1. King Louis XVIII was less
despotic. He maintained a parliamentary system of government and tried
to abide by the provisions of the constitutional charter of 1814. This
helped to cool down the French revolutionaries and Napoleonic supporters
whose fear was that the restored Bourbon monarchy would revive the
despotic and undemocratic pre 1789 system of rule. His acceptance of the
1814 constitutional charter also won him diplomatic recognition from
the Great powers especially Britain. All these helped to consolidate the
rule of the restored Bourbon monarchy in a dynamic and revolutionary
France.
2. Louis XVIII succeeded in paying off the
war indemnity that had been imposed on France after the downfall of
Napoleon I. At the 2nd Paris peace treaty of20th Nov 1815, the victor
powers imposed a huge war indemnity of_700'million francs on France.
King Louis XVI cleared off the whole indemnity within only three (3)
years. This made the victorious powers to withdraw the army of
occupation from France in 1818 at the congress of Aix Lachapalle.
3.
Louis XVIlI restored the greatness of France in Europe. France had been
in a hostile relationship with Europe right from the revolutionary
government through the reign of Napoleon ), However in 1818, Richelieu,
the French representative at the congress of Aix Lachapalle advocated
for the admission of France in the congress system. This was accepted
and France was admitted in the congress system, which ended her
isolation amongst the great powers of Europe. This meant that France
under Louis XVIII was still a great power to reckon with in European
politics.
4. Louis XVIII succeeded in reorganizing
and re- equipping the French army under military genius of Marshall Cyr.
The French military apparatus and army were completely disorganized by
the allied forces that defeated Napoleon. Louis XVIII improved the
military position of France by recruiting young Frenchmen into the army
and re- deploying old generals. Furthermore, the ministry of Duke de-
decades (1818-1820), a liberal army law was passed that provided for on
merit and voluntary recruitment.
5. Economically,
during Villeles' ministry (1821 - 1827), high import duties were adopted
to protect home industries from competition. Financial re-organization
that was begun by -eon I was also successfully accomplished. This helped
to restore some degree of financial stability of an economy that had
been destroyed by war for over two decades.
6.
Louis XVIII was realistic and was not ready to tamper with the
achievements of the French Revolution and its heir Napoleon. These
included trial by jury and the code Napoleon. He to restrain the ultra
royalists in their quest for revenge (The white terror). This is why he
granted amnesty for the victims of ultra-royalist quest for revenge who
had not yet been compromised. All that Louis XVIII wanted was peaceful
co-existence between the past revolutionaries and. The royalists as he
said that, I will not be a king of two people.
7.
In his foreign policy, Louis XVIII recorded success when he suppressed
the Spanish revolts in 1823 and restored Ferdinand VII to power. This
earned him and France glory and prestige showing that he had not learnt
nothing and forgotten nothing of how adventurous the French men were.
However,
he failed to help Ferdinand VII and Spain to recover the Spanish
American colonies due to opposition from Britain and President Monroe of
the United States of America nevertheless; he had succeeded in
re-establishing the Bourbon dynasty in Spain,
Lastly,
Louis XVIII succeeded in his reconciliation policy. He avoided to
completely adopt the ultra royalist programs and even warned his brother
Charles X about it on the eve of his death. He sided with moderate
ultra- royalists. Louis also created a strong solidarity with some
former revolutionaries and Napoleon's supporters. For example, he
appointed Napoleon's former ministers like Fochi to his cabinet. This
brought harmony after the white terror showing that he had learnt
something from the reign of terror during the course of the French
Revolution.
Although Louis xvi had realized that the best way to rule France was through a constitutional charter, he
failed to hide his monarchial hang over. He still considered himself as
a king by the grace of love other than by the will of the people .He
regarded the charter simply as a gift that ff was to use according to his wishes. This showed that Louis had not learnt enough lessons from the French revolutionary aim for the need peed for a constitution.
1.
