After the incidents that occurred during the French Revolution, the France was in crisis. There were many groups that tried to establish an order in the chaos of these post-events. Many people wanted to get to the higher power and govern the nation that would help to rebuild the whole France, although all of them had a different approach on how to do it.
One of the groups that ruled in year 1792 – 1794 was called the Committee of the Public Safety. The main function of the committee was to seize control over the nation after the French Revolution. Their motto according to Cole and Symes was called “To make terror the order of the day.” (Cole and Symes, 488) and it spawned one of the most infamous event in the history of France, The Reign of Terror. Despite the committee’s best interest and security for their citizens, they ruled with the iron fist, protecting the France no matter the cost, and launch murderous campaigns against those who oppose them. For example, the common threat was the following: “Torching villages, farms, and fields and killing all who dared to oppose them as well as many who did not.”(Cole and Symes, 488). This was mostly done to eliminate the opposition and defend France from enemy countries outside of the state. This didn’t obviously last very long as the people of France were against these cruel rules and it only led to another civil war. The Committee of the Public Service was then short lived after summer 1794 due the rebellion and some of the committee’s leaders ended on the guillotine.
After the Reign of Terror was over, there had to be another constitution that could create order in the nation, with different approach than the previous group. The one person that would change the governing system was the man called Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte was declared early as a temporary consul before establishing himself as the great strategic general to reach higher power. Unlike the Public Committee of the Safety Napoleon’s approach was more direct towards the legislative bodies and citizens. The rules meant to help citizens of the France, such as the Napoleonic Code that was quote “Provisions on the family, which Napoleon developed personally.”(Cole and Symes, 493), and specially his individual approach to his generals and loyal, meaning that he knew everyone personally. Because of this kindness, people respected him and it increased Bonaparte’s popularity. His desire was to unite the entire nation together and referring to Cole and Symes “To win support for these ambitions reforms, Bonaparte made allies without regard for their past political affiliations.”(Cole and Symes, 497) While this seems like a stable governing move his approach would eventually change once Napoleon established himself as the emperor of France.
127 our experts are availableright now
In the end, The French needed a control after the revolution, but only to the extent that people can express their free will. The Committee of the Public Safety tried to establish rules to make France better, but it ultimately failed by their strict and violent approach. Napoleon on the other hand also want a stable control, however, he established a law that would benefit the nation without any cruel order. This goes back before the French Revolution even started where people demand a better system without any dictatorship. But no matter how the nations is controlled there always has to be someone on the top of the power.
