France and its problems

France has an interesting past, and I must say that I always find myself smiling when French citizens stop sipping wine and eating cheese and actually go out and do something.

The French Revolution (to me) is an unlikely phenomenon that, using the France of today as a benchmark, should not have happened. The France that we all know and love (I use that term very liberally), would have sat back and complained (quite loudly I'm sure) about their predicament, while sitting back and not doing a thing to solve their problems (most likely). However, the France of a mere two centuries ago impresses upon me the idea that the Frenchmen of that era would be shocked (read: disgusted, disappointed, etc.) at their descendants 35 hour work week and (dare I say it) inability to win a war.

The French Revolution occurred because the people of France had reached their tipping point. They were tired of taxation policies, they were tired of nobles running amok on their lands, they were dissatisfied with their overall quality of life. The King wasn't helping the common people out and they were finally pushed to the edge. Americans of that era had more in common with the French than they did with England (kind of). Both the Americans and the Frenchmen suffered from an overall neglect by the Crown. They both were subject to taxation policies on what seem like trivial goods (stamps, salt, etc.) and clearly were not going to stand for it [Personally I fault the French King in the failed taxation policies, as he should have learned from England's great success in taxing stamps]. Both the Americans and French also had the will and the drive to revolt from their oppressors in order to live better lives.

Another "diamond in the rough" (thank you Disney) from France is Mr. Napoleon Bonaparte. Although France's greatest military hero was the height of a freshman in high school, he is also an incredibly interesting historical figure. After viewing all of the caricatures of him, I started to wonder what it would have been like being Napoleon. He had multiple issues to deal with as a self declared emperor, issues such as French dissidents, military strategies, conquered citizens, requests of allies, and the desire for conquest. All of these stresses would surely take their toll eventually, but after seeing the caricatures I began to question Napoleon's mental state. While I'm sure any public figure on Napoleon's scale has a thick skin, I wonder if he felt that he had something to prove. Could Napoleon's desire for conquests have come from some personal insecurity? Maybe.

My main basis for questioning Napoleon's state of mind comes from a comparison to Hitler. Both Hitler and Napoleon fought a land war in Russia, both were largely successful before these invasions, and both suffered horribly at the hands of Russia's winter. Hitler should have seen this coming, as Napoleon had already made this mistake, but Napoleon also should have had some idea as to what might happen since there had surely been plenty of land wars fought throughout Asia. I wonder if Napoleon's disastrous drive into Russia was done out of a desire for conquest or if there was some deeper reason. Could some mixture of stresses have caused him to stage an assault that he must have known had high chances of defeat? Could he have had some sort of previous issue that caused him to have poor judgment in this case? I don't know, but it's possible. These are just my thoughts though, there are no facts that I know of to support my speculations.

(My apologies for any lengthy ranting on the modern Frenchmen)