A. Provide basic information about the following figure and their participation in the French Revolution and in the Napoleonic War . Also include their achievements and he reason of their downfall.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
-Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, the son of
Carlo and
Letizia Bonaparte. Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon rose from obscurity to become Napoleon I, Empereur des Francais (Emperor of the French). He is both a historical figure and a legend—and it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. The events of his life fired the imaginations of great writers, film makers, and playwrights whose works have done much to create the Napoleonic legend.Napoleon decided on a military career when he was a child, winning a scholarship to a French military academy at age 14. His meteoric rise shocked not only France but all of Europe, and his military conquests threatened the stability of the world.Napoleon was one of the greatest military commanders in history. He has also been portrayed as a power hungry conqueror. Napoleon denied those accusations. He argued that he was building a federation of free peoples in a Europe united under a liberal government. But if this was his goal, he intended to achieve it by taking power in his own hands. However, in the states he created, Napoleon granted constitutions, introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments and fostered education, science, literature and the arts.Emperor Napoleon proved to be an excellent civil administrator. One of his greatest achievements was his supervision of the revision and collection of French law into codes. The new law codes—seven in number—incorporated some of the freedoms gained by the people of France during the French revolution, including religious toleration and the abolition of serfdom. The most famous of the codes, the Code Napoleon or Code Civil, still forms the basis of French civil law. Napoleon also centralized France's government by appointing prefects to administer regions called departments, into which France was divided.
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95aug/napoleon.html 2. Duke Wellington
-He was an unremarkable student at Eton, but seems to have found his calling when he joined the army in 1787. He fought against the French in Flanders and in 1796 went to India. His brother Richard was appointed governor general there in 1797. Wellesley achieved considerable military success, taking part in the Mysore War against Tipu Sultan. During the subjugation of the Mahrattas he achieved a remarkable victory at Assaye (1803).
Wellington's government fell in 1830. When they returned to power in 1834, Wellington declined the office of prime minister, which went instead to Robert Peel. From 1834-1835 Wellington served as foreign minister. He retired in 1846. He died on 14 September 1852 and was given a state funeral.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wellington_duke_of.shtml 3. Maximilien Robespierre
-Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician who became one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution.
Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was born in Arras on 6 May 1758, the son of a lawyer. He was educated in Paris and entered the same profession as his father. He was elected a deputy of the estates-general (a form of parliament, but without real power) that met in May 1789, and subsequently served in the National Constituent Assembly.
Robespierre became increasingly popular for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms. In April 1790, was elected president of the powerful Jacobin political club. After the downfall of the monarchy in August 1792, Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the National Convention. The convention abolished the monarchy, declared France a republic and put the king on trial for treason, all measures strongly supported by Robespierre. The king was executed in January 1793.
In the period after the king's execution, tensions in the convention resulted in a power struggle between the Jacobins and the more moderate Girondins. The Jacobins used the power of the mob to take control and the Girondin leaders were arrested. Control of the country passed to the Committee of Public Safety, of which Robespierre was a member. He rapidly became the dominant force on the committee.
Against a backdrop of the threat of foreign invasion and increasing disorder in the country, the committee began the 'Reign of Terror', ruthlessly eliminating all those considered enemies of the revolution. These included leading revolutionary figures such as Georges Danton.
In May 1794, Robespierre insisted that the National Convention proclaim a new official religion for France - the cult of the Supreme Being. This was based on the thinking of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau of whom Robespierre was a passionate advocate.
