Bonaparte?

Question

hi im beggining to learn some history on my own, and I'm just wondering how Napoleon Bonaparte could crown himself the emperor? Also what exactly was the French Revolution? If anybody could answer these or give me some sources like web pages and books I would appreicate that.

Answer 1

There's fairly good articles on the French Revolution and Napoleon, and if you have the time there's a  20-page chapter on the Revolution (and partly on Napoleon) in Eric Hobsbawm's fantastic "The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848".

My brief summary;

What exactly the French Revolution was is a very good question, and one on which there's a lot a disagreement. Basically it was a massive social and political upheavel in France, lasting from 1789 to 1794 at its greatest extent. It was basically caused by the weakness and increasing unpopularity of Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette, increasingly outdated practices  of the absolute monarchy, growing new liberal sentiment as expressed in Britain and America,   and an economic crisis that the monarchy and aristocracy became incapable of properly dealing with. A combination of popular insurrection by commoners throughout France (the most famous being the storming of the Bastille in July 1789) and a campaign by the politically- involved middle class basically brought about the destruction of the aristocracy & monarchy-run system of government in France and gave power to the "Third Estate" (middle class representing all non-clergy and non-nobles in the country), which formed the National Constituent Assembly. They abolished feudalism (ending in some ways a 1,000 year-old system)  , stripped Louis XVI of much of his power, seized Church property and published the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen". In this sense they basically tore apart  political assumptions that had  dominated  Europe arguably through most of its entire history ; as such the Revolution has become a symbolic of the ushering in of modernity and the ultimate victory liberal-democratic, or at least rational and secular, principles in the West.

As so often with revolutions, it became more and more radical;  when the royal family attempted to escape from the   revolutionaries in control of Paris ("flight to Varennes") opinion turned even more against the monarchy,  other European power then declared war on France in an attempt to re-instate the old system, the crisis caused by the war further radicalised the situation, initiating the "Second Revolution" . The  more radical "National Convention" was elected, the monarchy was overthrown and the royal family and other imprisoned; 1792 was renamed the Year I and a new calender was set up . The continued crisis of the war allowed Robesbierre and the extremely radical Jacobins to take over govenment and begin "The Terror" against its oppenents; the king, royal family, numerous aristocrats and anyone else suspected of opposing the Jacobin dictatorship were executed. As the threat of the war subsided and the French began winning, Robespierre and the Jacobins were overthrown by more conservative forces in 1794, which set up a more moderate, though corrupt and unpopular, dictatorship. That ended the most radical period in revolution and began a counter-revolution of sorts, but naturally much of the results, and particularly the complet change in mentality and social structure, of the first 5 years remained.

Meanwhile the revolutionary army proved very effective against other, more outdated aristocratic armies. As it began conquering areas of Europe, the acheivement and tactical genius of one general in particular, Napoleon, allowed him to grow in position and stature. After several years of succes he was able to seize power with a couple of others in a coup,   against the government in 1799. After five more years of success, growing power and ego and  conquest of vast territory throughout Europe Napoleon was able to declare himself emperor, restoring  hereditary  personal rule in  France; although he actually re-inforced any changes brought in by the revolution that didn't affect him personally(e.g. anti-church, anti-feudal, although he gave proto-feudal titles to his allies and family,  and in the system of laws he introduced). He also exported the ideas and changes of the revolution to other parts of Europe through his conquests (eg the conquests of Napoleon permanently ended the thousand- year existence of the Holy Roman Empire).

Napoeon as finally defeated by the rest of Europe in 1815; the French monarchy was restored but it never had the power it had and the feudal system economic and social systems never returned; it was reduced to almost nothing in a further revolution in 1830 and fully overthrown in another revolution in 1848.

Answer 2

napoleon crowned himself instead of letting the pope.. it showed he had more power than the pope and the church.

the french revolution eas one of the most bloodiest revolutions. it started when louis and marie antionette were in power. louis was week and marie gave no advice at all. robespierre was giving people ideas to kill and steal. and he also introduce the gulatienne(sp!)

Answer 3

Napoleon crowned himself emperor because he was a giant egocentric dictator who was jealous of the real French royalty. He tried to recreate a royal court by giving titles to his friends (duke, prince, etc.). And then he gave his friends the crown of the countries he invaded. As far as the Revolution is concerned, it was caused by incredible poverty on the one side, and incredible wealth on the other. The poor ill-informed king (Louis XVI) didn't know how to deal with the situation (his advisers should have been fired), and it ended with years of bloodshed (including the King's own), followed by a century of political instability, and culminated in the instauration of a republic. I'm sure you can read it in detail in wikipedia. The Revolution was not the glorious events that some people claim it was, the reality was plain and simple genocide.

Answer 4

At his crowning ceremony, Napoleon crowned himself rather than letting the Pope do it. This showed that he had been appointed by the state rather than by the Church.



Check out these websites:

http://www.lakesideschool.org/studentweb...

http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/his...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_...