Napoleon Bonaparte, a french political and military leader driven by his intellect, ego and want for control, that would soon have him turn against the ideals of the french revolution. The Corsican native would be sent at an early age to be taught and raised in École Militaire France. After graduating in only one year he would be moving up through the military ranks using his picture perfect memory and ingenious war tactics to one day make him the first Consul of France. With France putting faith in this one man to maintain the revolution, he would take it one step too far and absolutely throw away what the french revolution is all about. As a result, Napoleon can not possibly be a heir but should be called the betrayer to the ideals of french …show more content…
The ideal of liberty is contested when, Napoleon reduce through censorship 73 political journals down to nine and banned any new ones from being published through the use of his police, effectively taking away any freedom of the press. Moreover his backstabbing continues as he brings back slavery from its abolishment in 1794, which takes away the freedom and rights of men and women who over 8 years had lived free lives. Also with the people’s loss of liberty, their equality was challenged too. Since he rose to power opposition was non-existent against Napoleon due to all men not being allowed to be elected or even remotely rise to a status equivalent of Napoleon. Finally, sense of fraternity was torn down as the first, second and third estate was present once again due to Napoleon's return of nobility, his monarchy and the peasants never leaving France. With this in mind, Napoleon continues to show betrayal to everything that the revolution stands for by not maintaining the ideals of liberty ,equality and …show more content…
Since they were one of the biggest losers due their loss of land,income, hospitals making it is clear that the people of the revolution wanted nothing to do with them. Yet again, Napoleon turns a blind eye to the ideals and brings back the church into the state of France. Through the signing of the Concordat Roman Catholicism is returned to be France’s national religion. In addition, the Roman Catholic church is in charge of all elementary school learning making new generations more likely to adopt the Catholic faith. To furthermore add insult to injury, citizen tax money would be given to the clergy for pay as the state would be in charge of wages of the church. Napoleon would be paying the very people the revolution sought to get rid of. For these reasons, Napoleon has continuously proven to be a traitor working with the
Some historians have argued that Napoleon Bonaparte betrayed the ideals of the French Revolution. Those ideals were “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. He betrayed the people by denying them liberty. Napoleon crowned himself emperor thereby denying equality to his people. Napoleon showed that he did not value fraternity by abandoning his troops.
Napoleon did not always follow through with his theories and ideas about the well being of France with actions, making him very hypocritical; there are however some contrasting points to suggest that not all his choices were insincere. Therefore his initial claims and theories were not completed, his actions contradicted his preliminary ideas. Consequently, Napoleon betrayed the ideas of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
In France in 1789, A revolution began. The people of France were fighting for their inalienable rights such as freedom from serfdom , equality between the classes. Within this chaos in France, Napoleon, a new thinker, came about and changed France in many ways. Napoleon's policies can be seen as preserving the legacy of the French Revolution by giving equality to the lower classes and creating a governmental system that helped to put the people in charge of their sovereignty, however it can be seen as hurting the legacy by protecting the ideas of absolutism.
Few humans have ever come as close to ruling over the entirety of Europe as Napoleon Bonaparte did. As the end of the French Revolution drew near, Napoleon Bonaparte did not hesitate long to create policies that kept him in power. With such power, it was certain that Napoleon would use it to influence to people all over Europe. Napoleon’s impact on the people of France and Europe, who he affected through propaganda, his ideas of nationalism and patriotism, and a codification of laws, was a very long-standing and resilient ideology that was mostly prevalent during the French Revolution.
France defeated them, then formed plans to protect their new government, spread their revolutionary ideas (liberty, equality, and fraternity), and to punish the French émigrés who joined them. Most of their plans are considerably acceptable, but "punishing" the French émigrés likely means execution from the guillotine, which is, once again, taking it a step too far. An inside threat was a counterrevolution that broke out in the Vendée region in 1793 by those who were against the military draft (levée en masse) and France's attempts to abolish Christianity. If the revolutionary government was all for liberty and equality, then it's hypocritical that they would try to abolish Christianity if they believed in religious toleration, and the military drafts only limits one's freedom. Because of this, it resulted in the death of 80,000 French people on both sides (Source
In order to investigate the claim that ‘Napoleon betrayed the revolution’, it has to be determined what is the French revolution? And what are the revolutionary ideals that Napoleon allegedly betrayed? If Napoleon betrayed the Revolution then he betrayed the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. However if Napoleon did not betray the revolution, he consolidated the revolutionary ideals. The only way of determining whether Napoleon consolidated or betrayed the revolution is to explore his actions such as his military success, Dictatorship and social reforms. The difficulty of this analysis is that Napoleons motives for his actions determine whether he consolidated or betrayed the Revolution.
Imagine back to the French Revolution. It was a time of hardship and suffering for the common person. This revolution was built on the ideals of the Enlightenment and had the mantra of liberty, equality, and fraternity. These ideals were never truly put into effect throughout this bloody revolution, nor after it with the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. Quite the opposite, as Napoleon betrayed the ideals of the French Revolution by being a selfish dictator, manipulating the people of Europe, and being a cruel leader.
