The Impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon Regime on
the German Map 1789-1815.
By
Dr. Amjad Ahmad Alzoubi.
Abstract
This research paper aims to show the huge impact of the French
Revolution and Napoleon Regime in central Europe, particularly in
Germany, within an important stage of the European Modern and
contemporary History. The French Revolution had changed the
features of the European map which had completed the economic
changes that Europe witnessed with the launch of the Industrial
Revolution. It start an new era, in what we might call the new
political structure of Europe; on new political definitions such as Rule
of the people, theories of Social Contract, Democracy, Liberalism,
Radicalism, Democracy, Constitutional law, a Bill of Rights and
Freedom of equality, which was the product of the Enlightenment and
the stage of practical implementation of such thought.
This paper reviews the intellectual and political impact of the
French Revolution on the Germans; especially the first reactions of
Germans intellectuals on the Revolution and the position of the major
powers Austria , Prussia and premeditate the French expansions in
central Europe until the brightness of the star of Napoleon and the
change of the political map of Central Europe with the Napoleonic
conquests as well as the establishment of the Confederation of the
Rhine in 1806 which continued its power and influence on the modern
German History.
The political and the economic changes which were brought by
Napoleon on Germany could not be reduced by the traditional power
in the Vienna Conference in 1815 . In addition; the Germans could
not return as they were before Napoleon. It shed light on the
advancement of the Germans from a fractured nation politically and
economically to lead Europe in the war of liberation from the rule of
Napoleon.