0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views20 pages

Napoleon Bonaparte: Origins and Rise

Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Corsica in 1769, faced challenges as an outsider in French society due to his origins and language. His rise to prominence began during the French Revolution, where he became a general after successfully recapturing the port city of Toulon. Napoleon's military campaigns, including victories in Italy and Egypt, not only established him as a key figure in France but also contributed to significant cultural discoveries, such as the Rosetta Stone.

Uploaded by

Chloe Maysonet
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views20 pages

Napoleon Bonaparte: Origins and Rise

Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Corsica in 1769, faced challenges as an outsider in French society due to his origins and language. His rise to prominence began during the French Revolution, where he became a general after successfully recapturing the port city of Toulon. Napoleon's military campaigns, including victories in Italy and Egypt, not only established him as a key figure in France but also contributed to significant cultural discoveries, such as the Rosetta Stone.

Uploaded by

Chloe Maysonet
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Hello, stocked Pearl.

Lecture, deal with Napoleon Bonaparte, truly one of the most extraordinary
individuals in history. Let's just begin with some background, such as where he came from. Now,
your assumption would be, well, we're dealing with Nepal in one of the most famous people in
French history. If not the most famous person French history, he must be from France. The
reality is slightly different. Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica. And you could see on
this map there are actually two maps there. You'll notice a map on the upper right shows the bud
of Italy. And then you see, well, actually, three large islands. The Sicily, right at the tip of the
boat. And then there are two islands. And then you could see the Zoomdin map, the larger map
on the left, the island on the south is Sardinia. And to the north of that, you'll see the island of
Corsco. That's where Napoleon was born in 1769. Now, why am I emphasizing where he was
born? Because being born in Corsica made him a bit of an outsider in France. You see, one year
before Napoleon was born, back in 1768. Course ago, which had been for a long time under the
control of the Italian city state of Genoa, was transferred to French control. So when Napoleon
was born in 1769, he was born under the reign of French king, in his case, louis the fifteenth. So
in that sense, he is technically a subject of the French king when he was born. But the reality is a
bit different in that his first language was not French. It was Corsican, which is closer to Italian
than French. And also, he always spoke French with an accent. And in his early years very much
identified as a Corsican with ancient course skin independence. He truly was an outsider. And so
that really makes his story all the more extraordinary. You know, napoleon's life is really going
to be a story that's shaped by the French Revolution. Without the French Revolution, his story
makes no sense. See, being born in Corsica, even though technically he's a subject of French
king, he's never going to rise to the height, and he's sort of heightened the French society. In fact.
Parents who were notably ambitious, were able to get documents, probably by paying bribes,
which proved the family were nobles, courses, nobility. And so the parents were able to send
them to an academy for the sons of French nobles to be trained in the French military. The
reality, though, was there would be a glass ceiling as a course. Again, it's hard to imagine
Napoleon rising above the rank of capital. The French revolution's going to change everything.
The French Revolution is going to get rid of those old hierarchies based on birth, and that's
something that napoleon's going to have in rows. Along with remarkable ambition. When does
he first play any sort of significant role in France during the revolutionary years? Well, early on,
he was attracted to the ideals of a French Revolution, and he's going to be drawn to the ideals of
the Jacobin faction who he came across on previous lecture. If you remember from that previous
lecture, when the Jacker pins were in control, 79, three, and 94, there was a period in which there
was civil war within France and politic civil war involved Gerundans. Another Republican
faction, though, more moderate, who were fighting against the centralizing radical Japanese. And
they're going to be based in the port city of Tuong, which I have an arrow drawn to where that's
located. And to make the situation to learn all the more difficult. For the Jacket and white
government. The Gerondans in Tulome were aided by the forces of Britain. The British Navy
was supporting the Gerondans in Tulum, so the Japanese government clearly wanted to regain
control over Tulum, which was a vital French court. Who's going to offer an idea which
ultimately led to the conquest of Turon. Bring it back under Jack and control. It was a young
officer by name Napoleon Bonaparte. He was a captain of artillery, and he came up with a way
of sort of ringing the port city with his artillery pieces, which forced the British to withdraw their
ships. And leaving the surroundings to be forced to surrender as a result of the conquest of too
long. Overnight, napoleon was now made into a general. So here he is only at the age of 24,
reaching this rather remarkable rank. The problem is, as you know from that previous lecture.

1
What happens to the Jacobins? The Jacobins end up falling in Thermidorre, 1794, july, and
anyone associated with the Jackabins finds that their life is in danger. Napoleon, as a supposed
jackive in general, is arrested. And thrown into jail and could have easily ended up on a guilty
team. You know, you know, many Jacobins ended up executed, and that would have left
Napoleon, just an interesting little footnote in history, as the man who conquered, to won. But
he's going to be lucky throughout his life. And essentially, the new government that replaced the
jacket and saw him as a non political general, and therefore let him out of prison. But even so,
his career wasn't necessarily headed towards a continuously higher trajectory. There were many
young, talented officers who had risen through the ranks during the years of the wars of the
French Revolution. In fact, you really have a series of truly remarkable, remarkably talented
individuals. Napoleon is going to be made the most famous of these military mines who had
developed in france's period. But arguably he wasn't the most talented then. But again, he's going
to have good fortune. He's more than going to be in the right place at the right time. And what's
going to happen is he's going to be in Paris during the period of the directory. Remember, the
directory was the government that replaced the Jacobins, following thermoid, the directory. Was
never a popular government. And in 1795, the first year of the Directory, there was a Royalist
rebellion. They're still a royalist within France, who want to see the restoration of the proponent
dynasty, and they're going to lead an uprising, hoping to tear down the directory like
governments. Well, the directory, in a panic, wasn't sure what to do. Then they became aware
that General Bonaparte was in the city. Had some artillery men under his command, and so they
asked him to come out and save the government, which he did in a letter written afterwards. He's
going to say he gave the rebels a whiff of breakshot. Grapeshot is a brutal weapon. It's basically,
instead of loading your cannons with cannon balls, which is bad enough. Grapeshot is when you
shove shards of metal pretty much anything into the cannon, so that when it fires, it sprays all
over the place. It's an effective and cruel weapon of crowd control. And so he saves the directory
in this manner. As a result, instead of just being one of a number of young, rising French
officers. He becomes the new darling of the Directory, and truly a rising star. It's in this position
as a rising star within a Directory. That he meets the famous love of his life, josephine. Josephine
was a woman who came from the Caribbean. She was part of the old white planter class that had
made fortunes through slavery and the sugar. Problem. Her family, though, had lost its money.
She went to France Prize her revolution and married a French officer who ended up being
executed during the terror So now she was a widow with two children. And she kind of made,
you know, how did she survive in this environment? She made use of her one significant asset,
and that was her sexuality. By all accounts, josephine was not beautiful. Those who knew at the
times said, you know, did not describe her as being beautiful, but she was sensual. She's one of
those individuals who people met her and wanted her. In fact, I make a comparison. Cleopatra
seems to be in that crap. By all accounts, cleopatra, the Egyptian ruler, was not beautiful, but
men who met her desired her, including Jucase or Mark Anthony. They desired her upon meeting
her, that was Josephine. She had numerous lovers, and these lovers tend to support her in a life of
her lifestyle. At this point, though, one of her lovers was a man named Baron P a ras who was
one of the five directors who was heading the government. And when he found out that
Napoleon Bonaparte was showing interest in Josephine. Josephine. He was tiring of Josephine.
He was hiring in Josephine. Josephine had no interest in Napoleon. Initially, she basically
spurned his approaches. But what's going to happen is that, you know, basically she decides,
well, maybe I can't do any better at the moment. And so reluctantly, they do marry napoleon's
head over heels. She is not. Well, it's a strange kind of story. Of course, when Napoleon goes to

