Napoleon’s Rise and Fall: From French Revolution to Exile

Posted on Oct 28, 2024 in History

1. Popular Support for Napoleon’s Rule

Napoleon’s 15-year rule in France enjoyed broad public support for several key reasons:

  • National pacification.
  • Protection of individual rights (within the bounds of his authority).
  • Equal application of laws.
  • Sustained economic growth driven by workshops.
  • The Concordat with the Pope, securing the Church’s support in exchange for state control (but not land ownership) of Church properties.

2. Napoleon’s Foreign Policy

Napoleon’s foreign policy involved installing allies and relatives in European kingdoms, promoting free trade for French goods while restricting other nations’ products (especially English ones). This led to conflict with England, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) where the combined Franco-Spanish fleet was defeated.

3. Economic Blockade of England

Unable to conquer England militarily, Napoleon imposed trade restrictions on Portugal, Denmark, and Russia to limit British commerce. His intervention in Spain, initially to enforce the blockade, led to the Spanish War of Independence.

4. The Spanish War of Independence

Napoleon’s intervention in Spain, sparked by dynastic disputes and popular resistance to French occupation, ignited a protracted war. Despite French military successes, Spanish guerilla warfare and British support gradually eroded French control. The Spanish government, based in Cadiz, convened the Cortes and promulgated the liberal Constitution of 1812.

5. Napoleon’s Defeat

Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, aiming to enforce the Continental System, ended disastrously. The combined effects of scorched earth tactics, the harsh Russian winter, and the Tsarist army decimated the French forces. Simultaneously, Spanish, Portuguese, and British forces launched an offensive, driving the French out of the Iberian Peninsula and into France. Napoleon’s attempts to raise a new army failed, and he was defeated and exiled to St. Helena.

6. Consequences of the French Revolution

  1. The universal recognition of human rights, though still not fully realized in some nations.
  2. The shift from a stratified society to a class-based society, where wealth, not birth, determined social status.
  3. The replacement of absolutist states with liberal states based on:
  • Individual liberty.
  • Equality before the law.
  • The right to private property.
  • National sovereignty.

7. Two Concepts of Nation

Two distinct concepts of nation emerged:

  1. The democratic concept, based on shared citizenship, laws, and defense of the state.
  2. The Romantic concept, based on shared ancestry, language, and often race, which could be democratic or xenophobic and racist.