Download Chapter 21 - The Age of Napoleon

The Age of Napoleon
The Thermidorian Reaction
During 1794, opposition to Robespierre
grew.
On 9 Thermidor (July 27) he was arrested
and executed the next day.
Many of his other Jacobin supporters
followed him to the guillotine.
Power in the National Convention passed
from radicals to the wealthy bourgeoisie,
who ended the Terror.
Constitution of 1795 (Year III)
National Convention prepared a new
constitution.
Created a two house parliament
– Council of Elders had 250 members
– Council of 500
– Executive power was held by five Directors
who were elected by the Council of Elders.
National Convention was dissolved on Oct
26, 1795 and the Directory came into
being.
The Directory
System of indirect elections and five man
executive was designed to be a moderate form
of government.
However, they were repressive in their desire to
continue as a government of the center.
It did have a large political spectrum.
Left
Babeuvists Neo-Jacobins
Center
Right
Royalists
Ultra Royalists
The Directory
Conspiracy of Equals led by
Gracchus Babeuf
– sans-culottes faction that sought to
overthrow government and abolish
property
– precursor to communism
– Easily suppressed by Directory and
Babeuf executed
Elections in 1797 a victory for
royalists but annulled by
government.
Neo-Jacobin revival also
suppressed by government.
François-Noël
Gracchus Babeuf
French Military Victories
War of the First Coalition continued.
Draft of all able bodied men in Aug. 1793.
1793-94, French succeeded in preventing
invasion.
During 1794-95, French occupy Low
Countries, Rhineland, Switzerland and
parts of Spain.
Treaty of Basel in March/June 1795 ended
war with Prussians and Spanish, but war
with Austria and Britain continued.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Born of lesser Corsican
nobility.
Commissioned Lieutenant
in French artillery in 1785.
1793: helped recapture
Toulon from the British.
1795: defended National
Convention from mob
action.
Married Josephine de
Beauharnais (1763-1814).
Bonaparte’s Military Successes
1796: received command of
French Army in Italy,
defeating the Austrians.
Treaty of Campo Formio
ended War of the 1st
Coalition with Austrians in
Oct. 1797.
– France annexed Austrian
Netherlands, Austria got
Venice.
– Austrians recognized the
independence of Cisalpine
Rep. (French Satellite)
– Britain fought on alone.
The Egyptian Campaign
1798: Napoleon invades
Egypt to disrupt British
Empire.
– Discovers Rosetta Stone
– Napoleon winds Battle of the
Pyramids in July, 1798
against Mamelukes
– British Fleet under Horatio
Nelson (1758-1805) defeats
French at Battle of the Nile.
– Napoleon left his army to
return to France.
War of the Second Coalition
(1798-1801)
While Napoleon was in Egypt, Britain
forms alliances with Russia, Austria,
Portugal, Naples and the Ottoman Empire
to oppose the French.
Russia left the alliance the next year.
France suffered military defeats in Italy
and Germany.
Military defeats combined with the
continuing economic and political crisis
and France further weakened the position
of the Directory.
Coup d’Ètat de 18 Brumaire
In October 1799, Napoleon landed
in Southern France.
With help of two of the five
directors (Emmanuel Joseph
Sieyès and Roger Ducos), his
brother Lucien who was speaker
of the Council of 500, and
Talleyrand he plotted to seize
power.
They then used troops on Nov. 9th
to seize control of the government.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
Constitution of 1799 (Year VIII)
Drafting a new constitution, a Consulate
of three rulers was created.
Napoleon had himself elected First Consul
(the other two had little power) to rule for a
term of ten years.
In a plebiscite in 1802, Napoleon was
made First Consul for life with the right to
name his successor (this was reaffirmed in
the Constitution of Year X)
The Napoleonic Style
Used power of personality
to gain power and position.
No major aristocracy to
oppose his power.
Culture of “Notables”
enacted (those who had
risen on merit like himself)
used to consolidate rule.
Administration and Reforms
Curtailed political freedoms and liberties.
Established efficient central government and
bureaucracy.
– Appointed prefect to administer each department and
sub-prefects for each district.
– Each answered to him, further centralizing power.
Eliminated corruption and waste.
Reformed the tax system; created central bank.
Paid government bonds, putting nation on sound
financial footing.
Reformed educational system.
The Religious Settlement
Napoleon was himself a deist or atheist.
He believed however, that the conflict with
the Catholic Church should end.
The Concordat of 1801 established
reconciliation with Pope Pius VII (r. 18001823).
It governed the relationship between the
Church and state until 1905.
