This code sprang directly from the Napoleon's exposure to Enlightenment philosophy, whose central premise was that reason alone should dictate the rule of man. In his code, Napoleon attempted to create a rule of law dictated entirely by his principle that government should be nothing more than "the application of common sense" (Schom 290). The code spelled out rights to personal safety and property, contract procedures and obligations, even the legal process of marriage. Such a detailed and unprejudiced code of law ensured the peaceful administration of daily life, and served as the basis for most 19th century European civil codes.
Though Napoleon would eventually end his days with both military and political humiliation, the reforms that he set in place during his time of power helped to pave the path of a modern, post-monarchy Europe. This modern Europe would see its share of chaos and conflict, but thanks to…...
mlaWorks Cited
Englund, Steven. Napoleon: A Political Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. Print.
Grab, Alexander I. Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. Print.
"Napoleon I." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Academic Edition. Web. 17 June 2010.
Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Print.
Napoleon Bonaparte" by J.M. Thompson
The book entitled "Napoleon Bonaparte" by J.M. Thompson is a biographical and detailed account on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte from childhood until his last days as an exiled citizen in St. Helena and eventual death. The book is chronologically divided into important places wherein Bonaparte had influenced the society with his control and leadership and military power. Thompson's discussion of Bonaparte's life is map-like: each nation discusses his feats and development as a ruler and leader. The first chapter concerns his childhood, roots, and origin in Corsica; the man's development as a fighter at a young age of 16; Bonaparte's eventual plan to colonize and rule on Malta; and his ascent as the Consulate of a newly-established regime in France. Under his rule as the Consul of France, Bonaparte implemented various policies in France such as the implementation of the Code Napoleon or civil…...
mlaReference
Thompson, J.M. "Napoleon Bonaparte." New York: Sutton Publishing. 2001.
Successes and Failures of Napoleon onaparte
Napoleon onaparte was the most successful leader of his era. His life consisted of many accomplishments followed by a few failures. Napoleon was born on 15 August 1979 in Ajaccio, which is the capital of the island of Corsica. He attended school at the age of 9 in France, and later got admitted to the military school in Paris at the age of 15. Napoleon was exceptionally good in his studies, especially mathematics, which made him a second deputy of artillery at the age of 16. He went to Corsica three times at the beginning of the French Revolution in order to set the Revolution there. All his efforts were unsuccessful. In 1793, his superiors noticed his exceptional artillery performance during the siege of Toulon, which resulted to his promotion as a brigadier-general of the artillery by the Committee of Public Safety. Napoleon as a…...
mlaBibliography
1. Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
2. McNeese, Tim. The Age of Napoleon. St. Louis, Mo: Milliken Pub, 2000.
3. "Military History Online - The Success of Napoleon." Military History Online - The Success of Napoleon. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/18thcentury/articles/thesuccessofnapoleon.aspx# .
4. "Napoleon as a Military Commander: The Limitations of Genius." Napoleon as a Military Commander: The Limitations of Genius. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/napoleon/c_genius.html .
Republic, Empire and Belle Epoque
Napoleon Bonaparte and the Aftermath of the Revolution
Napoleon 1 (youtube)
France's Regimes in the Nineteenth Century
10th anniversary bringing together 17 singers from all over the world who have sung the role of Jean Valjean: here"
Excerpt from the 2012 movie of "Les Miserables": here
The Role of Economics and Empire in the Building of French National Identity
Video Clips
- The Metro
The Metro 2 - for text about the Metro go to Wikipedia's concise overview
The Arch of Triumph; The Eiffel Tower
These two clips are taken from Engineering An Empire: Napoleon: Steel Monster: the site introduces the documentarylike this:
"Centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, French kings struggled for control against the church and the aristocracy. Chaos and bloody warfare rampaged and France stood on the edge of utter disaster as the French Revolution turned into a period of brutal repression. From the ashes emerged one of the greatest military strategists…...
(Higonnet, 1) Quite to the reality of our future, that which he has produced in the defense of the rights of man will not be retracted. Nor will be his association to these accomplishments. Therefore, both to protect ourselves from the righteous indignation of a public who will not bear to see the disgracing of its champion and to serve with justice rather than with arbitrary defensiveness the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, this statement is to implore your judgeship to disregard St. Helena as a suitable place to exile any human being so much as one whose may be regarded as having so gracefully served those in his public.
orks Cited:
Higonnet, P. (1983). France Under Napoleon. The Journal of Modern History, 55(3).
