Napolean's Impact

What was Napoleon's impact in the systems of Europe?

France at the time, had many revolutions and at times Napoleon was exiled from France because of the way people took him in. They did not know what they were doing. They did not know Napoleon would go down in history as one of the best leaders of all time.  

In the time of Napoleon, France controlled most of Europe. Although short in stature, his ideas were enormous. One of his ideas that started in France, was the embellishment of titles of nobility and serfdom. These titles were a sign of conservatism. Napoleon was trying to get away from this and he achieved it. Madame de Staël said " I don't believe that when Bonaparte became head of the government he had yet formulated the plan for a universal monarchy." Becoming the head of government was a huge accomplishment for such a man at the time. When he was head he ran tactics that were ahead of the time he was in. One was " do something new every three months, in order to captivate the imagination of the French people." He also went on to say that anyone who stood still lost.  This changed the political systems in Europe forever. 

In the article "the lost voices" the author makes a great point when she notices that Bonaparte "lacked the greatest of all props to political power-- legitimacy-- and that only success could assure the stability of his throne". This is a good point because with Bonaparte being took in and out of power, the social classes did not enjoy him. The only way they wouldn't revolt or kick him out is with constant success; and he put his money where his mouth is, so to speak. He continued to make the French empire larger and made the public have a "slightly" better impression of him. 

With more land and a genius of a leader, the system that France impacted Europe the most was the economic system. To start off, Napoleon set up a system where more people could get education. Like John green said" no one wants to live in a country with stupid people" with more smarter people, they got more money. As a to help set up leverage with the extra cash flow, Napoleon set up the bank of France, and while doing that he balanced the budget. This means people could store there money safely, with no worry of robbers or crooks. To top it all off, he tried to stray from the past ways of social classes, and set up a meritocracy; where people were rewarded on there skills, not their  family name. 

With Napoleon's bad reputation, he created a lot of things we still have today and forever changed the way the world is. Marshal Ney calls France an "immortal region" in that they were unstoppable at the time under his reign. May his impact never be forgotten in the political, economic, and social systems of the world. 

Luddites Raft

Luddites were a group of people in the 1800's who did not like the use of technology. They preferred the use of skilled artisans who got paid for it. In order to enforce it they would beat up the machines and ruin them. Why would they do this? With broken machines, the owners have to hire artisans.  What follows is a mock primary source letter and is from the point-of-view from the standpoint of a skilled weaver. 

Dear Austin, 

There is turmoil over here! More technology over here is making us lose jobs. There hiring these stupid little children to do the work that we used to. A few of us have joined a group called the Luddites. As a group, we sneak into the mills and ruin the machines so the children can't do any more work. No machines, then the owners have to re hire us. With Industrialization, these machines are taking over our work. The little kids are doing easier work for money and it leaves us on the street. It negatively impacted my life.  These machines are ruining it. 

From Anne 

In the industrial Revolution, there was a need for cheap labor. Most of the rich men did not want to work in the mills. They were usually the owners. With much need for workers, and not many resources to work with, the mill owners made a decision that would impact history forever. They would reach out to women.

In the 1800’s, mill owners would send others to outside the city, the countryside to find workers. surprisingly, they had absolutely no trouble in finding girls from thr age 5-20 to do the dirty work with poor conditions.  Why would anyone ever agree to this? The men who were cent to recuruit were deceiving in how they explained what the mills were like. What they said were promieses they could not keep such as : turkey for dinner, high pay, peaceful conditions. Also, the girls wanted to move to the big city, or start being independent. By the kid working, the parents would receive some extra money every month. After hearing all this, the girls were heavily motivated to move and start working and so were their parents. After they got their, they would see the truth. Harsh working hours, 4am-7pm, mean bosses, and gross foods such as “oatcakes” were the perilous hardships that were there. After this period, the views on women changed. Women were seen as more independent because of their strikes and uprisings.

With poor wages, terrible food, and harsh conditions, these women have went through hell and most lived to tell the story. They were the toughest bunch of the time, and others saw it and changed how they saw women of the time. Most would not have gone if they knew the true costs and benifits of them going, but most did not quit.