The French Revolution and Napoleon E-Book

Charles Downer Hazen

• Herausgeber: Arcadia Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Any one who seeks to understand the stirring period in which we are now living becomes quickly aware that he must first know the history of the French Revolution, a movement that inaugurated a new era, not only for France but for the world. The years from 1789 to 1815, the years of the Revolution and of Napoleon, effected one of the greatest and most difficult transitions of which history bears record, and to gain any proper sense of its significance one must have some glimpse of the background, some conception of what Europe was like in 1789. That background can only be sketched here in a few broad strokes, far from adequate to a satisfactory appreciation, but at least indicating the point of departure.What was Europe in 1789? One thing, at least, it was not: it was not a unity. There were states of every size and shape and with every form of government. The States of the Church were theocratic; capricious and cruel despotism...

Leseprobe

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONAND NAPOLEON

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I: THE OLD REGIME IN FRANCE

CHAPTER II: BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER III: THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION

CHAPTER IV: THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

CHAPTER V: THE CONVENTION

CHAPTER VI: THE DIRECTORY

CHAPTER VII: THE CONSULATE

CHAPTER VIII: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE EMPIRE

CHAPTER IX: THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT

CHAPTER X: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON

Charles Downer Hazen

THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONAND NAPOLEON

Copyright © Charles Downer Hazen

The French Revolution and Napoleon

(1917)

Arcadia Press 2017

www.arcadiapress.eu

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONAND NAPOLEON

PREFACE

No historian believes that history repeats itself. Yet, between different ages there are frequently striking analogies and resemblances. It is problems that repeat themselves, not the conditions which determine their solution. One of these problems, recurrent in European annals, is that of the maintenance of a certain balance of power among the various nations as essential to their freedom, the maintenance of a situation to which they are accustomed and which they have found tolerable, a change in which would be prejudicial or dangerous to their peace and safety. Several times in modern history this balance has been threatened and Europe has purchased immunity from servitude by freely giving its life blood that life might remain and might be worth living.

To an age like our own, caught in the grip of a world war, whose issues, however incalculable, will inevitably be profound, there is much instruction to be gained from the study of a similar crisis in the destinies of humanity a century ago. The most dramatic and most impressive chapter of modern history was written by the French Revolution and by Napoleon. And between that period and our own not only are there points of interesting and suggestive comparison but there is also a distinct line of causation connecting the two.

For the convenience of those who may wish to review this memorable and instructive period I have brought together in this volume the chapters dealing with it in my Modern European History. In the opening twentieth century, as in the opening nineteenth, mankind has been driven to the ordeal by battle by the resolve to preserve the most cherished things of life. Now, as then, civilization hangs upon the arbitrament of the sword. It is not churches alone that owe their existence and their power to the blood of the martyrs. The most precious rights of nations and of individuals have not only been achieved, but have been maintained inviolate, by the unconquerable spirit of the brave.

“Great is the glory, for the strife is hard!”

C. D. H.

January 10, 1917.