Chapter 10: Napoleonic Europe

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Chapter 10 Napoleonic Europe

• Section 10.47 The Formation of the French
  Imperial System

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Introduction

• History of the Napoleonic period is a history of
  multiple expansionist interests
• Expansionist interests prompted governments to
  ally and resist Napoleon as it suited their
  interests
• GB building commercial interests, Russia wants
  Poland and Turkey, Prussia wants leadership in
  central Europe, Austria wants Germany, Balkans
• Some think of the period as one of world war but
  actually a series of short, sharp wars with the
  four great power never in field together until
  1813

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The Dissolution of the First and Second
Coalitions, 1792-1802

• 1795 First Coalition disintegrates
• British withdrew maintain naval engagement
• Prussians made a separate peace recognized as
  Protectors of Germany(ego)
• Spain (Bourbon) at peace with France (Bourbon
  Killers)
• Against English control of Gibraltar
• Austria signs Treaty of Campo Formio
• 1799 Second Coalition disintegrates
• Britain shifts focus to Mediterranean and
  defeated French in Egypt
• Russia shifts focus to the Mediterranean and
  withdraws from western Europe
• Austria signs the Treaty of Luneville 1801
• 1802 Britain signs peace of Amiens

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Peace Interim, 1802 1803

• Napoleon shifts focus to West Indies
• army sent to reclaim Haiti is failure
• Louisiana Purchase and America
• Organizes (Cisalpine Republic) northern Italy
  under his direct control (himself as president)
• Oversaw the shame of the princes in Germany
• after German princes were forced out of Left Bank
  of Rhine they were given new territories on Right
  Back
• rather than oppose Bonaparte they scramble for
  land east of the Rhine (Church land) led to
  consolidation of German states and end of the HRE

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Formation of the Third Coalition in 1805

• 1803 GB goes back to war with France
• communication problems and disease decimate
  French in Haiti
• Napoleon cuts loses and sells Louisiana to US
• 1804 Napoleon pronounced himself Emperor
• Napoleon seizes the Duke of Enghien and has him
  executed violating the sovereignty of Baden
• Alexander I joins in league against Napoleon to
  address the issue of law and force

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Alexander I

• Grandson of Catherine, educated as enlightened
  despot
• Became Tsar in 1801 at 24 and had liberal men of
  various nationalities as advisers
• Regarded recent partitions of Poland as a crime
  and wished to restore it with himself as king
• Moralistic, self-righteous, internationalist
• puzzled and disturbed statesmen of Europe who saw
  him as enthroned Jacobin or typical Russia
  aggrandizer
• Was greatly offended by Duke of Enghiens
  execution
• Had a concept of international collective
  security and indivisibility of peace
• British send him 1,250,000 pounds for each 100
  thousand soldiers

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The Third Coalition 1805-1807 The Peace of
Tilsit

• 1805 Austria signed an alliance with Britain
• Napoleon is ready to invade England
• Gathering forces on Channel coast
• England Responds
• Set up lookouts and signal beacons, drill at home
• Austro-Russian Armies advance to the west in
  summer of 1805
• British navy under Nelson (October 21, 1805)
• destroyed French and Spanish fleet off the coast
  of Spain (Trafalgar)
• Napoleon moves divisions from coast to respond to
  Austro-Russian advances
• Napoleon wins the ground war
• England wins the naval war
• Trafalgar establishes the supremacy of Englands
  Navy
• Napoleon is held in check on the continent
• But now he could rebuild his navy with if he
  gained resources of the continent
• Or starve England economically

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Napoleon Dominates the Continent

• Napoleon moves against the continent
• Defeats the Austro-Russian army at Austerlitz
  12/5/1805
• Takes Venetia from Austria
• Begins rebuilding his navy
• Defeats Prussia at battle of Jena and Auerstadt
  in Oct 1806
• Prussian king took refuge at Konigsberg
• Defeats Russian army at battle of Friedland (June
  1807)
• Alexander makes Peace at Tilsit (July 1807)
• On the bank of the Niemen River while Frederick
  William III paced nervously on the bank
• Napoleon put his charm on Alex, denounces England
  as real enemy
• Alexander is Eastern Emperor
• Napoleon is Western Emperor
• Napoleon turns the continent against England

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The Continental System and the War in Spain

• No possibility of invading England after
  Trafalgar in foreseeable future
• Turns to Economic warfare
• Napoleon forces Europe to trade only with the
  Continent and not with England
• hoped it would ruin British commercial firms and
  cause business depression
• British gov would thus be unable to carry
  national debt or borrow from subjects
• Berlin Decree 1806 forbids the importation of
  British goods into Europe

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Peninsular War in Spain

• Spain proves to be the beginning of the end for
  Napoleon
• Birth of guerilla (little) war
• July of 1808 French general surrendered an army
  corps without fighting at Baylen (1st time since
  Revolution)
• Brutal atrocities on both sides
• Struggle with Spanish resistance leaves gleam of
  hope for the rest of Europe and a rally mounts

Satirical cartoon depicting French emperor
Napoleon with his brother Joseph Bonaparte, king
of Spain, pondering the events of 1808.Napoleon
and Joseph
Goyas The Third of May, 1808
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The Austrian War of Liberation 1809

• Napoleon gathered a congress together at Erfurt
  in Saxony in 9/18/08 to keep Alexander on his
  side
• Alex was concerned that Napoleon was going to
  create a Polish state and not helping him with
  expansion in the Balkans
• Talleyrand told Tsar that Napoleon was
  overreaching himself (traitor)
• May have been concerned with restoring a balance
  of power
• Austria declares war in 1809
• Europe sits on the sidelines
• Napoleon wins at battle of Wagram in July and
  takes Austrian territory
• Duchy of Warsaw gains territory
• Illyrian Provinces

Talleyrand
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Napoleon at His Peak 1809-1811

• Austria shifts its foreign policy under Clemens
  von Metternich
• Believed that Russia was the permanent problem
  and began to renew good relations with France
• Toward France and away from Russia
• Napoleon divorces Josephine
• At 40 he is still childless and begins searches
  the aristocracy for a bride
• Legitimizes his rule if he marries into a royal
  family
• Russia turns Napoleon down
• Poland
• Austria
• Duke of Enghien
• Marries into Austrian royal family
• Marie Louise in 18
• Daughter of Austrian emperor and niece of Marie
  Antoinette
• Son is born and named King of Rome
• He is now by marriage the nephew of Louis XVI

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Napoleon and Maria Louisa
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Napoleon is taking on trappings of majesty

• Cozy with French Aristocracy
• Propped up newly made nobility around himself
• The son of the revolution calls the emperor of
  Austria my father