2
Italy, he leads an Italian army into Italy. In 1796, josabin, newly married to Napoleon, does not
want to join her husband if she wants to stay home in Paris because she's with one of her current
lovers. Napoleon is in Italy, leading French troops against the Orspians. And he writes these sad,
love, sick letters back to Josephine. And it gets so bad that the directory government orders
Josephine to go to France to join her love, sick husband. She reluctantly does so, but still brings
her lover, who was then disguised as a French Officer. Well, it's a strange love story or a semi
love story. It's not your classic valentine's Day story. But eventually what's going to happen is
Napoleon, while in Egypt, is told by one of his brother officers that his wife is not faithful, and
initially he thinks of divocing her. But then decides how to create a political scandal, so he
decides not to do that. And ultimately, in a strange way, the two work things out. His love
somewhat diminished, but never seemed to completely disappear. He goes on with the numerous
affairs of his own, and her love seemed to increase over the years. So elderly, they made things
work. I'm not saying it's a picture book marriage, but it would kind of work as we're going to see
later on. In 1809, napoleon does divorce Josephine, but it's not the course of infidelity. It's
because he desires and parents to throne. So that's a different circumstance. In Fact. Towards the
end of his own life. When he's in exile, he hears that Josephine, who's several years older than
him, had passed away. She had not shown him exile. They were even worse. And it was said
there was only a few times that he ever showed emotion. He actually cheered up when he heard
about the death of Josephine. So again, it's a rather strange, I think, somewhat interesting story.
Anyway, napoleon takes a relatively small French Revolutionary army under the government of
the directed time into northern Italy. I remember Italy in 1796 does not exist as a centralized,
unified nation. There are a number of Italian sort of independent nations in the plural you'll see
on this map. The Republic of Venice is one in the King of Sardinia, the Papal states ruled by the
Pope, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the primary force that napoleon's going to face in northern
Italy, though, was the Austrians. And in a series are remarkable victories, napoleon shatters the
forces of the Austrian emperor. Not only does he win remarkable military victories and conquers
northern Italy and turns northern Italy into a series of small satellite republics, one of the things
that the French revolutionary governments began to do when they conquered foreign lands was
to try to create a little provinces, meaning little republics that was similar to what was going on
in France. But not only did Napoleon do that, he's going to plunder or steal vast amounts of
wealth from northern Italy. In fact, to this day, if you go to a Louvre, the great French Museum,
the heart of Paris, the former Royal palace, the Louvre, still possesses vast amounts of Italian art.
And a significant amount of that art was art that was plundered by napoleon's forces and never
returned in the aftermath of Napoleon of wars. He's also going to melt down gold, pretty much
take anything that was not nailed down and send it back to France. So at a time when the
Directory, like all previous French revolutionary governments, were struggling for revenue, they
found tax collection rather difficult. Napoleon was enriching the government to plunder for more
So all of this made Napoleon into this large and like character within France. The director itself
was sort of dull, colorless individuals, five individuals who were really not. Charismatic. And
here's this young, charismatic general who's winning remarkable victories against armies far
large in his own Well, all this is going to lead to another campaign in 1798, essentially in 1798,
napoleon, because he was now the darling of France. Could choose wherever he wanted to
invade. And as a young French, ambitious officer, clearly what would have been the most
desirable area of conquest, and that would be Great Britain. But Napoleon was wise enough to
realize, in 1798, french forces to the French navy. Would not be able to launch such a campaign
on the British aisles. So instead he chose another direction, he decided to invade Egypt. And it's

3
going to be. Egypt may seem like an odd choice. Why Egypt? It was not British Egypt at the
time, and you'll see it on this map right here, was under control of the Ottoman Empire, and yet,
increasingly. English merchants were interested in Egypt, because Egypt is ultimately going to
provide a pathway to adheracy on this map, to the Indian Ocean and to British possessions in
India. In a strange way, napoleon kind of drew British attention to the significance of Egypt, if
you wish to control India, which the British Sora. It's increasingly important for their own
overseas empire, for which to control India. Egypt is a gateway. Ultimately, by 1869, many years
after this well, term, at the moment, there will be a canal built that will link the Mediterranean,
ultimately in the Ocean. But this time that doesn't exist. But still, merchants would take their
goods off in the Mediterranean at the port of Alexandria, carry them by land to the Red Sea, and
ultimately out in Indian Ocean. So Napoleon thought that by striking at Egypt, you're indirectly
striking at British interest. So he takes his army to Egypt and meets with a number of remarkable
victories. But more than just military victories, something else comes out of this campaign,
arguably the beginning of what we call egyptology. Starts with napoleon's campaign in Egypt.
Egyptology is the study of the great ancient Egyptian civilization. And what is the key discovery
in egyptology? It's what you see on this slide, the Rosetta Stone. Now, you may know that as a
series of language learning tapes, I heard that actually quite good. But there's a reason why the
Language Learning Company chose Rosetta Stone as the corporate name, because the Rosetta
Stone is going to achieve something remarkable. This stone, this tablet is going to reveal the
secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics. How to do it? Well, here's the version of stone in front of you.
And if you look closely, it looks like there's writing on it, but it looks like it's three different
forms of writing. And that's exactly correct. It was a proclamation. This stone was a royal
proclamation at a time when Egypt was under control of a Greek speaking dynasty. Remember
Alexander the Great, a conquered Egypt, and his general Ptolemy established a dynasty in Egypt.
And actually Cleopatra was the last of the Protomyic rulers of Egypt. And so their first language
was Greek. And so this proclamation has Greek on it, then it also has what we call demotic.
DMOT, IC. Demotic. What's demotic? Demonic is a Greek form of writing, I'm sorry, an
Egyptian writing, which is sort of a bridge between the hieroglyphics and the comtic language,
which is still used today. Coptic Christians still use a form of writing alphabet that is related to
demonic. So you have Greek, you have to mon it. And what's the third language on the Rosetta
Stone, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics? Now, why is it so important? Because without the
Rosetta Stone, it got its name because it was discovered in the Egyptian town or Rosetta. We
probably would never have unlocked the language of the hieroglyphics. What were the
hieroglyphics? What kind of writing system was it? We may never have been able to translate if
we had not had the Rosetta Stone. Keep in mind, there are some ancient languages. We still
cannot decipher the trust in people who settle in the area of Italy, known as today Tuscany, who
are pre Romans. They exist before the Romans, and we still do not know entirely how to read.
Trust in. The same could have been said for the hieroglyphics. If it not been for the resetters,
don't have the resetts, don't do it. Well, think of it this way. Let's say you take a language you do
not know, and it's written an entirely different outlet. Let's say, for sake of argument you do not
know. Mandarin, chinese. Okay, so let's say you don't know that language, and you're in this
room filled with all these great works of literature and history, like it's all written in Mandarin,
well, let's say, in that room, and you're there, stuck in that room for 20 years, there is not a single
grammar book. There's not anything else. There's no dictionaries. There's nothing. All you have
are the original works. Well, 20 years later, someone could open the door to that room.
Hopefully, while you're in that room, you have food and drink. You know, hopefully the 20

4
years wasn't that terrible. Anyway, they open the door to that room. And they ask you, how do
you like those books? At least get something to read? And your reaction I could do anything with
it. I couldn't get started. I had nothing to link Mandarin to a language that I know. I couldn't
decipher the characters, I couldn't do anything with it. That's essentially what would have been
the case of hieroglyphics. Eventually, after a good number of years, this was not easy. It was not
an easy task. It's like code breaking. Several scholars were able to break the age and ethics to
figure out what the age Egyptians were writing the hieroglyphics. So it unlocks so much. If you
can imagine, we know a great deal about ancient Egyptians, okay? We know they have great
works of architecture, like pyramids, but how do we know so much about their dynasty is and
their wars and their way of life. And that's what coming from hieroglyphics. And so we can
unlock so much because of this Rosetta Stone. Now, oddly enough, where is the Rosetta Stone?
You can see it's in a museum here. That's clearly a museum you're looking at. But where's that
museum? Your guesses would probably not be correct. You probably assume, oh, that must be
an ancient but that must be in today's Egypt. It must be in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Perhaps it
should be there. It is something from Egypt, and maybe the Egyptian ship. Should have access
and control over but they don't. Your next guess must be, well, I bet, I bet's in the Louvre in
Paris. Must be there. Napoleon's forces found it, and they must have, you know, done something.
We don't take it back. And, no, it's actually in London, and it's called the British Museum. Why
is it in the British Museum? Because ultimately, napoleon's campaign in Egypt is going to be a
failure, and the French forces in Egypt are going to have to surrender to the British. And point of
the surrender terms was turning over the Rosetta Stone. You see, when Napoleon went into
Egypt. He took around 120 scholars, with linguists, mapmakers, and they were studying
everything that came across, including this remarkable reserve stone when the British came and
at the battle denial, the feet of the French Navy. And ultimately leading to the French forces to
surrender. The British demanded that the French turnover was in a stone. Today, some of the
scholars talked about destroying the stone and giving it to the British. Fortunately, that was not
done, but before they turned it over to The. The British, the French did make copies of it, you
know, doing scrapings on paper. And so they were able to trace it. And so they had copies. And
in fact, it was a French scholar by name Chapollon, who was the first to make significant gains in
deciphering what hieroglyphics wrote down. Now all this is going to lead to the reset of stone
sitting in London to the state of the British Museum. But what about this whole situation with all
the French defeat? Well, napoleon, as you can see on this map, was remarkably successful on
land in the Middle East. He reached all the way up to Akra. And then began to pull back into
Egypt. But wherever French forces went, they were victorious. The problem was going to be on
the sea. A remarkable naval commander, admiral Horatio Nelson. Who's going to come back into
our story a little later, as you'll see, is going to make a wild, but successful guess. He knew that
the French had left a French navy, had left a French Mediterranean port and was sailing
somewhere. But the question was, where, where would they sail to? He guessed that they must
be going to Egypt. And so he took his fleet to Egypt. At the Battle of Denial, faced a French fleet
that was just sitting in port. It was sitting ducks. They were not expecting the British to arrive.
And then all of a sudden, at the blue end of the British Navy. Pretty much the entire French fleet
was sunk. And Napoleon made an awful but I guess, in some way, successful decision. He had
decided, with the French fleet being sunk, he could not get his horses from Egypt back to France.
So he does something kind of sleezy. He decides to get himself and just a couple of assistance
back to France on a small, little boat that could outrun the Bridgeway, leaving the Restless Army
behind. It was a callous, awful thing to do, because they are going to end up being forced to

