The French Revolution's chaotic aftermath led to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who consolidated power, implemented significant reforms, and ultimately established a vast empire, only to face eventual defeat and exile.
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hello welcome back to our lecture series
for Western Civilization 102. we are
discussing the French Revolution
and we've learned about the events
leading up to the French Revolution
we've discussed and learned about what
happened during the French Revolution
and how it will result in this reign of
terror and this chaos it was definitely
different from the American Revolution
that had taken place previous to this as
we have found out there was a lot of
executions a lot of people even outside
of France a lot of the the monarchs in
other countries such as Prussia and
Austria will enter into French Affairs
and we will actually have fighting
outside of France and not just within
France itself
so France toward the end of the French
Revolution obviously was in chaos very
very radical in fact we had What's
called the thermadorian reaction
where the Committee of Public Safety was
overthrown because it doesn't seem to be
helping anything uh
uh
and of course ropes Pierre which you've
learned about will actually
be executed as well
and he of course was a very prominent
leader during the reign of terror
so all of this chaos that that results
and and we have a new body created
called the directory here when the
French Revolution they were like a
Council of Elders consisted of five men
and and the directory had executive
Authority here in France toward the end
with the rebellions and the uprisings
that are kind of breaking out because
France is still divided at the end of
the Revolution inflation was high there
was a threat of Revolution against the
directory because it doesn't seem like
they are managing to create any type of
stability or order which is what a lot
of people you know longed for
so the directory would actually call
upon this very brilliant young General
by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte
Bonaparte had risen through the ranks of
the army and I want to say he was like
24 years old when he became a brigadier
general so truly brilliant obviously
they called upon him to help
in fact the directory owed him a debt of
gratitude when Napoleon on October 4th
1795 had delivered what he Napoleon
called a whiff of grape shot which meant
bullets that had saved um
um
save the directory basically say this
convention and uh and then save the
constitution of 1795 at the time France
actually had gone through quite a few
constitutions during their Revolution
unlike the United States of course there
were major differences between the two revolutions
revolutions
so Napoleon Bonaparte was called upon to
help to help maintain order in France of course
course
um but he will as you'll find out in
this lecture Napoleon will take over
and create a French Empire
he wasn't even he he wasn't born in France
France um
um
and a lot of historians
are people who study history
have questioned with Napoleon Bonaparte
you've learned about enlightened
absolutism you learned what it means for
a ruler to be an enlightened absolutist well
well
there's arguments made on both sides of
the coin that Napoleon of course wasn't
enlightened absolutist
While others argue that Napoleon was
just a dictator
um of course as you learn more about
Napoleon you can make up your own mind
about that maybe he was a little of both
you'll have to decide that
he eventually becomes a consul for Life
Council of course the name Consul will
hearken back to the Roman early
Republican times
he would eventually be able to name his
successor at will and he could amend the
Constitution at will
now every time he would do something
major like this he would put it before
the French people and what's called a plebiscite
plebiscite
which they would vote and say yay or nay
we approve we don't approve
and quite amazingly truly amazing
overwhelmingly I think just about
everyone said we approve every time
Napoleon had a plebiscite
isn't wouldn't that be great for a
politician if they had that much
approval every time they wanted
something done
now you also learn of course about
Napoleon's reforms that he did he will
institute in France things like the
Napoleonic Code
which was also very important for
Louisiana of course and you'll learn
about his his dealings with the church
maybe maybe you'll discuss that as well
his concordat with the Pope in 1801
but you'll also learn about his mistakes
he had created a continental system in
1806 as it was called and basically
Napoleon wanted to create
an integrated economy on the European continent
continent
and he wanted to destroy the British he
wanted to destroy the British economy
and so we will see that France and
Britain again will have problems I under
the leadership of Napoleon and you'll
see that Napoleon will actually Place
members of his family on the Thrones of
other countries in Europe for example
Spain there's others but that just comes
to mind um
um
and you will of course learn that
Napoleon will fail
and and why he ends up failing
you know one reason of course you'll
learn about him sure is when he invades Russia
