Chapter+19+(A+Revolution+in+Politics--The+Era+of+the+French+Revolution+and++Napoleon)

__**Chapter 19: A Revolution in Politics--The Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon**__

//PS. This, like every single other one we' ve done so far, is taken STRAIGHT from the Study Guide.//

The late eighteenth century saw the coming of a revolution that combined the ideals of the philosophes with the frustrations of social and economic groups long denied equal rights and powers in the nation-states. Europe and indeed the world were never the same again. The revolution began, of all places, in the British colonies along the east coast of North America. Pushed to rebellion by a growing dissatisfaction with the way Britain administered their affairs, particularly the system of taxation, the colonists declared their independence and to the world's surprise, but not without the world's help, achieved it. They then established a republic based on the ideals of the European Enlightenment. The example was not lose on Europeans. Within a decade of America's independence, when Louis XVI of France called his Estates-General to help him raise revenues, the Third Estate declared itself a national Assembly and proceeded to initiate the French Revolution. Through the rest of the century France reordered the Old Regime and incurred the wrath of the kings of Europe. When the radical phase of the revolution went too far and France found herself beset with enemies on every side, a conservative reaction set in and led to the rise of the "liberal" dictator who made himself emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte. For a decade Napoleon remade the map of Europe, using military genius to bring the liberal ideals of the revolition to the nations he conquered. Even after he was defeated and exiled, after royal figures were restored to their thrones, the spirit of the French Revolution lived on to inspire succeeding generations. The world in which we live was truly born in these revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.