5
surrender to the British. Many of them end up in prison, war camps, and many because of
disease, other reasons never lived. We would go back to France. Why does Napoleon abandon
these forces. He gets word that the directory is having political troubles, and he wants to be back
in Paris because he has political ambitions. He also knows that, after the battle of denial, he has
no chance of getting his French forces back to France. And that's going to be a scandal, a disaster
the eyes of many Frenchmen, if they can hear about it. He wants to get back to France before
then so that he can sort of beat the bad news. Keep in mind, they're living in a very different
world than us today. Something could happen in Cairo, to Alexandria, egypt right now. And
within a minute or so, the rest of the world will know it, and then you can get on a quick little
boat and beat the bad news. So Napoleon arrives back in France in 1799, and he's involved in a
coup day talk, a coup day Talk. Is a term for a seizure of power. He's actually brought into this
attempted seizure of power against the Directory by Remember Abbey. CA A manual. CA Who
wrote the famous pamphlet? What is the third state? Well, CA was one of the survivors of the
French Revolution. Unlike so many who had been part of the French Revolution early on and
ended up on a guillotine, he was a survivor, and by this time, by 1799, he was one of the five
directors. So he was in a position of some authority, but he wanted more power. And so wanted
to sort of change the French government to enhance his own authority, but he felt he needed a
military man to help carry out that plan. And he brought Napoleon into the plan. Napoleon's
going to help set these stages with a seizure power from the directory. But instead of allowing.
The manual. CA So be the new leader of the government. Napoleon pushes him aside. He doesn't
kill CIA he's not a brute in that sort of way, but he pushes CIA aside and basically establishes a
government under his own control. So, essentially, 1799 remarks, a significant transfer of palate.
For our purposes, it marks the end of the French Revolutionary decade, when we talk about
French revolutionary governments between them for the period from 1789 to 1799, and the
Directory is the last of those governments. Napoleon establishes something new. In 1799. He
establishes a dictatorship under his own rule. we call it the. Consulship, because he takes the title
of first consul console. By the way, was a title that went back to ancient Rome in 1799. He's first
console, and yet the title of first console was only supposed to be one that a person had for
several years. So in 1802. He decides he doesn't want to ever give up political power. So it
becomes consol for life. Now how does he do this? He does it using an interesting political tool,
what we might call a plevisite. That's an important term for you to know a plevisite. What's a
plevisite? A plevisite is kind of a yes or no vote on a public question, let's say, on Election Day,
we're asked a question. I'm not talking about, you know, when you choose candidate A versus
candidate A, that's an election. A Plebisite is a question. So let's say you go to vote in November
and there's a question on your ballot. Should I make up something? Should New York State
borrow $20 billion enhance New York City transit? So that's a public question, and the only
choices aren't yes or no. that's a Plebisite. What was the way in which Napoleon used these
plevasites? Well, what he did was, in 1799, he asked all French, all French males, were eligible
to vote. There's no active as a distinction, nothing of the sort. All French males could answer the
question, should Napoleon Bonaparte become first consult of France? Why does he do this? He
does it because he has strong political instincts. He understands it overwhelmingly. What are the
French men? What are French people? One by 1799. He knows they want stable, secure
governments. He understood correctly that after ten years of revolutionary governments, france
was exhausted. You're probably exhausted just learning about the French Revolution. You can
imagine living through those ten years. And so he knew is a pretty safe question. That if he could
offer safe and stable government, secure governments, overwhelmingly Frenchmen would vote

6
yes. And he was correct. It's believed that that first Plevisite was done in an honest manner. An
overwhelmingly Frenchman voted yes to Napoleon coming first console. 1802. He poses another
question. Should he become counsel for life? This time? It does look like there's more tampering
again, overwhelmingly, he's popular. He knows there'll be approval, but still, perhaps a number
of no votes was increasing somewhat. They seem to have been forced, for the most part. And
again, napoleon knows what he's doing. He understands that his power will be much greater if it
could be seen as being based on the will of the people. He's reflecting something that had
occurred as a result of the French Revolution. Many Frenchmen were expecting to have some
engagement with the political process by joining political clubs and voting whatever happens to
be Napoleon knew it's best attacked into that sense of involvement by allowing them to vote in
these Plebisites. Napoleon's going to use the old Plevisite tool one last time in 1804, for a variety
of reasons, including fears that there were plots against him. He decided he needed to consolidate
his power even further. So in 1804, he took the rather controversial step. Of declaring himself
emperor again. He claims of emperor using the tool of Plebisite, meaning in 1804, all frenchmen
were asked, should Napoleon, bonaparte become Napoleon first of the French? Now, you can
imagine that that's controversial in the sense that we just had ten years of the French Revolution.
Have we now just gone back to the old regime? Well, I could say, not really. Yes, this is a
monarchy. There's no doubt about that, but it's a different kind of monarchy. What do I mean?
First of all, he used a Plebisite, meaning he asked the question of French men, french citizens, if
you want your point to be your emperor. Now, it is believed that this Plebisite was not as fair as
the previous two. There must have been some reluctance to recreate a monarchy after all the
years of revolution, but still, even here, he probably had a majority of yes votes, even if it were,
you know, even it had been done fairly. But that is something keep in mind. Napoleon's not
claiming divine right here. He's saying, I'm emperor based on the will of French people.
Remember when Louis the sixteenth became the French king in 1774, when he have held a
Plevisite. The answer, of course, is no. So in that sense, the monarchy is quite different. There
are a number of things that different. And in fact, this very famous painting that you see here.
Before you shows some of the differences. This giant painting sits in the Louvre Museum in
Paris. It's one of those great heritage paintings that never travels. It's simply too historically
important. I have no idea who those two people in the lower ranking corner are. I just, I get that
off the Internet, but I like that there there, because it gives you some sense of the sheer scale of
this work anyway, what are some of the things that you could pick up here that makes it clear
that this is not exactly the restoration of the old regime. You can see Napoleon towards your
right. He's holding a crown in his own hands. He's also wearing a crown. Now, the man in white
sitting behind him was the Pope Pious, was basically pressured to go to Paris to note to down
cathedral. Took crown Napoleon. But at the key moment when the Pope thought he's going to
place the crown on napoleon's head, napoleon famously took the Crown from the Pope and
placed it on his own head. Now, why did Napoleon do that? He wanted to make a statement. You
see the crown he was wearing, and also the sword he's wearing. Are copies of the crown and
sword used by the emperor Charlemagne. Roughly a thousand years earlier, charlemagne, or
Charles the Great, was the king of the Franks. The Franks were one of the Germanic tribes that
had overrun the Roman Empire. In the year 800, charlemagne was in Rome. And the story is a
public old third took out a crown and placed it on charlemagne's head, making him emperor.
Now, why is that historically significant? It may not have meant that much for Charlemagne in
the year 800. But over the following centuries, a number of Popes would make the claim that we
have a right to crown rulers, but we also have the right to take the throne away. And so