Russia okay
okay
Napoleon invaded Russia in the early
19th century it was a big mistake for Napoleon
Napoleon
and of course Hitler invades Russia
of course in the
early 20th century
or mid 20th century and as we know of
course that was a big mistake for Hitler
in Germany so I guess there's a lesson
to be learned from both Hitler and
Napoleon it's not always a good thing to
invade Russia
but eventually this Empire that Napoleon
creates will not last
Napoleon will eventually be exiled not
once but twice because he comes back and
takes over power
before he is kicked out yet again um
um
so it Napoleon's just a very interesting
historical figure um
um
very complex
historical person most definitely and so
let's learn more about Napoleon Bonaparte
Bonaparte
well by the time Napoleon takes over
France the French Revolution is over
Napoleon Rises to power and fame during
the French Revolution and to some extent
overthrows those who are in charge at
the time in the French Revolution in
1795 and establishes himself as First Council
Council
that position will eventually become
emperor of France
transforming France from a republic back
into a monarchy essentially now during
the French Revolution Napoleon who was
born on the island of Corsica
in 1769 Rises to power during the
revolution at a very young age in fact
he becomes a brigadier general at the
age of 25 years old Napoleon is known uh
as someone that is not only very
decisive very intelligent excelling at
things like mathematics
very hard-working capable arrogant all
of those adjectives would fit with
Napoleon very driven man that puts
himself in the right spot at the right
time he's on the right side in the
French Revolution and then when things
drift to uh
come apart in the French Revolution he
quickly allies himself with those who
establish themselves as being the people
in control after the people like the
Jacobins or thrown out of power and
after robe Spear's death he establishes
his uh
significance you might say with the
directory which is the group that ends
up running France after
1795. the the directory this group of
five men who established this executive
control within the French Republic uh
will be saved by Napoleon in 1795 using
his Ultra artillery units to save the
directory that gets him
notice and of course
gets him into the position of being able
to lead a French army into Italy where
he has tremendous success against the
austrians in Italy over a two-year
period basically giving the French
control over the Italian Peninsula and
taking away Austrian control
from there he's going to go down to
Egypt where things don't go so well for
him even though it's a disaster to some
extent with the French wiping out the
French Navy excuse me with the British
not knocking out the French Navy at the
bottle of the Nile on August 1st 1798.
Napoleon's going to slip back into
France to some degree he's able to
control the information coming out of
Egypt which is negative against him in
France and keep his popularity that he
had gained during the certain stages of
the Revolution and then stages of
fighting against the austrians now um
um
that will enable him to overthrow
eventually the directory and establish
himself as the first Council now what he
does is he writes this new constitution
for France he allows uh the plebiscite
the the people of France this National
vote to take place whether they want to
accept this new Constitution and when is
it is accepted uh Napoleon pretty much
establishes his interpretation over that
new Constitution which is a lot more or
I should say a lot less Democratic than
the people of France probably thought
what happens when Napoleon takes over as
essentially is the executive and the 83
departments that were set up under the
French Republic's Constitution the
Departments are the regions of France
these 83 regions that
were established after the nobility
loses control of uh of the French
provinces these directories largely were
self-governing units with their own
assemblies in what the French Republic
did they set up a kind of a federalist
system that we have in the United States
and Napoleon is going to eliminate
the independence you might say of these
83 departments by
establishing these prefects the these
people that are
uh answerable to Napoleon
he'll put these people in charge they
answer back to Paris the people in these
83 departments lose their
autonomy and really don't really have a
democracy anymore like they had had
under the Republic now what's
interesting is
Napoleon does this
and the people to a large extent he's
able to keep the people of France on his
side because things are suddenly working
well in France something that hadn't
happened during the 10 years of the
revolution from 1789 to 1799 and
something that didn't really happen
under Louis xvi's reign as well where
the conditions got so bad that the
revolution broke out so when order is
established again in France and the
economy begins to grow people begin to
have a
a degree of of confidence with the
economy knowing where their next meal is
coming from that wasn't always the case
when the revolution broke out price of
bread stabilizes things ease up a bit in
France and people begin to just simply
accept Napoleon as the ruler now
he's not saying that he's the king he's
