Let's Kill Napoleon

Let’s Kill Napoleon: The Napoleonic Era
1799-1815 – considering all the trouble he caused, it’s remarkable that he was only in power for 16 years
I. Background – he was born in Corsica to a family of Italian descent 
a. He was a military genius, very few historians dispute that, he rose in the military ranks during the French Revolution, he was 20 during the actual revolution 
i. He is able to rise through the ranks very easily because all the officers and nobility fled during the revolution and consequently there were a lot of vacancies 
b. He was able to take power because people wanted stability after the tyranny of the revolution (Like Vladimir Putin) 
c. Two Stages of Napoleon coming to power
II. First: Consulate Period (December 25th, 1799-1804)
a. A new constitution named him “First Consul” (Consul comes from Ancient Rome, a leader who rules of behalf of the people) 
i. He, in essence, did what a lot of rulers who have tried to rule through charisma do: tried to make his first loyalty to the state, by being efficient. He rewarded ability and created and effective bureaucracy. Making things run when things haven’t been running, except blood from necks, can make you very popular.
ii. He believed in Meritocracy: he wanted people to be able to rise through the ranks based on ability as he had done
b. He used Reforms
i. The Napoleonic Code – people long for an earlier, easier time, they become more conservative.
1. His code helps solidify things, but women had more rights during the Revolution.
2. This is the first, complete codification of French Law. It had four parts
a. Civil Code
b. Criminal Procedure Code
c. Commercial Code
d. Penal Code 
3. Emphasizes a strong, unified, central government and the protection of property, all conservative Values. Some of these were good. For example:
a. Equality before the law, freedom of religion (however, the state must be secular, i.e. separation of church and state), property rights, abolition of serfdom.
b. Women gained some inheritance rights, but most of these rights were less than they had during the revolution
i. Women and children were legally dependent on the father
ii. Divorce is harder to obtain  
iii. Women can buy and start a business, but only with permission from their husband and any money they earned went to their husbands
iv. Penalties for adultery were more severe for women than for men 
ii. “Careers Open to Talent” 
1. Theoretically, anyone could rise to any position; Napoleon used this to promote talented officials. 
a. The Bourgeoisie used this to its full advantage  
2. He will hand out between 1808-1814 he will create over 3600 new nobility titles for people
a. People were granted pensions or property, but mostly they went to military officers, he was very much into rewarding his soldiers
b. Even with all the titles, the nobility was still only 7% of what iut was before the revolution 
c. Religious Reforms  
i. Concordat of 1800 - church agrees not to ask for all their property back, the government can still appoint bishops. However, they changed the priests: now the Jurying clergy is in: Out with the New, in with the Old
1. Catholic worship in public is allowed, civil rights are extended to everyone (excluding Muslims it would seem)
2. Went back to the Christian calendar 
ii. Napoleon uses this to his advantage
1. People who have church lands need to pledge loyalty to his government in order to keep it
2. Napoleon places all protestant ministers on government payroll, to make France look not catholic
d. Financial Reforms – he creates the Bank of France 
i. This is a stabilizing force, it was a formed version of the one in the Ancien Regime 
ii. He balances the national budget
iii. The banks can release sound currency 
iv. Takes measures to stimulate the economy: food at low prices, increases employment, lowers taxes on farms to lower food prices,
v. He makes tax collection more efficient 
vi. However, one group is unimportant and is excluded: Sans Culottes, the poor people. He forbids the formation of Trade Unions 
e. Educational Reforms – the Lycee systems prospers under Napoleon, have to go to the special university 
i. Two tiered system: one for people who spend one or more years of school and those who had to enter the work force  
f. Created a Police State – spy system, after 1810, he started locking up political prisoners after his popularity started to decline. By 1814 he had over 2500 political prisoners 
i. He even executed the Duke of Enghien on no evidence because he was supposedly part of a plot against him (1804)
g. Drawbacks of his reforms
i. No rights for women
ii. Bad luck for the poor
iii. Suppression of liberty
iv. Nepotism – when you put your relatives in positions. 
III. Wars during Consulate Era
a. He maintains power by having France constantly at war.
