Napoleon and the French Empire

As emperor, Napoleon insisted on directly controlling all parts of his empire and personally leading the French army in battle. As a result, Napoleon rarely rested. He would work twenty-hour days and often dictated his commands to several secretaries at once. He improved the lives of the French people by reforming the legal system and creating the Napoleonic Code, which made the laws the same for all people in France, regardless of their class. He also established public schools where any child could be educated and established the Bank of France with a new the currency called the franc, which was used by France until 1999. However, Napoleon never gave the French people democracy and did not allow them freedom of speech. For most of the time Napoleon ruled France, he was at war with the other countries of Europe. He was very successful in these wars and he was able to force most of Europe to follow his rule. The only country in Europe he could not defeat was England, which was protected by its powerful navy. Because he could not defeat England with his army, Napoleon tried to destroy its economy by not allowing any country in Europe to trade with England. However, this plan backfired because England used its navy to prevent Europe from trading with the rest of the world. This hurt many European countries. Russia, however, decided to ignore Napoleon and began to trade with England.

In response to Russia trading with England, Napoleon decided to invade Russia with his 400,000 man Grand Army. This action marked the beginning of Napoleon’s downfall. Instead of fighting Napoleon, the Russians retreated deep into Russia, destroying everything that Napoleon’s army could use for support. The Russians even burned the city of Moscow after Napoleon captured it. Napoleon was unable to force the Russians to surrender and decided to retreat from Russia. However, the cold Russian winter hit and froze Napoleon’s soldiers. In addition, the Russians decided to attack Napoleon’s retreating army. During this retreat, Napoleon’s army was destroyed - only 30,000 men of the Grand Army returned from Russia. After this, the combined armies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia advanced across Europe to end Napoleon’s rule in France and break-up his Empire. After two more years of constant warfare, Napoleon surrendered and was exiled to the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea.

However, Napoleon was not yet finished. In 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to rule France for “The Hundred Days”. The French welcomed Napoleon as a hero and he was able to quickly rebuild his army. However, the British and Prussian armies were able to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. After Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later.

Source # 1- Video of Napoleon's invasion of Russia - click here

Source # 2 - Map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the effect on his army