The French Revolution — especially the Reign of Terror — exhausted the nation, but there was still enough opposition from royalists and former Jacobin extremists to leave the Directory in a weakened position. The Directory faced terrible economic crises and had to allow much of France's public debt to slide into default. Given the problems faced by the nation, the Directory was destined to failure.
The Convention held new elections in 1797, but only 13 of its 216 members were re-elected. Most of the Directors were former emigres, including Talleyrand.
In 1799, Parisian political leaders had found their man for a coup d'etat against the Directory: Napoleon Bonaparte, a general in the French army.
Napoleon wasn't French by birth. His parents were Italian aristocrats on the island of Corsica. France had bought Corsica from the state of Genoa in 1768, the year before Napoleon was born. Napoleon's father served as Corsica's representative to Louis XVI's court beginning in 1778.
Napoleon was granted admission to a French military school in 1779. Although the boy wasn't good at literature (he spoke French with a heavy Italian accent throughout his life), he was a gifted mathematician. His talent for math earned him a position at the Ecole Militaire in Paris, the best military school in the nation, in 1784. Napoleon studied artillery and completed the 2-year school in only a year. After graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army. He was 16 years old.
When the Revolution broke out, Napoleon took military leave and returned to Corsica. While there, he supported the Jacobins on the island. The governor of the island banished Napoleon and his entire family in 1793.
During the civil war, Napoleon was stationed at the battle of Toulon, which was occupied by British troops aiding the rebels who had taken control of the town. Napoleon won the battle and re-captured the town by pointing the French artillery at the British ships in the harbor. The British withdrew, and Napoleon became a hero. He was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 25.
The Committee of Public Safety in Paris, the group responsible for the Reign of Terror, took notice of Napoleon. The young general became a favorite of Robespierre. When Robespierre was guillotined, Napoleon was imprisoned for 2 weeks before being freed to aid the French armies.
In 1795, royalist mobs in Paris threatened to overthrow the Directory and restore the monarchy. Napoleon was given command of the defending troops. Napoleon aimed his cannon directly at the mobs and, in his words, cleared the streets "with a whiff of grapeshot."
By 1795, the French armies had taken Belgium from Austria and annexed it to France. France also created several "sister republics" in Europe. The Revolution was spreading.
1796: Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais, his true love. He was sent to Italy only days after his marriage.
Napoleon was sent to Italy to hold the Austrian army there long enough for another French army to march through Germany to Vienna. Instead, Napoleon won the war with the army he found when he arrived over the Alps. October 1797: Francis I of Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio. In return for peace, Austria received Venice (which was still independent but was conquered by Napoleon). France then created sister republics in Switzerland, central Italy, and southern Italy. Napoleon created the republics in Italy (the Ligurian and Cisalpine republics). Italians began dreaming of a unified Italy.
1798: Napoleon was getting far too popular for the Directory's comfort. He published 3 newspapers in France while on campaign in Italy. The Directors wanted to invade Great Britain, but Napoleon talked them into invading Egypt instead.
Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, taking with him a large number of scientists. Napoleon's campaign formed the basis for the science of Egyptology. One of Napoleon's officers found the Rosetta stone, a monument with Egyptian hieroglyphics and ancient Greek. This monument led to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Napoleon defeated the Mamelukes, a group of soldiers that had ruled Egypt for centuries, first independently and then under the Ottomans. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the British fleet under Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet, leaving Napoleon with no way to supply or reinforce his army. Although Napoleon defeated the Ottomans in Syria, the campaign ended with the Directors ordering Napoleon's return to France. Before Napoleon returned to Paris, he had learned that Austria, Britain, and Russia had formed another coalition against France.
November 1799: Napoleon led a coup d'etat against the Directory. The Revolution was finished. Napoleon produced a new constitution that ended the Republic. The Directory was replaced with the “Consulate,” a trio of rulers of which Napoleon served as First Consul and actual ruler of France.
Napoleon's accomplishments:
1800: defeated Austrian armies and forced Austria to sign a new peace treaty. Britain signed a peace treaty with France as well.
1803: sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States to raise money for the upcoming war with Britain. Price: $.03/acre.
2 December 1804: Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. He then crowned his wife, Josephine, as empress.
1805: war with the Third Coalition of Europe. Aside from Lord Nelson's defeat of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon defeated every army sent against him. The Russians and Austrians were crushed at the Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805.
21 October 1805: Trafalgar sealed the British domination of the seas until World War II.
Treaty of Tilsit: signed with Tsar Alexander I of Russia, dividing Europe between the two nations.
Napoleon ended the Holy Roman Empire and consolidated the roughly 1,000 German principalities into 40, simplifying German unification later in the century. Of all Europe, only Portugal, Britain, Scandinavia, and Russia were free of French domination. Prussia and Austria were independent but forced to garrison French troops in their lands. In 1809, after the defeat of the Fourth Coalition, Bonaparte (who had divorced Josephine) married the teenage daughter of Francis I of Austria to keep Austria in line and produce an heir.
Napoleon used his brothers to rule Europe. Joseph was made king of Spain; Holland was ruled by his brother Louis; Napoleon's brother-in-law, General Murat, became the king of Naples.
Napoleon was a military genius. It helped that he had continued the universal conscription of the Republic and regularly commanded over 100,000 troops in battle. Napoleon developed new uses for artillery and cavalry units.
Continental system: Napoleon's attempt to defeat Britain economically. No nations on continental Europe were allowed to trade with Britain.
1811: Alexander I, under pressure from the Russian aristocracy, began allowing trade with Britain. Napoleon decided (against all advice) to invade Russia and force Alexander to enforce the blockade.
1812: Napoleon invaded Russia, forgetting about General Land and General Winter. 600,000 men went into Russia with Napoleon. The Russian army refused to give him a set battle, instead retreating and burning everything rather than leaving anything for the French army. After the Battle of Borodino on 7 September 1812, Napoleon entered Moscow — to find it empty and burning. Alexander wasn't there.
Napoleon stayed in Moscow until October, when he left the city and began marching back to Europe. Fewer than 40,000 troops of Napoleon's army left Russia. Total casualties: French, 570,000; Russian 400,000; untold civilian deaths, but at least several hundred thousand.
1813: Emperor Frederick William II of Prussia joined the Russians and Austrians in a new coalition The British and Spanish were advancing from the Iberian Peninsula. October 1813: Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of Leipzig by a force of Germans, Russians, and Austrians numbering over 365,000 troops.
Paris was occupied by the Coalition in March 1814, and Napoleon abdicated. Napoleon was sent to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, and Louis XVI's brother assumed the throne as Louis XVIII. (Louis XVI's son died in prison during the Revolution; he would have been Louis XVII.)
26 February 1815: Napoleon escaped Elba and returned to France. The troops sent to capture him instead shouted for joy when they saw their old commander and joined him on the way to Paris. Louis fled, and Napoleon ruled France again for 100 days.
June 1815: Napoleon marched to Belgium to defeat the British and Prussian armies trying to meet against him. Napoleon defeated the Prussians, but when he attacked the British under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo on 18 June, the Prussian army re-grouped and joined the British at a crucial time in the Battle. Napoleon's famous Old Guard, which had never lost a battle, was destroyed in the battle. Napoleon was finished.
Napoleon was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic (way out in the Atlantic). He died 5 May 1821. His last word: "Josephine."
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