not saying that he's a monarch he is
saying he's part of this system that's
you know he is saying that the Republic
is going forth at this point with
he being one of the council members that
they actually had three of these
councils but he puts himself in as the
first Council and they end up saying the
decisions of the first the decisions of
the councils the three councils will
decide on the executive decisions of the
state and then there's this other phrase
within it that says if the other two
disagree then it will be up to the First
Council to decide so the language is
gonna the law is going to allow Napoleon
as the first Council to establish his
rule in an executive way over France now
he does this
uh in a way in in which
all the different groups in France are
going to find something to like about
Napoleon for the peasantry of France the
vast majority of people who live in the
countryside of France they're going to
accept Napoleon because the old feudal
obligations that the peasantry had with
the nobility
that they got rid of within the French
Revolution Napoleon is going to give his
stamp of approval to the elimination of
those feudal obligations so the
peasantry has this degree of autonomy
and freedom that they didn't have before
so they're happy with Napoleon
um the bourgeoisie is happy with
Napoleon because the property rights the
the the fact that they own uh property
in France the property rights will be
affirmed by Napoleon and then you have
Elites within sort of the enlightened
class or the intellectual class that
will be happy with Napoleon because he
patronizes the Arts and Sciences and so
forth and of course science
is where reason comes from and the fact
that he leads
and sets up scientific institutions
begins to reform the education system in
France connecting secondary schools as
prep schools for the University system
these are all going to be things that
people like about Napoleon and his
organizational skills at the top will
filter down through the French
bureaucracy things will begin to work
people will be put in positions of power
within the French government based on
Merit based in other words based on
their ability to do the job and you have
a professional class of bureaucrats that
begin to lead the French government
forward in a much more effective way
than certainly what they had under the
uh under the monarchy and of course the
chaos and to some degree the Anarchy
that occurred during the the French
Revolution things seem a whole lot
better now under Napoleon
now uh Napoleon
is also going to call religion excellent stuff
stuff
to keep the Common Man uh
in check the
the
the French leader Napoleon will realize
that many people in France were
were
culturally and socially and emotionally
connected to the Catholic church
and one of the big mistakes in the
revolution early on the Civil uh
constitution of the clergy which
Stripped Away
Roman control of the church
Force the clergy to be elected the
Bishops to be elected by the people
they're no longer selected by the Roman
Catholic Church that they're elected and
the fact that these clergy and Bishops
had to take this oath of allegiance to
the to the state rather than to Rome
that was something that
broke away a lot of people
severed a lot of people's
enthusiasm at least for the revolution
early on and then you have during the
reign of terror During the Revolution
a confiscation of of Catholic Church
property uh
many of the clergy who didn't take this
oath of allegiant will be Guillotine uh
Church Treasures will be melted down you
have this very aggressive attempt to
Simply de-christianize France uh and
establish this Cult of Reason
many people vast majority of people in
France do not buy into this they're
going to still have their connection
with the Catholic church now Napoleon
realizes this and what he does in 1801
he will re-establish France's connection
with the Catholic Church calling it
essentially having a most favorite
Church status for the the Catholic
Church most of the people in France were
catholic there is Toleration and again
this is uh something that he gives to
who were very enthusiastic about
establishing a
a or establishing a French Republic
instead of a monarchy he does allow for
freedom of religion toleration of the
Protestants toleration of the Jews that
lived in France at the time
but he reconnects himself with the
Catholic church now um
he also of course uh as counsel will
establish the Napoleonic Code for France
which codifies all of the laws of France
France was a a patchwork of laws from
the different provinces he brings all
those laws together in the Napoleonic
Code which establishes uh
basically written a written framework
for all the laws going forward in in the
Napoleonic Code he
reaffirms the gains that were made with
the early Revolution with
equality under the law and so forth and
the abolishing of the old regime the old
feudal Privileges and and systems
basically you know everybody is equal
there's no special significance given to
one group over the other all of that is
established in the Napoleonic Code but
with the Napoleonic Code does is it
makes the law common throughout the land
also more efficient throughout France as well
well
uh he also was uh brings efficiency to
