Unit 5 - Reasons for establishing the empire

Author: Napoleon Bonaparte

Author Bio: Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He is most noted for founding the french first empire and reorganizing the political map / structure of Europe during the early to mid 19th century.

Date/Context: December 1804. Napoleon was crowned emperor on December 2, 1804, so it makes sense he would rapidly relate his mindset.

Summary: Napoleon describes himself in the third person so that he can seem more aloof and careing for the French. He describes the decision process as painful and that he repeatedly had to seek counsel from the senate. After describing his thought process he describes the religious significance of having the pope officiate, then he talks about the symbolism of his oath.

Quotes: "Napoleon was, ... Emperor of the French"

Unit 4 - The advancement of learning

Author: Sir Francis Bacon

Author Bio: Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. He is most noted for his scientific work during the enlightenment.

Date/Context: 1605 The first of Bacon’s writings on the nature of science and the scientific method. He also had a view of the unity of knowledge, both scientific and non-scientific.

Summary: Bacon discusses some of the basic fears that people have when confronted by contemporary scientific thought and attempts to dispel them by saying science exists to study God in nature. We see in this passage a prime example of the argument that scientists are trying to prove God's existence in the world y studying the world. Bacon also says that science is and must be the guard against superstition and that by doing so it is a guard against heresies.

Quotes: "Natural philosophy is ... the most approved nourishment for faith ..."

Unit 5

Author: The National Assembly

Author Bio: Its members had been elected to represent the estates of the realm: the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate (which, in theory, represented all of the commoners and, in practice, represented the bourgeoisie). The Third Estate had been granted "double representation" that is, twice as many delegates as each of the other estates.

Date/Context: From its inception, the Estates-General was in contention over organizational practices. To combat this, the Third Estate convened to form a new legislative body known as the National Assembly which was formed on June 17, 1789. Three days later, the members of this were locked out of their meeting place (albeit unintentionally) and so they marched to a tennis court to draft a new constitution for France; this would come to be one of the most important documents of the revolution.

Summary: The Tennis Court Oath was due to growing discontent of the Third Estate in France. Louis XVI wanted to maintain the absolute monarchy while rulers of the Third Estate banned together to meet and dicuss reform proposed by Necker the Prime Minister.  As such, the estates came together in order to vote on the reforms by head count instead of just estate; causing the Third Estate to have a greater impact in the votes.  The plan was to meet at Menus Plaisirs, but when the group arrived they found the doors locked.  Instead of breaking up and being ruled by the king, once again, they relocated to a nearby indoor tennis court, and as such, the Tennis Court Oath began.  The Third Estate truly believed in the reforms and a debate quickly arose as to how the reforms would take place and discussed how they could protect themselves from those in royal authority.  A retreat to Paris was proposed in order to protect themselves from the king’s army, but Mounier, a major playor in the TCO, said it would be too revolutionary and cause even more conflict.  As a result, Mounier proposed that they write an oath of allegiance to stating that the estate would remain assembled until the constitution was written and all actions to disband the group by the king’s army would be resisted at all cost.  The document was quickly agreed upon, written, and signed by 576 men of the Third Estate, and later named the Tennis Court Oath.  The oath simply stated that the power of the people resided not in the king, but in the people themselves and as a result, a week later, Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estate General with the plans to write a constitution. 

Quotes: "Decrees that all members of this assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate".

Unit 4 - "A Vindication of the Rights of Women,"

In the excerpt titled, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women," Wollstonecraft talked about the perception and even the treatment of women in a patriarchal society. She argued that women should have rights similar, if not equal to the men of her society. She even supported her issues by stating that women should not act like obedient slaves to the men of society. 

Her overall tone showed that she is mad about the treatment that women of society receive. For me, being a man, it made me feel demeaning, because personally I'm an advocate of equality. But I guess it's understandable at the time. The treatment of women back then was close to a slave and without her outraged cry, it would have never plant the seed of change.

Unit 6

In this primary document Friedrich Engels speaks lowly of the conditions that everyday men have to face while working in the factories during the industrial evolution. He speaks of the pollution being spread and contaminating the air, tight work and living spaces, the filth, and the debris lying around. He talks of how men are being treated like cattle with nowhere to go. Though the space is tight one can also get lost with the disgusting nooks and many dirty alleys. He expresses his concern not for the new developing technology but for the man behind the technology is concerned for the well being of the men both for health and the overall happiness. He recognizes that the working conditions are unjust and I believe this is the start where others began to to notice the unfairness too. This is when we began to see a call for unions and protests for better conditions. Friedrich Engels is the start for the change in working reforms. The quote that I found that stood out would be the last sentence which is "Everything which here arouses horror and indignation is of recent origin, belongs to the industrial epoch."