7
Napoleon, who knew the history of Charlemagne, he knew his French history. And, well, he
understood that very symbolically. He wanted to emphasize. My reign does not come from the
will of God or the Pope, god's representative, you're on Earth, but through my own achievements
and the will of French people. And here he is, placing that second crown on his wife, josephine's
head. Behind Josephine, carrying her train. That large part of the dress that flows behind her
were napoleon's sisters. Napoleon had absolutely dreadful family. As one historian, hopes he
would have better off be that family. And some ways, that's true. His family never understood
that without him, they had nothing. His sisters hated Josephine, and were furious when they
found out that their role in the ceremony was to carry the long train of her dress. And at the
beginning of the ceremony, when Napoleon was at one end, a note to the cathedral, and
Josephine entered the church at the other, followed by napoleon's sisters, the. Sisters clearly
dropped the train. They let it go with the hope that Josephine would stagger inform. Well,
josephine did call she before she caught herself. But when Napoleon noticed what his sisters had
done, and that was intentional, he grounded them because they picked up the dress and went on,
basically, they did not want to be there. And it's only when Napoleon said, you want the titles,
you want money, you'd better carry her dress. They did well. That leads to another story, the
story of the women in that red box. Who is that? That's napoleon's mother in Queens. You
napoleon's mother also hated Josephine. You know how families are Sometimes. And his mother
said, I'm not going if you're making that woman your empress. I'm not going to be there. Well,
napoleon respected his mother enough. They said, I'm not twisting her on to be there. And so she
did not show up. I can you imagine your mother does not show up when you're being found.
Emperor. My parents didn't go to my third grade play. And I've been dealing with the
psychological impact ever since. I mean, you know, just remarkable. She's not there. But what
Napoleon did was he told Jacqueline Davie, the great artist who did the tennis court oath, and he
told Davied, paint my mother front and send her, and that's why she's there. I put the red box
around her just to highlight. But you'll notice, davie put her. Center, and she is a major party's
painting. So Napoleon did get his mother there indirectly at the ceremony. Now, one of the
things you see here is that pretty much everyone in this painting became a normal They might
say, well, gee, have we now gone back to the old regime. Have we once again gone back to
France prior to the French Revolution? Well, yes and no, in the sense that, yes, we once again
have aristocratic titles. We have counts, dukes, princes, barons, councils, earls, those titles are all
restored. Titles that had disappeared of the course of French Revolution. But there's a major
difference. Under the old regime, titles were hereditary. These were not. Napoleon gave titles to
those who were either family members or those who would serve his regime in various
capacities, and they were not hereditary. So if you had a son daughter, they were not nobles,
unless Napoleon chose to make the nobles also. There's another key difference under the old
regime. If you remember, before the French Revolution, nobility brought tax exempt status and
other privileges. None of that was true under Napoleon. So there aren't trappings of the old
regime here. But in many ways, napoleon's creating something new. What he's creating is a
monarchy reshaped by the ideals of the French Revolution, that privileges are based on
achievement, not birth. And even so, nability will not carry with it special privileges. Or rights.
Still, there were many who were absolutely disgusted that Napoleon crowned himself ever. One
of them was the German composer Luberated von Beethoven. Beethoven was writing his third
symphony. Which was supposed to be dedicated to Napoleon. He had admired him, and here he
wrote out the dedication. But when he heard that Napoleon had crowned himself emperor, he
was so disgusted, so disappointed that he took his eraser, and here's the original composition, and

8
he could see where he ripped through the paper in his anger, erasing the documents. There were
others inside out of France who thought he betrayed the ideals of a revolution that he was giving
in to his own ambitions, compared E.G., our own first president, george Washington. One of the
things that Washington did that was so remarkable was after his second term of office, what does
Washington do? He goes home. Gives up power. Napoleon clearly has no intention of ever
giving up power. And there were those who believed them in him earlier who were discussed it
by that fact. One of the major things that Napoleon is going to attempt to do domestically,
meaning within France, was to address some of the issues that had ripped apart the nation during
the time of the French Revolution, E.G., he reached out to the emigres. Remember, the Emigres
were often French novels of the old regime. Who had fled France, hoping to return in triumph
and restore the old regime? Well, napoleon obviously did not want to restore the old regime, but
he offered kind of an amnesty to the emigrants, basically saying to them, these men and women
who are now living in Austria or other foreign lands. Come back to France, support my regime.
And, you know, let bygones be bygones. And some of the old immigrants did come back, many
of them having left France as early as 17 a nine were desperate to go home. by now, they were
recognizing that the old regime was never going to be restored. And I don't want to spend the rest
of my life in exile. And so some took him up on that offer. In return, he also reached out to some
of the old political factions, such as the Jacobins. Now, clearly Jacobin is going to hate
something directly. If you're a true Jacobin, you are a Republican. You believe in a republic. You
hate the idea of amount of you. So clearly a purish jackman's not going to be in love with
Napoleon. But again, napoleon, with good political instincts for it. Let's sort of try to solve some
of the disputes that ripped upon our society. And he offered a kind of amnesty to jackman's,
again, loyalty to my regime. And you can, once get conservative and straight a post. And again,
some took them up on that. Another place, when Napoleon realized they were huge. The visions
resulting from the revolution was on the whole question of religion. This was one of the most
controversial aspects of the French Revolution, the attacks on the Catholic Church. Napoleon set
out to address that. Was Napoleon himself a religious man. Not at all. He had no interest, no
belief in a divine entity that would play a role in his open salvation. He had none of those
traditional Christian beliefs. On the other hand, he also realized we had to solve this problem. So
in 1801, he signs a concordant with the Catholic Church. The concordant just has a dictionary
term means an agreement between a government and a Catholic Church. So there've been a
number of Concordants in history. Specifically, this Concord on 1801, was signed by napoleons
government and the Catholic Church on the Pope Prius the seventh. And what did it do? Well, it
basically gave Napoleon recognition by the Catholic Church. Ever since the revolution, the
Catholic Church has refused to recognize one French government after another. Well, napoleon
recognized that was dangerous. That divided Frenchman against Frenchmen. So by scientists
agreement, the Catholic Church recognized the authority of the Napoleon regime. What's that
going to mean? Remember, in an early lecture that Vonde region, that western part of France,
where peasants had been rising up against the French government. Well, now they're not going to
be able to do that, but not be the support of the Catholic Church. Because the Catholic Church
will say, no, this government that you're living on is a legitimate. Political authority. Napoleon
really did not have to give up much for this. The one thing he did, and this was not a huge young
thing to give up. He did once again allow a Catholic worship to take place in France, remember,
under the Jacobins, and is continued under the directory. Catholic life had basically collapsed.
The mass was not able to be performed unless, under dangerous and secret conditions, once
again, catholic mass could be performed, and some churches like Motordam and Napoleon was

9
Crowned were restored for Catholic worship. But Napoleon did not restore Catholicism to the
place where it was earlier. Clergy still had swearn oath to the French state. He selected the high,
french clergy, media, french bishops and Bishops. And religious toleration was still
implemented. You know, the French Revolution, one of its great achievements was religious
toleration for all Catholics. Protestants, jews were allowed to worship in peace. Well, that was
not taken away. The Catholic Church was not restored to what had been on the Onjet regime,
which was the only game in town. So you might say, why do the Catholic Church sign this?
Because another thing they don't get, and this is really important, they don't get the restoration of
their lands. Certain church buildings were once they're restored for worship, but all that church
land had been sold off their. Revolution was not returned. Returning that land, but been so
difficult. Anyway, let's say, you know, I had bought, you know, 2000 acres worth of formerly
church owned land, and then I turned around, split that into, let's say, 100 acre pieces, and sold it
off to other people. So how is that going to be restored? Do I get the money back from the people
who, you know. What the land for me? How do we do that? How could the Lander Church be
restored? It was a very complicated issue, and Napoleon had no desire to do so. He knew that if
you took the land away from the people who reported it, there would be an uprising. So the
church did not get its land back. So again, you might say, why did the church sign the deal?
Well, sometimes you sign the best deal you can get at a time, you know, at this time, the best the
Catholic Church could get in France was the right once again for religious worship. Also primary
education. Now, not every child in France. We see primary education. You do not have
university education at this moment, but primary education was left in the exclusive hands of the
Catholic Church, which meant that they could have a role in influencing future generations. But
that's all they could really get. Napoleon, more importantly, got recognition, and that religious
civil war, or wars, because there were more than one conflict that split up our France ever since
1790. Now came to an end. Napoleon brought about a number of other things. In some ways, he
was very much a Jacobin in his ideology. Not a Jacobin any longer, in a sense of believing in a
republic. After all, he established a monarchy under himself, but some of the primary Jackin
beliefs were embraced by Napoleon, including, if you remember, the Jacobin belief in highly
centralized government. The Jacobins thought Paris should take the lead of all affairs within the
French nation. Napoleon's going to bring that about. You'll notice, by the way, you're looking at
a map. The map on the left shows French provinces on the old regime. France used to be divided
into a series of provinces of various sizes. Then with the French Revolution, france was separate
into roughly equal departments. There are 83 departments, and you still have departments
divided France this day. If you remember, the Gerondins wanted the various departments to have
a lot of local control, sort of way. You have it within Great Britain, where local authorities do
play a significant role in local affairs, or the way we do it in the United States, or the way the
state city county play a significant role over our lives, a decentralized model. Napoleon
embraced the jack of an idea of a highly centralized nation. Paris should direct everything that
goes on. And you know what? Today in France, you still have this highly centralized nation. It's
one of the living legacies. Of napoleon's rule. I'll give you a comparison between France and the
British, american way of doing things in the United States or in Great Britain? Is there one
centralized police force? The answer is no. Policing is done locally In France and many other
countries that copy this French model. There's a national police force. Education is education
done on a national basis. In the United States or in Great Britain, no local authorities play a
major role in the dominant roles. In France, you have a very centralized educational system. It's
sometimes said the minister of Education sitting in Paris could look at his or her clock. Say, oh,

