Napoleon Forges an Empire

KEY IDEA A military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte, seized power in France and made himself emperor.

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte was

born in Corsica in 1769. He was twenty years old when the revolution began.

His parents sent him to military school in northern France. At age 16 he became a lieutenant in the military.

When the revolution broke out, he joined the army of the new government

The Charismatic Leader

Napoleon Bonaparte was a very charismatic person that attracted the admiration of his men. He was a very eloquent speaker.

His speeches inspired his men to great victories.

The Charismatic Leader

He was very generous to his troops. He often rewarded them with medals of honor and valor for their action on the battlefield.

He often took medals off of his won chest and presented it to a soldier. He kept extra medals in his pockets for such occasions.

Napoleon- Savior of the Republic

In October of 1795, royalist rebels began to threaten the National Convention. Napoleon and his soldiers chased off the attackers

For this, he was hailed as the savior of the French republic.

In 1796, the Directory appointed Napoleon to lead the French army against the forces of Austria and Sardinia.

Hero of the Hour Napoleon and his

army swept across Europe, easily defeating the Austrian troops.

He then turned his attention to Egypt. His goal was to disrupt Great Britain’s trade with India. He suffered a series of defeats in Egypt. His naval forces were defeated by the British navy.

Hero in Egypt?

Despite his defeats, he sent reports to the Directory boasting of the stunning victories against the British troops.

Coup d’Etat By 1799, the unsettled French

government had lost the people’s support.

The Directory had begun to lose control of the political situation and the confidence of the French people.

Abbé Sieyès urged Napoleon to seize control of the government.

Napoleon Takes Control

Napoleon and his wife Josephine used their social position to set the plan in motion.

They convinced the Directory to put Napoleon in charge of the entire military.

            

           

Josephine

The day after he was given complete command of the French military, his troops drove out the members of the chamber of the national legislature.

Under coercion of Napoleon and his soldiers, the national legislature voted to dissolve the Directory.

In its place, the legislature established a group of three consuls, one of whom was Napoleon.

He then enjoyed complete power over the country.

Under this new government, Napoleon quickly assumed the role of dictator as the “first consul” of the French Republic.

Great Britain, Austria and Russia feared Napoleon’s new power. They formed an Anti-French, Second Coalition against him.

In 1802, after several French victories, the coalition agreed to peace.

Napoleon Restores Order

Once the peace treaties were signed, and the outside threats were diminished, Napoleon was free to focus on restoring internal peace in France.

Napoleon acted as if he was a democratically chosen leader. In 1800 in a plebiscite vote of the people, he was given the power to approve a new constitution. This election put the power of France firmly in the hands of the first consul-Napoleon.

First Consul

Napoleon acted as if he was a democratically chosen leader. In 1800 in a plebiscite vote of the people, he was given the power to approve a new constitution. This election put the power of France firmly in the hands of the First Consul-Napoleon.

Napoleon’s Reforms

He made several changes that were meant to build on the Revolution’s good ideas. He supported laws that strengthened the central government at the same time supporting some of the goals of the revolution.

Napoleon’s Reforms His first concern was to

strengthen and stabilize the economy: He made tax collection more fair and orderly. As a result, the government could count on a steady supply of money.

His second goal was to reduce government corruption: He removed dishonest government workers.

His third goal was to improve the education of French children: He started new public schools (lycees) for ordinary citizens.

His fourth goal was to restore the position of the church: He gave the church back some of its power. He sighed a new Concordat with Pope Pius VII promising a new relationship between the church and the government of France.

The Napoleonic Code

He wrote a new set of laws that gave all French citizens the same rights.

Although this set of laws gave the country a uniform set of laws, the new laws took away many individual rights won during the Revolution --For example, they limited free speech and restored slavery in French colonies.

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

In 1804, Napoleon declares himself emperor and surprisingly, the French people support him.

On December 2, 1804, dressed in a robe reminiscent of ancient Roman emperors, Napoleon is crowned emperor by the Pope.

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

In a gesture designed to signal his importance over the pope’s, he takes the crown from the pope and places it on his own head.

                                                  

Expansion of the French Empire

Napoleon had hoped to make his empire larger in both Europe and the New World.

In 1801, he had sent soldiers to retake the island of present-day Haiti. During a civil war, slaves on the island had seized power. But Napoleon had to give up on his plan. Too many of his soldiers died in battle or from yellow fever.

As a result of the peace treaty signed with Great Britain in 1802, France regained some of it New World territory.

He needed to raise money to pay for his military campaigns so in 1803, he offers to sell the largest part of France’s North American land—the huge Louisiana Territory—to the United States for 15 million dollars.

Napoleon saw another benefit to sale of this land. He saw it as a way to inflict a punishing blow to Britain’s colonial aspirations in the New World- to keep his old enemy down.

Signing of the Louisiana Purchase

Napoleon Conquers Europe

In 1804, he began to quickly captured country after country. He annexed the lands in the Austrian Netherlands, parts of Italy and set up a puppet government in Switzerland.

The European nations joined against him. Once again, Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Sweden joined in a coalition to defeat Napoleon.- The Third Coalition is formed.

The Coalition Seeks Peace In a series of battles, Napoleon crushed the

coalition forces. After Napoleon won a major battle in Austria in

1805 (the Battle of Austerlitz), almost all of his European enemies agreed to a peace treaty.

Great Britain Remains Defiant

Only Great Britain refused to sign the peace treaty. Britain believed that its navy was strong enough to defeat Napoleon’s forces.

At the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon lost a very important sea battle off of the coast of Spain.

He was out maneuvered by the same British naval commander who had defeated him in the Egypt campaign- Commander Horatio Nelson.

The French Navy is Defeated

Although this was Napoleon’s only loss, it prevented him from ever invading and conquering Britain.

The destruction of the French fleet assured the supremacy of the British navy for the next hundred years.

His obsession with defeating Great Britain eventually led to his demise.

The Battle of Trafalgar

By 1812, only Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Sweden were free from Napoleon’s control.

He established puppet governments in many countries. His own brother was made King of Spain. This appointment had global ramifications and led to the revolutions in South America and Mexico.

Other countries such a Russia, Prussia and Austria were loosely attached to Napoleon’s empire through alliances and easily manipulated by threats of military action. By 1811, Napoleon had built the largest empire in Europe since the Roman Empire