This is an extract from dissertation on Napoleon and French Revolution:
Napoleon played a major part in not only France’s history, but all of Europe’s as well. Napoleon was a child of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. Napoleon affected Europe during and after his short reign. Though Napoleon had a short reign, it was a successful one. Many things contributed to his rise and fall to power. Europe wouldn’t be what it is now, if it wasn’t for Napoleon and the French Revolution.

The rise of Napoleon is very complicated. There were many things that played a part in his rise. If the French Revolution wouldn’t have occurred, then he wouldn’t have had a reign. The Revolution happened because the people were not happy with the Old Regime. The Old Regime used the feudalism system left from the Middle Ages. France had three major social classes also known as estates. The First Estate was made up of Church officials, the Second Estate was made up of nobles and wealthy land owners, and the Third (and largest) Estate was made up of three groups: the bourgeoisie (merchants and artisans), laborers (cooks, servants, and others), and the peasants (serfs). The Old Regime had a major problem; they were making the Third Estate very mad. They would allow the church officials to be exempt from taxes and make the nobles and wealthy land owners pay little taxes and then they made the Third Estate pay high taxes. This made the Third Estate very upset and what even made it worse was that France was in major debt. (more…)