10
it's ten in the morning. I know what all fourth graders about France are doing, because it's a
highly centralized curriculum. In the United States. We do have a Department of Education, but
they hand out grants. There's no way the Secretary of Department of Education could look at his
or her clock and say, oh, 10:00, I know that. You know, students in fourth grade in Arizona and
students in fourth grade here in Queens are doing the same. There's no in the world. It's all
handled by local manner. So it's a very different, decentralized idea that we live under.
Napoleon's also going to make a number of significant decisions regarding economics. If you
remember, prior to the French Revolution, the monarchy was bankrupt. All right, after the
revolution, that debt now becomes a public debt. It's our debt. And no French revolutionary
government seemed to really have a handle on how to manage that debt, how to raise revenue.
Plunder became an answer under Napoleon, under the directory. Remember, I mentioned in that
previous lecture that he basically took everything that wasn't nailed down to Italy and stole it in
for a bank of France. But that's not really a way of running the economy. Inflation had remained
a major problem throughout the ten French Revolutionary years. Had Napoleon stabilized things.
For one thing, he established a national Bank. A bank that the government can go to as their
primary lender. Remember, louis 16 had to go to Swiss bank was run, the Bank of France
managed the government debt. You know where this National Bank idea came from. It came
from Great Britain. The Bank of England goes back to the late seventeenth century, and it
became a way of a banking entity to manage the debt brought upon by the various wars waged
by the British government. It became a way of controlling interest rates. It was a way. And this
day, modern government finance involves nations handling their economics in a central line.
Agon entity, france is only going to have that beginning with an opponent period. He also
established a solid currency known as the Frank which remained the French currency until the
introduction of the Euro a number of years ago. So he stabilized the French economy. In a
manner which no French revolutionary government have done for. He also implemented some
educational innovations. He established around a dozen or so lesays throughout the French
world. You'll see the term les say, whether it's in Francophone Africa or the Caribbean or in
France or in Quebec, a lesay is what you, and I would refer to more as a secondary or high
school. He established on a dozen of them. And of course it does. It's not going to provide
universal secondary education for a Frenchman. But still, it was the beginning of a process where
the government was playing a much more significant role in education. Something that you and I
take for granted. After all, queensborough is a public institution, what these essays are going to
be, public public fund institutions. He also established what became known initially as the
Imperial University. This was going to be a university we should get in through not hereditary
rank, but through competitive examinations. And we're supposed to train the new elite of
napoleon's empire. Today, in France, we have a series of what are called the grand accoles of
great schools. These are a group of universities, most of them based in Paris, which have
incredibly difficult examinations to get in, but they are institutions that train the elite of French
society. And these are public institutions the way the his Imperial University was. Napoleon was
also going to make a huge impact on American history through his selling of the Louisiana
territory. It is a backstory to this. This was land that had been taken back from Spain by
Napoleon and then sold by him to the United States under President Thomas Deficit. Now,
what's going to happen is, initially, napoleon was interested in developing that massive Louisiana
territory. He was interested in, you know, overseas empire. But what's going to happen is some
Bonnie is going to interrupt those plans. If you recall, from a previous election. The island of the
western point was divided into San Dominic and the eastern point Santa Domingo. They got the

11
same, same, but on the eastern side, the Spanish way of referring to the same, and in the west, the
France because it was a Spanish county to east, a French county to the west, and the west. Santa
Domingo, santa. Was a French colony that was vital for the production of sugar. And remember,
two samples, which was rebellion. And ultimately, several French governments are going to
attempt to put down this rebellion with varying degrees of success, failure. Eventually, the Jack
of Ends, to their great credit, ended slavery throughout the French Empire. So we often think of
the Jack of ins as tyrant. And yes, they did implement the paranoid but to their great credit, they
brought the barbaric practice of slavery to an end. And that began to sort of end the rebellion for
a time. What happens, though, is Napoleon, to his amazing discredit, reimposed slavery
throughout the Empire. Again, if you ever think of Napoleon as a champion of liberty, you have
to keep this in mind. He brings slavery back into the French empire, and that gives a whole new
impetus to rebellion. In Santomy, napoleon decided by introfey to deal with this issue once and
for all. He sends a large force back to Nick or two to deal with it. And that force they sends the
Santomy was decimated by disease, and to battle. And what he eventually decides to do is he
decides to step away. And that's why, in 1804, some Dominique becomes the independent
Republic of Haiti. It's an amazing story involving the first and only really, you know,
independence movement left from slavery. You know, there have been a number of slave
rebellions over history. This is the only model of a successful one. So Haiti becomes independent
in april 4. What does this have to do to Louisiana territory? Napoleon felt so angered and burnt
out over the laws of sentiment Bonique. He designs out of heck with overseas empire and
decides to sell that vast Louisiana territories to the United States for the. Amazingly low price of
$11 million. Penny's on the acre. Even that then it was a bargain. He just wants to wash his hands
it. But you can imagine what this might have meant. It was one of what if questions, what if
Napoleon had held on to it? What would have meant for the Native Americans who are going to
be further brutalized? As the Americans move West, you know? So the whole situation made
Americans would have been dramatically changed if, instead of dealing with American colonists,
you know, moving West, they would deal with a far more distant, you know, french, you know,
dominant domination, you know, someone that, you know, was less harsh in many ways, too
than the Americans. So that would be Different. Also whether we're mentally United States, just
in general, having a powerful European power on the Western border. So the what ifs are really,
quite staggering. But anyway, we don't know the what ifs. We know. I speculate. What I can say
is, of course, it's going to transform measure the United States. Napoleon takes those million
dollars and puts it into expanding its Military. For a series of conquests. I'm going to follow now.
Napoleon, in his final years while living in exile, is going to say that his greatest achievement
was the introduction of the Napoleon Code. And some ways, there's some truth to that, because
Napoleon Code still stands at the center of French law, and adaptations of it are used. By a huge
number of countries around the world. You see, the Jacobins wanted the standardized French law
on the old regime. You had various jurisdictions. You had various law codes based on regions.
There was not one standard body of French law. The French Revolution and the embrace of the
enlightened value of reason encouraged them to think in terms of establishing one standard
system of law, the Jackmans began this massive project, but the Jackmans were not around long
enough to bring it about. Ultimately, napoleon does. He has some finest legal minds of his of the
age. Create this code. Now, what are some of the key concepts in the code equality of all in the
eyes of the Lord. So there's no special recognition based on privileges of birth. Remember the
idea that the Pauling created nobility. Those novels have no special status under the point on
code freedom of Religions, enshrined in this code, separation of Church and state, freedom to