The 1814 charter that he boasted of was not liberal as expected. The
new parliament was undemocratic. Louis XVIII utilized his powers and
chose ministers and members of the chamber of peers from nobles than the
middle class who would have offered his government constructive
criticisms. Since the chamber of peers was empowered to propose national
laws, it remained favourable to the monarchy in the pre-1789 fashion.
He put a full stop to the little Arm of democracy by banning the
parliament after the murder of Duke De- Berry.
Louis
XVIII maintained a narrow franchise that disqualified a majority of the
French men from free participation in politics especially the peasants.
For one to be elected in the chamber ...f deputies, he had to be over
40 years of age and pay a direct tax of 1000 francs, while for one to
vote one had to pay 300 Francs. Such criteria entitled only about
100,000 citizens out of a population of about 29,000,000 the right to
vote. This was against universal manhood propagated by the French
revolution.
4. Louis XVIII further banned the
popularly cherished revolutionary tri-colour flag and restored the white
flag of the Bourbons. This shows how he tended to revive the pre-1789
order. He also tailed to either reconcile or harmonize the different
political groups in France and to utilize their differences by applying
divide and rule policy. The relationship between the republicans,
Bonapartists, liberals vis-avis the ultra-royalists remained very
hostile even after his death.
5. Although Louis
XVIII was prepared to let by gones be by gones, he failed to carry on
the activities of the ultra royalists who conducted a revenge program
against the Bonapartist, 'liberals and anyone suspected to have
anti-Bourbon feelings. About 7.000 Frenchmen either executed, mutilated,
imprisoned or exiled between 1816-17 during the “white terror” these
included French military heroes like Marshall Bruno, Ney (The bravest of
the braves) these created more chaos and political instability in
France. It showed that Louis XVIII had learnt and gotten nothing from
the reign of terror of 1792 -94.
6. Press freedom
that the Frenchmen had achieved through the revolution of 1789 was
banned after the murder of Duke De-Berry in 1820. Only newspapers that
supported the restored monarchy were allowed to operate, the rest were
censored and their offices were locked up including their publishers.
This was against freedom of expression and thought that the Frenchmen cherished.
7.
Louis XVIII further restricted political freedom of the Frenchmen
between 1816 – 1820. He did this by dissolving the parliament, banning
political parties, restricting meetings and stopping by jury.
This was a return to Bourbon despotism of the revolutionary period that the French men had signed off in the 1789 revolution.
8.
Louis XVIII also hark the control of education to the Catholic Church.
In 1822, a bishop was made the minister of education. He also kept aloof
from the claims of the nobles and clergy over their former land that
had been acquired by die peasant. This was very unrealistic ^ both the
Concordat and the 1814 charter had guaranteed possessions of such land
by the peasants.
9. Internally, Louis XVIII did not go so far to alleviate the economic conditions of the Frenchmen.
France
had been heavily ravaged by the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. She
therefore needed a comprehensive economic recovery program that Louis
failed to provide.
10. Lastly, Louis dismissed
reformist Chief minister Richelieu and replaced him with Villele who was
an ultra-royalist in 1821. Villele took advantage of Louis' poor health
and successfully implemented ultra-royalist programs against supporters
of the revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes. This showed that he had
learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from his brother Louis XVI who
dismissed the popular financial controllers like Turgot and Necker and
used the influence of his unpopular wife Marie Antoinette that had
partly led to the outbreak of the French revolution of 1789.
NB.
Louis XVIII tried to control the activities of the ulto-royalist
between 1817 -1820 that was making the throne "hotter" for him. However,
the murder of Duke De-Berry, a son of Charles X by a Bonapartist (other
sources stress a republican) in 1820 was utilized by the
ultra-royalists to persuade the king and parliament that liberalism and
Bonapartism were bad and must be stopped. Villele accomplished this for
example in 1822, he passed a severe law limiting the press, trial by
jury and surrounded himself with hard core ultras. The murder of Duke
De-Berry was considered a calculated move to destroy the Bourbon
monarchial rule in France. The Duke was the son of Charles X mid since
Louis XVIII had no son, he was the only heir for the Bourbons after
Charles X.
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