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Coronation of Napoleon, 1804 (painting by David, 1804)
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica on August 15, 1769, the son of Carlo and Letizia Buonaparte, poor but respected Corsican aristocrats. (Corsica had only recently become a possession of France.)[1] The Buonapartes’ second son, he had seven siblings (four brothers, three sisters). At the age of nine, young Napoleon was sent to a military school in France and, with pride and anticipation, looked forward to the prospect of a career as an army officer. Graduating as a second lieutenant in the artillery in 1786, Bonaparte was attracted to the study of political history and theory. He read Rousseau and was inspired by the thinking of the Enlightenment. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, he was moved by its spirit and promise of social justice. He became a Jacobin. Ever ambitious, he saw the Revolution as an opportunity and vigorously supported its principles and goals.
His rise to prominence as a military figure commanding national attention has been covered in earlier reading. Showing exceptional skill as an effective commander and strategist, Bonaparte advanced rapidly and was promoted to general by the age of twenty-four. The government of the Directory placed him in command of campaign against Austria in northern Italy. With his victory over the Austrians in 1797, Bonaparte became the most popular national figure in France. Seen as a "winner" whom the French people respected, he was courted by conservative politicians who conspired to put him in power to save the Revolution from being destroyed by royalist and radical opposition. Through a military coup d'état in November 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, became dictator of France. While his titles would differ from time to time, he would be undisputed master of France for the next sixteen years. Throughout those years both he and the French people saw him as the embodiment of the French general will.
Brief Biographical Overview
Napoleon ruled France from 1799 to 1814 and again briefly in 1815.
His career showed him to be a soldier, brilliant strategist, and enlightened thinker who was talented, energetic, charismatic, ambitious, and a lover of theater and opera. Throughout his public life he professed dedicated commitment to the ideals and goals of the French Revolution.
He held several political titles: First Consul, 1799-1802
Consul for Life, 1802-1804
Emperor of the French Republic, 1804-1814; 1815
He married 33-year-old Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796. Josephine was a widowed mother of two children at the time of their marriage. Unable to have children by her, Napoleon divorced her for political reasons in 1809. They remained close and dedicated friends. She died in 1814.
In 1810 he married 18-year-old Princess Marie Louise (Habsburg) of Austria, the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, Francis I. They had one son, Napoleon II, (official title, "King of Rome") who was born in 1811. When Napoleon was exiled in 1814, Marie Louise took her son back to Vienna. Awarded with the title, Duke of Reichstadt, the young Napoleon II spent the rest of his short life in Austria. He died of tuberculosis in 1832. Marie Louise remarried twice before her death in 1847.
Throughout Napoleon's rule, France would be at war with the great powers of Europe aligned in powerful coalitions. Napoleon would personally lead his armies in generally successful campaigns that by 1812 would bring almost all of Europe under French control. Only Britain remained unconquered and Napoleon's most formidable enemy.
Following the military disaster in Russia (the 1812 Campaign), the great powers renewed their offensive and Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814. The victorious allies exiled him to the island of Elba. The Bourbon monarchy was briefly restored, but Napoleon escaped from Elba, returned to France, and reasserted his authority in 1815. The allies refused to recognize him as the legitimate ruler of France and renewed the war. In June 1815, Napoleon's forces were decisively defeated by the British and Prussians at Waterloo. Napoleon again abdicated and surrendered himself to the British.
Napoleon died in exile on the British-held island of St. Helena in 1821. He was 51 years old.
Napoleon as Heir of the Revolution
The years of the Consulate (Napoleon's rule from 1799 to 1804) were years of significant accomplishment and reform. Napoleon's reforms upheld the liberal principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and corrected problems that surfaced during the Revolution.
Legal Reform The most significant reform completed the work that the Jacobins had inaugurated in 1793: the codification of French civil, criminal, and commercial law. Completed by 1810, the codified laws were known as the Civil Code or the "Code Napoleon." The major provisions of the Code...
... established legal equality, guaranteed freedom of worship and occupation to all;
...safeguarded private property;
...permitted civil marriage and divorce;
...provided for equality of inheritance among all heirs to the estate of the deceased;
...provided the legal base for contracts, leases, debts, and other commercial matters;
...outlawed labor unions (as obstacles to freedom of occupation);
...safeguarded the traditional family by giving fathers extensive legal authority over minor children;
...permitted women to own and inherit property.
