Joshua Roberts

Due Date: 05/04/15

Period: 4-5
el-Sisi vs. Napoleon
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the sixth president of Egypt, after Sisi ousted president
Mohamed Morsi after an uprising against him. Sisi would later then retire as a military
general and run for presidential candidacy, and winning on 8 June 2014. But this is only
after a very brutal revolution that resulted in lots of gruesome deaths. But just as many
other revolutions it can be compare to others, for this revolution specifically; the
comparison will be between the leaders who ended up capping off the revolution. Sisi
for the Egyptian Revolution of course and Napoleon Bonapart of the French Revolution.
Napoleon for the reason of saving France from its revolution, because of this Abdel
Fattah el-Sisi is a Bonapartist Ict leader.
Sisi was the youngest member of the Armed Forces at the start of the revolution
then after years of work became the highest ranked officer in the Armed Forces thanks
to Morsi. Sisi after seeing where the country was going under Morsis rule decided to
then take Morsi out of power. After doing so Sisi repeatedly said that neither he nor did
the army want anything to do with politics, he proved this by making Adli Mansour acting
president and would make plans for new elections. The armed forces was the one to
first announce that it is out of politics, it still is, and it will remain away from politics.
Napoleon had the same ideas of not wanting power but in different context. Napoleon
was chosen by the Council of Elders, to come and restore equality and property. This
plan demanded calm and independent scrutiny, free from all influence and fear. He did
this by commanding and manipulating a series of plebiscites to consolidate his personal

authority. So Sisi and Napoleon both manipulated the people by doing what is called
masking his own power."
- Another thing Sisi and Napoleon have in common is that they were both chosen as
saviors for their country. El-Sisi, was voted in by the people with an overwhelming 95%
percent of the vote. "Mr. Sisi, was welcomed into the court as a national savior who had
already revived Egypt at a time when some had declared it dead." Napoleon wasn't
voted into power with a whopping 95%; no, he was chosen by a group of high elders to
be the savior. Napoleon was their to create equality and order, "and for Francois Furet,
the Revolution and Napoleon completed the work of the Bourbons, by destroying the
power of the privileged orders, the Church and the nobility, and building an egalitarian
despotism on their ruins."
- Now becoming the savior of the people isn't an easy thing to do not everyone can do
it, but the one thing these two men had was the majority of support from the people.
When Napoleon took power and became the dictator he had most of the people of
France on his side. The Clergy were pro- Napoleon because they got their lives back.
Many Clergymen were hunted and killed because they didn't take the Clergyman oath.
So with Napoleon coming in and saying "Catholicism should be the only religion..." the
Clergymen were able to live their lives once more. The Nobility were pro- Napoleon, just
because they could come back to France and be apart of society if society again.
Napoleon promised the Nobility only 20% can be in the government, and Napoleon was
really only the best option for them. The Bourgeoisie were fans because they were
allowed to have their workers stay as their workers. No working man was allowed to go
on strike and the workers get a secondary education. The Peasants loved Napoleon

because, he got rid of Feudal Dues, and that was important because, no Feudal Dues
means no slave work for the Peasantry. Now everyone liked right, wrong the SanCulottes were the only ones who got the bad end of the stick. They weren't essentially
free they had identity cards for everywhere they went and, weren't allowed to leave
employment without employers approval. Now Sisi just had one enemy the Muslim
Brotherhood, which he destroyed by, shooting at pro- Morsi rally's and throwing
Brotherhood leaders into jail, and spreading the message all over the media that the
Muslim Brotherhood is an illegal group that has to be punished. After all that it's not that
surprising that Sisi won with 95%.
- In conclusion Napoleon and Sisi are alike in many ways but also very different. With
being in different time periods it's hard to say if they are exactly the same or nothing
alike. But Napoleon did call himself emperor and had a good run, will Sisi follow those
steps or will he change only time will tell.