A-Level History: The decline and fall of Napoleon 1807-1815

Aims of the Napoleonic Empire:

Personal glory, ambition and legitimacy

- Use new public buildings to symbolise power and used bees to link to the royal Mevoringian (increasing legitimacy)

- Military success and expansion were essential to his legitimacy as a ruler and was a major reason why he had public support

- Gave titles to his family e.g. Louis becoming king of Holland despite not seeing them as suitable rulers in order to solidify the Bonaparte name as rulers

HOWEVER: Many in France supported Napoleon to taking a more official title e.g. 'Consul for Life' shown by 1802 plebescite so it suggests that the expansion which in large happened after 1802 may not have been solely to increase his legitimacy

Aims of the Napoleonic Empire: Extending ideas of the Revolution and Enlightenment

- Extension of the Civil Code to imperial territories and Empire putting in place freedom of religion and the abolition of feudalism

- Principles of education in secondary schools and Uni but the nature of education encouraged conformity and obedience - aimed to have 1/3 enter military

- Created a new aristocracy based on ability

HOWEVER: the Legion of Hope 1802 - used as a form of patronage to gain support especially among the military

- 1808 - created a new imperial nobility with 'grand dignitaries' became princes and if recipient had an annual income above 200,000 could make their title hereditary, 3500 titles given between 1808 and 1814

- Poor people still tended to have less opportunities especially since education was not fully accessible shown through establishing lycées in 1802 (mainly used to rain gov official and military officers) - which were highly selective and often inaccessible for the poor

- Primary education was much less of a priority for Napoleon (often underfunded) and was often controlled by the Church

Aims of the Napoleonic Empire: Using imperial resources to protect and strengthen France

- In 1808 provided subsidies manufacturing (esp. things related to war such as arms production and ship-building, which increasing industrial production HOWEVER it was dependent on the increase in the population and spending by the countryside post wealth distribution to cause the increase in production

- Protected French industries via putting tariffs on British goods

- Taxes from satellite states funded the war HOWEVER this didn't stimulate the French economy

Imposing conscription from Empire helped increase their army by around 20%

Enforcement within the Empire wasn't strong enough so they can't rely on Empire taxation and for the army - despite France only having ⅔ of Empire's population they contributed 80% of the army

HOWEVER: French industry was still affected by the wars such as the British naval blockade making it more difficult to trade with America

How did normal people benefit from imperial nobility

- The allocation of 'senatories' which were grants of large country estates to members of an senate, alongside 25,000 franc annual income

- Less individuals benefits from Napoleon's personal gifts e.g. 5000+ presents of money worth enough to buy a house in Paris

HOWEVER: USE MONEY TO BUY SUPPORT

Police state: censorship and propaganda

- Suppression of journalism with number of political papers going from 73 to 9 in 1800 and by 1811 only 4 remained and were under police supervision LINK: policing

- This allowed Le Moniteur to be the only way to get news - which was written by Napoleon's ministers - which exaggerated french victories making 'to lie like a bulletin' a well-used phrase during this time

- Was painted with a toga and wreath to create links to Romans increasing his legitimacy

Police state: policing

- Joseph Fouché wrote daily reports on public opinion in Paris and was focused on gathering intel on suspected threats (link to controlling people's lives)

- Police ensured loyalty by imposing censorship and organising raids on areas that were believed to be sheltering those avoiding conscription (link to censorship and suggests more of a police state post-1808)

- Information from the 18000 Gendarmes were stored away and reports were given to Fouché to keep Napoleon informed of opposition - France had the most developed surveillance system in Europe

Police state: controlling people's lives

- In the judicial system new tribunals e.g. the Criminal Code contained harsher punishment such as in 1810 when house arrest was imposed on those deemed a threat and prisons holding 3x as many people than in 1800

- Livrets (1803 onwards) were used like an internal passport which was used to control the sans-culottes and limit political activity via surveillance

- Reintroduced the Le Chapelier law of no strikes or trade unions

- Opposition only occurred in a large scale in the countryside via Brigands

- HOWEVER, 90% of the expected conscription levies were raised without difficulty before 1808

- HOWEVER having no strikes were not unusual for the time as the industrial revolution

How did the Continental system lead to Napoleon's downfall

LONG-TERM

- alienated allies such as Spain and Portugal as it led to economic downturns - hence Peninsular War

- led to the invasion of Russia due to the Tsar, as they had a lucrative grain trade with Britain in 1812 - wanted to compel the Tsar to stop trading with British merchants to force Britain into peace, disastrous 600k troops to 25k made it out alive

