Napoleon Bonaparte

August 15, 1769 – May 5, 1821

Napoleon Bonaparte was born August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica (a French territory). Originally know as Napoleone Buonaparte, he was from Corsican noble family. He received a military education and joined the French army. He was in the army when the French Revolution broke out and was able to rise through the ranks because of it. Napoleon joined the Jacobin club but didn’t stick with them when they fell from power. The revolution would drive Napoleon’s policies and military campaigns. Napoleon rose to prominence when he fired on Parisian mobs protesting the post-revolution directory in the “whiff of grapeshot”. He then led various military campaigns in Italy, Egypt, and Austria. In November of 1799, Napoleon led a coup against the Directory and became the first consul of France. Napoleon steadily increased his personal power until, in 1804, Napoleon declared himself Emperor. Napoleon importantly sign the Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1801. This allowed the church to operate again in France, but with less power than before. Napoleon did this to bring religious stability and unity to France. Napoleon also instituted many reforms, most importantly the Code Napoleon. The Code Napoleon, enacted in 1804, was the French law code that is still used to this day.  It established a clear structure of laws after the chaos of the revolution and was influenced by the Code of Justinian. It set criminal law and court procedures, property and marriage laws. Since the revolution, France was almost constantly at war with the rest of Europe. Napoleon managed to defeat Prussia and Austria and gain control over most of Europe, but his infamous invasion of Russia in 1812 turned into a disaster. Napoleon lost more than half of his army in Russia and it resulted in Napoleon’s downfall in 1814. Napoleon abdicated in 1814 and was exiled to Elba. But in 1815, he returned and reclaimed his throne in the “hundred days” before being defeated at the battle of Waterloo. Afterwards he was exiled to St. Helena where he died on May 5, 1821.  Napoleon left a huge impact in Europe and around the world politically, militarily, socially, etc. Napoleon as a military leader would leave a legacy that others would study and copy for decades after. Napoleon was a great military strategist who was able to defeat almost every major European army including British, Austrian, and Prussian troops. This led to his eventual domination of Europe, from Portugal all the way to Poland. His chief strategy was the fast travel by getting supplies from the area. His strategies and actions have since been studied by many soldiers around the world. Napoleon also impacted European politics. France was unstable when Napoleon came to power and he was able to stabilize and expand France Napoleon spread the ideas of the revolution wherever he went, and European countries would adapt some of these ideas for their own. Napoleon’s wars ended the Holy Roman Empire and ended with the European powers of Britain, Prussia, France, Russia, and Austria, and their balance of power policy from the Congress of Vienna. His reforms would have a lasting impact. The Code Napoleon was kept after Napoleon was gone and is still basically the French law code today. It has also been implemented in law codes around the world. Napoleon is also significant for being born in a low noble class, but eventually rising to be the Emperor of France, which other monarchs had to recognize. The Concordat that Napoleon signed with the Catholic church would bring the church back to France, which made the people happy, but the Concordat let Napoleon control the church in France so it didn’t have enough power within France to challenge the government. It would set up the separation of church and state. Napoleon is one of those people who caused massive change.

Shelley Martin

Bibliography

Dwyer, Philip G. “Napoleon and The Foundation Of The Empire.” The Historical Journal 53, no. 2 (2010): 339-358. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40865691.

Evans, Judge Beverly D. “The Code Napoleon.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 6, no. 1 (1922): 28-34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40575708.

Gompert, David C., Hans Binnendijk, and Bonny Lin. “Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia, 1812.” In Blinders, Blunders, and Wars: What America and China Can Learn, 41-52. RAND Corporation, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt1287m9t.10.

Rayapen, Lewis, and Gordon Anderson. “Napoleon and the Church.” International Social Science Review 66, no. 3 (1991): 117-27. JSTOR. Accessed November 7, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41882000.

Rollyson, Carl. 2016. “Napoleon I.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia Research Starters, EBSCOhost (accessed November 7, 2017).

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Biographical Information:

Frederick Taylor is a well- known mechanical engineer of the late 19th to early 20th century. His numerous contributions during his life would become very significant in the world of industrial engineering, management and accounting just to name a few. He was born on March 20, 1856 in Germantown, Philadelphia in the U.S., to a wealthy family. Taylor’s education primarily took place in America, where he had planned to attend Harvard University and follow in the footsteps of his father by becoming a lawyer. However, his plans were compromised after his eyesight slowly began declining, which lead to him becoming “…an apprentice in the Enterprise Hydraulic Works from 1875 to 1878” (Frederick Winslow Taylor, 871). Once he had established himself, his career drifted towards mechanical engineering which lead to the creation of his infamous scientific management. This experimentally-derived plan for efficiency in the work place granted him with the title of the “Father of Scientific Management” (Competition in Scientific Management, 23), which would help seal his place in history before his passing in 1915.

