Napoleon i

See also: Napoleon, Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone Buonaparte the August 15th 1769 with Ajaccio, in Corsica; died the May 5th 1821 on the island Sainte-Hélène) was Général, First consul, then Empereur of the French.

Object as of its alive of a black legend like Golden Legend, it acquired a notoriety now universal for its military and political engineering, but also for its authoritarian regime, and its ceaseless often expensive campaigns, balanced by serious final defeats in Russia and with Waterloo and by its died in exile with Sainte-Hélène under the guard of the English.

General of the French revolution at 24 years, it accumulates the spectacular victories in Italy and during the Campagne of Egypt, then seizes the power by the Coup d'etat of the 18 brumaire year VIII (November 9th 1799).

He directs the France starting from the end of the year 1799; he is initially First consul November 10th 1799 with the May 18th 1804 then Empereur of the French, under the name of Napoleon 1st , of May 18th, 1804 to the April 11th 1814, then March 20th with the June 22nd 1815. He reorganizes and reforms durably the State and the company. He carries the French territory to his maximum extension with nearly 130 departments, transforming Rome, Hamburg or Amsterdam in chief towns of French departments. He is also president of the Italian République of 1802 with 1805, then king of Italy of the March 17th 1805 at April 11th, 1814, but still mediator of the Swiss Confédération of 1803 with 1813 and guard of the Confédération of the Rhine of 1806 at 1813. He conquers and controls the major part of the continental Europe and places the members of his family on the thrones of several European kingdoms: Joseph on that of Naples then of Spain, Jerome on that of Westphalia, Louis on that of Holland and his/her brother-in-law Joachim Murat in Naples. It creates also a Grand-duché of Warsaw, without daring to restore Polish independence formally, and subjects to its influence of the powers overcome such as the Prussia and the Austria.

Napoleon tried to put a term at his profit with the series of wars which the Monarchie S carried out European against France since 1792. He leads the men of the Large army, of which its faithful “Grognard S”, of the the Nile and the Andalusia to the town of Moscow. Like notes it the British historian Eric Hobsbawm, no army had gone also far since the Viking S or the Mongolian. In spite of many initial victories vis-a-vis the various coalitions assembled and financed by the Great Britain (become the the United Kingdom in 1801), the imperial epopee ends in 1815 with the demolished of Waterloo.

Few men caused as many contradictory passions Napoleon Bonaparte. According to the words of the historian Steven Englund: the tone (…) who agrees best to speak about Napoleon would be (…) an admiration curling the astonishment and a constant disapproval curling sadness.

A whole tradition Romantique precociously makes of Napoleon the prototype of the great man called to upset the world. Élie Faure, in its work Napoleon which inspired Abel Gance, compares it with a prophet modern times. Other authors such Victor Hugo make overcome Grey waxbill the modern Prométhée. The shade of “ Napoleon Large the ” planes on many works of Balzac, Stendhal, Musset, but also of Dostoïevski, Tolstoï and good of others still.

Biography

Youth and rise in the army

Birth of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte is born with Corsica Ajaccio in , the August 15th 1769 with for Christian name Napoleone Buonaparte (act of July 21st, 1771, but on its marriage certificate with Joséphine de Beauharnais it signed Napolione Buonaparte ), one year after the treated of Versailles by which Genoa yields the island to the France (1768). Resulting from a family belonging to the Corsican Nobility of dress whose presence on the island is attested since the 16th century (Maison Bonaparte of origin Toscane), he is the fourth child (second of the surviving children) of Carlo Maria Buonaparte, lawyer at the Superior council of the island, and Maria Letizia Ramolino. Its first name Napoleone (or Nabulione according to the Corsican C-W communication) is given to him in memory of an uncle died in Corte in 1767.

Military formation

In 1777, Charles Bonaparte, representing the nobility, fact part of the delegation that the General meeting of the States from Corsica sends to Versailles near the king Louis XVI. On this occasion, the count de Marbeuf, governor of the island, makes obtain, near the Minister for the war prince de Montbarrey, a purse to make enter the second wire of Charles to the military academy, his Joseph older brother being intended to follow an ecclesiastical career.

January 1st, 1779 1, Charles Bonaparte makes enter temporarily his two sons Joseph and Napoleon to the college of Autun. Napoleon remains there three months, time for his father to make the steps to make it admit at the military academy, for that to in front provide the evidence of his nobility and four degrees of seniority to obtain the purse of the king. The file was examined by the judge of weapons Antoine-Marie d' Hozier de Serigny. Charles Bonaparte having provided the evidence of nobility of the family, Napoleon is approved by the ministry for the war to enter to the military college of Tiron, but, following defections, it is finally allowed at the military royal School of Brienne-the-Castle (Aube). It is one of the twelve colleges of France which accommodate the children of the minor nobility. There will remain five years there. Regarded as good pupil, particularly gifted for mathematics, Bonaparte would not have been very appreciated of his/her comrades in particular because of his admiration for Paoli. It shows already a propensity with the art of the command, by organizing military plays of which it takes the head. A battle of snowballs, which it would have directed one winter, fact part of its legend. His/her Joseph brother, having given up his project to enter to the seminar, studies the right, Lucien enters to the seminar of Aix-en-Provence and his/her sisters are educated by Mrs. Campan.

His/her father visits him on June 21st, 1784. September 22nd of the same year, the assistant inspector of the schools Marie-Antoine-Sérapion Reynaud of the Mounts makes pass to the pupils juniors by Brienne the examination of entry to the Military academy of Paris, where after one year of studies it could be affected with a regiment of artillery, genius, or navy. Napoleon is considered to be ready to enter there like four of his school-fellows. He leaves the school on October 17th and arrives five days later at Paris where he integrates the company of the juniors gentlemen. February 24th 1785, Charles Bonaparte dies of a cancer of the stomach, the role of head of the household falls to the elder Joseph, but Napoleon the judge of a too weak nature to direct the family. In September it passes the examination of exit of the school in order to integrate an artillery regiment, questioned by the mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace. It is received lieutenant as a second, (42e on 58) with the examination of artillery, and receives the order to join the destination which it chose, the artillery regiment of Fère then in garrison with Valence.

It leaves Paris for Valence on October 30th, 1785. September 15th, 1786, seven years and nine months after its departure it puts back the feet on the island of Corsica at the time of his leave of six-month period. The 1er  June 1788, it embarks to join its regiment of Fère in garrison with Auxonne and to learn its trade from artillerist. In its leisures, he works assiduously. Its many readings, which it accompanies by Notes testify to the direction in which it directed its studies and of the subjects which particularly attracted it. It leaves Auxonne, for a leave of six-month period beginning of the month of September 1789. The end of its leave brings back it in the city auxonnaise the 11 or February 12th, 1791 that it leaves on June 14th, 1791 definitively.

See also: Napoleon Bonaparte at the Royal Artillery School with Auxonne

The first weapons

When the Révolution bursts in 1789, lieutenant Bonaparte is present since June 15th, 1788 at the regiment of Fère then at the royal artillery school with Auxonne directed by the brigadier, the baron Jean-Pierre Of Teil. This last entrusts the repression of the first local riot to him which bursts on July 19th, 1789. Present punctually in Paris, he is spectator of the invasion of the Tuileries by the people the June 20th, 1792 and would then have expressed his contempt for the impotence of Louis XVI. This last sign a few days later its master's certificate, one of his last public acts. Napoleon turns over on several occasions to Corsica, where the fights of clans had begun again, the paolists supporting the monarchy moderated with English, and Bonaparte the Revolution. Napoleon is made elect with the head of the National guard in 1792 by tearing off from force the agreement of the government commissioner. But the execution of the king causes a revolt of the freedom fighters.

