By 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, self proclaimed Emperor of France, was facing a collapse of his empire. From 1810, at the peak of his political and military power, to the spring of 1814, Napoleon suffered from too many territories to govern and too many wars being fought on too many fronts. Allied forces, from Britain, Prussia, the Netherlands and Belgium all worked toward defeating Napoleon, finally taking the city of Paris on March 31, 1814. Even then, with the capital city under allied control, Napoleon refused to concede defeat, only doing so when his own marshals refused to obey his commands any longer.
On April 4th, Napoleon officially abdicated as Emperor of France. The Allied forces decided to exile the former emperor to the small island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany. Instead of a European Empire, Napoleon now ruled over 86 square miles of rough island terrain. The allies immediately restored the Bourbon monarchy, making Louis XVIII the King of France.
The allied forces gathered together at the Congress of Vienna in November 1814 to decide best how to divvy up Napoleon’s conquered territories. While the European powers squabbled over who gets what, Napoleon was receiving steady reports that the people of France were unhappy with the restored monarchy and the new French government. So on March 1, 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed at the port of Cannes, along the Mediterranean coast, with a few hindered followers. The soldiers that Louis XVIII dispatched to arrest Napoleon defected and joined with him instead. The thwarted Emperor of France reached Paris on March 20, 1815 and was heartily welcomed by the peasants and middle class. Louis XVIII fled and the allies in Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw.
The Allies planned full scale invasion of France for July, 1815. In the meantime, British and Prussian troops stationed in Belgium were responsible for keeping Napoleon contained in France. The troops were under the direction of British war hero, the Duke of Wellington and Prussian commander Gebhard Lebercht von Blücher.
On June 16 Napoleon’s forces defeated the Prussians at Ligny. He then set out to defeat the 96,000 troops at Waterloo. Napoleon was outnumbered, with only 74,000 troops. However he had his Imperial Guard, which had been undefeated for 11 years. When the Imperial Guard was sent to take the ridge that Wellington and his troops held, the unthinkable happened. The Imperial Guard broke in retreat and the battle was over. Napoleon had lost his last hope of regaining power.
Following the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon tried to hop a ship to America, but was caught by the British. He then begged for asylum from Britain his “oldest and most constant enemy.” Britain said thanks, but no thanks, and proceeded to banish Napoleon to St. Helena, a remote island hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa. Napoleon would never set foot in France again. He spent the last six years of his life on St. Helena, dictating a rather inaccurate (though very entertaining) autobiography.
Despite Napoleons less than glorious end, his legacy was long lasting. The Napoleonic codes, the ideas of the Rights of Man, and other principles from the French Revolution were carried throughout Western Europe and beyond.
The German writer Jean Paul had said, “Providence had given the French the empire of land, the English that of the sea, and to the Germans that of the air.” What Paul whimsically meant by “Germans” cannot easily be ascertained. The numerous political entities that contained Germans included not only the states of Austria and Prussia, but also various duchies and fiefdoms. This fragmentation would be changed by a very unlikely source---Napoleon.
The impact Napoleon Bonaparte had was so severe that the boundaries of Germany had to be redrawn as a result of France seizing all German territory on the west bank of the Rhine.
The conditions of southern and northern German states differed greatly as a result of this deputation. Bavaria, Baden, and Wurttemberg--- all southern and southwestern states, were built up by Napoleon’s France to counter the strength of Prussia and Austria. These southern German states owed their newfound strength to their imperial French masters, and this client relationship was to take on an even more subservient role to France with the formation of fifteen German states into the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. Later this confederation was to include nearly every German state, except for Austria and Prussia. After less than a month of the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon; the confederation’s official protector, announced the official end of the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire.
In response to this and other insulting provocations, King Frederick William of Prussia concluded a secret agreement with Tsar Alexander. Even before Russia had ratified the treaty, before securing adequate Russian support, Prussia mobilized its army against the French. Charles Breunig points out in The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789-1850, that “Prussian troops were outnumbered two to one, and they turned out to be no match for the well-trained armies of Napoleon. On October 14, 1806, before the Russians could arrive to support them, the Prussians were defeated simultaneously at Jena and at Auerstedt.” The French easily rolled through Prussia--- in the process capturing Berlin, pursuing Frederick William and his armies, who had to seek refuge in East Prussia. Napoleon further humiliated Prussia by annexing some of its most precious territories and taking half its population from it.
Austria, who was not as economically and militarily crippled as Prussia, took on a more proactive role towards France. In A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000, author Martin Kitchen reveals, “Count Philip Stadion, the first minister, was a conservative southern German, but he was also a fervent patriot. He hoped to mobilize popular sentiment throughout Germany and inspire a war of liberation that would result in the rebirth of the German empire.” But this was an unrealistic vision, as the regular army was no match for Napoleon. Although, this fact was made obscured following Napoleon’s defeat at Aspern in May 1809, as he attempted to cross the Danube River. Alan Schom states in his biography, Napoleon Bonaparte, “French losses were extremely high, probably as many as 16,000 dead and perhaps double that wounded... although Napoleon publicly announced to the world only 4,100 dead and wounded. The Austrians officially suffered 23,000 casualties, and were the clear winners of the unequal two-day battle.”
