conscription (NW)

• What law was passed in 1798 that made all single and childless men between 20-25 liable for military service? What did it help with?


  Jourdans Law (Loi Jourdan) helped form the basis for Napoleon’s armies, allowing for the creation of the Grand Armee. Napoleon made extensive use of conscripted soldiers, though focused on ensuring his men were highly trained and disciplined, capable of following his complex orders
• Impact on nature?


  As the size of armies increased and Napoleon’s core of highly trained professionals began to diminish, the overall quality of Napoleon’s men began to diminish from 1812 onwards eg Borodino 1812 – little room for manoeuvres, similar at Leipzig 1813 where the poor quality of Napoleon’s men ensured element of surprise could not be achieved. The notion of mass conscription began to spread across EU as nations such as Prussia, Spain and Sweden introduced similar models to that of the French
• Whilst Napoleon did make use of conscription he mainly did what?

  Refined it eg training
• Impact on outcome?


  By Waterloo most of Napoleon’s men were teenagers with little experience