Napolean and his affect on Europe

The French revolution was the beginning of the end to the Monarchy and absolute rule. The revolution came about for a number of reasons. The economic conditions in the previous two decades, the growing discourse with the social privileges of the few fueled what many say was inevitable.

In 1780, the financial crisis of the crown was in almost ruin. One reason was a freak hailstorm that occurred in 1788 that hit France in August. Hail stones the size of basketballs hit the agricultural pockets of the region destroying wheat and other valuable crops. This and other financial difficulties cause the king to call the Estates -General.#

The Estates-General were representatives of the three main estates. France was divided up into three basic categories- the clergy, the nobility and everyone else. The Estates-General had not been convoked since 1614. # The king was in a lose, lose situation. In order to resolv

Following the storming of the Bastille, the peasants begin to take matters into their own hands. It has been called the attack on paper. Peasant rebellions helped cause a general panic known as the Great Fear. The peasants would destroy any evidence of what taxes they owed. At this time the nobles would keep record, and if there was no proof, there was no taxes. In addition to the destruction of paper notes, the peasants also took to the rooftops. In 1780’s France, only nobles had weather vanes on the roofs of their house. The peasants would destroy them in an attempt to make them equal. This caught the attention of the nobles, for they feared that they would be next. On August 4th, 1789 the nobles got together and renounced what they had and stated that they would be equal to everyone else. By this time, the National Assembly had virtually cleaned house of the old regime. The king would no longer rule by divine right, but instead be subjected to constrained powers that were spelled out in a constitution.

The reforms of 1791 enacted several new changes for France and its people. Although the Assembly wanted all people to be equal before the law, they quickly defined their terms. They distinguished the population between passive and active citizens. The definition was simple: those citizens who paid the equivalent of three days’ wages in direct taxes, had the right to vote in indirect elections.# The National Assembly looked to create equality and enacted other reforms as well. It granted citizenship and civil rights to Protestants and Jews and ended the monopoly of the guilds by simply demolishing them.

Napoleon was a forward thinker, a child of the enlightenment perhaps. He believed in a better education system and that education would be the first step to nationalism. He established secondary schools where the intent was to educate the next generation of loyal soldiers. Napoleon also set up the first university in France and charged it to direct the moral and political opinions. It would soon be that education became a means of social ascension.

Some topics in this essay:
Louis XVI, Bank France, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleonic Codes, National Assembly, August Hail, Sire Revolution”, Catholic Church, Thomas Jefferson, Pairs Parliament, louis xvi, king louis xvi, king louis, third estate, national assembly, declaration rights, catholic church, land stamp, british economy, # king, # napoleon,