Rank, J. (2007). The Napoleonic Code. Law Library: American Law and Legal Information. Online at http://law.jrank.org/pages/8702/Napoleonic-Code.html...
mlaWorks Cited:
Higonnet, P. (1983). France Under Napoleon. The Journal of Modern History, 55(3).
Rank, J. (2007). The Napoleonic Code. Law Library: American Law and Legal Information. Online at http://law.jrank.org/pages/8702/Napoleonic-Code.html
" (p. 164) the army of Charles was defeated in this battle however, it was not destroyed. The total loss of life in this campaign for each side of the battle was astronomical.
Chancellorsville
The work of Lieutenant Colonel Herman L. Gilster entitled: "Robert E. Lee and Modern Decision Theory" published in the Air University Review (1972) states in the attle of Chancellorsville, in Virginia in May 1863 involved a battle between the Union Army of the Potomac, headed by Major General Joseph L. Hooker and the Army of Northern Virginia, led by General Robert E. Lee. Specifically stated is:
During the campaign, Lee, with a force approximately half the size of Hooker's, repulsed the North's advance into Virginia and achieved a strategic victory that has been studied by students of military art throughout the world. However, today's critics of the quantitative-oriented decision tools being used by our military services say that this…...
mlaBibliography
Alexander, Bevin (2007) How the South Could Have Won the Civil War. Online available at: www.bevinalexander.com/books/how-the-south-could-have-won.intro.htm.
Bell, Jason (2006) Lost Triumph: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg - and why it failed" Army Lawyer 1 Aug 2006. Online available at http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:155294558
C.H. Lanza, ed., Napo/eon and Modern War. His Mi/itary Maxims (Harrisburg, PA: Military Service Publishing Co., 1949), Maxim 77. In Ross (1985)
Carhart, Tom (2005) Lost Triumph: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg and Why it Failed.
Even with the fact that it was part of the Grand Empire, there were little interactions between Portugal and the French.
The Illyrian provinces were even more disadvantaged because of their connection to France. This area had little to win out of the fact that it had become part of the Grand Empire. However, the taxation system imposed by the French was unbearable. Napoleon's influence in certain countries was not directly proportional with the reputation he had in these respective countries. In spite of the fact that Poland was not necessarily advantaged because of its connection to the French leader, it stood by his side until his last days. One could say that Napoleon awakened a spirit of nationalism in Polish people.
Napoleon is responsible for the fact that the feudal system slowly but surely started to lose authority across Europe. His reforms came in disagreement with the policies supported by…...
mlaWorks cited:
1. Grab, Alexander, Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
2. Popkin, Jeremy D. A History of Modern France, Third Edition. Pearson, 2006.
Grab, Alexander, Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, IX.
The Enlightenment ideals that Napoleon clung to also underwrote many of the despot's policies including the liberation of the Jews from the ghettos. Napoleon established the Civil Code that obliterated feudal law while welcoming social equity. The Civil Code was part proof that Napoleon did subscribe to some of the core ideals upon which the Revolution was built.
Although Napoleon's government was strong, centralized, and bureaucratic, it was nevertheless a civil government at first. Napoleon helped stimulate the French infrastructure with programs of modernization that the monarchy before him had never feigned interest in at all. A national banking system, roads, canals, and bridges all become symbols of Napoleon's earnest desire to help the French people.
Napoleon held strong to the idea that France required strong centralized leadership: just not the traditionally monarchic kind. His government would nevertheless become tyrannical and undemocratic. Napoleon's military campaigns bolstered his power and popularity in…...
mlaWorks Cited
Holmberg, Tom. "Napoleon and the French Revolution." Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://www.napoleonbonaparte.nl/html/body_nap_and_revolution.html
PBS. Napoleon: Politics in Napoleon's Time. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/n_politic/frenchrev/page_1.html
Napoleon was sent to French military schools at Brienne and Paris. He received his commission in the artillery in 1785. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, he attempted to join the Corsican patriots led by Pasquale Paoli, but his family was thought to be pro-French. A political event was to reopen his career overnight. In Oct. 1795, a royalist Parisian rebellion attacked the Convention, and Paul Barras convinced the Convention to place Bonaparte in command of the troops. Napoleon dispersed the mob with what he called "a whiff of grapeshot" -- which killed about 100 insurgents. He was given command of the army of the interior. After drawing up a plan for an Italian campaign, he was, made commander in chief of the army of Italy with Barras's help.
