Differences between Political Developments in Western Europ and Eastern Europe - Book Report/Review Example

Contents A Modest Proposal 2 The French Revolution of 1789 6 Differences between Political Developments in Western Europe (France) and Eastern Europe (Russia) 10 Huguenot de Pan 13 Gavroche Valjean 14 Bernard Gavroche 15 Georges Bernard 16 A Modest Proposal The power games played between rival forces trying to topple each other effect commoners, who suffer the heaviest brunt and the stories of their lives shape the history. The book, A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift is an account of the conditions of the Irish people who were subjected to British hegemony during the 18th century, wherein these people were mistreated and deprived of their rights as human beings. Swift who was born in Dublin, saw this through his early years and later his own turmoil in life helped him to develop a rational for the Irish cause. Swift was the only son of Jonathan Swift Sr., whose untimely death left him devoid of the family comfort and mentoring that he needed at the time, while growing up through a troubled childhood. He spent his early years without his mother, Abigail Erick, who left him in the custody of Godwin, an uncle from his father's side, and went to England. This deprivation led him to develop a deep sense of remorse which was evident when, despite of being a Briton himself he chose to side the Irish in their efforts against British. He worked on his B.A at Dublin University (Trinity College, Dublin), but was not quite through with his Master's degree yet, when the political upheaval disrupted his studies and he had to leave for England. The British had been busy crushing the Irish, while in the process letting them to rot, where as the Irish had gained enough momentum to rise up against the British under the Glorious Revolution. By now Jonathan Swift had gained enough sense through his education to feel the reality of the situation around him and to express his inability to correct the wrong. As he returned to England in 1688, his mother helped him get a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple, an English diplomat at Moor Park who had a history of public service such as arranging the Triple Alliance of 1668. Temple was now living a retired life and was tending to his garden and writing his memoirs. Under his service Swift was often trusted with matters of great importance and later he had a chance to see William III. This led Swift to see the political side of a situation through his eyes and he began to contribute his own view for the things around him. He helped Temple in writing his memoirs and contributed in the correspondence which shaped the literary side of his personality. In other words he was being politically groomed by Temple which can be seen in his book, The Battle of The Books- a prelude to his later work that supported Temple's critical analysis in the form of Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning. After the publication of the book in 1704, Swift became politically active and when he joined Tories by becoming the editor of their journal The Examiner, his political side reached a prominent height. Unfortunately the Tories were involved in plots that later earned them shame, when they were accused of secretly and illegally negotiating with the French to produce the Treaty of Utecht to end the war of Spanish succession. The accusations from the Whigs against the Tories resulted in the loss of their power and Swift had to return to Dublin to seek a refuge from the executions which could result from the allegations against him. While in Dublin he could work as the Deanery of St. Patrick's Church, enough to earn him a modest living and to suit his religious bent. He was still able to write his feelings through the pamphlets to support the Irish cause and in 1729 he wrote A Modest Proposal which earned him the status of an Irish patriot. He openly showed his contempt against the rulers who had jeopardized the situation in Ireland through their botched governing practices. In the book he suggested in a satirical way, the possible methods that could be applied to prevent the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their Parents or Country and for making them beneficial to the public. In an excerpt from the book, A Modest Proposal, he is seen to exploit his satirical pen by suggesting to the Government to make the best of the Irish by treating them almost exactly like the domestic animals. He appears to expresses his utter grief and pain in this passage through laughter instead of tears of despair: I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. In another passage from the book he cited his bitter observation by giving a satirical account of the pathetic condition wherein the young children followed their begging mothers clad in rags in the cold and wet days. Swift states: It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for alms. The book is not only a reflection of Jonathan Swift's horrid experiences of observing the botched efforts of the British to show the world that they had handled Irish in a right way but was also a remarkable evidence of literature reflecting the state of affairs prevailing in the time which he penned through his gifted style of satirical narratives fashioned by his political insight. The French Revolution of 1789 French revolution, as a case presents a good model to study the effects of political upheaval and unrest of the populace, who were for some reason not content with the regime. Their unrest resulted in ending the ancient regime in 1793 by killing King Louis XVI and the royal family. It also provides information about the individual efforts of timely, courageous and diplomatically lasting decisions of Napoleon Bonaparte, that effected not only France but also left the whole Europe unsettled, geographically changed and politically uncertain in the ensuing