NAPOLEONIC ERA

1799-1815
On 9 November18 Brumaire by the French Republican

CalendarBonaparte was charged with the safety of the legislative councils, A rumour of a Jacobin rebellion was spread by the plotters. Bonaparte led troops to seize control and disperse them, which left a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sieys, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government. Plotter Emmanuel-Joseph Sieys, his brother Lucien; the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos; another Director, Joseph Fouch; and Talleyrand

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1799-1815
French Consulate Sieys was expecting to dominate the new regime, he was out maneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, and he took up residence at the Tuileries. This made Bonaparte the most powerful person in France. Reforms Bonaparte instituted lasting reforms, including

centralized administration of the departments, higher education, a tax code, road and sewer systems, and established the Banque de France (central bank).

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Reforms

1799-1815

Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church.

Legion of Honour in May 1802; a substitute for the old royalist

decorations and orders of chivalry, to encourage civilian and military achievements; Constitution of the Year X increased his powers were. First Consul for Life. After this he was generally referred to as Napoleon rather than Bonaparte. Napoleon's set of civil laws, the Napoleonic code; prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Rgis de Cambacrs, the Second Consul. Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. The development of the code was a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system with its stress on clearly written and accessible law. Other codes were commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commerce law.

Napoleonic Wars War of the 2nd Coalition Battle of Marengo June 1800 At Hohenlinden general Moreau strikes Austria again. Treaty of Lunville signed in February 1801; the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased. By the Law of 20 May 1802 Bonaparte re-established slavery in France's colonial possessions, where it had been banned following the Revolution. Following a slave revolt, he sent an army to reconquer Saint-Domingue and establish a base. The force was destroyed by yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Haitian generals. Faced by imminent war against Britain and bankruptcy, Napoleon recognized French possessions on the mainland of North America would be indefensible and sold them to the United States. The Louisiana Purchase ; for less than three cents per acre ($7.40 per km).

NAPOLEONIC ERA 1799-1815

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1799-1815
French Empire In January 1804, assassination plot which involved Moreau

and sponsored by the Bourbon former rulers of France. Napoleon used the plot to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as emperor. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris and then crowned Josphine Empress. At Milan Cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He created eighteen Marshals of the Empire from amongst his top generals, to secure the allegiance of the army.

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1799-1815
War of the Third Coalition
By 1805, Britain had convinced Austria and Russia to join a Third Coalition

against France. Royal Navy defeated French navy at Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805. Napoleon ordered the army stationed at Boulogne, to march to Germany secretly in a the Ulm Campaign. On 20 October 1805, the French captured 30,000 prisoners at Ulm. The next day Britain's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar meant the Royal Navy gained control of the seas. Six weeks later Napoleon defeated Austria and Russia at Austerlitz. This ended the Third Coalition, and he commissioned the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the victory. Austria had to concede territory; the Peace of Pressburg led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and creation of the Confederation of the Rhine with Napoleon named as its Protector. "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought." Napoleon Frank McLynn suggests Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one".

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War of the Fourth Coalition The Fourth Coalition was assembled in 1806, and Napoleon

defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in October. He marched against advancing Russian armies through Poland and was involved in the bloody stalemate of the Battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807. After a decisive victory at Friedland, he signed the Treaties of Tilsit; one with Tsar Alexander I of Russia which divided the continent between the two powers; the other with Prussia which stripped that country of half its territory. Napoleon placed puppet rulers on the thrones of German states, including his brother Jrme as king of the new Kingdom of Westphalia. In the French-controlled part of Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony as ruler.

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Continental System:
Napoleon attempted to enforce a Europe-wide

commercial boycott of Britain called the Continental System. This act of economic warfare did not succeed, as it encouraged British merchants to smuggle into continental Europe, and Napoleon's exclusively landbased customs enforcers could not stop them.

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Peninsular War Portugal did not comply with the Continental System. in 1807 Napoleon invaded with the support of Spain. Napoleon invaded Spain replaced Charles IV with his brother Joseph. Following a French retreat Napoleon took command and defeated the Spanish Arm. He retook Madrid, then outmaneuvered a British army Austria again threatened war, and Napoleon returned to France. In the second Siege of Saragossa most of the city was destroyed and over 50,000 people perished. Napoleon left 300,000 of his finest troops to battle Spanish guerrillas. Following several allied victories, French control over the peninsula again deteriorated, the war concluded after Napoleon's abdication in 1814. Napoleon later described the Peninsular War as central to his final defeat, writing in his memoirs "That unfortunate war destroyed me... All... my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot."

