The Napoleonic Era
1. As the Reign of Terror came to
an end, chaos engulfed France.
While the Directory attempted to
provide stability, it was too
corrupt
_____________________to
succeed. On all sides, France’s
enemies poked and prodded, trying
to gain land and power from a
collapsing France. However, when
Napoleon Bonaparte
___________________________,
a 30 year old general came to
power, France returned to her
former glory.
2. A “son of the Revolution,”
Napoleon was born on the island
Corsica
of __________________
to lower
class French nobles. He spent
much of his life toiling to escape
his predicament. It wasn’t until he
joined the army that he became
famous.
b. Military victories fueled his political ambition as well. Sensing that the
Directory was corrupt and weak, he and his allies overthrew them in 1799, and
established themselves as the__________________________.
However, Napoleon
Consulate
soon seized power for himself, declaring himself First Consul in 1801.
c. During this entire period, he continued to have the support of the French
public. Each time he made a major change to the government, Napoleon conducted a
_______________________________
plebescite
(a yes or no vote) for the people.
Overwhelmingly, the people of France supported him, even when he named himself
Emperor of France in 1804.
2. During his reign, Napoleon created many positive changes for France, ranging from
law to jobs:
Code Napoleon
a. His most lasting achievement was the ______________________,
a law
Enlightenment
code that combined principles of the _______________________
(all men are created
French Revolution
equal, etc) with ideas of the ____________________________.
The Code Napoleon is
still the basis for the French law code today.
tax system
b. He implemented a fairer ______________________
and created the Bank
of France. This provided stability to the French economy, and coined French money to
be used.
c. He promoted the development of _________________
industry
and
________________________
business
creating more jobs for people. He also
encouraged numerous public works to improve French cities.
d. He gained the support of the different ____________________,
by
social classes
keeping some of the gains made during the Revolution. Plus, he opened all
government jobs to all ___________________,
hoping to gain the smartest
people
people for those jobs.
3. However, everything Napoleon did was not positive for France.
Women
__________________
lost many of the rights they had gained during the
Revolution. But, while Napoleon stabilized France internally, he could not stop
the violence from abroad.
a. While his political ambitions led to great success in France, they
also caused numerous problems as his foreign policy created
conflict
___________________
with other European powers, such as Britain, Austria,
and Russia.
b. Immediately after declaring
himself Emperor in 1804,
Napoleon went on a war of
___________________.
He
conquest
brought countries like the
Netherlands and Belgium
under his direct control. He
abolished both the monarchies
of the Holy Roman Empire
and Spain, placing his own
family in positions of power
there.
c. The lone European power who
could stand against him was
Britain
___________________.
Napoleon attempted to isolate
England by creating a blockade
of the island. However, the
superiority of England’s navy
and their industrial progress
prevented it from being a
success. Angered, Napoleon
turned his attention elsewhere.
1812
d. In the summer of _________,
Napoleon decided to invade and
conquer Russia for standing
against him. However, his
ambition was his undoing. He
was unprepared for the harshness
winter
of the Russian ______________,
and his Grand Army of 600,000
was soundly defeated.
Soon after his defeat by the Russians, Napoleon ____________________
abdicated
the French
Elba
throne and was exiled to the island of _____________in
April of 1814. But, after about
a year of captivity, Napoleon returned to France to attempt to regain power. However,
Waterloo,
this time, Europe was ready. At the Battle of ____________________the
allied
powers, led by the British Duke of Wellington, finally defeated Napoleon decisively.
Captured, Napoleon was forced to live out his days on the Island of St. Helena, in the
South Atlantic.
Despite the tremendous damage he caused, Napoleon unleashed many new ideas on
nationalism
Europe. The renewal of ______________________,
law and economic
revolution
____________________,
and especially, _________________________,
will be
reform
addressed in the years following his rule.