1. The French Revolution:
The Rise and Fall of
Napoleon Bonaparte
Chapter 18

2. Hero, Dictator, Conqueror,
Menace
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
by Jacques-Louis David, 1801

3. Military Rise
• 1793, Captured Toulon from Royalists and the
British and promoted from Captain to Brigadier
General at 24
• Rebuffed an uprising against the Directory
(group of 5 men that replaced the Committee
of Public Safety)
• Marched into Italy and defeated Austrians,
forcing them to withdraw.
• Attacked British forces in Egypt. Escaped from
British by leaving his army surrounded.

4. Coup d’etat
• Abbe Sieyes (―What is the 3rd Estate‖) conspired with Napoleon
to replace the Directory.
• Napoleon becomes ―temporary consul‖ on 9 November 1799.
• ―confidence from below, authority from above‖
• Napoleon would not have been able to rise above the rank of
major in the pre-revolutionary French army because he did not
have enough money to purchase his rank. As a a result of the
abolition of rank purchase, Napoleon was able to rise on his
own merits—making him a son of the Revolution.
• But Napoleon was unwilling to wait for the democratic process.
• First Consul
• Second Constitution
• White male suffrage for literate men
• Indirect elections
• 1802 Consul for Life ratified by Plebecite
• Centralized authority

5. Domestic Reforms Under
Napoleon
• Napoleonic Code
• Affirmed ―natural authority‖ of husband over wife
• Married women required husband’s permission to sell property, own a
business or enter a profession
• Unequal divorce: men- adultery of wife. Women: only if a man moved his
mistress into the family home.
• No paternity suits to establish male parentage of illegitimate children
• Criminal Code
• Citizens are equal before the law
• Outlawed arbitrary arrest and imprisonment (required independent
determination of reasons for arrest)
• Abolished cruel punishments like branding and cutting off hands
• Educational Reform
• Established ―lycees” (high schools) in every major town.
• Institute of France
• Military Academy
• Teacher Education

6. Concordat with Pope
• 1801
• Pope had right to appoint and depose Bishops and discipline
French clergy
• Pope would forego claims to French land once owned by
church and seized during French Revolution
• Did not revoke principle of religious freedom
• Did ease worries of religious conservatives whose support
Napoleon needed to remain in power

7. Emperor Napoleon I
• 2 December 1804 Napoleon crowns himself
Emperor at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

8. Napoleonic Wars
• 1805 Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Swedes and British allied
to contain France.
• Napoleon’s military advantages
• Conscript army
• Revolutionary Militias
• Promotions based on talent and merit not birth or patronage
• Domestic economy geared to support of military
• Battle of Austerlitz 5 December 1805
• Napoleon defeats combined forces of Austria and Russia
• Rules the continent from Portugal to Russia
• Allies and client states
• Rome, Papal states, Confederation of the Rhine (principalities in
Germany and part of Poland); Dalmatian territories (Croatia)
• Spain, Naples, Holland: Napoleon’s brother, brother-in-law and
general installed as monarchs.

9. Napoleon’s Empire by 1811

10. Consequences of Empire
• Brought the practical consequences of French Revolution to
Europe
• Powerful, centralizing state and an end to old systems of privilege
• Changed terms of government service: merit vs. patronage or
birth
• Ended nobility monopoly on officer corps
• State sponsored military
• Training
• Support beyond pay (food, clothing, armaments)
• Defense taxes ―liberty and requisitions‖
• Universal conscription
• Elimination of feudal and clerical courts
• State support for education on a broad scale

11. Continental System: Beginning of
Napoleon’s Fall
• 1806 Napoleon sought to starve the British into
submission by and embargo on continental trade in British
goods
• 1807 British Navy blockades the continent
• Continental trade was hurt more than British trade
• WHY?
• British global colonies
• Trade with South America

12. Napoleon Dreams of Rome
• Napoleon’s ambition
• Recreate Roman empire
• Rule Rome from Paris
• Divorces Josephine
• Marries Marie Louse (great niece of Marie Antoinette)
• Loses support of former revolutionaries in France, enlightenment
thinkers on the continent, and liberals at home and abroad

13. New Militaries Emerge
• Prussia
• Demand for rigorous practical training
• Citizen army– no mercenaries
• Support from State
• Effect of Napoleon’s defeats on allies
• Defeat at Trafalgar 1805 led to rift with Spain
• Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808
• Peninsular Wars
• British and Spanish insurgents
• French atrocities

14. The Third Of May 1808
Francisco Goya

15. Invasion of Russia 1811
• Tsar Alexander I turned blind eye to Russian trading with
Britain
• Napoleon collected ―Grande Armee‖ of 600,000 soldiers to
invade Russia
• Russian army was outnumbered and withdrew deep into
interior of Russia, burning land which Napoleon’s army might
use
• Russian partisans burned Moscow rather than allow it to be
conquered by Napoleon.
• Insurgent strikes on sick and demoralized army of France
• By December 1812 French army had dwindled to a few
thousand

16. Last Battles
• Battle of Nations, Leipzig October 1813
• Austrians, Russians, Swedes and Prussians defeat
Napoleon
• March 31 Tsar Alexander & King Frederick
William III of Prussia marched into Paris
• Napoleon sent to exile on Elba

17. Brief Return, Final Defeat
• Victorious Allies restore a Bourbon King to throne of
France, Louis XVIII (brother of Louis XVI)
• Napoleon escaped from Elba and Louis XVIII flees
France.
• Allies meeting at Congress of Vienna hastily organize
and army against Napoleon.
• Battle of Waterloo June 15-18, 1815
• Napoleon defeated by Britain and Prussia
• Exiled to Saint Helena and died in 1821

18. Haitian Revolution
• Caribbean Islands & French sugar plantations
• Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint-Domingue
• Intense competition with British and Spanish
• Saint-Domingue
• 40,000 whites of different social classes
• 30,000 free people of color
• 500,000 slaves
• 1790 Delegation of Free People of Color to Paris asking to be seated in
the General Assembly.
• Refusal to seat delegation caused unrest in Saint-Domingue
• Vincent Oge` and other leaders of delegation
• Broken on the wheel and decapitated
• August 1791 Largest slave rebellion in History?
• Spanish and British poised to take over the island
• French promised citizenship to Free People of Color and freedom to slaves

19. Toussaint L’Ouverture
• Leader of indigenous forces for independence
• Defeated French planters in 1797
• British 1798
• Spanish 1801
• Haitian Constitution
• Abolished slavery
• Established Christianity
• Toussaint –governor for life
• Allegiance to France but French cannot interfere in Haiti internal affairs
• 1802 Toussaint captured
• 20,000 French troops
• Yellow Fever
• Insurgency
• Atrocities
• French troops recalled in 1803
• Jean-Jacques Dessalines declares independent state of Haiti in 1804

20. Touissaint L’Ouverture
Jean-Jacques Dessalines