.....ANSWER.....

A. Provide basic information about the following figure and their participation in the French Revolution and in the Napoleonic War . Also include their achievements and he reason of their downfall.

1. Napoleon Bonaparte
...URL...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I
..ANS... Napoleone Bonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a military and political leader of France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon I, whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.

2. Duke Wellington
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Wellington
.
..ANS.. The Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington in Somerset, is a hereditary title in the senior rank of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first holder of the title was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), the noted Irish-born career British Army officer and statesman, and unqualified references to the Duke of Wellington almost always refer to him. He is most famous for, together with Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, defeating Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in Brabant (now Walloon Brabant province, Belgium). The Wellesley family is, in origin, an Anglo-Irish aristocratic dynasty.

3. Maximilien Robespierre
..URL.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre
..ANS..Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (IPA: [maksimiljɛ̃ fʁɑ̃swa maʁi izidɔʁ də ʁɔbɛspjɛʁ]; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his arrest and execution in 1794.

4. George Danton
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Danton
..ANS..Georges Jacques Danton (French pronunciation: [ʒɔʁʒ dɑ̃tɔ̃]; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic".[2] A moderating influence on the Jacobins, he was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency to the enemies of the Revolution.

B. What happened to France after the Napoleonic War. Discuss and provide a brief and concise account about the war.
...URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
...ANS..The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812.

C. Introduce the following personalities and their accomplishments in their respective countries:

1. Queen Isabela
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_II_of_Spain
..ANS.. Isabella II (Spanish: Isabel II; 10 October 1830 – 10 April 1904) was the first and so far only female monarch of Spain. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, who refused to recognise a female sovereign, leading to the Carlist Wars. After a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Spanish Revolution of 1868, and formally abdicated in 1870. Her son Alfonso XII became king in 1874.

2. King Carlos V
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
..ANS..Charles V (Spanish: Carlos I or Carlos I de España y V de Alemania; German: Karl V., Dutch: Karel V, French: Charles Quint, 24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.

3. King Philip II
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Spain
..ANS.. Philip II (Spanish: Felipe II; Portuguese: Filipe I ; 21 May 1527 – 13 September 1598) was King of Spain (kingdoms of Castile, Navarra, this one disputed by the French and the Crown of Aragon) and Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland.[1][2] He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as Duke or Count.

4. Ivan the Terrible
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible
..ANS..Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Russian: Ива́н Четвёртый, Васи́льевич​ (help·info), Ivan Chetvyorty, Vasilyevich; 25 August 1530 – 28 March [O.S. 18 March] 1584),[1] known in English as Ivan the Terrible (Russian: Ива́н Гро́зный​ (help·info), Ivan Groznyi; lit. Dreadful), was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres, approximately 4,046,856 km2 (1,562,500 sq mi).

5. Peter the Great
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great
..ASN.. Peter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov (Russian: Пётр Алексе́евич Рома́нов, Пётр I, Pyotr I, or Пётр Вели́кий, Pyotr Velikiy) (9 June [O.S. 30 May] 1672 – 8 February [O.S. 28 January] 1725)[1] ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V.
He carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into a 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power.

6. Catherine the Great
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great
..ANS.. Catherine II (Russian: Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II Velikaya), also known as Catherine the Great (German: Katharina die Große), was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Germany on 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. She reigned as Empress of Russia from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 after the assassination of her husband, Peter III, just after the end of the Seven Years' War until her death on 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796.

7. Maria Theresa
..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa
..ANS.. Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina[1] (13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.[2]

• ANSWER OF MINE..

1. ..URL.. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_France_named_after ..ANS.. _The name "France" itself was given after a Germanic tribe, the "Franks" having settled in Northern France, whose kings came to preeminence after the fall of the Roman Empire._
2. ..URL..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_monarchy ..ANS.._ monarchical form of government_ _where the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, thus wielding political power over thesovereign state and its subject peoples. In an absolute monarchy, the transmission of power is twofold; hereditary and marital. As absolute governor, the monarch’s authority is not legally bound or restricted by a constitution as in a limited monarchy.

