Napolean_and_His_French_Empire

Napoleon and his French Empire (from the rise of his power in Europe to his fall from his throne.) Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in 1769. He was sent to military school in northern France by his parents when he was nine years old. He finished school at the age of 16, and became a lieutenant in the artillery. Napoleon joins the army of the new government when the Revolution of France had begun. Napoleon defended the new government's delegates in October of 1795 when royalist rebels (people who wanted the monarch to rule again) marched on the National Convention. Napoleon and his troops waited for the royalists, and opened fired on them with cannons. The attackers started fleeing within minutes of the assault, as Napoleon had defended the delegates successfully. Napoleon was celebrated as a hero to the new French government. Napoleon was then approved by the Directory to command a French army to oppose the Austrian forces and the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1796. He then crushed any hopes of Austrian troops of invading France by successfully winning battles in Italy. Trying to secure French trade interests and at the same time mess up Britain's trade with India, Napoleon decides to lead his forces toward Egypt. This expedition was a failure as his army was pinned down, and his naval forces were being destroyed by Britain's naval forces that were under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson.  Somehow he kept the reports of the defeat from the French press, and by 1799 whenever the words "the general" were used, the French knew that they were referring to Napoleon. The Directory then lost control of the political situation, and confidence of the French people in 1799. The French army was the only thing that kept the Directory in power. After returning from Egypt, Napoleon was encouraged by the Abbie Sieyes to capture and control political power. Napoleon started to meet up with influential people to start discussing about what he could/ or would do in the directory, while his wife Josephine was influencing the decisions of wealthy directors. Everything was in place once Napoleon was put in charge of the military on November 9, 1799. On the very next day, Napoleon had his troops remove members of the national legislature of one chamber. The Directory was voted to be dissolved by the legislature and be replaced by the creation of the three consuls after the incident. Napoleon was one of those consuls, but soon he controlled all power in the form of a dictator over the French republic. Britain puts together a second coalition that was made up of Britain, Austria, and Russia whose goals were to remove Napoleon from power. Napoleon defended his country with success, and forced all three countries to sign peace agreements with France. Now since there was no war to fight for now. Napoleon decides to focus on retaining his power and containing the order within France. Even though Napoleon ruled as a Dictator over France, he did keep many of the changes that the Revolution had created. Instead of ruling like the old days before the revolution, he created an efficient tax-collection system and national bank. He made sure that the government received a consistent amount of tax money, which helped make the economy easier to control. Also, instead of nobles just earning important government roles, he gave everyone a fair chance to be able to earn a government office. Napoleon built public schools for everyone, not just the wealthy. These schools helped educate the children, and decided which office they would control based upon how well they did, not just born into it like the past. This helped remove corrupt officials from government offices, and have trained officials take their place. Since the peasants and clergy wanted to bring back the church in France, Napoleon signs an agreement with Pope Pius VII. The agreement was that the government acknowledged the church's influence, but not it's authority in national affairs. The bishops were chosen by the French government, while the bishops could choose the parish priests. Napoleon's rules/ laws became known as the Napoleonic code. Although he kept many of the new laws, he also removed some. He took some rights from women; bring back slavery in the French colonies, abolished freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Although many of his laws were good, some of them limited the liberty of the French people that were brought in from the French Revolution. Soon the United States shows interest in controlling the port of New Orleans for trading purposes, even though the New Orleans had currently belonged to the French at that time. Americans were willing to risk war with France if they couldn't get the port from the French. Instead, Napoleon see's a benefit in this situation in America, and decides to sell the port of New Orleans as well as the whole of the Louisiana territory to the United States for only $15 million dollars in 1803. Two reasons influenced Napoleon’s decision to sell this territory to the U.S. One, was to make a profit and cut his losses in the America's after a French colony  in Saint Domingue had successfully declared independence, and defended itself from being reoccupied by French forces in 1801. The second reason was because the sale of this territory as he said, "The sale assures forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a rival who, sooner or later, will humble her pride."     