The French Revolution Napoleon

OBJECTIVE(S): Explain how the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte in France an upgrade or downgrade from the rule of Louis XVI Identify the lasting impact(s) of Napoleon’s reign

I. Napoleon Seizes Power A. Background 1. France was in bad shape after the Reign of Terror.

2. The new government, the Directory, was corrupt and unable—as the failed governments before it—to solve the problems that caused the Revolution.

3. The French people were tired of all of the chaos. They were ready for a strong leader that would solve all their problems.

B. Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power 1. Military hero Napoleon Bonaparte rose to national prominence and in 1799 staged a coup d’etat—a sudden take over of the government by the military—to become the ruler of France.

a. Napoleon wrote a new constitution and put it before the people in a plebiscite—when the people of an entire country vote for or against a proposal, especially on a choice of government or ruler.

b. Napoleon ruled as a military dictator, not that unlike the rule of Louis XVI. But because Napoleon attempted to deal with problems more than Louis did, the people supported him.

c. The people loved Napoleon because he was able to restore law and order in France, giving it the stability it lacked during the Revolution.

2. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804. This was also approved by the people in another plebiscite.

3. The Napoleonic Wars (1803—1815) a. Napoleon—regarded as one of history’s military geniuses—fought a series of wars, building a European empire in process.

b. When Napoleon took over France, the country was still at war with a coalition—a multi-national military force under a single command—of Europe’s hereditary rulers determined to crush the French Revolution.

1) Austria, the Kingdom of Sardinia (Italy), the Kingdom of Naples (Italy), Prussia (Germany), Spain, and Great Britain formed the First Coalition. 2) Napoleon defeated the coalition.

c. Napoleon fought a series of wars, taking over much of Europe in the process. 1) The wars increased French nationalism, but the people also got weary of constantly being at war. 2) Napoleon was welcomed in most conquered territories as a liberator because he freed the people from oppressive absolute monarchs. But it quickly turned to resentment as these other nations didn’t want to be controlled by France.

II. Napoleon’s Empire A. Napoleon sought to dominate European politics.

1. He installed friends in relatives in charge of the countries he conquered. He also told the rulers in other countries what to do and—out of fear of being taken over—they usually listened. 2. England was France’s chief rival.

a. The British and French competed not just for political influence, but also economically. b. Napoleon sought to remove British influence over continental Europe and told all the countries he controlled not to trade with them. c. This policy of not trading with England, which was part of Napoleon’s Continental System, was widely unpopular. Many of the countries ignored it, causing conflict with Napoleon.

B. Napoleon also sought to rebuild a French colonial empire in the Caribbean and the Americas.

III. The fall of Napoleon A. Napoleon’s downfall was triggered by two bad decisions.

1. When the King of Spain and Portugal didn’t follow Napoleon’s edict to not trade with Britain, Napoleon invaded. The resulting Peninsular War—during which the French struggled against guerrilla warfare—ended with the expulsion of the French from both countries.

2. In 1812, Napoleon was invaded Russia when the czar refused to comply with his demand that no one trade with England. a. The French Army—the largest in the world at the time—quickly pushed to Moscow. Because of their past success, they thought this would be an easy victory and didn’t even consider ordering winter supplies, since they invaded in spring.

b. The Russians did not surrender as the French expected. In fact, the Russians practice a type of warfare called “scorched earth policy,” which means that they destroyed all the resources of an area before it fell into enemy hands.

c. As the French waited for the czar to surrender, the Russian winter hit. Under supplied, the French Army was forced to retreat in miserable conditions. Napoleon lost three-quarters of his Army in the retreat.

B. Napoleon was now weak, with his Army in disarray. On the retreat from Russia, many troops deserted. The Allies saw the chance and attacked.

1. In 1813, a coalition force of Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops defeated Napoleon at Leipzig in modern-day Germany. 2. These Allies invaded France and removed Napoleon from power. He was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.

C. In 1815, Napoleon made a comeback. He escaped house arrest in Elba and returned to France, taking over the government again. He ruled for one-hundred more days.

1. A coalition force led by the British defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. 2. Napoleon was again removed from power and put under house arrest on the island of St. Helena, where he died a short time later.

III. The impact of Napoleon A. Napoleon has had a lasting impact on European history for several reasons.

1. Napoleon brought back economic stability and law and order after the chaos of the French Revolution. 2. Napoleon made some of the ideals of the French Revolution part of the legal systems of Europe.

a. In France, Napoleon established his own law code called Code Napoleon (or the Napoleonic Code). 1) It provided for legal equality for all social classes.

2) It also established other key rights for all people that came from the ideas of the Enlightenment, such as freedom of religion and trial by jury, etc.

b. When Napoleon conquered the other countries of France, the Napoleonic Code became the law in those territories too. Even after the French left, people’s expectation for equality and rights remained.

c. Napoleon also instituted public schools run by the state. This idea also spread throughout Europe.

B. Napoleon helped cause a general rise in nationalism throughout Europe.

a. Nationalism is the belief that the people of a nation should rule themselves.

b. The nationalism Napoleon caused in the countries the French conquered would later help cause the revolutions of the 1800’s and the rise of the new nations of Italy and Germany in the 1870’s.