The dissensions between Paoli and Bonaparte are accentuated and following a letter of Lucien Bonaparte with the Convention to denounce Paoli, the family of Napoleon, whose house was put at bag, is forced to leave precipitately the island bound for Toulon, the June 10th 1793. Shortly after the arrival of Bonaparte in the South, the area revolts against the Convention and Toulon is delivered to the British by the revolted population.

Captain of artillery, Bonaparte there is sent to the autumn 1793 and obtains at the request of the police chiefs Augustin Robespierre and its compatriot Salicetti, the command of artillery, with the rank of Major. It meets there young officers like Marmont, Junot or Victor. The plan which it submits to the general Dugommier allows the taken again city the royalist troops and British the December 18th. Its orders contribute to force the British fleet to leave the roads of Toulon and to thus deprive the insurrectionists of an invaluable support. It is made Brigadier general the December 22nd. After this victory, it is useful in Italy.

Its friendships with the Jacobins are worth to him to be briefly stopped after the Chute of Robespierre on Thermidor 9 year II (July 27th 1794).

The 13 vendémiaire, the marriage and the army of Italy

Released, he refuses to be affected in the Vendée and wanders with Paris a time without effective command, then Barras offers to him to fight the royalist insurrection of Vendémiaire against the Convention in 1795. On this occasion, Bonaparte has under its orders a young officer, Joachim Murat, his/her future brother-in-law. This last plays a determining role, by transferring in time the essential guns since Fine sands until the accesses from Tileries. The cannonade of Saint-Roch disperses the royalist forces. A few days later, Bonaparte is promoted Major general, then named ordering Armée with the Interior, succeeding Barras which becomes one of the 5  members of the Directory.

Officer of Artillery of formation, it innovates about this time in the use of the artillery (gun of Gribeauval) like mobile force of support of the attacks of infantry.

He must with Joséphine de Beauharnais, friend and old main of Barred, that he has just married at the beginning of 1796, its promotion with the head of the small army of Italy, called to open a simple face of diversion in theory.

Countryside of Italy

See also: Countryside of Italy (1796-1797)

Named the March 2nd 1796 commander-in-chief of the armed with Italy of 40.000 naked men “, badly nourished”, it on several occasions beats the Austrian army of the general Beaulieu more and equipped better: Montenotte, Lodi, or Arcole - where Napoleon carries out itself the attack, during which his/her friend and assistance-of-camp Muiron are killed. It also beats the Sardinian army with the battles of Millesimo and Mondovi in April 1796. The Sardinians, overcome, require an armistice, which will be signed with Cherasco, the April 28th 1796. In 18 days, Bonaparte beat two armies, gained many victories, which will ensure its popularity in France. Already overcome in Arcole, the Austrian general Alvinczy returns in January 1797 with an army of 45.000 men to Italy and is beaten again with the Bataille of Rivoli and is obliged to capitulate the February 2nd 1797. In spring, Bonaparte beats the Austrian army of the archduke Charles on the Tagliamento (March 1797) then with the Bataille of the collar of Tarvis (April 1797) and still with the Bataille of Neumarkt (April 1797). Following this last defeat, the Austrians ask for an armistice. Austria must negotiate an unfavourable treated with Campo-Formio in October 1797.

In Italy, the Bonaparte general becomes aware of his forces and the situation which is his. He reigns on the battle fields and with the favor of the public (Italian like French): a small court is formed around the republican general with Milan. To increase the glare of its victories, it creates two newspapers the Mail of the army of Italy and France seen of the army of Italy and orders from its officer topographer Louis Albert Guislain Bacler of Alba a series of sights of the great battles of the countryside of Italy. By this skew, Bonaparte sticks the feelings of its soldiers and the French.

Countryside of Egypt

See also: Countryside of Egypt

On its return of Italy, in December 1797, Bonaparte is accommodated as a hero by the Directory which organizes an official ceremony to celebrate the peace of Campo-Formio. It is named member of the Institut in the class of mathematics. In February 1798, the Directory subjects to Bonaparte the idea of an invasion of the England. It inspects the French coasts of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk, for the realization of the project. Its popularity near the French is increasingly important. The February 23rd 1798, the government gives up the project of invasion of England on the councils of Bonaparte, which, itself influenced by Talleyrand, then persuades the Directory to carry the war in Egypt, where it will be able to cut the road of the Indies to Great Britain. The February 24th 1798, the report/ratio is presented to Barras; the March 5th, anxious with the popularity of Bonaparte, the Directoire charges it with carrying out forwarding in Egypt, with also the idea to get rid some.

In April 1798 is created the army of the East, placed under the orders of Bonaparte. Scientists forming the Institut of Egypt accompany it. It, moreover, is accompanied by the generals Kléber, Desaix, Murat, Lannes, Davout and Caffarelli.

The May 19th 1798, Bonaparte leaves Toulon with large French fleet and manages to escape the continuation from the British fleet from Nelson. In the passing, the French seize Malta, the 10 - June 11th 1798, to ensure the later communications with the metropolis. The June 19th 1798, after having left a garrison of 3.000 men on the spot, the fleet puts the course on Alexandria which it reaches on July 1st, 1798 1. After a short resistance, the city is taken the following day.

Bonaparte leaves 3.000 men to Alexandria and goes up the the Nile towards Cairo. The first true combat of the countryside of Egypt takes place with Chebreïs the July 13rd 1798 when the riders Mamelouk S are demolished, thanks to artillery of the armed with the East. The July 21st 1798, with the Battle of the Pyramids of Gizeh, Bonaparte beats the army of the Mamelukes again. The July 24th 1798, Bonaparte and its army enter triumphantly to Cairo. The 1 {{er}} and August 2nd 1798, the French fleet is almost entirely destroyed with Aboukir by the ships of Nelson. From now on, the British are Masters of the Mediterranean and Bonaparte is prisoner of its conquest. Following this defeat, the Turks, the September 9th 1798, declare the war with the France. It should be recalled that at that time Egypt belongs to the Ottoman Empire, like the majority of the the Middle East.

While it decides to make of Egypt a true State able to live in autarky, Bonaparte sends the general Desaix to continue Mourad Bey until in High-Egypt, thus supplementing the tender of the country. Pushed by the British and the Turks, the surviving Mamelukes work the population of the Cairo, which revolts the October 21st 1798 against the French. This revolt is pitilessly repressed by the troops. The calm cost and Bonaparte restore the situation by issuing a general amnesty finally, not without to have made cut good number of exhibées heads to terrorized crowd and cannonade the Large Mosque of Cairo.

In February 1799, Bonaparte moves in Syria to face the Othoman troops that the Sultan sent to attack the French in Egypt. The February 10th 1799, Bonaparte leaves Cairo with its army and beats the Turks with the combat of El-Arich and Gaza. The March 7th 1799, the town of Jaffa is taken and plundered by the French. It is at this time that the Peste appears in the French rows.

The March 19th 1799, Bonaparte puts the seat in front of Midsummer's Day d' Acre. The April 13rd 1799, the riders of Junot put in rout the Othoman riders at the battle of Nazareth and the April 16th 1799, Bonaparte and Kléber crush the Turkish army of help sent by the Sultan to release the head office of Midsummer's Day d' Acre to the Bataille of the Mount-Thabor. Although victorious with this battle, the April 16th 1799, forwarding in Syria will be decimated by the plague then stopped in Acre.

