Napoleon Bonaparte - Prestige Nationalism

Legend:

  • Yellow = know that definition/term/topic (basically important ig)

  • Red = one of the governments

Who is Napoleon?

  • Military general

  • Born on island or Corsica - nicknamed “The Little Corsican”

  • Broke up mob outside the directory (the 4th gov’t -Paris Directory) by firing into the crowd - known as the whiff of a grapeshot (small cannon ball looking thing)

  • Associated with Jacobins

Napoleon’s Coup D’état

  • 1799 - Napoleon overthrows the Directory in a coup d’état

Napoleon - First Consul (Gov’t was the Consulate [5th gov’t of revolution])

  • Names himself first consul in 1799 - Consul for life in 1802 - then Emperor in 1804

    • he brought back heredity title

  • He is an enlightened dictator

  • Kept many of the reforms of the French Revolution

  • Émigrés granted amnesty; had to accept that their privileges would not be reinstated

    • amnesty = pardoned

Napoleons Domestic Policy

Domestic policy = what laws/rules/changes are made within the country

Napoleonic Code

  • Had the reforms of the revolution written into law:

    • Rule of law

    • Freedom of religion

    • The right to choose one’s own profession

  • He unified the laws (everyone now lived under the same legal system)

  • Dropped all laws protecting women

    • he was paternalistic

Economic Changes

  • Created the central bank - Bank of France

    • created by Napoleon

  • Treasury would store all tax revenue

  • Issued one common currency

Education

  • Gov’t run schools called Lycee’s

  • Schools taught patriotism and skills to work for gov’t

Religious Reforms

  • Heals relations with Catholics (helps national unity)

  • Concordat (French gov’t now pays their church salaries)

  • Church and state separated by law (secularism)

Napoleons Foreign Policy

Foreign policy = gov’t dealings with other countries

  • Empire - Napoleonic wars

  • 1799 - 1815 - Napoleonic Wars

    • Napoleons grand armée fights wars of conquest

      • related to prestige nationalism

  • He dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and reorganized the German states into the Confederation of the Rhine

  • Beginning of German unification and German nationalism

Triumphal Arch

  • Highlights prestige

    • greatness, glory, and power of the French was celebrated

Napoleons Height of Power (Empire) from 1807 - 1812

  • Confederation of the Rhine

  • Switzerland

  • Kingdom of Italy

  • Austrian Empire

  • Prussia

  • Grand Duchy of Warsaw

  • Spain

  • He turned to economic warfare (because he couldn’t defeat Britain)

    • Ordered a blockade called the Continental System - all nations under his control to stop trading with Britain

      • Failed in the end

Napoleon as a Liberator

  • Religious tolerance

  • Abolished serfdom

  • Reduced power of the Catholic Church

  • Napoleonic code the basis of law

  • Spread the metric system

Napoleon as an Oppressor

  • Occupied nations had to provide troops, lodging, and food for his army

  • High taxes

  • Many died in wars (millions)

  • Other nations developed their own nationalism due to oppression

    • eg. Prussia - nationalism driven army

  • Spanish revolts were fierce and saw gorilla warfare

  • Napoleon ousted by 1812

Invasion of Russia

  • Begins the fall of Napoleon

  • 1812 invasion

  • Napoleon stuck in the Russian Winter

    • Also lost 400,000 soldiers, ordered a retreat

More Losses From Napoleon

  • Napoleon loses the Battle of Nations

  • 1814 - Napoleon battles

    • Britain

    • Russia

    • Prussia

    • Austria

  • Forced him to abdicate (step down) and sent him to exile

    • Eventually escapes - and recaptures Paris

More Info

  • King Louis XVIII flees for his life

  • Napoleon spends his last 100 days as Emperor

  • Final Battle is Waterloo

  • Brits and Prussia defeat him

    • He gets exile against in St. Helena (final exile) in 1815, dies in 1821

    • Congress of Vienna brings conservatism back and monarch is restored across Europe