Napoleon's great impact on France

Napoleon Bonaparte made was an unstoppable driving force of progress in the French military and government, and made a huge impact in social, political, and economic systems in Europe.   

Madame De stael, a writer who often opposed Napoleon, states that Napoleon “formulated a plan for a universal monarchy” which is a great example of Napoleon's large impact on not just the French government but government all over the world. A Universal monarchy is when a single leader has complete control over all governments in a given area or in some cases the entire globe. This would have been an unfathomable change for the world’s government, it being radically different from the prospects of monarchies governing their appointed states which Europe was accustomed too. This plan of a universal monarchy never came to fruition but it still implanted the idea deep into the European political system, having been attempted again in Europe by several dictators throughout history, with drastically different approaches and results, but still with the basic principle of completion domination over multiple political states at once.

Napoleon also had a significant impact on the French economy. On the lost voices sheet, under Napoleon’s influence and conquests,it states that Napoleon “to restore economic prosperity,” “Controlled prices, encouraged new industry, and built roads and canals” showing Napoleon’s drive to not only be proficient in war but economic stability as well. This time of economic stability for France has not gone away today, Napoleon’s work on building canals and collecting various pieces of art can still be seen bringing in large amounts of money and tourism today, and this is a large contribution to France’s current positive economic status.              

In “The Lost Voices of Napoleon” author Thomas J. Vance gives evidence for Napoleon's great impact the social systems of France. In his words Napoleon was “eager to promote the advancement of the race, by opening the field to talent and genius, however low their birth, he was infinitely superior to all the sovereigns who endeavored to crush him.” Napoleon established a meritocracy where instead of the working class's success being based on a predetermined birthright, Napoleon insisted it be based purely on merit, specifically genius and talent. This had a massive impact on the social systems of Europe. Europe had a long history of basing social status on birthright, specifically in the age of the futile system. After Napoleon's support of this method became well known, the consistency of social systems implementing this belief increased, and is being used exclusively today, cementing Napoleon's impact of the way social class and merit is based.

In Marshal Michel Ney’s article on Napoleon he gives a quote that shows how Napoleon really fought for the right of the people. He states “the times are gone when the people were governed by suppressing their rights. Liberty triumphs in the end, and Napoleon, our august emperor,comes to confirm it”. This quote shows that Napoleon really cared about the rights and privileges of the people and in the words of Napoleon aficionado Marjorie Johnston was “a great soldier a great liberator, a great reformer, and a great lawgiver” words that capture perfectly Napoleon’s massive impact on the world.     

The Luddites

The Luddites were a group of people during the industrial revolution who highly opposed the way new technology was being used. Most of them were lower level workers and they fought for better pay of the lower class and destroyed different machines in protest of the machineries misuse and to send a message to the higher ups that they had issues that needed to be addressed.  They disapproved of the use of certain machinery because they thought it helped contribute to the highly industrialized world they lived in, and also the increase in poverty amongst the lower class due to the Lowell mills and other enterprises narrowing the opportunities of the people that worked there. What follows is  a fictional recreation of a letter that would be sent by a factory girl during the industrial revolution who was opposed to the Luddites.              

Dear Colin,
My deepest apologies but I’m afraid I can’t be home for Christmas this year, something terrible has happened at the mill. I was just getting ready to attend to my 2nd shift when I heard that a group of hooligans barged in and left the machines for scrap. Now I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Luddite movement but what I’ve heard is they’re poor folk that are opposed to new machinery and the like and think that its the sole contributor to all their poverty, and woes. Now I understand why they’re so frustrated at all the higher ups and blame them for their pitiful sorrows but that doesn't mean they have the right to break into a respected established, demolish all of its contents, and ruin my good day! But I’d think you’d probably side with these “Luddites” you having gone through so much hardship in the past few years, going from job to job, city to city, having a quarter less of your index finger than you had previous to the madness of it all. But I’ve been here 7 years, in the same place with my nose to the grindstone working in pretty decent conditions and decent enough pay, I don’t know what they’re talking about! And I certainly don’t know why they had to make me late to see you all. I mean sure I hate this confounded contraptions too, and sometimes I’d like to put a hammer to those beasts as well, but what you want to do and what you should do are two things that shouldn’t even be in relation to each other, little lone acted upon simultaneously without caution or reasoning. Of course it still makes me sad to think of Mother and Father and Emily cold and destitute, and I wish I could be their to take care of them, I really do, and It is in some way due to technology that our families were put in this dreadful position. But at the same time if it wasn’t for all this new technology we’d be all be farming for a living, doing the same amount of work for a lot less pay, in the blazing heat and chilling cold instead of warm boarding houses, so I’m grateful. I wish these Luddites could see that what they’re doing isn’t helping any, what are they even looking to accomplish with all this vandalism? All it does is make them look like common thugs, rebels and renegades, not people looking for a good change in the world. But what can I do about it? I’m just a penniless mill girl, no one will listen to what I have to say anyhow, I’ll just try to get home as fast as I can then go back to the mill when it’s rebuilt, it’s what I know, and it’s all I’m good at. I do agree with these Luddites that the wage cuts aren't all that ethical, and the conditions aren't as good as they used to be I suppose, but the way I see it, it’s better than nothing.          

