The Rise of the “Little Corporal”

How an Italian came to rule France

Who was Napoleon• His real name was Napoleone Buonaparte• He was Corsican (so mostly Italian) and only became French after

the country of France literally bought the island of Corsica– Learned French quickly once he left for Paris but never lost his Corsican

accent – he actually was made fun of for it mercilessly when he was in school in Paris

• He went to the Military College in Paris (huge deal)– Here he found out he was really good at math, but more importantly

found out that he was really good at artillery • He graduated and became a lieutenant in 1789 and then 6 years

later was named a general in the French army (that’s a huge jump very quickly)– Much of this jump was due to the flight of the upper class leaders out of

France and around the world• Think about Marquis de Lafayette

• Some of the new found confidence that the Directory (who are these guys again) had in Napoleon was the fact that he valued order and was not afraid to use troops to gain it– Specifically, in Oct 1795, there was a mob on royalists

who marched on the National Convention (it was disbanded after this event)• Napoleon was told to defend the Convention and so he

did…with cannons• Needless to say, it really only took a few minutes of a

cannon bridge to get the Royalist mob to break and flee• From here Napoleon gains the support of the National

Convention and Directory which took its place

Josephine• Her real name was Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher, she

went by Rose, but when Napoleon meet her he told her he did not like Rose and he would only call her Josephine– So that stuck

• She was the mistress of a revolutionary named Paul Barras – He wanted to actually take her sister as his new mistress and

so he had to get rid of her so he pawned her off on Napoleon – He feel in love with her instantly– The connection she had with Barras would be important for

Napoleon’s career because he is part of the reason Napoleon ends up in Italy

• His first command as a general was the Italian Campaign, which established multiple “sister republics” to the French Republic – Remember this is happening DURING the French Revolution so

they were really big on the whole republic thing– During this command, his reputation starts to grow significantly

because he’s able to destroy armies that had the French either on the run or vastly outnumbered • He defeats the Austrians and the Piedmonts • This was something that no one else had been able to do because the

army they had was ragtag at best – And to be honest, the generals they had in command were pretty bad

– These victories however, spur Napoleon’s belief that he is the greatest general since Julius Caesar

• More importantly though, he gains a reputation with the men of his command (something else similar to Caesar) and they accept him as one of them

Egypt• From Italy he ends up in Egypt because the Directory wants

him to disrupt the British supply line to India (yes Britain owns India pretty completely at this point)– He does really well against the Egyptian Mamluks but is stopped by

the British naval commander Horatio Nelson when Nelson destroys almost all of Napoleon’s fleet

– His troops also find the Rosetta Stone which becomes the key to translating Egyptian

– This trapped Napoleon in Egypt with his army (again similar to Caesar)

– The tricky thing was that Napoleon kept sending back letters to France detailing his major victories which did two things:• Kept him on the minds of people in France• Enhanced his reputation for victory (made him a great hero)• **Caesar does the same thing with his Gallic Wars**

Coup d'état • While Napoleon is having all these troubles in Egypt, the Directory is

having trouble holding onto things in France– Jacobins, Royalists, and Girondin are still fighting and causing a rather difficult

situation for the government– In the meantime, Napoleon finds a way to escape the British blockade of

French forces and makes his way back to Paris (again like Caesar after he is trapped in Egypt)• Once he gets back, his friends urge him to take control because he is so popular

amongst the people for his victories

• In November 1799, he surrounds the national legislature (the 2-house legislature of the Directory) and drives out most of the members– Those who remain, vote to dissolve the Directory and in the place of it, they

vote to establish a group of three consuls (directly from the Roman playbook)– Napoleon becomes the “First Consul” and assumes the powers of Dictator

(also Roman)– This sudden change in power is known as a coup d'état (“blow to the state”)

• This also has an impact on the wider European world– The rest of the world knows how skilled Napoleon is

so those countries that were fighting France, Britain, Austria, and, now, Russia, join forces with the single goal of driving Napoleon out of Paris

– Napoleon rides out with his troops and defeats them in three years (the French have been fighting this combination of forces since about 1792 – so 9 years, Napoleon beats them in 3)

• He then refocuses his energy on rebuilding France

Napoleon and Constitutionality• Napoleon seemed to genuinely want to be a leader

of a Constitutional free republic– In order to do this he ordered a plebiscite – a vote of the

people to approve the new constitution• 3,000,000 voted in favor, 1500 against

– Because they were sick of the fighting, the people voted strongly for Napoleon’s rule, he officially became the first consul

Goals for France’s Stability: Economic and Government

• Fix the economy– Set up an efficient tax collection – Established a national banking system• Ensured the government would have a steady supply of money

• Fix the Government– Actually tried to decrease corruption in the government

and put people in place who knew what they were doing• Used Lycees – government-run public schools to do this

– These were open to men of all backgrounds – Graduates were then appointed to public office on the basis of merit

rather than family background– Beginning of the merit system of government

Goals for France’s Religious Soul• Napoleon realized that the people really did not

care for the non-religious changes the Revolution put in place so he wanted to restore the Church in France– In order to do this, he signed a concordat – and

agreement – with Pope Pius VII• This established a new relationship with the Church and state • Government recognized the influence of the Church but the

Church could have no control in national affairs

– This gives him HUGE support in the countryside specifically

Goals for the Government• Arguably, his greatest work was the NAPOLEONIC

CODE – This gave the country a uniform set of laws and

eliminated many injustices• Freedom of speech and the press – given under the Revolution