b. Wars usually short but in different places against different groups, except Britain, with who he was always at war. It wasn’t until the very end that powers such as Austria, Britain, and Prussia banded together to toss his ass out
c. War of the 2nd Coalition – gets his butt kicked in the Battle of the Nile (battle of denial…ha ha ha) (1798-1801)
i. Looses the battle, but wins the war. He escapes from Africa
ii. Austria looses it Italian possessions, France gets them, they also get the western Rhine Territory 
d. Suddenly, there is a period of peace, he is trying gain stature by regaining his control over France 
i. The Treaty of Amiens (1802) – with Britain. Why? Britain wants to expand its trade with the continent because they had lost their American Colonies. France was monopolizing the Continental trade
ii. During this period, he also gives up all claims to North America, but keeps some of the Caribbean. There is a huge uprising in French Haiti, he was having trouble with the colonies, needed money for his wars, so he sold the Louisiana Purchase for 15 Million to America 
IV. Empire Period (second phase) (1804-1814)
a. He was crowned hereditary Emperor, meaning he could pass his crown to his heirs
i. Believed that France needed an empire to remain stable
b. Began in 1805 to create the Grand empire – he will be constantly at war from thins point onwards  
i. Thinks that he is liberating the people he is conquering from their oppressive rule
ii. Will have the largest empire since Rome, so a time
1. He creates the Confederation of the Rhine, troupes go all the way the Hamburg, special wine that traces itself back to Napoleons occupation
2. Because of trouble with Spain he conquers them and puts his brother Joseph on the throne. Part of the long line of relatives to be in power
3. Westphalia King is brother
4. Brother as the king of Holland, who he later removes and just makes it part of France
5. Sister queen of Naples  
6. Step son is the ruler of the rest of Italy (he had run out of siblings)
a. Italy remains disunified but he decides not to so that they can’t rise up and threaten him 
7. Goes on to ally himself with Austria, Prussia, he furthered the unification of Germany … ja ja ja he moved it forwards, in a manner of speaking 
iii. People in the conquered lands weren’t totally against him, at least to begin with. But as his repression continued, they got pissed off:  
1. Conscription into the French army
2. Higher taxes for people on other countries while he makes himself popular in his own country by lowering taxes, he makes up for the difference
3. The Continental System 
iv. War of the 3rd Coalition (1805-1807)- with the money from the Louisiana purchase , begins to plan a war against England
1. England has some allies: Russia, Sweden, Austria 
2. Battle of Trafalgar (October 1805)- another triumph of Horatio Nelson over Napoleon, both the Spanish and the French fleet were destroyed by Nelson at Trafalgar, just off the coast of Spain
a. At this point, Britain is the World’s Navel power for the best part of a century; they will not be rivaled until about WWI when the USA kick it up.
b. This was Nelson’s last battle, he died, and Napoleon is much better on land
v. Battle of Austerlitz (December 1805) – Napoleon wins because the Russian chicken out and Napoleon get’s huge chunks of Austria. The Coalition had collapsed 
1. In honor of this momentous victory, he commissioned the Arc de Triumph (*** Neoclassicism***)
2. Napoleon goes on to bust Russia twice in 1806 in Jena and Auerstadt 
3. He’s collecting parts of Europe 
vi. 1807- Russia capitulates 
1. Massive treaty signed in 1807: The Treaty of Tilsit – he get half of Prussia’s population (that much land)
2. Russia signs on to accept what France has taken in Europe and agrees to accept the continental system 
3. Some historians says this is the height of Napoleons Success 
4. Napoleon can only keep it going as long as he keeps conquering
vii. France Reorganizes Germany (1807)
1. Confederation of the Rhine (300 states into 15) Prussia Is not one of these states 
2. Abolishes once and for all the Holy Roman Empire – it was pretty much dead anyway for all practicalities
3. HE creates Westphalia (the west bank of the Elbe on into territories taken from Hannover)
viii. Two things happen  
1. By consolidating the states, he starts a process that Bismarck will finish 
2. Oppresses the Germans, creating/raising German Nationalism in areas that weren’t technically Prussian 
c. Continental System - Economic warfare
i. Attempt to weaken Napoleon’s enemies economically, starting with Britain 
1. Berlin decree (1806) – wants to starve Britain out, so he blocks all the continental ports that trade with England (he uses everyone who signed the Treaty of Tilsit and coerced or forced everyone else to do it too)
ii. Britain responds with the Orders in Council (1806) they say that anybody who is neutral (inc. US) anybody who wants to enter a port in Europe has to stop in Britain first, but Napoleon has said that anyone who stops in UK first, will be subject to seizure 
1. Napoleon responds by making it official that ships can’t do this. He specifically says that any ship that stops in UK will be seized by France (Milan Decree 1807)
iii. The lack of trains/railroads doomed the continental system because they couldn’t really trade with each other. The infrastructure isn’t there
1. The most hit and pissed off were the Eastern Europeans because they were the most dependant on trade
d. This whole mess leads to the War of 1812 (between the USA and UK)- four days later the UK rescinds the Orders in Council 
e. Peninsular War (1808-1814) – begins in part because napoleon put his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. They resent his heavy handedness and the fact that there is a non-Spaniard on the throne. The British help them 
i. They step up their guerrilla warfare 
ii. Napoleon is also suffering because the UK is blockading French ports.
