Sample essay topic, essay writing: Napoleon - 1418 words
In the early 19th century a man by the name of NapoleonBonaparte led a Coup D'etat that created a new governmentin France. This new government started out with a tribunalleadership, which Napoleon was first consul, and laterchanged to an empire with Napoleon as emperor. Somepeople believe that he made the revolution better andexpanded the revolution but this is not true. The facts, whenclosely looked at, prove that Napoleon effectively destroyedthe revolution by telling the people of his country one thingwhile he was actually planning on doing something totallydifferent. He deceived people so well that he is stillconvincing people today that he was a defender of therevolution. With this pack of deception Napoleon set thepeople of France back into the 18th century by killing off agreat number of the young population in his wars.
He led thepeople of France to believe that he was spreading therevolution throughout Europe but the truth is that he believedthat in order to be a great leader he would have to invadeand conquer many foreign lands. He controlled what thepeople wrote and read through the media. It all started witha coup against the government that he was fighting for. TheCoup D'etat, led by Napoleon, took place at the perfecttime because the Jacobins were losing power and there weremany people being executed for allegedly being monarchists. In the courts a person was not able to speak in their defenseso if the prosecutor made a good enough argument thecharged would be executed by the guillotine. There weremany innocent people who were executed, and many morewho were afraid
After the coup a referendum was held in1802 that made Napoleon First Consul for life. This was hisfirst step in turning France back into a monarchy. The nextstep was in 1804 when a second referendum was held thatmade him Emperor. The people really had no choice. Theycould have an Emperor and essentially turn back into amonarchy or return to the governmental insatiability that theyhad been living in for about 10 years before Napoleon cameinto the spotlight.
The electorate, whom were the people thatowned land and were the only citizens who were allowed tovote, overwhelmingly voted in favor of making NapoleonEmperor. Napoleon after all was the lesser of the two evils. After the vote Napoleon granted general amnesty that freedanyone, most notably himself, from being tried in court forany political crimes. Napoleon vowed to implement theideals of the tennis court oath that was the actual beginningof the revolution. He created a legislature and left itpowerless. It could not make any laws, it could only suggestwhat laws the emperor should make and it could notexamine the finances of the country. This legislature was thebeginning of a large plan to deceive the French people intobelieving that he was spreading the revolution.
TheNapoleonic Wars was the largest plan of deceit byNapoleon. These series of wars basically killed off a wholegeneration of French people. To finance and fight theseseries of wars Napoleon had to have the support of theFrench public. To get this he told the people that the rest ofEurope was against the revolution and would not let anychanges take place so he was going to take a large army andforce the rest of Europe to recognize the revolution. Thepeople liked this idea but that was not really the reason whyNapoleon was going to invade Europe. He thought that inorder to be a great leader he would have to have manyvictories in battle. All of these battles took a toll on the agegroup of 21 through 50.
As he needed more men hewidened the age limitations. One such war that was foolishlyfought was with Russia after the relations between AlexanderI and Napoleon deteriorated. Napoleon invaded Russia butas the Russian army moved back they burned anything thatNapoleon could use. When the harsh winter set in there wasnothing for the French troops to protect themselves againstthe winter with because it was all burned. Napoleon did notuse supply lines, what he did use was what he found in theplaces that he took control of, this usually worked.
Of the600,000 men that went into Russia only 50,000 returned toFrance. With this large population killed off the developmentof France during the Industrial Revolution was hinderedgreatly while their main opponent, Britain, prospered greatly. Napoleon's loss of life in his wars overshadow the greatthings that he did as a leader on the battlefield. The peoplewho supported these wars started to see that Napoleon wasstarting to lose his touch on the battlefield. He lost supportand he still had many more blunders to make before his fall. The next great blunder of Napoleon's was the ContinentalSystem. All of the time he was Emperor he could notmanage to launch an attack on Britain. Any time there was aforce fighting against France, Britain was fighting or financingit.
To weaken Britain Napoleon came up with theContinental System. This plot by Napoleon was to stop alltrading between Britain and the rest of Europe. At first itlooked as if it was a good plan but Britain made newmarkets outside Europe. They created markets in suchplaces as the New World and Asia. When the rest ofEurope saw the success that Britain was having they brokethe blockade.
With the blockade no longer in place Britainbecame the new trade power in the world replacing France. France was now losing in the Industrial Revolution and thepower struggle with Britain. Napoleon did a few things rightduring his reign as Emperor. The single most thing he isremembered for is the Code Napoleon. This code was thefirst civil law code of it's kind during modern times. Itguaranteed such things as protection of personal property, equality of all citizens before the law and basic rights such aseducation.
Feudalism and class privileges were abolished. The code is still in place in Belgium, it was also an influencefor civil codes in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Louisiana(USA), and the province of Quebec. The constitution that heset up in Switzerland is still in place today. Napoleon alsocentralized schools, created a standard set of currency, andcreated a national bank. For a short period of time hebalanced the budget which not many leaders before him haddone. Even today the richest countries in the world such asthe United States and Canada cannot balance their budgets. If Napoleon was for basic rights then why would he take theprivilege of freedom of the press and freedom of speechaway? Napoleon saw that throughout the revolution thepress had the power to influence the way that people sawtheir leaders. If a journalist made a good enough argument ina writing and the Paris mobs agreed with the argument thenthe person would be found guilty of something and beexecuted.
Napoleon knew that in order to maintain powerhe would have to control the press. Controlling the pressgoes against a persons rights. This was another deceptionthat Napoleon used to hide the truth from his people. Sayingthat people had basic rights but at the same time he had theright to take away the public's right to say and writewhatever they wanted to say. This is one of the privilegesthat the revolution fought for but Napoleon took thatprivilege away without the consent of the people that foughtfor it. When something like taking away rights can happenwithout consent then there is no doubt that the government isa monarchy. This all looks like the monarchy that the Frenchrevolution destroyed it is just changed and hidden from thepublic.
It's like saying that Napoleon was right and the restof Europe was wrong. With the whole of Europe joiningcoalitions to fight against this emperor, they must haveknown what Napoleon was really fighting for. He wanted totake over Europe and when he won a number of victories hethought that he could take over the world. He thought toobig too fast and underestimated things like harsh winters andthe ability of his opponents to get stronger. The setting up afake legislature to make the people think that he wasworking in their interests was a good way of getting peopleon his side.
In some countries peasant and working classesrelished the thought of Napoleon leading their country. Afterhe took power the people started to feel oppressed andbecame unhappy when relatives of Napoleon's became theirKings. The thing that topped it off was the fact that the CodeNapoleon did not allow changes for the different countries. These facts prove without a doubt that Napoleon lied to hispeople so they would support him. While he was doing thislying he managed to kill off most of a generation of French, which left France behind in the Industrial Revolution, andturn the Republic that the revolution had fought for back intoa Monarchy. V.
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Napoleon
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