New Confidence In France As A Nation example essay topic

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was a military and political genius of historic proportions. As Emperor (self-proclaimed in 1804), he established a strong central administration and code of law, consolidating and institutionalizing many of the reforms of the French Revolution. More so than any former ruler, including Louis XVI, Maximilien Robespierre or the Directory, Napoleon brought stability where financial, political, and social turmoil had previously reigned. War had plunged the country into debt and brought about an economic recession.

The middle class, or the bourgeoisie, felt strangulation by the nobility and the clergy, preventing them from progressing socially or politically. During the ten years of the revolution, the political systems in France were replaced with an ever-changing series of governments. None lasted for more than a few years. The ruler, and King, of France at the beginning of the Revolution in 1789, was Louis XVI.

He ruled as an absolute monarch, yet his abuses of the National Assembly and his excesses of power ultimately brought about his downfall. Louis tried to flee the country, but was captured and brought back to Paris where he was tried and sentenced to death by the guillotine (by one vote) for treason. Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobins, who instituted France's first republic, held power after Louis' execution. Despite the new republican fervor and the nominally naming of the Republic, he ruled as absolutely as the monarchy he replaced.

Following the Reign of Terror from 1793 to 1794, and the resurgence of more moderate political elements, Robespierre was beheaded in July 1794. In 1795, the National Convention drafted a new constitution forming yet a new governmental system known as the Directory. In the Directory, members of a legislative assembly chose a five-man executive force. However, its leadership used the army to nullify their elections and thus similarly to the dictatorship it tried to replace.

Following a series of military defeats in 1799, the Directory lost power to a charismatic and fast rising new general, Napoleon Bonaparte. As the efforts of the Revolution to establish a stable representative government had failed, France replaced it with the rule of a military genius. Initially, Napoleon suggested power be held by an executive board of three consuls. However, unlimited power was soon invested in him alone as First Consul. Under this new system, significant reforms were made in the fields of banking, religion, the legal system, and education. Additionally, Napoleon, after many decisive military victories, established France as an empire, and himself as Emperor.

Under his rule, France experienced a time of internal stability, such that had not existed under any of the former governmental systems either before or during the Revolution. Napoleon used his military genius to conquer much of Europe. In the kingdoms he created, the Napoleonic Code was established as law thus abolishing Feudalism and serfdom. New religious reforms were made. In 1801, Napoleon persuaded the Pope to sign a concordat that recognized Catholicism as the major religion of France.

States were granted a constitution, providing for universal male suffrage and a parliament. French style administrative and judicial systems were instituted. Schools were placed under centralized administrations, and free public schooling was envisioned. Higher education was opened to all who qualified, regardless of class or religion. Napoleon aimed to create a teaching hierarchy to keep rigid class instruction so as to insure the quality training needed to further enhance his army. These school systems were headed by a powerful board of education located in Paris.

Every state had an academy or institute for the promotion of the arts and sciences. Incomes were provided for eminent scholars, especially scientists. Constitutional government remained only a promise, but progress and increased efficiency were widely realized. It was not until after Napoleon's fall did the common people of Europe, alienated from his governments by war taxes and military conscription, fully appreciate the benefits he had given them. The Revolution transformed France from a nation in shambles to a unified power. It enhanced the power of the national state and the bourgeoisie.

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars tore down the ancient structure of Europe as a feudal society in which power rested in the hands of an absolute monarch and the nobility. After the downfall of the Directory, Napoleon instituted France's first national army, whose notion was to bring peace to France, now a unified nation. Napoleon inaugurated the era of modern warfare hastening the advent of nationalism. After the Revolution, the aspect of a feudal society in which the nation's armies were not unified, but rather controlled by the nobility, was extinguished. New foreign policies induced a new confidence in France as a nation, thereby making internal reforms possible. Under the dictatorial and militaristic rule of Napoleon, France enjoyed a time of stability previously unseen.

Napoleon was and is revered as a national hero in France, and as a military genius by his enemies. The Duke of Wellington, in preparation for the Battle of Waterloo, once said", I consider Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men... ". He brought stability to a nation wracked by ten years of bloody turmoil. He institutionalized the theories and beliefs that led to the Revolution and the overthrow of the Monarchy. With the Revolution, Napoleon left as his enduring legacy, a nation rich in democracy, liberty and national pride, the effects of which influenced the future political direction of much of Europe.