 original colonies met in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence, | | |declaring themselves free of British rule and taxation." | |Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | | |July 14, 1789 |Citizens of Paris started the French Revolution by storming the Bastille prison and | | ...
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...and is made up by the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. This country is about the size of the state Maryland in the U.S. Haiti is two-thirds mountainous, with the rest of the country made up of countless valleys, widespread plateaus, and small plains. Agriculture is the prime economic activity in Haiti. Subsistence crops include cassava, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, yams, corn, and plantains. Most Haitians own and farm small pieces of land throughout the country. The great population density has caused rural poverty and is also a major factor in the country's extensive deforestation, which has contributed to the scarcity of agricultural land. Haiti's biggest exports are light manufactures and coffee; other exports include oils, cocoa, mangoes, sugar, sisal, and bauxite. Haitians' exports are mainly agricultural goods and services: 66% of the population work in agriculture, 9% in industry and 25% in services, yet 28% of the profit comes from agriculture, 20% from industry and 52% from services (CIA, 2010). The United States is the country's primary trading partner. Industry in Haiti consists largely of light assembly of imported parts and the...
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...terror of the guillotine – the French Revolution has all of the ingredients of an engrossing drama. Yet to delve beneath the surface of these characters and symbols is to discover the complexity of this transformative era. The events of the French Revolution, transpiring over the span of a decade, were part of a grander Age of Revolutions and at the same time were comprised of a series of smaller stories of individual French citizens becoming politically engaged amidst tremendous poverty, intellectual transformation, and ultimately... violence. A combination of factors including rising expectations spurred by the Enlightenment, massive starvation, and frustration with the mismanagement of an inept monarchy pushed the Revolution’s initial aims. These aims were worn down as political conflicts splintered revolutionary groups and led to a frenzy of executions by guillotine. The special two-hour presentation, The French Revolution, peels through the layers of these remarkable years, from 1789 through the turn of a new century, to reveal an era of intense and lasting political and intellectual change. While the complexity of the French Revolution might seem to present daunting challenges, its significance in shaping international currents merits a careful exploration. Within the course of a decade, the French monarchy was shorn of its political power, a framework was created for a universal understanding of basic human and civil rights, and countless French citizens across class backgrounds...
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...American and French Revolutions: Compared and Contrasted The history of the human race always has been, and most likely will always be, that of evolution and revolution. – Lewis F. Korns, Thoughts A revolution occurs when one government is overthrown and replaced with another (Yahoo). The American and French revolutions can be both compared and contrasted in their origins and outcomes. Both revolutions began due to the common peoples’ need to obtain independence and liberty from an oppressive government (2). The American Revolution was triggered by the American colonists’ need for financial independence from the overpowering nation of Great Britain, while the French revolution was a struggle to gain social equality among the masses. Although the American and French Revolutions were fought over some of the same ideas, the American Revolution is considered more "conservative" than the French is (2). The intent of the American revolutionaries was not to initiate a revolution, but rather to gain their freedom from a "long train of abuses" (Jensen). In contrast, the French were trying to cause a true revolution because they were not just fighting for freedom but rather to over throw and remove the monarchy (3). The American revolutionaries had no choice but to defend their liberties and the tactics used by the Americans were not as directly aggressive as those used by the French. The American and French Revolution both have...
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...Gutenberg – Johannes Gutenberg was “a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher”. Gutenberg started the Printing Revolution by introducing printing to Europe after he invented the printing press. Many people in Europe were unable to read, but after the invention of the printing press, many books became available and literacy levels rose. This invention also lead to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The Enlightenment was a time when people could think for themselves and new ideas were expressed. Without the printing press to publish new ideas from philosophers such as John Locke, people would not know about new ideas of society or government. Since new ideas about the government were being published, this lead to the French Revolution. Without the information of the government, common people would have been unable to overthrow the French government. Immanuel Kant – Immanuel Kant was a German...
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...flowed into Haiti, but every day remained a struggle for survival. 230,000 Haitians were killed instantly, morgues soon overflowed, and the stench of flesh contaminated the streets. The death toll grew so large that corpses were hauled to mass graves to be buried with hundreds of their fellow countrymen. Identities were lost forever, and hundreds and thousands of children were orphaned and left homeless. The scale of the disaster was massive beyond comprehension, and foreign aid reached only small fractions of the population. The outside world began to ask, “What would it take to rebuild Haiti?” More importantly, “What would it take to remove Haiti from their 200 year pattern of poverty and failure (Smith)?” Throughout its history, Haiti has constantly depended on foreign aid, especially from the United States and France. Today, over two years after the earthquake, they’re still in great need of assistance. We as Americans owe it to our resilient Caribbean brothers to lead them to a prosperous and thriving future. While helping in Haiti, Paul Halvorsen, a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, speaks of the Haitian people saying, “you would not believe when you look in their eyes how strong they are and how much hope they have” (Huttes 4). In order to lead Haiti to a better future, foreign aid organizations need to focus on educating Haitians, which will lead to economic stimulus and a more self-sufficient...
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...natives to the island, were able to stay alive and set up villages elsewhere. Spanish attentiveness in Hispaniola began to diminish in the 1520s, as more profitable gold and silver deposits were found in Mexico and South America. It was the decreasing interest in Hispaniola that allowed the French to create a colony in the early 1600s. French buccaneers created a settlement on the island of Tortuga in 1625, and were soon united with like-minded English and Dutch privateers and pirates, who formed a anarchistic international community that survived by marauding Spanish ships and hunting wild cattle. Before the Seven Years' War (1756–63), the economy of Hispaniola slowly expanded, with sugar and coffee becoming important export crops. After the war the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported 72 million pounds of raw sugar and 51 million pounds of refined sugar, one million pounds of indigo, and two million pounds of cotton (Grolier, 1998). Haiti became known as the "Pearl of the Antilles" – one of the richest colonies in the 18th century French empire. By the 1780s, Haiti manufactured about 40 percent of all the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee consumed in Europe. After the French...
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...to the expansion of America into the vast country that exists today? The War of 1812 began as a conflict to prevent the further violation of American rights by European empires. Following the war, the United States began to have broader ideas for how vast the country needed to be to express the power and development of the country. Numerous social, political, and economic factors took hold of Americans as conflicting ideas and beliefs of both the citizens and the government led to the expansion of the country that the United States exists...
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...objectives. Why did it succeed or fail? Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History; Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives; Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades 2. How did anti-Semitism manifest itself in medieval Europe? Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe; Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages; Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the Thirteenth Century 3. What was the position of prostitutes in medieval society? Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women; Leah Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 4. Why did the French choose to follow Joan of Arc during the the Hundred Years War? Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc: A Military Leader; Bonnie Wheeler, ed., Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 5. Discuss the significance of siege warfare during the crusades. You may narrow this question down to a single crusade if you wish. Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege; Randall Rogers, Latin Siege Warfare in the Twelfth Century; John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade 6. Why did the persecution of heretics increase during the high and later Middle Ages? You may focus on the persecution of one heretical group if you...
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...around the navigation acts. The victory in the French and Indian war saw British holdings in North America double. Vast forests opened to the west, teeming with a wide variety of resources. However, the war had been incredibly costly, and in 1763, the largest empire in the world found itself deeply in debt. Parliament sought to alleviate some of that debt by looking to the colonies. The argument was that the war had been fought to protect the colonies, therefore, they should be expected to help pay for it – despite the promises made earlier that Britain would bear the cost of the war. The most obvious way to generate revenue was to raise taxes. Initially, revenue would be generated by enforcing laws already on the books, such as the tax on sugar...
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