The Impact of Napoleon's Rule on Europe, 1799 - 1815 - THE CONTROL OF THE GRAND EMPIRE

What did Napoleon mean by wanting his ‘Grand Empire’ to share the French experience?`

• destroying privelige and applying the Napoleonic legal codes and centralisation

• wherever Empire was established, there followed an Imperial bureaucracy of prefects, sub - prefects, tax collectors, etc

How did Napoleon establish French - style administrative institutions across the empire?

• he used a mixture of officials: men from incorporated territories, professional French officials with revolutionary experience

How did the the quality of administrators vary among the French empire?

• some honest and capable

• some corrupt → e.g. tax collectors, customs officers and military leaders seeking private profit

Why did Napoleon deliberately employ disgraced men?

• appointed them to posts outside Paris to remove them from the centre of power

Why was the Gendarmerie established in territories under French rule?

• to reinforce the authority of central government

• maintain control in remote areas of the Empire

• police lawless regions

• suppress opposition to French rule

Where was the Gendarmerie effective?

• directly controlled territories

Where was the Gendarmerie unpopular and resisted?

• southern Italy

• North German coast

• Spain

Where was authority mainly kept/organised?

• although some authority was devolved to satellite states, administration remained highly centralised

What did Napoleon require rulers to do?

• report regularly to him

• refer all major decisions to him

What officiall documents were sent to Paris?

• council of state minutes

• budget statements

Who recieved documents if Napoleon did not?

• Ministers if Napoleon did not read them

What principle did Napoleon’s imperial economic policy follow?

• France first

• states within the Empire paid heavily for the privelige of French protection

Taxation and financial reforms: What was removed?

• fuedal privileges

• guild system

• internal customs barriers

Taxation and financial reforms: What was introduced?

• rigorous tax collection systems to maximise revenue from satellite states

Name an example where the new tax collection system increased revenue

• Kingdom of Italy → tax revenue rose by 50%

What countries’ taxes were simplified under the Empire?

• Naples

• Holland

Taxation and financial reforms: How were taxes simplified in Naples?

• Naples → 100+ taxes replaced with single land and industry tax

Taxation and financial reforms: How were taxes simplified in Holland?

• uniform land tax introduced

• commercial profits taxed at a lower rate than agricultural profits to gain support of wealthy merchants

What was a dotation?

• land taken from the church and dispossed rulers used for rewards

• given to Napoleonic supporters from 1806

Which countries supplied 25% of the land for dotations?

• Poland

• Westphalia

How did dotations reduce state income?

• Duchy of Warsaw lost about 1/5 of its potential revenue

What made the management of satellite states more difficult?

• ongoing war

What did Napoleon prioritise over satellite states economic self - sufficiency?

• the dotations contribution to the French budget

What was economic development like across the Empire?

• varied depending on a states status

How did territories under French control work? (economic impact)

• received preferential treatment

How did satellite states work? (economic impact)

• treated mainly as suppliers of raw materials, providers of food and markets for French goods

• not allowed to develop industries that competed with France

When was the Berlin decree?

• 1806

When was the Milan decree?

• 1807

What did the Berlin and Milan decrees establish?

• the continental system across the Empire

What was the aim of the continental system?

• Exclude British goods and allow French industries to fill the gap

How did Belgium benefit as part of the Inner Empire?

• textile industry boomed due to ban on British colton

What did Belgium lack as a part of the inner empire?

• access to latest British technology

How did the Rhineland benefit as a part of the Inner empire?

• mining prospered

What did the creation of confederation of the rhine do?

• helped economically integrate western Germany

How did Lombardy and Piedmont not benefit from the empire?

• silk industry declined as raw silk had to be sent to Lyons

Why were the Grand Duchy of Berg and Ligurian Republic badly hit?

• berg textiles could not compete with Rhineland production

Why did Genoa not benefit under the empire?

• lost trade to Nice

What regions experienced severe damage under the empire?

• regions dependent on commerce and manufacturing

What was less affected by Napoleonic policies?

• agriculture

How did Italy improve under agriculture?

• became the “granary of the empire”

• most rice exports went to France

Who benefitted more, commercial or subsistence farmers?

• large scale commerce farmers could profit but small subsistence farmers benefitted less

What happened to the economic gap between northern and southern Italy?

• it widened

How did French empire help Kingdom of Italy agriculturally?

• helped create a single market

How did the empire harm agriculture?

• French blockades and tariffs harmed the empire’s economy

• lack of overseas trade meant manufactured goods had to be sold within europe

• overproduction led to falling prices which was worsened by bad harvests

• heavy taxation and loss of industrial capacity hurt urban centres

How was Britain damaging continental economies?

• their dominance had been doing so before Napoleon

What ideal was being spread up to 1808?

• consistent effort to spread french revolutionary values

How did the french aim to reshape europe civilisation?

• with enlightenment principles

What happened to the social policies after 1808?

• became less consistent due to growing pressures on the Empire

What happened to the nobles under social structure and legal reforms?

• nobility was not abolished but lost traditional privileges

• many nobles retained positions in local gov.

What happened to fuedal systems and segurial courts under social structure and legal reforms?

• fuedal rights and seigrurial courts were abolished where French control was strong

What happened to fiscal systems under social structure and legal reforms?

• standardised and tax exemptions removed

What did the civil code impose - social structure and legal reforms?

• imposed legal equality under uniform laws

What happened with serfdom - social structure and reforms?

• abolished in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807)

• but reforms were not fully enforced after 1801

What did the empire prioritise — social structure and legal reforms?

• loyalty and military supply over deep social reform in later years

What was the impact of introducing conscription across the Empire?

• caused hostility and rebellion, particularly in rural area

Where did unrest grow after 1808 due to conscription?

• Spain

• German tyrol

• naples

• veneto

What was Napoleon’s relationship with the Pope like in 1801?

• was good until the concordat reduced church power and promoted religious tolerance

• recognised as the religion of the majority

• Napoleon chooses clergy

• Napoleon adds the organic article without Pope knowing → not well recieved

What was Napoleon’s relationship with the Pope in 1804?

• Napoleon crowns himself Emperor and the relations with the Pope started to decline

• issued a statement of belief to be taught in schools ignoring the pope and promoting napoleon

What was Napoleon’s relationship like with the Pope in 1809?

• Napoleon seizes the pope, annexed the papal states in his new Kingdom of Italy

• pope offered 2 million francs every year

• pope ex - communicates Napoleon

• so Napoleon imprisoned him - he only returned to Rome in 1814

How was Jewish worship organised in 1808?

• organised through a central Jewish governing body in Paris and synagogue in each department had a jewish community

How was the organisation of jewish worship met?

• met resistance → some jews felt it as an attack on their faith, some opposed jewish emancipation