Napoelon Buonaparte (napoleon bonaparte, this the one we want, the former is CORSICAN)----The ONLY person who has more books and articles written about him is Jesus. Fact. The man transformed history. Conservative? Enlightened? War monger? Advocate of France's role in promoting equality?  First...he was BORN in Corisa. VERY proud of it.

--------"As the nation (corsica) was perishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me..." France would take corisa in battle. He would be given the opportunity to get a scholarship to study as a teenager in France, (JUST LIKE ROBESPIERRE!!!) He was a Jacobin and is and WAS alway a believer in STRONG CENTRALIZED authority. Power comes from Paris. He was an advocated of "careers open to all men."(this was a concept that rebuked tradition, privilege that was centrale to the Ancien Regime.---"You GET because you ACHIEVE!") So, this being said, he'll be against unions. He'll make peace with the Catholic Church. Not a believer in religion but recognized it's historical role in france and how damaging it had been when it was removed. FRANCE needed a HERO. They need a man who would fix the country. Save the country. Make France GREAT! The ideas of the rev were spreading...remember..the Girondins had advocated war to spread the ideas. Well....Napoleon was probably alive because he was gone from France so much during the apex of the Terror. He became a BRILLIANT military commander. A dude who came from nothing (well..his family were ennobled but POOR) and rose to because master of Europe.) This concept of HERO is central to ROMANTICISM. His military adventures will inadvertently lead to the creation of NATIONALISM throughout Euorpe. WHEN he destroyed conservative govts people began to identify as part of a nation. Also, his occupation of THEIR country rallied folks behind the concept of "our country must fight off the foreign invader." This will be central in what will become "ITALY" and what will become "GERMANY." Remmber, none of this nations existed yet. THE HRE still existed. However, more and more, people began to identify w/ being "german" Beethoven even though Napoleon great because he was such an advocate for enlightenment ideals. He was a figure who promoted the INDIVIDUAL! However...when Napoleon becomes a War monger, spreading war and chaos throughout Europe, he'll change his mind. WHERE is army went, much of the Enlightenment followed. 1. Career open to all, B. an end to serfdom, C. legal code---HIS CRITICS (especially in england. HATE him. "He was a tyrant. betrayed the enlightenment, Propagandist, Pushed back capitalism decades due to war, hurt ideas of reason and created strong Romanticisim which UNLEASHED THE FURY of what will become ULTRANATIONALISM in Germany." A complicated dude. 

 

----One last thing Romanticism is born following/during Napoleon. Folks will look for truth not in politics, rationalism and the enlightenment BUT INSTEAD through emotion, experience. BUT just like the enlightenment, ROMANTICS BELIEVED in Human capabilities