France: A timeline of wonders

Yesterday's seminar taught me parts of the history of France that I didn't even know WITH the timeline. I learned even more with other people's timelines and the information they and in contrast to mine, I enjoyed the complexity and creativity of their timelines and how much effort they put into it.

Most of what Mr. Dundov taught me was interesting overall, but what still continues interest me the most is Napoleon during the French Revolution and the drastic changes he made to France. He had a fearsome amount of power in France, and he attempted to use some of that power good by trying to regulate prices in France so that everybody would be able to purchase food. Napoleon was also fearless, he marched with his comrades onto battlefields and fought besides them. Now that, that, shows true courage, because I know for sure if that was me, I would've stayed in the back using my soldiers as cover, for the obvious fear of being impaled. A humorous fact I learned about Napoleon was that he was afraid of cats, which was completely ironic seeing as how he shows no fear battling with merciful enemies on the front line, but has a fear for small, furry felines.

Painting of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

Anotherpart of history I found interesting was when Julius Caesar planned to conquer Alesia to prove his powerful reputation. He planned to over throw Vercingetorix, the ruler of Alesia, but the ruler refused. Julius then began building a wall around the city to basically deprive the city of any goods or people from entering or leaving. There would be small skirmishes while the wall was being built, but nothing could stop the building of the wall. Vercingetorix then sent women and children out of the city, to see if Julius showed any compassion, but instead, Julius didn't not bother with them, he believed it was not his problem, and that his only goal is to conquer the city. In my opinion, I thought Julius was going to kill them, but I guess my belief in the ruthless Julius Caesar was incorrect. In the end, the city of Alesia was starved and deprived of everything, which led to the surrendering of Vercingetorix. Julius wanted to prove that he was able to conquer a city by parading the fallen ruler around Europe and showing him to other cities. Julius then killed him after being paraded for so long.

I can't wait for the future seminars, as I enjoyed the 3 hour learning experience. I also cannot wait for the last seminar where we get to learn French.
~Julian