Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon Dynamite

            During its duration, the French Revolution experienced many different governments. It began with a monarchy, transitioned to a constitutional monarchy and then broke into a chaotic republic ruled by Robespierre. This led to the Reign of Terror and the eventually beheading of Robespierre himself. As a result, the middle class revolted with the Thermidorian Reaction and the creation of the Directory.

The Directory comprised of five consuls. Doesn’t this sound like another group comprised of 5 members?

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            Like One Direction, the Directory was not perfect and experienced problems (sorry Kiersten). One man rose through the military ranks and overthrew the Directory with his coup d’etat. This man was Napoleon Bonaparte!

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            Napoleon was a narcissistic man who believed he was the “savior of France”. Napoleon created many changes within France that helped and hurt France.

Napoleon enhanced France by allowing freedom of religion, equality in job opportunities, secularization of state, protection of private property, economic stability, rid the country of serfdom, repaired connections with the Catholic Church, and created a public education system. Some would say, “How could this man do any wrong?”

            Well, Napoleon suppressed political freedom, women’s rights, and freedom of speech. Napoleon’s insatiable thirst for power resulted in his desire to take over Europe and the world. His Machiavelli attitude that “the ends justify the means” made most of his decisions over France. Napoleon conquered many other countries such as Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, and Spain in his time. Though he brought rights to some of these countries, he also brought exploitation. In his “ends justify the means” he believed in order to save France, Napoleon needed the resources and money from all his new acquired land for France. The conquest and repression of these countries resulted in many deaths.

            Now we must question whether Napoleon is the same as other famous dictators in history including Hitler and Stalin. Some would say yes because he established stability in a time of turmoil and chaos (Hitler). He also suppressed common liberties, such as freedom of speech, and instead used propaganda. Alison’s opinion would be that Napoleon was not exactly the same as the other dictators. Napoleon is commonly referred to as a benevolent despot and rightly so by the great change in society and government he created. Napoleon saw the practicality in religious tolerance, the abolition of serfdom, and equal opportunities for jobs. Napoleon did not brutally murder a specific group of people (unlike Hitler) and understood the importance of the pursuit of man in economy and job opportunities (unlike Stalin).

            Napoleon Bonaparte is like the movie character Napoleon Dynamite. Both were experiencing a turbulent time (the French Revolution and high school) and took the initiative to not sit around but to take action. Napoleon Bonaparte rose through the ranks to become the Emperor of France to save it while Napoleon Dynamite was able to get on that stage and dance his heart out for his best friend to win school elections. Both Napoleons did not care about other people’s view of them and saw exactly what they needed to do to get what they wanted. And they have the same name!