Napoleonic Era: How The Ambition Of One Man Reshaped The Map Of Europe
The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. Classified as the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory. The Napoleonic era begins roughly with Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état, overthrowing the Directory, establishing the French Consulate, and ends during the Hundred Days and his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo(9 November 1799–18 June 1815).
French Revolutionary Wars
The introduction of nationwide conscription for the army in February 1793 was the spark that in March made the Vendée, already rebellious since 1790 because of the changes imposed on the Roman Catholic Church by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), ignite into a civil war against the French Revolutionary government in Paris.
North of the Loire, similar revolts were started by the so-called Chouans (royalist rebels). In March 1793, France also declared war on Spain, the Vendée rebels won some victories against Paris, and the French army was defeated in Belgium by Austria with the French general Dumouriez defecting to the Austrians: the French Republic’s survival was now in real danger. Facing local revolts and foreign invasions in the country’s East and West, the most urgent government business was the war. On 6 April 1793, to prevent the Convention from losing itself in abstract debate and streamlining government decisions, the Comité de Salut Public (Committee of Public Prosperity) was created, as the executive government was accountable to the Convention.
The General
Jacques-Louis David
Napoléon Bonaparte was a French statesman and military leader of Italian descent who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for over a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these and most of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon’s political and cultural legacy has endured as one of human history’s most celebrated and controversial leaders.
In July 1793, Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet entitled Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire), which gained him the support of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. With the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces at the Siege of Toulon.
Contemporaries alleged Bonaparte was put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres following their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction in July 1794. Still, Napoleon’s secretary Bourrienne disputed the allegation in his memoirs. Bonaparte dispatched a vigorous defense in a letter to the commissar Saliceti and was subsequently acquitted of any wrongdoing. He was released within two weeks and was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions in France’s war with Austria due to his technical skills. He also took part in an expedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the British Royal Navy repulsed the French.
While in Egypt, Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs. He learned that France had suffered a series of defeats in the War of the Second Coalition. On 24 August 1799, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, although he had received no explicit orders from Paris. The army was left in charge of Jean Baptiste Kléber.
Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return to ward off possible invasions of French soil, but poor lines of communication prevented the delivery of these messages. By the time he reached Paris in October, France’s situation had been improved by a series of victories. The Republic, however, was bankrupt, and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the French population. The Directory discussed Bonaparte’s “desertion” but was too weak to punish him.
Despite the failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned to a hero’s welcome. He drew together an alliance with director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, his brother Lucien, speaker of the Council of Five Hundred Roger Ducos, director Joseph Fouché, and Talleyrand, and they overthrew the Directory by a coup d’état on 9 November 1799 (“the 18th Brumaire” according to the revolutionary calendar), closing down the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon became “first consul” for ten years, with two consuls appointed by him who had consultative voices only. His power was confirmed by the new “Constitution of the Year VIII,” originally devised by Sieyès to give Napoleon a minor role, but rewritten by Napoleon and accepted by direct popular vote (3,000,000 in favor, 1,567 opposed). The constitution preserved the appearance of a republic but, in reality, established a dictatorship.
Napoleon established a political system that historian Martyn Lyons called “dictatorship by plebiscite.” Worried by the democratic forces unleashed by the revolution but unwilling to ignore them entirely, Napoleon resorted to regular electoral consultations with the French people on his road to imperial power. He drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his election as First Consul, taking up residence at the Tuileries. The constitution was approved in a rigged plebiscite held the following January, with 99.94 percent officially listed as voting “yes.”
Napoleon’s brother, Lucien, had falsified the returns to show that 3 million people had participated in the referendum. The actual number was 1.5 million. Political observers at the time assumed the eligible French voting public numbered about 5 million people, so the regime artificially doubled the participation rate to indicate widespread enthusiasm for the Consulate. In the first few months of the Consulate, with the war in Europe still raging and internal instability plaguing the country, Napoleon’s grip on power remained very tenuous.
The Battle of Marengo
In the spring of 1800, Napoleon and his troops crossed the Swiss Alps into Italy to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula when Napoleon was still in Egypt. After a difficult crossing over the Alps, the French army entered the plains of Northern Italy virtually unopposed. While one French army approached from the north, the Austrians were busy with another stationed in Genoa, besieged by a substantial force. Under André Masséna, the French army’s fierce resistance gave the northern force some time to carry out their operations with little interference.
After spending several days looking for each other, the two armies collided at the Battle of Marengo on 14 June. General Melas had a numerical advantage, fielding about 30,000 Austrian soldiers, while Napoleon commanded 24,000 French troops. The battle began favorably for the Austrians as their initial attack surprised the French and gradually drove them back. Melas said he’d won the battle and retired to his headquarters around 3 pm, leaving his subordinates in charge of pursuing the French. The French lines never broke during their tactical retreat. Napoleon constantly rode out among the troops urging them to stand and fight.
