French Revolution Dbq

The French Revolution that took place between 1789 and 1799 changed France and Europe forever. In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, ruling until 1815, as essentially a dictator. The Revolutionary goals were much influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. The political goals of the revolution focused on the necessity to have a constitutional government. The economic and social objectives of the revolution were mainly about equality under the law and an end to the old aristocratic order. While Napoleon was in power he put into place several domestic policies. Politically and socially, his policies were largely put in place to preserve the people's rights and to gain the favor of the general population. Economically his policies for

Firstly, he created a new government called the consulate which gave absolute power to three individuals (he was one of them). Later on, in 1804, Napoleon declared himself emperor of France. This act directly opposed the revolution’s idea of a constitutional government. During this time, he created a new bureaucracy based on ability and not social class. Anyone had the opportunity to be a noble, one had to only be qualified based on their skill. This approach promoted the Revolutionary idea of not having established classes based on who your parents were, and instead giving equal opportunity to all citizens. During his reign, Napoleon did not support the freedom of the press. While in power, he shut down 60 of the 73 newspapers in circulation and made sure that the government read anything that was released to the general public. While this policy directly opposes the revolution's goal of freedom of the press, it did, to some degree, stabilize the nation. By not having freedom of the press there would be no new revolution of ideas under Napoleon's reign. Most of napoleon's political and administrative policies went against the goals of the revolution, but the new bureaucracy promoted