the financial sector of Rome of France
one of the problems with France of
course leading into the revolution one
of the causes of the Revolution or the
cause of the revolution is the money the
financial debt that France had from the
wars that they fought in the 18th
century this mounting debt and the Royal
debt uh from the Royal household ends up
sinking France uh financially and that's
the reason that the revolution breaks
out when Louis XVI is forced to try to
raise revenue by calling together the
Estates General what Napoleon does with
the financial sector is he will
establish the bank of France essentially
a central bank a clearing house for uh
money and loans that will establish a
a consistency in the currency and so
forth so all of these things reform
measures help France Out and because uh
he's one person making these final
decisions and he's someone who's
organized and someone where that
organizational uh level feeds down to
the rest of the French bureaucracy all
of that helps France run more
efficiently and there's a sense of order
that France has that they didn't have
before and generally
because of these things and the other
things that I mentioned the French
people accept Napoleon now
Napoleon realizes that he has to um
um
you know not Proclaim himself to be the
new king of France that's not going to
happen at least in the first few years
now what he's able to do uh the wars
that were fought against France during
the revolution the the different
countries that were involved in Wars
against France uh those he'll bring
those Wars to an end
uh some of those Wars will be brought to
a conclusion by force by Napoleon he
will also include
the piece of almonds with England in
1802 this uh pretty much ends the
hostilities that France had throughout
the period of the Revolution so now you
have sort of this Tranquility at home
this order at home and you have peace
abroad things hadn't been like this for
France in quite a while especially if
you go back through the 18th centuries
and the wars that they fought starting
in you know with the war of the Austrian
secession the Seven Years War the the
Revolutionary War and then the wars
fought during the revolution people want
it quiet it's not going to stay quiet
for a while for for long though
what Napoleon is doing is he's calming
things down positioning himself uh to
give himself a new title uh
and that's what he will be able to do
and again he uses the Catholic church
that institution uh that the French
people are so familiar with that are
connect that they're so connected with
from an emotional level
um he uses that institution to give
himself this new uh much more impressive
title of Emperor which will
will invite the pope to Paris to the
Notre Dame Cathedral and in a ceremony
that to some degree Harkens back to
Charlemagne being crowned Emperor by the
Pope in the year 800
Napoleon uses the Catholic church and
the pope to make him the new emperor of
France essentially re-establishing the
monarchy that the French had gotten rid
of back in
1792 with uh with the establishment of
the French Republic now Napoleon by the
way doesn't allow the pope to actually
because uh you could say that there's
one person that's more important than a
king or an emperor and that's the person
who establishes or places the crown on
the head of a king or an emperor so what
Napoleon does in this very elaborate
ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral is he
himself will place the crown on his head
and then after that as the emperor of
France he gets to make the Empress of
France his wife Josephine who he will
crown and the the famous mural the port
the mural of the event of the coronation
of Napoleon
will include the pope giving his
Blessing sitting right next to the
crowning although the Pope's hand was
never raised during that coronation
in the painting it was he also by the
way his his Napoleon's own mother didn't
go to the coronation because he he was
in she was
uh not happy with Napoleon mad at
Napoleon because of the dispute that
Napoleon had with one of his brothers
and so she didn't even attend the
coronation but Napoleon made sure that
the big mural that was uh painted by the
famous French painter David
included the mother his mother is in
this prime location uh overlooking the
ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral
so you could see Napoleon's ability to
to manipulate the the message that that
comes out from there now as the emperor
of Rome uh he has absolute power because
again the 83 departments all
are answerable to him uh the the prefix
all are answerable to Napoleon and
even though he
when he takes over the the ideals of the
Enlightenment toleration of religion
things like freedom of vocation freedom of
of
speech freedom of the press some of
those things are going to go by the
wayside because you will have some
newspapers that begin to criticize
Napoleon but he will begin to censor
some of those papers and some of these
editors will be tossed in jail so he's
not going to be able to put up the as
time goes by Napoleon becomes much more
like a a autocratic well a dictator of sorts
sorts
you would have a
a much more firm you know him attempting
a much more firm control over the
population in general now
once he uh establishes himself as the