The Concordat of 1801
Granted the Church special status as the religion
of the majority of the French
Catholicism was not the established religion of
the state.
Government had authority to nominate bishops
then invested by the pope.
Bishops would appoint the priests.
System established under Civil Constitution of
the Clergy was ended.
Loss of church lands accepted by pope.
Salaries of clergy paid by the French gov’t.
The Code Napoleon
Napoleon continued
the process of
reorganizing the legal
system.
In 1800, appointed a
commission of legal
experts to draft a new
civil code.
Civil code was enacted
in 1804 and renamed
the Napoleonic Code in
1807.
The Code Napoleon
Made all citizens equal under the law and
abolished privileges by birth.
People could be employed as they pleased, a
gov’t employees would be hired by ability.
Reaffirmed rights of property gained during
the revolution, as well as the bed of
manorialism/feudalism for the peasants.
Included the principle of freedom of religion.
State took precedence over the rights of
individuals.
Men were granted greater authority over
family.
Napoleon Consolidates
Power
January 1804, Bonaparte's police
uncovered an assassination plot
against him sponsored by the
Bourbons.
Bonaparte then used this incident
to justify the re-creation of a
hereditary monarchy in France,
with himself as Emperor, on the
theory that a Bourbon restoration
would be impossible once the
Bonapartist succession was
entrenched in the constitution.
Napoleon Crowned
Napoleon crowned himself Emperor
on Dec 2, 1804 at Notre Dame.
Claims that he seized the crown out
of the hands of Pope Pius VII during
the ceremony in order to avoid
subjecting himself to the authority of
the pontiff are false.
After the Imperial regalia had been
blessed by the Pope, Napoleon
crowned himself before crowning his
wife Joséphine as Empress.
At Milan's cathedral on May 26,
1805, Napoleon was crowned King
of Italy with the Iron Crown of
Lombardy.
A Fragile Peace
The War of the Second Coalition ended
with Austria at the Treaty of Luneville in
Feb. 1801.
The British continued the war, forcing the
surrender of the French remaining in
Egypt in summer of 1801
The treaty of Amiens, signed in March
1802, created a fragile peace between
France and Britain.
War of the Third Coalition (1805-07)
Both sides were not content with current
peace.
In 1803, Great Britain renewed its war
against France.
In 1805, Austria and Russia joined the
coalition (Prussia remained neutral at the
outset.)
Napoleon moved into Germany, defeating
the Austrians at the Battle of Ulm on Oct
17, 1805.
War at Sea
Throughout 1804-1805, Napoleon planned
to invade Britain.
The British Navy blockaded French
controlled ports throughout Europe,
keeping most of the fleet bottled up.
Across the globe both sides engaged the
other, attempting to disrupt the trade of the
other side.
Battle of Trafalgar
Just four days after
Napoleon’s victory at Ulm,
the combined French and
Spanish fleets were
smashed at the Battle of
Trafalgar (Oct. 21, 1805).
The strategic daring of
Admiral Nelson and the
tactical superiority of the
British fleet won the day.
With reduced naval power,
Napoleon had to suspend
his invasion plans.
War on Land
Moving East from Ulm, Napoleon defeated
a combined Austrian and Russian force at
Austerlitz on Dec. 2, 1805.
Austria signed Treaty of Pressburg,
relinquishing most of its Italian
possessions (Third Coalition dissolves).
In July, 1806, Napoleon reorganized
western Germany into a satellite called the
Confederation of the Rhine (provided
buffer).
French Victories on Land
Napoleon dissolved the Holy
Roman Empire (Francis II
became Francis I of Austria)
War of Fourth Coalition begins.
Prussia entered the war, on
Oct, 14, 1806 Napoleon
defeated them a the Battles of
Jena and Auerstadt.
Napoleon took the capital Berlin
in late October.
Napoleon moved into East
Prussia in spring, 1807,
defeating the Russians at
Friedland on June 13th.
The Treaties of Tilsit
Napoleon meets with Tsar Alexander I and
Frederick William III of Prussia.
Treaties end War of Fourth Coalition.
Prussia losses half of its territory to
Saxony and The Grand Duchy of Warsaw
(Polish satellite of France)
Russia was given a free hand to deal with
the Ottoman Empire in return for support
against Britain.
1807
We Are Family…
Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte
Treaties allow Napoleon to place
his family members on the
thrones of Europe.
– Brother Joseph – King of
Naples (and later Spain),
replaced by Marshall Murat and
Napoleon’s sister Caroline.
