Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges was born Marie Gouze on May 7, 1748 in Montauban, France, and died at the age of 45 on November 3, 1793 in Paris. She changed her name to Olympe de Gouges after she was widowed in 1766. Gouges started her career as a self-taught playwright in 1780, and her work became more popular after 1791 when restrictions on theatre and copyright was lifted (Nielsen, 2002, p. 2). Gouges was responsible for placing women on the stage during the Festival of Law – a festival in honour of the assassinated mayor –  and promoted even militaristic presence on stage, an act at odds with the concept of liberal nation states (Nielsen, 2002, p.13). Gouges lived during the heart of the French Revolution (1789 – 1799), and throughout her life of political activism, fought for the rights of women and spoke out against slavery. She is considered by many to be the world’s first feminist primarily because of her most notable and most influential work, Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen, in which she denounced the Constitution of 1791 for not including the suffrage of women (Scott, 1989, p. 8). Many of her plays showcased the issues of her society and economy. One of her plays, La Nécessité du Divorce, argued in favour of the right for women to divorce their husbands. Gouges was immediately enthralled and engaged in the ideas of the French Revolution, however when it became clear to her that women were not to be included in the wave of liberty and equality, she began to speak out against the men who had told her where she belonged, stating; “tell me, what gives you the sovereign power to oppress my sex?” (Hanley, 1997, p. 2). Alongside campaigning for women’s rights, Gouges was a great supporter of constitutional monarchy, believing that a separation of powers was the only way the female citizen would gain their much-deserved rights; although there was danger the king would continue to oppress all of his citizens, the democratic republic the revolutionists were fighting for was clearly going to leave women behind. Gouges expanded the ideas of the Revolution – one of the most impactful events in history, and unquestionably the key event in her life – to include women and to “bring about a second revolution within the Revolution” (Nielsen, 2002, p. 10); she encouraged women to go out, to be socially active, to be engaged in the Republic they were most certainly a part of. Gouges argued that women who became isolated in their private life caused more of a threat than the woman who was free to walk about. Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a strong influence on Gouges life, as she is considered part of a generation of French women who were inspired by his way of thought and self-education. (Nielsen, 2002, p. 9). Gouges wrote a few plays that featured Rousseau, Les Rêveries de Jean- Jacques, et la mort de Rousseau and Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysees Rousseau a Ermenonville. She takes Rousseau’s concepts of the active vs the passive citizen to argue her stance in favour of the female citizen engaged in public life (Nielson, 2002, p. 13). Gouges, because of her strong stand in favour of women’s rights and sympathy for the idea of a constitutional monarchy, ultimately found herself out of favour with the major faction of the revolutionaries. She was executed by guillotine in 1793 (Hanley, 1997, p. 26). Olympe de Gouges was a courageous and strong woman, one of the few voices for women during one of the darkest periods in French history.

Sydney Head

Works Cited

Hanley, Sarah. “Social Sites of Political Practice in France: Lawsuits, Civil Rights, and the Separation of Powers in Domestic and State Government, 1500-1800.” The American Historical Review, vol. 102, no. 1, 1997, pp. 27–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2171265

Nielsen, Wendy C. “Staging Rousseau’s Republic: French Revolutionary Festivals and Olympe De Gouges.” The Eighteenth Century, vol. 43, no. 3, 2002, pp. 268–285. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41467908.

Scott, Joan Wallach. “French Feminists and the Rights of ‘Man’: Olympe De Gouges’s Declarations.” History Workshop, no. 28, 1989, pp. 1–21. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4288921.

Other Relevant Readings

Gouges, Olympe de. Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. 1791.

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).

Despotism

Despotism is a state of government where a ruler has absolute power. In modern usage despot and despotism is almost always pejorative. The word comes, originally, from the Greek despotes literally meaning ‘master of the house’ and usually translated as ‘lord’ or ‘owner’ (Douglas n.d.). In the Byzantine Empire Despot was an official court title bestowed on the heir apparent. Several other minor kingdoms throughout the middle ages imitated the Byzantines by having despots of their own (Billarsky 2011, 277)

When despot entered the Enlightened European’s vernacular during the 18^th century, it did so as a more general term for a king, monarch, emperor or other dictator, with no pre-existing ideological baggage (Bonney 2003).

In the mid 18^th century, ‘despotism’, as derived from the older ‘despot’ came in to use for the first time as a term to describe ideologies where the ruler of a nation should possess unlimited and unchecked power. Many enlightenment Philosophes discussed despotism. Voltaire believed that a single well-educated ruler, unburdened by debate or scrutiny, was the ideal form of government, and praised Catherine the Great as an example of this ‘Enlightened despotism’ (Mishra 2017, 98. Lentin 1971). Voltaire believed that democracy did not offer protection against the idiocy of the masses, and that an absolute sovereign who acted in the best interests of his subjects was the most effective way to govern (Shank 2015). Joseph De Maistre also believed that a single enlightened despot was the most effective kind of leadership, although he disagreed with Voltaire on almost everything else (Mishra 2017). Others such as Montesquieu (Bok 2014) and Rousseau were much more critical of despotism and despots, just as most modern thought is (Burney 1993).

During it’s Enlightenment heyday, despotism was a mostly neutral term, as wider democratic attitudes spread across the world, despot increasingly became a negative descriptor. This was especially true of the fiercely democratic United States. North American newspapers used the term as a clear pejorative as early as the 1850s (n.a. 1856).

Statistically, the use of the word despotism peaked around the end of the 18^th century, in line with the French revolution, and the broader political climate it inspired. In the wake of the incredible violence of the French Revolution, the great political thinkers of the day often had to align themselves against either the tyranny of the few that had led to the revolution, or the tyranny of the masses that had led from it. Today the western world has made its choice and despot has become a charge to level at some distant autocrat, but that was not always the case.

Grace Michael

 

Further Reading:

• Bonney, Richard. 2003. “Reconsidering Absolutism in Early Modern Europe: The development of an Idea” Ajia-Taiheiyou Ronso 13, 91-135. Historical Abstracts.

• Burney, John. 1993 “History, Despotism, Public Opinion and the Continuity of the Radical Attack on Monarchy in The French Revolution, 1782-1789” History of European Ideas 17:2/3 245-263

• Dominguez, Juan Pablo. 2017. “A State Within the State: The Inquisition in Enlightenment Thought” History of European Ideas 43:4 376-288  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2016.120360

• Lentin, A. E. 1971 “Catherine the Great and Enlightened Despotism” History Today 170-1771 Historical Abstracts

Additional Works Cited:

• Billarsky, Ivan. 2011. Word and Power in Mediaeval Bulgaria. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninkijke Brill NV.
• Bok, Hilary. 2014 “Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/montesquieu/
• Google Books. 2013. Google Ngram Viewer: “despotism, despot” Last Modified 2017. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=despotism%2C+despot&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdespotism%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdespotism%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDespotism%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cdespot%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdespot%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDespot%3B%2Cc0

• Harper, Douglas. n.d. “Despot” Online Etymology Dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/word/despot

• Mishra, Pankaj. 2017 Age of Anger. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

• Shank, J.B. 2015 “Voltaire”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/voltaire/

• n.a. 1856 “Another Great Republican Meeting in the Tabernacle.: FREEDOM AND FREMONT. How the Despotism of the Day has Grown. Speeches of Senator Wilson, Lieut, Gov. Raymond. and Hon. B. G. Noble.” New York Daily Times, Sept. 18^th, 1856.