a._URL..http://www.nndb.com/people/404/000086146/ ..ANS.._ Louis XIII, King of France, was the son of Henri IV. and of Marie de Medici. He became king on his father's assassination in 1610; but his mother at once seized the full powers of regent. She determined to reverse the policy of her husband and to bring France into alliance with Spain and the Austrian house, upon which power Henri had been meditating an attack at the time of his death. Two marriages were designed to cement this alliance. Louis was to marry Anne of Austria, daughter of the Spanish king, Philip III, and the Spanish prince, afterwards Philip IV, himself was to marry the Princess Elizabeth, the king's sister. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Protestants and nobles of France, the queen carried through her purpose and the marriages were concluded in 1615. The next years were full of civil war and political intrigue, during which the queen relied upon the Marshal d'Ancre. Louis XIII was a backward boy, and his education had been much neglected. We have the fullest details of his private life, and yet his character remains something of a mystery. He was fond of field sports and seemed to acquiesce in his mother's occupation of power and in the rule of her favorites. But throughout his life he concealed his purposes even from his closest friends; sometimes it seems as if he were hardly conscious of them himself. In 1617 he was much attached to Charles d'Albert, sieur de Luynes; and with his help he arrested Marshal d'Ancre, and on his resistance had him assassinated. From this time to her death the relation between the king and his mother was one of concealed or open hostility._ b. ..URL.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France ..ANS.._Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as the Sun King (French: le Roi Soleil), was King of France and of Navarre.^[1] His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.^[2]

Louis began personally governing France in 1661 after the death of his prime minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin.^[3] An adherent of the theory of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin and lack of temporal restraint of monarchical rule, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority.

For much of Louis's reign, France stood as the leading European power, engaging in three major wars—the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. He encouraged and benefited from the work of prominent political, military and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Turenne and Vauban, as well as Molière, Racine,Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Le Brun, Rigaud, Le Vau, Mansart, Perrault and Le Nôtre.

Upon his death just days before his seventy-seventh birthday, Louis was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson who became Louis XV. All his intermediate heirs—his sonLouis, le Grand Dauphin; the Dauphin's eldest son Louis, duc de Bourgogne; and Bourgogne's eldest son Louis, duc de Bretagne—predeceased Louis._

c...URL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu ..ANS.._Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (French pronunciation: [ʁiʃəljø]; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642) was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman.

Consecrated as a bishop in 1608, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a Cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he fostered.

The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister." As a result, he is considered to be the world's first Prime Minister, in the modern sense of the term. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestantrulers in attempting to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.

Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie Française, the learned societyresponsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet l'Éminence rouge ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's clerical dress and the style "eminence" as a cardinal.

As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the retention of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw theTreaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Quebec City to French rule under Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by theKirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America.

He is also a leading character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père and its subsequent film adaptations, portrayed as a main antagonist, and a powerful ruler, even more powerful than the King himself, though events like the Day of the Dupes show that in fact he very much depended on the King's confidence to keep this power._ d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazarin ..ANS.._Jules Mazarin (French pronunciation: [ʒyl mazaʁɛ̃]; July 14, 1602 – March 9, 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazarino or Mazarini,^[1]was a French-Italian^[2] cardinal, diplomat, and politician, who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death. Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu. He was a noted collector of art and jewels, particularly diamonds, and he bequeathed the "Mazarin diamonds" to Louis XIV in 1661, some of which remain in the collection of the Louvre museum in Paris.^[3] His personal library was the origin of the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris_

5...a...URL.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years'_War ..ANS.._The Hundred Years' War (French: Guerre de Cent Ans) was a series of warswaged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings. The House of Valois claimed the title of King of France, while the Plantagenets claimed to be Kings of France and England. The Plantagenet kings were the 12th century rulers of the Kingdom of England, and had their roots in the French regions of Anjou and Normandy.

The conflict lasted 116 years but was punctuated by several periods of peace, before it finally ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets from France (except the Pale of Calais). The war was eventually a victory for the house of Valois, who succeeded in recovering the Plantagenet gains made initially and expelling them from the majority of France by the 1450s. However, the war nearly ruined the Valois, while the Plantagenets enriched themselves by gaining huge amounts of plunder from the mainland. France itself likewise suffered greatly from the war, as most of the conflict occurred on the continent.

The "war" was in fact a series of conflicts and is commonly divided into three or four phases: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), the Lancastrian War (1415–1429), and the slow decline of Plantagenet fortunes after the appearance of Joan of Arc (1412–1431). Several other contemporary European conflicts were directly related to this conflict: theBreton War of Succession, the Castilian Civil War, the War of the Two Peters, and the 1383-1385 Crisis. The term "Hundred Years' War" was a later term invented by historians to describe the series of events.