– Brother Louis – King of Holland
– Brother Jerome – King of
Westphalia
– Napoleon divorces Josephine
in 1810, marring princes Marie
Louise of Austria (Habsburg)
and bears him a son the
following year.
The Continental System
Unable to beat the British at sea,
Napoleon launched the Continental
System with the Berlin Decrees of 1806
(expanded through the Milan Decree of
1807).
Any ship from Britain of caring British
goods were banned from European ports.
The British responded with the Orders in
Council, requiring all ships entering or
leaving European ports to stop at British
ports.
The Continental System
The two blockades caused considerable
economic hardship across Europe.
The blockade hurt British trade and
caused soaring unemployment and rioting
in 1811.
France suffered from a lack of imported
raw materials.
French satellites suffered as well, causing
widespread discontent, even though
smuggling was rampant.
The Peninsular War (1807-1814)
Portugal and France’s ally
Spain both failed to enforce
the Continental System.
In late 1807, the French
occupied both nations.
In early 1808, Napoleon
deposed the Bourbon
monarchy and installed his
brother Joseph on the
throne.
The Spanish rose in revolt,
which was brutally
Francisco Goya: The Third of May, 1808
suppressed by the French.
The Peninsular War (1807-1814)
The British sent troops under Sir Arthur
Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) to
support the insurgents.
The British Naval superiority was used to
support the expeditionary force.
The war continued until 1814, slowing
wearing down the French and keeping
vital troops and supplies from other fronts.
War of the Fifth Coalition (1809)
Along with British and Spanish warfare on
the Iberian Peninsula, Austria rejoined the
fight against Napoleon in spring 1809.
Napoleon defeated the Austrians at
Wagram in July 1809, occupying Vienna.
Under the Treaty of Schonbrunn, Austria
ceded land to Bavaria, Warsaw and
France.
Napoleon takes Pope Pius VII prisoner for
opposing Continental System and
annexed the Papal States.
Changes in the Colonial Empires
Spain is convinced to
return Louisiana to France,
but due to French naval
inferiority, Napoleon sells it
to the United States in
1803.
In Haiti, a slave revolt led
by Toussaint L'Ouverture
leads to Haitian
independence in 1804.
The Spanish colonies took
opportunities as well under
Simon Bolivar to gain
independence.
The Russian Campaign, 1812
Tensions rise between
Napoleon and Tsar
Alexander I refuses to
support the Continental
System.
Napoleon raises a
“Grande Armée” of
691,501 men to invade
Russia in June, 1812.
By mid August, French
advance 300 miles with
no major battles.
Russians retreat, trading
for space and time and
burning all left behind
(“scorched earth”)
The Russian Campaign, 1812
On Sept.7, the Russians
under Mikhail Kutuzov battle
French at Borodino, 75 miles
west of Moscow; no clear
victor.
On Sept. 14, Napoleon
entered a burned Moscow.
Tsar Alexander refused to
surrender.
Low on supplies, Napoleon
began to retreat on Oct. 19th
The Russian winter soon set
in, and by December, only
22,000 men in the Grande
Armee remained alive.
War of the Sixth Coalition (1812-14)
A.k.a. – Wars of Liberation.
Coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden,
the United Kingdom, and a number of German
States (notably Bavaria) to take advantage of
Napoleon’s Russian defeat.
Napoleon raises an army of around 400,000
French troops supported by a quarter of a million
French allied troops to contest control of
Germany.
In Germany, national resistance grows in
Bavaria, Prussia and Austria, who join the
Russians in opposing Napoleon.
Revolts in Spain continue to drain men and
resources.
The Battle of Nations
The Battle of Leipzig, Oct. 16-19 1813.
Napoleon soundly defeated by Russians,
Prussians and Austrians in the largest
battle in European history to that point.
The Fall of Napoleon
Napoleon was offered a peace settlement
keeping his throne, but he refused.
Nov. 1813, the Dutch revolted.
The British army led by the Duke of
Wellington advanced from Spain into
Southern France.
Jan. 1814, Russian, Prussian and Austrian
forces invade France and enter Paris on
March 31st.
The Abdication
Napoleon’s abdication order
April 11, 1814,
Napoleon abdicated.
Retains title and
exiled to island of
Elba.
Bourbons restored
with Louis XVIII
(r.1814-24), younger
brother of Louis XVI.
Reasons for Napoleon’s Fall
Imperial overreach –
the attempt to defeat all
enemies and dominate
Europe.
National resistance –
the despotic nature of
the empire led to
nationalist revolts.
Loss of support at
home – French war
weary after 25 years of
war.