The Age of Napoleon

Chapter 18.4

The last phase of the revolution is known as the Age of Napoleon it lasted from 1799 to 1815.

NapoléonBonaparte: started as commander in the French army (1796), he urged to assumed power by Abbé Sieyès, as dictator of France after a coup d’état on November 9, 1799. He ruled as the first Consul (1799-1804) He would crown himself emperor on December 2, 1804. He will control most of Europe until 1814. He will divorce his wife Josephine, in 1810, and marry the 18-year-old daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperorand great niece of Marie Antoinette, Marie Louise. She will give birth in 1811 of his much wanted legitimate heir.

The group originally set up a three-man governing board known as the Consulateand due up a new constitution.

Napoleon will write a new constitution and will have it ratified by plebiscite: election by the people.

But he will be in complete control, this is also know as an absolute despot

Napoleon made the central government stronger, keeping many of the changes of the revolution All classes supported this

  1. Economic order – balanced budget, equal and efficient tax collection system, as well as a national bank.
  2. Social order- welcomed émigrés returning to France and promoted officials by merit, and not by noble birth
  3. Education order - Lycées or government run public schools, any male could have the opportunity to attend
  4. Religious order – religious freedom, He signed Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII spelling out the new relationship between the Catholic Church and the state.
  5. Legal order –Napoleonic Code – This new code of laws embodied Enlightenment principles of equality, religious tolerance, and the end of feudalism
  6. abolished old estates and the Old Regime (Feudalism and manorial dues)
  7. limited liberty, women lost most of their newly gained rights and were not considered citizens
  8. Restored slavery in the French Caribbean Colonies.
  9. Applied to everyone except Napoleon.

In 1803, Napoleon will sell the Louisiana Purchase to the U.S. after a failed attempt to put down a slave revolt on the island of Hispaniola in the French colony of St. Dominique lead by Toussaint L’Ouverture

Napoleon abolished or annexed, or added to his empire, he maintain control through forceful diplomacy by placing family and friends on the thrones of most European nations except Russian and Britain

From 1804 to 1812, Napoleon fought to create a vast French empire. Before each battle, he drafted a completely new plan. It was because of this opposing generals could never anticipate what he would do next. He rarely lost.

Continental System – set up by Napoleon to destroy Britain’s commercial and industrial economy. It closed all European ports to British goods

  1. Britain blockaded all of the European ports as well
  2. Britain and France began seizing neutral ships in the Atlantic Ocean
  3. British attacks on the ships will led to the U.S. “War of 1812”
  4. IT hurt Napoleon’s empire more than his enemies, by raising prices in France

Peninsular War (1807-1814): Portugal’s and Spain’s resistance to the French,

  1. the blockade of the ports
  2. Put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne
  3. the undermining of the Spanish Catholic Church
  4. Napoleon having to send troop, these troops are needed elsewhere.
  5. Guerrillas – Spanish peasant fighters who fought the French in Spain. Will cause Napoleon to loose about 300,000 men.
  6. This will cause a strong Nationalism movement in Spain

This feeling of Nationalism (loyalty to one’s country) will spread to other countries and to colonies in Latin America

Second Coalition: England, Austria and Russia

Third Coalition – Britain, Russia, Austria, Sweden and Prussia

Battle of Trafalgar(10/21/1805) - Attempted to invade England. French fleet was destroyed and Lord Nelson of England was killed in battle.

Napoleon’s victories gave him power over most of Europe, except Great Britain, the OttomanEmpire, Russia and Sweden

Battles with Austria(1805)

  1. Battle of Ulm(10/16-19/1805) – Invaded Austria
  2. Battle of Austerlitz(12/5/1805)- crushing victory for France
  3. Battle of Wagram (7/5-6/1809)-Forced the Austrian Emperor to make peace, it is later the following year that Napoléon marries the daughter of the Austrian Emperor.

Battle of Jena(10/14/1806) -Invaded Prussia

Battle of Friedland(6/14/1807) - Wiped out Russian Army. Russian Tsar Alexander Iagreed to divide Poland with Napoleon.

The French empire was large, containing The Netherlands, parts of Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, a number of German kingdoms, but extremely unstable. Lasted 5 years (1807-1812)

Russia

  1. Russia had signed a treaty with France in 1807, but Tsar Alexander I had strong pressure from the boyars to end the assistance of the Continental system due to the economical problems it was creating in Russia. The Russians began selling grain to England
  2. In June of 1812 Napoleon invades Russian with 600,000 soldiers and 50,000 horses
  3. Scorched-earth policy – Russians burned the grain fields and slaughtered livestock. Leaving not supplies for the French army as they advanced. Soldiers will desert in search of food.
  4. There will be several battles before Napoleon reaches Moscow
  5. The Grande Armée entered Moscow in September 14, but the Russian army had moved north to St. Petersburg and had left the city empty and burning.
  6. By October, with supplies running low Napoleon makes the 1,000 mile trip home to France.