Of return to Acre, Bonaparte will test in vain, of the April 24th to the May 10th 1799, to take the city. The May 17th 1799, Bonaparte decides to give up the seat and turns over to Egypt. The June 14th 1799, it arrives at Cairo and, in a reversal of situation, beats the Turks the July 25th 1799 with the battles terrestrial of Aboukir.

The situation of the Directory appearing to him favorable to a takeover by force, Bonaparte, which does not have any more that one weakened Army, having lost its navy, gives up the command of the armed with Egypt in Kléber.

Return to Paris, situation of France

It returns to France, the August 23rd 1799, in catimini, aboard frigate Muiron , giving up with the general Kléber a decreased and sick army. It miraculeusement unloads with Fréjus the October 9th 1799 after having escaped with the British squadrons during the 47  days of the crossing.

On the way which leads it to Paris, it is acclaimed by the population. Jean-Baptiste Kléber appears an excellent administrator and the March 20th 1800, carries out the exploit to overcome the Turks with the battles of Héliopolis. This victory makes it possible France to preserve the Egypt, but Kléber dies assassinated, the June 14th 1800 in Cairo, the day when Napoleon gains accuracy the Bataille Marengo in Italy, thanks to the heroic load of Desaix, which is killed at the time of the attack.

The successor of Kléber, the general Menou, capitulates the August 31st 1801 to the forces turco-British after having lost 13.500 men, mainly victims of the epidemics during the peace negotiations. The remaining French soldiers are repatriated on the British vessels towards the France.

Consulate

See also: Consulate (French history)

The coup d'etat

Arrived in the capital, the general discusses with Talleyrand, politician of experiment and fine expert of the forces concerned.

See also: Coup d'etat of the 18 brumaire

The diagram of the Coup d'etat of the 18 Brumaire (November 9th 1799) lays down the following operations: Bonaparte will have the command as a chief of the army for the maintenance of law and order in Paris and in the Assemblée S. One plans to move the assemblies with the castle of Saint-Cloud under the pretext of a danger Jacobin. Indeed, since 1789, the assemblies are always under the threat of the Parisian population.

The main part of the events proceeds the 19 brumaire with Saint-Cloud. The revisionists had considered a collective resignation of the five directing, but the assemblies have delay because this idea does not achieve the unanimity; Impatient Bonaparte and decides to intervene.

It holds an awkward speech in front of the Conseil of the Five hundred, speech hooted by the deputies who show it to want to found the Dictature. Bonaparte is then constrained to leave the assembly. But it quickly takes the situation in hand with the assistance of his brother Lucien who chairs the five hundreds. Lucien prevents that Napoleon is blamed by the deputies who want to vote to put Bonaparte outlaw. Lucien delays the vote and will seek Murat which comes with the troop and puts order in the assemblies, saying that certain deputies wanted to stab Bonaparte to justify an intervention of the army.

The representations of the deputies leaving by the windows and wanting to stab Napoleon are very widespread. Bonaparte is in fact the strong man of the situation, which makes rock a parliamentary coup d'etat in a coup d'etat militaire.
But Bonaparte remains attached to the legal forms and in the evening of the 19  Brumaire, the deputies remain in Saint-Cloud to vote the decision to name two commissions to prepare a new constitution. One then notes a will to support the mode on the vote of the representatives of the people.

The 20  brumaire the three Consul S are indicated: Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos. It is the beginning of the Consulat. Roger Ducos is very won over to Bonaparte, whereas Sieyès does not intend to him to be resigned to give up the capacity with Bonaparte alone. He intends well to play a part in the government of the Consulate. To thwart his/her cumbersome colleague, Bonaparte, multiplying the provocations, maintains with the ministerial wallets the enemies of Sieyès by offering the foreign relations to Talleyrand and that of the Police force with Fouché.

The work of drafting of the Constitution is entrusted officially at two formed legislative commissions of deputies of the Five hundred and of Old the. But makes some, it is Sieyès which will propose a project. With the examination, the project will prove too complex, even unrealistic. Indeed, it envisages the introduction of a democratic regime based on a legislative power extremely represented by three rooms. The executive will be, as for him, tiny room to a magistrature with purely honorary life and two consuls with the limited functions.

Bonaparte benefits from the weaknesses of this plan to impose its own project and to get rid of rival cumbersome sound. 4 with the December 13rd 1799, it thus joins together the two commissions in its office to work out the text of the new constitution.

The Constitution of year VIII is adopted in committee restricts the December 13rd 1799. It is inspired partly by the project of Sieyès, but integrates the political ideas of Napoleon Bonaparte, in particular concerning the executive power. Sieyès, itself, will be charged to appoint the three consuls of the république : Bonaparte like first consul, then Cambacérès and Lebrun, like 2nd and 3rd consuls of the Republic. Sieyès, as for him, will be relegated to the position of president of the Senate.

“ When I put at the head of the businesses, France was in the same state as Rome, when it was declared that a dictator was necessary to save the Republic ” (Bonaparte).

The Constitution

The Constitution of the Year VIII between in force the December 25th 1799. Bonaparte establishes the Constitution under democratic appearances, but organizes a autocratic capacity, all the evolutions of the mode will do nothing but accentuate the autocratic character of the capacity.

The Legislative power is divided into three assemblies (Tricamérisme):

  • the Tribunat discusses the laws without voting them
  • the legislative Body (or “Body of the dumb men”) adopts or rejects the laws
  • the Sénat is charged to check that the law is in conformity with the constitution.

The preparation of the law belongs to the executive, by the means of the Council of State, charged to write the legislative texts.

The capacity functions in an authoritative way, the processes of semi-direct democracy (somewhat fictitious) carefully are organized and controlled. The consul corrects itself the results if they are not satisfactory. The Consulate is a form of enlightened despotism.

Of the Consul to the Emperor

In 1800, Bonaparte attacked and overcame the Austria once again. Beaten with Marengo by Napoleon and Hohenlinden by Moreau, the Austrians had to sign the treaty of Lunéville the February 9th 1801, which led the British to sign the peace of Amiens the March 25th 1802 (4 germinal year X, contresigned two days later). If its capacity were fragile the shortly after Brumaire, the victory Marengo and its continuations strongly consolidated the situation of Bonaparte.

The December 24th 1800, a “explosive device” (bends) awaited it street Saint-Nicaise. The coachman of the First consul passed to the full gallop. The bomb exploded too late and only the panes of the vehicle were puffed up. On the spot, on the other hand, it was carnage. One counted 22 dead and a hundred casualties. Fouché, then Minister for the Police force, succeeds in proving that the attack was the work of the royalists, whereas Bonaparte was persuaded to deal with the Jacobins. The execution of the duke of Enghien will be a consequence.

In 1802, Bonaparte requires that ashes of the Marshal of Turenne be transferred to the Invalides. He is indeed an enthusiastic admiror of Turenne, of which he will successfully take again the strategy of attack by surprised (Bataille of Turckheim, 1675) in his campaigns of 1805 with 1812. Thereafter, enivré by its victories, engaging with temerity in Russia with the Large army, he will forget that any countryside requires a thorough and collective study ground and psychology of the enemy.

The same year, Bonaparte restores the Esclavage in the colonies. This re-establishment was to make set out again a failing economy in the colonies of the the Antilles.

had to be awaited 1848 so that the final abolition of slavery is promulgated.