12
work in whatever occupation you choose. So in some ways, there's some very positive aspects of
this. You know, who was treated with extreme harshness in this code, though, was women under
the friend. During the French Revolution, women did not gain political rights, but they did gain
two rights which were important, The rights own property. And the rights initiate divorce. In
many ways, the rights own property is the mother of all the rights. You don't have. The rights
own property, pretty much know the right to follow. The French Revolution gave that right to
women, that building block to its other rights, and the rights initiated divorce. If you're in a
marriage, it was to bring it to an end. Napoleon is going to remove both of those. And so
Napoleono Code essentially took those rights away, and that's going to be a legal barrier towards
French women into the twentieth century. So, you know, the Napoleon Code was very much,
you know, based on Roman law. And Roman law. Ancient Roman law is very much based on
the father as the head of the household. And that's going to be trying in French law now, while
French law today has been modified, and while they don't make you some point on code, women
join the same, same rights as men. Still, women's rights was much lower to gain interaction in
France compared to the English speaking world, E.G. In England. Women gained the vote in
1918. The United States, 1920, france is only told the end of World War 02:19, 44 that women
gained the right to vote. I'm not saying that's all Napoleon, but in some ways, napoleon code as
anti female bias did kind of shape subsequent expansion or lack of of human rights. Now, there
are places where we can talk about Napoleon as a champion of ideas of liberty, such as the area
of religious toleration, wherever French armies have gone during a revolution. And then on
Napoleon, wherever there had been religious restrictions, they were lifted. Famously, when the
French armies on Napoleon entered the Republic of Venice. They broke the gates of the old
Venetian ghetto. The ghetto was an area of Rome. Obviously, we had an area of Venice where
Jews, going back to the sixteenth century, were forced to live. It was enclosed area. Jews were
not lit out at night. That they left the ghetto. They had it with special markings on the clothes to
let people know they were Jewish. On Sunday, they could not leave the detto at all, so it was
enclosed space within a city of Venice, described. Against the nation, jews, the French forces
under Napoleon. And a famous moment of religious toleration tore down the gates of the old
ghetto, bringing that to an end. Okay, he's a champion on religious liberty, but the machine was
also repressive. In many ways. Napoleon's going to institute a secret police. One that very
efficiently looked for enemies of the regime. The man in charge of the secret police, which
shows the fuche. And under fuche, there's a rather repressive aspect to the play on government,
strict censorship, arrest of political opponents. And it was Fouchet, under the orders of Napoleon,
who implemented a famous murder of the Duke of Angyon, who you see in that drawing towards
the right? Who was the Duke of Angyion? The Duke of Angyon, or Angri de Boubon, was a
cousin of the executed Lulu, 16. He was a member of the Bourbon family. He was living as an
emigre on Austrian territory, and Fouche arranged his kidnapping by French forces, who went on
to Austrian territory, brought him back to France, gave him a 1 H trial, which is obviously in the
middle of saying, hardly any sort of trial. And shot him. Was a Duke of Angion, involved in anti
Napoleon conspiracies. As far as we know, no, as a urban would he have liked to have seen the
restoration of all regime? Absolutely. But it didn't seem like he was himself actively engaged in
those activities. In many ways, the pole and fuchet, don't, let's shoot on beyond as a way of
warning others that our technicals can reach into orchard territory and snatch a point into the
regime. It was really a warning, again, though this brutal act is going to have ramifications
throughout Europe. As individuals, to an point, increasingly as a tyrant. It is a tyrant along the
lines of what we're going to see in the twentieth century. It's the equivalent of a now, a style

13
Hitler, of course not. Of course not. But still were the tyrannical aspects of this regime? Yes.
Now, of course, when we think of Napoleon, we think of Napoleon most directly, perhaps as a
military commander, a general who had brought French, or was going to be French army is to
conquer much of Europe. And so essentially, from 18 or three to 1815, with the exception of one
or two brief truces, france was going to be at war on Napoleon. In fact, what you're seeing on the
right here is a cartoon, english cartoon. Which was celebrating its own way, the Treaty of
Ammions am iens, which was a brief piece between the British and the French. And you could
see in this cartoon, the French represented with the character on the left, the British, with the
women on the right. It's clearly not necessarily a match of love. They're not incompatible, they're
not they're hardly looking at one another, and. The idea being that this Treaty of Amiens is only
a temporary piece, that both sides in 18 or two were absolutely exhausted and need time to catch
a breather. By 1805, napoleon was very much thinking of launching an invasion of the British
Isles. But he's going to find something standing his way the superb British Navy. If you
remember, in 1798, at the Battle Denial, it was Anglo Horatio Nelson who, guessing brilliantly,
that the French had headed towards Egypt, brought his fleet to the mouth of the Nile, and
shattered the French fleet while it was still in order. This same Horatio Nelson is going to lead
his fleet against a combined French and Spanish force. The Spaniards of 1805 were allies of the
French, and their rather significant navy was combined with the French to engage with the
British or from Cape Trafalgar, which was worth of close to Spain, the pole associated with
Nelson. Face this force. And as you can see on this diagram on the left, you can see how nelson's
forces fought, as opposed to the way the Spanish and French. The Spanish and French, to your
right, will line up in the traditional line. There would be a central commander, the animal
commander fleet, who would basically instruct his ships. And in order to keep things under
control, they would give in the task that basically stayed in place, and find broadsides at the other
side, which was generally lined up in the same way. You'll notice here, the British are not lined
up in a matching line. Instead, nelson had his ships, what they call Cross the Line, where they
sailed between back and forth, between Spanish and French ships. And maneuvering against
them, ultimately shattering the British enemies. It was a one, sided battle. The British did not
lose a single ship. The French and Spanish fleets were devastated. One casualty of the battle,
though, was Nelson himself. Nelson was standing on the deck of his ship, the HMS Victory,
wearing his animals uniform, or rattle or Nate garment. Animals used to wear this to sort of
encourage their men to fight hard and knowing that their animals right there, warranting them.
And a French shortshooter shot him. He was broke below deck and lingered in agony until the
end of the battle. By the time he was dying, but by the time he breathed his last breath, he
understood Britain had won a massive victory. Nelson was a bit of a publicity hound, and he
understood that whatever he said at this moment would be sort of remembered in the future by
any schoolchildren. And so, very dramatically, he supposedly said his last words, no one for
well, extended a degree. Thank God I've done my duty. And then he died. His body was brought
back to Britain, given this born name funeral, and actually in the heart of London, you have
really, essentially the center of the city, what we call Trafalgar Square. And if you look at this
photograph here, you'll see nelson's column. At the top is a statue of Nelson. At the bottom.
Obviously, those four lions, those lions are made out of iron from the cannon. French and
Spanish ships have been captured, melted down and turn into those lions. So a grateful nation to
precious real estate in the heart of London. And dedicated to the memory of Nelson and his
remarkable victory. Now, okay, why is this victory so important? It's important because, after
your father, no invasion of the British Isles by the French was feasible. If I could give you an

14
equivalent later on in our semester, we're going to say in 1940. Nazi Germany on Adolf Hitler
wanted to launch Operation Sealine, an invasion of the British aisles, but because the British
dominated the skies over Britain, what comes known as the Battle of Britain, the Germans,
because they neither control the sea lanes nor the skies, could not launch Operation Sealine, and
then went on to launch an awfully unsuccessful invasion of civil Union. In some ways, the
equivalent here is going to be Napoleon cannot invade the British aisles, but that doesn't mean he
takes his grand Army and sends him home. For several years. The Grand Army had been
organized and trained for eventual invasion of Great Britain once the invasion doesn't take place
now. He doesn't hand them a croissant and say, thank you. Thanks. Anyone don't need you? No,
he picks the brand Army, and over the next several years, launches them in a series of hugely
successful attacks across Europe. Also, it's arguably napoleon's most noted battle. Sometimes
referred to as the battle of the three Emperors, because there are three emperors there. This
Napoleon, by 1805, was the emperor of the French. And then you had Alexander, first, the
Russian Zar, or emperor, and the Russian emperor was there as well, and napoleon's forces were
outnumbered. But at a key moment, he made it seem to the Austrians and the Russians that he
was retreating. They took the bait, and then Napoleon attacked on the flanks. It was an absolutely
devastating defeat for the Austrians and the Prussians. What were some of the things that
Napoleon did that was so innovative? Well, one of the things was he made use what was called
the core. Basically, a core is a kind of a mini army. It's around 12000 men. And it could go up to
20000, but let's say 15 to 20000. And what you had was it sort of replicated a much larger army.
An army might consist of six to eight of these cores, so around maybe a hundred and 50000 men
in total, but each 15 to 20000. Would replicate the entire army learning about that. It not only
had infantry, but it had its own artillery units and also its own Calvary. Now, why was it
significant? It allowed a much greater flexibility, instead of having all the cavalry under one
command and separate all the artillery under another, integrating them into these smaller courts
gave Napoleon of flexibility. Which is opponents lack. Napoleon's going to go on to further
victories, including the battle Vienna, where he shatters a Prussian army in 1806 and to humiliate
the Prussians. He marches his troops into the Prussian capital, the city of Berlin. They march
under, you can see it in this painting here. They march under what's called the branded. Gates, a
victory right that had been built by the Prussians to celebrate their own military trials. Are the
Prussians eventually going to get their revenge for this humiliation? As you might guess on this
question, the answer is going to be yes. In 1940. A German army, pressure becomes the core of
what later becomes Germany in 1871. Well, in 1940, during World War Two, when the Germans
defeat the French, they get their revenge by marching under the Arctic Triumph, which you see
in the back there. The Arctic Triumph, the triumphal arch was started by Napoleon during his
lifetime. It was going to be finished after his death. Now, one of the things that Napoleon is
going to do after his victories is that he established a series of satellite states throughout Europe.
Now, politically, what's a satellite? A satellite is, in theory, an independent political entity, but it
really is under the dominance of another greater power. To give you a twentieth century example
of satellites after World War II, nations like Poland, hungary, czechoslovakia. Were seemingly
independent. They sent athletes to the Olympics. They had seats at the United Nations. But in
reality, who was calling the shots for postwar Hungary, poland, east Germany, czecholovakia?
The answer was the Soviet Union. None of those states, nations could truly do what they wanted.
They always had to make sure that the Soviet Union a much greater power proved that's what we
have here. If you look at the map, you see some of the satellites. You see the Confederation of
the rhyme later Spain, the Kingdom of Naples, the king of Italy. Rand actually a long story. In

