Napoleon Bonaparte
Rise & Reform
Personal Life
• Born into a noble family on the French island of Corsica
• Quickly rose through the military, fighting for the Revolutionary
army
• Supported the Jacobins
• Self-proclaimed “Son of the Revolution”
• Personality
• Extremely intelligent & Analytical
• Photographic Memory
• “Like a chess master”
• Charismatic, all wanted to follow
• One of his famous opponents claimed that his presence on the battlefield
was worth 40,000 men.
• Married Josephine when he was 26
• Love of his life.
• Famous love letters.
Excerpts from Napoleon’s
Love Letters to Josephine
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“Sweet incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my
heart!”
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“Oh, my adorable wife! I don't know what fate has in store for me, but if it
keeps me apart from you any longer, it will be unbearable! My courage is
not enough for that.”
•
“I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating
evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil.”
•
“Yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your
lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire.”
•
“Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return,
for they set my blood on fire.”
•
“I don’t love you, not at all; on the contrary I detest you – You’re a naughty,
gawky, foolish slut.”
Key Terms
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Josephine
•
Plebiscite
• 1800
• 1802
• 1804
•
Coup d’etat
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Coup of 1799
•
French Consulate
•
Napoleonic Code
•
Duke of Enghien Affair
•
Codification
•
Emperor of the French
•
Meritocracy
•
Coronation of Napoleon
•
Concordat of 1801
•
Neoclassicism
Focus Question
Did he destroy the French Revolution or make the changes permanent?
I. Napoleon’s Rise to
Power
1799 - 1804
Coup d’etat of 1799
(Year VII)
• Displeasure with the Directory
• Coup d’etat
• Overthrow of a government from within, often by the military
• Coup of 1799
• NB return from Egyptian Campaign
• Invited by Sieyes (then one of the Five Directors) to overthrow
the government
• NB becomes Consul, moves into the Tuileries Palace
• “Citizens, the Revolution is established on the principles with which it
began. It is over.”
• Napoleon, 1799
French Consulate
1799-1804 (Year VII to Year XI)
• At first, 3 Consuls, one legislative body
• NB was one of the Consuls, would consolidate power over
time
• NB expanded power by popular support
• Plebiscite – similar to a referendum. Form of direct
democracy in which everyone votes on a single question.
• Plebiscite of 1800
• Napoleon’s first plebiscite asked… ???
• Should Napoleon be the “First Consul”?
• Results?
• 99.9% of voters approved.
• Plebiscite of 1802
• Should Napoleon be “Consul for Life”?
• 99.8% of voters approved.
The Duke of Enghien Affair
(Jan, 1804)
• Attempted assassination of NB by French Royalists
seeking to restore the Bourbon Family
• Louis Antoine (Bourbon), Duke of Enghien blamed and
Executed
• Likely had nothing to do with the plot.
• NB used this plot to justify the Re-creation of a hereditary
line in France.
• “After the murder of the Duke, even the most partial ceased to regard
Bonaparte as a hero. If to some people he ever was a hero, after the
murder of the duke there was one martyr more in heaven and one
hero less on earth.”
-War & Peace, Tolstoy
• Believed a Bourbon Restoration would be near impossible if
Bonapartist line was guranteed in the Constitution
• Bourbon Family out, Bonaparte Family in
Plebiscite of 1804
• Plebiscite of 1804 – people
voted to make NB emperor
Coronation of Napoleon
1806-1807 Jacques-Louis David
Coronation of Napoleon
1806-1807 Jacques-Louis David
• Example of Neoclassicism Art
• Neo = ?
• Classicism =?
• Incredible Dimensions
• 10 meters wide
• 6 meters tall
• 1 meter = 39.37 inches
• Housed at Louvre today
• Napoleon crowns himself
• Sketch by David
Coronation of Napoleon I
(Event)
December 2, 1804 (11 Frimaire XIII)
• NB refused to be crowned like the monarchs of the
Ancien Regime
• “To be a king is to inherit old ideas and genealogy. I don't want
to descend from anyone.” -Napoleon
• Took the title “Emperor of the French”
• NB crowned at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
• Pope present, but NB “stopped him” and crowned himself
II. Napoleonic Reforms
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•
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Concordat of 1801
Napoleonic Code
Bank of France
Public Education
Limitations on Liberty
Napoleonic Reform:
Overview
• Above all else NB was a general,
therefore NB valued order &
clarity
• Clear laws
• Orderly society
Concordat of 1801
• Concordat of 1801
•
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0A15FE355417738DDDA00994D9405B878CF1D3
• Agreement between NB and Pope Pius VII
• Declared Catholicism as the “great majority religion of
France”, but not the state religion.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pope gave up claims to land taken during FR
French Gov’t could elect and fire bishops
Catholic worship allowed / Seminaries opened
Granted religious freedom and protection of rights to
all people
Napoleonic Code
1804
• Significance
• Codification – writing down of laws
• Replaced collection of feudal law
• Standard law for all (new)
• Codified and solidified many of the gains
of the French Revolution
• Would spread through Europe with
Napoleon’s Empire
• Became law everywhere
• Nearly all systems of civil law set up after
this time were based on the Napoleonic
Code
Napoleonic Code
1804
1. Forbade the Estate system
• Forbade privilege based on birth
2. Allowed freedom of Religion
3. Set up a system of Meritocracy
• Jobs and titles went to most qualified
• Criticism:
• Step backwards for women
• Legally dependent on husband / father
• Could not buy/sell property
• Women’s incomes went to husband
Other Reforms
1. Public Education for all children
• Intended to result in a large pool of officers for the
military
2. Bank of France
• Centralized economy and balanced the French budget
3. Limitations on liberty
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•
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Freedom of press drastically reduced
System of spies
Thousands of political prisoners
No democratic system, similar to absolutism
Review
Rise
• 1799 - Coup d’etat of 1799
• French Consulate
• 1800 - Plebiscite of 1800
• First Consul
• Plebiscite of 1802
• First Consul for Life
• Coronation of 1804
• Became Emperor
Reform
• Concordat of 1801
• Napoleonic Code
• Public Education
• Bank of France
• Limitations of Liberty
Did Napoleon continue and make
permanent the goals of the Revolution or
did he destroy them?
Continued
Destroyed