The Age of Napoleon: 1799-1815

1. AP European History Unit 5.2 The Age of Napoleon:1799-1815

2. Theme Napoleon began his reign as an Enlightened Despot who instituted numerous significant reforms in France. Eventually, his lust for power and conquest led him to overextend his empire resulting in his ultimate defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David (1801)

4. I. Napoleon Bonaparte A. Born of Italian descent to a Corsican family on French island of Corsica B. Military genius who specialized in artillery C. Avid “child of the Enlightenment” and the French Revolution D. Associated with the Jacobins and advanced rapidly in the army due to emigration of aristocratic officers E. Eventually inspired a divided nation during the Directory period into a united nation but at the price of individual liberty

5. II. Consulate Period: 1799-1804 (period of enlightened reform)     A. Napoleon took power on December 25, 1799 with the constitution giving him supreme power 1.As First Consul, he behaved more as an absolute ruler than a revolutionary statesman 2. Demanded loyalty to the state, rewarded ability, and created an effective hierarchical bureaucracy 3. Last and most eminent of the Enlightened despots

6. B. Reforms 1. Napoleon Code: first clear and complete codification of French law a. Perhaps longest lasting legacy of Napoleon’s rule • Included a civil code, code of criminal procedure, a commercial code and a penal code • Emphasized protection of private property • Resulted in strong central gov’t and administrative unity

7. c. Many achievements of the revolution were made permanent • Equality before the law • Freedom of religion • State was secular in character • Property rights • Abolition of serfdom • Gave women inheritance rights

8. c. Denied women equal status with men • Women and children were legally dependent on their husband or father • Divorce was harder to obtain than during the Revolution • Women could not buy or sell property or start a business without the husbands’ consent • Income earned by wives went to their husbands • Penalties for adultery far more severe for women than men

9. 2. “Careers open to talent” a. Citizens theoretically were able to rise in gov’t service purely according to their abilities b. However, a new imperial nobility was created to reward the most talented generals and officials. c. Wealth determined status d. Neither military commissions nor civil offices could be bought or sold

10. e. Granted amnesty to about 100,000 émigrés in return for a loyalty oath • Many soon occupied high posts in the expanding state f. Some nobles from foreign countries served the empire with distinction. g. Working-class movement (e.g. sans culottes) was no longer politically significant • Workers were denied the right to form trade unions

11. 3. Religious reforms a. Concordat of 1801 with Roman Catholic church • Napoleon’s motives • Peace with the Church would weaken its link to monarchists who sought the restoration of the Bourbons. • Religion would help people accept economic equalities in French society.

12. Provisions • Papacy renounced claims over church property seized during Revolution • French gov’t had power to nominate or depose bishops • In return, priests who had resisted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy would replace those who had sworn an oath to the state. • Pope gave up claims to Church lands in France

13. Catholic worship in public was allowed • Church seminaries were reopened • Extended legal toleration to Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and atheists who all received the same civil rights • Pope gave up claims to Church lands in France • Replaced the Revolutionary Calendar with the Christian calendar

14. b. To dispel the notion of an established church, Napoleon put Protestant ministers of all denominations on the state payroll

15. 4. Financial unity a. Bank of France served the needs of the state and financial oligarchy b. The gov’t balanced the budget c. Sound currency and public credit d. Economic reforms stimulated the economy: • Low food prices • Low unemployment • Lowered taxes on farmers • Peasants retained lands taken from the church

16. Created an independent peasantry that would become the backbone of French democracy • Tax collections became more efficient • Workers were not allowed to form guilds or trade unions • Retained the Le Chapelier Law of 1791

17. 5. Educational reforms were based on a system of public education under state control a. Rigorous standards were available to the masses b. Secondary and higher education (called lycées)was reorganized to prepare young men for gov’t jobs and professional occupations c. Education important for social standing and advancement d. Napoleon sought to increase the size of the middle class