To Austria’s dismay, the majority of German states showed minimal support, and on June 5, 1809, Napoleon, taking advantage of the situation, delivered a crushing blow to Austrian Archduke Charles’ forces and shortly thereafter entered Vienna. Austria was forced to cede further territories and was obliged to pay insurmountable war indemnities.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the most captivating general and leader in French history who became famous for military victories that made him master of almost all of Europe, crowned himself emperor of the French in 1804.
Born to parents of Italian ancestry on the island of Corsica in 1769, Napoleon was educated in France, distinguishing himself in science and mathematics. He entered the École Militaire in 1784 and, a year later, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery. He began an intensive study of military history and theory at that time.
Napoleon stood only about five feet, six inches tall, so early in his military career he was nicknamed "the little corporal." But he rose quickly through the ranks until he staged a coup d’etat in 1799 that made him first consul of France. Then, he led his armies to many stunning successes on the battlefields of Europe and, by 1807, France ruled an area that stretched from Portugal to Italy and north to the Elbe River.
However, Napoleon's attempts to conquer the remainder of Europe failed. A defeat in Moscow in 1812 nearly destroyed his empire, and he was deposed and exiled to the island of Elba in 1814. Ever since then, historians have been studying and debating his life, his accomplishments as well as failures. “History is a set of lies agreed upon,” he once said.
The wars of the French Revolution provided Captain Bonaparte with the opportunity to distinguish himself. His skilled handling of the artillery at the siege of Toulon in 1793 forced the British invaders to forgo their aim of conquest, and he was rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general.
During the revolution, a member of the Directory ordered Napoleon to defend the Convention in Paris from a hostile crowd, and he dispersed the mob with what he called a “whiff of grapeshot.” “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets,” he said. He was given command of the Army of the Interior and, in 1798, was appointed to lead the Army of Italy. His victories against the Austrians in northern Italy induced them to conclude the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797.
Napoleon attempted to conquer Egypt in 1798–99, but was defeated by the British under Horatio Nelson at the battle of the Nile. Nevertheless, he reorganized the Egyptian government, introduced the first printing presses, created a health department and built hospitals for the poor, and founded the Institut d'Egypte. During the French occupation, the Rosetta Stone was also discovered, and the Nile River was explored as far south as Aswan.
The coup of Brumaire brought Napoleon to power in 1799, and he set up a military dictatorship, making himself first consul. He introduced many significant governmental reforms, including the Napoleonic Code, and redesigned the French educational system. He also negotiated the Concordat with the pope in 1801.
After vanquishing the Austrians at the battle of Marengo in 1800, he set out on what came to be called the Napoleonic Wars. The formation of coalitions of nations in Europe against him led Napoleon to declare France a hereditary empire and crown himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris. The claim that he seized the crown from the hands of the pope in order to negate his subservience to the pontiff’s authority is not true. The coronation ceremony had been agreed to in advance.
Napoleon won his greatest military victory against Austria and Russia at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. He went on to defeat Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt the next year, and Russia at the battle of Friedland in 1807. He imposed on Russia the Treaty of Tilsit, thus ending the fourth coalition of countries against France.
Despite his loss to Britain at the battle of Trafalgar, he sought to weaken British commerce by establishing the Continental System, which blockaded their ports. He consolidated his European empire until 1810, but then became embroiled in the Peninsular War in 1808–14. He led the French army into Austria and won the battle of Wagram in 1809, and then signed the Treaty of Vienna.
To enforce the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon led an army of some 600,000 into Russia in 1812, winning the battle of Borodino. But he was forced to retreat from Moscow with huge losses. With his army weakened, he confronted a powerful coalition of allied powers, which beat him at the battle of Leipzig in 1813. After Paris was taken by the allied coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 and exiled to the island of Elba.
In 1815, Napoleon returned to Paris and seized power again to reestablish himself as emperor. But the success of the Hundred Days did not last. The French army's loss to the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 defeated him once and for all.
Napoleon was exiled again, this time to the island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821 of an unidentified ailment, perhaps stomach cancer. Traces of arsenic were found in his remains later, leading some historians and scientists to suggest that he may have been fatally poisoned.
In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and his tomb at Les Invalides remains a popular tourist attraction to this day. One of the most celebrated figures in world history, Napoleon revolutionized military organization and brought about liberal reforms that permanently influenced institutions in France and throughout Europe. “A leader,” he once said, “is a dealer in hope.”