Historical Significance/ Contributions:

Although Frederick Taylor’s occupation was mechanical engineering, his primary contributions were towards management planning for factories or shops. His most famous would be the scientific management plan. This plan was devised to ensure the maximum amount of output for a business, but with the least amount energy/resources used to do so. His philosophies about how work is efficiently done, greatly contrasted the ideas that existed during the 19th century. During that time period, workers and employers did not cooperate but rather each person focused on their individual tasks. The goal of the employee was to receive pay and to maintain their position in the workplace, whereas the owners’ main goal was to increase the revenue. The workplace did not have any guidelines to ensure productivity, leading to employees often overworking themselves to when it was not even necessary. Frederick’s plans however, worked for the benefits of both the employee and the owner simultaneously. One of his less acknowledged contributions was for the field of accounting. Taylor created many accounting systems, each based on certain criteria that needed to be met to ensure consistency in the workplace. For example, one of the categories focused on evaluating the performance of the employees by a supervisor, whose job was to assess their individual contribution to the workplace. As stated “The main purpose of keeping accounting records in Taylor’s system was to provide financial information that was useful to managers in business” (CONTRIBUTIONS TO ACCOUNTING, 18). His management plans not only ensured efficiency, but also ensured proper time management and keeping track of costs and revenue. His work became influential

during the Progressive Era; a time period between 1890s-1920s when American society focused on positive change that would benefit the masses. They sought to repair issues with industrialization, governments and working conditions for American citizens. By incorporating Taylor’s plans, businesses began to prosper while still maintaining the rights of an individual. Although his work became popular in the early 20th century, his ideas are still regularly used in our modern society. As seen… “In most business schools, there now is a specialized field called management science (which includes operations research), but the scientific approach is reflected in other areas of business as well (e.g., cost accounting)” (The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation, 15). The fact that business schools are incorporating Frederick Taylor’s scientific methods to their curriculum signifies how effective and useful they are for building a good business plan.

His Influences/Beliefs:

Frederick Taylor lived during a post-civil war time where industrialization was of great importance, specifically the expansion of railroads. This could be a contributing factor to Taylor’s decision in working for a steel company, since it was greatly needed at the time. After working at the Midvale Steel Works in 1817, Frederick Taylor became aware of the lackluster effort that was put forth by the other employees. He felt that if each employee worked to their full potential, the company would become far more productive and time efficient. This was his primary inspiration towards his development of the scientific management, along with other organized strategies, to increase production and ensure a successful business. The scientific movement had been derived from experimental observations he made in the workplace. Specifically, one of his experiments utilized workers whose job was to handle heavy “pig-iron”. The reason he chose this experiment specifically was due to the decline in pig-iron prices, thus leading to a decrease in profit as well. Taylor’s goal was to increase the amount of pig iron that was loaded per day. During these experiments Frederick not only focused on how effectively each person was doing their job, but he also took into account each worker’s physical fitness, nationality, age, and etc. to see if these distinctions affected their working efficiency. With the data he accumulated, he came up with the ideal employee; “Taylor said that the first step toward installing piecework was to select scientifically a workman who was not only physically able to load 47 tons a day, but who also was motivated to perform the task” (Frederick W. Taylor’s Pig-Iron Experiments, 15). By analyzing each employee and taking note of their strengths and weaknesses, he was able to create categories for the workplace to gain as much profit as possible with the least amount of time or resources wasted. Taylor was also very much against authoritarianism; “…the belief in obedience to authority simply because it is authority” (The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation, 19). He believed a worker should listen to authority because they require knowledge from that leader to do their tasks correctly, not just for the sake of it.

 

Onela Esho

Works Cited

Biographical Information:

Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Business History Review

Historical Significance/ Contributions:

Proceedings of the American

Hollis, I. N. “Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915).”

53, no. 10 (1918): 870-71.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25130033.

Nadworny, Milton J. “Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth: Competition in Scientific

Management.”

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3111727.

GREENWOOD, J. M. “SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION.”

31, no. 1 (1957): 23-34.

Chen, Rosita S., and Sheng-Der Pan. “FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR’S

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ACCOUNTING.”

(1980): 17-35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40697633.

Education
Accounting Historians Journal His Influences:

Icon

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20091404.

The

The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 20,

The

The Accounting Historians Journal 7, no. 1 The Journal of

77, no. 7 (1917) (1913): 174-75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42800332.

