Napoleon Bonaparte: The Legacy of the French Revolution The debate over Napoleon's role in the French Revolution is an incredibly fierce one. On one side you have people who claim he was a tyrannical despot who destroyed civil liberties. These people argue that he crow...
In a way, it might have begun with the Age of Enlightenment and its drive toward a mastery of nature and society, with human reason at the center of everything, since which rationality had been considered the key to justice, morality, control, organization, understanding and happiness. ...
When the king's own cousin, the duke of Orleans stated that it was illegal to do so, the king replied, "That is of no importance to me...it is legal because I will it." # It was that statement that made others recognize that the king had crossed the line between absolutism and despotism. ...
