Sewit                                                      Politics in Paris

3/9/00

            The power of politics in Paris, determined the power of its king. Politics was a constant issue between French society and French monarchs. Monarchs such as Louis XIV, were absolutist monarchs living under the so called rule of Divine Right.  Divine right was based on a theory that all kings were especially chosen by God to be king therefore making them divine, which was their means of justifying their actions. They used their power of Divine Right  to abuse and corrupt political parties.  Politics becomes the centralized power of the kings as they lost their power of Divine Right as a result of the Enlightment making the absolutist kings, turn to the control of politics as a means to regain their lost power. The battle between the absolutist kings vs. the people thus began, intensifying more with every monarch and ending with the reign of Louis XVI.  As absolutism became the driving force behind the kings of France, they wanted to use their grip on politics for their own needs of intensifying or displaying their power to their people and foreigners, not to help the poorer citizens of Paris thus the excess control to absolutism led to the downfall of the French monarchy.

            Signs of the kings taking over politics in Paris started with changing the appearance of the city.  The kings of Paris added larger avenues, boulevards and squares to display their wealth and the city’s wealth,  They symbolically showed their power from these buildings by having them modeled to look Greek and Roman, giving the viewers of these buildings the idea that the king has the same ideals that the great Roman and Greek leaders once had and giving the viewers of Paris a first and lasting impression of the city and its king.  Louis Napoleon added tree lined roads to help beautify Paris but only added them in the richer suburbs claiming it was helping all of the city after the poorer people complained he was only beautifying the richer areas.   The Palace Louvere started out as Louis the I palace in Paris. It was added on to by each king as they lived in them, adding onto it a representation of themselves and eventually making it the largest Palace in the world, showing how much the kings of Paris depended on the external appearance of the city to show their strengthening grip on politics, which would drastically change the city in the near future.

            The kings of Paris starting with Louis XI (ruled 1461-83), started to rule Paris under an iron fist, turning their attention away from the corrupt nobility and turning toward suppressing the lower class people of France. Louis XI set up the beginning of the decline of France. He ruled with Machiavellian principals claiming that “he who has success has honor” and cared nothing on how he attained his power and success. Louis turned his attention away from the nobility and started to buy all the towns in France and involving himself in wars with dukes throughout France, draining Paris of its hard earned wealth. This resulted in the rise of the nobility and taxes for the lower classes, which agitated them greatly. Louis XIV was the only king ,until his time, to have obtained a strong grip on politics to his favor and bring rise to absolutism.

            Louis XIV built the palace of Versailles, which was the first palace of a king and court ever to be built outside of Paris. The palace was full of the king’s political symbols such as the hall of mirror’s which gave the person walking through them the sense that the king is watching all who passes through his halls. The designs of the roads of Versailles were designed as a symbol of modernity to show off Louis’s strength as a leader, modernity meaning in this case one step ahead of the style of the times.  The palace garden was made for Louis and specifically designed to focus on the horizon, showing that the Versailles, the emblem of modernity would be led by politics (the garden which was at the front of the palace) into the future.  The palace and Louis’s way of governing put France into many useless wars further draining the money out of Paris and France and angered the people more than they were about Versailles, leading to the revolution.

            The revolutionaries major concern during the revolution of 1789, was the corruption of politics. The revolutionaries were sick of government politics, trying to beautify Paris but only beautifying the nobility. They believed politization of everyday life was responsible for party politics, which equaled conspiracy against the revolution. They formed la chose publique which was a method for the revolutionaries to keep a close eye on the formation of factional parties. The revolutionaries claimed  politics of private groups or individuals, private circles, and expression of private interests, to be considered as a conspiracy and counterrevolutionary. The heightened state of politics can be attributed to the huge drop in private life, wealth and political and economic stability because of the the abuse of politics. The revolution had become so powerful in 1789, that political meetings held by the government had become open to the public.

             Louis Napoleon’s (Napoleon III) use of politics was different in his reign as emperor. Napoleon, after the revolution, made the people believe he was one of them claiming  “I am a man of no party.”  After his two unsuccessful attempts to become a monarch of France, the people of were eager to elect him as President because of Napoleon’s way of reminding the people about how gloriously his uncle (Napoleon I) ruled France. His way of reminding them was very simple since Louis-Phillipe had just been overthrown, the people were looking for someone they knew and someone they could trust and Napoleon was it. Napoleon’s dishonest use of politics was very clever because it put the people in the palm of his hands, one in his hands, he crushed them. He abolished the constitution, made by his uncle Napoleon I, and replaced it with one of his own giving rise to the absolutism that was present during the reigns of the Louis’s. Napoleon’s dissolving of the National assembly enhances his method of absolutism to obtain a monarch status. Napoleon’s  military coup de etat on December 2 1851, was successful politically for Napoleon because it suppressed the civilian uprisings in Paris and declared him emperor in December of 1852.

            Once Napoleon reached his desired status as emperor he showed his true lack of leadership qualities. He, just like Louis XIV, led France into another economic decline because of his apathy of being a leader, and with partisan politics. His wife, Empress Eugene, was one of the main reasons why he wasn’t overthrown  more earlier than he was. Her strong forte for politics, was enough to make her a regent three times while Napoleon was out of the country, fixing all his mistakes due to his weak political skill. She also dominated the Bonapartist regimes after his death. Napoleon’s weak skills caused him to enter the Crimean war in 1854, which was very costly to the people of France, and poorly organized. His greatest mistake was entering the Franco-Prussian war in which the French forces were greatly outnumbered and under armed costing even more money from France and taking many lives as well.  Napoleon displayed his political and influential power greatly, till he became first-Consul, which showed his true limitations of power. Napoleon underestimation of himself, his weakness in politics,  the obsession of accomplishing his “dream” of becoming emperor and a historical legend, caused the suffering of the French people, just as the other emperors have done before his time. 

            The Kings of France, after Louis XI, proved to be leaders that cared only for themselves and not the people of France, whom they were supposed to lead and represent in the world. These kings broke the principals of politics and set out to glorify themselves to the royal audiences in the world and ended up failing, severely at times, and the people of France paid for their mistakes.  The actions of the kings truly shows the power of politics in Paris and France, as well as around the world. Had these kings been more aware of the true effects and power of politics, and not obsessed with thoughts of expansion and domination, it could have drastically changed the history of Paris and the history of France and its relations with other countries.

Bibliography

Perrot, Michelle  A History of Private Life , Copyright 1990

Brester, Fenton Napoleon III - a life, copyright 1999

Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia, 1998