15
theory, they were all independent. The Kingdom of Naples sounds like an independent entity. In
reality, ultimately, france and napoleon's corner shots, he put his own relatives or generals as the
rulers of these satellites. And ultimately he decided what went on there, including, as you can see
from the key of this map. The implementation of French institutions. Wherever there were
satellites, they're going to receive French institutions, such as the Napoleonic Code leases,
equivalent of Imperial universities. All those things were introduced. Now, on the one hand, we
might say that brings some real positives wherever French armies went, that it meant is religious
toleration, and it equally under law, in theory, the end of serfdom. And yet, for many there was a
sense that this is imposed by others. This rather graphic cartoon is from Spain. And it shows
Napoleon, so, you know, providing for his you know, some sort of rule that's going to apply to
the Spaniards. And you see someone reacting to it by defecating carbon. That document, sort of
the Spanish cartoons way of saying, we don't want your lawyers. I don't want your rules. You're
a foreigner. You have no right to doubt it over Us. So as you might imagine, on the one hand, we
look at what French brought, and as modern individuals, we can see some benefits to it, but for
concrete people, they saw it as oppressive. Also do keep in mind the satellites had to pay much
higher taxes, because not only do they have to pay much to support their own government, but
also some of that tax revenue had to go. To France, plus, increasingly, napoleon was drafting
soldiers from the satellite states. In fact, when Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, half of his
600000 man army came from the satellites. So let's say I'm an Italian peasant. I've been paying
higher taxes now because half of my taxes are going to it's either miss out. So the king of.
Another piece was going to back to France. And I'm also liable to be sent to Russia with the
French armies because I'm living in the satellite. As you can imagine, the resentance is going to
be tremendous. Now, napoleon still dreamed of bringing the British to his knees, to that knees.
The problem was, after Trafalgar, no invasion was going to be feasible. Instead, he wages
economic war. He tries to essentially blockade Great Britain by introducing an 1806 So it was
referred to as the continental System. All trade between the continent and Britain was supposed
to come to an end, nor were European customers supposed to be buying from the British.
Napoleon, the reason we refer to the British as a nation of merchants. He saw that something
negative. They're ruled by the British Pound, and therefore authority. He'll get them to
negotiating table if we hit them where it hurts an economy. Instead, the continental system really
brought economic problems throughout the Napoleon Empire. It also brought about worse
relations with the Russians. The Russians, under Zar Alexander, refused to be part of the
continental system. The Russians had an important trade with the British, particularly an old
growth forest. It takes hundreds of old growth. Of trees to build a warship. The British didn't
have themselves anymore. Their forests had pretty much cut down. They've got these trees from
Russia. The czar has attitude was, we're not complying with this continental system. You know,
you can't tell us what to do, which is going to worse. Relation between France and Russia
playing part of the background of the later invasion of 18 or twelve. Things within the empire
come to a bit of a head. In 1808, spain, if you remember from the battle of Trafalgar, had been an
ally of France. There were Spanish ships that fought with the French against nelson's fleet. In
1808, napoleon wanted to invade Portugal. Portugal was an old ally of Great Britain, and
essentially, british goods could leave Britain. And be sold throughout the content by going to
Portugal. And also, portugal is a conduit for European goods, so not in Britain. So Napoleon
wanted the open door of Portugal to be closed through invasion. To get to Portugal. He needed to
go through Spain. He basically demanded that Spanish king allow French troops to go through
their country. The king reluctantly, fernan reluctantly said yes. He knew this could be a problem,

16
and he was right. Once the French troops were in Spanish soil, napoleon decided, why not make
Spain a full, fledged part of the French Empire. Revenue. An ally. And so the French began their
occupation of Spain on 2 may, eight, and o, eight, and Madrid and other Spanish cities and
towns. You had popular uprisings. The next day, french troops. Born out civilians and started
shooting. This is going to lead to a very famous painting. The artist is not just a Goya. Goya
painted this masterpiece. It's called 3 may. This is, again, those paintings that is considered too
historically important to ever travel. If you wish to see this painting, the only place to see it ever
would be in the prad of museum imagery. It shows the violence on 3 may, where French forces
are shooting at civilians. Why is shooting at civilians? Because the Spanish we're fighting often
at. Gorillas, gorilla meaning in terms of nontraditional warfare. Soldiers not wearing uniforms,
e.g., hitting and running. That word actually comes from Spain. At this time, the French forces
not knowing who's shooting at them, not seeing people in uniform. Took civilians and shot them
to intimidate the others. It's a powerful painting you see there. The French are portrayed without
ever seeing their faces, so it makes them more monstrous and idiots, because only their faces
could humanize them. To the left, you see various Spanish civilians. Perhaps some of these men
had been gorillas. Perhaps they were just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. We don't
know. But we've got a sense of the devastation brought by the French occupation of Spain. Well,
this rebellion does not end. In fact, napoleon's going to refer to it as his Spanish author. He's
going to have to keep significant troops in Spain to keep the rebellion under control. And also,
this popular uprising in Spain is going to lead to popular uprisings throughout this French
controlled empire. So contagion is going to spread. Let's turn back, though, to napoleon's
domestic life for a moment. If you remember, he had been married to Josephine. They had
worked things out after a rather troubled story, but by 1809, he decides to divorce her. He
decides to divorce her, not because of infidelities. No, she was slightly, she was somewhat older
than Napoleon. Her child bearing years were past. She had two children, a boy and girl.
Napoleon was a good stepfather to them. He kind of recognized they had more abilities than his
own family, his own siblings. But they were not his own children. And so he wanted to have an
heir, especially now he was an emperor. He wanted to pass on the throne to an eldest born son,
seeing that Joseph could not produce it. He divorced her reluctantly. You know, he was a Capian.
He's a man who, in battle, had horses shot out a hundred. He was always going to think of battle,
very brave. When he came time to tell Josephine he wanted to divorce, he sent an officer to take
a message and not do that. And he obviously felt very guilty because he loaded up on him with
money and palaces. He was very generous. Anyway, he divorces her. But the question was, who
is he going to marry? He married. There was some talk of him constantly marrying the daughter
of the emperor of Russia, but Alexander said, no. Instead, he marries Marie Louise, who is Marie
Louise. Marie Louise was a member of the Hapsburg family. The Hapsburgs had ruled
Borschlier for centuries. They were one of the oldest ruling dynasties in Europe. Now keep in
mind here, if you're a member of this old dynasty, any of the old dynasty, the Roman I was in
Russia, E.G., or the British welfare. They all look at Napoleon this course, again, as this upstart.
So one advantage of marrying. A Hepsburg princess was here's a so called upstart, but he's
marrying into one of the great dynastic families of Europe. Plus Hepsburg women were known
for not having any trouble conceiving children. That was another advantage when you're after
that marriage. She does abuse a son. Who's supposed to be the police's aunts are throne. Keep in
mind that Maria Louise had no sale for this. She was the daughter of the auction Emperor of
France II, and you have to remember who her ant was. Her aunt was Marie Antoinette. And of
course, you know what happened with Aunt Trinette? She was hated and awfully guillotine,

