Napoleon Bonaparte
A “little” lecture
Remember, there was the
Directory in charge at the end of
the French Revolution
!   5 men with almost all the power
!   • not working very well
!   • poor hungry people, people wanting more
rights, etc.
Who is this Napoleon guy
anyway?
!   He was from Corsica
(Italian island controlled
by France)
!   He had risen in the army
during the revolution
(had actually put down
an uprising against the
Directory)
!   Had spent the last 4
years running military
campaigns against
foreign enemies
Napoleon’s coup d’etat
!   coup d’etat: quick seizure of power, often
backed with a military force
!   People in the French government realized the
Directory was going to fall, they didn’t want
more “revolution,” they invite Napoleon in to
take over.
!   1799
Napoleon’s coup d’etat
!   In 1799, Napoleon quickly consolidates power
under himself
! 
His title becomes First Consul of France
!   The new constitution that he wrote called for
three Consuls, but the other two become
unimportant very quickly.
!   There’s still a war
going on until 1801
!   Then the Austrians,
Russians, Prussians,
English, and Italians
give up and the foreign
war is over!
Liberal things Napoleon did:
!   improved education
!   created lycees: secondary schools that even poor
people could attend if they got scholarships
!   created Bank of France
!   collected taxes from each citizen, government
could then make loans to businesses
!   Affirmed religious toleration for all French people
!   Concordat of 1801: acknowledged that Catholicism
was the majority religion, but not the only religion
The Napoleonic Code
!   Also called the Civil Code
!   got rid of the old contradictory laws and made
French law more clear and consistent
!   embodied some liberal, Enlightenment ideals
!   had some reactionary ideas as well
Reactionary things Napoleon
did
!   got rid of elected officials and replaced them
with appointees
!   limited freedom of speech and press
!   • gave back power to male heads of household
over their wives and children
!   People really like Napoleon, and he has a lot of
popular support.
!   1802 he has a vote called a plebiscite
!   popular yes/no vote
!   becomes Consul for Life
That’s all well and
good, but who wants
to be First Consul
and write new laws,
end foreign wars,
and bring peace to
France when you
could be an
EMPEROR?
Napoleon crowns himself
Emperor of France in 1804
!   foreign governments (Austria, Prussia, Russia)
don’t like this and declare war on France.
!   Great Britain had already declared war in
1803
!   time for war again!
Napoleon is a military genius.
He defeats the Austrians at the
Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.
!   • He loses to the British at the Battle of
Trafalgar in 1805. He then gives up on taking
over Great Britain militarily (more on this in a
moment).
!   • Decides to spread into Spain and Russia as
well.
The Continental System
Napoleon’s plan for Great
Britain
!   Realizes that he can’t defeat their navy
!   Tries to starve them out
!   forbids any area under France’s control to trade
with Great Britain
The height of the Napoleonic
Empire
Fixing the Russian problem
!   Tsar Alexander I of Russia realizes that he can’t
defeat Napoleon.
!   • 1807, they agree to a peace treaty.
!   War’s over!
Napoleon, the family man
!   Napoleon had been married
to a woman named
Josephine.
!   She couldn’t have children.
!   Napoleon divorces her and
instead marries an Austrian
princess.
!   They have a son.
!   Napoleon starts to get bored.
!   After all, it’s a time of relative peace and
prosperity, and he’s just hanging out at home
with the fam’
!   What do you do when you’re bored? Invade
Russia, of course!
!   Decides to invade Russia in Spring of 1812
!   The French hoof it over there, but it’s a long
haul.
!   By the time they reach Russia, it’s winter.
!   The French soldiers are underdressed and don’t
have enough food.
!   The Russians are engaging in the scorched-earth
policy.
!   By the time the soldiers reach Moscow, the
city is burning and inhabitants have fled
The Burning of Moscow
Never Invade Russia in the
Winter.
!   Napoleon returns to Paris, having lost 600,000
soldiers and having gained nothing.
!   But his loss emboldens those countries he has
conquered, and again, Prussia, and Austria
declare war on France.
!   In 1814, Napoleon surrenders and abdicates the
throne.
• Louis XVIII, a
Bourbon king, is
placed in power
in France.
• Good thing
they had that
revolution, huh?
!   Napoleon was sent into exile in Elba
!   He gets bored again
!   Decides to come back and give being Emperor
of France one more shot.
100 Days Campaign
!   Rallies the soldiers,
supported by the
French people
!   One last stand against
his European enemies
Napoleon lost to the Prussians
and Austrians at the Battle of
Waterloo
So long, Napoleon
!   They’re not
taking any
chances this
time
!   They exile him
to St. Helena in
1815
Napoleon died on St. Helena in
1821