Educational Reform A system of inexpensive public schools including elementary, secondary (lycees), and technical schools as well as universities was established. All education was placed under state supervision through a central agency called the "University of France" (the "Imperial University" at the time of Napoleon's empire).
Financial and Economic Reforms The Consulate established a relatively sound currency and secure public debt. A privately-owned, but government supervised, national Bank of France was established to assist in government financing. Public confidence in the currency and the government's financial responsibility revived. The tax collection system was restructured to make it more uniform and less open to evasion. Methods of financial management were introduced whereby accounts of government expenditures and budgeting were made more efficient.
A government-sponsored program of road and canal construction was established to encourage the revival of internal commerce that had been disrupted during the unrest of the Revolution.
Religion Napoleon reconciled France with the Roman Catholic Church. Religious peace would enhance political order and stability. Negotiations with Pope Pius VII resulted in the Concordat of 1801. Through the Concordat, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was revised to win papal approval.
According to the Concordat...
... bishops would be nominated by the state and consecrated by the Church;
... priests would be appointed and ordained by the bishops;
... the state would continue to pay the salaries of both Catholic and Protestant clergy;
... religious toleration would continue;
... the Church would recognize and accept the loss of its lands (taken during the Revolution) and the loss of the tithe;
... the Church would recognize and accept the French annexation (1791) of Avignon.
The Concordat would remain the basis of French-Papal relations until 1901.
Political Napoleon saw himself as the reflection of the general will of the French people. He would act arbitrarily, making policy and law without consulting the "constitutional" bodies of government. He measured popular support for his measures and ambitions through plebiscites in which all adult male citizens would vote. (A plebiscite is a ballot wherein the voters are asked to approve or reject a proposal put before them.) In 1804 Napoleon held a plebiscite in which the voters were asked to approve a proposal whereby he would take the title "Emperor of the French." The proposal was overwhelmingly approved, giving popular confirmation of his policies. Thus, Napoleon used democracy to make himself the absolute ruler of France. On December 2, 1804, in a glorious coronation ceremony in Nôtre Dame Cathedral, Napoleon, in the presence of Pope Pius VII and some 8000 spectators, placed the imperial crown on his own head. He then crowned Josephine as Empress.
Napoleon and Europe
The Napoleonic Wars to 1812
The purpose of this reading is to give an introduction to Napoleon and his impact on European and world history. It is not intended to be a military history. Yet Napoleon was best at being a soldier. He understood strategy and tactics. He personally led his armies in their major campaigns. He was victorious. His soldiers loved him. His enemies feared and respected him. What follows is a brief, and simplistic, overview of the Napoleonic Wars to 1812.
Napoleon came to power through his military successes in the Wars of the French Revolution. We have seen mention of his Italian and Egyptian campaigns in the 1790s. By 1799 only Britain remained at war (a naval war) with France, and a short-lived peace was arranged in 1802. The conflict with Britain resumed in 1803 and in 1805 became a major war with the formation of the Third Coalition (Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden). In this war Napoleon’s major ally was Spain.
The most decisive battle of this war was the great naval battle fought off Spain’s Cape Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. There, the combined French and Spanish fleets were defeated by a smaller British fleet led by Lord Horatio Nelson. Nelson was the greatest of Britain’s naval commanders. He had defeated the French at Alexandria in 1798 and won other important victories over the French and their allies prior to Trafalgar. A battle-hardened veteran, Nelson had lost both an eye and an arm in combat, but refused to allow these handicaps impede his command. Trafalgar was a significant victory. With the major part of the French and Spanish navies destroyed, France was no longer a military threat to Britain. Napoleon shelved plans for an invasion across the Channel. Britain did, however, suffer a tragic loss. Nelson was killed in the battle.
With an invasion of Britain no longer a realistic consideration, Napoleon turned to economic warfare. The implementation of his Continental System in 1806 was intended to ruin Britain economically. The British responded with a naval blockade of French and other Continental ports. (The Continental System and its impact are considered below.)
Unable to defeat the British at sea, Napoleon led his armies into central Europe against Austria and Russia. He met and defeated them twice in 1805: at Ulm (Oct.) and at Austerlitz (Dec.). Austria made peace, yielding Venetia and the Dalmatian coasts to France. It was on this background that in 1806 Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and reorganized the numerous states of Germany into the Confederation of the Rhine. The Habsburg ruler now took the title Emperor of Austria.