Bonaparte sold the Louisiana, immense territory of North America, with the the United States, in 1802.

It sent a strong army of 34.000 men to Saint-Domingue under the orders of the general Leclerc to restore the authority of France. After some successes, in particular the capture of All Saints' day Louverture (which died in the Fort of Joux, in the Doubs, the April 7th 1803), its army weakened by an epidemic of Yellow fever was destroyed by the soldiers of Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

After Bonaparte had extended its influence on the Suisse, which put in place the current decentralized institutions, and on the Germany, an argument in connection with Malta served as a pretext for the British to declare once again the war in France in 1803, and to support the royalist opposition to Bonaparte. This one réagit : the idea of an invasion of the United Kingdom is done day, and to bring back to the reason the royalists, who, perhaps, plot in the shade, the First consul makes carry out the duke of Enghien, prince Bourbon. The execution which proceeds with Vincennes after a sham trial, does not cause other protests only those of the the United Kingdom, a Russia and a Austria which stick to some shy persons reproaches. It is however this act which assoit reputation of “Robespierre with horse” of Napoleon (with Sainte-Hélène, Napoleon will assume this act, in spite of the very probable implication of Talleyrand). After this pledge given to the republicans, insofar as the First consul reiterates the crime of the regicides, this one crowns Empereur the December 2nd 1804.

Strictly speaking, the Empire is born at the request of the Sénat. Steven Englund concurs in the opinion according to which it acted, initially, to protect the Republic. The shot down Consulate, the order would have crumbled with him. Emperor, it became an institution, sealing the perenniality of the republican values. He could die: the heredity of the title was supposed to protect the country from the upheavals and the loss of the revolutionary assets (with, initially, the equality , far in front of freedom). Thus the imperial currencies are marked, without hypocrisy, “ Napoleon Empereur - French Republic ”.

Consequently only, this “republican” Empire, protecting the revolutionary assets, will be made “imperialist”.

Empire

See also: First Empire

Imperial symbolic system

The imperial sacring, single event in the French history represented on the table of Jacques-Louis David, the Sacring of Napoleon , is heavily charged in symbols. The passage of the Republic to the Empire requires the creation of imperial Armoiries, as well as the creation of symbolic systems objects intended to establish a tradition before non-existent. Napoleon, who wants to be rassemblor, decides to associate with the symbols of his reign the images which could represent the France before, as well as the European strong capacities.

The eagle is selected in reference to the Roman eagles, carried by the legions, but it is also the symbol of Charlemagne, the éployée eagle. It is besides a misreading which will give for symbol of the French Empire an eagle to the spread wings: in Héraldique, éployée says birds and chimerical animals represented with the wide wings (an eagle with two heads with the wings spread in is an good example). The red color of the imperial coat, is a direct reference to the crimson of the Roman Imperium. Napoleon is thus posed of heir to the Roman Empire and Charlemagne.

The bees are supposed to point out the Mérovingiens (pins the representative having been found in tombs of this time), and their provision on the Armoiries and the imperial coat must point out the flowers of lily of the capétiens. The hand of justice, used by the Capétiens at the time them royal sacrings must reveal that he is the heir to be able to them. Napoleon wants to show that he is the founder of the “fourth dynasty”, that of the Bonaparte, after the Mérovingiens, the Carolingiens, and the Capétiens.

Other symbols used during the sacring are in charge of values morals. Thus, Napoleon holds one moment the sphere of Charlemagne; he carries the crown of this same Empereur (these two elements having been forged of all parts before the sacring). Its sword and its sceptre are known as " of Charlemagne" : they have been actually used for several centuries by the Valois then the Bourbons at the time of their sacrings.

Napoleon and the Church

The sacring of Napoleon, under the eyes of the Pope , tiny room to bless the crowning of the Master of France, is also the occasion to reconsider the relationship between France and the the Vatican. The signature of the Concordat by the First consul in 1801 recognizes Catholicism like the religion “ of the majority of the French ”, and either religion of State. The priests receive from now on a treatment on behalf of the State. Less than ten years after the confiscation of the goods of the Church, Napoleon will not be made crown with Rome, with the image of the Germanic emperors, it is the pope who one will make come to Paris. Napoleon accommodates it in Forêt of Fontainebleau, with horse and out of hunting clothes, thus putting in scene the fortuitous character of the meeting. Napoleon will still offend it by taking hands to him the crown of the empress, but especially by crowning itself. In this manner, he affirms the primacy of the policy (and thus of secular) on the monk.

See also: the Sacring of Napoleon

The bringing together between Napoleon and the Church are thus the fruit of a political calculation. Beyond the moral value that a religious sacring with the eyes of the catholics could have, value symbolic system of a pontifical crowning pointing out the sacring of the Germanic emperors, Napoleon is placed at equal, even above the European kings. The presence of the pope to the sacring gives an additional dimension to the Empire. This one is not simply any more the fruit of a revolution, it is a divine crowning which none the sovereigns of Europe can equalize.

The presence of the pope is thus more a message in the European countries that a catholic homage on behalf of Napoleon.

Napoleon, moreover not very sensitive to the fate of the pope, does not hesitate to retain it captive with Fontainebleau. In the idea to affirm the power of France in the religious field, it will plan to transfer the residence from the pope of Rome to Paris, before giving up this idea.

Victorious Empire

See also: First years of the First Empire

In 1804, the hour is thus not yet with the vast conquests, and, persuaded for a long time that the only means of obtaining a final peace is to neutralize the the United Kingdom, Napoleon developed, with the Admiral Latouche-Tréville (which will die before to have been able to carry out it), a plan aiming to the invasion of the United Kingdom. This one failed definitively the Bataille of Trafalgar, where the Franco-Spanish fleet ordered by the admiral of Villeneuve was destroyed by the admiral Nelson. The United Kingdom drew the domination from it from the seas during the next century.

In 1805, the Third coalition was formed in Europe against Napoleon. The Emperor who, with Boulogne, supervised the preparations for the invasion of the United Kingdom, had to face a sudden war, and with the other end of Europe. He carried out an immediate offensive, conveying the Large army in Austria with forced march, and secured a brilliant victory against the Austria and the Russia with the battles of Austerlitz, known as “battle of the Three-Emperors”.

In 1806, the Prussia causes a new conflict. The campaign which Napoleon conducts is impressive of speed: “the Heart of the world” (Hegel): it sweeps the Prussian army with the Bataille of Iéna (doubled victory of Davout to Auerstaedt where, with 30.000 men, the Davout Marshal beats the 63.500 Prussians who attack it). The following year, Napoleon crosses the Poland, gains a victory over the Russians with Friedland and ends up signing, with Tilsit, in the middle of the Niémen, in a setting in scene designed to strike the spirits, a treated with the Tsar Alexandre I {{er}}, dividing the Europe between the two powers.

This man trained in the schools and by the Masters of the Old Mode, officer of the royal army, breaks the old military designs. It is not a question any more of delivering a war of seat using 30 to 50.000 men, but of seeking the decisive battle, engaging more than 100.000 men if it is needed. It is not a question any more of remaining Master of the battle field, but to destroy the enemy.

In 1808, it creates the nobility of Empire: soon its marshals and generals will raise the titles of count d' Empire, prince de Neuchâtel, duke of Auerstaedt, duke of Montebello, duke of Dantzig, duke of Elchingen, king de Naples.

