Napoleon 1796-1807

Italian Campaigns

Napoleon was put in charge of the army distracting the Austrians via Italy.

According to his propaganda he apparently transformed the French Italian army

Rapid victories on the Montenotte campaign against the Piedmontese

Piedmont-Sardinia withdraw from the war April 1796 in a treaty which guaranteed French troops passage through Piedmont

Defeated a rearguard of Austrians at Lodi, well publicised, took Milan and pillaged its artThe publicising of Napoleons successes led the Pope and King of Naples to quickly sign protective treaties with the French

Advanced into the 'quadrilateral', managed to capture 3 of the cities that made up the corner of it easily but struggled to take Mantua due to Austrians bringing more forces in to support but fell after Napoleon defeated them at Arcola (Nov 1796) and Rivoli (January 1797)

By May 1797 in Venice, creates two new republics out of the Italian territory conquered- Cisalphane republic, Transpadane republic and Ligurian republic

Marched into Austria gets within 96km of Vienna

Treaty of Campo Fornio Oct 17th 1797 negotiated without consulting the Directory

Egypt campaign

Napoleon approached the Directory in early 1798 with his idea for a campaign in Egypt to weaken England economically- Directory accept as helpful to keep him out of the way

May expedition begins

July- invasion of Egypt, Battle of Alexandria, Battle of the Pyramids

August- Nelson destroys French fleet, meaning they cannot return to France easily

August-May 1799- campaigns on Lower Egypt

Feb- June 1799- campaigns in Palestine and Syria

March- Siege on Jaffa

March- May- Siege on Acre

August 1799- Napoleon abandons his troops to return to France

Sept 1799- Ottomans decl. war on French

Dec 1799- Egyptian uprising in Cairo

Coup of Brumaire

sieyes is done with the Directory, never liked it anyway, looking for a general to coup with him after Joubert rudely died and found it in Napoleon

through bribery got Boney's brother Lucien elected as President of the Council of 500

plan was to persuade the directors to resign and the two councils to create a committee to create a new constitution

18 Brumaire/ 9 November both councils persuaded to move to St. Cloud to protect them from mob in Paris

Murat moves 6k forces around St. Cloud

Same morning Sieyes and Ducos resign as Directors. With persuasion from Talleyrand, Barras also steps down. The remaining two directors are put under house arrest

19 Brumaire/ 10 November- most have realised they face a coup from the army not Jacobin conspiracy. Boney got impatient and stormed the Council of Ancients, and having failed there moves to the 500. Lucien persuades the guards to enter the chamber, causing most of the deputies to flee. Murat brings his grenadiers in and the remaining deputies are expelled

Lucien managed to find some ancients willing to follow his instruction and appoint 3 consuls to power

Marengo

14 June 1800

French defeat Austrians at Alessandria, Italy

done by crossing the Alps, cutting Austrian's line of communication and taking them by surprise

Things did not look good for the French until Napoleon showed up- strengthens image as military genius

6.5k killed/ wounded

Resulted in Boney's occupation of Lombardy, securing Boney's military and civic authority in France

Ulm

Oct 1805

Boney avoids a major battle as the Russians fail to arrive in time to support Austria

General Mack of Austria led to believe that the French would launch their main assault through the Black Forest, but instead Boney's forces marched through the Danube- can be attributed to Boney's corps system which meant they could move fast and efficiently

French surrounded Austrian forces- trapping them and preventing the Russians from supporting them

French casualties below 1000 and 50k Austrians taken prisoner

General Mack gives himself up for court martialing

Victory meant path to Vienna now open

Trafalgar

October 1805 Britain's Admiral Nelson destroyed the combined French and Spanish navies. Nelson was killed but invasion of Britain now became impossible and they had failed to economically affect them

Austerlitz

2nd December 1805- anniversary of Boney becoming emperor

pretended to be weaker than he was- lost the Pratzen heights and encouraged Russia and Austria to attack right flank- exactly where he wanted them

As the allies weakened their centre, Boney launched decisive attack on the Pratzen heights, splitting the allied forced in two, Boney's army- led by Marshall Soult- got the high-ground and dominated the field

Allies fled, many driven into icy lakes

Austria signs Treaty of Pressburg (26 Dec 1805) ceding territory and paying indemnities

End of HRE in 1806, Francis II decl. himself Emperor of Austria and Boney makes the Confederation of the Rhine

Marks Boney at his Peak.

