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This is the lecture on: What Steps did Napoleon Take to Create an Empire?
In the first three slides, I'll talk about his rise to power.
In the middle three slides, I'll talk about his rule of France.
And in the last three slides, I'll explain how he created an empire and maintained that empire and ultimately what lost him that empire.
So, the first thing we need to talk about is the hero of the hour.
When he was 14 years old, his parents sent him to a military school.
Napoleon actually was from the island of Corsica and he spoke French with an Italian accent and they used to make fun of him.
After a few years in the military school,
he joined the army of the new government.
It was the new government through the French Revolution that really gave Napoleon his opportunity.
Everybody made fun of him in military school for his Italian accent,
and they knew he would never rise to power because he was not part of the second estate.
And when the new government rises and abolishes all the estates, Napoleon can rise to power.
So, in 1795, the royalists were marching on the National Convention on the NC.
And Napoleon was commanded to protect the delegates.
Napoleon was an excellent artillery man.
He was good at using canons and canon fire.
And his gunners attacked the royalists with canon fire in the city of Paris and they killed a lot of people.
But he saved the National Convention and he was known as the hero of the hour.
He was then appointed to lead the army against Austria.
And he crossed the alps and he fought the Austrian army in Italy.
He was absolutely dominating.
After that, he even went as far as Egypt and he was absolutely dominating the military.
However, in Egypt, he met his great nemesis Horatio Nelson, who defeated him at the battle of the Nile.
Then Napoleon had control of the newspapers and in 1799 when he returned,
Even though he had lost the Battle of the Nile, his newspapers reported him as the winner.
When he arrives in 1799, due to his newspapers, he is one of the most popular people in France.
So in 1799, the Directory, which is the name of the government,
had lost control and the people's confidence.
So this guy, the Abbey Seiyes, who is famous for his pamphlets about what is the third estate,
and actually led the third estate in creating the Tennis Court Oath.
He urged him to take power and he thought he could control Napoleon
and he thought he could help control Napoleon through his wife Josephine.
So, the plan is put into action.
Napoleon marches into the legislature and they dissolve the Directory and establish the three consuls.
And Napoleon is one of those three consuls.
So he doesn't have complete power yet, but the next thing that he does is to create
The Coup d' Etat, which will appear on your quiz.
This is known as "blow of state" in English.
Here is a picture of him after his blow of state.
He quickly assumed dictatorial powers as the 1st consul of the French Republic.
So the legislature could not tell him, the executive, what he could do.
France was still at war with the second coalition of Britatin, Austria, and Russia.
He took his army through the war and through war and diplomacy, he signed a peace treaty in 1799.
So from 1799-1805, he's roughly at peace.
But what he wants is more power.
The legislature keeps fighting him on things, so he's got to find a way to get power over the legislature.
So the next term is how he does it. It's called a plebiscite.
So he's in control of France and now he's going to focus on France and making France a great place to live.
So he uses plebiscites, which is when the people vote and they give you power.
So he would hold these big public votes and then they would vote him more power.
Here's some maps about the plebiscites.
The abstention rate exceeds 80%, so this is dark and where people were not voting.
You saw in 1800, it was just the urban areas and in the urban areas of France,
the rural areas didn't vote.
In 1802, pretty much all of France is voting.
1804- same thing.
But by 1815, at the end of his rule, there's a lot of people not voting.
That's kind of a clue to what happens in the future.
So, the people had always wanted a strong leader because France had been under attack for so long.
So they ultimatelyy voted to give Napoleon all the power.
And they actually vote him to be Emperor, which is kind of ironice
because that's who they had kicked out originally in 1789.
So, Napoleon using the plebiscite and using the powers,
He sets up efficient tax collection, which had been a problem,
He established a solid national bank, and he really makes the economy of France much stronger.
And there's still a problem.
Remember- one of the major controversies of the French Revolution was what to do with the Calivin Church.
They had sold the land of the Catholic church to pay off their debt
And the people of France, especially the rurual peasants, had always been really upset
About how the Catholic Church had been treated.
So Napoleon signs the Concordat.