September 27th with the October 14th 1808, Napoleon gives appointment to Alexandre Ier with Erfurt, for a new treaty, so that they are linked against the Austria which threatens of redéclarer the war to the France.
The tsar refuses by preferring that this treaty is established with an aim of renewing the alliance which had been forged between them the previous year with Tilsit; that allowed in fact Napoleon to make sure even longer of the fidelity of Alexandre. But it was a failure because he realized soon treason of Talleyrand, which had approached the tsar while advising to him to resist Napoleon who did not cease alluring the latter.

See also: Treaty of Tilsit, Congress of Erfurt

In 1810, the “Great Empire” counts 130 departments, of Amsterdam to Rome, like several vassal States and its population is of 70 million inhabitants, of which 30 only are French; the Empire is with its Apogée.

See also: Extended from the French Empire in 1810

The April 2nd 1810, it marries the Archiduc hess Marie-Louise of Austria, which, the March 20th 1811, will give him a son; this child will be called the king of Rome and will be named “Napoleon II”.

See also: Marie-Louise of Austria, Napoleon II

Campaigns of the Iberian peninsula, of Austria, of Russia and Germany

See also: First Empire in 1812-1813

Following the British attitude with respect to the merchant ships French, Napoleon tried to impose the continental Blocus aiming at asphyxiating British industry. The Portugal, old combined British, refused to sign this treaty. Napoleon thus seeks the assistance of Spain to invade Portugal. He ends up invading the Spain and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as king. Portugal was also invaded, but the three campaigns (1808, 1810,1811), carried out in particular by the marshals Junot and Masséna do not reflect fine with resistance britanno-Portuguese and the king Jean VI, the court and the government Portuguese move with Rio de Janeiro and the Brésil becomes the seat of the kingdom until 1821. Part of the Spanish population was raised against the French. Soon, the British infantry ordered by the future duke of Wellington, took foot in Spain, while passing by the Portugal, in 1808 and, with the assistance of the Spanish nationalists, pushed the French Army out of the Iberian peninsula, in 1812. Whereas the best troops of the French Army were committed in Spain, the Austria attacked once again France in Germany and was finally overcome at the time of the Bataille of Wagram. The marshal Lannes, companion and friend of Napoleon, perishes with the Bataille of Essling.

Alexandre Ier, pushed by the Russian nobility won over to the British, refused to cooperate with Napoleon to carry the final blow to the the United Kingdom. Napoleon, believing this inevitable war, invades Russia in 1812. The Large army, supported allies Italy NS, German, Austrian, became gigantic: they are 600.000 men who crossed the Niémen.

The Russians, directed by Koutousov, followed the strategy of the burned ground , moving back unceasingly in front of the French troops. The Battle of Moskowa, the September 12th, was undecided. Although the Russians gave up the ground, the losses were almost equivalent in the two camps.

As of the shortly after the entry of the French troops in Moscow, the Russians set fire to the city, and Napoleon had to make retirement. The winter, suddenly in these areas, was dangerously close: Napoleon, hoping for a step on behalf of Alexandre, made delay the retirement until the last moment. The Large army made a retirement despaired towards Germany in the Russian winter, through the devastated areas which she had traversed to go. Of the 600.000 men who entered to shift, only a few tens of thousands crossed the Bérézina. The Large army was destroyed.

See also: Countryside of Russia (1812)

Encouraged by this dramatic failure, several kings took again the weapons against the France. Following two victories gained in Germany (Bautzen and Lutzen), part of its troops betrays it and Napoleon undergoes a decisive defeat with Leipzig, also called “Battle of the nations”, which saw to be opposed 180.000 French to 300.000 allied (Russian, Austrian, Prussian, Swedish). The marshal Poniatowski, prince Polish and nephew of Stanislas II, last king de Pologne, lost the life there while trying to cross the Elster with his men. One counted 100.000 dead and wounded.

The countryside of France

See also: Countryside of France (1814)

In 1814, an alliance between the the United Kingdom, the Russia, the Prussia and the Austria was formed. In spite of the incredible victories with the battles of Champaubert and Montmirail, that Napoleon gained with the head of an army of young inexperienced recruits (the “Marie-Louise”), Paris fell the March 31st and the marshals forced Napoleon with to abdicate. The intention of Napoleon was to abdicate in favor of his/her son (Napoleon II) but the allied powers required an unconditional abdication.

Napoleon thought that the allies were going to separate it from the Impératrice and of his/her son the King de Rome; then, in the night of the 12 to the April 13rd, it took the amount of Poison which was to allow him Suicide R. One was believed a long time that it was about Opium in a little water, but it would seem that it is not the case (cf Napoleon - Great moments of a destiny , by Jean Tulard - chap. 44). The disorders and the nature of the faintness of Napoleon do not correspond to an intoxication by opium.

Into full faintness, the Emperor complained about the slow effect of the substance which it had swallowed. He declared with Armand de Caulaincourt: “ That one has of sorrow to die, that one is unhappy to have a constitution which pushes back the end of a life that it delays me so much to see finishing! ”. Nauseas of Napoleon were increasingly violent, it started to vomit. With the arrival of Doctor Yvan, Napoleon asked him to give him another amount of poison so that it can die, the doctor refused by saying that it was not an assassin and that it would never do something against his conscience. The doctor had itself an attack of nerves, flees with horse, anybody does not revive it. The anguish of the emperor continued, Caulaincourt left the part to require of the manservant and of the interior service to keep silence. Napoleon pointed out Caulaincourt by saying to him that he preferred to die rather than to sign the treaty. The effects of the poison were dissipated thereafter and the Emperor could take again his normal activities. One does not know exactly how the Emperor survived the amount of poison which it took, either its stomach was counterirritated, or the poison had lost its force.

It was deposed by the Senate the April 3rd and exiled with the isle of Elba, according to the Traité of Fontainebleau signed the April 11th, preserving the title of Emperor but reigning only on this small island.

Hundred Days

See also: Hundred Days

In France, Louis XVIII drew aside “Napoleon II” and seized the power. Napoleon worried about the fate of his wife and especially of his son which was with the hands of the Austrians. The royalist government refused soon to pour the promised pension to him and of the rumors circulated as for its deportation towards an small island of the Atlantic Ocean southern. Napoleon thus decides to turn over on the continent to take again the capacity.

The Road Napoleon and “Flight of the Eagle”
  • March 1st, 1815 1: Unloaded with Gulf-Juan, Napoleon and his small troop, gain Cannes where they arrive late and from where they set out again early.
  • March 2nd: Wanting to avoid the way of the the Rhone which it knows hostile, Napoleon makes take then the road of Grasse to gain, by the the Alps, the valley of the Durance. Beyond Fatty, the column engages in bad mule tracks and stops with Saint-Vallier, Escragnolles, and Séranon.
  • March 3rd: After one night of rest, it gains Castellane; in the afternoon, it reaches Barrême.
  • March 4th: Napoleon finds with Digne the motor-road and made stage the evening with the castle of Malijai, awaiting impatiently news of Sisteron whose citadel, ordering the narrow passage of the Durance, can bar the road to him.
  • March 5th: Sisteron is not kept and Napoleon lunches there, then leaves the locality in an atmosphere of incipient sympathy. The evening, it arrives at Gap and receives an enthusiastic reception there.
  • March 6th: It sleeps with Corps.
  • March 7th: It gains Walls It, then finds opposite him, with Laffrey, of the troops sent of Grenoble. They is here that is the famous episode which commemorates today, in the “meadow of the Meeting”, a monument. The evening even, Napoleon makes his entry with Grenoble with the cries of “Sharp the Emperor”.