17
some really, we've had to be pretty horrified. Things look very bad. She's gone to France, so they
seem to hate always me. And somebody did. My aunt napoleon's double my age. She was 20. He
was 40. But she had no say of this. And oddly, or person, that's all who knows, they met, I come
on that wedding day, and they hit it off. They hit it off. She was young and foolish at the time,
And her, you know, as she grew older, she showed herself to be a woman of substance. But at
this stage, she was young and Central. And Napoleon never really was interested in a women of
achievements. You know, he liked young and sensual and that's what she was. So they oddly
ended up hit it off. And they did have a son, that son, who was immediately given the title King
of Rome. We're supposed to reign as Napoleon second. But events will make that impossibility,
as we'll see. When does Napoleon make a huge error? He makes the same error that the Germans
are going to do over a century later, when he's invading Russia. Why does Napoleon invade
Russia? In 1812. Perhaps he was still angry over alexander's refusal to allow him to wet his
daughter. Or perhaps he was angry over alexander's refusal to participate in the continental
system, or perhaps he felt that his own French empire would never be secure in Europe, so long
as Russia was still there as potential threat. We can't go directly to the poland's mind here, but all
we can say is, in 1812, he launches a massive invasion. 600000 men are launched into Russia. To
his anger, though, what do the Russians do? Well, the Russians have one advantage land. You
see, if the polling goes to war with oppressions, there's only so far the pressures can retreat if it
goes to war with the orange means there's a limit. Russia seems to be endless amounts of land.
And the Russians retreat. For the most part, they refused to engage the French in battle. The
battle of Borodino was essentially the only significant battle between the French and the
Russians during this initial campaign in 1812, and worry simply by Napoleon, he wanted a
complete total victory over the Russians. Borodino, though, was kind of a split decision. You
know, it was a stalemate. And for Napoleon, that's not going to be good enough. After Borodino,
the Russians continued to just withdraw him. Eventually, napoleon makes it all the way to
Moscow, a remarkable achievement. The Germans, in 1940, 01:42, reached, you know, the
outskirts of Moscow. They don't enter into the city. Napoleon does. Now, by the way, in 1812,
moscow, unlike today, was not the capital of Russia. The capital of the Russian empire was St
Petersburg to the north, but Moscow was the second city in the empire, home of some of its most
important palaces in churches. And now Napoleon was an occupation of it, and he was hoping to
stay there during a long winter months. And once the weather would improve in late spring,
launch an attack north towards the capital of St Petersburg, and and hopefully force Alexander to
sign a peace deal. What happens, though, is napoleon's plans are room. When fire broke out in
Moscow in september 16 of 1812. We don't know if the Russians purposely said it. We don't
know if the French accidentally said it. Keep in mind, palaces and churches may be made of
stone and model. Most homes, most buildings were made of wood, and he had open cooking
fires. Cities often went up in flames. Once Moscow began to burn. Napoleon could no longer use
that as his winter headquarters, and he was forced to withdraw. This is the start of one of the
most brutal retreats in history. Periodically, the route that napoleon's forces went back out of
Russia in their retreat. Periodically, they'll be excavating the ground, let's say, put up a building,
whatever, and they'll find several hundred French soldiers. Often dead from typhoid and other
illnesses that afflict people who are starving. Because besides withdrawing, what else were the
Russians doing? They are ripping up all the crops, poison the wells. See, napoleon going back to
his Italian campaign. Used to have his troops live off the Land. Grab what you can from the
farms where we are. Pay for it if you want. You know, it didn't initially encourage them to pay.
But take what you will. Well, the Russians were not playing along. They destroy their own

18
farms. They destroy the farm animals. Anything to make sure the French did not have resources.
Ultimately, ultimately, that army of 600000 men who ended Russia was reduced to only 60000
bats who survived this Plutal campaign. At this point, napoleon was looking vulnerable. The
Russians wanted to revenge. The British was still in this conflict. The British had remained in the
conflict after the end of the Treaty of Army ends, they were bankrolling the Russians and
between the Russians and the British. They convinced the Prussians and the Orchians to switch
sides and join them against the French. Now, napoleon was facing a European wide coalition at
the Battle of Nations, or sometimes he's referred to with Battle of Life. Statement 1813.
Napoleon is defeated. He's forced to withdraw into French borders, but his enemies pursuing.
And finally, in 1814, with the enemies of France, now in French soil, napoleon is forced to
advocate, to advocate, means to give up the throne. Now, what becomes Napoleon here? It's not
going to be what you might guess. You might assume. After his application, napoleon was
executed. He has one word neck for the guilty No. On the island of Elba. What you see on that
map, you see that star there. That's what Elba is. Odd enough, he passed his course about his old
homeland on the way to Elba. Why did the victoria's allies not kill him? There are a couple of
Reasons. One was the idea that you could kill him, you make them into a mortar. And yes, by
1814, after 1 million French casualties in his various wars, napoleon's popularity had plummeted
in France. But many Frenchmen still believe in the man. Many of them still held on to the myth
of the icon of Napoleon. And so the thought was, you don't want to stir up that those individuals
also, you have to remember, napoleon advocates what kind of government is now put in place in
France. The decision made by victorious allies was to bring back the old Bourbon dynasty, louis,
sixteenth, the executed French king. Remember from previous lectures, if you recall him, he had
two brothers. The older of those two brothers comes back to France and begins to reign as Louis
the eighteenth. By the way, I think could the French not count what happened to Louis the
seventeenth was technically Luna sixteen's young son, who had died in prison at the age of nine
during the French Revolution. He had obviously never ruled. But if you were a monarchist, a
purist on this issue, your feeling was the moment Lucas King was guilty in that boy in prison,
was now your Louis the seventeenth the minute that boy died on pneumonia in prison, His uncle
was now the new king. And again, if you might ask Etanor Louis. Louis is a kind of a change
form of the medieval Frankish name of Clovis, sort of alteration of Clovis. And traditionally,
most French kings are known as we give them the type Louis. They took that name, probably
from a game. That's how you got two brothers who were both Louise King or Louis 18. It's not
as honest it sounds. That was not the baptism name. The fourth was if you're going to get the.
French to accept the restoration of the Bourbons, you can kill Poleon, that will stir up too much
anger. We need a pacified France. So Napoleon goes to Elba, and the thought is, that's the end of
the story. Remarkably, there's one last twist. Napoleon goes to Elba. He's given a nice deal. He's
allowed to keep the title of Emperor, makes me much. But doesn't find new business arts. He's
allowed to take a thousand soldiers with him so he can march them around. And initially, he goes
to Elba. And he was a tremendously energetic individually. He's already making plans to
improve the docks, there, the road. But ultimately, elba only offered him so much activity, so
much to keep busy. And he decides. He wants to go back to France. This episode is known as
The 100 Days, because it roughly lasts over a hundred days. He escapes from Elba, the British
who's supposed to be launching him. We're not doing such a superb job. He gets on a small, little
sailboat sales past the British lands in the sound of France. Even so, this is risky because Louis
eighteenth sends a French force south to deal with Apoleon, who's the commander of this French
force. The famous Marshall name Marshall is a French rank that is above General. We don't have

19
that in American military. Marshall nay was one of napoleon's most famous officers. He was
known as the bravest of the brave. Now, having seen the way the wind was turning, he decides
when I'll support Louis 18. And he tells Louis 18, I'll bring back Napoleon in a cage. He arrives
in the south of France with a force at four out members, napoleons. Napoleon dramatically opens
his tutor's jacket, exposes himself. Without the jacket. He has closed, I mean nothing, but he
pick, opens up his jacket just to reveal the clothes underneath. And basically tells those men
Shoot me. Keep in mind, from Nelson on down, these are all officers and soldiers who had made
their careers on the Napoleon, seeing the legendary leader, they could not shoot him, and
ultimately they'd join him. So now Napoleon has a force, and he marches north to Paris, louis
eighteenth is put in the embarrassing position. Having to flee, and napoleon's back in charge. He
knows, however, that the victoria's allies are not going to let him rain, that he's too dangerous. So
they quickly organize a fighting Force. And at woodland, which is today in modern day Belgium.
Napoleon's quickly gathered force is facing a force made up of the British there's a British army
based in this region, and Napoleon confronts them. The battle goes back and forth all day long,
as the British would say. It's a closer run affair. So at the end of the day, though, the British are
joined by a Prussian army, napoleon, understanding it's over. Surrenders. Now, by the way, here
we always talk about Napoleon being this unique military genius of the age. At Waterloo, he was
facing an opponent who was a greater commander than he was. The Duke of Wellington was a
brilliant British commander who never lost a battle. And Wellington was going to be the one
who led the victorious British forces at the Battle of Warland. Later went on to a distinguished
career in politics, became a British prime minister. But anyway, he was, in some ways, the great
military mind of the age. What happens in Napoleon again? He's not executed. This time around,
though, he's not sent to a beautiful little island in the Mediterranean. This time he's sent to a
nasty windslip Atlantic island under control of the British state Helena. And there he lived until
his death in 1821. In his last years, he did a lot of writing, and in his writings, he'll often tried to
justify his life at his legacy. You see, throughout the nineteenth century, after an appointment
was gone, there was a debate within France. In France. What was the legacy this man? Napoleon
himself and those who supported him sort of saw things like an image on the left there's
Napoleon pointing to his civil code. Napoleon the lawgiver, the man of the Enlightenment.
Those who believed that story said Napoleon was defeated by these reactionary, conservative
governments that hated the ideals of French Revolution. On the right, you see a less flattering
image of Napoleon with a spear. And what's on the tip of that spear, a liberty cap, the kind of cap
that was worn by supporters of French Revolution. And in that image, you're sort of making a
statement. Napoleon was the destroyer of the positive ideals of French Revolution. That debate
was going to exist in French life throughout the nineteenth century. It's going to influence things
in the future. Napoleon's son, marie louise's son, and napoleon's goes to Austria, never is allowed
to mention his father again. And he dies as an Auspian Duke. But napoleon's going to have a
nephew who ultimately does come to throne as Napoleon the Third. And so Napoleon legacy
was going to remain an important thing in France throughout that nineteenth century.

20

You might also like