French Empire
During the Consulate, Napoleon faced several royalists and Jacobin assassination plots, including the Conspiration des poignards (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise (also known as the Infernal Machine) two months later. In January 1804, his police uncovered an assassination plot against him that involved Moreau and was ostensibly sponsored by the Bourbon family, the former rulers of France. On the advice of Talleyrand, Napoleon ordered the kidnapping of the Duke of Enghien, violating the sovereignty of Baden. The Duke was quickly executed after a secret military trial, even though he had not been involved in the plot. Enghien’s execution infuriated royal courts throughout Europe, becoming one of the contributing political factors to the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars.
Napoleon used these assassination plots to expand his power to justify creating an imperial system based on the Roman model. He believed that a Bourbon restoration would be more difficult if his family’s succession were entrenched in the constitution. Launching yet another referendum, Napoleon was elected as Emperor of the French by a tally exceeding 99%. As with the Life Consulate two years earlier, this referendum produced heavy participation, bringing almost 3.6 million voters to the polls.
A keen observer of Bonaparte’s rise to absolute power, Madame de Rémusat, explains that “men worn out by the turmoil of the Revolution … looked for the domination of an able ruler” and that “people believed quite sincerely that Bonaparte, whether as consul or emperor, would exert his authority and save [them] from the perils of anarchy.”
Napoleon’s coronation took place on 2 December 1804. Two separate crowns were brought for the ceremony: a golden laurel wreath recalling the Roman Empire and a replica of Charlemagne’s crown. Napoleon entered the ceremony wearing the laurel wreath and kept it on his head throughout the proceedings. For the official coronation, he raised the Charlemagne crown over his head in a symbolic gesture but never placed it on top because he was already wearing the golden wreath. Instead, he put the crown on Josephine’s head. The event is commemorated in the officially sanctioned painting by Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon was also crowned King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, at the Cathedral of Milan on 26 May 1805. He created eighteen Marshals of the Empire from among his top generals to secure the allegiance of the army on 18 May 1804, the official start of the Empire.
War of the Third Coalition
The Battle of Austerlitz
Treaties of Tilsit
Invasion of Russia
In 1808, Napoleon and Czar Alexander met at the Congress of Erfurt to preserve the Russo-French alliance. The leaders had a friendly personal relationship after meeting at Tilsit in 1807. By 1811, however, tensions had increased, and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break the alliance. A significant strain on the relationship between the two nations became the regular violations of the Continental System by the Russians, which led Napoleon to threaten Alexander with serious consequences if he allied with Britain.
By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. On receipt of intelligence reports on Russia’s war preparations, Napoleon expanded his Grande Armée to more than 450,000 men. He ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 24 June 1812, the attack commenced.
The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russians and 35,000 French dead, wounded, or captured and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time. Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted and withstood the major battle Napoleon had hoped would be decisive. Napoleon’s account was: “The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible”.
The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. However, on orders of the city’s governor Feodor Rostopchin, rather than capitulation, Moscow was burned. After five weeks, Napoleon and his army left. In early November, Napoleon got concerned about losing control back in France after the Malet coup of 1812. His army walked through snow up to their knees, and nearly 10,000 men and horses froze to death on the night of 8/9 November alone. After the Battle of Berezina, Napoleon managed to escape but had to abandon much of the remaining artillery and baggage train. On 5 December, shortly before arriving in Vilnius, Napoleon left the army in a sled.
The French suffered during a ruinous retreat, including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Armée had begun as over 400,000 frontline troops, with fewer than 40,000 crossings the Berezina River in November 1812. The Russians had lost 150,000 in battle and hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The First Exile
The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is not ready to do in the interests of France.
Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814.— Act of abdication of Napoleon
In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the Allies exiled Napoleon to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km (12 mi) off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain the title of Emperor. In the first few months on Elba, he created a small navy and army, developed the iron mines, oversaw the construction of new roads, issued decrees on modern agricultural methods, and overhauled the island’s legal and educational system. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried after nearly being captured by the Russians during the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, however, and he survived to be exiled while his wife and son took refuge in Austria.
A few months into his exile, Napoleon learned that his ex-wife Josephine had died in France. He was devastated by the news, locking himself in his room and refusing to leave for two days.
The Exile to Elba
Separated from his wife and son, who had returned to Austria, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumors he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba, in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with 700 men. Two days later, he landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and started heading north.