Here's a very famous political cartoon of Napoleon signing the Concordat
and how the blessed *** Mary is blessing what they're doing.
Napoleon's very smart in what he does.
The Pope wants to be in control of the Catholic Church.
Napoleon says "OK, I am the protector of the French Revolution.
I want the Pope to be involved. However, the Pope has no political control.
Only the government could appoint bishops, but the bishops could appoint the priests.
So the people of France still support it because he is being pro-Catholic by signing the Concordat.
But he actually has control over it because he controls which bishops are elected.
And he'll ask a very, very important favor later on from the Pope when he becomes Emperor.
In addition to signing the Concordat, he establishes probably his most important reform: The Napoleonic Code.
with his Code Civil Des Francais.
He is a very efficient guy and he wants very efficient laws.
They actually still use some of these law today.
He got rid of corruption and he provided the government with trained officials
through schools known as Lycees, which are government run public schools.
And his trained officials were appointed on merit rather than connections.
Remember, this is what he had been denied when he was in military school.
So you rise based on your ability here.
He sets the Napoleonic Code, which is a uniform set of laws and eliminating injustices.
And this is in every part of the French empire, including the colonies in America.
However, the Napoleonic code limits individual liberty.
You do not necessarily have freedom of speech, you do not necessarily have freedom of property-
The government has control over specific things.
He promoted those concepts of authority and order over individual rights.
He really really limits freedom of speech.
And he can do this by limiting newspapers.
During the French Revolution from 1789-1794, there were hundreds of newspapers.
By the time Napoleon enacts the civil code, there's only about five.
So he controls what is being said.
Now, he finally has enough power to appoint himself emperor.
In 1804, he holds yet another plebiscite and he is crowned emperor.
And he crowns it in a unique way. Kings throughout Europe had always been crowned by the Pope.
The Pope would walk up to you and he would actually put the crown on your head.
Well what Napoleon does is unique. The Pope walks up to him and is about to put the crown on his head,
And he surprised everybody because he takes the crown from the Pope's hands and he puts it on his own head.
People in Europe are alarmed, especially the other powerful countries like Austria and Russia.
So they declare war on Napoleon and Napoleon, because he's emperor, now engages in one of the biggest battles of all time.
He fights the Battle of Austerlitz.
This is considered Napoleon's greatest victory.
It's also called the Battle of the Three Emperors.
Here's Napoleon and here is the Tsar and here is his future father-in-law, the Emperor of Austria.
The French are outnumbered by 10,000 and what Napoleon does is he assumes the high ground
at the beginning of the battle.
And he puts his troops into the low ground.
The only path that's open to the Austrians and Russians is a path that is guarded by his troops that he secretly marched throughout the night.
So the Russians and the Austrians take the hill that he has abandoned and they march down to crush him,
and they think they're going to do it, but Napoleon has those secret troops hidden.
Those secret troops delay the attack by the Austrians and Russians and Napoleon countermarches- he marches behind them both.
He goes up the hill and then down the hill and crushes his enemies.
And he wins an incredibly victory.
Even though he is outnumbered and there is two armies versus his one.
Now, the Battle of Austerlitz is his greatest victory, but ironically, his greatest defeat,
and ultimately what will lead to his downfall is this battle right here- the Battle of Trafalgar.
Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats combined Spanish and French navies.
Remember, Horatio Nelson is the same admiral who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of the Nile.
And after this, England can now dominate the seas.
And this is how Horatio Nelson did it-
He is outnumbered and he sees all of the French and Spanish fleets combined
and he sails directly at them.
And right here the victory that is Nelson's boat- he splits the line of boats
and then, by splitting the line, these boats can't attack him because he's too far away.
So he's able to defeat all of these boats and these boats sail back
and it's a huge, huge British victory because never again will the French or Spanish fleets be strong enough to defeat the British.
So this will also set us up for World War I because when the Germans want to defeat the British,
they have to create a great navy.
So Nelson sails by going directly at them- never mind maneuvers, just going straight at them-
That was Nelson's motto.
And he defeats them, even thought Nelson was killed at the battle.
And you can still visit Trafalgar Square in London today.
Thanks, bye.