5.6 NAPOLEON Bonaparte

the French revolution was concerned to enact the liberal reforms demanded by the revolutionaries because __________

because the French Revolution was a revolution about how France would become a nation, how it would hold together socially, politically, and economically

Napoleon Bonaparte

rose to the rank as general in 1794 and won a glowing rep. during the revolution for his leadership of the French Army in Italy. he was successful so the French directory sent him to fight the British in Egypt (he failed but basically created more headlines when coming back to France so they never really got the news of him failing) —> back in France he led a coup to overthrow the directory and put himself into leadership.

a new constitution was drafted and was adopted in 1799 to let Napoleon do what + what did he actually do after

it named him first consul (so basically he ruled France without rival)

this wasn’t enough for him so he crowned himself in 1804 as Emperor Napoleon I

why do the people have mixed opinions about Napoleon (embracing but also rebelling against his power)

Longstanding French social and cultural institutions had been abolished and that was very destabilizing for the French people especially after the violent bloodletting of the Reign of Terror, people longed to return to some sense of normlacy, and Napoleon promised to do so (SAME THING WITH HITLER but in Hitler’s case is was economic issues aka hyper inflation)

Napoleon’s domestic reforms

1. instituting the Napoleonic Code which reasserted three key principles of the French Revolution

- The equality of all citizens before the law (just men not women)

- Issued protections for wealth and private property

- Introduced a degree of religious toleration to France

2. centralizing of the government and bureaucracy (to make sure EVERYONE follows the Napoleonic code)

3. religious reform that came in the Concordat of Bologna in 1801

- allowed French Catholics to freely worship

Napoleon claimed that his main goal was to extend and promote the principles of the revolution

• Liberty

• Equality

• Fraternity

How did he suppress the rights of his people

• use a secret police (Joseph Fouche was the minister of this police) —> tried to find conspiracies and anything that threatens the established order (they were everywhere & executed innocents to send messages)

• used censorship (freedom of the press was gained during the revolution but that was taken away under Napoleon’s rule) —> state sponsored sensors in the places of French Newspapers

• marginalization of women —> rights gained from the revolution were removed and they had to depend on their husbands and fathers because under Napoleon, women could no longer enter into contracts or hold property apart from their husbands

what did Napoleon say his aim was for the Napoleonic Wars

to spread the ideals of the revolution throughout Europe (but we don’t know if that was the case or if he just wanted to control all of Europe

what has Napoleon done by 1806 and 1810

1806: won wars of Conquest against Austria, Prussia, and Russia —> the map of Europe began to change

1810: Napoleon had expanded even further so that he began to see himself not as the emperor of France, but as the Emperor of Europe

also he did in fact spread the ideals of the revolution in these lands —> Church lands were transferred to peasants, slavery was abolished, and the hereditary privileges of the aristocracy were stripped (so technically he wasn’t lying)

how did Napoleon create such a huge empire?

he used direct and indirect means (theres 3 parts of the empire)

• one part, aka the Grand Empire, included all the countries that were conquered around France which was directly under Napoleon’s control (France, parts of Italy and other parts around it)

• the second part includes independent kingdoms whom Napoleon kept faithful to him by installing members of the his family on their throne (Spain, Italy, etc)

• the third part were the Kingdoms that were allied to France (Austria, Prussia, and Russia)

Napoleon’s relationship with Britain

Napoleon couldn’t conquer Britain so he used his influence around the continent to establish the continental system which was a blockade of British shipping

the continental system

it said that the British weren’t allowed to dock at the docks controlled by the French (which was basically a blockade for the British from docking anywhere in Europe because all of it was controlled by France). Napoleon set this system up because he got mad he couldn’t conquer the British

Nationalism

the strong identification with one’s own people and one’s own cultural heritage

like when a foreign country invades it will probably stir up national sentiments in the people who’s country is being invaded

Nationalistic responses

so people obviously wanted to get back at Napoleon because he was trying to (and probably succeeded at controlling their land) which would create national sentiments

Napoleon’s defeat

Napoleon’s campaign in 1808 + responses from the people

made Spain a satellite state of France and in response a group of Catholic and Spanish Patriots resisted the invasion of the French. these patriots had to flee to the hills where they waged brutal guerrilla warfare against the French

who did Napoleon go for in 1812? + what went down

he started going after Russia by claiming he wanted to save Poland from Russian dominance —> Russians kept retreating back so they were barely came into battle with Napoleon’s huge army and while they did so, the Russians burned everything in sight so Napoleon’s army couldn’t live off the land SO Napoleon retreated his army but after SO MUCH DEATH

when did Napoleon abdicate the throne + what happened

1814 and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba but then escaped and came back, then rose and army and sought to dethrone his replacement Louis XVIII. however the other states united against Napoleon and defeated his army at the Battle of Waterloo in 1850 only to be exiled to Saint Helena