The War of the Fourth Coalition began in 1806 when Prussia joined Britain and Russia in alliance. In October 1806 Napoleon’s forces were victorious over the Prussians in battles fought at Jena and again at Austerlitz. Napoleon made a grand entry into Berlin. In the summer of 1807 he defeated the Russians at Friedland. Czar Alexander I agreed to discuss peace. The result was the Peace of Tilsit (June 1807). In this agreement, Russia and Prussia accepted the formation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, in effect, a revival of Poland. Both countries had to recognize the legitimacy of the Confederation of the Rhine and accept Napoleon’s brothers as the legitimate rulers of Naples, Holland, and Westphalia. Prussia was also required to close its ports to British trade. Alexander agreed to act as mediator in seeking peace between France and Britain and secretly promised that Russia would join France as an ally should Britain refuse to accept peace.
In late 1807 and early 1808 French armies invaded Portugal and Spain. The Spanish King abdicated in favor of his son, Ferdinand. Both men were brought to France where Napoleon compelled them to abdicate in favor of his brother, Joseph. The result was the long and bloody Peninsular War wherein all elements of the Spanish population rose in armed guerrilla resistance to the French occupation. The Spanish resistance was supported directly by Britain which sent an army to Spain. The British secured the liberation of Portugal without difficulty but Spain presented a significant challenge. Napoleon personally took command of the French armies in Spain and secured Madrid for his brother. The British were forced to withdraw from Spain altogether. In early 1809 a new British army, led by General Arthur Wellesley, arrived in Spain and gained a foothold from which to aid the Spanish guerrillas. The war in Spain would continue until late 1813.
In 1809 Austria, seeing Napoleon’s difficulties in Spain, broke the Tilsit agreement and allied with Britain in the War of the Fifth Coalition. Returning from Spain, Napoleon again led French forces into central Europe. The Austrians were initially defeated and Napoleon entered Vienna, but the victory proved temporary. In a renewed campaign, the Austrians pushed the French away from the capital. Austria’s military resources, however, were not sufficient to complete their victory. At the battle of Wagram (July 1809), the Austrians were soundly defeated. The Peace of Schönbrunn (October 1809) compelled Austria to surrender more territory and join the Continental System. He would now seek a closer, more personal relationship with Austria – a dynastic marriage with the Habsburg Princess Marie-Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I. The marriage was arranged by the new Austrian foreign minister, a remarkably talented diplomat named Klemens von Metternich.
The year 1810 found Napoleon master of most of Continental Europe. His expanded French Empire exercised domination over the smaller satellite states in Germany and Italy. Denmark, Austria, Prussia, and Russia had all been defeated and required to become “allies.” In his reorganization of Italy, Napoleon abolished the Papal States and made them the Kingdom of Rome. In 1811 he would name his newly-born son, Napoleon II, as the King of Rome. Even Sweden looked to France for direction. In the spring of 1810, circumstances in Sweden were such that one of Napoleon’s officers, Marshal Jean Bernadotte, was named crown prince. Only Britain and Spain remained problems for Napoleon and he was confident both would be overcome.
The Napoleonic Empire, 1812
By 1812 the Napoleonic domination of Europe was at its height. Napoleon's Empire consisted of three components.
The French Empire: France and the territories integrated under direct French sovereignty (Belgium, the Netherlands, Savoy, Sardinia, Rome, and Illyria).
France's Satellites These nations were technically sovereign but under Napoleon's political control and subject to Napoleonic reforms (e.g., the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and Napoleonic Code): Spain, Switzerland, the Confederation of the Rhine (the lesser states of the former Holy Roman Empire, which Napoleon abolished in 1806), the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (formerly Poland).
France's Allies Sovereign nations forced (by having been defeated in battle) to be Napoleon's allies: Prussia, Austria, Denmark-Norway, and Russia (1807-1812). These states were required, as was the entire Empire, to be part of Napoleon's Continental System.
Napoleon's Europe, 1812
Napoleon generously rewarded his family by placing them on the thrones of kingdoms throughout the Empire. His brother Joseph was King of Naples (1806 - 1808) and then of Spain (1808 - 1813). Brother Jerome was King of Westphalia (1807 - 1813), the major state of the Confederation of the Rhine. Brother Louis was briefly King of the Netherlands (1806 - 1810) before their annexation to France. His sister Elissa was Grand Duchess of Tuscany (Florence). His son, Napoleon II, only a child, was named titular King of Rome. His brother-in-law, Joachim Murat was named King of Naples in 1808. His adopted son, Eugene Beauharnais (Josephine’s son), ably served as his viceroy in the Kingdom of Italy.