The 5th regiment was sent to intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the unit alone, dismounted his horse, and, when he was within gunshot range, shouted to the soldiers, “Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish”. The soldiers quickly responded with, “Vive L’Empereur!” Ney, who had boasted to the restored Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, that he would bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron cage, affectionately kissed his former Emperor and forgot his oath of allegiance to the Bourbon monarchy. The two then marched together towards Paris with a growing army. The unpopular Louis XVIII fled to Belgium after realizing he had little political support. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon, an outlaw. Four days later, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia each pledged to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.
Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days. By June, the armed forces available to him had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies. The French Army of the North crossed the frontier into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, in modern-day Belgium.
The Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon’s forces fought the Coalition armies, commanded by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Wellington’s army withstood repeated attacks by the French and drove them from the field, while the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon’s right flank.
Napoleon returned to Paris and found that the legislature and the people had turned against him. Realizing his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favor of his son. He left Paris three days later and settled at Josephine’s former palace in Malmaison (on the western bank of the Seine, about 17 kilometers (11 mi) west of Paris). Even as Napoleon traveled to Paris, the Coalition forces swept through France (arriving in the vicinity of Paris on 29 June) to restore Louis XVIII to the French throne.
The Exile to Santa Helena
The British kept Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,870 km (1,162 mi) from the west coast of Africa. They also took the precaution of sending a garrison of soldiers to uninhabited Ascension Island, which lay between St. Helena and Europe.
Napoleon was moved to Longwood House on Saint Helena in December 1815; it had fallen into disrepair, and the location was damp, windswept, and unhealthy. The Times published articles insinuating the British government was trying to hasten his death. Napoleon often complained of the living conditions in letters to the governor and his custodian, Hudson Lowe, while his attendants complained of “colds, catarrhs, damp floors and poor provisions.” It has been speculated by modern scientists that his later illness arose from arsenic poisoning caused by copper arsenite in the wallpaper at Longwood House.
With a small cadre of followers, Napoleon dictated his memoirs and grumbled about conditions. Lowe cut Napoleon’s expenditure, ruled that no gifts were allowed if they mentioned his imperial status, and made his supporters sign a guarantee they would stay with the prisoner indefinitely.
While in exile, Napoleon wrote a book about Julius Caesar, one of his great heroes. He also studied English under the tutelage of Count Emmanuel de Las Cases with the main aim of being able to read English newspapers and books, as access to French newspapers and books was heavily restricted to him on Saint Helena.
There were rumors of plots and his escape, but in reality, no serious attempts were made. For English poet Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely, and flawed genius.
In February 1821, Napoleon’s health deteriorated rapidly, and he reconciled with the Catholic Church. He died on 5 May 1821, after confession, Extreme Unction, and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali. His last words were France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine (“France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine”).
Conclusions
Napoleon has become a worldwide cultural icon symbolizing military genius and political power. Martin van Creveld described him as “the most competent human being who ever lived.” Since his death, many towns, streets, ships, and cartoon characters have been named after him. He has been portrayed in hundreds of films and discussed in hundreds of thousands of books and articles.
In the political realm, historians debate whether Napoleon was “an enlightened despot who laid the foundations of modern Europe” or “a megalomaniac who wrought greater misery than any man before the coming of Hitler.” Many historians have concluded that he had grandiose foreign policy ambitions. As late as 1808, the Continental powers were willing to give him nearly all of his gains and titles, but some scholars maintain he was overly aggressive and pushed for too much until his Empire collapsed.
The Napoleonic Wars brought radical changes to Europe, but the reactionary forces returned to power and tried to reverse some of them by restoring the Bourbon house on the French throne. Napoleon had succeeded in bringing most of Western Europe under one rule. In most European countries, subjugation in the French Empire brought with it many liberal features of the French Revolution, including democracy, due process in courts, the abolition of serfdom, reduction of the power of the Catholic Church, and demand for constitutional limits on monarchs. The increasing voice of the middle classes with rising commerce and industry meant that restored European monarchs found it challenging to restore pre-revolutionary absolutism and had to retain many reforms enacted during Napoleon’s rule.
The Napoleonic wars also played a crucial role in the independence of the Latin American colonies from Spain and Portugal. The conflict weakened Spain’s authority and military power, especially after the Battle of Trafalgar. There were many uprisings in Spanish America, leading to the wars of independence. In Portuguese America, Brazil experienced greater autonomy as it now served as the seat of the Portuguese Empire and ascended politically to the status of Kingdom. These events also contributed to the Portuguese Liberal Revolution in 1820 and the Independence of Brazil in 1822.
The Congress of Vienna redrew the borders of Europe and brought a period of relative peace. The wars had profound consequences on global history, including the spread of nationalism and liberalism, the rise of the British Empire as the world’s foremost power, the appearance of independence movements in Latin America, and the subsequent collapse of the Spanish Empire, the fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the establishment of radically new methods of conducting warfare.
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