Napoleon Abdicates
On April 4th, Napoleon officially abdicated as Emperor of France. The Allied forces decided to exile the former emperor to the small island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany. Instead of a European Empire, Napoleon now ruled over 86 square miles of rough island terrain. The allies immediately restored the Bourbon monarchy, making Louis XVIII the King of France.
Napoleon Escapes From Elba
The allied forces gathered together at the Congress of Vienna in November 1814 to decide best how to divvy up Napoleon’s conquered territories. While the European powers squabbled over who gets what, Napoleon was receiving steady reports that the people of France were unhappy with the restored monarchy and the new French government. So on March 1, 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed at the port of Cannes, along the Mediterranean coast, with a few hindered followers. The soldiers that Louis XVIII dispatched to arrest Napoleon defected and joined with him instead. The thwarted Emperor of France reached Paris on March 20, 1815 and was heartily welcomed by the peasants and middle class. Louis XVIII fled and the allies in Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw.
The Battle of Waterloo
The Allies planned full scale invasion of France for July, 1815. In the meantime, British and Prussian troops stationed in Belgium were responsible for keeping Napoleon contained in France. The troops were under the direction of British war hero, the Duke of Wellington and Prussian commander Gebhard Lebercht von Blücher.
On June 16 Napoleon’s forces defeated the Prussians at Ligny. He then set out to defeat the 96,000 troops at Waterloo. Napoleon was outnumbered, with only 74,000 troops. However he had his Imperial Guard, which had been undefeated for 11 years. When the Imperial Guard was sent to take the ridge that Wellington and his troops held, the unthinkable happened. The Imperial Guard broke in retreat and the battle was over. Napoleon had lost his last hope of regaining power.
Napoleon Exlied to St. Helena
Following the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon tried to hop a ship to America, but was caught by the British. He then begged for asylum from Britain his “oldest and most constant enemy.” Britain said thanks, but no thanks, and proceeded to banish Napoleon to St. Helena, a remote island hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa. Napoleon would never set foot in France again. He spent the last six years of his life on St. Helena, dictating a rather inaccurate (though very entertaining) autobiography.
Despite Napoleons less than glorious end, his legacy was long lasting. The Napoleonic codes, the ideas of the Rights of Man, and other principles from the French Revolution were carried throughout Western Europe and beyond.
Napoleon and the German States
An Empire of Air
The German writer Jean Paul had said, “Providence had given the French the empire of land, the English that of the sea, and to the Germans that of the air.” What Paul whimsically meant by “Germans” cannot easily be ascertained. The numerous political entities that contained Germans included not only the states of Austria and Prussia, but also various duchies and fiefdoms. This fragmentation would be changed by a very unlikely source---Napoleon.
The Confederation of the Rhine
The impact Napoleon Bonaparte had was so severe that the boundaries of Germany had to be redrawn as a result of France seizing all German territory on the west bank of the Rhine.
The conditions of southern and northern German states differed greatly as a result of this deputation. Bavaria, Baden, and Wurttemberg--- all southern and southwestern states, were built up by Napoleon’s France to counter the strength of Prussia and Austria. These southern German states owed their newfound strength to their imperial French masters, and this client relationship was to take on an even more subservient role to France with the formation of fifteen German states into the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. Later this confederation was to include nearly every German state, except for Austria and Prussia. After less than a month of the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon; the confederation’s official protector, announced the official end of the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire.
Prussian Defeat
In response to this and other insulting provocations, King Frederick William of Prussia concluded a secret agreement with Tsar Alexander. Even before Russia had ratified the treaty, before securing adequate Russian support, Prussia mobilized its army against the French. Charles Breunig points out in The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789-1850, that “Prussian troops were outnumbered two to one, and they turned out to be no match for the well-trained armies of Napoleon. On October 14, 1806, before the Russians could arrive to support them, the Prussians were defeated simultaneously at Jena and at Auerstedt.” The French easily rolled through Prussia--- in the process capturing Berlin, pursuing Frederick William and his armies, who had to seek refuge in East Prussia. Napoleon further humiliated Prussia by annexing some of its most precious territories and taking half its population from it.
Austrian Response
Austria, who was not as economically and militarily crippled as Prussia, took on a more proactive role towards France. In A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000, author Martin Kitchen reveals, “Count Philip Stadion, the first minister, was a conservative southern German, but he was also a fervent patriot. He hoped to mobilize popular sentiment throughout Germany and inspire a war of liberation that would result in the rebirth of the German empire.” But this was an unrealistic vision, as the regular army was no match for Napoleon. Although, this fact was made obscured following Napoleon’s defeat at Aspern in May 1809, as he attempted to cross the Danube River. Alan Schom states in his biography, Napoleon Bonaparte, “French losses were extremely high, probably as many as 16,000 dead and perhaps double that wounded... although Napoleon publicly announced to the world only 4,100 dead and wounded. The Austrians officially suffered 23,000 casualties, and were the clear winners of the unequal two-day battle.”
