Napoleon craved land and power. The point of the French Revolution was to gain freedom and to no longer have a monarchy. However, this was not shown after Napoleon conquered Italy. According to (Doc 7), Napoleon “considered himself entitled to strip all of his conquered Italian territories of their cultural and artistic treasures.” Napoleon is taking Italy’s way of life and more or less declaring them as Frenchmen with this conquer. He says “Rome is no longer Rome. The whole of Rome is in Paris.” Napoleon removed their right to remain Italians, which is the equivalent of removing their freedom all together.
Before Napoleon was praised as a wonderful leader by the people of France he was a supporter of Robespierre and had been friends with Robespierre brother Augustus. He was sentenced to house arrest in Nice after he had been a supporter of the Jacobins club during The Reign of Terror. Napoleon had won fame in December 1793 at the siege of Toulon after he forced the “British army out of Toulon, where they had been supporting a royalist army”. (Atlantic revolution and reform to 1918) the Directory that governed France at the time promoted Napoleon. In 1795 he was the Major General of the French army when he impressed the Directory by putting an end to the uprising of the Royalist in Paris.
When it comes to Napoleon there are two views you can have. He was a hero, a champion of the revolutionary ideals who almost united Europe under one flag. He was a demon, a villain who betrayed the revolution that he came into power through, and he dealt more damage to it than all of the ancien regime combined. Some major figures in European history have had the former opinion, Charles De Gaulle, while others have had the latter opinion, Ludwig van Beethoven. Personally, when I think about what happened before, during, and after the revolution, as well as the basic causes and the core of the revolution, I have to agree with the later opinion despite my deep and heartfelt admiration for both Napoleon and his accomplishments. When it comes down to it, I believe that while Napoleon truly did embrace and admire the enlightenment ideals, he was both too quick to force the revolution on others and too proud to let anyone else but himself champion it. In order to better understand the question it is important to know what exactly Napoleon betrayed. The revolution as it relates to France first started showing progress in America with the United States’ Declaration of Independence from English rule. The government that was founded from the American revolution was created based on enlightenment ideals such as civil liberties, a theory put forward by John Locke that government was put into place not by God for reasons only he could fathom but rather by the people in order to protect
Napoleon Bonaparte was the emperor of France after the French revolution. He was a great leader, but also might be considered a dictator of sorts. After the revolution Napoleon was said to have brought peace to the people of France in a time of distress. When Napoleon was leader he ended up both upholding and undermining the ideals and goals of the French revolution. Napoleon upheld the revolution by creating equality for all men, and by making a meritocracy, but he also undermined it by taking away most if not all of the women's rights, and taking away freedom of the press.
At the start of the French Revolution, Napoleon shared the same radical ideas as many of the French people at the time. However once he became emperor, maintaining power and control became more important than the interest of the people. It is debatable whether or not he was a democratic reformer or absolute dictator because even though he was able to create stability in post-revolutionary France, he also centralized power around himself.
Following the Reign of Terror, France was ruled by a corrupt five-man governing body called the Directory, which was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte through a coup d’état. Napoleon, a military general, rose to power through a series of military conquests and eventually became the First Consul of the French Republic. The French people viewed Napoleon favorably, as his military and political genius would likely lead to the creation of a prosperous and united France. Moreover, they believed that he would uphold the ideas they had fought for during the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. While Napoleon stabilized and united French society by supporting the liberty of his people and ensuring equality of opportunity in education
French port of Toulon, occupied by the British, he was appointed general at the age of 26 in 1793. This marked the beginning of the Napoleonic Era, which would change the course of European history for centuries. However, despite claiming to be a strong supporter of the French Revolution, Napoleon mostly undermined the goals of the Revolution by violating the Declaration of the Rights of Man, insisting on returning to principles of the Old Regime in regards to women, the imposition of taxes and the re-establishment of the social elite. Nonetheless, Napoleon still supported the main goals of the Revolution by establishing the Civil Code and supporting the peasantry by lowering bread prices.
The French Revolution was a time when French citizens decided that they no longer wanted to be under the rule of King Louis XVI , who abused his power and they had decided to take a stand.During the revolution there were many deaths,and extremists, that things went haywire and their society did not improve at all. Then, Napoleon took the revolution into his own hands by becoming their ruler and improved French society. Based on his actions, people have been arguing whether Napoleon was an autocratic dictator, someone who used their power for themselves or a democratic reformer, someone who gave power to the people and valued equality .In various documents involving Napoleon’s conversations with others, his thoughts and opinions on certain topics, it is a fact that Napoleon was a democratic reformer.
On the 2 December 1804 was Napoleon di Buonaparte coroneted emperor over the empires he had created from dust and blood, the empire that stretched from the beaches of Corsica to the dunes of the Netherlands. Why did he create this huge empire and what was his goals and destiny that he had planned for it? Napoleon had a dream that he needed to fulfil. He wanted to build an empire out of Europe for the sake of unity and control, this dream was fuelled by his great knowledge of history. This knowledge of history can also be noted when analysing his military tactics and advancements. He wanted to fulfil this dream by taking over every nook and cranny of the European continent by overwhelming them with his huge military force. His first step to unity and aristocracy throughout Europe was to put a code that he had engineered into effect in France, the code
First, Napoleon won many battles along the way while using his great military tactics. His first battle that he won was in the French port of Toulon. Then he won some battles against the Austrians which gave him most of northern Italy. This forced the Hapsburg emperor to make peace. This is just the beginning of the battles that he has won for his country. Over time, he started to gain more power over the people. Then he felt that he had so much power as to crown himself as emperor of France. A quote that supports this idea is when, “Napoleon took the
Napoleon is an opportunist who took advantage of the instability created by the French revolution to seize power and then to initiate a series of wars which further devastated Europe. First of all, Napoleon's own selfish desire caused additional bloodshed. Next, Napoleon's unfaithful behaviors highlighted Napoleon never follows the rule properly and always attempted to break rules. Last but not least, Napoleon's ruthless style showed Napoleon has only attached importance to the results and ignored the cardinal process. On the whole, Napoleon is an opportunist because of Napoleon's selfish desire, the unfaithful behaviors, and the ruthless style.
Napoleon began his rise to power through numerous opportunities that were presented to him through the French Revolution. Napoleon was able to gain most of his power not only in France, but also directly and indirectly throughout the majority of the continent of Europe. Looking at Madame de Remusat’s earliest writings, it is clear that
These countries were Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Napoleon was only able to build this Empire because of those countries the reason being they signed the peace treaties. They were not completely under his control though but they were controlled by threats of the military. Another reason why I don't think he really needed to worry about the outside forces of his Empire is because he didn't control most of them he controlled the inside so he needed to focus on what was going on inside the Empire so it would be successful and not fall apart. But that didn't happen the Empire only lasted for five years so as for all of the outside forces they saw that Napoleon wasn't doing what he was suppose to so that is what his Empire resulted in. In conclusion, I think the forces inside of the French Empire were more important to control concerning, Napoleons power and how long the Empires itself
Napoleon 's defeat began in the Russian campaign, which put a stain on the image of the invincible general. Furthermore, Napoleon was appointed as a traitor of the republican ideals of the French Revolution, because of the return from the noble principles of the aristocracy. Other factors that contributed to his decline were the instability on the thrones occupied
Napoleon is like a lot of other people they do stuff to become leaders and gain power and control. They use other people's ideas and say that it was theirs