Napoleon Bonaparte

        Have you ever heard of Napoleon Bonaparte?  Bonaparte was a man who had a huge impact on the world during the 17th century.  He successfully gained control over France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Venice, Holland, Belgium and many other places around the world.  In class, we focused on the essential question below while learning about Napoleon Bonaparte.



Napoleon Bonaparte.  1769-1821.
http://www.medindia.net/


Essential Question: What was Napoleon's impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe?

       Over the course of our research on Napoleon, we viewed the perspectives of two different historical figures from Napoleon's time.  First, we looked at a woman named Madame de Stael's opinion on Napoleon.  Madame de Stael was a member of the nobility and the daughter of King Louis XVI's former financial adviser.  As you can imagine, she was not too happy with the fact that Napoleon was trying to take control of Europe.  Madame de Stael had a good amount of political power and she believed that if Napoleon took over Europe, she would no longer obtain such a power.  Madame de Stael stated, "What particularly characterizes Bonaparte's government is his profound contempt for all the Intellectual riches of human nature: virtue, dignity, religion, enthusiasm."  This quote explains her feelings toward Bonaparte and how she believes he is certainly not suitable for ruling Europe since he has "contempt" towards all of human nature.  Madame de Stael was one person who provided a perspective against Napoleon because she thought it would affect her negatively politically.

Here is a screenshot of the perspectives of Madame de Stael and Marshal Michel Ney.  In groups we annotated the documents, as you can see the notes and highlighted areas of text.

       The second perspective we looked at belonged to Marshal Michel Ney, a soldier during the French Revolution.  Marshal Michel Ney was totally on board with Napoleon Bonaparte.  He stated, "To the emperor Napoleon, our sovereign, belongs alone the right to rule over our beautiful country."  This statement shows how much he appreciated and admired Napoleon because he wanted him to rule over Europe alone.  Marshal Michel Ney enjoyed being a soldier and the thought of joining Napoleon's Army was very exciting so of course he would be on the side that is supporting Napoleon.  Marshal Michel Ney clearly supported Napoleon and encouraged his idea to take over all of Europe.

        Another source that we looked at while learning about Napoleon Bonaparte was called "The Lost Voices of Napoleon Historians".  This is a website that collects passages from text that is now "out of print" or "inaccessible".  The source had a lot of different opinions to offer on Napoleon.  One historian, Andrews, stated,  "Napoleon was so inconsistent in many of his actions, so untrustworthy in much that he said of himself, and so all-inclusive in his ambitious designs that differing interpretations of the man are inevitable,"  Clearly, Andrews was not fond of Napoleon since he described his actions as inconsistent.  However, there were also other historians who provided opinions on behalf of Napoleon.  Tarbell wrote, "that no man ever comprehended more clearly the splendid science of war; he cannot fail to bow to the genius which conceived and executed the Italian campaign, which fought the classic battles of Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram. These deeds are great epics. They move in noble, measured lines, and stir us by their might and perfection. It is only a genius of the most magnificent order which could handle men and materials as Napoleon did."  Tarbell's perspective  was definitely on the side rooting for  Napoleon because his statements all show how much he praised Napoleon.  If you want to check out this interesting webpage, here is the link.  http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_historians.html  

      Overall, there were many different perspectives on Napoleon Bonaparte.  Socially, Napoleon's impact on Europe was positive because he abolished serfdom and nobility so therefore more citizens had rights.  Economically, Napoleon was also mainly positive because he lowered the prices for more people to afford, encouraged new industry, built roads and canals to expand trade, and spread industrialization to parts of Europe like Germany.  Napoleon Bonaparte had a negative impact on the economy of Europe because some of the men that he killed were the men who worked to support their families.  Lastly, Napoleon had both a positive and negative impact politically on Europe because some countries were helped while some countries were hurt.  He also took away power from a lot of rulers.  In conclusion, our research in class helped us get a better understanding on who Napoleon was and the impact he had socially, economically, and politically on Europe.