 Napoleon was not personally religious

 He used religion to suit his own

purposes

 He was really an enlightenment thinking rationalist -

thought religion was mumbo jumbo

 Made peace with the Catholic church becomes it would

make people in France happy and make his government
more stable

 The Concordat of 1801 = peace treaty between the Pope and

Napoleon
 The Civil Code = the Code
Napoleon
 A new unified set laws for France
 Maintained the equality of all citizens in the eyes
of the law
 Religious toleration
 Abolition of serfdom and feudalism
 Protection of private property rights
 Under the law women less equal than men
 Napoleon’s new set of laws was based on
enlightenment thinking = reason and logic
 Creates a powerful centralized system of government

 Prefects = local government officials appointed by Napoleon and the

central/national govt

 Creates a efficient system of taxation and professional system of tax

collection

 Bureaucracy = government officials and employees - under Napoleon

government careers and promotions were based on skills and merit not
on social rank or status

 Creates a new aristocracy based on skills, expertise, and talent

 Used government censorship to maintain his control over people

 Used a network of spies and secret police to control and crush his
opponents
 The Peace of Amiens 1802

 1803 - the creation of the Third Coalition

against France and Napoleon

 Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau = major military

battles that Napoleon won

 Napoleon’s Grand Army defeats all the nations

fighting against France except Britain
1. The French Empire =
an expanded France

2. Dependent States =
countries that
Napoleon conquers
then directly controls

3. Allied States =
countries that
Napoleon defeats and
then forces them to be
allies with France
Napoleon has conquered all of Europe –
Britain is the only country left independent
 The two major reasons for Napoleon’s defeat
and downfall

1. Great Britain

2. Nationalism = people in other countries didn’t

want to be ruled by the French they wanted to
be ruled by their own people
Epic naval battle – British navy
commanded by Lord Horatio
Nelson destroys the combined
French and Spanish fleets

Trafalgar establishes Britain as the

greatest naval power on earth for the
next two centuries
1. Napoleon organizes
an economic boycott
of British goods
2. Continental Europe
not allowed to trade
with Britain
3. Economic warfare
4. Fails! -> Russia
withdraws->
Napoleon plans
invasion of Russia
 1812 - Napoleon leads 600,000 men in an invasion of Russia

 Borodino - the major battle of the Russian campaign

 Tsar Alexander I of Russia refuses to surrender or be beaten

 Why Napoleon’s invasion of Russia fails -

1. Geography = too far
2. Weather = the brutal Russian winter

 The Battle of Leipzig = “the Battle of Nations” - Napoleon is beaten by the armies of the 4th Coalition
Britain
Russia
Austria
Prussia

 After this Napoleon is forced to step down as emperor of France and he is sent into exile to the small
island of Elba in the Med.

 The Bourbon monarchy is restored in France - King Louis XVI’s brother become Louis XVIII
  1815 - Napoleon escapes from
Elba and returns to France

 The Hundred Days = the period

between when Napoleon
escapes from Elba and when he
is again defeated for the final
time at the Battle of Waterloo in
Belgium

 Following Waterloo is sent into

Duke of Wellington – British
commander who defeated Napoleon
at Waterloo in June 1815
a heavily guarded exile to a tiny
desolate speck of an island way
in the middle of nowhere in
South Atlantic Ocean
 Imprisoned on the island of St.
Helena in the middle of the
empty South Atlantic

 After 6 years of exile and

imprisonment the Empereur
dies of stomach cancer

Napoleon sur son lit de mort = Napoleon on his

death bed