Consul -> Emperor

Originally first consul, with a council of state and senate selected by 1st Consul. Tribunate and legislative body voted for by stages: 1st, all men over 21; 2nd communal list of 600k citizens; 3rd departmental list of 60k; fourth 6000 notables picked by the Senate.

99% voted for this as constitution in 1800

In 1802, Senate offered Boney Consul for life and the right to name his heir

Plebiscite in support of this change appear to also be over 99% but this time only 50.55% of people voted

1804 decl. himself Emperor- events of 1803 implied that he could easily be put down, provided good excuse to extend his power

Plebiscite results were 99.93% for the new constitution with 47.2% turnout

Crowned himself as Emperor on 2nd Dec 1804, and again in May 1805 as the King of Italy

Religious changes

Napoleon promised to protect the Catholic religion; however, he was anxious to protect the interests of those who had bought former church/ emigre lands so he made it clear they would not be restored

July 1800 once again authorised that Sunday be a day of rest

Negotiations with new Pope Pius VII led to agreement in July 1801, though terms weren't published until Easter Sunday 1802

• Pope recognised as head of Catholic church

• Catholicism recognised as religion of the majority

• Worship to be freely available

• Pope agreed to new regime and promised not to reclaim old lands

Bishops and Clergy continued to be nominated by First Consul (consecrated by the Pope) and paid as civil servants

Published the 'organic articles' in April 1802 without mention of the Pope that gov. had to approve any papal legate or doc. that entered France

also guaranteed safety for Jews and Protestants. The latter had to take an oath of loyalty in the same way the Catholics did.

1806 moved back to the Gregorian calendar

Financial policies

Taxation- 1807 recalculated land tax to make it faired, from Sept 1803, octroi could be levied on consumer goods by administrations, Tax collectors and inspectors appointed for each departement and paid in proportion to amount they collected
Jan 1800, Bank of France est. to create centralised economy

est. Bureau of statistics to gather data on economic growth

formation of the Société d'Encouragement pour L'Industrie Nationale in 1801 which gave out prizes for industry

Chambers of commerce est. 1802

According to the Minister of the Interior, wool industry had increased yield by 400% and exported silk rose in value from 26->64 Million between 1790 and 1812

Continental system and the repercussions did heavily affect French commerce, depriving them of raw materials and colonial traders also hit heavily

Severe debt and inflation from 1810

Educational reforms

May 1802, new law est. that an école populaire (state primary school) would exist in each commune run by the local municipality and subject to the inspection of a sub-prefect and that Lycées would provide a secondary school education for boys aged 10-16. There were to be initially 37 then 45 of these. Provided a boarding education and entrance was by open scholarship examination

Boney more interested in the latter than the former. Happy to let private/church run schools exist alongside his state schools, so long as the virtues of obedience were taught.

Boney loved the lycées, seeing them as the future of the Empire's military and civilian personnel

• Appealed to those of the property owning classes

• of 6400 places available, 2400 went to sons of soldiers or civil servants

March 1808, Imperial University established, to act as a supervisory rather than a teaching institution, ensuring all education conformed to certain standards.

Legal changes

March 1804 the Civil Code was issued, renamed 'Code Napoleon' in Sept 1807

Confirmed key revolutionary changes, as well as the legal rights of the bien nationaux and the employer over the employee, forbidding associations of workers (unions)

much of code concerned with property law, also concerned itself with the re-establishment of male rights

• father/husband made head of the family

• children subordinate to their father until marriage

• Until sons were 25 and daughter 21 years of age they had to have father's permission to marry

Divorce was permissible

Female rights of inheritance restricted

• legit children could not be disinherited at least 75% of property had to be distributed among legit children

1806- standardisation of court practice

1807- commercial code for trade and business

1808- code on criminal procedure

1810- penal code laid down guidelines for punishments

Judges appointed for life- elected by the Senate, lower courts selected by first consul from list but that changed in 1802 when Boney started making direct appointments