Lesson Plan #8

World History 10th Grade

Theme/Topic: French Revolution

Goals: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their

understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning
points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a
variety of perspectives.

Objectives: By the end of the class students should be able to:

1. Say who Napoleon Bonaparte was prior to his ruling of the government
2.Describe the government under Napoleon
3. Understand what events led to Napoleon's rise and fall

Skills: Note Taking, Terminology

Materials needed: White/Chalk board

Detailed Lesson Plan
The lesson will be a lecture with students taking notes in their notebooks
using the Cornell Method which was taught earlier in the year
Do Now: As the students enter the classroom group them into pairs of two.
Each pair has to give two of the issues that led to the collapse of either the
Thermidorian government or the Directory. After three to five minutes go by
have the students share what the wrote down with another pair and have

them discuss the answers that they picked. That should take three to five
minutes. After that continue on with the lesson
We left off last class with the rise of Napoleon after the fall of the Directory.
However we first have to look at who Napoleon was before we can examine
his politics in France. When the French Revolution broke out Napoleon was
serving as an artillery officer in the French army. Hoping to capitalize on the
situation Napoleon returned to his home of Corsica to start a political career.
However Napoleon failed and returned to the military. Napoleon quickly rose
through the ranks and ended up commander of the Army of Italy after saving
the Directory from a revolt of royalist insurgents. At 26 he began his first
military campaign against the Austrians and Italians scoring a series of
decisive victories, conquering the Italian Peninsula in a year, and becoming a
national hero. In 1798 he led a military expedition to Egypt which served to
grow his political power. In 1799 he led a coup in which he became the first
consol. After this in 1804 Napoleon named himself the first emperor of the
French Empire.
Napoleon gained political support by appealing to some of the common
concerns of the French people. These included the dislike of the emigrant
nobility who had escaped persecution, fear by some of a restoration of the
old order, a dislike and suspicion of foreign countries that had tried to
reverse the revolution and a wish to extend France's revolutionary ideas.
Napoleon attracted power and imperial status and gathered support for his
changes of French Institutions, such as the Concordat of 1801 which
confirmed the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and restored
some of its civil status. Napoleon at this time however was not a democrat
nor a republican. He was, he liked to think, an enlightened despot the sort of
man Voltaire might have found appealing. He preserved numerous social
gains of the Revolution while suppressing political liberty. He admired
efficiency and strength and hated feudalism, religious intolerance, and civil
inequality. Enlightened despotism mean political stability. Although Napoleon
was a supporter of the radical Jacobins during the early days of the
Revolution he became increasingly autocratic as his political career
progressed and once in power embraced certain aspects of both liberalism
and authoritarianism for example, public education, a generally liberal
restructuring of the French legal system, and the emancipation of the Jews
while rejecting electoral democracy and freedom of the press. His
restructuring of the legal code, named the Napoleonic code, was very
influential in countries outside of Europe attempting to modernize their
countries through legal reforms. The Code, with its stress on clearly written
and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork
of feudal laws.
After going over Napoleon's government we can move back to the personal
story of Napoleon which is deeply tied to the story of France. Napoleon

engaged in wars all over Europe which would eventually be coined the
Napoleonic wars. French power rose quickly as Napoleon's armies conquered
much of Europe. During these wars various collations would be set up in
order to stop Napoleon's spread through the continent. The third collation
was the first that Napoleon fought and was composed of Britain, Russia, and
Austria which aimed to remove France from the Netherlands and the Swiss
Confederation. The collation ended up failing to defeat Napoleon which
removed Austria from the coalition. France now had control of Belgium, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, most of Western Germany, and northern Italy. The
Fourth Collation was formed against France in 1806 and was composed of
Britain, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden. This too would fail to stop
Napoleon as he would go on to capture Germany as a whole and Poland as
well. The fifth coalition was also unable to stop Napoleon as he gained
control of Spain and also gained Austria though a strategic marriage.
However Napoleon's luck began to change after he invaded Russia in 1812.
The Russian tactics of scorched earth, leaving nothing behind for the enemy
troops to use, combined with the lack of winter gear forced Napoleon to
retreat from Russia. This spelled the end for Napoleon as the sixth coalition
would remove him from power and banish him to Elba. However Napoleon
would escape Elba and return to France and returned to power. However
after his defeat at Waterloo Napoleon was exiled on Saint Helena where he
remained.
Activity: Split the class up into three groups by having the students count off
from one to three. Ask the groups to answer the question "was Napoleon a
continuation of the French Revolution or the end of it?". It is an interesting
question that get students to think about what Napoleon did and how we
should classify his actions. Give the students seven to ten minutes to come
up with ideas then have each group share them with the class
Wrap Up: Napoleon is one of the most recognized names in history. If you ask
someone to mention a famous leader Napoleon is a likely answer. He was a
great general and leader. However his rule was neither republican or
democratic. Napoleon ruled as an autocrat but many of the reforms he put in
place were very liberal reforms. His defeat at the hands of the collations
brought an end to the changes taking place in France. After Napoleon was
removed the monarchy would be restored.