18. 6. Creation of a police state a. Spy system kept thousands of citizens under continuous surveillance b. After 1810, political suspects were held in state prisons (as they had during the Terror). c. Gov’t ruthlessly put down opposition, especially guerillas in the west in provinces of the Vendee and Brittany. d. Most notorious action was the execution of Duke of Enghien

19. 7. Drawbacks of Napoleon’s reforms a. Severe inequality for women b. Workers not allowed to form trade unions c. Liberty and republicanism were repressed d. Practiced nepotism by placing his family members on the thrones of nations he conquered

20. Napoleonic Wars during the Consulate era A. Wars were short and distinct 1. Only Britain was at war continually with France 2. Four Great Powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) did not fight France simultaneously until 1813. a. Nations allied with France for own foreign policy benefit b. French conquest of Italy alienated foreign powers

21. B. War of the 2nd Coalition, 1798-1801 1. Battle of the Nile (1798): Britain’s Horatio Nelson destroyed Napoleon’s navy 2. Napoleon victorious, nevertheless 3. Treaty of Lunèville, 1801 a. Ended the Second Coalition b. Austria lost Italian possessions c. German territory west of the Rhine incorporated into France d. Russia retreated from western Europe due to British threats in the Mediterranean

22. A British cartoon commenting on the Battle of the Nile "Expiration of the plagues of Egypt; destruction of revolutionary crocodiles or the British hero cleansing ye mouth of ye Nile" 

23. C. Peace Interim (1802) 1. Treaty of Amiens with Britain in 1802 temporarily suspended war between Britain and France 2. Napoleon reorganized the Confederation of Switzerland

24. 3. Napoleon sent large army to subdue a slave rebellion in Haiti a. French forces were decimated by disease and slave rebels b. Napoleon thus sold the Louisiana Territory in North America to the United States in 1803 as the Haitian Rebellion dashed his dream of a North American Empire Haitian slave rebels staged a successful 12-year revolt that ended in 1803.

25. IV. The Empire Period, 1804-1815 A. 1804, Napoleon crowned himself emperor 1. Hoped to preempt plans of royalists to restore Bourbons to the throne 2. Believed an empire was necessary for France to maintain and expand its influence throughout Europe a. Napoleon saw himself as a liberator b. His empire unleashed forces of nationalism that led to his downfall

26. Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine in the Notre-Dame de Paris, December 2, 1804 by Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget, 1805-1807

27. Napoleon on his Imperial Throne by Jacques- Dominique-Auguste Ingres, 1806

28. B. The Grand Empire 1. Beginning in 1805, Napoleon engaged in constant warfare 2. Napoleon achieved the largest empire since Roman times (though only temporary) a. France extended to the Rhine, including Belgium and Holland, the German coast to the western Baltic, and the Italian coast extending down to Rome.

29. b.Dependent satellite kingdoms where Napoleon put his appointees on the throne: • Confederation of the Rhine • Brother, Joseph Bonaparte, became king of Spain in 1808 • Youngest brother, Jerome, became king of Westphalia • Brother, Louis, was king of Holland for 6 years before Napoleon had him removed and incorporated Holland into France

30. Italy • His sister, Caroline, became Queen of Naples • Lombardy, Venice and Papal States ruled by his step-son • Abolished feudalism and reformed the social, political, and economic structures • He opposed a unified Italy since it might one day threaten his influence • Duchy of Warsaw • Illyrian Provinces, included Trieste and Dalmatian coast

32. 3. Independent but allied states included: Austria, Prussia and Russia. 4. All countries of the Grand Empire saw the introduction of some of the main principles of the French Revolution. a. Notable exception: no self-gov’t through elected legislative bodies. b. Initially, Napoleon was supported by commercial and professional classes who supported the Enlightenment.