To Austria’s dismay, the majority of German states showed minimal support, and on June 5, 1809, Napoleon, taking advantage of the situation, delivered a crushing blow to Austrian Archduke Charles’ forces and shortly thereafter entered Vienna. Austria was forced to cede further territories and was obliged to pay insurmountable war indemnities.
Napoleon Crowns Himself Emperor of the French
On this day in history, December 2
Napoleon Bonaparte, the most captivating general and leader in French history who became famous for military victories that made him master of almost all of Europe, crowned himself emperor of the French in 1804.
Born to parents of Italian ancestry on the island of Corsica in 1769, Napoleon was educated in France, distinguishing himself in science and mathematics. He entered the École Militaire in 1784 and, a year later, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery. He began an intensive study of military history and theory at that time.
Napoleon stood only about five feet, six inches tall, so early in his military career he was nicknamed "the little corporal." But he rose quickly through the ranks until he staged a coup d’etat in 1799 that made him first consul of France. Then, he led his armies to many stunning successes on the battlefields of Europe and, by 1807, France ruled an area that stretched from Portugal to Italy and north to the Elbe River.
However, Napoleon's attempts to conquer the remainder of Europe failed. A defeat in Moscow in 1812 nearly destroyed his empire, and he was deposed and exiled to the island of Elba in 1814. Ever since then, historians have been studying and debating his life, his accomplishments as well as failures. “History is a set of lies agreed upon,” he once said.
French Revolutionary Wars
The wars of the French Revolution provided Captain Bonaparte with the opportunity to distinguish himself. His skilled handling of the artillery at the siege of Toulon in 1793 forced the British invaders to forgo their aim of conquest, and he was rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general.
During the revolution, a member of the Directory ordered Napoleon to defend the Convention in Paris from a hostile crowd, and he dispersed the mob with what he called a “whiff of grapeshot.” “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets,” he said. He was given command of the Army of the Interior and, in 1798, was appointed to lead the Army of Italy. His victories against the Austrians in northern Italy induced them to conclude the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797.
Napoleon attempted to conquer Egypt in 1798–99, but was defeated by the British under Horatio Nelson at the battle of the Nile. Nevertheless, he reorganized the Egyptian government, introduced the first printing presses, created a health department and built hospitals for the poor, and founded the Institut d'Egypte. During the French occupation, the Rosetta Stone was also discovered, and the Nile River was explored as far south as Aswan.
The coup of Brumaire brought Napoleon to power in 1799, and he set up a military dictatorship, making himself first consul. He introduced many significant governmental reforms, including the Napoleonic Code, and redesigned the French educational system. He also negotiated the Concordat with the pope in 1801.
After vanquishing the Austrians at the battle of Marengo in 1800, he set out on what came to be called the Napoleonic Wars. The formation of coalitions of nations in Europe against him led Napoleon to declare France a hereditary empire and crown himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris. The claim that he seized the crown from the hands of the pope in order to negate his subservience to the pontiff’s authority is not true. The coronation ceremony had been agreed to in advance.
Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon won his greatest military victory against Austria and Russia at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. He went on to defeat Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt the next year, and Russia at the battle of Friedland in 1807. He imposed on Russia the Treaty of Tilsit, thus ending the fourth coalition of countries against France.
Despite his loss to Britain at the battle of Trafalgar, he sought to weaken British commerce by establishing the Continental System, which blockaded their ports. He consolidated his European empire until 1810, but then became embroiled in the Peninsular War in 1808–14. He led the French army into Austria and won the battle of Wagram in 1809, and then signed the Treaty of Vienna.
To enforce the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon led an army of some 600,000 into Russia in 1812, winning the battle of Borodino. But he was forced to retreat from Moscow with huge losses. With his army weakened, he confronted a powerful coalition of allied powers, which beat him at the battle of Leipzig in 1813. After Paris was taken by the allied coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 and exiled to the island of Elba.
Napoleon Finally Met His Waterloo
In 1815, Napoleon returned to Paris and seized power again to reestablish himself as emperor. But the success of the Hundred Days did not last. The French army's loss to the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 defeated him once and for all.
Napoleon was exiled again, this time to the island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821 of an unidentified ailment, perhaps stomach cancer. Traces of arsenic were found in his remains later, leading some historians and scientists to suggest that he may have been fatally poisoned.
In 1840, his body was returned to Paris, and his tomb at Les Invalides remains a popular tourist attraction to this day. One of the most celebrated figures in world history, Napoleon revolutionized military organization and brought about liberal reforms that permanently influenced institutions in France and throughout Europe. “A leader,” he once said, “is a dealer in hope.”
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