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War of the Fifth Coalition Austria broke its alliance with France April 1809, Napoleon assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. French suffered a defeat in May at the Battle of Aspern-Essling near Vienna. Napoleon regrouped forces and defeated the Austrians again at Wagram, and the Treaty of Schnbrunn was signed between Austria and France. Napoleon annexed the Papal States because of the Church's refusal to support the Continental System; Pope Pius VII responded by excommunicating the emperor. The pope was then abducted and pressurized by Napoleon for an agreement to a new concordat with France, which Pius refused. In 1810 Napoleon married the Austrian Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, thirteen cardinals were imprisoned for non-attendance at the marriage ceremony. The pope remained confined for 5 years and did not return to Rome until May 1814.

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Russian Expedition The Congress of Erfurt sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance,

and the leaders had a friendly personal relationship after their first meeting at Tilsit in 1807. In 1811, tensions increased and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the alliance. Russian's abandonment of the Continental System led Napoleon to threaten Alexander with serious consequences if he formed an alliance with Britain. By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. Napoleon expanded his Grand Army to more than 450,000 men. He ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 23 June 1812 the invasion commenced.

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Russian Expedition For Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon termed the war the

Second Polish Warthe First Polish War had been the Bar Confederation uprising by Polish nobles against Russia in 1768. Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of Poland to be joined with the Duchy of Warsaw and an independent Poland created. The Russians avoided a decisive war and instead retreated deeper into Russia. The Russians were defeated in a series of battles, and Napoleon resumed his advance. The Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food. The Russians offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time. Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted.

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Russian Expedition Napoleon's own account was: "The most terrible of all my battles

was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible." The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. But on orders of the city's governor Moscow was burned. After a month, Napoleon and his army left for France. The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat, including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Army had begun as over 400,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River in November 1812. The Russians had lost 150,000 in battle and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

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War of the Sixth Coalition
Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden,

Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813. Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total. Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as many Allied troops. The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide; Paris was captured by the Coalition in March 1814.

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War of the Sixth Coalition Mutiny by the Marshal on 4 April, led by Ney, Napoleon asserted the army would follow him, and Ney replied the army would follow its generals. Napoleon abdicate. He did so in favor of his son; The Allies refused to accept this, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate unconditionally on 11 April. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain his title of emperor. Napoleon survived to be exiled while his wife and son took refuge in Austria. In the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army, developed the iron mines, and issued decrees on modern agricultural methods.

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Hundred Days Napoleon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815. The 5th Regiment was sent to intercept him. On 7th March

1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within gunshot range, shouted, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish." The soldiers responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris; Louis XVIII fled. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw and four days later Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to each put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.

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Exile on Saint Helena

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 2,000 km from any major landmass. Napoleon moved to Longwood House in December 1815. Death In February 1821, his health began to fail rapidly, and on 5 May he died. Napoleon's physician, led the autopsy which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer . In 1840, Louis Philippe I obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon's remains to France, on 15 December, a state funeral was held. In 1861, Napoleon's remains were entombed under the dome at Les Invalides.

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An Estimate
France enjoyed a high level of peace and order under Napoleon

that helped to raise the standard of comfort, trade prospered and wages ran high. However, the republicans, and above all the military, continued to view Napoleon as little more than a tyrant. They criticized the regime's bullying police, the prostration before authority, the sympathy lavished on royalists, the recall of the immigrants, the contempt for the Assemblies, the platitudes of the servile Senate, and the silence of the press. In strengthening the machinery of state, Napoleon restored indirect taxes, an act seen as a betrayal of the Revolution. Napoleon was largely able to quell dissent within government by expelling his more vocal critics.

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An Estimate The expedition to San Domingo reduced the republican army to a nullity. Constant war helped demoralize and scatter the military's leaders, who were jealous of their "comrade" Bonaparte. The last major challenge to Napoleon's authority came from Moreau, who was compromised in a royalist plot; he too was sent into exile. In contradistinction to the opposition of senators and republican generals, the majority of the French populace remained uncritical of Bonaparte's authority. No suggestion of the possibility of his death was tolerated.