years. Napoleon was merely a young general who happened to have crushed a revolt of the royalists- a group of people who wanted to restore monarchy as the subsequent issues popped up after the ancient regime of Monarchy seized to exist and then later he was called at a front to replace a commander of the army who had given a tough time to Austrian-Sardinian positions, but wasn't much inclined in advancing his positions. Napoleon's bold strategic maneuvers forced Austria to cede the Netherlands, making it a French territory. Following are the causes of the Revolution of 1789, when the French government had supported the American Revolution endangering the very existence of France by bringing the economy close to bankruptcy. The local crop did not yield much in the wake of it and therefore the bread and butter became dearer than before for the poor, who experienced the brunt of recession. This made them ready to be hostile at the first call for Revolution. Meanwhile the advocates of social and political reforms continued to pester the minds of the people. On the same pretext the government opted to introduce the taxation of the Nobles and the clergy-having the largest share of land in France. The French politics constituted of three estates namely; The Clergy, The Nobles and The Commoners or the bourgeoisie - the group of prosperous commoners including merchants, manufacturers, and professionals and the poor peasants forming the last pathetic quarter. When Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, the controller of Finances, announced the taxation of the Nobles and Clergy, to overcome the budget deficit, they refused to comply and take any part in shouldering the reforms burden. The failure of Calonne to convene a unanimous compliance from the three estates resulted in the beginning of the revolt. The subsequent events of aimless havoc continued from 1787 through to 1825. When King Louis XVI appointed Jacques Necker as Finance Minister to provide a solution, the reformists made the most of it by flooding the country with pamphlets for reforms. Although the General meeting of the three Estates was held to address the long pending grievances, disagreements over the issue of voting benefiting the two privileged Estates disrupted the meeting. The church Elites and the Nobles were outclassed by the third estate with the support of the lower clergy members. The dispute made it clear that it needed urgent intervention from the King, who unwillingly ordered the Clergy and Nobles to join the assembly, while gathering troops to dissolve it at the right time later. Necker was known to support the third estate and the less privileged peasants. He was dismissed by the King, which strengthen the notion that the King was planning with the clergy and the nobles to overthrow the third estate. While the food supplies were getting short for the people the disorder worsened. And the time was ripe for some to take advantage of the situation. Much to the dislike of the pope the land from the clergy was nationalized and the feudalism was abolished. Many from the bourgeoisie bought the land along with few form workers. The new constituent assembly however produced a new system that rejected the ancient regime in many ways and offered the King to share his power with them. It had rational distribution of judiciary which needed to elect judges. The system in effect seemed workable but the King was wrongly advised, who tried to flee away but was stopped and brought back to Paris on June 20, 1791. The neighboring countries like Belgium and Switzerland have had their share of unrest and revolutions which were suppressed. Yet these countries feared the revolution in France would inculcate seeds of unrest in the revolutionists at home. England, Ireland, the German states, the Austrian lands, or Italy looked upon the Revolution with sympathy. It was a time when the King needed to restore his strength and was advised to declare war against Austria. On April 20, 1792, in the hope of gaining the power the King declared war with another notion in his mind that the war would at least provide an opportunity for him to be rescued by foreign armies. Due to initial losses to France by Austrian and Prussian armies, the people felt betrayed and they rose against the Monarch on August 10, 1792 and imprisoned King Louis XVI and the royal family. However the French revolutionist occupied Belgium, the Rhineland, Savoy and Nice in the wars fought between (September 1792-April 1793) boosting their morals and spirit in the revolution and condemned the King and his wife to death. The New European coalition of Britain, Prussia and Austria attacked France in 1793, wherein the country was defeated and Belgium and Rhineland were lost to the coalition. The extremist at home got a chance to impose radical economic social policy by taxing the rich, bringing national assistance to the poor and disabled, making education free and compulsory for all and confiscating the property of the people who prepared to emigrate. Such sanctions had their effect which was offset by violent opposition. However the opposition was suppressed by arresting 300,000 and killing 17,000. In reality many more were killed in prison. By then the revolutionary government had raised the troops to more than a million men, who fought the next series of wars which began in the spring of 1794 defeating the Austrians at Fleurus and taking back Belgium. And with this all the social policies of restriction and laws were abandoned. It was at this stage when the royalist tried to get the control back in Paris, young general Napoleon Bonaparte on October 5, 1795 crushed them and National convention seized to exist. By November 9, 1799, when Napoleon became the First council, there was no danger to the French Revolution. As a matter of fact France was now being feared as a power of Europe after the victory over Austria at Marengo in 1800 and the consequent Treaty