Napoleon's Goals for Europe
As ruler of Europe, Napoleon envisioned a united Europe with a uniform law code (Code Napoleon) and founded on principles of social justice as contained in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. His Europe would have a Continental economic system, a single foreign policy, and an international Grand Army under one command. And, above all, he would remain supreme in power as the arbiter of Europe’s future.
The Continental System
Unable to challenge or defeat the naval power of Great Britain, Napoleon decided to wage economic war against the British by denying British merchants access to European markets. To Napoleon, Britain was a despicable “nation of shopkeepers” that thrived on profiteering and fought its wars by “buying” its allies. Overall, continental business interests resented Britain’s expanding wealth and ability to undersell its competitors. Britain was undergoing the Industrial Revolution and its mechanized production of textiles and other goods threatened to monopolize European markets for such manufactures. In the Berlin Decree of 1806 Napoleon instituted the Continental System. All nations under French control or allied with France were forbidden to trade with Britain. By closing Europe to British trade, he hoped to destroy British commerce and compel the British to make peace with France on his terms.
The British government responded to the Continental System by ordering a total naval blockade of all nations honoring Napoleon's orders. The British navy was so powerful that it was able to close all European ports. With British warships on station outside Europe's harbors, no ships of any nation were able to move in or out of the ports without Britain's permission. To "run" the blockade meant certain destruction. Continental trade came to a virtual standstill.
Intended to hurt the British economy, the Continental System backfired. The British blockade hurt Napoleon more than the French embargo hurt Britain. Continental trade declined. Their ports isolated and paralyzed under the guns of the British blockade, continental shippers, shipbuilders, and merchants suffered severe financial losses. Internal overland trade also suffered as it was impeded by tariffs. Napoleon insisted on preserving French tariffs yet forbid other continental states to raise their tariffs against French exports. The French satellites and allies became restive under the Continental System and did not willingly enforce Napoleon's orders. Napoleon, consequently, became more dictatorial and repressive. Meanwhile British trade thrived and expanded. The British found extensive new and profitable markets in Spanish Latin America. With Spain under Napoleon's rule, the British encouraged the Latin American colonies to loosen their economic and political ties with Madrid. Smuggling also kept Europe's markets open to British trade. Coming through the "back door" (Ottoman-dominated southeastern Europe), smuggled British goods made their way into Napoleon's Europe. By 1814 British national wealth was more than twice what it had been in 1792.
Neutral nations found the Continental System and British blockade to be a most serious problem. The British required that all neutral ships bound for Continental ports must first put into a British port and be inspected. If the British officials were satisfied that the neutral's cargo was such that it would not aid France's war effort, a license would be issued permitting the neutral vessel to pass through the blockade. If the cargo were not so cleared, the British would seize the cargo and perhaps the ship itself. In his Milan Decree of 1807, Napoleon retaliated by ordering that any neutral ship that obeyed the British orders be seized by French authorities on reaching a Continental port. Neutrals were left with little alternative but to try to run the blockade, risking attack by British warships.
The one neutral nation most seriously "caught" by the Continental System and British blockade was the United States. Although American ships were attacked or seized by both the British and French, it was against Britain that the United States finally declared war in 1812. The right to a neutral's freedom of the seas has henceforth become a major position of U.S. foreign policy.
Transition to Tyranny
As resistance to the Continental System increased, growing nationalism made the French satellites and allies more restive, and the war with Britain and the Spanish resistance strained France's resources, Napoleon became more cynical and self-centered. By 1810 his government was that of a police state characterized by strict censorship of the press, use of secret police, and arrest without trial. While still paying lip service to the ideals of the Revolution, Napoleon had sacrificed them to political expediency.
The Last Years
Two factors account for the undoing of Napoleon's hold on Europe. Both reflect the profound influence of nationalism. The disastrous attempt to invade and conquer Russia was one. The long and bitter Peninsular Campaign in Spain was the other.
In 1812 Czar Alexander I broke his treaty obligations with France and resumed active trade with Britain. Furious that Russia dared to defy him and afraid that Russia's action might cause the Austrians and Prussians to defy him as well, Napoleon resolved to punish Russia. The result was the Russian Campaign of 1812. Assembling over 500,000 troops in the largest army ever seen in Europe to that time, Napoleon personally led the invasion. The Grand Army was made up of units from all over Napoleonic Europe. It was believed invincible.
