Block Day
• Napoleon from captain to consul
(Mini-lecture)
• Napoleon Trivia clips
• Napoleon Evaluation (documents!)
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HW: Napoleon DBQ documents
Notes:
1. To what extent were the goals of the French Revolution
met during Napoleon's reign?
2. Describe social, political, economic, and religious changes
that Napoleon placed on France-were these more or less
democratic?
3. How were different groups of people (peasants, workers,
middle class, etc) affected, both positively and negatively, by
Napoleon's reign?
4. Based on this information, to what extent was Napoleon a
supporter of the democracy? An enemy of democracy?
Justify with some evidence from the readings.
All these quotes are from the same person. What do they
tell you about him? Make a list!
 “Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow
anyone to take her away from me.”
 “There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long
run the sword is always beaten by the mind."
 “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
 "He that makes war without many mistakes has not made war very long."
 “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
 “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are
silent.”
 “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree
upon”.
 “You cannot defeat me, I lose 30,000 soldiers a month.”
 “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”
 “A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”
 “Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
Napoleon (1769-1821)
• Was an officer under King Louis XVI
and had become a general at age
24
• 1795: Defends the Convention
against Royalist revolt
• Gained fame in the First Italian
Campaign of 1796-1797
– French army already dominant 1795
– Prussia already knocked out!
• Drove Austria from northern Italy,
establishes French rule
– Used the levee en masse to change
warfare forever
– Europe in 26 years of war, 1799-1815
• Reader of Voltaire and Rousseau
Italian Campaign as model
• Soldiers, you are naked,
badly fed.…Rich
provinces and great towns
will be in your power, and
in them you will find
honour, glory, wealth.
Soldiers of Italy, will you
be wanting in courage and
steadfastness?
• Creates Italian “republics”
But following in the Directory’s
Footsteps?
• National Convention/Directory in takeover of Belgium
– Looting country to subsidize war
– Agency of Trade and Extraction
– October 1795 annexed Belgium
• French takeover
– 1798, Italisn asked to approve paying for 250,000 French
soldiers
– When Italians refuse, republic dissolved
• “Roman Republic” in Italy
– Pope taken prisoner
– French lawyers draft new Constitution
Napoleon as Emperor
• Napoleon’s coup: 1799
• Overthrew Directory
–
–
–
–
Established new Constitution
Became “First consul”
Called upon by other consuls?
Untainted by Reign of Terror
• Napoleon as politique?
-Appeals to Muslims in Egypt
-Concordat with Pope 1801
Napoleonic Warfare
• Napoleon: Modern warfare:
– Independent command
– Warfare all about positioning
– Napoleon uses masses of French soldiers in highly
organized assaults
• “Combined arms”
– Consequences: Requires full-time soldiers
•
•
•
•
Empire to pay for soldiers
A vicious cycle of expansion
Combines with bringing the “revolution worldwide”
Fighting in Italy
Napoleonic Soldiers-How did outnumbered
peasants defeat 4 armies?
• A different breed of soldier
– They were largely combat
veterans that seldom saw
garrison [guard] duty
– New recruits spent little time
in training camps, instead
learning by mingling with the
veterans
• Again, National identity
– Napoleon prized eagerness
and spirit over education
– “Up through the ranks”
War and Nationalism (Or wait, how does Napoleon
turn peasants into soldiers?)
• Common identity
– Promotion by merit
– Mixing of men in terms of experience, background, hometown
• Nationalism: loyalty to your “people”
– Abstract concept
– Further reduces power of monarchy
• Geography: Italy and Prussia
– 1806 the Confederation of the Rhine was founded—soon to
embrace all of western Germany in a union under French
protection.
• European imitators
– Other countries struggle to catch up
– Encourage “Nationalism”
– Napoleon’s invasions of Europe spur “Nationalism” too
• Expansionist element of French Revolutionary ideals
Wait wasn’t France being
invaded?
• Levee en masse’s success-1794
– Reign of Terror continues
• More troops
• Solid generals (result of Enlightenment)
• Revolutionary ideology
– Ideology of the French Revolution
– Take the revolution abroad
• Establish Napoleonic Code
• Napoleon eventually puts relatives in power
Continental System
(Economics)
• France dominates European mainland
– Conquers or allies with most nations
• Britain notable exception
– At the Battle of Trafalgar France’s navy
destroyed
• With Britain untouchable, Napoleon
develops Continental System.
– Attempt to ruin Britain’s economy by
eliminating its chief market
Continental System
(Consequences)
• Enforcing the Continental System proved
difficult because:
– Europeans had become reliant on cheap
British goods
– The British worked around the system through
smuggling and bribery
– The system hurt the French too
Wait why is Napoleon
conquering again?
• Conscious effort to recreate Rome
• “Taking the Revolution abroad”
– Universality of the French Revolution
• French Revolution had already given
France immediate enemies
• At a certain level-personal glory
Napoleon’s Conquests
• Took over Italy + Spain during the Reign of
Terror
• Much of modern day Germany in 1805
• Established Napoleonic Code
• Overthrew existing monarchies
• Reorganized territories
• Defeated Prussia and Austria, forced
alliance 1805
– Supposedly independent
Peninsular War
(Guerrilla War)
• Efforts to enforce the Continental System
lead to expanded war
– By the fall of 1807, all the nations of
continental Europe except Portugal and
Sweden had joined the Continental System
• Napoleon puts his own relatives in power
• Institutes Napoleonic Code in conquered lands
– Becomes suspicious of Spain
Peninsular War
(Guerrilla War)
• 127,000 soldiers
remove Spanish king
– Occupy country
• National response
– Not to save king
– But awareness of
national attack
– Spanish colonies gain
independence
Napoleon made his brother
Joseph the king of Spain
Peninsular War
(Guerrilla War)
• Hit and run attacks
– Blending back to the local
population
– Led by clerics, local
government officials
– Requires constant troop
presence
– Civilian casualties/civilians
as enemies
– “Total war”
Russia
(Logistics)
• 1812: Fears Russians were working with
Brits
• 600,000 soldiers invade Russia
• Napoleon captured Moscow, but the
Russians refused to surrender
– Instead, Russian patriots burned the city,
leaving Napoleon without supplies or shelter
– Emergence of Nationalism
Russia
(Logistics)
• Napoleon was
forced to retreat
– Defeated
– Only 30,000 soldiers
made it back to
France
• The defeat in Russia
emboldened a
coalition of British,
Austrian, Prussian,
and Russian armies
to converge on
France
An episode from the retreat from
Russia, by Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet
Influences of Napoleon and
Warfare
• Law: Civil Code inspired world
– Lays foundation for rights
• Emergence of Nationalism
– Total war/levee en masse
– Emergence of Germany, Italy, Russia
– Freedom for Spanish colonies, Haiti
– 6 million Europeans dead