The essential question
of the day was “What was Napoleon Bonaparte impact on the social, economic and
political systems of Europe? Were they positive or negative impacts?” In class,
to find the answer we looked at all the places that he has conquered and many
documents on Napoleon. The documents were mostly individual’s opinions on
Napoleon and his works.
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| Napoleon Bonaparte source- http://jcvalda.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/napoleon-bonaparte-02.jpg |
People’s view of
Napoleon varied greatly. One of these individuals was Madame de Staёl. Madame
had some snide comments on Napoleon such as “He would like to persuade men by
force and by cunning, and he considers all else to be stupidity or folly...”
She did not have a high opinion on Napoleon because she was once a high class
citizen but when Napoleon took over, her social status went down. Just because
she had a bad experience doesn’t mean it was bad for the rest of society.
Napoleons impact on society was a positive one to most; he abolished serfdom in
much of Europe. If you were born poor you could become rich, which was a great
thing for the lower classes of people. Another individual we read about was
Marshal Michel Ney. Unlike Madame de Staёl, Ney had a positive outlook on
Napoleon, saying “Now I would escort you to join this immortal legion which the
Emperor Napoleon conducts...” Marshal Michel Ney was an officer who served with
Napoleon so he believed that Napoleon was doing a great job politically. Overall
the political impact was good for France but bad for the places he conquered.
He was building a great French empire but naturally the places being conquered
did not like being conquered; but they did like the Napoleonic code because
they could keep their own rules but with a new code. Economically it was
beneficial to everyone because trade boosted throughout his conquered lands in
Europe. As stated in “The Lost Voices of Napoleon”, “it must be confessed, with
a certain degree of truth -- as a usurper, a tyrant, and a greedy, egotistical
and ambitious ruler, it has also been found impossible to deny that his work,
such as it was, was accomplished with an exquisite efficiency almost amounting
to perfection." Napoleon was very talented in what he did and with all his
skills his main goal was to help the well being of the land.
I believe that Napoleon did mostly good than evil during his reign. Political, social and economic systems of Europe were greatly impacted in a positive way. By reading these multiple sources I got a better understanding of how Napoleon affected others. I found these sources to be very interesting and diverse; but with the overall message that he did do well for Europe.
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