emperor his main goal and really his
dream is to become the Emperor of this
new Empire that
that is ruled from Paris by Napoleon he
wants to control Europe and
and
part of the process was of course
Napoleon was the one who sold the
Louisiana Territory uh Napoleon is going
to get that territory back from Spain in
a in a secret treaty in 1800 and then in
1803 it would be Napoleon
who makes the decision of course to sell
the vast Louisiana Territory Jefferson
pretty much Thomas Jefferson the
president of the United States who
purchases Louisiana from Napoleon pretty
much wants New Orleans wants to buy the
Isle of Orleans and because of the of
the the slave rebellion in Haiti that uh
eliminated French control of that Island
uh and because he needed money to fight
the British in the future he decides to
sell Off Louisiana Napoleon also doesn't
want Louisiana to fall into the hands of
the French he would rather it be in the
hands of a of a neutral United States
and so that's the reason that he sells
not only New Orleans but Louisiana for
15 million dollars Jefferson by the way
was willing to buy New Orleans for 10
million but he threw in the rest of it
for 15 million comes out to be about
three cents an acre for the the vast
amount of Territory between the
Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains all the way from the Gulf of
Mexico up to Canada um
um
his next effort is really going to be to
control Europe and he knows that in
order to control Europe Napoleon
has to
settle the question against really
establish uh the control of Europe
by controlling Britain he's not going to
be able to control
Europe if he ultimately doesn't have his
dominance over Britain and of course
Great Britain has the largest Navy in
the world they have the largest Empire
in the world even though they lost the
American colonies they still have this
enormous Empire in the world and that is
not going to be very easy no matter how
good his armies are going to be they're
not going to be able to Wade across the
English Channel especially since the
British Navy is going to defend the
island and getting across that channel
is something no one had been able to do
since I guess William the Conqueror in
1066. so
what Napoleon does do is he established
this is the re-establishes his army that
begins to roll through
Europe and as he rolls through Europe he
gobbles up territory he
takes over the area just to the north of
France of course this would be the old
Austrian Netherlands that become that
today is Belgium that
will fall under French control Holland
will fall under French control and then
all the way down the Italian Peninsula
to Rome falls under French control as
well and with that area France from
including Holland to the North Holland
and in the Austrian Netherlands to the
north all the way down to to Rome in
Italy down the the Mediterranean Coast
from the French Riviera to the Italian
Riviera down the the Tuscan Coastline to to
to
to Rome itself would fall under French
control and what Napoleon would do is he
would just simply say that this is
France that this is this is uh the
French Empire uh so Rome essentially is
a is a French city at this point even
though of course the people there speak
Italian but Napoleon rules over it now
that's not all what he does to the old
Holy Roman Empire he basically
dismantles the old Holy Roman Empire uh
dismantles the Prussian State uh he
establishes a new uh German
Confederation of states
in the Old Hope and Roman Empire the
where Germany is today all falls under
Napoleon's control as the German
Confederation Prussia Austria even as
far east as Russia all fall under
Napoleon's control
as either
an ally a reluctant Ally of Napoleon or
under his Direct Control one of the
things that he does he puts French you
know people under him in control of
these areas he does use the local Elite
Class to help him rule these areas the
people that were basically in charge of
running these countries at a secondary
Level under their
king or ruler or Prince
they're simply going to be still there
but under Napoleon he puts his brother
as king of Holland another king another
brother's king of Westphalia he'll end
up gaining control of Spain in putting
his brother Joseph in charge as the king
of Spain
in the other places like Russia and
Austria Prussia are these reluctant
allies of Napoleon and he has virtual
the continent of Europe to a large
degree and
he begins to put in place the the
Napoleonic Code uh the same governmental
systems that are in place in France now
one of but he still doesn't have Great
Britain and he knows that that's a big
problem and he's going to have to deal
with the British the British of course
uh under Admiral Nelson uh of course
they defeated the French Fleet at the
Battle of the Nile
um back in
1798 and another battle this time when
Napoleon is in charge Admiral Nelson
will destroy a combined French and
Spanish Fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar
in 1805 this battle pretty much wipes
out Napoleon's uh Fleet and ability to
do anything on the Seas against Great
Britain and Great Britain is without a
doubt the the Master of the Seas at this point
point in
in
Great Britain being the the Master of
the Seas is difficult because there's no
way that Napoleon can get across that
