AP Euro: Napoleon

A new constitution was approved.
The French people chose a new senate. However, this senate had very little power in the constitution, which allows Napoleon to consolidate his own power.
In exchange for this Napoleon offered peace to the French people.

Basically he says "I need this power right now, so I can defeat our enemies" and the French people say "Go for it."
When he defeats Austria (the enemy), the people love him.

The English and Dutch were not too happy with the French because of what happened in the Hapsburg Netherlands.
He is dictator, but he is doing it for the good of the country.
He brings law and order. He brings a strong legal system and strong system of government.
Napoleon offers the emigraes amnesty. An emigrae was someone who was against the revolution.
1799-1804 is when Napoleon is rebuilding France. He wants the French people to realize that he is the great leader in charge.
Napoleon starts a secret police force and he suppresses the media because of opposition to him.
The newspapers shrink from about 70 to only a dozen and those dozen are state controlled.
Napoleon restores peace with the Vatican.
Napoleon says that Catholicism is the major religion of France. He does not declare it as the actual religion that people must follow though.
In exchange for this Napoleon says that he gets to pick the Church leadership within France.
Papal Bull - official Church document coming from the Pope

Napoleon says that the Pope can issue those, but that he is the one who decides if France follows them.
Organic Articles to the Concordate

Napoleon gets to decide the leadership, what church documents apply, and force clergy to read state documents to their congregations.

In 1802 Napoleon is named consul for life.
He has the power to chose his own successor and amend the constitution.
In 1804, with those new powers, he has himself coronated as emperor of France.
Napoleon desired to expand his empire.
In 1804 he sells Louisiana to the U.S. so he does not have to deal with the slave problem.
Napoleon decides that he is going to begin expanding his empire by starting a naval war with England.
In 1805 the English and French fight at Trafalgar.
Sends his land army against Austria and Russia. Defeats those armies in 1805.
He gains control of old principalities of the Holy Roman Empire and makes them into the Confederation of the Rhine. Poland becomes the Grand Duchy of Russia.
In 1807 he sets up a treaty with the czar of Russia called the Treaty of Tilsit.
He can't beat England because his navy has been destroyed.

In Spain, Napoleon pulls some political strings.
He convinces the Spanish monarch to leave the throne and he puts his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain. He supports the new king of Spain with a large French occupying force.
Long war between Spanish guerilla forces and French in Spain.
Peninsular War (Spain is located in the Iberian Peninsula)
Napoleon divorces Josephine because she has not produced a male heir

He marries the daughter of the Austrian emperor Francis II, Marie Louis, in 1810.
She is 19 and he is 40.
In 1811 she produces a male heir.

Napoleon has holdings in Germany, Poland, Spain, he's strangulating the British, his ships are cutting off British trade; however, outside of France, he is rather resented: particularly in Germany.
In 1809 & 1810 a wave of nationalism comes over the states in East Germany and Alexander, the czar of Russia, backs out of the continental system. Russia allies with Britain (1810).
Napoleon doesn't like this. He sends an invasion army to attack Russia.

They see the French coming towards town, so they burn down their town and all the fields and back up. Now the French keep coming, and they repeat again. The French supply lines are so long that you can start attacking from behind. Once their food runs out there is now nowhere to get food because the Russians burned down the crops. It is also cold and miserable and when Napoleon attacks Russia it is one of the coldest winters of the 19th Century.

Napoleon comes back to France.
The Russians feel that they have the upper hand now.
They sign a deal with the Prussians.
The Prussians and Russians fight against Napoleon at the battle of Leipzig and defeat Napoleon.
Russia, Prussia, England, and Austria sign the quadruple alliance in March of 1814.
Napoleon realizes that he has lost, abdicates the throne, and attempts suicide.
The people of France exile him to the island of Elba.

French bring in Louis XVIII who is the brother of Louis XVI. He is installed as the constitutional monarch.
The leaders of the quadruple alliance meet with the French minister, Talleyrand.
Napoleon escapes from Elba.
In 1815 he raises a new army of his own.
In the "100 Days" he battles through Europe, finally meeting the British at Waterloo in Belgium. Napoleon is captured by British and sent to St. Helena.
He stayed there until he died in 1821.
Napoleon affects the alliances that form. These alliances will have significance later during WWI.
Napoleon demonstrates the dangers of revolution

AP Euro