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250 Years Ago in Mediterranean

The French philosophers Voltaire (1694-1778) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778) questioned the accepted rule of the established Catholic church and the noble classes. Their ideas came at the same time as peasant unrest and increasing poverty, due both to almost constant warfare in 18th century France and crop failures.

The French Revolution breaks out in 1789 due to a complex set of causes including peasant unrest, indecisiveness from the king, Louis XVI, and selfishness from the rich clergy and nobility. The writings of the Swiss philosopher, Jean acques Rousseau (1712-1778), the french nobleman Baron Montesquieu (1689-1755) and similar thinkers provided the base for a new democratic system of government led by the middle class. King Louis himself is executed by guillotine, along with thousands of nobles in what is called The Terror. Robespierre is elected leader but he rules as a virtual dictator. He himself is finally arrested and executed by rivals. The chaos is finally ended by one of the generals of the revolutionary army, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon, however does not restore democracy, and sets himself up as emperor and launches a long series of wars. Austria is defeated in 1805 at the battle of Austerlitz, while Prussia is conquered in 1806, after the battles of Jena and Auerstadt. Russia is pushed out of Poland in 1807 after the battles of Eylau and Friedland. Austria is defeated again in 1809 at the battle of Wagram, but Napoleon fails to conquer Spain where the French army, trained to fight large battles, faces a guerrilla war. The invasion of Russia in 1812 is a disaster. All of Napoleon's enemies, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, unite and defeat him at the battle of Leipzig in 1813. Napoleon is exiled in 1814, but escapes back to France in 1815. He is defeated once and for all at the battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815 by a British-Dutch army led by Wellington and a Prussian army led by Blucher. Napoleon has 80,000 men and 144 cannon at Waterloo, against 60,000 men and 154 cannon under Wellington. But Wellington is saved from defeat by the arrival of Blucher with about another 60,000 men. About 30,000 men are killed or wounded. (Click here for an actual newspaper clipping giving the first reports of the battle.)

One of the changes made in France, and in most of the countries in Europe France occupied, was a public school system paid for by the government. Before this time most schools, where they existed at all, were paid for by churches or were private schools where only rich children went. Most European children did not go to school at all, and therefore many people could not read or write. The French developed their own system for high school, but for elementary schools, the French borrowed the Dutch system (where corporal punishment was banned). Most school systems in Europe and in Quebec are still based in part on this French system.

The Mamluks of Egypt had largely broken free of Turkish rule, but were defeated by Napoleon at the battle of the Pyramids in 1789. The British naval victory at the Nile the same year cut the French army off in Egypt and forced its eventual surrender. Napoleon, abandoning his troops, escaped back to France by boat. Mohammed Ali revolts against Turkish rule in 1803 and declares himself leader of Egypt. The British allow Mohammed Ali to rule, but make him rejoin Egypt to the Turkish empire.

In reality, it is the British who hold real power in Egypt.

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