Napoleon Bonaparte
And Romanticism
“Power is my mistress.”
• State system is dead
• Europe must be
organized under
French hegemony
• Administrative reform
and Napoleonic Code
must spread
throughout Europe
Origins
• Father and mother
nobility in Corsica
• Entered Brienne
Military Academy at
age 9 on scholarship
• Leadership skills
obvious
• Considered an outsider
• 1784 enters Ecole
Militaire in Paris at
age 15
• Finished 2-year
program in 1 year
• Becomes officer at age
16
• In favor of the
Revolution
Man of Destiny
• Rationalist and
opportunist
• Romantic: studied
Alexander the Great
and Hannibal
• Devoted to his family
• 1793, defeats Great
Britain at Toulon—
Brigadier General
• French military
expansion continues
under Directory
• March 1795 Peace
concluded with
Prussia and Spain
• War continued with
Great Britain and
Austria—Directory
needed Military
Napoleon’s Rise
• 1795—drove out
royalists and saved
Revolution
• Meets Josephine
• 1796, marries
Josephine
• 1796—goes to Italy to
command troops there
• By November 1797,
France has defeated all
of her enemies except
Great Britain
• Returns to Paris as a
hero
• Decides to attack GB
through Egypt
Napoleon’s Army of the Orient
• Attempt to destroy Britain’s Trade with
India
• 35,000 members
• Napoleon’s army moved to Cairo: 15,000
march across desert; 10,000 shipped by
barge upriver
• Army meets 6,000 mounted Mamelukes and
local force of 54,000 and wins
Egyptian Campaign
• 7/1798—Battle of the
Pyramids: Napoleon
victorious in
Alexandria
• Became intellectual
campaign
Discoveries
• Rosetta Stone
discovered
• Tombs explored
• Treasures taken back
to France
• Josephine unfaithful
• Austria, Russia, GB
form new coalition:
infidelities published
GB defeats Napoleon on Water
• August 1,1798 French fleet destroyed in Aboukir
Bay
• Army becomes marooned
• Second coalition formed, including GB, Russia,
Turkey, Naples, Portugal, Austria
• French become bogged down
• Napoleon quits Egypt with a few men and guides:
sails back to Paris—His victories on land precede
him; he is seen as a hero
Coup of 18 Brumaire
• Directory weak: Abbe
Sieyes convinces
Napoleon to
overthrow the
Directory
• Napoleon addresses
assembly:
“Confidence from
below, power from
above”
Napoleon as First Consul
• Assembly shouts
down Napoleon
• He becomes angry
• Saved by his brother
Lucien, who leads
army into the
Assembly Hall
• New constitution created:
Constitution of Year VIII:
three consuls to lead
• Republican theory: checks
and balances
• Council of State
• Made Napoleon actual
ruler
• Approved by plebiscite
(3,011,077to 1,567)
End of French Revolution?
New Constitution of Year VIII could be seen
as end of FR
Most leading elements of Third Estate had
achieved their goals by 1799
Hereditary privilege abolished
Peasants also satisfied—they had land, no
feudal privileges
Napoleon as First Consul
• Maintained order by
his policies:
• Liberal Policies:
• Employed people from
all political groups
• Gains of peasants
confirmed
• Amnesty to nobles
granted
• Improved education
• Concordat of 1801
with Pope Pius VII
• Catholics gain
freedom of worship
• Catholicism is religion
of most Frenchmen
• State named bishops
and paid priests
st
1
Consul, continued
• Church gave up
property
• Clergy swore loyalty
to state
• Conservative Order
– Murdered Bourbon
Duke d’Enghien in
1804
• Central government
controlled Provinces
• Stopped free speech
and press
• Crushed opposition:
secret police
developed
• Stopped free elections
Civil Code 1804
• Middle class equality
• Property distributed
• Safeguarded property
among all children
rights
• Married women had to
• Abolished all
consult their husbands
Privileges of birth
to dispose of property
• State officials chosen
• Labor unions
by merit
forbidden: workers
• Gave men control over
had fewer rights than
their wives
employers
Napoleon as Emperor
• Fear of Bourbon
comeback
• 1802 plebiscite:
Consul for life
• 1804: Napoleon
becomes emperor of
France
• New constitution by
plebiscite approves
Coronation