that body of water that channel uh
without controlling the Seas so a an
invasion of Great Britain is something
that uh Napoleon is going to have to put
off even though he's controlling the
continent of Europe
he needs to establish another Fleet at
least or to do something with Great
Britain now what he comes up with
against Great Britain
to try to weaken Great Britain he knows
that the the Royal Navy the largest Navy
in the world
is there because the British Empire is
there and the British economy is there
that creates this very large
powerful navy and without that British
economy the British wouldn't have that
Fleet and what he does since he controls
the continent of Europe Napoleon puts in
place what he calls his Continental System
System
uh in 1807 this continental system is an
attempt by Napoleon
to cut off British trade with the
continent of Europe and of course the
British their economy a large part of
their economy depended on this trade
with the European continent Goods would
come in from all over the world from the
British colonies back into England uh
the goods would have value added to them
or simply you know some things would be
held to trade with other European
countries in the warehouses along uh in
London and so forth the the trade of all
of these Goods coming to London and or
coming to England and then redis you know
know
distributed throughout Europe that was
really the to a large degree that was
the the economy
of the British now
uh if Napoleon what he thinks is that if
he can destroy that trade he can destroy
the economy in the process destroy the
the Royal Navy the power of the royal
Navy now
uh what the British do in response to
this continental system is they will
institute a blockade of European ports
and again Napoleon controls Europe so
it's it's you know you kind of think
about what the Germans did in World War
II uh it's a it's a different it's
there's no connection there at this time
between Great Britain and Europe but
what the British do is they blockade
these ports
in throughout Europe which means that
the British aren't trading with these
ports but nothing else is getting
through there's no trade going out from
Europe uh Holland which is controlled by
Napoleon is not able to send chips out
uh other places I mean even Russia uh in
in places like Prussia and Italy they
are severely restricted because of this
British blockade so the Continental System
System
designed to not allow British the Brits
to the British to trade with the
continent of Europe
the blockade by the British is far more
damaging for Napoleon and the Europeans
because nothing can get out the British
by the way
since they do control the Seas
will begin actively trading with areas
of the world that may have been either
neglected or or they had not taken
advantage of before they begin trading
more with places like South America and
other places in Asia stepping up their
this Continental System to try to weaken
the British simply isn't going to work
it's going to take a while before
Napoleon realizes that but by the time
he realizes it it will be too late now
Napoleon controlling the continent I say
I use the word control and you know
there's not complete control or complete
dominance of the continent for one thing
some of these countries are actually
going against the the continental system
and allowing British goods to come in
simply because these places are are used
to these Goods or need these goods and
they're violating the the continental
system that Napoleon puts in place in
fact Russia has this repeated violation
of the Continental System trading back
and forth with the British the Russians
try to tell Napoleon that they're not
going to do it and what Napoleon has is
his response to this is an invasion of
Russia to basically go all the way into
Russia to take complete control over it
he had already defeated Russian armies
uh in Europe but
you know Russia never lost any territory
to him but when the Russians moved into
Europe now now he's going after Russia
and he amasses an army of about 600
000 men this enormous Army
many of his advisors said don't do it
don't go in to Russia there's no real
uh there's you know the objective here
the or the the reasoning behind this is
not strong enough but Napoleon always
needs to keep advancing and Conquer
conquering that's to some degree that's
what conquerors do uh he needs in order
his power rest in that to some degree he
will lead an invasion of Russia and what
the Russians do is they basically just suck
suck
the French army and Napoleon in the vast
territory that Russia has the the
extremely uh long front and the amount
of distance between Moscow and even
Poland is so great that the Russians can
use that geography that massive land
mass to their advantage in invade in
invading armies and so when Napoleon
comes in the the Russians just simply
back up and Napoleon keeps going after
the Army now what the Russian army does
is they lay waste to their own country
they basically
destroy the the all of the crops all the
livestock so
Napoleon and the French would not be
able to use that as resources that's
what the goal was and that was the plan
you might say by Napoleon is they
invaded into Russia he knew it was a far
you know such a great distance that he
