France in the Age of Les Miserables……………..Ideals: Political Symbolism in Paris

As France undergone different political stages, there were a lot of political icons that brought about. During the revolution, Paris was made to cope up with the diverse ideals of different government. These ideals were fundamentally dissimilar from each other in the beginning of this period, but when Victor Hugo came to the picture, they had established a way to coincide different government strategy.

The conflict of different political scheme first appeared during the French Revolution in 1789. Louis XIV was a city with a monarchial institution. There was no city planning of streets or houses. Paris was deeply behind meeting the hygiene needs of the Parisians, and all the areas the Parisians went they were always reminded of the monarchial institute.

In 1799, Napoleon’s assuming power in France was the turning point for the revolution. His mentality was excellent, he never want revolt any more than Louis XIV had and this contributed much to the development of the city. His contribution included the replacement of statues of Liberty with ones celebrating his army, and the column devoted to him in the Pace Vendome. Nevertheless, placing a statue of a giant elephant in the Place de la Bastille was the one of the weirdest thing he did to the city. This decaying elephant plays a petite part in Hugo’s Les Miserables as the home of the gamin Gavroche. The Vendome column dedicated for him and the weird giant elephant fit with Napoleon’s design which is to glorify the accomplishments of France under his own regime and de-emphasize the revolution of 1789.

The re-establishment, by King Louis XVIII and Charles X, had parallel idea to that of Napoleon in down regime before it. The statue of Napoleon was taken down from the Vendome column, during the time of Louis XIV the statues were returned to their original places.

Under the Louis-Philippe bourgeoisie rule that the monuments of Paris began to be neutralized. In his time that the statue of Napoleon was returned to its place atop the Vendome column, contradictory to this was the position of the column topped by the Genius Liberty at the Place de le Bastille. In between these two monuments, the Place de la Concorde, was placed the Obelisk of Luxor. Like that of Napoleon Bonaparte’s elephant had the effect of neutralizing the square that no political party could claim the center of Paris. At the same time, the positioning marked the separation of the halves of Paris between their respective political orientations.

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Paris was discovered by a Gauls from the Parisii tribe in 250 BC who first found the fishing village on an island in the river. At present, it is referred as Ile de la Cité. Paris’ lands were wealthy; it made a perfect strategic location for trade and business operations. But the area was under Roman control after the revolt in 52 BC led by Julius Caesar. The Romans crushed the rebels at the area and then took control of the entire city. At the end of the same century, Paris’s Ile de la Cité became the centre of a new Roman settlement called Lutetia.

Under the Roman rule, the town was greatly influenced with the Roman culture and grew significantly. Lutetia was named Paris in 212, after the local tribe, but the rest of 3th and 4th century was wracked by war. Sadly, the city was came under attack from barbarian aggressors putting Roman rule to collapse effectively in the 5th century.

According to fable, was saved from the hands of Attila the Hun through the prayers for relief led by the piety of Sainte Geneviève. Their prayers were answered when Attila’s march turned away from Paris to the south. Sainte Geneviève remains Paris’s patron saint to this day.

The city’s escape from Attila was just a short-term relief for the city. It was then attacked in 464 by Childeric, where his con made the city its capital. Childeric was buried there in 511 on that same city. By this time, Paris was a typically crowded early medieval city with timber buildings alongside surviving Roman remains. According to the chronicler Gregory of Tours, it suffered a disastrous fire in 585. The city grew beyond the boundaries of the Ile de la Cité, with suburbs being established on both banks of the river.

The French revolution started in Paris, where the King ordered his foreign troops to subdue any unrest. Paris became the panorama of revolution, with political groups taking over establishments for their headquarters. The royal family were reduced to virtual prisoners in the Tuileries. They tried to escape on June 20 of 1791 but they were unsuccessful and returned to Paris as captives. In 1800, Napoleon was declared the new consul and on the same year, he returned to Russia to kill his own people.

In the 19th century, under Napoleon’s rule, Paris became the centre of an empire and enormous military power. He crowned himself as the Emperor in Notre-Dame on May 18 1804. He saw Paris as “new Rome” and set about building public monuments befitting the capital of an empire. It is also during Napoleon’s rule where Paris developed to its modern form. He appointed a Prefect named Baron Haussmann and was in charge of modernising the city. Haussmann did a great job, although demolishing some of the old Paris structures, but then replaced it with a network of wide, straight boulevards and radiating circuses. But even if Haussmann was forced to resign because of corruption, his term was of great responsibility of what Paris look like nowadays.

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