Liberté [Part III] WHAP/Napp
“Purged of Robespierre’s collaborators, the Convention began to undo the radical reforms. A more conservative constitution was also ratified. It protected property, established a voting process that reduced the power of the masses, and created a new executive authority, the Directory. Once installed in power, however, the Directory proved unable to end the foreign wars or solve domestic economic problems. After losing the election of 1797 the Directory suspended the results. The republican phase of the Revolution was clearly dead. Legitimacy was now based on coercive power rather than on elections. Two years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant young general in the French army, seized power. The military intervention that brought Napoleon to power in 1799 marked the advent of another modern form of government: popular authoritarianism.
In contrast to the National Convention, Napoleon proved capable of realizing France’s dream of dominating Europe and providing effective protection for persons and property at home. Negotiations with the Catholic Church led to the Concordat of 1801. This agreement gave French Catholics the right to freely practice their religion, and it recognized the French government’s authority to nominate bishops and retain priests on the state payroll. In his comprehensive rewriting of French law, the Civil Code of 1804, Napoleon won the support of the peasantry and of the middle class by asserting two basic principles inherited from the moderate first stage of the French Revolution: equality in law and protection of property. Even some members of the nobility became supporters after Napoleon declared himself emperor and France an empire in 1804. However, the discrimination against women that had begun during the Terror was extended by the Napoleonic Code. Women were denied basic political rights and were able to participate in the economy only with the guidance and supervision of their fathers and husbands.
While providing personal security, the Napoleonic system denied or restricted many individual rights. Free speech and free expression were limited. Ultimately, the Napoleonic system depended on the success of French arms and French diplomacy. From Napoleon’s assumption of power until his fall, no single European state could defeat the French military. Even powerful alliances like that of Austria and Prussia were brushed aside with humiliating defeats. Only Britain, protected by its powerful navy, remained able to thwart Napoleon’s plans to dominate Europe. His effort to mobilize forces for an invasion of Britain failed in late 1805 when the British navy defeated the French at the Battle of Trafalgar. Desiring to again extend French power to the Americas, Napoleon invaded Portugal and Spain. Frustrated by events on the Iberian Peninsula and faced with a faltering economy, Napoleon made the fateful decision to invade Russia.”
~ The Earth and Its Peoples
1. Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power as(A) A liberal noble who supported the Third Estate.
(B) A military hero.
(C) An opponent of Robespierre.
(D) A supporter of Marie Antoinette.
(E) None of the answers are correct. / 2. In general, Napoleon championed
(A) Political freedom but not social equality.
(B) Equality under the law but not political freedom.
(C) Freedom of expression but only for the aristocracy.
(D) All the rights of citizenship proclaimed by the National Assembly.
Key Words/
Questions / I. The Napoleonic Wars
A. As a son of the revolution, Napoleon sought to spread its principles by
force of arms
B. By 1810 he had conquered or entered into alliances with all the major powers and regions of Europe except Portugal, Balkans, and Britain
C. In each conquered state, Napoleon introduced the principal legal and administrative reforms of the revolution
1. An end to feudal privilege, equality of rights, religious toleration, codified law, free trade, and efficient and systematic administration, and the use of the metric system
II. The Trouble with Britain and Then the Trouble with Russia
A. Napoleon attempted to conquer Britain, and ultimately the naval power
of that island nation proved too strong
B. Napoleon could not break the British hold on continental shipping and was defeated by Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
C. When the Russian emperor supported Britain, Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and mired his army irretrievably in its vastness and bitter cold
1. During that campaign, 400,000 of Napoleon’s troops died from battle, starvation, and exposure; another 100,000 were captured
III. The Desire for Freedom Spreads
A. The conquered nations began to experience the stirrings of
nationalism and the desire to rule themselves
B. Haiti, which had achieved virtual independence in the 1790s, resisted Napoleon’s attempt to re-impose French rule and re-institute slavery
C. Some 50,000 French troops perished in Haiti, most by diseases such as yellow fever, but many at the hands of revolutionary slaves
D. Europeans, too, did not want their countries to be colonies of France
E. By 1813 Napoleon was defeated by his disastrous losses in Russia and by a coalition of armies; the French were driven back to their borders
F. In 1814, Napoleon abdicated and Louis XVIII assumed the throne
G. Napoleon escaped from exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba only to be defeated and exiled again in 1815, to St. Helena in South Atlantic
1. The Napoleonic Era was over
IV. The Congress of Vienna
A. An assembly of representatives of all the powers of Europe, led by the most influential states, created to discuss post-war Europe
B. The leader of the Congress was Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich
1. Metternich helped establish the principle of a balance of power or the principle of nations having roughly the same amount of power to prevent future “Napoleons” and future wars