of Lunville. Due to the French advances the territories in Rome, Switzerland and the Italian Piedmont were occupied and republican regimes were established. There was now only Britain with its powerful Navy to oppose France. The neighboring Russia, Britain, Ottoman Empire, Naples, Portugal and Austria formed the second coalition to thwart the advances of Napoleon armies. The subsequent events in the European history are characterized by French domination in that it culminated its hegemony over Europe with the European powers either on the side of France as its allies or as its integral part, with the exception of Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and Sicily. Differences between Political Developments in Western Europe (France) and Eastern Europe (Russia) Despite of having many similarities between the Russian revolution of 1917(Eastern Europe) and French revolution of 1789 (Western Europe) and the subsequent political developments, there were a number of factors that showed that the two were distinctively different in areas such as the role of middle class, the role of representative groups in parliaments, the structure of economies, the aftermath of the revolutions and the subsequent events in the reshaping of the political system in addition to reactions from the countries in the neighborhood. Both cases reacted differently to the impact of reformation and the years of war. The role of the middle class in the transition from feudal to national government in the East and West were different because in France the bourgeoisie had put the clergy and the nobles in a humbler and a less powerful position, without having a very organized force of peasants, who provided for the larger number of people needed for the upheaval and revolt, where as in Russia the middle class participation was from the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies who organized themselves in the cities and towns and took a much longer time to assume a total autonomy. The soviets took a measured stance with a deeper insight to the interest of masses such as disapproving the Russian participation in the war that mainly effected the poor peasants who were conscripted as soldiers without training and proper ammunition and introducing the 'peace, land and bread' program to win the public support while the people in France were easily cajoled into fighting a war with Austria, that did not serve their interest i.e., improving the economy. The economic structure that had shaped the mindset of the populace in France was quite different to that of the people in Russia. On 5 October 1789 for example, the people of Paris, mainly working women, marched in Versailles, popularly recalled as Women's March. They were furious at the harsh economic situations they faced while the king spent lavishly. They demanded the King to move with the royal family to Paris from Versailles to look into the matter of settling the economic issues, while the preliminary cause of Russian revolution was due to its inability to prosecute its role in world-war I. It was the outcome of the failures in the war that crippled the Russian economy. The Clergy and the Nobles being the major forces in the French politics protected their interests while letting the commoners or the bourgeoisie - the group of prosperous commoners including merchants, manufacturers, and professionals and the poor peasants to find their own solutions for survival, while in Russia the role of Duma (parliament) remained authoritative in deciding the fate of the country even after the Tsar was abdicated. And the soviets had to device smart ways to gradually undermine its role in the politics by reorganizing the provisional government many times before finally assuming the total authority. France and Russia responded differently to the impact that the Reformation and the Thirty-Years War left. In France the reformation had been felt and voiced from before the revolution and many historians are of the opinion that it was mainly a game of power from those who resented their isolation from power, bourgeoisie. In effect it was somewhat artificial, where as in Russia the incompetent and needless decision of war devastated the local situation letting thousands of men to die and rot in the cold, for which the reformation was needed and accepted as soon as it was offered. France emerged as a power in Europe during the war wherein it not only gained territory but also established its order in dictating terms over its neighbors, while the needless war in Russia could not get the local support much less turning the country into a regime of hegemony. The only comfort it could yield was to pull Russia out of war and focus on providing for the internal solutions. Russian revolution was mainly triggered by the losses inflicted by poor war management and a heavy death toll of the armies. The Russian armies were ill-equipped and mainly untrained. The subsequent factor of the defeat badly affected the economy and food became a scarce commodity, especially for the poor. The humiliation provided for the fuel needed to intensify the need for revolt. The soviets had two factions: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, who continued to play the control politics from the beginning of the revolution and despite of having hard times when Lenin fled Russia for Finland on charges of having association with the Germans, and later on having acute differences with in the party, were able to restore their trust and gain popularity, among the urban workers and the soldiers. On Lenin's return they had gained enough public support that they demanded for immediate peace and that the workers council should assume power. They faced almost no opposition when they overthrew the Provisional Government to assume the authority they had been working for years. The French bourgeoisie, on the Western front, were the initiators of agitation who had brought an end to the French