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Prussia provides possibly the best example of how Napoleon's success inspired other countries to copy many of his reforms in order to break free of French rule.  Napoleon was especially severe with Prussia joining his enemies in 1806, taking nearly half of its lands while exacting an indemnity equal to 140% of its annual government revenue before it had lost those lands.  In addition its army was limited to 42,000 men.  This humiliating settlement brought home to Prussia's rulers the need to cop...

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"Clear policy consists of making nations believe they are free." — Napoleon

The government that Napoleon and his allies set up, the Consulate, was a mockery of democracy and aptly reflected the above quotation.  People elected delegates who chose other delegates who chose other delegates from whom were appointed legislators who had no power anyway.  So much for the legislature.  As for Napoleon's fellow conspirators, Ducos and Sieyes, they were shoved into the background and forgotten...

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Napoleon's rise to power

Napoleon's career largely resulted from the military innovations he inherited from the French Revolution, such as mass conscription which made possible the use of block tactics in order to attack in column and eliminated the need for supply lines, thus making French armies much more mobile. The Revolution also provided him with young officers who had largely developed these new tactics and were willing and able to successfully implement them on the battlefield...

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Few men have dominated an age so thoroughly as Napoleon Bonaparte dominated his. In many ways he was like Adolph Hitler: charismatic, a master psychologist and politician, and ambitious to the point of self-destruction. Both started wars that led to vast destruction and a new political order. Both men shaped their times, but both were also products of their times who went with the currents of their respective histories and adeptly diverted those currents to suit their own needs. And ultimately, ...

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Although it would take until 1871 for the French Revolution to play out, it was triggering profound effects in France and the rest of Europe as early as 1789.  One touchstone by which to analyze the Revolution’s results is its motto: “Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood.  The power of these three ideas would quickly spread to the rest of Europe, especially after Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815, and eventually across the globe.

Liberty refers to the basic civil rights we often take for ...

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At the first annual celebration of the revolution 50,000 National Guardsmen from all over France and 300,000 Parisians witnessed the king taking an oath of loyalty to the new constitution.  However, Louis was not loyal to the revolution since it severely restricted his power and even prevented him from leaving Paris to attend Mass in the country.  On June 20, 1791, the king tried to escape to the Austrian Netherlands and seek refuge with the Hapsburgs.  Unfortunately for Louis, everything went w...

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Hopes ran high for widespread reforms when Louis XVI called the Estates General to Versailles in the spring of 1789.  While Louis' main concern was to get more taxes to cover France's mounting debts, the delegates from the Third Estate (mostly middle class lawyers and businessmen) came with notes ( cahiers) from their constituents urging such reforms as taxing the clergy and nobles to even the tax burden.  However, before these issues could be addressed, a more basic problem arose: voting proced...

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When analyzing the French revolution and revolutions in general, there are several recurring aspects we should keep in mind.  For one thing, revolutions tend to develop like a fever that starts mildly, but worsens progressively until it reaches "fever pitch" and then breaks.  This cycle may recur several times before matters finally are resolved.  A second theory is that revolutions start out rebelling against an absolutist or arbitrary power and end up setting up another arbitrary power in its ...

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    “Walking up a long hill to ease my mare, I was joined by a poor woman, who complained of the times, and that it was a sad country.  Demanding her reasons, she said her husband had but a morsel of land, one cow, and a poor little horse, yet they had a franchar (42 pounds) of wheat and three chickens to pay as a quitrent to one seigneur; and four franchar of oats, one chicken, and one franc to pay to another, besides very heavy tailles (income tax) and other taxes.  She had seven children and ...