He left for Italy in March 1796. Assuming command of an ill-supplied army, he succeeded within a short time in changing…...
mlaGreat Britain had never succumbed, and the Continental System proved difficult to enforce. Napoleon's first signs of weakness appeared early in the Peninsular War (1808 -- 14). The victory of 1809 over Austria had been costly, and the victory of Archduke Charles at Aspern (May, 1809) showed that the emperor was not indomitable. Forces were gathering everywhere to cast off the Napoleonic yoke.
Napoleon's decision to invade Russia marked the turning point of his career. His alliance with Czar Alexander I, dating from the treaties of Tilsit and extended at the Congress of Erfurt (1808), was tenuous. When the czar rejected the Continental System, which was ruinous to Russia's economy, Napoleon gathered the largest army Europe had ever seen.
In December, Napoleon left his army, returning to Paris to bolster French forces. Of his allies, Prussia was the first to desert; a Prussian truce with the czar (Dec. 30) was followed by an alliance in Feb. 1813. Great Britain and Sweden joined the coalition, followed (Aug., 1813) by Austria, and the "War of Liberation" began. At the Battle of the Nations (Oct. 16 -- 19), Napoleon was forced to retreat.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Interpretive Analysis: A Day in the Life of a Great Leader
Baron Claude-Francois De Meneval in his work on Napoleon remembers the French leaders as seemingly "immortal," someone who was vigorous and struck down "by a terrible storm" and someone that was worthy of remembrance in many ways (p. Ix). De Meneval describes a day in the life of Napoleon shortly after a return from a trip to Egypt, where Bonaparte had been interested in spreading his influence. The author describes Napoleon as "gentlemanly" and suggest that he was an individual set on task and of clear mind, explaining to his colleagues among other things the plausible motives he might use to satisfy "the desire of the population" (De Meneval, 1894:9).
Further Napoleon is described as someone whose presence that particular day inspired warm enthusiasm from the population at large in part a testament to his "zeal and devotion' (De Meneval,…...
mlaReferences:
Claude-Francois De Meneval, B."Memoirs Illustrating the History of Napoleon I from
1802 to 1815 vol. 1" New York: D. Appleton & Co: 1894
Geyl, P.M. & Renier, O.M. "Napoleon: For and against." New Haven: Yale University
Press: 1949
Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte are the most important personalities of French history; their political achievements impressed people of all generations who admitted the fact that unified strong and highly developed modern France is the main result of their activities. Both Louis XIV and Napoleon were politicians of a new type and had very progressive political views which helped them strengthen their country and defeat political opponents. Period of French history since 1643 till 1812 is full of great changes in social, economical, political and cultural aspects of French life and the outcome of this process was unified French nation, strong state ruled by able bureaucracy and French cultural predominance for many centuries.
To begin with we have to remember, that French nation didn't have strong and unified state before Louis XIV: French kings tried fighting for dominant position in the political system but failed as they were directed in their…...
Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon last days as an Emperor. The paper briefly touches upon the war strategies of both sides and explains why Bonaparte encountered a crushing defeat at Waterloo.
BATTLE OF WATELOO, 1815
Battle of Waterloo fought in Brussels marked the end of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's illustrious military career. The Battle of Waterloo was fought on a very small area with relatively smaller armies and less military equipment, yet it occupies an extremely important place in history because of its impact and the number of deaths that occurred on this battlefield. Napoleon may have been severely disliked by other European powers, but the man enjoyed a great position of power in his own country and was seen as a true liberator of sorts. While his career was marked with frequent battles that began with French evolution in late 1790s and war with European nations in 1803, he was…...
mlaReferences
BBC-UK-, Battle of Waterloo:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/waterloo/waterloo.shtml
Eva March Tappan, ed., The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art, 14 Vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914)
Waterloo, Battle of," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002
The exoticism and escapism of Romantic Art is manifest by the focus in the features of Napoleon on the bright or the wider scenes of the battlefield. However, it is the works of Francisco Goya that perhaps most perfectly epitomizes the intense individualism and emotion of Romantic art. Even the titles of Goya's works like "Yo lo Vi (This I saw)" and "Para Eso Yo Nacido (for this I was born) places the artist's individual consciousness squarely in the center of the meaning of the painting. There is no attempt at objectivity, and no apology for the subjective nature of the representation.
The Third of May" although a political work, is not of a noble or significant figure, or a beautiful human body like "Marat." Most of the painting has a hazy quality, as if seen through the night, except for the illumination of the victims. It shows the ugliness…...