The intensification of the 'Reign of Terror' and Robespierre's autocracy made him increasingly unpopular. French military successes served to undermine the justification for such ruthlessness and a conspiracy was formed to overthrow Robespierre. On 27 July 1794, he was arrested after a struggle. The following day Robespierre, wounded from a bullet to the jaw, and 21 of his closest supporters were executed at the guillotine.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/robespierre_maximilien.shtml 4. George Danton
-French revolutionary. Originally a lawyer, during the early years of the Revolution he was one of the most influential people in Paris. He organized the uprising 10 August 1792 that overthrew Louis XVI and the monarchy, roused the country to expel the Prussian invaders, and in April 1793 formed the revolutionary tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety, of which he was the leader until July of that year. Thereafter he lost power to the
Jacobins, and, when he attempted to recover it, was arrested and guillotined.
http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0000762.htmlB. What happened to France after the Napoleonic War. Discuss and provide a brief and concise account about the war.
-The period from 1799 to 1815 is often referred to as the “Napoleonic Wars”. These years and the two following decades became one of the most difficult episodes of the British history. That was the time when Great Britain had to fight a lot, and had to recover from fighting. The purpose of this survey is to give a brief description of British domestic and foreign policy, economic and social situation throughout the mentioned period and to provide essential information about the role that Great Britain played during so-called “Napoleonic Wars”.
In the 1790's, the wars of the French Revolution merged into the Napoleonic Wars, as Napoleon Bonaparte took over the French revolutionary gov-ernment. Great Britain, as the most of the European nations, was engaged into the set of conflicts. At first the war did not go well for Britain. The First Coalition with Prussia, Austria, and Rus-sia against the French col-lapsed in 1796, and in 1797 Britain was beset by naval defeat and by naval muti-ny. The Battle of the Nile in 1798, however, was one of the hours of the British Navy brightest glory.
http://revolution.allbest.ru/history/00003205_0.htmlC. Introduce the following personalities and their accomplishments in their respective countries:
1. Queen Isabela
-Isabella was convinced by Christopher Columbus to sponsor his voyage of discovery. The lasting effects of this were many: by the traditions of the time, when Columbus discovered lands in the New World, they were given to Castile. Isabella took a special interest in the Native Americans of the new lands; when some were brought back to Spain as slaves she insisted they be returned and freed, and her will expressed her wish that the "Indians" be treated with justice and fairness.
Isabella was also a patron of scholars and artists, establishing educational institutions and building a large collection of art works. She learned Latin as an adult, was widely read, and educated not only her sons but her daughters. One of these daughters, Catherine of Aragon, is known in history as the first wife of Henry VIII of England and mother of Mary I of England.
At her death, she left as her only heir "Mad Joan," Juana, her sons and grandson and her daughter, Isabella, queen of Portugal, predeceasing her. Her will, the only writing which she left, is a fascinating document, summarizing what she thought were her reign's achievements as well as wishes for the future.
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/medrenqueens/p/p_isabella_i.htm 2. King Carlos V
-Charles V (Spanish: Carlos I or Carlos I de España y V de Alemania; German: Karl V., Dutch: Karel V, French: Charles Quint, 24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was ruler of the
Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the
Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and
abdication in favor of his younger brother
Ferdinand I and his son
Philip II in 1556.Charles was the eldest son of
Philip the Handsome and
Joanna the Mad. When Philip died in 1506, Charles became ruler of Burgundy, and his mother's co-ruler in Spain upon the death of his maternal grandfather,
Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1516. As Charles was the first person to rule Castile-León and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, he became the first
King of Spain (Charles co-reigned with his mother Joanna, which was however a technicality given her mental instability).
[3] In 1519, Charles succeeded his paternal grandfather
Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria. From that point forward, Charles's realm, which has been described as "
the empire on which the sun never sets", spanned nearly four million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor 3. King Philip II
-King Phillip II of Spain played a major role in English history at the time of the
Tudors. King Phillip had been married to
Mary I and was a staunch
Catholic. It was the quarrel between Phillip of Spain and
Queen Elizabeth I that led to the
Spanish Armada being sent to England. Phillip of Spain was a very powerful
emperor, his lands spreading not only throughout Spain but also throughout much of Europe: his inheritance being much of Holland, Austria and other parts of the 'Low Countries'.
