2. Rise of Napoleon
• Napoleon Bonaparte dominated
French and European history from
1799 to 1815
• The French Revolution made it
possible for Napoleon to rise to
military power and then political
power in France
• Napoleon was born in Corsica,
• He was the son of a lawyer whose
family came from the Florentine
nobility
• He received a royal scholarship to
study at a military school in
France
• His education in military schools
eventually led to a commission in
the military as a lieutenant in
1785
• Napoleon read the works of
philosophers and educated himself
in military matters by studying the
campaigns of great military leaders
from the past
3. Military Successes
• Napoleon rose quickly through the ranks of the French army
• In 1792, he became a captain and two years later was made a
brigadier general by the Committee of Public Safety; he was only 24
years old
• In 1796 he was made commander of the French armies in Italy,
where he won a series of decisive victories (see map, next slide)
• In 1797, Napoleon returned to France as a conquering hero; he was
given command of an army in training to invade Britain
• Napoleon was considered highly confident, intelligent, charming, and
able to make quick decisions; he was well-supported by his troops
and other followers
• Napoleon decided Britain would be more threatened if France
invaded Egypt and India, two colonies that were major sources of
wealth for Britain
• Napoleon’s army was cut off by Britain’s navy, and Napoleon
abandoned his army and returned to Paris
5. Consul & Emperor
• In Paris, Napoleon participated in the coup
d’etat (violent overthrow of government)
that removed the Directory from power
• A new government, called the consulate
was created; even though in theory France
was a republic, in truth, Napoleon held
absolute power
• Napoleon was made first consul; he
controlled the entire government
• He appointed the members of the
bureaucracy
• He controlled the army
• He conducted foreign affairs
• He influenced the legislature
• In 1802, Napoleon was named consul for
life, two years later, he crowned himself
emperor
6. Napoleon’s Domestic Policies
Peace with the Church Codification of Laws
• Napoleon established peace • Napoleon’s most famous
with the Catholic Church domestic achievement was his
codification of the laws
• He did not personally practice a
• Prior to the Revolution, France did
religious faith not have a single set of laws
• In 1801 he reached agreement • The most important code was
with the pope, which the Civil Code, or Napoleonic
recognized Catholicism as the Code, which preserved most of
religion of the majority of the gains of the Revolution
France • It recognized the principle of
• The pope did not ask for lands equality of all citizens before the
seized during the Revolution to law
be returned • It preserved the right of citizens
to choose their own profession
• People who owned the seized
• It abolished serfdom and
lands supported Napoleon and promoted religious tolerance
the Pope and church were no • It made it more difficult for
longer enemies of France women to divorce and made
women “less equal than men” in
the eyes of the law
7. A New Bureaucracy & Aristocracy
• Napoleon centralized the bureaucracy and made it more
powerful
• Promotion was based on ability only; this opened jobs to the
middle class
• Napoleon created a new aristocracy based on merit in the
state service (bureaucracy)
• He created over 3,000 nobles between 1808 and 1814
• Most were military officers
• The rest came from the upper ranks of the civil service, including
state and local officials
• Only 22% came from the former nobility of the old regime
8. Josephine Bonaparte
Married to Napoleon in 1796, she
was a ‘socialite’ (think real
housewives of Paris) She was
married and had 2 children by a man
that was killed in the Reign of Terror.
She was also imprisoned during that
time. Her looks were fading and she
knew that she needed a man to
support her so she married
Napoleon (not for love). She
continued to carry on many affairs
while he was away conquering
Europe before he was Emperor. She
could not provide him an heir so he
divorced her in 1812.