Napoleon managed to maintain the lesser ideals of the French Revolution. However, he managed to do this by giving all of the former ideals a ‘twist’ of his own if he was displeased by them. This included the fact that he re-wrote the constitution that had previously been written; he partially reversed the relationship with the Church, turning France into a Catholic country. It can also be stated that the way he gained power was against the French Revolution’s ideals: and this was the very beginning! On the other hand, Napoleon managed to maintain equal taxation, which had previously been a big issue, especially for the poor. Distinction was removed and there were no privileges for any parties neither was there a way to ‘sneak out’ of
With all the glory and the splendour that some countries may have experienced, never has history seen how only only one man, Napoleon, brought up his country France from its most tormented status, to the very pinnacle of its height in just a few years time. He was a military hero who won splendid land-based battles, which allowed him to dominate most of the European continent. He was a man with ambition, great self-control and calculation, a great strategist, a genius; whatever it was, he was simply the best. But, even though how great this person was, something about how he governed France still floats among people 's minds. Did he abuse his power? Did Napoleon defeat the purpose of the ideals of the French Revolution? After all of his success in his military campaigns, did he gratify the people 's needs regarding their ideals on the French Revolution? This is one of the many controversies that we have to deal with when studying Napoleon and the French Revolution. In this essay, I will discuss my opinion on whether or not was he a destroyer of the ideals of the French Revolution.
Napoleons’ rise to emperor in France was indisputable mostly because of his overthrow of the Directory. His success’s as commander of the French army in Italy, only led to his aspiring status change to “Emperor” of France after overthrowing the Directory in November of 1799. His undying ambition for expansion of the empire he was creating however would be his undoing. Napoleons rule as emperor of France was quit spectacular actually and many admired and adored him as ruler. His ways were very appealing, and as a speaker he was very persuasive and admired by most of his people until his later years in his fall and demise. However, Napoleon did not seriously adhere to the ideals of the French Revolution, he did that of the Enlightenment but his undying ambition and character as “Emperor” undermined the true need of the French Revolution.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader and eventual political leader in France who was able to seize power during the end of the French Revolution of the late 1790's and early 1800's. Napoleon was the leader of France from 1804 to 1815 and mostly remembered as a leader in a cycle of European battles. He institutionalized the changes brought about by the French Revolution and sought to spread them throughout Europe. It has been long debated the factors that allowed Napoleon to seize power and eventually crown himself emperor. Such factors that have been considered have been Napoleon's personality, his military exploits, the failings of the Directory, support of the people and army and even sheer luck.
One major man who took part in leading this revolution was Toussaint L’ouverture. When Napoleon found out about this revolt, he sent many troops under General Leclerc in order to restore slavery and attack Toussaint. This movement shows that Napoleon didn’t care about the freedom of the slaves, instead he only cared for his own interests, which was the wealth that was being brought into France by the region’s sugar manufacturing. Another vile action of Napoleon was removing the rights that women had. The Napoleonic Code had stated that men have complete authority over women.
Intro Historic Background: Before 1789, the french government were ran by an absolute monarch, the rest of the people were separated into the first second and third estates. With the third estate being treated most unfairly and new knowledge for the enlightenment, they decided to fight back. In the midst of the battles, one Napoleon Bonaparte rose as a hero of the revolution and eventually ruled France. Transition to theses: One of the most controversial figures in history, French revolution was about “Liberty,Equality, and Fraternity Thesis: Napoleon Bonaparte was a betrayer of the French Revolution because he did not follow the ideas of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
Napoleon as the Betrayer to the French Revolution Napoleon Bonaparte has remained one of history's most furiously debated characters. This is because there has been much speculation and many differing interpretations of his actions as leader of France from 1799-1815. Most historians tend to have been torn between the portraits of Napoleon as the heir of the Revolution or as the destroyer of the Revolution's most sacred principles. However, a third opinion has emerged that suggests that Napoleon made revolutionary ideas practical and therefore acted as a bridge between the Ancien Regime and the lofty ideals of the Revolution. Napoleon can be seen as the defender of the French Revolution for
The French Revolution (1789-1814) was a period that affected the outcome of world history tremendously. This is considered a major turning point in European history which has led to dramatic changes in France and other regions of the world. Various social and political issues led to the start of the revolution. Politically, France suffered under the rule of Louis XVI, who ruled by absolute monarchy. Many people had their natural rights renounced and weren’t able to have a political voice. Socially, France had divided its population within 3 estates (classes). French citizens took it upon themselves to remodel their country 's’ political structure. The French Revolution had encountered both positive and negative effects. However, many Europeans viewed the Revolution as much more than just a bloody massacre. The French Revolution was used to demonstrate new ideology that would emphasize the principles of liberty and equality throughout Europe.