The French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte Essay Example

The French Revolution was initiated through the tyrannical rule of King Louis XVI. The King was unfair to the citizens(third estate) and favored to certain people (first and second estate). The Revolution lasted from 1789-1799. Society was treated based on the amount of money you had which was unfair to many citizens. The people who were favored by the King abused their power to the third estate. The ideals of the French Revolution wanted liberty, equality, and brotherhood throughout the country. After King Louis XVI was overthrown, there was no proper ruler, and the people who tried to rule had tyrannical intents, one of them being Napoleon. Napoleon was a general during the French Revolution who came to power and was respected by many people for achieving the goals of the French Revolution. Another reason why he came to power was his victories in battle. He made himself an emperor and believed that he was chosen by God. Napoleon had a tyrannical mindset and based his government on it since he loved no one, was arrogant about his victories, and he desired to show his importance to the world.

Napoleon was a selfish person who would’ve done anything, no matter the cost. In Napoleon’s diary, he stated, “Friendship is only a word; I love nobody; no, not even my brothers”(Document 5). This sentiment shows Napoleon’s lack of sympathy towards his citizens, which is inherently tyrannical. An example of Napoleon’s lack of sympathy is shown in a conference with the Catholic Church, Napoleon says, “and religion must be in the hands of the government…”(Document 4) showing that Napoleon wanted to control religion. This is tyrannical because many of his predecessors had the idea to control religion and manipulate it, making the Divine Right Theory. This is also a lack of sympathy because Napoleon didn’t care about people’s beliefs and instead wanted to bend them so he could get more power. Napoleon lacked sympathy but had a lot of arrogance.

Napoleon was arrogant about his battles and believed his victories were the main reason why he was in power. Napoleon stated this in his diary, “My power proceeds from my reputation and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power would fail if I were not to support it with more glory and more victories”(Document 5). The quote shows Napoleon’s arrogance and hints that Napoleon wasn’t interested in the actual problems with the country. This is tyrannical because Napoleon tried to do everything with wars, and even tried to ally with Russia with the same idea. This led to many casualties in Napoleon’s army, but Napoleon still ignored that fact and believed waging wars and winning them was the only way. Napoleon was arrogant about his victories but he was also arrogant about his importance to the world.

Napoleon desired to show his importance to the world and did absurd acts to do so. In 1807, a painting of Napoleon was made of him wearing expensive clothing and was painted by Jacques-Louis David. These are the actions of a tyrant because there is no reason to wear such expensive clothing to show your significance. This also shows that he doesn’t value interaction with citizens. If Napoleon had done those interactions with the citizens and cared about the country, he wouldn’t have cared what people outside of the country thought of him. Instead, he wanted everyone in the world to see his importance and took it a step further by crowning himself rather than letting the pope crown him during his coronation.

Napoleon was a tyrannical ruler who was a selfish person, he was arrogant about his victories and his importance to the world. Napoleon was a selfish person, he showed this when he said that everyone should have religion and didn’t care what the citizens thought. He showed his arrogance about his victories when he tried to control Russia by waging war on them.  He was also arrogant about his importance. He showed his arrogance by wearing expensive attire unnecessarily. Undoubtedly, Napoleon acted as a tyrant and didn’t work on furthering the ideals of the French Revolution.