would be so far away from his supply
lines in order to feed that many men on
a daily basis he would have to absorb
the resources within the territory that
he conquered well he absorbed the
territory but without resorting you know
absorbing the resources simply because
the plan for the Russians was to
basically have a slash and burn policy
of of
destroying the resources before the
journey before the
uh the French could get to them and so
there's a big problem that Napoleon has
he's further away
from his supply lines he's moving
against the Army who keeps backing up
but destroying everything in its wake
they're not able to use those resources and
and
there's a problem with the men being uh
malnourished not having enough
to really keep this very large army going
going
even when they get to Moscow you know
the the city of Moscow is uh
is not going to be a resource for for
Napoleon and when Napoleon gets all the
way into Moscow by by this point the
invasion starts in 1812 and he realizes
that you know I better turn around I
better go back I need to go back and
he's already lost lots of men and by the
time he starts to go back the Russian
winner sets in and that winner comes
down on Napoleon's forces these men are not
not
adequately uh
clothed in order to endure the Russian
winter and what started out as the the
Grand Army uh advancing it turns into uh
the the grand Retreat or the great
Retreat and by the time Napoleon gets
all the way back to Prussia uh
or to Poland he starts off with these
six hundred thousand men when he invades
by the time he gets back he's only got a
hundred thousand men left so his army is
to a large extent uh evaporated at least
the size Army that he had when he
initially invaded this invasion of of of
Russia is a big mistake because what it allows
allows
is the areas that he conquered
previously in Europe begin to rise up against
against
French rule or the rule of Napoleon and
you start having armies that begin to
re-establish their presence like the
austrians and the prussians rebellions
breaking out you have the British
seizing the opportunity and seeing in a
an opportunity to crush Napoleon and the
Napoleon will be defeated at the in
October of 1813
at the in in Germany at the Battle uh
light Leipzig in October of 1813
Napoleon is defeated which is a huge
deal on the battlefield he struggles
back into into France but it's not long before
before
so many resources are gone for Napoleon
the rebellions and the outbreaks in the
area that he conquered now he's being invaded
invaded
and this Coalition of countries will end up
up
entering Paris
Napoleon himself will be taken into
custody and
they're going to place Napoleon on an
island in the in the Mediterranean the
island of Elba
um now on this uh he's on this island
uh in when when he's there the European
monarchs basically get together in
Vienna Austria at the uh at the Congress
of Vienna as they call it and they're
deciding what to do with Europe now that
Napoleon's no longer there and they're
basically deciding how can we put Europe
back together again uh and what they
decide at the Congress of Vienna since
it's a bunch of monarchs running the
show is that we just need to put Europe
back together the way it was including
France uh putting it back together with
the bourbon Dynasty and re-establishing
a monarchy in France re-establishing the
the monarchies that he destroyed when he
conquered Europe
and that's what the the Congress of
Vienna and these Coalition forces of
these different countries they will put
in on the French throne
a bourbon Louis the eight team a member
of the the bourbon family the one that
of course was eliminated During the Revolution
Revolution
and Napoleon is put on this island in
the Mediterranean in Exile they
basically say okay you can have this a
while and you can rule over it
um if you want instead of ruling over
all of Europe well it's not long as
months go by the British Navy is trying
to protect or surround the island and
make sure that Napoleon is kept there
but as time goes on the
surveillance of the island becomes a
little lacks Napoleon's able to slip
away and slip back into France for what
is called the uh his hundred days where
he he's able to regain control of France
he comes back on the Southern Shores of
France and re-establishes his control of
French armies Louis the 18th the bourbon
King is basically off the throne Louis
Napoleon back in charge and it's not
long before Napoleon raises an army uh
uh an army that uh
he will establish in order to do battle
against those who had defeated him
previously and
when this is done
uh Napoleon will venture out of France
and you have oppression force and a
British force that will meet Napoleon
uh just outside of of uh of France in
modern day Belgium at the Battle of
Waterloo and the Duke of Wellington uh
so you have the British forces and the
Prussian forces that will capitalize on
mistakes that are made by Napoleon in
this battle to have a final defeat of
Napoleon at Waterloo so when you hear of
someone's Waterloo uh today that that
term is usually associated with their
their final defeat or the the nail in
the coffin it's the thing that is the end
end
when you have your Waterloo so
Napoleon's Waterloo was Waterloo
in 1815 this is in June of 1815.