Hallbauer, Rosalie C. “STANDARD COSTING AND SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.”

5, no. 2 (1978): 37-49.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40697580.

Kanigel, Robert. “Frederick Taylor’s Apprenticeship.”

no. 3 (1996): 44-51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40259326.

Tompkins, Moran. “BOEING AND THE HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL

ENGINEERING.”

4 (1998): 181-95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23785965.

Nelson, Daniel. “The Making of a Progressive Engineer: Frederick W. Taylor.”

103, no. 4 (1979): 446-66.

Wrege, Charles D., and Amedeo G. Perroni. “Taylor’s Pig-Tale: A Historical Analysis of

Frederick W. Taylor’s Pig-Iron Experiments.”

The Academy of Management Journal

17,

no. 1 (1974): 6-27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/254767.

Boddewyn, J. “Frederick Winslow Taylor Revisited.”

Management Management Review

The Journal of the Academy of The Academy of

4, no. 2 (1961): 100-07. http://www.jstor.org/stable/254498.

Locke, Edwin A. “The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation.”

Fascism

Identification:

Fascism is a form of political behaviour marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion. The 20th century totalitarian sense probably came directly from this but was influenced by the historical Roman fasces, which became the party symbol. A popular example of a Fascist leader would be Benito Mussolini. A more recent fascist leader would be Adolf Hitler.

 

Historical Significance:

Fascism is historically significant, because it was the political party responsible for the

holocaust. Adolf Hitler gained power over Germany, and turned it into a fascist state. By taking these powers, Hitler’s government was able to control factors such as inflation and unemployment that had caused considerable distress in previous years. Fascism is like no other political belief, as it includes next to no freedoms. Individuals had no freedom to protest in Hitler’s Germany. All political organizations were either banned or under the control of the Nazis. Many people think of Adolf Hitler when thinking of the term fascism, because of the horrible results of his leadership. It is estimated that over six million Jews were murdered during World War Two as a result of Hitler gaining power over Germany. Because of the horrible genocide during the second world war, it is hopeful that future leaders learn from these mistakes and do not make them again. The Holocaust set an example for just the type of leader that should not be in power. This is the reason fascist leaders are not common in the twenty first century.

 

Key Historical Proponents:

As stated before, two of the most popular political actors associated with the term fascism are Benito Mussolini, who in 1919, founded the Fasci di Combattimento–the original Fascist movement, and Adolf Hitler, a man who gained power over Germany and used that power to commit a mass genocide during the second world war. A very well known example of a fascist state, Nazi Germany, occurred during the second world war in the years 1933-1945. This all came to an end when Adolf Hitler committed suicide, and the remaining Jewish slaves were rescued from concentration camps. Adolf Hitler was not the only fascist dictator with power during World War Two. Benito Mussolini was an Italian dictator, who aspired to dominate the Mediterranean area. He was in power when Italy’s Fascist War took place. This war is generally not as well know as the holocaust, because it was overlooked. This is because postwar recollections and historical writing have tended to concentrate on the events of 1943 to 1945, rather than on the preceding period.

Jaime Byers

 

Bibliography

Bryant, Mark. “Drafting Il Duce: Mark Bryant profiles the brilliant wartime cartoonist who chronicled the actions of Italy’s Fascist leader.” History Today, vol. 59, no. 10, 2009, p. 52+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.dop=AONE&sw=w&u=ocul_mcmaster&v=2.1&id=GALE %7CA209900329&it=r&asid=672742602cb46127d6a50de03995041f. Accessed 16 Oct.

2017.

Harper, Douglas. “Fascism (n.).” Index, 2017, http://www.etymonline.com/word/fascism. Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.

John Simkin. “German Fascism.” Spartacus Educational, Spartacus Educational, 2016,

spartacus-educational.com/GERfascist.htm. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

Magilow, Daniel H. “Counting to six million: collecting projects and Holocaust memorialization.” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2007, p. 23+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ocul_mcmaster&v=2.1&id=GALE %7CA179570815&it=r&asid=5277b09a7267908f9e3a16799fe8f740. Accessed 16 Oct.

2017.

Morgan, Philip. “Italy’s Fascist war: Philip Morgan explains why Italians have tended to gloss over the period 1940-43, when Mussolini fought against the Allies, preferring to remember the years of German occupation 1943-45.” History Today, vol. 57, no. 3, 2007, p. 40+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.dop=AONE&sw=w&u=ocul_mcmaster&v=2.1&id=GALE %7CA171657322&it=r&asid=a2907e300271fbf3f5f4261c03783908. Accessed 16 Oct.

2017.