Napoleon

• Napoleon Bonaparte


  French military leader and emperor
• Napoleon


  • Born on the island of Corsica
  • Attended military school in France and graduated as an artillery officer
  • Military genius and one of the best generals of all time
  • Combined overwhelming ambition with a vain and domineering personality
  • Proved to be a superb organizer and administrator in political and military affairs
• Napoleon was 5ft 2
• The French Revolution gave Napoleon the opportunity to rise to the rank of general


  He might have remained there had the Revolution not given him this opportunity
• Napoleon's military tactics


  1. Rapidly moved troops

  2. Massed forces at critical points on the battlefield

  3. Gave him an advantage over opponents' older and slower tactics
• Napoleon defeated Austria 4 times
• In 1797, Napoleon forced Austria to sign a humiliating peace treaty


  This gave France control of Northern Italy
• The Directory was concerned that Napoleon may gain too much power
• Napoleon's military campaign in Egypt


  1. Launched in 1798

  2. Ended in disaster as the British destroyed the French fleet near Alexandria, cutting off the French army's supply lines

  3. Napoleon left his army and returned to France, concealing the true situation and making exaggerated claims of victories
• The British organized the Second Coalition against France, which included Austria and Russia
• The Second Coalition forces drove French armies out of Italy


  French control over the conquered states slipped
• Napoleon's supporters believed that only he could win victory abroad and restore order in France
• Napoleon's coup d'état


  1. Napoleon's supporters organized a plot to overthrow the government

  2. Troops with bayonets surrounded the legislature and forced most members to leave

  3. Those who remained handed the government over to Napoleon and his fellow plotters
• Napoleon: '"I found the crown of France lying on the ground, and I picked it up with my sword."'
• Napoleon's government kept the form of a republic, but the coup d'état made him the dictator of France
• The Napoleonic Era or the Age of Napoleon


  1799-1814
• Liberty under Napoleon


  Freedom of opportunity, not liberty from control. Napoleon believed the people should obey orders given by a leader.
• Napoleon's reorganization of France


  1. Centralized the administration, giving himself unlimited power

  2. Executive branch was made up of three consuls, with Napoleon as First Consul

  3. As First Consul, Napoleon commanded the army and navy, appointed and dismissed officials, and proposed all new laws

  4. The legislative bodies had no real power and merely rubber-stamped Napoleon's decrees
• Napoleon's constitution


  1. Submitted to the people for a vote through a plebiscite, where they could only vote yes or no and could not make any changes

  2. The vast majority of the people voted yes, approving the constitution
• Napoleonic Code


  • Scholars completed the revision and organization of all French law into a system
  • Established the Bank of France as a central financial institution
  • Established a public education system including elementary schools, high schools, universities, and technical schools, supervised by the University of France
• Napoleon's Concordat with the Pope


  1. Acknowledged Catholicism as the religion for most French citizens

  2. Did not abolish religious tolerance

  3. Church gave up claims to property seized during the Revolution, which had been sold to peasants
• Napoleon destroyed the Second Coalition


  Through his shrewd and skillful diplomacy
• In 1802, Great Britain and France signed a peace treaty
• Napoleon's supporters were moved to increase his power


  By making it permanent and hereditary
• Napoleon's coronation as emperor

  1. In 1804, the French people declared France an empire in a plebiscite

  2. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon I
• Napoleon's military techniques and technology were adopted by his enemies, allowing them to use them against him
• Military opportunities for Napoleon


  • Guidance of the Directory
  • Ongoing war between Great Britain, Austria, and Sardinia
• Period when Napoleon, an unknown general, came to public attention

  1795-1799
• At age 26, Napoleon suppressed uprisings in Paris
• Napoleon aimed to prevent the establishment of the Directory
• Napoleon's military campaign in Egypt ended in disaster, with the British destroying the French fleet
• Napoleon concealed the true situation in Egypt and made exaggerated claims of victories
• The plotters who brought Napoleon to power wanted stability in France to ensure they could keep the nationalized property they had bought and the power they acquired
• Napoleon did not abolish the changes brought on by the French Revolution, and respected many of the ideals of the Declaration of the Rights of Man
• Napoleon reassured peasants that the land they owned would remain theirs
• Napoleon's promise of military victory, firm and steady government, and economic prosperity moved his supporters to increase his power
• consul came from roman republic
• plebiscite: the direct vote of all the members of an electorate on an important public question such as a change in the constitution
• peninsular war - 1808 to 1814
• escaped Elba and marched March 1, 1815 in france