Less than 20,000 will make it back. It is said that General Famine and General Winter did more to conquer the Grande Armée than the Russian soldiers.

Grand Alliance – Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden

Battle of The Nations at Leipzig (10/16-19/1813)– Grand Alliance defeated Napoleon’s army in Saxony Germany.

In April 1814, Napoleon abdicated, gave up his throne after he accepted the terms drawn up by Czar Alexander.

Napoleon is exiled to the island of Elba. His exiled lasted until March 1, 1815 when he escaped and sailed to France to recapture his throne.

Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, (young Louis XVII died in prison in 1795) became King of France. He was not liked due to the fact that the French were afraid that he would return France to the Old Regime. He agrees to some of the changes made during the Revolution, but will try and revert back to a strong monarchy

As the members of the nations started to gather in Vienna, Napoleon with the help of supporters escaped from Elba and landed in France on March 15, 1815

Louis will send troops led by Marshall Ney, who had served under Napoleon, to arrest Napoleon, but as the troops meet Napoleon they will defect and join Napoleon. As they got closer to the city of Paris, Louis will make a run for the Netherlands.

Napoleon will try to regain his “empire” and the allies will quickly put together an army lead by British Duke of Wellington. They will meet in at the small town of Waterloo, Belgium (6/18/1815). This last bid for was known as the Hundred Day.

After Napoleon’s defeat he was exiled to the island of St. Helena, a 1,000 miles from nowhere in the south Atlantic. He will die a questionable death in 1821, on the island.

Congress of Vienna (September 1814-June 1815) – Meetings in Vienna, Austria, of the purpose of restoring order to Europe, after Napoleon’s defeat.

  1. Austria: Emperor Francis I of Austria, Prince Klemens von Metternich- the Foreign Minister of Austria, and by his deputy, Baron Wessenberg. and the KEY leader at the Congress of Vienna ,
  2. Russiaofficial delegation was led by the foreign minister, Count Nesselrode, but Tsar Alexander I for the most part acted on his own behalf
  3. Britain:was represented first by its Foreign Secretary, the Viscount Robert Castlereagh; after February 1815, by the Duke of Wellington; and in the last weeks, after Wellington left to meet Napoleon, by the Earl of Clancarty.
  4. Prussia :Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor, and the diplomat and scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt
  5. France: Prince Charles Maurice de Talleyrand was sent by Louis XVIII

Initially, the representatives of the four victorious powers hoped to exclude the French from serious participation in the negotiations, but Talleyrand managed to skillfully insert himself into their inner councils in the first weeks of the negotiation.

Goals of Metternich at Congress of Vienna:

  1. Make sure that the French would not attack another country again, by placing strong countries around.
  2. In the north they added Belgium and Luxembourg to Holland creating the Kingdom of the Netherland
  3. In the east they gave lands along the Rhine River to Prussia
  4. Austria was allowed to regain control over northern Italy
  5. A group of 39 German states were loosely joined to create the German Confederation, led by Austria
  6. Switzerland was recognized as an independent nation
  7. The Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy was gained Genoa
  8. Prevented France from being divided between the winners, but it strength was diminished.
  9. Balance of Power. - Condition in which no one country becomes a threat to the others
  10. Quadruple Alliance: Austria, Russia, Prussia and Great Britain pledged to maintain and suppress revolutions and uprisings especially in France
  11. Concert of Europe – Created by Metternich Series of Alliance to prevent revolutions.
  12. Holy Alliance (1815) signed between Tsar Alexander I, Francis I of Austria and Fredrick William III of Prussia, in this the group pledged to base their relationships with other nations on Christian principals.
  13. Restore order to prior to 1792Legitimacy- Bring back the kings that Napoleon had driven out and replaced

The results of the Congress

  1. The settlement were fair and left no grudges, unlike most other Treaties
  2. Created a lasting peace, until the Crimean war in 1853, between Britain and Russia
  3. Lead to the idea of Nationalism

The decisions would influenced European politics for the next 100 years, until 1914 and the start of WWI

They failed though to foresee to power of Nationalism and the problems it would cause both in Europe and in Latin America

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