Emperors Such as Napoleon, Essay Example

Through great deals of urban planning designed to show France as the greatest state in the world. Emperors such as Napoleon were determined to make it one of the most impressive cities in the world. Urban planners were uniformly given great deals of power to make this goal happen.

Napoleon gave him huge amounts of power to create a city that could stand as the model for the national super power Napoleon wished to create. Before this it was an anarchic city with frequent uprisings and occasional revolutions. His boulevards gave the city uniformity as well as a place for huge amounts of wealthy Frenchmen to move into Paris and increase the city’s economic strength. He also made parks and markets throughout the city as he took huge amounts of detail into these renovations.

The boulevard system created large amounts of housing for the wealthy in Paris who often remained in the boulevard areas exclusively. They were well maintained, with trees on the streets, irrigation and sewer systems marking these boulevards. The boulevards also gave the army access to the city, which was important for maintaining control over the citizens. One main disadvantage is that it displaced huge amounts of the poor into the slums of Paris or out of the city entirely.

The idea was for France to stop focusing on the physical capital in places like Paris, but into the human capital of the country. This was designed to keep revolutionary ideas from both extremes at bay. They did this with high taxes on the wealthy and corporations while extending pensions, unemployment insurance, and national healthcare systems for their citizens. This kept the country as largely egalitarian and took care of the lower classes. However, this level of public spending has resulted in lower growth for the French economy since its inception.

There has been a development of more American styles in Paris over recent times. There has been more choice and less government planning in the design of urban areas of France.  This leads to more urban sprawl, but obviously can give people more freedom over their lives.

Reading Questions

The main disadvantage of Haussmann’s work in Paris was the huge amounts of debt the project was financed with. This debt persisted into the 1930s. However, there were many other effects with more positive or at least more debatable effects. One of these was the uniformity that Paris is now famous for. Houses in the city often appear to be his work, even those built a generation after him.

Many people saw Paris as overly rigid and in need of significant transformations away from his original vision. After World War One, new streets were constructed with awards being given for unique facades and other visions that tried to break from Haussmann’s city.

Paris is often seen as a city that needs to be protected and preserved, with new developments often frowned upon. However, Haussmann radically transformed the city two hundred years ago, and new architects, spurred one often by war in the area, were often changing his vision. In other words, the city is often changing and has not been preserved up until this point.

Paris is the capital city and urban planners such as Haussmann and his successors were all responsible for carrying out the grand plans given to them by the head of the French state, be it a president from the republic or a king from the empire.