THE NAPOLEONIC ERA

NAPOLEON - BEGINNINGS

• A. FAMILY: Napoleon was born on Aug. 1769, to Carlo and Letizia Buonaparte at Ajaccio, in Corsica.

NAPOLEON - BEGINNINGS

• B. EDUCATION: Napoleon attended a French military school at Brienne (1779-84) near Troyes, France. Ostracized as a foreigner, he devoted himself entirely to his studies and graduated 42nd in his class of 58.

NAPOLEON - BEGINNINGS• C. MILITARY TRAINING: He

spent a year at the Military Academy in Paris before he was commissioned (1785) a second lieutenant in artillery. Assigned to the Valence garrison, he spent more than half of the next seven years on furlough in Corsica, often without authorization. He came into conflict with the Corsican nationalist Pasquale Paolo and his family was forced to flee to Marseille in France.

ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION

• A. SIEGE OF TOULON: In September, 1793 he assumed command of an artillery brigade at the siege of Toulon, where royalist leaders had welcomed a British fleet and enemy troops. The ___British___ were driven out (Dec. 17, 1793), and Bonaparte was rewarded with promotion to general of brigade and assigned to the French army in Paris in February, 1794.

ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION• B. OOPS: After the overthrow of the

revolutionary leader Maximilien _Robespierre___ in July 1794, Bonaparte was briefly imprisoned because he was identified with Robespierre's faction. Released in September, he was assigned to fight a rebellion in the Vendee. He refused to go, however, working instead in the topographic section of the army, and eventually his name was stricken (Sept. 15, 1795) from the list of general officers.

ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION• C. SAVIOR OF THE NATIONAL

CONVENTION:

• On October 5, 1795 (13 Vendemiaire under the Revolutionary _calendar_ ), a revolt broke out in Paris, protesting the means of implementing the new constitution introduced by the National Convention. Paul Barras, who had been given full military powers, ordered __Napoleon and his militia_ to defend the convention, and aided by Joachim Murat's cannons, he routed the insurrectionists within four months. Bonaparte was rewarded by the___Directory___ with an appointment (Mar.,l796) to command the Army of the Interior.

ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION

• D. WEDDING BELLS: Before taking up that post he married (March 9, 1796) _Josephine___de Beauharnais, the 33-year-old widow of a republican general and erstwhile lover of a series of men, including Barras.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

• A. 1796: Late in March, 1796, Bonaparte began a series of operations to divide and defeat the_Austrian__ and Sardinian armies in Italy. He defeated the Sardinians at Mondovi (April 21), forcing them to conclude a separate peace by which Savoy and Nice were ceded to France.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN• B. 1796-97: Then, in a series of brilliant

maneuvers and battles, he won Lombardy from the Austrians. Mantua, the last Lombard stronghold, fell in February, 1797 after a prolonged siege; Bonaparte had defeated four attempts to relieve the siege. As he crossed the__Alps__ to advance on__Austrian controlled Venice__ , the Austrians sued for an armistice- which was concluded at Leoben on April 18, 1797. Bonaparte then personally negotiated the Treaty of Campo Formio (Oct. 17, 1797), ending the war of the First Coalition

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

• C. POLITICAL REORGANIZATION ET AL: Bonaparte reorganized northern __Italy___to create (1797) the Cisalpine Republic, making Milan the capital, and negotiated treaties with various Italian rulers. He earned the title ''liberator of Northern Italy". He also purloined invaluable Italian works of art and vast quantities of money, which were sent to ___Paris__ to enhance French museums and to bolster French finances.

EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN• A. THE BACKDOOR TO ENGLAND: When Napoleon

returned to Paris, the Directory proposed that Bonaparte invade___Ottoman Empire____ . Instead he urged the occupation of_Malta___ in order to threaten British India. On May 19, 1798, he sailed with an army of more than 35,000 troops on 350 vessels for Alexandria, Egypt. After seizing Malta en route, he reached Egypt on July 1, after evading the fleet of the British admiral __Horatio Nelson___

EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN• There he occupied Alexandria

and Cairo, guaranteed Islamic law, and began to reorganize the government. On August 1, however, Nelson attacked and annihilated the French Thus cut off from France, Bonaparte continued his administrative reorganization and helped create the Institute of Egypt, a scholarly institution that began the methodical study of ancient Egypt.

EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN

• B. WAR AGAINST THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: In February 1799, Bonaparte learned of the Ottoman Empire's declaration of war against__France___ . To forestall a Turkish attack on Egypt he invaded Syria but was halted at Acre by Turkish troops under British command. Suffering from the plague, the French army returned to Cairo in June. In the meantime French forces in Europe were being defeated by the armies of the Second Coalition (formed in 1799 by Britain, Austria, Russia) and Bonaparte resolved to return to France. He sailed on August 24, 1799

OVERTHROW THE DIRECTORY

• The Directory had lost the confidence of the people by 1799 because of the corruption associated with it.