Rather than attack the Czar's capital at St. Petersburg, Napoleon's strategy was to strike at the very heart and soul of Russia: Moscow. Moscow was the ancient capital, the spiritual center of traditional Russian civilization. The French believed the capture of Moscow would force Alexander to surrender and mark Napoleon's greatest triumph. It was a fateful misconception.
In an astounding demonstration of nationalist feeling and sacrifice, the Russians withdrew in front of the advancing Grand Army, "scorching the earth" as they retreated. Nothing of value would be left to the invader. Fields and crops were burned. Villages were evacuated and destroyed. As Napoleon's forces pushed towards Moscow their supply and communication lines back to the west became severely strained. Units of the Russian army attacked the trains of supply wagons, denying the invaders food and other essentials. At Borodino outside Moscow the Russian army stood and fought but was defeated and again withdrew. The road to Moscow was open. On reaching the city, Napoleon found it empty.
Within hours of the arrival of the Grand Army in Moscow, Russian partisans in the city set it on fire. Napoleon's victory was hollow. Seeing Moscow burning down around him, he gave the order to retreat back to the west. It was September and winter came early in Russia. His hope was to get the army out of Russia before the winter set in. Unfortunately, in 1812 winter came earlier than usual.
The retreat of the Grand Army was an unparalleled military disaster. Cold autumn rains turned the roads into quagmires of freezing mud. Lacking winter uniforms, many French soldiers, exhausted and hungry, collapsed under the weight of the mud. Unable to move, and their comrades too weak to assist them, they froze to death where they fell. Weakened and demoralized, the retreating Grand Army was an easy victim for the Russian armies. The Russians shadowed the 1200-mile retreat, attacking the stragglers and rear guard units as well as the food and supply wagons. Thousands of French and allied soldiers died of exposure, exhaustion, starvation, or Russian attack. Of the half million men who invaded Russia in June, less than 100,000 survived the retreat. The Grand Army had been decisively defeated.
Napoleon's Europe began to crumble. In early 1813 Prussia broke with Napoleon and declared war. Austria soon followed. Nationalist sentiments in the German states led to the collapse of the Confederation of the Rhine. The Italians rose in rebellion. At the German city of Leipzig in "the Battle of the Nations," October 1813, Napoleon's forces were defeated by the combined Russian, Austrian, and Prussian armies. The road to Paris was now open to the allies.
The strength of anti-French nationalism was also vividly demonstrated in Spain. As we have seen above, the Spanish people never accepted the French occupation of their country and the expulsion of the Bourbon monarchy in 1808. Led by elements of the Catholic clergy and nobility, the Spanish waged a long and brutal guerrilla campaign against the government of King Joseph Bonaparte in Madrid. The British sent a sizable army, led by Arthur Wellesley,[2] to Spain to assist the Spanish insurgents. The resulting Peninsular Campaign culminated in 1813 when the combined British and Spanish forces pushed the French back across the Pyrenees.
In March 1814 the British engineered the Quadruple Alliance whereby Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia pledged to wage war against France for the next 20 years if necessary. It would not be necessary. The allied armies were in Paris by the end of the month. Napoleon decided to abdicate in favor of his three-year-old son, but the allies rejected his offer. They called for the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and ordered Napoleon exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. There he would be recognized as sovereign with the title Emperor of Elba. With Louis XVIII on the throne in Paris and Napoleon on Elba, the allied nations sent their representatives to a great international congress in Vienna to draw up the peace of Europe and settle the issues created by the years of revolution and war.
Elba was too limited a confinement for a man of Napoleon's ambitions. Sensing that the allies were divided and that the French people were not satisfied with the Bourbon restoration and would welcome his return to power, he planned to return to France. In late February 1815, Napoleon secretly escaped from Elba, landed in southern France and, with a few hundred loyal followers, began a dramatic march to Paris. Armies sent to destroy him rallied to him and the unpopular Louis XVIII fled the capital. Thus began the "Hundred Days" of 1815. Restored to power, Napoleon promised the aroused Allies that he would not embark on any future conquests. The allies refused to recognize Napoleon's new government and ordered the war against France renewed. Napoleon formed a new army and marched against the allied forces in Belgium hoping that a quick victory would strengthen his position both in France and with the allies. The allied armies in Belgium were combined British and Prussian forces under the command of Wellesley, now the Duke of Wellington. They met Napoleon's troops at the village of Waterloo on June 18, 1815.