Monarchy. However, in the end it was Napoleon Bonaparte who came to show his excellent services in stabling the position of France as a Power and himself as an Emperor from (1804-1815). Huguenot de Pan Huguenot was the youngest son of Pierre du Pan, a wealthy clothes merchant of Bordeaux, who had few shops and a factory where the cloth was made. Pierre's wife Beatrice was the niece of one of the nobles in the parliament in Versailles. Huguenot had four siblings: Valjean du Pan, Azelma du Pan, Madeleine du Pan and Javert du Pan. Huguenot was hardly five and Madeleine was seven, when in July 1585 Bordeaux was hit by bubonic plague. Pierre's family was no different than the rest. Like others he had to bear the deaths of Valjean du Pan 14, Azelma du Pan 18, Javer 9 and their mother Beatrice. With a heavy heart Pierre left Bordeaux for Versailles in an attempt to save the rest of his family from becoming the victims of plague that had claimed all his wealth- his wife and three children. On coming to Versailles he took a relatively short time to set up for him self the same business that was thriving in Bordeaux. However recovering from the grief of the loved ones wasn't that fast. He tried to forget Simplice in the long hours at the shop. Huguenot took up sharply and with in a course of few years the family was enjoying the same income as they did in Bordeaux. Pierre found a governess for Madeleine. It was not professional though, yet Pierre took young Huguenothim to the shop for he had a sharp resemblance to his mother, Betriece. And the boy learned the trade blues in the early years of his life. Gavroche Valjean Gavroche Valjean born in the year 1652, was the 2nd son of Valjean. He helped his father and elder brothers Enjolras in their business of imported Persian carpets in Versailles. In 1672 Enjolras, whose health deteriorated due to kidney stones, died of kidney failure at the age of 27. Before the death of Enjolras, Gavroche had different notions for a career, but due to the untimely death of his elder brother he continued to help his father in the business until his death. After which he shared the business with Marc. At the age of 28, in 1680 Gavroche met Janet, who worked in the orphanage where she was left by her mother, of whom she had no knowledge and neither was she told about her father. They married the following year and the next year their first son Linguet Gavroche was born. They didn't have any son or daughter for ten years, for Janet had developed some ovarian disease for which she took medication and on December 18, 1682 Louis was born. She bore two more sons-twins: Jacques and Bernard in the spring of 1695. Janet fell ill again and could not offer resistance to the disease. After a short treatment she succumbed to the illness and died. The twins needed to be nursed for which Enjolras married Marie, the daughter of Mennen, his cashier at one of the stores. His father Valjean who had established the business of carpets found special attraction in trades with Asian countries like Persia and India. He had a collection of books and exquisite artifacts from these countries. He often visited these countries to escort his shipment. Bernard Gavroche Bernard Gavroche one of the twins shared his grandfther's love of ferign. He would often read books about the places outside France.On December 13, 1722, Epop a war vetran, who had served for many years in a French factory in India told him about a French East India Company that needed scouts and recruits to fend the posts in Pondicherry- India. Bernard had been waiting for such opportunities and soon he was sailing to India. He reached Chandernagore, Bengal in 1723 and worked in a trading station. He met Alma in 1728, the daughter of a Minister in the church at Chandernagore. They married after a short affair the same year. Pierre the eldest of his two sons, was born in India in 1730. Bernard had a close relationship with Dupleix, the superintendent of the factory. He remained there for eight years until Dupleix was made the governor-general of all French establishments in India, and Bernard was posted to a trading post, which was more of a garrison than a trading post. In the same year he sent Alma back to France for safety. He stayed in India for nine more years and returned to Versailles in 1740.He brought back the spices and perfumed oils which were highly valued in the local market. Georges was born in 1742, two years after his father's returned to France. After spending almost nineteen years as a war veteran and fighting many wars in India with the British, Bernard setup his business of exquisite artifacts from overseas. Georges Bernard Pierre helped Bernard in his business and Georges joined in shortly after finishing the early education. In 1963 Bernard had a stroke and could not fight the pain. He had left a sound business for his two sons. Georges had a friend Sylvain, who was the son of a royalist. Georges had made friends with him without knowing of his background, yet he had put all the efforts needed to finish his order in time. One more thing that he didn't know was that, the order for silk was from royal Palace. When he finished the order in time, Sylvain was more than appreciative, for he was rewarded and was praised at the Palace. This was the turning point of Georges business and he moved from the status of middle class business man to the Elites, and later he was even offered to attend the meetings in the parliament. However the Bernards didn't know that many commoners and peasants have taken them as royalists. The Bernards had their shop in a close vicinity to a place called Bastille, where the people who had criminal record, were kept. On 14 July 1789, the mob set fire to the Bastille, to set the prisoners free. Of these people there were those who had kept an eye on the Bernards' shop. They set it on fire too. Both the men escaped unharmed, but the shop could not be saved. It was totally burnt. Read More