2. Sought to also restore the old regimes to power
3. Redrew the map of Europe
4. Conservative movement to return Europe to the way it was before the French Revolution
1. Which of the following contributed the most to Napoleon's downfall?
(A) His establishment of the French Empire
(B) His granting of amnesty to one hundred thousand émigré nobles
(C) His support of a national spy and surveillance system
(D) His agreement to the Treaty of Tilsit
(E) His 1812 invasion of Russia
2. The crucial battle that frustrated Napoleon's plans to invade England was
(A) Waterloo
(B) Trafalgar
(C) Austerlitz
(D) Borodino
(E) Jena
3. Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of
(A) Waterloo
(B) Austerlitz
(C) White Mountain
(D) Jena
(E) Trafalgar
4. Napoleon's most enduring achievement was
(A) The Continental System.
(B) The conquest of England.
(C) The Napoleonic codification of laws.
(D) The establishment of revolutionary democracies throughout Europe.
(E) The unification of Italy.
5. At the Congress of Vienna, European countries actively sought
(A) Industrial power
(B) Imperialist policies
(C) An end to tariffs and other trade restrictions.
(D) Religious reform
(E) A balance of power / 6. Ultimately, the Napoleonic empire, including dependent states and allies, included all of the following EXCEPT
(A) Italy
(B) Holland
(C) Great Britain and Russia
(D) Spain
(E) The Grand Duchy of Warsaw
7. Place the following events of the French Revolution in the correct chronological order:
I. The storming of the Bastille
II. The Oath of the Tennis Court
III. The meeting of the Estates General
IV. The Reign of Terror
V. Louis XVI executed
(A) I, IV, V, II, and III
(B) III, II, I, V, and IV
(C) II, III, I, IV, and V
(D) III, I, II, IV, and V
(E) I, II, III, IV, and V
8. The principle of ______involved a basic policy of preventing any one state from rising to dominance over any other.
(A) checks and balances
(B) anti-imperialism
(C) protect and serve
(D) balance of power
9. The driving principle at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was the issue of ______in an effort to restore order to a war-torn Europe.
(A) monarchical conservatism
(B) constitutional monarchy
(C) democracy
(D) provisional government
Thesis Practice: How did Napoleon’s reign illustrate the forces of continuity and change? ______
Additional Reading: The Louisiana Purchase
“Meanwhile France was at war with the main European monarchies. Fervently it proclaimed that it had a duty to impose its own popular secular revolution on all the lands it conquered. Originally for the French people, the revolution was now marked ‘for export.’ But the command of the revolution, and therefore its message, was slowly passing from the hands of radical politicians into the hands of a young soldier. Napoleon had enjoyed his first celebrated victory at Toulon in 1793, when he was in his mid-twenties. He proved to be a brilliant general who thought that almost nothing was impossible, and for nearly two decades his faith was fulfilled. In 1799 he became the head of government or first consul of France. In 1802 he became ruler for life, with the power to decide who should be his successor. Two years later he became emperor, and in Paris he was formally crowned by Pope Pius VII.
The new United States stayed out of the French revolutionary wars, thus refusing to continue an alliance with the nation which had probably saved it from military defeat in the late 1770s. Thereby it launched that long tradition of self-imposed isolation from events in Europe. As before, the quarrels in Europe provided an opportunity for the United States to expand. Napoleon had taken back Louisiana and the western side of the Mississippi from Spain, which was too weak to say no. In 1803 he was desperate for revenue and decided to sell to the United States all the land on the western side of the Mississippi River. Known simply as the Louisiana Purchase, this secured for the United States, at three cents an acre, ownership of North America’s longest river system and a vast expanse of land running all the way from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico. This transaction embraced the territory now occupied by one-quarter of all the states in the USA.
If this tract, far larger than any European nation except Russia, had remained in French hands, or if it had passed into the hands of a group of French-led colonists, there might in the end have been two rival but independent Americas, with one displaying the stars and stripes on the eastern seaboard and the other displaying a version of the French tricolor in the far interior. Would the United States later have been able to annex Texas and California if a French land barrier had continued to intervene? It is likely that the USA would have remained a middle-sized nation with its only ports facing the Atlantic Ocean.” ~ A Short History of the World
1- What did the French wish to impose on the lands in Europe it conquered? ______
2- Identify two significant facts about Napoleon. ______
3- Describe the United States’ policy to France’s revolutionary wars. ______
4- What did Napoleon sell to the United States? ______
5- Why did Napoleon sell this land to the United States? ______
6- How might American history have been different without this land? ______