The Battle of Waterloo led to the decisive and final defeat of Napoleon. With his armies destroyed, Napoleon fled back to France and again abdicated. Fearing that the allies would turn him over to the Russians, he surrendered himself to the British. The British exiled him to the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena. This time there would be no escape, no return to France, no revival of imperial glory. Under close guard by British sentries, Napoleon spent the last years of his life writing his memoirs. He died of intestinal cancer on May 5, 1821.
The Legacy of Napoleon
As the conqueror of much of Europe Napoleon Bonaparte's significance lies not in his military genius but in his dedication to the principles of the Revolution and desire to see them spread throughout Europe. Napoleon "exported" the Revolution to Europe. Wherever his armies were victorious, the Old Regime of absolutism, feudalism, and privileged estates was abolished in favor of social reconstruction based on the "enlightened" principles of the Revolution. The liberal principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the Napoleonic Code were thus introduced to the people of Prussia, Austria, Spain, the Italian states, the lesser German states, Denmark, and Poland. Once these ideas had been spread, there was no way possible to eliminate them. As in France, the group most attracted to these principles was the middle class. Middle class Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Poles, Dutch, Belgians, Austrians, Hungarians, and other nationalities affected by the experience of Napoleonic Europe saw these principles as their principles. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the European middle classes would remain the source of liberal thinking even as their conservative or reactionary governments sought to restore and preserve the Old Regime. This is the legacy of Napoleon.
The importance of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods is also evident in the development and spread of nationalism. The French Revolution inspired a profound feeling of national identity among the French people. The tradition of sovereignty exercised by a hereditary divine-right absolute monarch supported by privileged estates of nobility and clergy gave way to the concept of sovereignty resting in the nation – the people and their general will. It was in the name of the nation that the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly in 1789. It was in the name of the nation that the revolutionary leadership made the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It was in the defense of the nation and its rights that the radical Jacobins waged "the war of liberty against tyranny." It was in defense of the nation that millions of French men and women volunteered their services to support the armies at war with the First Coalition. It was this spirit of national identity that caused the victorious French to spread the liberal principles of the Revolution to the other peoples of Europe.
With the Napoleonic conquests, the enlightened principles of the Revolution were spread throughout much of Europe. As mentioned above, the experience of Napoleonic rule stimulated the development of liberal thinking among Europe's middle classes and doomed forever the Old Regime of absolutism and feudal privilege. The French armies that conquered Europe also brought the spirit of nationalism.
Napoleon's policies did a great deal to encourage the development of national identity throughout Europe. In his Italian campaign against the Austrians in the 1790s, he appealed to the Italian peoples to throw off the rule of the Hapsburgs and Bourbons and assert their identity as Italians. In the Napoleonic political reorganization of Italy, the some twenty Italian states were fused into three: The Kingdoms of Italy, Naples, and Rome. Albeit this unity was forced on them and they remained under French domination, the Italians began to see themselves as Italians, no longer as Florentines, Venetians, Romans, Milanese, or Neapolitans. The same was true in Germany. In 1806 a victorious Napoleon abolished the old Holy Roman Empire by combining its some 300 lesser states into a 32-state entity (excluding Austria and Prussia) called the Confederation of the Rhine. Thus, the Germans began to see themselves as a people sharing a common language, culture, and heritage. The same was true in the revitalized Poland – Napoleon's vassal state, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
The spirit of national identity was heightened by the circumstances of Napoleonic Europe. While at the same time introducing the liberalism of the Revolution, Napoleon also imposed the conditions of French domination. The French Empire included peoples who were not French (Belgians, German Rhinelanders, Italian Savoyards, Sardinians, Romans, and Dutch Netherlanders). Napoleon's allies and satellite republics and kingdoms smarted under French regulations - adherence to the Continental System, providing soldiers for the Grand Army, making their foreign and domestic policy conform to French expectations. European nationalism took form as resistance to French domination.
