The Arc de Triomphe was initially commissioned in 1806 after the French victory in the Battle of Austerlitz. (The Battle of the Three Emperors in which Napoleon defeated the armies of Russia and Austria.)  The Arc was conceived in the style of the old Roman imperial triumphal arche, but it was not completed until the early 1830s.  By then the international fortunes of France had changed significantly, and the "Arc" was then re-interpreted to be a symbol of peace, not a symbol of Napoleon's victories.

• Read chapter 18 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on the French Revolution and Napoleon.
• Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week.
• Post (or respond) your thoughts/ideas about this unit's reading and assignment in the Blackboard online discussion forum. Do not post your assignment there.

• Read the Declaration of the Rights of Man (if you are going to submit the optional French paragraph).
• Submit the Optional French paragraph.
• Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file.  You can also read the information as a txt file.
  

• Origins of the French Revolution
• French Revolution (Part 4) - The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
• Napoleon
• French Revolution (Part 1)
• John Merriman - Yale, Napoleon
• Napoleon and Russia
• See also the videos dealing with Napoleon's Russian Campaign in the HIS 241 course.
• For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the url and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.

• Take the short 5-point quiz for chapter 18. Log into Blackboard and look under "Chapter Quizzes." You have five minutes to complete each quiz (multiple-choice questions).
• For a maximum of up to 100 points, consider writing a 2-3 page paper in which you explore some of the causes of the French Revolution.  When the French National Assembly met, the representatives of the three estates of French society received cahiers (letters or notes) of problems and concerns from their constituents.  Many of these cahiers have survived and are now an excellent source for historians studying the causes of the French Revolution.  Here are some of them that are available on the web--there are many others--that you can use in this extra credit exercise:
  
  • The Clergy of Blois and Romorantin
  • The Nobility of Blois
  • The Third Estate of Versailles
  • The Third Estate of Carcassonne
  • Cahier of the Third Estate of Dourdan
• For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, write a one-page paper (maybe two pages if they are exceptional) that provides a detailed comparison of the US Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, in a long paragraph comment upon Voltaire's criticism of organized religion in his dictionary entry.
  
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, in a long paragraph assess Robespierre's justification of the use of terror (Would Thomas Jefferson have approved?) during the French Revolution (see www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html).
• For a maximum of 10 points extra credit, answer the French Declaration of the Rights of Man study sheet questions.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send the title of the site, the url and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.