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History 102-03Second Long Paper:Napoleon Bonaparte~Otto von BismarckCONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHIES:REPUBLICAN TO DEMOCRATICByMelinda S. WrocklageUniversity of LouisvilleApril 16, 2004
 
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHIES:REPUBLICAN to DEMOCRATICPart 1: Napoleon Bonaparte
During the Age of Enlightenment, European aristocratic leaders gave theirpeople Constitutional Monarchies, sharing executive power with their property-holders;among the political theorists of the age would be Voltaire, Locke, Bolingbrook,Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Voltaire wrote
Philosophical Letters 
and John Locke wrote
Two Treaties of Civil Government 
, both in favor for Republicanism; in his
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 
, Locke identified each person as “a thinkingintelligent being, that has reason and reflection”.
1
 Voltaire was a pen-name forFrançois-Marie Arouet; secularizing history, “in his
Essai sur les moeurs 
, or ‘UniversalHistory’…he represented Christianity and all other organized religions as socialphenomena or mere human opinions.”
2
Montesquieu wrote
Spirit of the Laws 
and LordBolingbrook wrote
Patriot King 
, both in favor for Constitutional Monarchy; Bolingbrookbelieved that only wealthy, powerful monarchs were capable of placing nationalinterests ahead of their own, in effect becoming servants of their state. Montesquieunot only wrote about social balance, but also about the different types of educationbetween aristocrats and commoners, believing that aristocrats were taught to be betterleaders. Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote the first Democratic theory; his
Social Contract 
preached for a ‘state of nature’ where people could live in peace and harmony amongeach other. His
Discourse on Inequality 
preached the goodness of people and the lack of a real basis for discrimination; he believed that all men are equal and that personal-sovereignty resided inside of each individual. Even after though the “voracious reader”Napoleon “had long outgrown his youthful passion for Rousseau…when he re-read the
Nouvelle Héloïse 
at St Helena he admitted that ‘it was a work full of fire, moving,disquieting’.”
3
With the secularization that developed after the religious wars came national wars; some were fought based on
Ideas 
, on determining the correct
Right Order 
; some were fought based on
Territory 
, for the sake of empire-building; and some were foughtfor the sake of 
Dynastic Power 
, for the glory of aristocratic families. Hugo Grotius’ 
True Law of War & Peace 
stressed justified warfare under certain conditions, using NaturalLaw to defend his position that God condoned these types of territorial or dynastic wars.Carl Von Clausewitz’ 
On War 
mixed politics and warfare, stressing the achievement of small territorial gains without crippling the enemy. Attempting to increase his nationalpower, King Louis XIV, of the Bourbon family, had begun to expand French territory,beginning with the German principalities of Alsace and Lorraine; becoming thestrongest country made France a threat to the rest of Europe. In order to check hisprogress, all other European nations aligned against him, forming the
League of Augsburg 
; the resulting
War of Augsburg 
ended in a stalemate and France continuing toexpand its colonies. Louis next placed his grandson, Philip V, on the Spanish throneupon the death of the last remaining Spanish Hapsburg; the resulting
War of Spanish Succession 
would be waged to displace him. France clearly lost this war and Englandtook away the French-Canadian colonies. A temporary period of peace and prosperitylasted throughout Europe. Frederick II, or Frederick the Great of the Hohenzollernfamily, became the new King of Prussia; Maria Theresa, the daughter of the Holy RomanEmperor, Charles VI, became the Holy Roman Empress. Frederick declared war onAustria to take the throne from her, called the
War of Austrian Succession 
. France
1
“The Empiricists,” p. 67.
2
Palmer, Colton, Kramer, “A History,” p. 303.
3
Markham, “Napoleon,” p. 139.
Melinda S. WrocklagePage 2 of 157/23/2009
 
allied with Prussia, which had the second largest army to France’s; George II of Englandallied with the weaker Austria because his family came from Hanover, which was nextto Prussia, making him dynastically prejudiced against Prussia. Frederick was one of the greatest generals in history, developing numerous advancements in the art of strategic warfare and utilizing newly-innovated weapons; Napoleon would later statethat he would have lost if he had fought against Frederick the Great. Frederick rodeinto battles right behind his men, so that his split-decisions could be quickly relayedand followed; Napoleon would later mimic this strategy. He also increased Prussian wealth and strength by claiming his family-right to the Austrian province of Silesia, which was larger than all of Prussia. In the third, and last, war to check Louis’sambitions, the
Seven Years War 
, or
French-Indian War 
; George II wisely put aside hisprejudices and allied with Prussia to bring about the complete defeat of France. Everysingle French colony was taken away, leaving France a broken country; After taking theEnglish throne, George III, steeped in deep aristocratic tradition along with havingHanover relatives married into the French aristocracy, proposed to give the fishingrights of St. Lawrence, Canada to France. However, his Prime Minister, William Pitt,known as the
Great Commoner 
, threatened to resign and instigate a new government if George did this; as a commoner without aristocratic traditions towards respectful warfare, he saw this as a waste of the hard-fought victory over France.Napoleon Bonaparte was born to middle-class property-holders living on theFrench island of Corsica, which had been a colony of Genoa until a few years beforeNapoleon’s birth, which caused him to associate himself as an Italian. Thoughcommoners, he and his family, as the highest-classed family on Corsica, were respectedby the French general Marbeauf; this respect was reciprocated by the Bonaparte family.Napoleon had been a Rousseau-following Democrat in his youth, respecting Rousseau’sideals about human rights. With the help of Marbeauf, seeing Napoleon’s intelligence,he was sent to a French aristocratic secondary boarding school and then to a Frencharistocratic military academy, where he was admired for being an excellent soldier.Here he was educated in Mercantilist Cameralism, and learned to respect the moreregulated economical system. Due to harassment that he received from the aristocraticstudents, such as calling him
The Corsican 
, implying his lowly provincial birth,Napoleon followed his democratic tendencies and switched from the aristocratic Calvaryto Artillery. His prowess in the Artillery enabled him to graduate in just two years,instead of the usual four years.France’s wealth was in a dangerous position; the bulk of French wealth lay inthe exempted aristocratic lands, leaving the poorest of French citizens largelyresponsible towards taxes. Louis XVI sent for the Swiss Economist, Jacques Necker, todetermine a solution to the French monetary problem; with a PhD in Economics,specializing in Cameral Sciences, he was more than qualified. Necker stressed the needto collect more taxes; but this was not possible since a drought had hit Europe. After witnessing the successful American Revolution, Louis recalled Necker, trying to findanother solution without invoking a French Revolution; he determined that the bestsolution would be to call an
Estates General 
, a legislative meeting of the top threeClasses—the clergy, aristocrats, and landed commoners. Since Estates Generals hadnot been called for 174 years, Necker studied to discover that 250 representatives fromeach class met in three separate chambers with three separate votes; this clearly wasnot balanced between the aristocrats and clergy, who held similar interests, and thecommoners. Necker proposed to double the number of commoner representatives andhave all three classes meet in a single chamber with a single vote; but Louis only agreedto doubt the number of commoners, knowing that the aristocrats and clergy wouldrefuse to sit next commoners. Many pamphlets were published in favor of the singlechamber, such as the Abbé Sieyès’ 
What is the Third Estate 
which determined that as workers and taxpayers, commoners were the backbone of France; Sieyès also believed
Melinda S. WrocklagePage 3 of 157/23/2009
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