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/phillipofspain.htm 4. Ivan the Terrible
- Ivan the Terrible succeeded his father Vasilii III and was the first Grand Prince to have himself officially crowned tsar. With his reign, Russia became a fully autocratic state. He succeeded to the throne at the age of three and regents ruled for him until at the age of 16 he had himself crowned tsar. He also married Anastasia who was a member of the Romanov boyar family. As a boy, Ivan IV suffered under the regents. While he was treated with respect in public, in private he was often neglected and tortured. He also witnessed the boyars fighting to come to power. These two things are believed to have caused Ivan IV to be cruel. As a child he was known to torture animals, and as an adult his actions earned him the name Ivan the Terrible. His title in Russian was Gronzy which actually means the awesome. He was also very suspicious of the boyars and heavily persecuted them. This too may have been from seeing the actions of the boyars when he was a child. He even had a leading boyar named Andrei Shuisky fed to the dogs to show his power.
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/russia/ivantheterrible.html 5. Peter the Great
- Peter was a grandson of Tsar Michael Romanov (who was crowned as Tsar in 1613). In 1682 Peter was proclaimed Tsar at the tender age of 10. But due to power struggles between different political forces in the country, the young Tsar was forced to rule jointly with his brother Ivan, under the patronage of their sister Sofia. In 1689, after a failed coup d'etat, Sofia was overthrown and exiled to a convent. When Tsar Ivan died in 1696, Peter remained monarch and engineered a series of reforms that were to put Russia among the major European powers of the day. Peter opened Russia to the influences of the West and invited the best European engineers, shipbuilders, architects, craftsmen and merchants to come to Russia and modernize the country. Hundreds of Russians were sent to Europe to get the best education possible and learn the different arts and crafts that would sustain Russia in its future growth. He reorganized the government: established the Senat as the highest government institution and 10 semi-ministries " kollegii". Peter introduced a new poll tax, which brought him funding for an active foreign policy and for boosting national manufacturing and trade. The "Tsar-reformer" was the first leader to organize a Russian regular army and found the Russian navy (he was also an experienced shipbuilder). Peter the Great was buried in the
Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/peter1st.asp 6. Catherine the Great
-One of the most interesting, industrious and powerful personages to grace the pages of history during the eighteenth century is Catherine II, Empress of all the Russias. Historians have not always been kind to her memory, and all too often one reads accounts of her private life, ignoring her many achievements. The stories of her love affairs have been vulgarized and can be traced to a handful of French writers in the years immediately after Catherine's death, when Republican France was fighting for its life against a coalition that included Russia.
Catherine was born Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst on April 21, 1729 in Stettin, then Germany, now Poland. Her father, Prince Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor princeling among the fragmented principalities in Germany, had married the much younger Princess Johanna of Holstein-Gottorp. The house of Holstein could lay claim to the crown of Sweden. Instead of making a more brilliant marriage, her family had arranged a match to this Prince of modest position. After Sophie was born, her mother soon became bored with the provincial life of Stettin, where her husband was a high ranking officer in the Prussian Army. As Johanna was related to many noble families in Germany, she took every opportunity to travel to the courts of Zerbst, Hamburg, Brunswick, Kiel and even Berlin.
http://nevermore.tripod.com/CGREAT.HTM 7. Maria Theresa
-Maria Theresa (1717-1780), archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, began her rule in 1740. She was the only woman ruler in the 650 history of the Habsburg dynasty. She was also one of the most successful Habsburg rulers, male or female, while bearing sixteen children between 1738 and 1756.
Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. In 1711, Charles VI found himself the sole remaining male Habsburg. An old European law, the Salic Law, prohibited a woman from inheriting her father's kingdom. Concerned that he may not father a son, Charles VI issued a decree in 1713, known as the Pragmatic Sanction. This document guaranteed the right of succession to his daughter. At this time, many of the great powers of Europe agreed to her succession of power, at a price. Upon the death of Charles VI in 1740, however, challenges to the Habsburg lands led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/mariatheres.html
