&&000 History of Civilization: The Age of Napoleon   p1
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By =1789, absolutism in France was coming under fire from all classes.
For centuries, powerful kings ruled French subjects with an iron hand.
But now the tide was starting to turn. The commoners were tired of
high taxes, while the nobility and the Church were barely taxed at all.
The nobility was concerned about its lack of authority and power at the
hands of powerful monarchs. The Church was increasingly subordinate to
the government.
When the king, =LouisXVI, found himself strapped for money, he had no place
to turn but to the very classes who were beginning to challenge his authority.
In =1789, with the insistence of several key advisors, =Louis summoned a
meeting of the Estates General -- the advisory body of the French people.

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Just over two weeks after =LouisXVI's appearance in Paris, the National Assembly
passed a series of sweeping reforms. In an explosion of enthusiasm, on the
night of August =4-5, the Assembly ended all of the special privileges of the
aristocracy. They also voted to bring serfdom to an end. By the next month, the
National Assembly accepted a document known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
This piece of writing expressed the goals of the revolution.
By and large, the Declaration of the Rights of Man contained a list of rights and
liberties which the Assembly intended to recognize and protect. They included the
right to own property, equality before the law, the right to resist tyranny,
freedom of speech and of the press, and religious toleration. This work was one of
the greatest efforts made by the leaders of the French Revolution.

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In July of =1790, the deputies of the Assembly decided that, since they paid the salaries
of the clergy, the French government should have the right to elect new priests and
bishops when a vacancy occurred. A great cry of protest was raised, not just by
churchmen but by citizens of France loyal to Catholicism.
All the while, as political events swirled around the National Assembly, =LouisXVI and
his family remained in captivity in the =Tuileries palace in Paris. And as the scope of
the Revolution expanded, other European leaders -- kings and queens themselves -- began
to express concerns about the future of the monarch in France.

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The people of the streets of Paris gained control of events and determined the fate
and the direction of the Revolution. With the destruction of the French monarchy, the
new constitution was no longer valid. A second constitution needed to be written.
Delegates to a National Convention were selected to decide on a new form of the French
government. The election, although supposedly open to all male citizens, actually only
involved a minority of Frenchmen. Many others were intimidated into not voting or
refused to participate, disgusted at the violence and direction of the Revolution. As a
result, only the most radical elements became members of the Convention, including many
Jacobins and Girondins.

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The long roller coaster ride caused by the French Revolution did not come to an end with
the death of =Robespierre in the hot summer of =1794. Nor did it end with the collapse of
Jacobin power and the creation of the Directory in Paris as the governing body of the country.
The men of this five man committee government were often split among themselves.
Economic woes continued to plague the nation (the Revolution never solved that fundamental
problem), with the paper money, called assignats, dropping to one percent of its face value.
Despite the best efforts of the Directory, which included recalling the assignats and issuing
new currency, bankruptcy, poverty, and starvation were rampant across the land.


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After crowning himself emperor in =1804, =Napoleon though of himself as royalty. His imperial
rule was considered hereditary, one he could pass on to his heirs. And he bought himself
other crowns. His control of Italy led to his being crowned as king there in =1805. In
=1808, to legitimize his reign, he created an aristocratic lineage which included himself.
When his wife =Josephine did not produce an heir after years of marriage, =Napoleon
divorced here and married a niece of =MarieAntoinette, named =MarieLouise. This caused him to
begin referring to =LouisXVI as his uncle. Then only =18 years of age (=Napoleon was by then in
his early =40s), =MarieLouise gave birth to a male heir in =1811

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During the =Napoleonic Wars, the two largest navies in the world were the French and the
British. Both featured naval vessels, which were commonly separated into two basic
designs.
The larger models were called ships of the line (the original designation was of the line
of battle). They typically featured two or three decks and were designed to serve as floating
platforms for shipboard cannons. The number of cannons on board a ship determined its naval
classification. These great ships commonly bristled with cannons. Ships of the line were
divided into four categories. The first raters featured a minimum of =110 guns; the second
raters boasted =98 guns. Third raters carried between =64 and =80 cannons, and fourth
raters sported between =50 and =64 guns.

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The =Napoleonic Wars constituted a worldwide conflict. The fighting took place across not
only the European landscape, but at sites around the globe. Between =1792 and =1815 -- the
year of =Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of =Waterloo -- nearly every nation and state in
Europe saw fighting. With the exception of =Montenegro, every state in Europe was involved
at one time or another in the wars, allied to either France of England -- the two great
rivals of the =Napoleonic conflicts.
Outside of Europe, fighting took place as far away from the Continent as South America,
South Africa, the Middle East, the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Far
East.  Much of the long-distance fighting involved European colonies overseas or naval
engagements between sea-roaming warships. Yet the concentration of military power always
remained on the Continent. Through long campaigns, =Napoleon advanced across the European
landscape, establishing his dominion over vanquished states and kingdoms. By =1811, his
conquests stretched from Spain to Scandinavia to the central Mediterranean.

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After rushing from Russia to Paris through the wintery year of =1812 -- sometimes travelling
by sleigh -- =Napoleon attempted to raise another army. But it was too late for the troops
remaining in Russia. By the end of the year, roughly =20,000 men staggered out of Russia alive.
With =Napoleon's forces destroyed in the Russian campaign, his enemies looked on events with
great hope. Great Britain, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and, of course, Russia, joined forces once
again in an alliance against =Napoleon. (Fighting was already taking place in Spain, where a
quarter of a million French troops had been bogged down in guerrilla fighting for several
years.)
By the spring of =1813, =Napoleon managed to raise another army -- a force numbering =300,000.
But many of them were new, inexperienced soldiers, no older than =17. In the months that followed,
despite their lack of battle experience, =Napoleon managed some costly victories. On May 2, at
=Lutzen, =Napoleon rallied his men against an allied army and won. Yet the engagement cost him
=12,000 casualties. Three weeks later, French troops beat back the enemy at =Bautzen.


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Following the end of the =Napoleonic Wars, an artificial calm fell across Europe. A generation
of French citizens had experienced difficult yet exciting years of revolution, change and
climactic war. Absolutism had been challenged by the French Revolution and reform movements
followed in many corners of the European continent. But, with the threat of =Napoleon eliminated,
a new era of conservatism took root filling the void left after the collapse of =Napoleon's Empire.
This conservative movement hinged on a few key concepts and philosophies. One was the idea of
legitimacy. This meant the return of pre-Revolutionary states and ruling families across Europe.
During the years of =Napoleon's imperial France, several monarchs had been removed from their
thrones and replaced with leaders loyal to =Napoleon. Several monarchies were replaced by
=Napoleon's brothers. With the destruction of =Napoleon's power, monarchs were restored to their
original thrones.