Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon’s Rise to Power Napoleon distinguished himself in the campaigns against Austria Directors = unpopular – Napoleon and his army pull off a coup d’état – November Napoleon made First Consul of France (supreme civil and military power) Beginning of a new era

Napoleonic Settlement As First Consul, Napoleon carried out a new series of acts solidifying his high standing – Established a concordat with the papacy (declared Catholicism the semiofficial religion) – Centralized administrative and judicial system – Criminal and civil codes of law – Crushed plots to return the Bourbons and crushed the Jacobin remnants

French Dominion Over Europe Napoleon crowns himself monarch; takes formal title of emperor – Popular as wars went well, and they did for several years – Victorious campaign between 1796 and 1809 – Defeat at Battle of Trafalgar (1805) England a major enemy and fought almost without interruption from

Russian Invasion Napoleon convinced that Czar Alexander I was getting ready to attack and had allied with England – Summer of K invade Russia Initially successful, Lost about 2/3 of army Napoleon broken at the Battle of Nations (1813) – Defeated – Europe freed from French occupation March Paris occupied, Napoleon forced to abdicate

The Congress of Vienna Napoleon= exiled to Elba; allies go to Vienna to work out a settlement – The “Big Four”: work out territory of new Europe (Austria, Prussia, Russia, and England) – A new series of agreements give Europe its borders for the next 100 yrs Legitimacy in government International cooperation to maintain peace Discouragement of nationalism and liberalism in politics Balance of power

Criticisms – Aristocratic negotiators ignored growing forces, democracy, national feeling, and social reform – Territory boundaries drawn in ignorance of and disregard for popular emotions – Kings restored to their thrones without support of the citizens – Treaty makers were upper-class men that disregarded ordinary people and their right to participate in government Successes – The borders established endured without serious challenge for fifty years – With the exception of the Franco-Prussian conflict (1870), Europe did not experience an important costly war till World War I in 1914 – Europe had three generations of peaceful economic expansion – A century of cultural and material progress for the middle class and toward the end, the common people