WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 24, 2010

     Hey guys!  Today we:

          - Discussed the rubric for the Gateway writing test.
          - Finished writing our Napoleon "poetry."
          - Wrote our poetry on the board and discussed Napoleon's legacies.

     What do I basically need to know about Napoleon?

          - After the French Revolution, France's new republic had a weak & fragile government.  After going through many serious changes, the new French government was eventually taken over in a coup (pronounced "KOO" ...meaning "to take by force") by France's hero general, Napoleon Bonaparte. 

          - Napoleon eventually made himself emperor of France and placed his relatives in charge of other countries that he conquered, like Spain.  While emperor, Napoleon created a new set of strict laws in France to maintain order and improve the economy.  This was called the Napoleonic Code, and is still in use in France today. 

          - Napoleon dreamed of conquering the world, and spreading some of the new ideas of the French Revolution.  Unfortunately, Napoleon's power grew too strong and he was defeated by the Russians, and then later the British at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium.  He was sent as a prisoner to the island of St. Helena where he died 6 years later under mysterious circumstances. 

          - Napoleon left France with a new set of laws (the Napoleonic Code), forced order in France out of the chaos of the revolution and "Reign of Terror," and imposed revolutionary ideas in many of the countries that he conquered.