33. c. Repression and exploitation eventually turned his conquered territories against him. • Conscription into the French army • Higher taxes (while taxes in France were lowered) • Continental System d. Enlightenment reformers believed Napoleon had betrayed the ideals of the Revolution.

34. C. War of the Third Coalition, 1805-07 1. In 1803, Napoleon began preparations to invade Britain 2. In 1805, Britain allied with Austria 3. Coalition was complete when Alexander I of Russia joined 4. Napoleon’s conquest of Italy convinced Russia and Austria that he was a threat to the balance of power.

35. 5. Battle of Trafalgar (Oct 1805) a. French and Spanish fleets were destroyed by British navy under command of Lord Horatio Nelson, off the Spanish coast • Established supremacy of British navy for over a century. b. French invasion of Britain no longer feasible c. Though killed in the battle, Nelson became one of the great military heroes in English history.

36. Horatio Nelson

38. The Death of Nelson, 1805 Cartoon by James Gillray

39. 6. Battle of Austerlitz (Dec. 1805) a. Alexander I pulled Russia out of the battle, giving Napoleon another major victory on land b. Austria suffered large territorial losses c. Third Coalition collapsed d. Napoleon was now the master of western and central Europe e. In commemoration of his victory, Napoleon commissioned the Arc de Triomphe in 1806

40. Though planning began in 1806, the Arc de Triomphe was not fully completed until the mid-1830s. It stands at the western end of the Champs Èlysèes. It is a good example of the Neoclassical style.

41. 7. Prussia was twice defeated by Napoleon in 1806 (Jena and Auerstadt) 8. Russia sought peace after another French victory in the spring of 1807 9. Treaty of Tilsit, June 1807 a. Provisions: • Prussia lost half its population in lands ceded to France. • Russia accepted Napoleon’s reorganization of western and central Europe. • Russia agreed to Napoleon’s Continental System.

42. b. In many ways, the treaty represented the height of Napoleon’s success. • French and Russian empires became allies, mainly against Britain. • Alexander accepted Napoleon’s domination of western Europe • France continued to occupy Berlin and enjoyed increased control in western Germany

43. D. Reorganization of Germany 1. With Prussia and Austria defeated, Napoleon reorganized Germany 2. Consolidated 300 small German states into several large ones. a. Confederation of the Rhine: 15 German states (excluding Austria, Prussia, and Saxony) b. Holy Roman Empire abolished c. Kingdom of Westphalia • Ended serfdom d. Sparked German nationalism

44. E. Continental System 1. Napoleon waged economic warfare against Britain after his loss at Trafalgar. 2. Berlin Decree, 1806: intended to starve Britain by closing ports on the Continent to British commerce • Coerced Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, and Spain to adhere to it at the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807

45. 3. British order-in-council: required all neutral ships to first stop in Britain before entering Continental ports 4. Milan Decree, 1807: any ship entering a British port or subject to a British search at sea would be confiscated if entering the Continent 5. U.S. eventually declared war on Britain for violating its neutral shipping rights

46. 6. The Continental System failed a. Caused widespread opposition to Napoleon’s rule in Europe b. Imports from U.S. enjoyed high demand in Continental Europe c. Continental industries could not equal Britain’s output d. Without railroads, the Continental System was impossible to maintain

47. e. Shippers, shipbuilders, and international merchants were ruined • Eastern Europe was hard hit as it was dependent on industrial imports f. Britain made up its lost trade with Europe by expanding its markets in Latin America

48. F. The Peninsular War, 1808-1814 1. First great revolt against Napoleon’s power occurred in Spain 2. When Napoleon tried to tighten control over Spain by replacing Spain’s king with his brother, Joseph, a bloody guerrilla war ensued

49. Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1814 In this groundbreaking work, Goya commemorates Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s rule.

50. G. 1810, Napoleon married Marie Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the Austrian emperor and niece of Marie Antoinette. • By marriage, Napoleon was now nephew of Louis XVI and he began to show more consideration to French noblemen of the Old Regime