The armies sent to stop it accommodated it as hero everywhere on his way, on the road which bears from now on its name. The marshal Ney, which had sworn in Louis XVIII to bring back Bonaparte in an iron cage for him, was inclined in front of its former sovereign, which was worth to him to be the only marshal carried out for treason at the time of the Second Restoration. Napoleon was able without blow to férir in Paris. This rise in Paris is known like the “Flight of the Eagle” inspired of the words of Napoleon: “The Aigle will fly of bell-tower in bell-tower to the turns of Notre-Dame”. In 1932, the Napoleon Road will be inaugurated between Gulf-Juan and Grenoble. Flying eagles mark out this course.

The return to the capacity and the final defeat
The return of Napoleon to the Tileries the March 20th 1815 mark the beginning of the period known as of the Hundred Days . Napoleon makes also establish the additional Acte with the Constitutions of the Empire (April 22nd), known under the name of Charte of 1815. A Room of the representatives is elected.

On the international plan, Napoleon affirms his peaceful wills since it did not have the choice, but the allies do not accept this return and take again the hostilities to France. The Napoleonean army is finally demolished with the Bataille of Waterloo the June 18th 1815. The junction of the Prussian and British armies, that could not prevent the marshal Grouchy, was right of the imperial troops.

The return of Napoleon and its final defeat worsen the international situation of France. This one is treated hard still than at the time of the treaties of Vienna. Napoleon leaves bloodless France. Démographiquement, France lost approximately 1.700.000 men since 1792, of which majority during the Napoleonean wars. Economically, France is ruined. Its ports and its arsenals are ruined. France lost all the colonies which remained to him Old Mode. Its international influence, installation since Richelieu and Louis XIV, are reduced to nothing. Napoleon territorialement leaves smaller France than under Louis XVI. Even the Saar and the towns of Marienbourg, Philippeville and Landau, acquired under Louis XIV, are yielded to united. Napoleon leaves occupied France, which moreover must pay a heavy war indemnity for the maintenance of the foreign troops established on her territory. When Napoleon leaves France, he is not regretted. It is in Sainte-Hélène that however will forge its legend.

Asking asylum the " more constant of its enemies " , England, it is initially taken charges some by the Bellérophon , then transferred on August 7th, 1815 on the Northumberland which will deposit it in Sainte-Hélène.

It does not put only one foot in England, the British officers wanting to prevent absolutely that Napoleon can ask for the right of asylum by calling upon the Habeas Corpus Act .

The captain, by accommodating it, calls it " Bonaparte" general; , which will put Napoleon out of him.

The English will call it always thus since they never recognized the Empire.

Deportation with Sainte-Hélène and dead

See also: the Memorial of Grey waxbill

Napoleon was imprisoned and off-set by the British on the island Sainte-Hélène, ordered initially by the Admiral Cockburn then by Sir Hudson Lowe, with a small troop the faithful ones, among which the count of Las Boxes, the general Montholon, and the general Gourgaud, it devoted himself to the writing of his memories for the posterity that it dictated in Las Boxes.

He also tried to learn the English; he received several visitors of passage to Sainte-Hélène, which at the time was an important stopover for any ship circumventing the Africa. Once installed in Longwood, it avoided leaving because Lowe had given the order which the emperor was to be everywhere under guard.

Gradually, Napoleon falls ill and weakens. He asked in his will the general Baron de Marbot to continue to work in his writings “for the size of France”. In second half of April 1821, it wrote its last wills and several codicils itself, forty pages on the whole. Its last words were: “ France, army, Joséphine ”, or, according to the memories of Grey waxbill : “armed head…… My God! ”. Nerval, in its poem With died of Exiled , note: “The last words of dying Napoleon were: “My God and the French nation… French… my son… armed head”. One does not know what these words meant. ”, and a current version affirms that he would have said in fact: “head of army”, which is much less enigmatic.

Napoleon dies a Saturday, the May 5th 1821, “at 5 p.m. and 49 minutes”. The causes of its death were the subject of controversies, officially the doctors concluded with a death from the continuations from a cancer from the stomach, but it was advanced the assumption of one poisoning to arsenic.

Hudson Lowe, geôlier of Napoleon with Sainte-Hélène, in front of his bed of death, declared: Dear Sirs, it was the largest enemy of the England, it was also mine. But I forgive him all. With died of if great man, one should test only sadness and deep regret.

Return of its ashes in France (1840)

See also: Honors returned to the memory of Napoleon

Napoleon asked to be buried on the edges of the the Seine, near the French people which he loved so much, but when he died in 1821 he was buried with Sainte-Hélène.

Nineteen years after the death of Napoleon, the king Louis-Philippe I {{er}} could obtain the United Kingdom the restitution of ashes of Napoleon. The exhumation of the body took place the October 15th 1840. Its body was triumphantly repatriated in Paris and was buried with the Invalides, in “a large red porphyry sarcophagus (...) - in fact of the Quartzite aventurine of Finland, near to the Porphyre -, posed on a green granite base of the Vosges”. The black marble base comes from the Holy-Luce marble career of (Isere). The transport of this 5,5 meters length block, 1,20 meter broad and 0,65 meter thickness, was not done without sorrow.

Starting from 1854, the Empereur Napoleon III negotiated with the British government the purchase of Longwood House and the valley of the Tomb (Grey waxbill), which became properties French in 1858 and managed since by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Controversies on its death

See also: Died of Napoleon

The official cause of its death was a cancer of the stomach, and even if the emperor showed a certain plumpness at the time of his death (75,5 kg for 1,67 m, qualified “overweight” and being able to generate considerable medical risks), certain researchers observed the pants which it put at the time and noted that during the last 5 months before his death, it had lost nearly 11 kg.

In 1955, the newspaper of Commercial Louis, the servant of Napoleon, was published. It describes the last months of Napoleon until his death and much concluded from it that it was victim of one long-term poisoning to the arsenic which would have sufficiently weakened it so that the medical care of the time can complete it.

Pascal Kintz, of the Legal Institute of Strasbourg, in 2001 made a study of the arsenic level found in the hair of Napoleon after his death, from 7 to 38 times the normal level, but he does not conclude that is the result of a poisoning; the analyzes of the magazine Science & life show that similar arsenic concentrations can be found in samples taken in 1805, 1814 and 1821.

French studies showed that Napoleon daily plunged his hair in arsenic baths because the popular belief wanted that arsenic prolongs the life and the glare of hair what would explain the abnormally high arsenic rate found in its hair.

An analysis of the wicks of hair of varied sources makes it possible to reconstitute a detailed histogram of the arsenic contents in the body of Napoleon. The concentration is a generally low then from time to time very strong concentration appears, indicating that a strong arsenic amount would have been absorbed. However the studied hair having been taken without the bulb, it is impossible to affirm with certainty that they are truths hair of Napoleon.

On the other hand, the thesis of poisoning is made difficult following a clinicopathological study the January 12th 2007 carried out by Swiss, American researchers and Canadian of the University of Basle and published in the review Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology , according to which the emperor would have been carried by a advanced gastric cancer with invasion of the lymphatic ganglia. Work in which took part of the Swiss researchers, American and Canadian, being based on the reports/ratios of the doctors present at Sainte-Hélène, indicates that its cancer would have occurred on bottom of chronic ignition of the stomach caused by a micro-organism, and not on bottom of family predisposition, always according to contemporary descriptions, the wall of the stomach presented a lesion of approximately ten centimetres.

