French Revolution:Napoleon’s Empire

Collapses

Objectives:

1. Explain Napoleon’s tactical and political mistakes

2. Summarize Napoleon’s defeat, comeback, and final downfall

I. Napoleon’s Three Costly Mistakes

A. The Continental System (1806)1. blockade to prevent all trade between Britain and

the rest of Europe

2. Failed due toa. smuggling

b. allies who disobeyed it

c. stronger British navy

3. Harmed France’s economy more than Britain’s

B. The Peninsular War (1808-1813)1. Napoleon invades Portugal by marching

through Spaina. angry at Portugal for ignoring the Continental

System

b. Spanish angry and riot

c. Napoleon deposes Spanish king & replaces him with a puppet govt. (Joseph- brother)

2. This touches off the Peninsular Wara. Spanish fought guerilla-style war to oust the French

b. British sent troops to help Spanish

3. Resultsa. Napoleon loses approx. 300,000 men

b. Sparked a feeling of nationalism throughout rest of Europe. Resentment against French conquerors.

Military Disaster: Napoleon invades Russia (3:51)

C. The Invasion of Russia (1812)1. Breakdown in French-Russian Alliance

a. both were competing for Poland

b. Russia was ignoring the Continental System

2. Napoleon invades Russia with his Grande Armee (June,1812)a. 600,000 troops (many non-French) entered Russia

b. Russia follows a scorched-earth policy

c. Napoleon takes Moscow in September & waited for Alexander I (Tsar) to surrender

d. 5 weeks later (October) Napoleon realizes he must try to retreat, but too late

3. The Disastrous Retreata. soldiers starved and froze all the way back

b. Russians ambushed the French all along the way

c. Temperatures as low as –30 degrees

d. Only about 10,000 survivors left in December when they came out of Russia

II. Napoleon’s DownfallA. Napoleon must tackle the Fourth Coalition

1. Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria all allied to defeat him

2. Battle of Leipzig (1813)

a. Allies cut Napoleon’s green army to pieces

B. By Spring of 1814, Napoleon’s generals refuse to continue the battle

1. Napoleon is forced to surrender

2. He is exiled to the island of Elba at age 45

Exile and Return: Waterloo (4:34)

C. The Hundred Days 1. France had reinstated the Bourbon

monarchy to the throne with Louis XVIII (Louis XVI’s brother)

a. very unpopular with the lower classes of France who feared he would undo the reforms of Napoleon & the revolution

2. Napoleon escapes from Elba (March, 1815)a. lands in France and begins his march on Paris

b. the troops turn on the king and support Napoleon

c. Louis XVIII must flee

3. The Coalition is reformed and prepares to defeat Napoleon for good

a. Battle of Waterloo (Duke of Wellington- Britain defeats Napoleon – France )

Final Exile and Death (1:27)

4. Napoleon is exiled to St. Helena (middle of Atlantic Ocean) to live out the remaining 6 yrs of his life

5. Died of stomach cancer in 1821

D. Europe now had to put itself back together again

“He was as great as a man can be without virtue.”

Alexis de Tocqueville