In 1804, the French people had voted to make Napoleon emperor, even though that defeated the purpose of the revolution. Napoleon walks down the aisle of the Notre Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804. When he finally reaches the priest who is holding the crown, Napoleon takes the crown from the preaches hands and puts it on his own head. This was a clear statement that he had more power than the church, which traditionally crowned the new emperor's who entered into power to rule over France. Napoleon didn't just want to rule France though; he wanted to rule the rest of Europe. With his imperial dreams pushed aside, Napoleon decides to focus on Europe. Having annexed the Austrian Netherlands, parts of Italy, and setting up a "puppet" government in Switzerland, Britain proposes and gets Russia, Austria, and Sweden to form a third coalition against the expanding French empire. Napoleon crushes the Third coalition at the Battle of Austerlitz. The armies of Russia and Austria fell into a deadly trap setup by Napoleon. Napoleon had tricked both armies into believing that his army was alot weaker than theirs, because Napoleon had only 66,000 soldiers go up against 85,000 combined enemy troops and 278 guns. He then left a strong central position on the Praizen Heights, and had his forces remain weak on his right flank. Soon the strength of the Russian and Austrian armies try to take advantage of this by moving into, and attacking the area. Then a French Corps shows up to strengthen the line. With the Allied armed forces sucked in, Napoleon has his army attack and split the enemy and takes back the Pratzen Heights. After brutal fighting, the French forces crush the two allied armies, with only suffering 8,000 casualty's or losses during the fighting. With a victory here, the Third Coalition is obliterated as the rulers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia all sign peace treaties with Napoleon. France's empire was the largest empire since the Roman Empire. The only opposition to France still is Great Britain, as it was protected by its powerful navy. Which in 1805, Napoleon will try to destroy.  Though Napoleon had a lot of successful victories against the Third coalition, they had lost one important battle that shrunk them all: The Battle of Trafalgar. Unlike all the battles occurring on land, this one was fought on the sea between French and British naval forces off the southern coast of Spain in 1805. Horatio Nelson (commander of the British fleet, but just as good at fighting at sea, just like Napoleon was fighting on land.) had earlier faced Napoleon’s naval forces near Egypt back in 1798 and decimated his forces there, and is now determined to do it again here. As he did back in Egypt, Nelson crippled Napoleon’s navy again. This was to be his last battle though, as he was struck down by a French sharpshooter during the battle. On the verge of death, Nelson gets the news that his fleet has won the battle; before he died he had enough strength to say "Now I’m satisfied...Thank God, I have done my duty." The British victory of Trafalgar ensured that the British navy would reign supreme for another hundred years, and dash Napoleon’s plans to invade Great Britain. Napoleon is determined to still crush England, but his actions to do this help cause his own fall of his entire empire and throne.  Though Napoleon’s empire in 1812 is so huge that the only Great Britain, Ottoman Empire, Sweden, and Portugal were the only major countries that are not yet conquered. But this empire does not have great stability as the people of the conquered countries start to develop nationality for their countries that they want to be independent from the French empire. Napoleon helps his empire fall by himself by making three mistakes that damaged his empire: the Continental System, the Peninsular War, and the invasion of Russia. Napoleons first mistake was signing a policy called the Continental System in November of 1806. This policy calls for a blockade of all the ports of Europe to be closed down from Britain and other European nations. The Continental policy was to have the continent of Europe become self-sufficient and in Napoleon’s mind, decimate Britain’s commercial and industrial economy. Though this policy hurts Napoleon more than it does the British, cause it’s no longer getting any materials from any other countries outside his empire anymore. The British however, manage to help sneak merchant ships through the French blockade to let them be able to trade with the countries of the French Empire. Britain constructs its own blockade and starts pulling in neutral ships going to the continent, and force them to go to a British port to be taxed and searched. This angers the Americans so much that the United States declares war on Britain. This war was called the War of 1812 which ended in a tie, and didn't affect Britain that much in their campaign against Napoleon. Besides Napoleon’s blockade being useless, the countries under the control of the French empire defy the treaty and continue trading, which makes this policy useless and inflict economic problems to France instead of Britain. Second mistake was the Peninsular War. This was caused because Portugal was defying the Continental System, and in 1808, Napoleon decides to send an army through Spain to invade Portugal. Since there was much protesting against this in Spanish towns, Napoleon removes Spain's monarch, and replaces him with his brother Joseph. The people of Spain are now embroiled with anger, that groups of Spanish peasants decide to for five years (1808-1813) to strike at French armies using guerrilla tactics. Since guerrilla fighting was a hit and run attack, Napoleon couldn't just defeat it just like he did in battles against professional armies. Britain takes advantage by interfering in the war by sending troops to help out the rebels. Napoleon losses about 300,000 soldiers to the attacks throughout the entire war, which helps weaken the French Empire. The Third and final mistake was invading Russia. Napoleon decides to invade Russia in June of 1812. Even though Russia was allied with France, it also abandoned the Continental System as it was selling grain to Britain. Since the alliance between the two countries was deterating at a fast rate, Napoleon decides to invade Russia to extend his grand empire even further. Napoleon’s army that was soon going to invade Russia was a combination of the countries that were controlled throughout his empire, and these soldiers