Even on the assumption of a return of exile, the state of cancer would have prevented Napoleon from again influencing the European political life.

The Napoleonean heritage

See also: Napoleonean Legend

End 1799, the state of France is catastrophic. Administrative anarchy reigns, the taxes do not arrive at the cases of the State, the armed robbery developed, the roads are smashed, the border regions devastated because of the war, the trade is with most badly, industry (in particular that of the Soie to Lyon) ruined, unemployment makes an opening, the price of the bread is too high for the workmen, the hospitals do not go… It is the moment that Bonaparte, which was at the time still a revolutionary general, chooses to give up its army in Egypt and to go up to Paris, to foment a coup d'etat, the November 10th 1799. Surrounded by an aureole of prestige (it has just left victorious the countryside from Italy and the countryside of Egypt is, for the moment, still a success), it finds only little resistance and the public opinion does not repudiate it. But the republicans are anxious. Did Napoleon allow the Revolution to settle in time, when it on the contrary destroyed the revolutionary heritage? He solidifies the heritage of the revolution; Napoleon finishes some with the Republic and stops the revolutionary movement but not the Revolution, of which the Consulat will be the three parts.

The Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, thanks to series of measure, makes it possible the revolution to settle in time. First of all, Bonaparte creates new institutions, which survived until today. The news Constitution which it makes write reinforces the Executive power with the detriment it Legislative power, creates a centralized administration, organized in directions and ministries (of which the new ministry for the Interior, entrusted to Fouché) specialized and standardized. It keeps the administrative divisions created at the time of the Revolution. These solid institutions allow a reinforcement of the authority of the State, revive the country and move away a little more the risk of return to the Ancien Mode. The cases of the State are reinflated.

Then, Napoleon Bonaparte falls under the line of the Revolution. After the coup d'etat, the institutions change, but the majority of the people who will occupy of the stations were already in place at the time of the Directoire: in the assemblies create by the Constitution of year X, the majority of the Senator S, Tribun S or members of the Council of State had already stations with responsibility under the preceding mode, the Préfet S are selected in the revolutionary assemblies… That makes it possible Bonaparte to better control the opposition. The reforms which it sets up are the obvious result of those already undertaken under the Revolution. The financial reforms and commercial which are allotted to him, for a part of them, were imagined by the members of Directoire.
Those had already tried the continental Blocus that Napoleon will implement against the United Kingdom in 1806. Even certain techniques of war used by Napoleon and of which he is regarded as the inventor had already been applied under the revolution. The drafting of a Civil code French itself had been undertaken already under the revolution. Moreover, it stabilizes the political scene by pacifying the country and thus guarantees the inscription in the duration of its government. The peace signed with the royalists the Vendée NS, as of December 1799, mark a great step ahead in the appeasing of the country, no government before had succeeded in obtaining it.

The signature of the Concordat in 1801 makes it possible Napoleon to make sure the support of many catholics who were hesitant hitherto, and the Royaliste S lose as much of it, one of the fundamental reasons of the support of the population to this movement being the character anti-catholic of the Revolution. This Concordat, which does not found the Catholicisme like dominant religion and which could have been seen like a will of return to the Ancien Mode, makes it possible Bonaparte to obtain a new legitimacy and to sit a little more its authority. The Legal settlement maintains the sale of the national goods. Thanks to these two treaties, Bonaparte neutralizes the royalist opposition and seems to fit in the revolutionary heritage.

Finally, the Civil code French is a revolutionary work. Begun in 1800 and finally published in 1804, it replaces all the former right, and preserves the Méritocratie, the levelling tax, the Conscription, the freedom of company and of competition as well as work, devotes the disappearance of the feudal Aristocratie, and in theory the equality in front of the Law. While preserving and by registering in the Code all these assets of the revolution, Bonaparte enabled them to cross the modes and reassured most of the population.

But Napoleon also removed good number of revolutionary assets. First of all, the revolutionary worships are abolished. The freedoms of expression, of meeting, circulation and press are removed with the profit of a authoritative state and a very increased monitoring of the population, orchestrated by Fouché. The equality proclaimed in the Civil code is not respected: the woman depends on her husband; the owners have a very great capacity on the workmen, the working Livret reducing them to being chumps end Serf S; the Esclavage is restored in the colonies; the civils servant are privileged as regards Justice… Then, introduction of the Préfet S, which are the equivalent of the Intendant S, the creation of the Council of State, equivalent of the Conseil of the king, a new nobility based on the notability, the forgeries Plébiscite S organized (of the votes are invented, it does not have there a secrecy of vote, one ratifies an already accomplished fact…) make fear the worst with the Jacobin S. the spectrum of the return to the Monarchie haunts them.

Finally, while becoming in turn first consul, consul with life then Emperor, it finishes some with the Republic. The public favor enables him to write the Constitution of year VIII, which gives him the reality of the capacities and especially does not mention national sovereignty. This constitution divides the Legislative power, which as from this moment, will lose any influence. It is during the An X that the transformation of the still republican mode took place into a Despotisme to which only one crown missed. The post of first consul with life rings the knell of the Republic. These regime changes especially make it possible Napoleon to be less and less dependant on its successes or failures and give him another dimension with respect to the other European leaders. Napoleon thus also removed good number of revolutionary assets.

Napoleon stops the revolutionary movement but not the Revolution. By obtaining the confidence of the middle-class men (thanks to the sale of the national goods, with maritime and continental peace, the creation of a meritocratic nobility…), thanks to the prestige of great victories (Marengo 1800), with the good resolution of the crises such that of 1802 (food shortage and unemployment), Napoleon obtains the popular support and is freed little by little from the revolutionary process, which is not necessary any more for him. With the passing of years, whereas its popularity will not cease growing, it will go up in power and will move away from the Republic. In 1804, after various plots aiming its assassination and the resumption of the hostilities with the United Kingdom, it is perceived like the only rampart vis-a-vis the enemies of the Revolution, and the question of heredity becomes a subject of concerns. It benefits from it to be made crown Empereur (or rather, to crown itself). What could be seen as the result of the project of a tyrant is not it. Indeed, at the time of the sacring, Napoleon declared being in the continuity of the revolution, and is supported by the revolutionists themselves, in spite of the end of the revolutionary process.

The imperial wars perpetuated the Revolution. In all the conquered countries, Napoleon I {er} imposes the revolutionary Civil code and consequently all concepts which form part of it. He is regarded initially as the liberator of Europe. But starting from the Fourth coalition, which begins in 1806, the goal of these wars will not be any more the propagation of the revolutionary ideas. In spite of the Napoleonean defeat of 1815, the ideas of freedom and equality will firmly remain established in the countries which had been conquered, and of many upheavals with the wire of the 19th century in découleront.
Thanks to the modernization of the French and European institutions, the pacification of the country, his military victories and the conquest of the major part of Europe, Napoleon allowed the expansion and the perpetuation of the Revolution. Thus, in spite of the many regime changes at the time of the 19th century, the Civil code French will remain in force in whole Europe, and the many revolutionary principles which it contains. Napoleon is thus more the continuator that the assassin of the revolution, in spite of the dead end which it made on the Republic. By removing the revolutionary worships and other revolutionary assets which endangered the work of the revolution itself, it made it possible the others to cross the times.

Why the re-establishment of slavery?