American Expansion
American Territorial Expansion: The Louisiana Purchase
American territorial expansion was the top priority of ashington DC for every decade of the 19th century, including the Civil ar years. The new territory all came to Americans through treaties or conquest, and thus promoted the isolationist "Manifest Destiny" prerogative of strengthening the American continent. The earliest and largest territorial expansion of the 19th century was the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the American states. The Louisiana Purchase was made with the short-term bolstering of Thomas Jefferson's government in the near-term, yet with deep concerns for the security of the new land and how and who should settle the land in the long-term.
The Louisiana Purchase was not a decision taken lightly by then President Thomas Jefferson, who felt that it would be difficult for the young America to take full possession of the territory, and thus sign the country into a future…...
mlaWork Cited
1803, and the United States. "Louisiana Purchase." Gateway New Orleans: N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. .
Jefferson, Thomas. "Treaty with France (Louisiana Purchase). 1909-14. American Historical Documents, 1000-1904. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and hundreds more. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. .
"Louisiana: European Explorations and the Louisiana Purchase - The Louisiana Purchase (American Memory from the Library of Congress)." American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. .
"The Louisiana Purchase -- Thomas Jefferson's Monticello." Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. .
Guests of the Nation
Frank O'Connor's writing frequently deals with the issues of everyday violence which people have to engage in, whether they want to or not. Some people commit crimes because they believe that they have no choice. Other people kill in the name of religion. One of the most universally acceptable reasons for widespread acts of murder is nationalism. Two political factions, if not more, fight against one another in order that their perspective becomes accepted by the other population. For soldiers, particularly those who are members of the lower infantry ranks, they are given orders which must be carried out. If a soldier is told to kill, then he must continue killing until he is given an order to stop. It is a fact that soldiers are ordered to kill other human beings for reasons which may not be clear to them, which they may not even agree…...
mlaWorks Cited
Korner, S. (2008). Frank O'Connor's 'Guests of the Nation.' 21st Century Socialism.
O'Brien, E. (2007). Guests of a nation; geists of a nation. New Hibernia Review. 11(3). 114-30.
O'Connor, F. (1987). Guests of the nation. Poolbeg Press: Dublin, Ireland.
Renner, S. (1990). The theme of hidden powers: fate vs. human responsibility. Studies in Short
I. Introduction
A. Background information on Napoleon Bonaparte
B. Thesis statement: Napoleon Bonaparte was an influential figure in history due to his military accomplishments, administrative reforms, and enduring legacy.
II. Military Accomplishments
A. Rise through the ranks in the French army
B. Victory in the Battle of Austerlitz
C. Expansion of French territories through military campaigns
D. Defeat in the Battle of Waterloo
III. Administrative Reforms
A. Creation of the Napoleonic Code
B. Centralization of power through efficient governance
C. Establishment of the Bank of France
D. Promotion of education and meritocracy
IV. Enduring Legacy
A. Influence on subsequent European political systems
B.....
Napoleon Bonaparte's Rise to Power and Reign as Emperor
Early Life and Military Career
Born in Corsica in 1769 to a noble family of modest means
Educated in military schools in France
Commissioned as an artillery officer in 1785
French Revolution
Supported the French Revolution, rising through the ranks rapidly
Commander of the Army of Italy in 1796, leading to a series of spectacular victories
Became a national hero and a powerful figure in the Directory, the ruling body of France
Coup d'État of 18 Brumaire
On November 9, 1799 (18 Brumaire in the French Republican Calendar), Bonaparte staged a coup and overthrew....
Mazurek D?browskiego: The Resonant Anthem of Polish Patriotism
Among the diverse tapestry of national anthems, Poland's stands out with a title that evokes a rich historical tapestry: "Mazurek D?browskiego." This iconic moniker carries immense significance, deeply intertwined with the nation's struggles for independence and its enduring spirit.
Historical Roots of the Mazurek
The term "mazurek" originates from the traditional Polish folk dance of the same name. Characterized by its lively tempo, intricate footwork, and spirited rhythms, the mazurek epitomized the vitality and exuberance of Polish culture. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as Poland faced political turmoil and partitions by neighboring....
The Vienna Congress: A Turning Point in European History
The Congress of Vienna, convened in the wake of Napoleon Bonaparte's final defeat in 1814, was a pivotal event in European history. It marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of a new era of relative peace and stability. The Congress also laid the foundation for the Concert of Europe, a system of international relations that aimed to prevent future wars through cooperation and diplomacy.
Key Events at the Vienna Congress
The Congress of Vienna was a complex and protracted affair, lasting from September 1814 to June 1815. During this time,....
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