In all countries under French domination, nationalist expression was both conservative and liberal. Conservatives urged resistance to French influence in the name of traditional values, folkways, and institutions. In Spain, for example, the popular opposition to Napoleon was led by the Spanish nobility and clergy and sought the restoration of Bourbon absolutism. Liberal nationalists, largely middle class, urged resistance to the French by demanding greater individual freedom, self-determination, and more representative government. In the face of growing nationalism among his subject peoples, Napoleon was forced to become more autocratic and arbitrary in his authority. Strict censorship was imposed. Police authority became more evident and arrests became more frequent. In the eyes of millions of Europeans, Napoleon became less the enlightened liberator and more the tyrant. Following the defeat of the Grand Army in the 1812 Russian Campaign, European nationalism, in effect Napoleon's own creation, would rise against him, destroy him, outlast him, and shape the history of future generations.
Thus, liberalism and nationalism remain the timeless and pervading legacies of Napoleon Bonaparte. Himself the creation of the Enlightenment and French Revolution, he gave its principles universal permanence both in France and in Europe. Through his conquests the liberal and nationalist spirit was spread throughout Europe. People began to think in a new way: that each individual holds universal rights under law and, collectively with others, exercises a sovereign will by which the people shall be governed and through which they will progress. Through the Napoleonic experience, they saw themselves as commonly sharing a unique history, experience, and culture. They took pride in their national identity and sought to assert their self-determination as a nation. More than any other force today, nationalism inspires and directs the interests and policies of the some 200 states of the world community.
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The map of Europe 1812 is from the University of Florida website. All other images in this section are from Wikipedia sources.
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Sources for Napoleon
Brinton, Crane et al. A History of Civilization. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1960.
Cronin, Vincent. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: Morrow, 1972.
Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Napoleon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.
Gagnon, Paul. France since 1789. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
Herold, J. Christopher. The Age of Napoleon. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.
Knapton, Ernest. Europe 1450 - 1815. New York: Scribners, 1958.
Langer, William et al. Western Civilization. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.
Langer, William. An Encyclopedia of World History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
Lefebvre, Georges. Napoleon: From 18 Brumaire to Tilsit. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
---. Napoleon: From Tilsit to Waterloo. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
McLynn, Frank. Napoleon: A Biography. New York: Arcade, 1997.
Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. New York: Norton, 1996.
Palmer, Robert R. et al A History of the Modern World. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.
Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: Harper Perenniel, 1998.
Wetterau, Bruce. MacMillan Concise Encyclopedia of World History. New York: MacMillan, 1983
[1] The Buonapartes changed their name to Bonaparte to make it “French.”
[2] In 1809 Wellesley was awarded the title Duke of Wellington.
Napoleon as First Consul (painting by Ingres, 1803)
Napoleon as Emperor (painting by Ingres, 1806)
Josephine as Empress (painting by Gerard, 1808)
Napoleon (painting by David, 1812)
Napoleon's brother Joseph (1768-1844) was appointed by Napoleon as King of Naples, 1806-1808, and later, King of Spain, 1808-1813. He is pictured here as King of Spain in his coronation robes.
Educated as a lawyer and active in the politics of the Directory, Joseph was elected to the Council of Five Hundred and then the Council of Ancients and briefly served as France's ambassador to Rome. Despite attempting reforms to modernize Spain, he was regarded by most Spaniards as the usurping puppet of his younger brother. Defeated in the Peninsular War, Joseph abdicated the Spanish crown and returned to France. Following the collapse of Napoleon's rule in 1815, he relocated to the United States where he lived in the Philadelphia area until 1832. He died in Florence in 1844.
Joseph Bonaparte (painting by Gerard, 1808)
Marie-Louise (1791-1847) was the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Francis I. She was married to Napoleon in 1810 and gave birth to a son, Napoleon II, in 1811. With Napoleon's defeat and subsequent abdication in 1814, she and her son returned to Vienna. In 1816 she was named Duchess of Parma, where she would live until her death in 1847. She would marry twice more.
Empress Marie-Louise (painting by Isabey, 1810)
Napoleon II (1811-1832) held the honorary title King of Rome from 1811 until 1814. He was named Emperor Napoleon II when his father abdicated in 1814 and again in 1815, but the Congress of Vienna refused to recognize the title. In 1814 his mother, Marie-Louise, took him back to Vienna where he would spend the rest of his short life. In Vienna, he was known as "Franz" and held the title (bestowed upon him by his grandfather, Francis I) Duke of Reichstadt. He died of tuberculosis in 1832.
Napoleon II (painting by Daffinger, c.1831)
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