1. He blames Czar Alexander I of Russian for the problems in Spain…right…
f. In the middle of all of this, he changes women. Josephine can’t give him an heir. He divorces her and marries the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, Marie Louise, but he is actually the niece of Marie Antoinette. Napoleon is now related by marriage to the Bourbon Dynasty. He has a son with Marie Louise, who is 18. 
g. Still fighting the guerrilla warfare, he enters the stupidest war ever  
i. Army of 600,000, invade Russia (1812) – the official cause for attacking is that they withdraw from the continental system, they had to trade with UK because they couldn’t survive … uhuh. Obviously e war trying to gain other things, such as land. IT screws him because he keeps going further into Russia and his resource lines are too long
1. Battle of Borodino (1812) – it ends in a draw and then they retreat so that his army has NOTHING to live on. It screws him because he keeps going into winter. He actually gets Moscow, but the Russian’s burn it before they gave it to him  
2. 400,000 of his 600,000 army will die not only from battle but also from exposure and starvation, only 30,000 made it home.
3. He takes what he has left and raises another army 
h. Britain decides that it’s important enough to get involved and they split their troupes with America and start the War of the 4th Coalition (1813-1814)
i. Napoleon will be defeated in 1813, but everything doesn’t play out to is abdication until 1814 
ii. Members: UK, Austria, Russia, Prussia 
iii. Decisive defeat for Napoleon in Leipzig (Battle of Nations) – napoleon’s 2nd grand army is crushed, but he refuses to accept the proposals that rise out of this battle
1. The Frankfurt Proposal (Metternich made these proposals, which were actually pretty damn generous)
a. He had to return France to its original boarders and Napoleon could keep his title…but he refused 
b. When he doesn’t take it, the triple alliance each donate 150,000 men to destroy Napoleon, at which point he sees the writing on the wall and he does abdicate, but only when the army of 600,000 enters Paris 
iv. The Charter of 1814 – changes the government of France – it gets a King back, Louis XVIII (Bourbon)  
1. He creates a two house legislature which only contains the upper class, but he keeps most of Napoleon’s reforms.
2. Now that there is a king in place, they get him to sign the Treaty of Paris (1814) stating that France surrenders all territory gained since the Revolution. The allied powers agree to ask for no reparations 
3. Napoleon was exiled to the Isle of Elba, as an ex-sovereign, with payroll provided
v. The Powers meet in the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) – they meet for so long because they have to create all the boarders on Europe. They have to redraw Europe. Sometimes also called the dancing congress because they had so many balls and feasts etc. that was where deals were made 
1. Metternich represent Austria – royalist conservative, wants to turn back the clock
2. Britain - Castlereagh – has a royal dominated country, so is worried about a secular France, wants a balance of power to stop it happening again
3. Prussia- wanted their land back 
4. Czar Alexander I - Russia – wanted a free and independent Poland that he would be the King of
5. Talleyrand – France  
vi. The government that was created
1. Based on Legitimacy, Compensation, Balance of Power
a. Legitimacy: replaced the king to the throne (the Bourbon, also put on the thrones of Spain and Naples), the pope gets the Papal States. 
b. Compensation: They did take some compensation for themselves for getting rid of Napoleon, they took land (England got Naval bases [Malta, Ceylon, Cape of Good Hope], Austria gets the Italian province of Lombardi and Venice and a couple of little pieces of Poland too, Russia gets most of Poland as well as Finland, Prussia takes the Rhineland, Poland, and most of Saxony, Sweden gets Norway)  
c. Balance of Power: they drew Europe so that never again could one state upset the international order and cause a widespread war. How? Strengthen the Netherlands [unite the Austrian Netherlands with the free Netherlands to create the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Switzerland is now Neutral, not an ally; there was a formal end to the Holy Roman Empire; they kept Napoleon’s reorganization of the German states 
vii. When the dust settles, the only one of the allies to be a growing world power is Britain. They got naval bases and Navy was the power. They will be THE world power naval-y until WWI
i. 100 Days: Napoleon’s Last Hurrah (1815)
i. Napoleon escapes Elba and goes to the South of France where he is very popular, he actually raises an army, goes into Paris, increases his army, defeats Prussia, but he himself is then defeated by Wellington at Waterloo 
1. After that he is exiled to St. Helena (Africa), he will be there until his death in 1821
j. The Allies are pissed off and France have to pay 70 million in reparations for “loss of life”
V. Final Evaluation of Napoleon 
a. His dictatorship wasn’t completely had: he consolidated some of the reforms that had been started in the revolution, centralized the government and gave it an efficient bureaucracy, settled things with the church, helped spread some of the achievements throughout Europe  
b. Problems: DICTATORSHIP, loss of liberty and personal freedom, loss of republicanism, repression of conquered peoples, and wars… 
c. This sets the stage for the Concert of Europe 
VI. Concert of Europe 
a. There isn’t one power in Europe, but the allies that helped out down Napoleon (Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) will keep the peace
i. The whole idea is that they would fight against any changes in the status quo
ii. They create the Congress System (life a pre-pre EU) lasts from 1815-1822 until Britain gives them the Finger and leaves 
iii. It has been criticized for not being democratic and turning back the clock, but it did give them stability and security for a number of years until Bismarck upsets it in the late 19th Century and there won’t be another major war until WWI 
b. Czar Alexander I proposed the Holy Alliance to uphold Christian principles to maintain peace
i. Three entities didn’t sign it: Britain, Papal States, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire