Napoleon's Reign Of Terror

History is made up of causes and effects. The French Revolution began because of King Louis XVI’s unjust ways towards the 3rd Estate, which held the majority of the French population. Eventually, this absolute ruler was killed during the revolution’s Reign of Terror along with thousands of others. This caused France to revert to conservative ways. These soon were overthrown by a powerful man named Napoleon Bonaparte, who went on to become the emperor of France. The French people believed that he continued revolutionary ideas, even though his absolute power and what he did contradicted several of them. Napoleon’s rule marked the French Revolution as unsuccessful since he took rights and power away from citizens, manipulated people to support

He required loyal subjects whom he needed to spread his ideas to masses. As Beers states in his writing, “To fill the need for educated, loyal government officials, [Napoleon] set up...government-run schools”. By forcing the schools to teach his ideas, Napoleon decided what his people saw and thought. One idea he forced onto the students of these lycées was the question, “Why are we bound to all these duties towards our Emperor?” to which the required answer was, “because God...has made him the minister of His power” (Lesson VII). They were forced to memorize these words perfectly, which is a form of manipulation that made the citizens of France believe in Napoleon because it was all they had been subjected to. Napoleon ends up using the same methods of pre-revolution France’s absolute monarchs. Similarly, he used the French people’s religion against them. When mending his relationship with the church, he made it so “The French government appointed Catholic bishops and paid clergy” (Beers). This indirectly influenced how the clergy thought as they had loyalty towards Napoleon for he made them and paid them to be clergy, and so they spread his ideas to the masses, effectively manipulating them. In addition to using religion, Napoleon used words to influence the people. After becoming emperor, “He insisted all manuscripts be subjected to government scrutiny...Even mail was opened by government police” (Spielvogel 566). Propaganda in his favor did not even allow people to write to others about things that he did not want them to think. By basically forcing the people to support him, Napoleon made himself the opposite of the ideal revolutionary leader as it is what they fought against. Power caused him to become confident that he could do what he