9. Napoleon’s Empire
• Napoleon destroyed
some Revolutionary
ideals; he replaced
liberty with despotism
and shut down 60 of
73 French newspapers
• However, he is known
for his military, not
domestic leadership;
his conquests began
soon after he rose to
power
10. Building the Empire
• When Napoleon became Consul, France was fighting with
Russia, Great Britain, and Austria
• He achieved a peace treaty in 1802, but it only lasted one year; war
was renewed in 1803 with Great Britain
• Gradually, Britain was joined by Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Prussia
• From 1805 to 1807, Napoleon’s Grand Army defeated the
Austrian, Prussian, and Russian armies
• From 1807 to 1812, Napoleon was the master of Europe; his Grand
Empire was composed of three major parts: the French
Empire, dependent states, and allied states (see map, previous slide)
• The French Empire was the inner core of the empire, including an
enlarged France that included parts of Germany and Italy
• Dependent states were kingdoms under the rule of Napoleon’s
relatives, including Spain, Holland, Italy, the Swiss Republic, the
Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and the Confederation of the Rhine
• Allied states were those defeated by Napoleon and forced to join his
struggle against Britain, they included Prussia, Austria, Russia, and
Sweden
11. Principles of the Revolution
• Napoleon sought to spread some of the principles of the
French Revolution, including legal equality, religious
toleration, and economic freedom
• Napoleon also tried to destroy the old order of nobility and
clergy as the most powerful elements of society; nobility and
clergy lost special privileges
• Napoleon declared equality of opportunity in government
offices
• The spread of French Revolution ideals was an important
factor in the development of liberal traditions in these
countries and have had far-reaching effects, including into the
21st century
12. Europe’s Response to Napoleon
• Napoleon assumed his Grand Empire would last for centuries,
but it collapsed almost as rapidly as it had been formed
• Two elements contributed to the fall of his empire: Nationalism
and the survival of Great Britain
• Britain was able to survive Napoleon’s onslaught because of
their powerful navy; Napoleon hoped to invade Britain, but
the British defeated a French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805
• Napoleon then tried the Continental System to defeat Britain;
he tried to keep British goods from reaching the European
continent, hoping to weaken Britain economically and thus
prevent it from waging war due to a lack of money
• Allied states were resentful that they were unable to purchase
British goods
• New markets in the Middle East and Latin America gave Britain
new outlets for their goods
13. Nationalism
• Nationalism is the unique cultural identity of a people based
on common language, religion, and national symbols
• The spirit of French nationalism had made possible the mass
armies that Napoleon used in his conquests
• The spread of French Revolutionary ideals led to increased
nationalism in other regions
• The French were hated as oppressors, which united people in
opposition to the French
• The French showed other countries in Europe what could be
possible with a sense of nationalism and a nation in arms
could accomplish
14. Fall of Napoleon
• Napoleon’s fall began in
1812 when he invaded
Russia
• Russia challenged the
Continental
System, forcing Napoleon’s
hand to bring them under
control
• In June 1812, the Grand
Army invaded Russia; • The Grand Army arrived in
instead of giving battle, the Moscow and found the city
Russians retreated for ablaze; lacking food and
hundreds of miles supplies, Napoleon abandoned
Moscow and began the “Great
• As they retreated, they Retreat” across Russia
burned villages and the
countryside so Napoleon’s • The Retreat occurred in terrible
army would have difficulty winter conditions; only 40,000
finding food of his original 600,000 men
returned alive
15. Napoleon’s Final Defeat
• The military disaster in Russia led other European states to rise up
and attack the crippled French army
• Paris was captured in 1814
• Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, off the coast of
Tuscany, Italy
• The Bourbon monarchy was restored in France; Louis XVIII, the
brother of Louis XVI, was made king
• The new king had little support in France, and Napoleon slipped
back to France
• Soldiers were sent to capture Napoleon, but they refused to shoot
and went over to his side; he entered Paris in triumph on March
20, 1815
• Napoleon raised another army and moved to attack European forces
in Belgium
• At Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, Napoleon met combined
Prussian and British army, led by the Duke of Wellington, and
suffered a bloody and terrible defeat
• Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena, a small island in the South
Atlantic off the coast of Africa; Napoleon’s reign was over, but his
impact was felt for centuries
16. Summary
Failures Accomplishments
• Women still did not have equal • Made peace with the Catholic
rights. church by declaring it the
majority religion of France.
• Invasion of Russia June 1812-
• Made the Napoleonic Code of
December. (Hitler also made
laws.
this mistake)
• Established a centralized
• Sent to Elba due to military administrative bureaucracy of
losses and capture of Paris, government.
but he snuck back to France • Spread French revolutionary
• Lost at Waterloo to the Duke ideals throughout Europe,
of Wellington (UK) leading to liberal governments
and society in the future
• Then to St. Helena where he
died.