in his Reign at this point over France
is completely over now what the
Coalition decides to do the the monarchs
are a little paranoid to some extent in
Europe uh because of all of this
revolutionary activity in
in in in Europe that occurred with the
French Revolution and there's other
little outbreaks that have occurred as
well with these ideas of the
Enlightenment the questioning of the
traditional institutions of Europe which
means monarchies the people who are
ruling are monarchs and they are tuned
in to the people's voices to some extent
they don't want to
uh one Monarch has already been killed
they don't want to keep that uh
you know they don't want to uh
to have a precedent set by by killing
Napoleon so what they do after his
escape from Elba that little island in
the Mediterranean which is not far from
the Italian Coast they're going to put
him on another Island out in the middle
virtually of no one of the most isolated
areas in the world it's in the South Atlantic
Atlantic
almost in between exactly South America
and Africa a british-controlled island
Saint Helena is the island that Napoleon
would be put on at this point
this island is
literally a thousand miles away from the shore
shore
and Napoleon will spend the next six
years of his life on that island that is
controlled by the British and there's no
way off of this island the
Napoleon will end up dying in
1821. uh supposedly of stomach cancer
and you know that's still a question mark
Napoleon uh
some people think that it's possible
that the British just simply decided to
get rid of him through arsenic or whatever
whatever
but stomach cancer is you know the
British are the ones who basically give
that diagnosis so many people in France
aren't going to really take that but
Napoleon is gone that's for sure in 1821
he's dead he's originally buried on the
island he's not going to the the French
will finally get the approval from the
British to get uh his remains his burial
site off that island and bring it back
to Paris where it is today where it's
still a tourist attraction today
um and that was in 1840 so 20 years
after his death that finally happens now um
um
in Europe is is put back together again
the the Congress of Vienna that began
meeting when he was on Elba they have to
kind of scatter and go fight Napoleon
again after he escapes from Elba and
then they go back to Vienna and they
continue to meet basically establishing
these new guidelines for uh for Europe
that essentially would balance the power
back out and balancing the power means
that you make France uh you reduce the
power of France by making the neighbors
strong and they re-establish the
monarchies not only in France but
throughout Europe as well now another
thing that um the the things that are
things like basically policy flaws like
the Continental System just a bad idea
to Institute that the other thing is
resistance to his rule the people in
that speak other languages other than
French are not going to want uh this
French ruler ruling over them you have
this growth of nationalism that begins
to spring up and if you're a German you
don't want someone who speaks another
language to be your ruler if you're uh
any of these languages Austrian the fact
that he puts his brother on the throne
in these places is also a bad idea
especially Spain where he puts his
brother Joseph on the throne they are
going to Rebel almost from day one when
he puts his brother in as the king of
Spain the Spanish nobility simply don't
accept it and General in in the Spanish
nobility is able to muster up enough
force from the peasantry to constantly
cause problem for Napoleon and a lot of
resources are used by Napoleon in Spain
just making sure that Joseph stays on
the throne of Spain and that is
something that eats up a lot of
resources I mean Napoleon has to go in
with an army himself sometimes and maybe
200 000 French soldiers would be would
be lost in fighting simply trying to
keep the brother of Napoleon on the
throne and then you have that same sort
of dynamic going on in places like
Westphalia and places like Holland where
his brothers on the throne and simply
being opposed to Napoleon's rule this uh
growth of just like the French were proud
a proud nationalists you have other
people in Europe that are proud
nationalists as well proud for their own
nationality and they don't want to be
ruled over and that that sense of pride
and loyalty toward your country means
that you don't want some other country
ruling over you so that plays into the
the factor of these countries rising up
and the people of these countries rising
up against Napoleon
and again once he is uh
uh put on saint
Helena in 1815 uh Napoleon's
days on that island will be pretty
desolate for the most part uh it's a
desolate Windswept Island he does
begin the process while he is on Saint
Helena to
establish his
you might say his mark on History by
making sure that his legacy in his
record is carried forward and uh
when he's on that island that's what he
spends his time doing
establishing uh his version of events
for history
well France
Lee is having a very tumultuous
here not to not to the French Revolution
then we have of course the Napoleonic
Empire and the wars that that were
fought during that time period as well
and so when we come back on our next
lecture we'll learn about the aftermath
um we'll learn about what happens not
only in France but in all of Europe and
how a piece will be formed even though
Napoleon is is eventually exiled he is
defeated and exiled
there's still a lot of questions that
need to be answered and figured out in
European politics and so when we come
back we'll discuss the very important
Congress of Vienna and the concert of
Europe that was created after the defeat
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