The war owes its historical significance to a number of factors. Though primarily a dynastic conflict, the war gave impetus to ideas of both French and English nationalism. Militarily, it saw the introduction of new weapons and tactics, which eroded the older system of feudal armies dominated by heavy cavalry and began to erode the dominance of heavy cavalry in Western Europe. The first standing armies in Western Europe since the time of theWestern Roman Empire were introduced for the war, thus changing the role of the peasantry. For all this, as well as for its long duration, it is often viewed as one of the most significant conflicts in the history of medieval warfare. In France, civil wars, deadly epidemics, famines and marauding mercenaryarmies (turned to banditry) reduced the population by about one-half.^[1

b...URL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu _

..ANS..Thirty Years' War

Before Richelieu's ascent to power, most of Europe had become involved in the Thirty Years' War. France was not openly at war with theHabsburgs, who ruled Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, so subsidies and aid were given secretly to their adversaries.^[41] He subsidized the Dutch to fight against the Spanish via the Treaty of Compiègne in 1624. That same year, a military expedition, secretly financed by France and commanded by Marquis de Coeuvres, liberated the Valtelline of Spanish occupation. In 1625 Richelieu also sent money to Ernst von Mansfeld, a famous mercenary general operating in Germany in English service. However, in 1626, he made peace with Spain via the Treaty of Monçon. This peace quickly broke after tensions due to the War of Mantuan Succession.^[42]

In 1629, the Emperor Ferdinand II subjugated many of his Protestant opponents in Germany. Richelieu, alarmed by Ferdinand's influence, incited Sweden to intervene, providing money.^[43] In the meantime, France and Spain remained hostile over Spain's ambitions in northern Italy. At that time northern Italy was a major strategic item in Europe's balance of powers, serving as a link between the Habsburgs in the Empire and in Spain. Had the imperial armies dominated this region, France's very existence would have been endangered, as it would have been encircled by Habsburg territories. Spain was seeking papal approval for a "universal monarchy." When, in 1630, French ambassadors in Regensburg agreed to make peace with Spain, Richelieu refused to uphold them.

c...URL. .wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession _..ANS..The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was fought among several European powers, principally the Spanish loyal to Archduke Charles, the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal and the Duchy of Savoy against the Spanish loyal to Philip V, France and the Electorate of Bavaria over a possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. Such a unification would have drastically changed the European balance of power. The war was fought mostly in Europe but includedQueen Anne's War in North America and it was marked by the military leadership of notable generals including the Duc de Villars, the Jacobite Duke of Berwick, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. It resulted in the recognition of Philip as King of Spain while requiring him to renounce any claim to the French throne and to cede much of the Spanish Crown's possessions to the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Savoy and Great Britain, partitioning the Spanish Empire in Europe.

In 1700, Charles II, the last Spanish monarch of the House of Habsburg, died without issue, bequeathing his possessions to Philip, grandson of his half-sister and King Louis XIV of France. Philip thereby became Philip V of Spainand since he was also the younger son of the Dauphin of France, Philip was in the line of succession of the French throne. The specter of the multi-continental empire of Spain passing under the control of Louis XIV provoked a massive coalition of powers to oppose Philip's succession.

The war began slowly as Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor fought to protect theAustrian Habsburg claim to the Spanish inheritance. As Louis XIV began to expand his territories, other European nations (chiefly England, Portugal and the Dutch Republic) entered on the Holy Roman Empire's side to check French expansion.^[5] Other states joined the coalition opposing France and Spain in an attempt to acquire new territories or to protect existing dominions. Spain was itself divided over the succession and fell into a civil war.

d...URL.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution ..ANS..

_The French Revolution (French: Révolution française; 1789–99) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French andEuropean history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political groups and the masses on the streets. Old ideas about hierarchy and tradition succumbed to new Enlightenment principles of citizenship andinalienable rights.

The French Revolution began in 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General in May. The first year of the Revolution witnessed members of the Third Estate proclaiming the Tennis Court Oath in June, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and an epic march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Parisin October. The next few years were dominated by tensions between various liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792 and King Louis XVI was executed the next year. External threats also played a dominant role in the development of the Revolution. The French Revolutionary Wars started in 1792 and ultimately featuredspectacular French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of theRhine—achievements that had defied previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular sentiments radicalized the Revolution significantly, culminating in the Reign of Terror from 1793 until 1794 during which between 16,000 and 40,000 people were killed.^[1] After the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte.