Napoleon’s Empire Collapses

7-4

Napoleon’s 3 Mistakes

1. Continental System2. Peninsular War3. Invasion of Russia

Continental System• Blockade – forcible closing of ports

preventing trade• Napoleon does this with Britain–Doesn’t work

Peninsular War

• Napoleon sends army through Spain to Portugal – defying Continental System–Spain protests – Napoleon makes his

brother king• 5 yrs Spanish guerrillas fight French• Napoleon loses 300,000 men

Invasion of Russia

• Russia ignores Continental System• Alexander I uses scorched-earth policy –

burning grain fields and slaughtering livestock leaving nothing to eat–Burns Moscow

• All this and Russian winter (-30 F) decimate French Army

Defeat• Napoleon defeated

at Leipzig–Coalition move

toward Paris

Elba

• Napoleon banished to island of Elbe

• Put Louis XVIII in power – unpopular

• Napoleon escapes and retakes power

Hundred Days• Napoleon gets army together again – 100

days• Defeated at Waterloo, Belgium• Banished to St. Helena in South Atlantic