– were restricted by Napoleon• Promoted authority over individual freedom• Restored slavery in the French colonies in the Caribbean (huge

mistake)• Also codified the lower status of women who were considered

naturally inferior and weak

– Modeled after the Justinian Code (most well known law code in Rome)

Napoleon as Emperor • In 1804, Napoleon felt he had garnered enough support to

name himself emperor of France– Plebiscite supported him by voting on it

• He is meant to be crowned by the Pope in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris – Wearing the purple velvet of nobility (and oddly, Roman aristocracy)

he walks down the aisle of the Church to where Pope Pius VII holds his crown

– From here he takes the crown from the Pope and places it on his own head

• This is meant to say he is more powerful than the Pope because since 800 ADE, the Church and the Pope had been the one to crown French kings, Napoleon took that honor himself

An Emperor Needs an Empire• Napoleon wants not only Europe but America as well and so he sets

out to re-establish French superiority in her colonies– Haiti became the focus for this re-establishment– The colony of Saint Dominque had demanded their rights but this lead to a

war and the slaves of the colony were the ones to win• Toussaint L’Ouverture lead the rebellion

– Napoleon wanted to put an end to this slave control and restore the colony’s sugar producing power• He sent a force to Saint Dominque that was devastated by disease and the fighting

ability of the Haitian forces • Napoleon decided to cut his losses in America after this spectacular defeat

– This also convinced him to sell Louisiana to Thomas Jefferson for $15 million • This becomes known as the Louisiana Purchase and has two outcomes for Napoleon:

– Challenges British control in North America – because now the Americans own a huge chunk of t– Supplies him with a bunch of money to support his European campaigns

Meanwhile in Europe…• Napoleon was slowly expanding his empire

(remember he wants to be Caesar again)– By this point he had annexed:• Austrian Netherlands• Parts of Italy• Owned the government in Switzerland

• Afraid of his successes, Britain, Russia, Austria, and Sweden join forces against the French

Britain has some success• Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805)– This will be his first major loss in his course to build an

empire– Took place off the coast of Spain – Horatio Nelson (British - remember that name?) took on

Napoleon’s naval fleet and decimated them– Results:• Ensured the supremacy of the British navy for the next 100

years• Forced Napoleon to give up on his plans to invade Britain

But Britain’s allies don’t do as well…• Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805)– Also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors • Napoleon’s 68,000 troops defeated 90,000 Russians and

Austrians• Napoleon did this by setting a trap that split the enemy forces,

he then used his troops to destroy and rout the allies, taking command of the high ground

– Results:• Forced Austria to make peace with France• Kept Prussia out of the anti-France alliance (because they

could not take on France allow and were dependent on Austria)• Forced the Russians to retreat back to Russia, leaving the

European playing field

• Napoleon’s empire rivaled that of the Romans (or at least was the closest since the Romans) but it was unstable – He owned a lot of land but also was able to manipulate

other governments by threatening force – Still others were puppets under his control– So when things went wrong, they would go wrong very

quickly

Things start to go wrong…• The Continental System– System designed by Napoleon to make Europe more self-

sufficient – Really was meant to destroy Britain’s economy and trading

empire• This was done through a blockade – forcible closing of ports

– Meant to starve out Britain – Problem was, Napoleon did not have control of the sea so starving out

Britain was a lot harder than he expected» He also did not have control of all his countries and so certain “allies”

were perfectly happy forgetting their role in the blockade» Here’s looking at you Holland!

– The British responded with their own blockade which was much better than the French one» Blocked neutral ships from going into Europe, which actually helped to

slow down European shipping instead

Peninsula War• 1808, Napoleon wants Portugal to comply with the

Continental System so he sends an army through Spain to make them comply (he supposedly owned Spain so this should have worked)– What actually happened was the Spanish people got angry (and you

won’t like them when they’re angry)• Napoleon responded by taking the king off the throne and putting his

brother, Joseph, on the throne• This made the Spanish people even more upset because now they were

afraid he would attack the church• They responded with guerillas – fighters who would attack and then

disappear again– This was something Napoleon could not fight because they were not an actual army

and he did not know how to deal with that – This was also a display of Nationalism – something that not even Napoleon could

overcome– This would show up in Italy and Germany as well

Invasion of Russia• While the Peninsula War was bad, Napoleon made the most disastrous mistake

he could make by attempting to attack the massive country of Russia– Initially, Alexander I (Czar – also another word for Caesar, just saying – of Russia) was

Napoleon’s ally but he had this pesky habit of selling grain to Britain– So Napoleon in response decided to take his Grand Army (420,000 men) into Russia to

teach the Czar a lesson• As Napoleon marched through into Russia, the troops were ordered to pull back continuously

and practice SCORCHED-EARTH POLICY – basically where you burn everything as you retreat – It leaves nothing for the enemy to eat

– The Russians continue to draw the French in until September 1812 when they finally clash at the Battle of Borodino• Again the Russians fall back – allowing Napoleon to take Moscow but not until they burned it to

the ground• Napoleon stays for a bit but then decided in OCTOBER to return to France• As the snows started to fall in November, the Russians at the rear of his forces started to attack

them while the army retreated • It took until December for the last of the soldiers to make it out of Russia, by the time then

made it home, only 10,000 men were able to fight (that’s 2% of the force that went with him!)– In your class, means that one person has a 50% chance of making it back alive