First of all, Napoleon is not Esclavagiste (the term is anachronistic for the time) as proves it during its youth, and until in 1789 at least, its passion for the works of the Abbé Raynal. However, the first abolition of slavery in the colonies in 1794 harmful and its economic consequences and policies leads the First consul to seize problem. As of their takings up the duties, the three Consuls ensure the former slaves that the freedom which was granted to them by Convention will be respected. It was the case until in 1802. Because, to the signature of the Treated of Amiens the March 25th 1802, the England must return to France the occupied islands. Among those are in particular St Lucia and the Martinique which did not profit from the law on the abolition of slavery. Vis-a-vis this imbroglio, the capacity places from there decides with the status quo: the islands where there is no more slavery will remain free, on the other hand those occupied until there by England will preserve the existing laws. A composite commission of Cambacérès and three advisers of State Dupuis, Régnault of St Jean d' Angély and Bruix worked out a project in the direction of what Bonaparte wanted which was adopted by the legislative body and Tribunat. But the Senate objected that the released colonies would be hearths of revolts for the others. Then, the First Consul, by pragmatism, and in particular thorough by its ministers (the admiral Décrès, Talleyrand…) close relations of the owners ruined during the abolition of 1794, decides to restore slavery. “slavery as well as the Treats Blacks and their importation in the aforementioned colonies will have place in accordance with the laws and payments former to 1789”

At the beginning of June, it makes stop and off-set All Saints' day Louverture, which had taken the head of the revolt of the slaves of Santo Domingo eleven years earlier, and which, being based on the ideals of the Revolution and trustful in the judicious men to represent them, had rejoined the island in France. It was to die one year later with the Fort of Joux, in the Doubs. As for the French Armies, they cause many massacres at the time of the second revolt of the slaves of Saint-Domingue. The purpose of the re-establishment of the order wanted by Bonaparte was not to massacre part of revolted. But to thousands of kilometers of France, the Richepanse general and his state major restored " the order républicain" with their way. To note that in the French Armies, they were black soldiers. Thus the fight between revolted and the consular capacity do not have a racial origin with the direction which one hears today. It is revolted of Santo Domingo which leaves victorious these terrible combat and creates the first black Republic independent in January 1804.

The Guadeloupe also revolts in 1802 but the rebellion led by Louis Delgrès fails and ends in the collective suicide of the insurrectionists.

Of return of the isle of Elba, Napoleon issues an immediate abolition of the draft of the slaves, which aligns France on the decision that has just taken the Congrès of Vienna. Its decision is confirmed by the treated of Paris the November 20th 1815. Nevertheless, with the Restoration, this one remains often dead letter.

Achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte

Under the Consulate

The Consulat is primarily a period of pacification and stabilization of France, after the revolutionary decade. Many institutions are founded, which survive their creator a long time; they take again certain assets of the Revolution.

Under the Empire

  • In 1806 the emperor Napoleon i orders the Triumphal arch of the Star.
    • the March 18th (21 Germinal year IX) the first council of conciliation board is created with Lyon.
    • the May 10th the Université is recreated, after its abolition by the Revolution, in a form which leads to current the universities.
  • In 1807 Napoleon entrusts to Alexandre Theodore Brongniart the construction of future the Bourse de Paris.
    • the February 9th it ressuscite the function of Grand Sanhédrin (what facilitates the assimilation of the Juif S in the Empire). Napoleon continued the work of tolerance with regard to the Jews started by the Revolution.
    • the September 16th Napoleon creates the Court of Auditors.
  • 1808 :
  • 1810 :

Legislative work

Bonaparte operated as of the beginnings of the Consulate of many reforms in education, justice, finance and the administrative system.

Its whole of civil laws, written by Cambacérès and known under the name of Napoleon Code of 1804, still has a strong influence in many countries nowadays.

The Civil code French however is very largely inspired by a range of laws and already existing various habits under the Ancien Mode which it unified. Its administrative work was prolonged until in 1814. Inter alia reforms, it will begin work to register the French territory.

In architecture and town planning

Note: financed on the extraordinary field

In Paris

  • the erection of the Triumphal arch of the Carousel (1808)
  • the construction of the Column Vendôme (1805-1810)
  • the Triumphal arch of the Star (1806)
  • the construction of the Palate Brongniart (Bourse de Paris)
  • the church of the Madeleine (completed in 1842)
  • the opening of the streets of Rivoli, Castiglione and the Pyramids
  • the new frontage of the Palais Bourbon (started in 1808)
  • the connection between the Louvre and the Palate of Tileries; completion of the square court of Louvre (construction of the western and southern wing), this one becoming a museum then.
  • the Classification of the ways of the capital
  • the construction of three bridges: the Bridge of Arts (1803), of Austerlitz and of Iéna
  • the channel of Ourcq, of Saint Martin's day and Saint-Denis
  • the construction of tens of fountains, like the elephant of the Bastille
  • the installation of the Cemetery of the Father-Lachaise
  • the installation of many green areas, like the botanical garden, or the embellishment of the Garden of Luxembourg.

Apart from the Ile-de-France

Glances of the contemporaries

Napoleon made use itself of the newspapers to make the war with his enemies, especially with the English. He personally wrote all the notes which one inserted in the Monitor , in response to the diatribes or the assertions that one published in the English gazettes. When it had published a note, it believed to have convinced. One remembers that the majority of the notes were neither of the models of decency, nor of the examples of good literature; but nowhere it better did not print the seal of its character and its kind of talent.

Correspondence

Napoleon Bonaparte maintained abundant a Correspondance, partly with private use, but especially an important official correspondence. Of alive sound, some of these letters were published, either separately, or in collections, but often with an aim of exaltation or contrary to polemic.

In the Years 1850, the Empereur Napoleon III makes publish the correspondence of his/her uncle. If this new publication has also a goal of propaganda, it will be more serious than what had been made up to that point. However, certain letters were not found, others were voluntarily omitted, and the text was sometimes expurgé under various pretexts.

In the following years, new letters were published, often in the shape of specific collections (letters of Napoleon to the same correspondent). Others reappeared punctually.

The Fondation Napoleon has undertaken for a few years a vast company of scientific publication of the whole of the correspondence of the emperor. It launched for that a call in order to recover the documents which could be in various deposits of files or libraries, and especially to private individuals.

Pour references of the editions, to see bas. more

The family

Family of childhood

Parents

Brothers and sisters

Marriages and children

Napoleon married twice:
  • the March 9th 1796 first once with Joséphine de Beauharnais which will be crowned empress. This marriage remaining without children, it will end in a divorce, on December 16th, 1809.
  • the March 11th 1810 (by procuration) with the archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, which will give him a son: Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (° March 20th 1811, † July 22nd 1832), king de Rome, duke of Reichstadt, also known under the name of Napoleon II, although it never reigned but in theory 15 days, between the second abdication of Napoleon and the Second Restoration. The nickname of the Eaglet comes to him from poems of Victor Hugo written in 1852.

Napoleon also had at least two illegitimate children, who both had descendants:

And according to more disputed sources:

Nephews and nieces

  • Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, his nephew, benefitted from the popularity of Napoleon i, initially to be made elect President of the Republic under the II {{E}} République, then to seize the power and to establish the Second Empire, reigning under the name of Napoleon III . During its reign of many social and modern legislations were adopted. It capitulates and goes to the Prussians in 1870, following the defeat of Sedan.
  • Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Charles Lucien Bonaparte, zoologist

Famous descent

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