OVERTHROW THE DIRECTORY• A. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE

CONSULATE:

• On Bonaparte's arrival in Paris on October 14, he joined Emmanuel Sieyes in a conspiracy to overthrow the Directory. On November 9 (18 bromide), Bonaparte was appointed commander of the Paris garrison; Bonaparte executed a __coup__ (sudden seizure of power; ''stroke of state") when he ordered 500 of his troops to occupy one chamber of the national legislature and drive out its elected members; the second chamber voted to end the Directory. The following day Bonaparte accepted appointment as one of three_consuls__ , with Sieyes and Pierre Roger Ducos.

OVERTHROW THE DIRECTORY

• B. FIRST CONSUL: Despite Sieyes's plans to dominate the Consulate, Bonaparte gained the position of _First Consul___ . He appointed the members of the council of state, government officials, and judges of the courts. The Consulate guaranteed law and order and maintained the political and social accomplishments of the revolution. Behind a democratic facade, however, Bonaparte concentrated power in his own hands. In 1800 the consuls asked the people to approve a new constitution by __plebliscite__ (election in which all citizens vote yes or no on an issue). The people approved the constitution which gave all real power to the First Consul. Napoleon considered himself a ''Man of Destiny'' whose duty was to___conquer__ all of Europe.

THE CONSULATE

• A. ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE CONSULATE

• 1. Centralization of local government as Bonaparte appointed the prefects and mayors and their councils.

• 2. Pacification of rebellious regions of France; reconciliation of the royalists.

• 3. Napoleonic Code: drafted 1801-1804; abolished __3 estates_ and granted equal rights before the law to all classes; Napoleon had power of censorship; code took away some rights of_women___, such as the right to hold property; restored _slavery__ to the French colonies in the Caribbean; Napoleon was above the law.

THE CONSULATE• 4. Concordat (1801) with Pope Pius VII which

re-established Roman Catholicism in France. The government would appoint___bishops__ , bishops would appoint parish__priests_ ; all free to worship as they wished; pope recognized that Church property would not be returned; gave Catholics a favored position in France but not absolute dominance.

• 5. Creation of the order of the Legion of Honor (1802) to reward civil and military merit.

• 6. Consolidation of the national debt; restoration of the value of French bonds; balancing the budget; establishment of the Bank of France; centralization of equitable collection

THE CONSULATE

• 7. Creation of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry; undertook vast public works projects.

• 8. Creation of the Universite de France, in effect a state licensing body for teachers bringing the entire system of higher education under centralized state control.

• 9. Enlargement of the Louvre; establishment of the Archives rationales; construction of neoclassical buildings around Paris.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

• Restoration of French supremacy abroad. In June 1800, Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at Marengo, Italy. Peace with Austria was concluded in the Treaty of Luneville (Feb. 9, 1801), and a year later the Treaty of Amiens (Mar. 27, 1802) ended war with Britain (first peace in Europe in ten years). In acknowledgment of his achievements Bonaparte was recognized by plebiscite as consul for ___life__ on Aug. 2, 1802.

EXTENSION OF FRENCH DOMINATION

• Napoleon created the ''Greatest empire since Roman times"; controlled all of Europe except Britain, Sweden, Russia, Ottoman Empire; 1807-1812. Territory under his control included

• 1) lands annexed to France: Holland (the Batavian Republic), Switzerland (the Helvetic Republican and Savoy-piedmont

EXTENSION OF FRENCH DOMINATION

• 2) ''puppet states'' (nominally independent but under Napoleon's control): Spain. Grand Duchy of Warsaw, German-speaking kingdoms in the old HRE

• 3)treaties of alliance - Russia Prussia, Austria He attempted to extend the French colonial empire, principally by recovering __American Colonies_ . As a result of these policies and his refusal to grant trade concessions to ___England__, war was renewed in 1803.

WAR ONCE MORE• D. WAR ONCE MORE: Bonaparte

organized an army of 170,000 to invade _Britain___but his complex strategy to draw the British fleets away from Britain failed. Meanwhile, Austria also prepared to resume war, forcing Bonaparte to abandon his invasion plans. Any hope of a future invasion was ended when the British admiral Nelson destroyed most of the Franco-Spanish fleet in the__Battle of Trafalgar___ on Oct. 21, 1805 off the southern coast of Spain. __Nelson__died in the battle.