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The Age of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte
• 1769 – 1821
• From a poor Corsican
family of minor nobility
• Was a 20 year old French
army officer when the
French Revolution broke
out, rose to rank of
general by age 24
• In the wars between
France and her neighbors
during the Revolution,
Napoleon managed many
great victories
Rise to Power
• 1799: Used the military to
seize control of the French
government in a “coup
d’etat” (French for “strike
against the state”)
• Initially took the title of First
Consul and vowed to give
up power after the country
had stabilized
• 1804: Declared himself
“Emperor of the French”
• At each of these steps, he
enjoyed the overwhelming
support of the French
people
Economic Reforms
• Instituted price controls
(especially on food) to
stop inflation and help
the poor & hungry
• Encouraged
development of new
businesses and
industries in France
• Built many new roads,
canals, and bridges to
improve transportation
Social Reforms
• Set up a system of free public
schools, open to all boys
• Allowed the peasants to keep
lands they had taken from
the Church and stolen from
executed nobles during the
Revolution
• Made all jobs open to
anyone and ordered the
government to hire based
only on merit
• Enacted a new legal system
called the Napoleonic Code,
designed to restore order to
France
Napoleon & The Church
• Made peace with the
Catholic Church by
reopening churches and
providing Catholics with
religious freedoms
• However, he did not
restore lands taken from
the Church during the
Revolution or restore the
Church’s status as the
official religion
Building an Empire
• Napoleon sought to restore
France as an European power
• In a series of strikes, he seized the
Netherlands, Belgium, and parts
of Italy and Germany and
annexed them to France
• Defeated what was left of the
Holy Roman Empire and placed
the German states under French
“protection”
• Established his brother Joseph as
king of Spain
• Many of the conquered peoples
did not like being under French
rule and sought to free
themselves, including the Spanish
Battle of Trafalgar
• Napoleon planned to invade
England in 1805, but the
defeat of the French fleet
by British Admiral Horatio
Nelson at the Battle of
Trafalgar ended any
overseas ambitions
• 27 British ships defeated a
fleet of 33 French
• French lost 22 ships, British
lost 0 (Britain did, however,
lose Adm. Nelson, who was
killed in the battle)
Defeat of Austria
• Despite his setbacks
against the British,
Napoleon crushed the
Austrian army at the
Battle of Austerlitz,
forcing peace
• To celebrate his victory,
Napoleon ordered
construction of the Arc
de Triomphe in Paris
Continental System
• Napoleon also defeated
Prussia and Russia in
military campaigns,
forcing nearly all of
Europe to enter his
Continental System, a
European embargo
against trade with the
British
The Russian Mistake
• Russia broke from the
Continental System in 1812
and reopened trade with the
British
• In an effort to enforce his will,
Napoleon invaded Russia
• The Russians, having a massive
amount of land to give up,
practiced a patient policy of
“scorched earth” – nearly
continuous retreat while
systematically destroying any
resource which might help
their enemy
The Russian Mistake
• When winter set in,
Napoleon found himself
far from home and
unable to resupply his
troops
• Napoleon ordered a
retreat, but it was too
late; out of 400,000
soldiers he had sent into
Russia, only 10,000 lived
to return – the rest
mostly starved or froze to
death
Napoleon’s Downfall
• In 1813, a new alliance of
Russia, Britain, Austria,
and Prussia defeated the
weakened French at the
Battle of Leipzig, forcing
Napoleon’s surrender
• Napoleon was forced to
leave power and was
exiled to the tiny island of
Elba in the Mediterranean
Napoleon’s Downfall
• By 1815, however, Napoleon
had returned to France to
take power a second time, a
period known as “The
Hundred Days”
• Napoleon, however, was
defeated in battle once again
by the British and Prussians
at the Battle of Waterloo
• Napoleon was exiled a
second time, but this time to
the tiny island of St. Helena
in the South Atlantic, where
he died in 1821
Impacts of Napoleon
• Ended the Revolution and
restored order to France
• The final collapse of the
Holy Roman Empire
paved the way for a new
German state
• Sold French holdings in
North America to the
United States (the
Louisiana Purchase) to
fund his war efforts
The Congress of Vienna
• After Waterloo, the leaders of
Europe gathered at The
Congress of Vienna to decide
Europe’s future
• Wanted a lasting peace, so
they struck a balance of power
where no one country was
strong enough to fight the
others; this peace would last
(more or less) until WWI.
• Wanted to prevent the spread
of revolutionary ideas, so they
restored the rightful monarchy
to France, Portugal, Spain, and
Italy
Louis XVIII
•
•
•
•
1755 – 1824
Brother of Louis XVI
Fled France in 1791
Restored to the French
throne by the Congress of
Vienna
• Agreed to the creation of
a constitutional monarchy
and a moderate
government
• Died with no children
Charles X
• 1757 - 1836
• Youngest brother of Louis
XVI & Louis XVIII
• Ultraconservative who
sought to reestablish
absolutism in France
• Inherited the throne in
1824, but was so
unpopular that he held
power for only 6 years
before a new revolution
forced his abdication in
1830
Revolution of 1830
• Charles X had
suspended the
constitution, dissolved
the legislature, and shut
down newspapers
• The result was an
uprising which threw
the country into chaos
and forced Charles to
flee the country
Louis Philippe
• 1773 – 1850
• A member of the royal
family who had spent most
of his life living outside of
France
• Approved by the French
legislature to replace
Charles as king due to his
more liberal views
• Unfortunately, Louis
Philippe’s government,
which began with great
promise, failed to live up to
expectations
Revolution of 1848
• Louis Philippe’s regime
was plagued by
corruption, an economic
recession, and a series of
poor harvests which led
to a rise in food prices
• These factors led to
another uprising, one
which forced Louis
Philippe to abdicate the
throne and flee France
Revolution of 1848
• With Louis Philippe’s
abdication, the middleclass won control of the
legislature and issued a
new constitution which
gave all adult males the
right to vote, created
the office of president
and changed the
legislature to a
unicameral body
Louis Napoleon
• 1808 – 1873
• Napoleon Bonaparte’s
nephew
• Elected first president of
France in 1848
• By 1852, had abandoned
the new constitution and
declared himself
emperor Napoleon III