were not so happy to serve under the leadership of Napoleon. When Napoleon did invade Russia with around 422,000 troops, the Russians started to use the scorched-earth policy while they retreated backwards instead of fighting head on with the massive French army. The scorched-earth policy was a policy in which the Russians would burn everything to the ground, including their crop fields, homes, and even slaughter their livestock so Napoleons army could not get their supplies from their own land. With no food to eat, the French army is starting to get weakened a bit, but still continues to march on through Russia. Then finally, the two armies of the Russians and the French run into each other, and the Battle of Borodino begins on September 7, 1812. The battle was brutal, as both sides would gain the advantage over each other, but soon lose it to the other. The Russian army decides to retreat and let Napoleon take Moscow, after they had burned it to the ground right after. When entering Moscow on September 14, Napoleon finds the city in flames. Napoleon wonders why the Russians would ever burn such a city, but in the meanwhile in the burned out city for 5 weeks expecting that a peace offer might come from czar. No peace offer ever showed up, and since it was now the Middle of October it was even too late to advance as the dreadful Russian Winter was going to settle in soon. Napoleon turns his back on Moscow and orders his once grand army is forced to retreat. The Russian winter has now come, and is dumping snow on Napoleon’s retreating army, while Russian groups decide to take advantage and attack the severely weakened army. Temperature's during this winter in Russia falls to around 30 degrees below zero, giving the surviving French soldiers frostbite. Then in the middle of December, Napoleon and his remaining army at last gets out of Russia. Only 10,000 of Napoleon’s invading army returns alive. Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden then swiftly ally with each other to form the Fourth coalition against Napoleon. Napoleon responded to the Fourth coalition by building another army in just a few months. There was problem to this though, since Napoleon’s army was badly destroyed when he attempted to invade, he had to build a new army force, but this time it would not consist of veteran soldiers like he had before to fight for or defend the French Empire. The allied forces rip his inexperienced army to shreds in the Battle of Leipzig. After that, Napoleon’s once great empire is beginning to collapse easily. The armies of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians were advancing toward Paris at a steady pace by January of 1814. Then by March of that year, the armies of Russia and Prussia march through Paris by their monarchs leading the way. Napoleon wants to continue fighting, but has no choice but to surrender as his generals refuse to continue. In April of 1814, Napoleon leaves the throne, and accepts the terms of surrender presented by the allies. He was to be banned, and exiled to the island of Elba with only a small pension. Though this would not be the last time Europe would see Napoleon Bonaparte. As soon as Napoleon has left, Louis XVIII comes to take the throne, and rule France. Louis XVIII was the brother of Louis XVI who was the king of France until he was forced out of his throne and gillotined during the violent French Revolution. The new king of France quickly had become hated by the French people as he had tried to bring back the old rule of the monarchy before the revolution. Hearing news of this, Napoleon Bonaparte manages to escape from Elba on March 1, 1815, and sets sail for France to try and regain his power once again. As he lands on French grounds again, he is welcomed back by the people of France. As Napoleon marches toward Paris, volunteers fill up Napoleons army. When King Louis XVII hears of Napoleon’s return, he sends French soldiers to intercept and halt Napoleon’s advance on the capital. As Napoleon is on his way to Paris, he is met by the French army. Napoleon boldly steps in the space between his volunteer army and the French army. The French army joins Napoleon’s forces as they are glad to see him back as well. King Louis XVIII runs from away from the throne as more of the French army joins Napoleon in the attempt to put him back in power. Napoleon has now secured back power as the emperor of France once again in only a matter of days. The European Allies respond to Napoleon’s return to power by building their armies up again. Even though Napoleon had clearly stated that he had no intentions of expanding France again, the allies don’t listen as they don’t trust Napoleon. After all, he nearly succeeded in conquering the whole of Europe, this time they take no chances. Napoleon is forced to combat the allies and decides to attack them near the village of Waterloo in Belgium on June 15, 1815 against British forces. The British armed forces hold out in the fight long enough for Prussian forces to reinforce their defense. Napoleon’s forces get tired and give up after two days of hard fighting against British and Prussian forces. Napoleon Bonaparte's second chance at power was called the "Hundred Days" which was sadly ended by the allied forces after the Battle of Waterloo.  Once again Napoleon had to accept the terms of surrender, and this time was banished to St. Helena located in the South Atlantic. This time there was no escape, as he lived his last six years on the remote island, he wrote memoirs. He dies lonely on the island in 1821 by a stomach ailment. Right before his death though, he justifies his actions of past years work, including his years as emperor of France.  "Such work as mine is not done twice in a century...I have saved the Revolution as it lay dying. I have cleansed it of its crimes, and have held it up to the people shining with fame. I have inspired France and Europe with new ideas that will never be forgotten." From my site: http://historyinfoandentertainment.webs.com/