What Motivated the Women to Stay in Lowell?

In Lowell during the Industrial Revolution it appeared that everyone was stuck in an unbreakable chain. As the lower class seemed to be rapidly expanding, and more and more families were left incapable of supporting their children, the best solution seemed to be the one that killed two birds with one stone. Sending their daughters off to the mills not only meant they would have another source of income, but also their child would now have food to eat, a roof over their heads, and work to keep them occupied, things they never could have provided for them before. But what those mill worker’s fathers didn't realize was that a lifelong career in bobbin weaving didn't exactly lend itself to many other promising career paths; and more than likely their daughters stayed poor, stayed in Lowell, and when it came time for it, sent their own daughters down to the mill, thereby continuing the chain. It was the ingenious system of the Lowell mills that never seemed to be anticipated or planned, but amongst many other forces ensured that Lowell factories would never be understaffed.

 One document we read for our first DBQ (doc B) stated this very same reason from the perspective of one of the the mill owners himself. When asked if many of the parents objected to sending their daughters to the mills he replied that “Many parents did object to send their girls, but that the poorness of others, and not having any work to set them to, left him not at any loss for hands.” So it seems the higher ups were aware the positively devious system they had stumbled across, and although it might very well have been immoral in some peoples eyes, they weren't very hasty to put any of it to a stop.     

          Although this theory of financial motivation is true for some girls that worked at the Lowell mills, like most theories, this acts as only one possible explanation, and there were many reasons for the average Lowell mill girl not being so eager to hang up her threads and needles. One big factor being some of the girls were actually very excited to go to work in the mills. Some of  them even thought the factories were more like an apprenticeship where they were going to be taught how to do the work by by real professionals of their craft. One of the stories in the video we watched “Children of the Revolution”showed a boy who said he was promised roast beef and plum pudding before being employed (note that this was in an English mill) but instead was served a glass of blue tinted milk for his introductory meal.

But why would that poor child after sitting down to a dinner of blue dairy mush decide not to leave right then and there; well one of the documents we read in class seems to shed a little light on this. This document (doc. C) tells the story of of a girl who continued to work in the mill even though her health was deteriorating rapidly for over 3 years of her working tenure. She reports of even several of her co workers dying before her eyes yet still she worked on, she kept on telling herself she was in good health until she eventually got fired from her job and thrown back to the bustling Lowell streets. Either she was actually aware of her condition and just didn't want to be left homeless and poor, or possibly something even more tragic was at work. This story is a perfect example of the true motivations of these girls, fear and denial.

Some of them them had been in the mills for so long that the thundering screeches of the spinning Jennies and the metallic clanks of Bobbins was practically all they knew, and the thought of no longer having a roof over their heads, food to eat, and work to do, was a thought so frightening it outweighed the threat the mills put on their lives.

That is the real secret to why the girls stayed in the mills, although money was what motivated the parents to send them, and the promising conditions is what got them to agree, I think the biggest reason why the girls didn't just up and quit was fear. Fear of being hungry, fear of being homeless, fear of being jobless, and fear of being alone, mixed with the human need to always stay with what’s familiar to us, is what kept the girls there for as long as they were. whether or not this system was morally just, or if this diabolical chain could have been prevented is a subject that can be debated for years and years, but one fact that I truly believe is that these girls didn't really have a choice of whether or not they wanted this to happen to them, some of them were mill workers for so long that even if they mustered enough confidence to walk away from the mill, in some respects they could never really leave.