• Coronation at Notre
Dame
• Pope comes to crown
Napoleon
• At last moment,
Napoleon takes crown
from Pope and crowns
himself
Napoleon’s personal life
• Josephine crowned his
empress
• By 1809 he wanted
blood heirs—
Josephine could not
give him any
• Divorces her, marries
Archduchess Marie
Louise
Military Methods and Conquests
• Military genius,
especially in execution
of warfare
• New theory
• Flexible formations in
battle, not fixed ones
• Divided into
moderately sized units
• Live off land
• Light-speed
maneuvers to bring
enemies into battle
• Great citizen army
motivated to fight well
• 700,000 strong
• Could risk 100,000
men at a time
Methods and conquests
• Conscripted
unprecedented number
of soldiers
• Loyal to France and
Napoleon
• Conquest of Europe:
– 1801 Austria defeated
– 1802 Peace with GB
– Peace of Amiens a
truce
– 1803 Third Coalition
formed (Aus, Rus,
Swed, GB)
1805 Battle of Trafalgar
• Spain submits to
Napoleon; join fleets to
sail against England
• Meet Horatio Nelson at
Trafalgar
• 21 October: Fr/SP fleets
destroyed; GB loses no
ships
• GB dominant at sea 100
years
Austerlitz
• December 2, 1805
• Defeats Austria and
Russia
• Treaty of Pressburg
signed
• Napoleon gains Italy
1806 Battle of Jena
• Prussia defeated
• Berlin Decrees signed
Nov 21, 1806
• Prussia loses much
territory
• Agrees to bar British
goods from import
Treaty of Tilsit
• Alexander I meets
Napoleon in 1807 on
raft in Niemen River
• Russia agrees to
Continental system
• French territorial gains
confirmed
• Russia loses land
Continental System and Grand
Empire
• 1806 Holy Roman
Empire dissolved
• Germany re-organized
as Confederation of
the Rhine
• New Kingdoms set up
with Napoleon’s
family/friends on
thrones
• Spain, Italy, Holland,
Sweden
• Napoleonic Code
everywhere: end of
feudalism and local
town oligarchies
System at work
• Attempts to destroy
• GB trades with
GB trade dominance
America and East
• Napoleon rejected idea • Continental system
of free trade
hurts Continent
• Tariff policies favored • Problems begin:
France
Spanish revolt,
1808—against Joseph
• Foreign merchants
on throne
engaged in smuggling
Problems for Napoleon
• 1808 Peninsular War
saps French strength
• Britain begins
blockade
• 1810 Russia
withdraws from
Continental system
• 1812, march on
Russia; 600,000 men
• Suffers defeat at hands
of cold (coldest winter
in 100 years)
• Russian scorched earth
policy
• Retreat of Russians
• Resistance by entire
Russian population
Retreat from Moscow
• Supply train had been
attacked
• Typhus rampant among
troops
• Discipline broke down
• At Berezina, soldiers were
attacked and panicked
• Bridge broke—20,000
died or captured
• 100,000 survived retreat
th
4
Coalition
• Napoleon able to get
army together quickly:
350,000 members in 6
months
• 1813, Russia, Prussia,
Austria, GB form 4th
coalition
• Prussian army
modernized and
reorganized
• Prussia: 270,000
– Seen as German war of
Liberation:
– Battle of Nations:
– France defeated at
Leipzig in Germany
– Allies take Paris in
March, 1814
– Napoleon abdicates
and exiled to Elba
Congress of Vienna
• Viscount Robert
Castelreagh (GB)
• Prince Klemens von
Metternich (Aus)
• Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand (Fr)
• Karl August von
Hardenberg (Prus)
(Frederick Willhelm)
• Alexander I (Rus)
• No power should
dominate
• Balance of Power sets
stage for Concert of
Europe
• Policy to contain France
• Holland made stronger
with addition of Aus
Netherlands
• Austria given N. Italy
• Prussia given
Rhineland
• Non-vindictive
boundary settlement
w/France (1792)
• Restoration of
Monarchies
• Concert of Europe:
• Frequent meetings for
several years
• No major general war
in Europe for 100
years
100 Days
• Napoleon escapes
from Elba 1815
• Promised liberal
constitution and peace
• Allies declare
Napoleon an outlaw
• 5th coalition formed
• Battle of Waterloo
1815
• Defeated by Prussians
and English: Duke of
Wellington leads
English/von Blucher
leads Prussians
• Napoleon exiled to St.
Helena
• Died from cancer
1821