- the economic strain felt helped form the 4th coalition and ultimately failed

Napoleon's downfall: role of Britain

- provided troops to extend the Peninsular war

- Wellington's creation of the defensive 'Line of Torres Vedras' during the Peninsular War was impossible for French troops to get through, despite having the larger army size

- However, still dependent on other countries e.g. Wellington's campaign during the Battle of Waterloo (1815) Prussians troops were required to make a decisive victory

- Treaty of Chaumont (1814) ensured that the 6th coalition was more successful than previous coalitions helping in the Battle of Leipzig for example - first legal agreement, Castlereagh introduced this, this was particularly essential in bringing allies together when Napoleon was retreating from Moscow

- The treaty also brought countries such as Sweden into the Sixth coalition - which was significant as Bernadotte (a French marshall who defected to Sweden in 1810) was aware of Napoleon's military tactics

EV: has some disagreements at the Congress of Vienna

Napoleon's downfall: Russian campaign 1812

- started with 600k and ended with only 25k - grande armee decimated and morale dropped, however Napoleon was able to make a 400k army to win Bautzen but faced heavy losses due to lack of experience

- 'scorching the land' in Moscow meant that they could not 'live off the land'

- Cossacks used guerilla warfare which was similar to what was used in the Peninsular War

- the battle of Borodino was a pyrrhic victory due to losing 30,000 men in the process

- poor tactic from Napoleon to stay in Moscow for a month

- EV: didn't provoke opposition directly within France itself

- Renewed Austrian aggression despite marriage alliance between Napoleon and the Austrian princess - Tsar was seen as the 'saviour of Europe'

- Led to the 'Malet Coup' which despite being poorly coordinated, showcased discontent within France and the vulnerability of Napoleon's position as people within his inner circle were turning against him

Napoleon's downfall: 1813-15 campaigns

- Napoleon had some initial victories such as Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden - but these victories were indecisive and forces were strained

- Battle of Nations (a.k.a Battle of Leipzig) 1813 was a decisive defeat, Napoleon forced to retreat into France

- army disloyalty and people within France welcoming the Allies into Paris - 31st March 1814 (disillusionment of the war) - after invasion into France in early 1814

- after Austria defected in 1813, since Napoleon's defeat to Russia in 1812 gave hope they could beat Napoleon, increased anger due to the harsh terms of the Treaty of Schönbrunn which led to territorial losses (this led to the army size of the allies outnumbering the French)

Napoleon's downfall: Peninsular War (1808-14) consequences

- as a prolonged guerilla warfare 300k French troops tied down here which demoralised French troops (1/2 killed)

which contributed to 1812 Russian campaign failure

- it was very expensive

- the defeat in Spain ruined French military prestige and and encouraged Prussia and Russia to resist Napoleon, also Austria in 1809

- the economic damage from the blockade for Britain was eased - access to Spanish markets boosted British exports from 38m in 1808 to 48m in 1810

- Napoleon's inability to resolve the situation cast doubts on his military and political judgements

- this failure led to not being able to put in place the Continental blockade

Why did Napoleon lose the Peninsular War

- Wellington clever tactic of the defensive line 'Torres Vedas' meant that the British were well supplied by the British navy

- barren nature of Spain/portugal made it hard for French troops to live off the land

- guerilla warfare

How did the Hundred Days (including the Battle of Waterloo) lead to Napoleon's downfall

- evidence that key people in France such as from the Legislative Body and the Senate were no longer supporting Napoleon (as this was after Napoleon's 1st abdication and since he had rallied support for a national resistance), 9 of his Marshalls didn't support

- Wellington defended well in the Battle of Waterloo until 72,000 Prussian forces arrived swiftly adding to the already present 68,000, strong coalition among the 7th coalition

- After the defeat at Waterloo (only days after) Napoleon abdicated for the 2nd time

Politically why were people against Napoleon 1813-1815

- Rejected the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814), the lenient treaty from the Sixth Coalition to Napoleon which would allow France to go back to 1792 borders and would allow him to abdicate the Throne in favour to his son although he would be exiled to Elba

- After the Battle of Nations/Battle of Leipzig people allowed the allies to enter Paris due to war-weariness

- evidence that key people in France such as from the Legislative Body and the Senate were no longer supporting Napoleon (as this was after Napoleon's 1st abdication and since he had rallied support for a national resistance), 9 of his Marshalls didn't support