This assignment should be complied up to Friday, February 28, 2011. Make your answers brief and concise. Provide also the URL at the end of each answers. Make sure you have read and familiarize your answers in preparation for the quiz.
A. Provide basic information about the following figure and their participation in the French Revolution and in the Napoleonic War . Also include their achievements and he reason of their downfall.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
ANS. One of the most brilliant individuals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte was a masterful soldier, an unequalled grand tactician and a superb administrator. He was also utterly ruthless, a dictator and, later in his career, thought he could do no wrong.
Not a Frenchman by birth, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on Corsica - only just sold to France by the Italian state of Genoa - on 15 August 1769 and learnt French at the school of Autun and later the military academy at Brienne. He never fully mastered French and his spelling left a lot to be desired.
The revolutionary fever that was spreading when Bonaparte was a teenager allowed a talented individual the opportunity to rise far beyond what could have been achieved only a few years previously.
http://www.napoleonguide.com/leaders_napoleon.htm






2. Duke Wellington
ANS. Arthur Wesley was born in Dublin in early May 1769. In 1798, his aristocratic Anglo-Irish family hanged their name to Wellesley.
He was an unremarkable student at Eton, but seems to have found his calling when he joined the army in 1787. He fought against the French in Flanders and in 1796 went to India. His brother Richard was appointed governor general there in 1797. Wellesley achieved considerable military success, taking part in the Mysore War against Tipu Sultan. During the subjugation of the Mahrattas he achieved a remarkable victory at Assaye (1803).
Back in England he was knighted and became a member of parliament. In 1807, he was appointed chief secretary for Ireland. But his political career came to an abrupt end in the same year, when he returned to active service against the French. In 1808, he assumed control of the British, Portuguese and Spanish forces in the Peninsular War (1808 - 1814), eventually forcing the occupying French to withdraw from Spain and Portugal. When Napoleon abdicated in 1814, Wellesley returned home a hero and was created duke of Wellington.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wellington_duke_of.shtml

3. Maximilien Robespierre
ANS. Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was born, of Irish origin, at Arras, May 6, 1758. He was admitted avocat in 1781, and was elected to the Estates General in 1789 by Artois. He attached himself to the extreme left wing, and soon commanded attention. His influence grew daily, and the mob frantically admired his earnest cant and his boasted incorruptibility.
In 1791 he carried the motion that no member of the present Assembly should be eligible for the next, and was appointed public accuser. Next followed the flight to Varennes (June 21), Lafayette's last effort to control the right of insurrection on the Champ-de-Mars (July 17), the abject terror of Robespierre, his hysterical appeal to the Club, the theatrical oath taken by every member to defend his life, and his conduct home in triumph by the mob at the close of the Constituent Assembly (September 30). The Girondist leaders in the new Legislative Assembly were eager for war. Robespierre offered a strenuous opposition in the Jacobin Club.
In April 1792 he resigned his post of public accuser. In August he presented to the Legislative Assembly a petition for a Revolutionary Tribunal and a new Convention. It does not appear that he was in any way responsible for the September massacres. He was elected first deputy for Paris to the national Convention, where the bitter attacks upon him by the Girondists threw him into closer union with Danton.
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/robespierre.html

4. George Danton
ANS George Jacques Danton was one of the leaders of the French revolution. He was born in 1759 and died in 1794. His colossal stature, athletic frame, and powerful voice contributed not a little, together with his intellectual gifts and audacity, to win him a prominent position amongst the revolutionaries. He founded the club of the Cordeliers, was foremost in organizing and conducting the attack on the Tuileries, on August the 10th, 1792, and as a reward for such services was made minister of justice and a member of the provisional executive council. When the advance of the Prussian army spread consternation amongst the members of the government George Danton alone preserved his courage, and in a celebrated speech summoned all French
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=George+Danton&offset=0men

B. What happened to France after the Napoleonic War. Discuss and provide a brief and concise account about the war.
ANS. The first campaign of the Napoleonic wars was the War of the second Coalition - with Bonaparte absent in Egypt fighting the British a new coalition formed against the French in 1798. This consisted of Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Portugal, The Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples. The fighting took place mainly in Northern Italy and Switzerland, with the Russians under General Aleksandr Suvorov being successful at first undoing the damage done by Napoleon's victories in Italy. The French defeated the Russians who pulled out of the coalition. Bonaparte offered peace but the coalition refused and in 1800 he crossed the Alps and defeated the Austrians at the battle of Marengo 1800. Other French victories followed and soon only Britain remained to stand against the French. After a failed attack in Holland, Britain made peace (1802). this was not to last long.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_napoleonic.html

C. Introduce the following personalities and their accomplishments in their respective countries:

1. Quen Isabela
ANS.Spain undoubtedly owed to Isabella's clear intellect, resolute energy and unselfish patriotism much of that greatness which for the first time it acquired under "the Catholic sovereigns." The moral influence of the queen's personal character over the Castilian court was incalculably great; from the debasement and degradation of the preceding reign she raised it to being "the nursery of virtue and of generous ambition." She did much for letters in Spain by founding the palace school and by her protection of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. The very sincerity of her piety and strength of her religious convictions led her more than once, however, into great errors of state policy, and into more than one act which offends the moral sense of a more refined age: her efforts for the introduction of the Inquisition into Castile, and for the proscription of the Jews, are outstanding evidences of what can only be called her bigotry. But not even the briefest sketch of her life can omit to notice that happy instinct or intuition which led her, when all others had heard with incredulity the scheme of Christopher Columbus, to recall the wanderer to her presence with the words, "I will assume the undertaking for my own crown of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of it, if the funds in the treasury should be found inadequate." She died at Medina del Campo on the 24th of November 1504, and was succeeded by her daughter Joanna "la loca" (the Crazy) and her husband, Philip of Habsburg.
http://www.nndb.com/people/221/000092942/

2. King Carlos V
3. King Philip II
4. Ivan the Terrible
5. Peter the Great
6. Catherine the Great
7. Maria Theresa