NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
Napoleon
• Born in Corsica • Family was minor
nobility
Napoleon
• Age 9 started military training – 20 years old during
the Revolution– Favored Jacobins &
republican rule
Early Success
• Won victories against, Austria & captured parts of Northern Italy
• 1798: – Led an expedition to
Egypt looking to end British trade with India
• Campaign was a disaster but he hid stories from French admirers
Discontent in France
• 1798: (while in Egypt) – French government was threatened by
unrest – Allied powers seemed ready to invade
• Napoleon saw this as his opportunity to help his country
ROSETTA STONE
The Coronation of Emperor Napoleon & Empress Josephine
Emperor
• 1799: Coup d’etat– helped overthrow the
Directory & set up the Consulate
• 1804: named himself Emperor of France
France under Napoleon• Reforms – to restore economy Napoleon:
– Controlled prices, encouraged industry and built roads and canals.
• Made peace with the Catholic Church
Kept Church under state control but allowed religious freedom for Catholics
Recognized the peasants rights to land they bought from Church
• Made jobs open to “all talent”• Encouraged emigres to return (took an oath of
loyalty
Napoleonic Code
• Based on enlightenment thinking – Equality for all
citizens– Religious toleration
Building an Empire• Annexed areas to France
– Netherlands– Belgium– Parts of Italy & Germany
• Controlled most of Europe through diplomacy– Putting friends & relatives
on thrones in Europe • His brother Joseph took the
throne in Spain
Building an Empire
• Controlled lands from Spain to Russian border
• The beginning of the end was when he waged war against England & Russia at the same time
Conquests were Positive and Negative
• Would spread Revolutionary ideas to the lands he conquered
• Would also spread nationalism (people would revolt against him)
Defeat
• Britain, Prussia, Austria & Russia united to defeat him
• Russian Winter: – Napoleon was unprepared – Russians practiced a slash &
burn policy
ELBA
Exile
• 1814• Captured by Russians
– Exiled to the island of Elba
• 1815– February he escaped &
ruled France until he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
Exile
• Once again exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died
Where Napoleon stayed
Dying from stomach cancer
NAPOLEON’S TOMB
Life After Napoleon• Louis XVIII (Louis XVI’s brother) ruled
France
• Many of the rights people died for during the Revolution were taken away
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